eSpecially Ben

Ben, Age 6 The snowmen are made with cotton balls, yarn, googly eyes and foam noses. The background snow is paint and glitter. Go see other works of art: 5 Minutes for Special Needs

I took a big step today and purchased the domain for www.especiallyben.com . I was playing around with settings and such and saw that my own domain could be purchased if the name was not being used. I thought I would at least see if it was available...and then see if the price was within my non-existent blog budget. Alas, www.especiallyben.com was available and it was $10 for the year to purchase - definitely within my budget. So it became a done deal within minutes. Nothing should change - if you receive this by email, your subscription should be just fine. The old address will direct you to this new one. Perhaps my head will get bigger, you know, owning my own domain and all. I will try to keep it in perspective...tomorrow. Today I will bask in the glory that I own a part (albeit a very small part) of the world wide web. Tomorrow, I will be annoyed that had I not used Google as a middle-man, I could have paid $7.49 directly to GoDaddy.com !

This was sent to me by my stepfather. The words are beautiful, the meaning significant.  This put me in a thoughtful place.     CELTIC BLESSING (author unknown - translated by Charles Mitchell)   ********** "I wish you not a path devoid of clouds, Nor a life on a bed of roses, not that you might never need regret, nor that you should never feel pain. No, that is not my wish for you. My wish for you is: That you might be brave in times of trial, when others lay crosses upon your shoulders. When mountains must be climbed, and chasms are to be crossed. When hope can scarce shine through. That your gift God gave you Might grow along with you and let you give the gift of joy to all who care for you. That you may always have a friend who is worth that name. Whom you can trust, and who helps you in times of sadness. Who will defy the storms of daily life at your side. One more wish I have for you that in every hour of joy and pain you may feel God close to you. This is my

Uncle Brian visited from NY last week. He went to lunch at Ben's school -  and having visitors made Ben a little too excited to eat. Happy St. Paddy's Day!

You may recall that Ben had an accident a couple of months ago - he pulled a TV and table down on himself. Luckily, he was fine - cannot say the same for the TV though. Since then, we have made changes in the house and researched ideas on how to make areas safer for Ben. Our biggest concerns are the stove top and TV areas. After discussing with the OT and Speech Therapist, they came up with a plan to show Ben that he is not to touch the stove and TV. Ben's speech therapist made the sign above based on a Boardmaker picture. During their co-treatment sessions, they work on helping him to understand that he may not touch the area near the sign. Ideally, as we feel more comfortable with his understanding, we will move to a smaller sign. (Or I get tired of the huge sign hanging in front of my oven - whichever happens first.) The sign works if we are in the room with Ben and able to say, "No touching!" He actually listens and moves away. I do not trust that it works if he

Grandma's birthday is coming up and Ben made a  Caterpillar Birthday Card to send.

An email just arrived informing us that Amazing Race is being rescheduled for the fall due to low registration. I was looking forward to it, but now I have more time to study my Charlotte trivia. I may also volunteer to help publicize this event because I do think it has the potential for being successful in terms of raising scholarship funds and awareness about the camp itself. For those of you who sent in donations, first of all - thank you so very much! Secondly, I have emailed the organization to see what to do about the donations I have received. Most likely, I will send the checks back to individual donors. Thank you all for your help with this and I will keep you updated about the new date.