My latest internet/movie wanderings..

Watched a PBS American Experience program called War Letters which presented excerpts from letters written during wars spanning the Civil War to the first Gulf War. The readings were arranged topically. It was fascinating! Your blood can't help but boil by one particular letter written by an African American soldier in WWII who related how he had watched German POWs being served along with white Americans in a train station in the Southern United States while the African American soldiers had to eat in the "colored" area in the back of the kitchen. I am deeply impressed with the discipline and patience of these soldiers.

An amusing blog post about remedial language lessons for mothers because their kids are obviously not understanding.

Free special needs/visual learner printables from senteacher.com

As usual, Albert Mohler does such a good job of analyzing events and their greater meaning, this time regarding Moral Clarity and the Fall of the Wall.

Article from Der Spiegel on the confusion of climatologists regarding stalled global warming. Seems clear to me that our level of technology would require us to take seriously what effect we're having on our environment - for our own safety and as stewards of the world God has given us. However, I find it difficult to summon the outright panic that is expected of me when scientists do not seem to have a solid grasp of what is actually going on! Also, I'm dubious of politicians' "altruism" in wanting to save the world...by consolidating their own power, of course, right?! Again, I'm not against making changes in technology, finding different sources of energy, etc., but I would like to see a lot clearer thinking and less panic.

A great PBS documentary about Churchill made by his granddaughter. It's a fascinating overview of his life and career, from early childhood to his death. It skims over a lot of details, but gives a great overview of the extreme fluctuations of his life and gets into the background behind a few of the most important events in his life. They spent a lot of time interviewing his family and those who had worked closely with him. It was focused on the character of Churchill, not just a list of his accomplishments and failures.

9/27/09 Prayer from RPC evening service

I've decided that the liturgy and hymns at Resurrection Presbyterian Church (where we are members) is too beautiful not to share, so I'm going to try to post something from it every Sunday. Here's this week's:

Author of life divine, who hast a table spread,
Furnished with mystic wine and everlasting bread,
Preserve the life Thyself has given,
And feed and train us up for heaven.

Our needy souls sustain with fresh supplies of love,
Till all Thy life we gain, and all Thy fullness prove,
And, strengthened by Thy perfect grace,
Behold without a veil Thy face.

--Charles Wesley

Covenant Seminary

Robert and I visited Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, MO this month and had a wonderful time. We loved the campus, the professors, the students, the classes and the administration! I'm still salivating over the library (and all of the other libraries in MO that are connected to it). Everyone was so hospitable and open to answering all of our questions, especially about finances. We were very encouraged to meet several families with small children who were almost done and had NO school loans. That's a big plus for us, especially considering it is a fairly expensive school.

Another big plus: the seminary is located in an area of St Louis with the best services for kids with autism!

Some of you may be surprised by our interest in seminary, but the truth is that it has been in our minds (whether consciously spoken or not) since before we were married. Recently, the little tickle in the back of our minds has turned into a full fledged itch to explore the possibility of going to seminary. Robert spends so much of his spare time reading theology anyway, it will be a fairly natural transition! For now, our hope is for him to get an M.Div. and work as an Associate Pastor somewhere here in the Pacific NW. However, we also expect to be exposed to a lot of different options during 3 years in seminary, so who knows where God will lead us! Robert has put in his application, so we'll keep you posted.

Here are some more pictures from our trip. Our camera is acting up, so some are a little blurry.

This is Edwards Hall where we stayed on campus. This was a beautiful old farmhouse on the property where the campus was built.


This is the Log Cabin on campus where child care is provided. Not sure how it all works, but apparently they offer free child care for certain times of the day so that couples can have a "date night" during seminary or to go shopping without the kids. One of the reasons we like Covenant so much is that they are committed to supporting a student's entire family, not just the student.

This is one of the on campus dormitories. They have 2 and 3 bedroom apartments for students with families to live on campus.


Here is the awesome playground right in front of the dorms! It's completely fenced in and has a covered picnic area. Definitely a plus.


Community garden!

In summary...

Ok, I said I was going to blog about books that I'm reading, but I also intend to pass along links to interesting audio, video and articles. Basically, these are the interesting tidbits I've come across lately.

For example, a frightening PBS documentary about the tactics and morals behind the massive amount of marketing aimed at children. It's called, "Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood" and there is a link to it here.

According to another blogger, Jon Stewart on the Daily Show went after the ACORN story "like the rich pinata of news-candy it actually is". It's the Daily Show, so it's not for the faint of heart, but I like a good point humorously made.

On the autism side of things, here's an interesting article from the BBC about the rate of autism in adults vs. children. It was a small study, but, in my opinion, it is yet another nail in the coffin of the "MMR causes autism" view.

On a less controversial note (if anything about autism can not be controversial!), Wired had a wonderful article about a Danish company that has recognized the value of hiring autistics as software engineers. He says, "This is not cheap labor, and it's not occupational therapy," he says. "We simply do a better job." I was happy to read this article because I've had the same thoughts regarding my son's future in the workforce!

I'm not sure that I'll ever need this information, but I feel safer now that I know how to survive a sinking car.

$5 dollhouse!

I can't help but be proud of this bargain buy. $5 for a dollhouse! It didn't come with any dolls or furniture, which is fine by us because Ela has toys aplenty to take up residence in the mansion. The bear family is quite happy. You can see the bear cubs sleeping on the stairway. Ela assures me that it's safe. There's still a little girl deep down inside me that is terribly jealous of Ela! What a cool dollhouse! Of course, I do remember my insane excitement at getting a Barbie McDonalds for Christmas one year :)

$4 worth of fun

They've been playing like angels with the hot wheels today. Well, angels who bicker a little bit, but still have fun playing together. Reason isn't very imaginative with the hot wheels that we've had forever (I'm not sure where they came from, seems like out of the woodwork), so I bought this launcher (the orange thing in the picture) for $4 at Toys r Us and he's actually been playing with it! It took him awhile to get the hang of pulling back the trigger and lining up the car, but now he sets up the blocks and/or an empty blueberry carton and knocks them down with the car. Sounds like fun therapy to me.

Reading about autism, Part 1

I try to read as much as I can about autism, for obvious reasons (slight pun intended). There is A LOT out there to read and not a lot of time in which to read it. Recently, a parent whose child was just diagnosed asked my advice on resources, etc. Here is a revised version of the email I sent him:

Basically, now that I've thought about it a little, there are 3 different categories of books from which I usually read: 1) Books written by people with autism/Asperger's, 2) Books written by scientists, teachers and therapists who have worked with them, and 3) Books written by parents of kids with autism/Asperger's.

Here's my word of caution about each category based on my experiences with autism: 1) Books written by people with the diagnosis seem more realistic about which therapies work and don't work, but they are very individual, so you can't just take one person's story and apply it to your child, 2) Books written by the professionals can be dry and boring and way more information than you want or need (skimming will become a newly refined skill), but they are essential for understanding and reference, 3) Books written by parents of kids with autism/Asperger's can be fantastic or terrible. Parents seem particularly prone to wild, emotional claims of miracle cures and crazy alternative therapies. I would take these books written by parents with a HUGE grain of salt and I would interpret these parents' claims in light of what the professionals and the folks with autism/Asperger's say about it.

Here are some of my favs in each category:

1) Thinking in Pictures by Dr. Temple Grandin
Her life is fascinating and I would recommend this to anyone who likes to read a good autobiography. Hearing first-hand about how she views the world was eye-opening and intriguing. It was especially interesting to hear how she survived her teenage and college years. I never thought cattle and their corrals could be so interesting!
2) Raising A Child With Autism: A Guide to Applied Behavior Analysis for Parents by Shira Richman
This should be the prescription that doctors give parents when their children are diagnosed with autism (instead of leaving them at the mercy of what's on the internet!). I'm not trying to say that everything a parent needs to know is contained in this one book. It's so easy to get overwhelmed with information about autism and this book has such clear-cut, easy-to-understand-and-implement ideas for parents. They give you just enough ABA theory to understand why you should implement one of their ideas, but not so much that you get too bogged down to finish the book. It was so easy to read, so helpful and practical. You could read this book in a day and start implementing the ideas immediately while you wait for months on waiting lists for ABA counselors and Speech and Occupational therapists.
3) Too Wise to be Mistaken, Too Good to be Unkind: Christian Parents Contend with Autism by Cathy Steere
I don't agree 100% with the therapy she chose to pursue with her son (there's that big honkin' grain of salt), but it was very helpful to hear from someone who doesn't think spanking is a crime and has a biblically-based view of loving, developmentally-appropriate discipline.

Why should I blog?

I hate writing.  I've been trying to decide what to write in my first blog post for a week now.  This doesn't bode well.

I can't say that my husband is making me do it, even though he has been pestering me for years to start my own blog.  The straw that finally broke this camel's back was hearing John Piper talk about how important it was for him to write constantly in order to think clearly.  I was surprised by how much I related to Piper and the way he thinks.  The thought that I should be challenging my brain a bit more has been nagging me ever since.

But what should I write about?  I've never followed through with a journal or diary of my thoughts, but I love books and have decided that it would actually be very useful to write down my thoughts about the books I'm reading.  Perhaps knowing that my husband and 2 or 3 other people will be reading this will motivate me to keep doing it.

If you're familiar with John Piper or would be interested in hearing about the fascinating life of a "Romantic Rationalist" pastor, I highly recommend listening to his talk rather than just reading the transcript.