RedHead Confetti

I know I haven't been a very good blogger/writer lately. My household, rather than being relatively harmonious and calm has been quite full of upheaval and riotously noisy! This isn't my thing, really, and makes me very uncomfortable, so I turtle up-- that means I crawl even further into my introverted self, needing to claw for silence and calm wherever I can find it, and often unable to string two or three written sentences together for lack of motivation. If this sounds something like depression to you, you're right, it rather is, but I'll go into that more in a little bit. Turtle-up, it sounds funny, right? You crawl in your shell, and are protected, but it doesn't mean just that. It means turning away from interactions, seeking out silence and alone-ness on purpose. It means desperately trying to find some little cave you can crawl in for just a little while-- physically or metaphysically. It's a pretty bad thing, most of the time, I won't paint it pre...

Rather than the planned blog, I'm just going to share this photo and say that I am so sorry. I know words don't mean shit. I know I can't undo, fix, or make any of it better. I know I am lucky, and I am thankful for that, every day. I also know that I'm devastated and cry with the families in Newtown, Connecticut. If I could, I'd undo last Friday in an instant-- and I know I'm not alone. I wish we didn't have these conversations. I wish this sort of thing was a plot line of a horror movie, or a best-selling thriller novel. the fact that school massacres happen in the US is unconscionable. I know words fail. I wish they healed instead. I wish I had more words. I'm just so, so sorry Photo from the HRC you can see it at www.hrc.org

Trigger Warning: Today I'm referencing the Penn State rape cases, and the report Director Freeh put out today, from his investigation. As always, when I talk about abuse, or abusers, I include contact information. Here they are. If you, or someone you know is being abused or is thinking of ending their life, please get help.  SNAP: 1.877.SNAPHEALS (1.877.762.7432) RAINN's online hotline or call 1.800.656.HOPE (4673) The Trevor Project: 1.866.488.7386 The Hotline (DV): 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1.800.273.8255   This will be my final blog about the Sandusky-Penn State sex abuse catastrophe. I might blurb when the various sentences comes down. I hadn't intended to write about it again, after Sandusky was convicted. But this morning I was looking at CNN and found a vid that disturbed me greatly. You can see it, and two others here . [Yeah, I know, CNN's vids aren't laid out the best but it's worth the hassle ...

“Most parents today were brought up in a culture that put a strong emphasis on being special,” [Madeline Levine] observes. “Being special takes hard work and can’t be trusted to children. Hence the exhausting cycle of constantly monitoring their work and performance, which in turn makes children feel less competent and confident, so that they need even more oversight.” ( page 2 , emphasis added) I saw a little blurb at Slate on Monday, and then Wednesday- another one at Jezebel. So I got off my ass and went over to the New Yorker to read this article, “ Spoiled Rotten, Why do children rule the roost?” I've said before that I'm not the best parent. I don't helicopter, I don't over-play or schedule; I don't ask, actually. I tell. I don't look at my children as friends of mine. In fact, not one of them would be someone I would choose to be friends with. They're too young, to immature, and their world-views, while larger than their peers, is ...

Friday night, about ten pm for you on the East Coast, the jury came back with a verdict in the trial of The People versus Jerry Sandusky [I'm not sure if Pennsylvania lists their cases as The People of <insert county here>, so bear with me.] You can see a breakdown of the charges and verdicts, here . CNN did an excellent job of covering the story. I followed that trial so closely, that I dreamed about it! I know I'm not the only person so involved in it; I'd venture to say the world was riveted at times. Such is the nature of sexual assault cases involving children-- look at the fall out from the repeated, institutionalised rape and abuse of children by the Roman Catholic clergy-- we want to protect children from such evils, and when they're abused anyway, we all feel like we're watching a train crash... we just can't look away, no matter how revolted, angered and sick we feel. This might have been different than the “usual” sensational tri...

Quick note: I recently stumbled across a blog by a gent in the UK who was raised fundie-- he's writing about what he learned, lived through and what fundies believe. You might, if you're interested, take a peek. I have enjoyed reading his blog ( Leaving Fundamentalism ) so far, and his upcoming book (that I don't know the name of) is on my list of Books To Get! He doesn't know I'm linking back to him, so this isn't a link-for-link thing. I just wanted to share a good read. He's done an excellent job of explaining the weird craziness that fundies put themselves and their brains through-- far better than I could do, I think. Anyway, on to the blog. Last week I read an article on Jezebel that linked back to Good As You and mentioned Focus on the Family. I don't like FotF, for many many reasons. I grew up listening to their radio programs. They were on the Christian Radio channel my mother's radio was glued to, 24/7. For a time, FotF ...

My youngest son is eight years old. He has been in speech therapy since Kindergarten, and every year we have to meet with the Speech teacher to go over the IEP for next year. The IEP, or Individualised Education Program, is a fancy way of saying, "here's where the kid is, here's where we want them to be, and here's how we're getting there". That's it, that's all, it's very simple. So, every year, around about May, just as school's letting out, I go see the SLP (that'd be Speech and Language Pathologist. I've been blessed to have an SLP at both his elementary schools). Some times the physical therapist is present-- as it's pretty standard to work to improve children's fine motor control as they work on their speech. For my son, working with his fine motor has helped him voice his missing sounds, so I would guess that it's that way for many kids. I'd spoken to his SLP a couple times, as this was his first year in the S...