eSpecially Ben

EXCLUSIVE from TMZ*: Ben cuts his hair. Unfortunately we forgot to save the trimmings to dole out to charities .  Special Exposure Wednesday and Wordless Wednesday are featured on sites to promote photography. Join in the fun. Or if you need your photos to be accompanied by lots of words try Wordful Wednesday at Seven Clown Circus . * T he M other Z one

Today, a neighbor jogged by our house. I stopped him briefly to see if he had received the candy thank you I left for he and his wife in their mailbox. He had seen them and eaten his M&M's in his goody bag, and since his wife was out of town, he had put them aside for her. I jokingly said that I was impressed that he had not eaten them himself. He shared with me that he thought of doing just that, but in the spirit of the About.com contest , he thought it was best to save it for her. Those words "in the spirit of this contest" lead me to those questions I challenged you to ponder. Was it worth it? Was this the best method to gain a larger audience for my site? Other sites? Absolutely. My daily hits are sometimes as much as what my weekly hits were before the contest. eSpecially Ben's subscriptions have almost tripled reaching a more diverse audience. (More than my mom is reading now.) Would I do it again? No - I think different blog sites should be tortur

On Friday, we visited Sean's preschool to celebrate his 3rd birthday.  Logan drew this in the courtyard and called it, "Sean at his school." Need some art inspiration for your household?  Check out 5 Minutes for Special Needs every Monday .  And if you have a little artist in your home, link up and share with others.

These are comments that I received from Facebook, email and eSpecially Ben to the post, Life After About.com Awards . Thank you for weighing in on this discussion and having the courage to say what is on your mind. I will add my thoughts next week. Feel free to post your comments below. The contest, “was it worth it?” Of course it was worth it.  So many things separate us, but this helped us find the ties that bind.  For a couple of weeks, it brought people from all over the country together for a purpose.  Sand spread out on the beach is sand, but with a common interest we made a castle.   --Kevin Was it worth it? A resounding YES.  Should you do it again? YES.  What about the other families, cheating, motives, trophies?  Its clear to me that everyone wins this contest, there are no losers, just bragging rights.  So life can go on, as it will and if some peopled learned more about special children, then the contest accomplished its goal.   --Arleen These are good questions

Logan, 2 and Ben, 4 Three years ago on St. Patty's Day, I took this photo of Logan and Ben sitting on a bench in our yard. I distinctly remember this moment because three days later, Sean was born, forever changing their world.

Better sit down for this one, it's going to be a long one. My friend, mentor and former colleague, Roger McGrath , passed away in December. We coordinated a freshman leadership program as well as taught a class together at our local private university. Roger brought a wealth of experience to his teaching from a full military career. He also made it his point to read everything. If you brought up a topic, he knew something about it and would quickly lead you into an argument about the issues, always taking your opposing view. As one person so eloquently said at his memorial service, "Roger would argue with you even if he was violently in agreement with you." Besides teaching the importance of looking at all sides of an issue, Roger instilled in every person he met, the idea that leadership involves a collaborative effort. His favorite quote was from Lao Tzu , a Chinese Taoist philosopher, who said that when the goal is reached, the people will say they have done it the

Ben came home with this on Valentine's Day. With a bit of creativity, this cute frog may be developed into any springtime craft. See more works of art at www.5minutesforspecialneeds.com