New Year’s Brunch at Home

January 1, 2020 annbellworley 10 Comments

New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who prefer New Year’s Eve and those who prefer New Year’s Day. Todd and I are New Year’s Day kind of people. We have a tradition of celebrating the start of a new year over a nice, indulgent brunch, where we reflect on the previous year and talk about our goals and resolutions for the new one. We’ve been doing it since before our kids were born, and the tradition continues with Isaac now 11 and Gillian eight.

We always do a little something to celebrate New Year’s Eve, too, even if we don’t stay up until midnight. Last night’s festivities were especially hilarious, even if unintentionally so. More on that in a minute.

Continue reading →

All Kids Want For Christmas…

December 17, 2019 annbellworley 17 Comments

Ok, maybe it’s not all kids want for Christmas. I know from my own children’s notes to Santa that my son wants a sleeping bag for camping and my daughter wants an electric scooter (just like Taylor’s, please). There are a handful of toys and clothing items they’ve asked for, too. But I know what they want most, on Christmas and every day. What they really want…is me.

That’s right, all kids want for Christmas is you.

Childhood is for connecting

That scooter wouldn’t be nearly as fun if no one was there to celebrate her riding it. And a camping trip without Mom or Dad (or Grandma, etc.)? Forget about it. What kids are truly hungry for is connection, maybe moreso in this generation than any other.

Continue reading →

Parenting A Special Needs Child: My Story

December 13, 2019 annbellworley 2 Comments

This post on parenting a special needs child is my personal (and ongoing) story about being Isaac’s mom. It originally appeared as “Lessons from a Texas Mom” in interview format on Downunder Dad, a blog out of Australia that explores life lessons after the age of forty.

Please visit Downunder Dad’s engaging and entertaining blog and check out the piece he wrote for Gray Colored Glasses, On Parenting and Asperger’s.

—

Special needs: Not Quite What I Was Planning

When I was pregnant with our first child, my husband and I found this great little book, called Not Quite What I Was Planning. It’s a compilation of six word memoirs (like the title) written by people in all different stages of life, some famous, most not. We loved it so much that we gave it as a hostess gift to several couples who threw us a baby shower.

Little did we know the title would turn out to be prophetic. Child-birth, motherhood, our precious son: none of them were quite what I was planning.

Continue reading →

Guest Post: Downunder Dad on Parenting and Asperger’s

December 3, 2019 annbellworley 2 Comments

I am grateful to have come across Ann and her lovely blog Gray Colored Glasses via a community resource website we both used while starting our separate journeys. She contributed a heart-felt article to my humble blog Downunder Dad that took my breath away, which you can read here. So the least I could do was repay the favour, right?

Well, it has not been that simple. I have been extremely apprehensive. The blog post she shared with me about parenting a child with special needs (something we discovered we had in common) would have been very personal for her to compile; I know that now. I have struggled, keen to do a decent job. I eventually came up with the post below, and an even deeper appreciation for what Ann wrote and bravely sent to me.

Continue reading →

New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day

Share this:

Childhood is for connecting

Share this:

Special needs: Not Quite What I Was Planning

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Reframing Beauty