Marya

Foodie Friday: Fast and Easy

There are some days that I don’t think about dinner until the panic starts to set in about 4:00 in the afternoon. I like to have a few pantry staples on hand so I can throw something together quickly. My family enjoys this quickie Pasto Alfredo dish.

The staples for this are really easy to keep on hand. A jar of Alfredo sauce, a bag of pasta, a can of chicken (tuna works well too) and frozen or canned peas.

Two pots are needed. One to cook the pasta in and the other to combine the Alfredo sauce, peas and chicken.

Gently heat the sauce to simmer. Serve on top of pasta. THAT’S IT! Definitely a lifesaver to have on hand for tired or busy days.

Christmas Planning eBook Bundle

It’s hard to believe, but it’s time to start thinking about Christmas. Need some fresh ideas this year? This bundle has everything you need to get organized and simplify your holiday planning. You’ll find daily planning tips and printables, recipes, handmade gift tutorials and more at almost 75% off this week only!

101 Days of Christmas by Mandi Ehman
Drawing from the popular 101 Days of Christmas series at LifeYourWay.net, Mandi has handpicked the best recipes, crafts and projects from the archives and compiled them into one easy-to-navigate ebook. Whether you’re looking for a craft to do with your children, a new cookie recipe to share with your friends and neighbors, or a simple handmade gift to make for someone you love, this ebook includes 101 simple ideas and tutorials plus bonus sections with even more ways to make Christmas meaningful for your family!

A Simpler Season by Jessica Fisher
A Simpler Season is your guide to planning the winter holidays, with creative ideas, time-saving tips, and budget-minded inspiration for making the most of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. With the busy family in mind, Jessica offers recipes, to-do lists, children’s activity sheets, planning pages, gift ideas, and step-by-step tutorials for creating homemade gifts to help you get from Thanksgiving to New Years in a calm, cool, collected manner.

100 Days to Christmas by Jennifer Tankersley
A daily dose of inspiration & motivation for a meaningful holiday season, 100 Days to Christmas is a journey that begins on September 16 and leads you step-by-step toward a peaceful and meaningful holiday season, one little task at a time! Includes links to more than 25 ListPlanIt worksheets and lists.

Christmas Recipes: From My Table to Yours by Lynn of Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures

In Christmas Recipes: From My Table to Yours, Lynn offers quick, easy, and inexpensive holiday recipes from Blueberry Baked French Toast for a special family breakfast to Chocolate Bread Pudding for a scrumptious holiday dessert. Don’t stress this holiday season about what to do for parties, family gatherings and even gifts. Tis the season to show the love because food is the best gift of all!

The Life Your Way Christmas Planner by Mandi Ehman
While Christmas can be stressful, it doesn’t have to be. Planning ahead is the best way to embrace all that the season has to offer without the stress we associate with the holidays! This printable Christmas planner will help you simplify your holiday with planning calendars, checklists and a variety of worksheet.

The Christmas bundle is only available through 8am EST on Monday, 9/23. Get yours today!

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Random Thoughts From My First Week as a Mom Blogger

This blog is only one week old. I’m still trying to figure out my writing voice and where my boundaries are so I’m staying on the cautious side of things. Here’s just a few random thoughts that started bouncing around my head during the past week:

I feel old. Like, old enough to be the parent some of the younger mom bloggers. How did that happen?
I was a blogging intern back around 2009. I didn’t do much for awhile after I got sick and am just getting back into things now. The blogosphere has dramatically changed since then and it’s a bit of a learning curve.
I am first and foremost a Christian blogger. But I am kind of edgy. Can I be an edgy Christian blogger without riling people up?
Even as I resolve to keep this a drama free blog, random controversial subjects are dancing around in my head. (See above.)
I’m just writing to get things down and am completely ignoring my SEO plugin for now.
Trying not to compare myself with the other mom blogs with wonderful homeschool, decorating and crafty ideas. My life has kind of been in a foxhole for years now. I don’t ever think about decorating or crafts. Homeschooling is pretty straightforward. I would, however, love for someone to come over and redecorate my house for me.
Is anyone really going to notice this mom blog among the thousands of mom blogs out there?
If nothing else, this is great therapy. A place to put my scattered thoughts. It generally takes me about halfway through a yoga class to get my Ricochet Rabbit mind to stop and get in the present. Writing is very centering and healing for me.
Grateful to be in the physical place where I can actually do this again. An ergonomic office chair is on my wish list though.
Of all the blogs I’ve visited, I think I like Momastery and AHolyExperience the most. I like Christian bloggers who keep things real.

What if I just prayed about it?

“What if the armies of the Lord picked up and dusted off their swords…”

This week we are experiencing the uncertainty of yet another possible looming medical issue and a needed root canal for me. We’ve received several statements from our insurance covering stating what they are covering from a few recent procedures. This more than likely will be much less than the actual bill we get from the facility.

The nature of our NY based insurance is that there aren’t too many in-network providers in Florida. So even if I go to a participating provider, any needed procedures will more than likely be done in a facility where the anesthesia is not our plan and we get hit with a $1000+ bill for a minor procedure that took less than an hour.

The familiar heaviness started to return this week. I’m in the midst of a great book study called Different Dream Parenting: A Practical Guide to Raising a Child with Special Needs. The first few chapters are devoted to advocacy and medical resources. I wish this had been around in 2001 but I am devouring it now.

As I was reading I was reminded…what if I just prayed about it and turned it over? As if I hadn’t known about this principle since my early days in AA in 1986? Why do I stress and not trust? Has God, my Abba, not forgotten me?

Psalm 139 tells me that He knows what I am thinking and what I will do before I do it. That no matter where I go in this earth or what I go through, I can never flee from His presence. His thoughts of me outnumber the sand. He knows my anxious thoughts.

All I have to do is pray. And “let go and let God.”

Linked to: Snail Pace Transformations, Maid Servant of Christ, Blogging on the Side, Stacy Makes Cents

Any more than I could count the sand of the sea…

Wordless Wednesday

Disability Diary…A week in my life

Friday was Shot Day. I have cervical dystonia, and to help relieve the muscle spasms I get 400 units of Xeomin injected into various sites around my neck and shoulders, as shown in this graphic. I have to do this every three months. The doctor uses an EMG machine to help guide the needle into the areas that are spasming the most. The machine squawks like a police radio while he’s doing this.

I’ve learned to breathe my way through the injections. I typically need a few days of downtime after the shots as I usually experience some post injection pain. This is my third time with this doctor and he’s still trying to fine tune dosages. It’s an art and a science to figure out how much and where to place this injection. This time I got 100 units alone into my right trapezius, the muscle I refer to as “the bad boy.”

This time was the first time in three years I’ve been able to drive myself on Shot Day. I mention this to the doctor and told him it was a good thing because my son needed to have his pacemaker checked. At this point I’m used to people being a little stunned and not knowing what to say to me, so I’ve kind of learned to just smile at the shocked silence.

I was even able to stop at Target on the way back and pick up a few groceries. I love to shop at Target but one thing I hate about is they do not automatically put your bags in the cart and I find myself having to wait a few minutes with all the grocery bags piled up, customers waiting to pay behind me and wondering to myself if people think I’m a prima donna for asking for help. Nobody has said anything yet. I’m not sure how obvious I look. I have some dystonia awareness cards to carry around with me but I keep forgetting to take them.

I planned on a quiet Saturday resting but our usual respite provider was not able to come and I had Nicolas in my room every 10 minutes asking if he could play outside in the 90 plus heat. By noon I was snarling at everybody. Things settle down after lunch and I sit in bed with my iPad. I track what is going on with #JusticeForEthan on Twitter, play some Candy Crush, join a few blog networks and discover 10 new posts written about Mrs. Hall. I mentally resolved to run a drama free blog and almost immediately begun wondering how long that would last. Finally settled in with the Kindle app and finished a book.

We were asked to speak for a few minutes at church on Sunday. I never liked public speaking before and now with my neck I have one more thing to be self conscious about. It went okay and I think I was probably pretty straight. I’m sure nobody listening noticed but this is the social anxiety I’ve developed since the diagnosis. You’d think being around the disability community as much as I am that I would have let some of my vanity go by now but that hasn’t happened yet.

I am still waking up at night thinking I am back at the beach. Come Monday I am vaguely considering returning to aqua zumba then the stiffness reminds me to give it a little more time….

Friday Link Round Up: Justice For Ethan

Thursday was the day the Saylor family delivered over 340,000 signatures to Governor O’Malley. So far there is a definitive non answer from the Governor as to whether he will reopen the investigation.

Kimchi Latkes writes an open letter to the Governor:

“You will look like a good ol’ boy politician who didn’t want to rock the police union vote. I’ve looked up your record. I understand you have a promising political career and that you are no stranger to hard decisions. I want to believe that you entered public office to advocate for us all, even if that meant making hard decisions. Use your power and stand for the truth. Order an independent investigation. Make me believe.”

Walkserville Mom does some behind the scenes research:

“I’m no political operative, and I maintain a healthy suspicion about bias in the media, but instinct tells me that there’s something fishy going on. Jenkins can claim that his deputies did nothing wrong but fail to answer basic questions like “How did his larynx get injured.” State’s Attorney Charlie Smith can say “We are an independent investigation. I feel very strongly about that.” The deputies involved don’t have to say anything, except to a grand jury in secret. The witnesses only get to give statements to other deputies (no pressure there). And Governor O’Malley can just be silent.

And everybody is OK with this? Is this really politics as usual?”

Patti Saylor said the best way to train for interactions with people who have intellectual disabilities is to have a relationship with them.

“We didn’t put on a training at our church for people on how to interact with Ethan, and he had hundreds of people at our church that knew him and loved him,” she said.

Little Bird’s Dad asks, “Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?”

“What parent of a child with Down Syndrome, or cerebral palsy, or autism, ADD/ADHD, (or any other physical or mental or intellectual limitation which, historically, frightens the uneducated masses) isn’t scared shitless of the possibility that under-trained, over-armed, and over-zealous “police” won’t kill their child over a $10 movie ticket.”

As a matter of fact I am scared that this could happen again…to my son or to anybody else’s. This is why I am fighting. Please join us in advocating for #JusticeForEthan.

“A Nation’s Greatness is Measured By How It Treats Its Weakest Members” – Mahatma Gandhi.

“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’ – Jesus Christ

Standing in Solidarity: The Tragic Death of Robert Ethan Saylor

I didn’t know Robert Ethan Saylor. But I am mourning as deeply as if I did. I am grieved over the senseless loss of a kind and innocent soul over the price of a movie ticket. And because this could be my son in the future. Not even close to being stocky, my little guy with the pacemaker who is well known to be stubborn and has difficulty with transitions could have something like this in his future. It would probably kill him instantly.

If you are hearing about this for the first time, Robert Ethan Saylor lost his life on the floor of a movie theater at the hands of three off duty police officers because he wanted to stay and watch the movie again. News reports stated “An autopsy showed Saylor died of asphyxiation brought on by his Down Syndrome. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, but the grand jury found no evidence to charge the deputies.” So, it’s death by Down Syndrome.

Last week the Internet and my Facebook stream featured dozens of images of cute kids with socks and touching videos. I don’t mind these. Those adorable pictures got me through the early days of coming to terms with the reality of giving birth to a little boy with Down Syndrome and a serious congenital heart defect.

But what is going to happen to these cute kids as they become adults? They aren’t so many pictures of the older adults with Down Syndrome. They are entering a world that views their lives as expendable, given the atrocious abortion rate of babies with Down syndrome, the lack of services and supports and the callous attitudes such as those that appeared in the recent Washington Post story announcing “Grand Jury Rejects Criminal Charges in death of Robert Saylor, Man with Down Syndrome.”

It should be noted that there are two other recent police brutality cases involving young men with Down Syndrome. In December of 2012, news reports stated that Antonio Martinez, 21, was walking to his family’s bakery while officers were in the area responding to a domestic violence call. An officer thought he looked suspicious and stopped him. When asked to stop, he wouldn’t listen. He was pepper sprayed, hit on the head with a baton and handcuffed.

In September of 2011 Gilberto Powell, 22, was stopped by Miami-Dade officers after they saw a bulge in his waist band. (It was his colostomy bag.) News reports state that he tried to run when they patted him down. Police said Powell broke free as officers tried to place him in handcuffs, hitting his head on the ground. He was struck in the face and handcuffed.

Three sets of handcuffs were placed on Ethan Saylor. This wasn’t even about proper training. This was simple common sense. Any parent or professional who works with the Down Syndrome population knows they need a longer time to process information, that communication is difficult, and that transitions can be tough but can often be handled with a gentle tone. Maybe a first/then. At the very least they could have called his family and just waited. Or maybe they could have extended a little grace and bought him the damn ticket.

I hope and pray that we see justice for Ethan. This is a Rosa Parks moment for the disability community. Ethan’s death cries out for justice. This is personal to all of us in the Down Syndrome Community. We’re not going to let this get swept under the rug.

First Blog Post…My Reason for Writing

This blog, in a way, is kind of a brain dump of some of the 50 years of experiences I’ve spent on this earth. In my early days of Twelve Step recovery I often wondered if my “war story” was kind of tame compared to others who had spent more time “out there.” 27 years later I daresay my recovery journey has probably been a little wilder than most.

There is one person who greatly impacted my life through his writing and it is because of his work that I hope my writing will impact at least one other person. In Twelve Step speak, it’s called “sharing my experience, strength and hope with others, and practicing these principles in all my affairs.”

Around 1987 I was shakily into my recovery journey. During my daily subway commute to lower Manhattan my face was typically buried behind the NY Daily News in the morning. I don’t remember how or why I started reading Bill Reel’s column. Whether I heard about him “in the rooms” first and then started reading, or if it was the other way around, I was hooked and always looking for the next column. Mr. Reel wrote about everyday people who had screwed up their lives and found redemption. From what I remember (unfortunately I can’t find his writing online anywhere) he did this with a minimum of Christian lingo. I grew up with very mixed messages about faith and spirituality and I had become completely turned off evangelical Christianity. Yet, I listened to Mr. Reel.

And then one day he wrote the column that took my breath away, that forced me to acknowledge my post traumatic stress disorder and to hop on a subway one night to go to some Catholic church across town and make my peace with God. I left the church that night a different person. I always hoped that I would have the opportunity to run into him at a meeting and thank him. Providentially, I did. I greeted him with starstruck admiration and thanked him profusely for that column. He seemed genuinely surprised and somewhat amused.

I guess his old columns are the property of his family, or maybe buried in the NY Daily News archives. I hope they get reprinted in some form some day. William McGurn, a long time friend and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush was mentioned in Mr. Reel’s obituary, wrote that “Many young writers grew up wanting to be Bill Buckley. I grew up wanting to be Bill Reel.”

Beliefnet.com wrote: “For his most faithful readers, though, “Reel People” was the column of the second chance. Week after week, he wrote about New Yorkers — alcoholics, gamblers, cheaters — who had messed up their lives pretty badly, but were searching for the road back. He wrote about these misfits with wisdom and humor and charity, because he saw them the same way Mother Teresa viewed the hard cases that often crossed her path: “There goes Christ in one of his more distressing forms.”

Growing up I wanted to become a journalist and go to Radcliffe. Because of my drinking and dysfunctional behavior I wound up a high school dropout with a GED. But I am one of those messed up New Yorkers who managed to turn things around (by the grace of God) and Mr. Reel was part of that. I’m not expecting this little blog will have anywhere near the reach that Mr. Reel did, but it’s because of the impact his writing had on my life that I do it…to keep paying it forward and to advocate for those society sees as worthless.

Marya

“A Nation’s Greatness is Measured By How It Treats Its Weakest Members” – Mahatma Gandhi.

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