Monday Numbers

Hey, Kia! Are you doing Monday Mum-mum-numbers this week?

Well, whether you are or not, I am!

• 94 - number of miles I've run since I started keeping count in February. Will hit 100 this week!
  
  
• 2 - number of times I've already had to raise my way-too-modest fundraising goal for Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. You guys rock. Your new challenge - make me do it again!!
  
  
• 1 - number of bell concerts Saturday night.
  
  
• 2 - number of standing ovations (one for the full group, one for an awesome duet played by 2 of our members!)
  
  
• 3 - number of bells I got to ring simultaneously in ONE hand during a certain passage in Bach's Little Fugue
  
  
• 1 - mylar helium fish-balloon I brought home from the concert decorations for the girls.
  
  
• 100 - percent of her time that Joy spent playing with the balloon and its lovely stringy ribbon yesterday until we hid it away.
  
  
• 7 - handwritten coupons received from Rose yesterday for Mothers Day
  
  
• 2 - coupons I have already redeemed (hugs and a big ol' room-cleaning - yes, this mama is hard-core! I helped her with the room though.)
  
  
• 4 - weeks we technically have to test out the 7-Level-Communicator, a voice-recorded communication device that's a big step up from Joy's push-button.
  
  
• 1 - number of days it took Joy to figure out the new tool. Wow.
  
  
• 5 - number of times Joy went to jump in her bouncy castle with her playdate friend on Tuesday.
  
  
• 0 - level of enthusiasm she'd had for the bouncy castle last year when it was her big birthday present. This is a major improvement!
  
  
• 32 - number of pieces of sports equipment in the kit I got Friday from Special Olympics, for their Young Athletes family program that we'll be doing this summer at home.
  
  
• 3 - number of list-items in this post (at least) that deserve blog-posts of their own.
  
  
• 14 - cups of rhubarb that went into the deep freeze yesterday from our one prolific plant.
  
  
• 5 - names I'm aware of for the flowering bush that we planted yesterday: serviceberry, Juneberry, saskatoon, shadberry, Amelanchier.
  
  
• Gazillion - blossoms on the apple tree in our back yard.
  

Oh, and half a gazillion dandelions in the lawn to go with 'em. At least the yellow is bright and cheery against the green grass!

Update: Ooo, forgot an important one.

• 8 - number of months since Joy's last knock-down seizure, as of today. Woo hoo! (And, knock on wood!)

Random Tuesday Thoughts

A belated May-basket to Keely at The UnMom for running this Random Tuesday Thoughts operation, and giving me a reason for randomness!

• Joy wants "more". She's been signing it for food, bubble machine, swinging, all sorts of goodies and activities. Way to go, girl!



• Rose wants more too. More time playing with Mama.



• Mama wants more too. More independence on the part of Rose, especially during handbell concert season.



• Sunday's concert went awesomely well. I love it when we finish a piece and the audience gives a little gasp/sigh after the last note and before the applause...



• We debuted new royal-blue floor-length dresses for the show, most with plunging necklines, and managed not to have a single "wardrobe malfunction"!



• When Joy has a "wardrobe malfunction" it usually has to do with a leaky diaper.



• Why is it that Joy always seems to wake up in the wee small hours on Tuesday mornings, one of her busiest days of the week?



• I was up early today too, but it was intentional. Got a nice pre-dawn run in. Lots of birds and blossoms and bunnies out there.



• The strawberry patch is starting to bloom, now that JoyDad has fenced the bunnies out. Can't wait till the garden we planted this weekend starts to sprout as well!



• Did you know that violets are edible? Tastes kind of lettuce-like and makes a lovely unusual contrast to a salad of greens. Rose has loved picking flowers for dinner. Joy eats them on her plate, but hasn't figured out to pick them out of the yard to eat. Which is just as well, I suppose.



• Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Ritardando

It's handbell concert season again, which means the schedule is crazy and my fingers are aching from holding two (and sometimes three!) bells in one hand simultaneously.

So perhaps it's natural that the bells should come to mind in relation to a cluster of posts last week, started by the incomparable Mama Mara, who posted a powerful reflection called Retarded Isn't Stupid, Mama Mara! Then came Cale over at Spectrum Siblings, who posted Retarded Isn't Stupid, Cale! And StatMama followed up with Developmental Disabilities, in which she pointed out that the word "retarded" quite literally means "slow".

And what's so bad about "slow"?

Slow is something we've actually been working very hard on with the bells. We've got a couple of pieces that that derive their beauty from a slow tempo -- like Gershwin's "Prelude No. 2" which Gershwin himself described as a "blues lullaby" but I think is actually a mighty seductive piece, not necessarily conducive to sleep! Another of the pieces, Brahms' Hungarian Dance #5, is chock full of tempo changes... and wouldn't you know, the big challenge is the slowing down (ritardando) in coordination!

Joy does not technically have a diagnosis of mental retardation, though in an earlier version of the DSM that would likely be the box that fit her best. (Diagnostic substitution. Powerful stuff when it comes to arguments about autism and "epidemic" language...) Right now we're calling it "developmental delays" or "cognitive issues" because we really don't know how to tease out what aspects of the delays are mediated by the autism, and what would be there if the autism weren't. Certainly her diagnosis of linear nevus sebaceous syndrome traditionally comes with a mental retardation component -- but not always. And we surely do have the sense that Joy isn't letting us in on everything that's going on in that mind of hers. In the words of her school district team leader: "Her file drawers are full! We just don't have the key to the cabinet."

But whatever word we use to describe Joy's trajectory so far... there's definitely a component of slow.

And why are people so down on "slow"?

I'd been plotting a post about the virtues of "slow" myself, and then I came across a wonderful column in this week's Mennonite Weekly Review, by Melodie Davis, called Slow is Good -- Very Good. It's gorgeous stuff, too good not to share. I'll intersperse her words with mine, OK?

Slow is a walk.

Slower still is a walk with a toddler.

Slow is a porch-swing and a long tall cool drink.

Slow is reading aloud.

Slow is a stew simmering all day in a crock pot.

Slow is incubating a baby for nine months.

Slow is hours of nursing, rocking, dozing with baby.

Slow is the food you started from seeds in the ground in the spring, weeded, watered, harvested, preserved, and didn't consume until the middle of winter.

Slow is melting into the arms of your spouse and just letting the moment linger, not worrying about what's next.

Slow is a delightful pace for what might come next as well.

Slow is focusing totally on the person talking to you during coffee hour at church and not thinking about the three other people you have to catch before they scurry away.

Slow is focusing totally on your child, giving yourself over to whatever activity they're playing, for as long as they care to keep it up.

Slow is meticulously hand-stitching every inch of heirloom wedding quilts for your grandchildren.

Slow is the sewing basket, and a pile of mending, and a classical CD on the stereo.

Scripture encourages us to be slow to speak and slow to become angry (James 1:19). God is slow to anger (Neh. 9:17).

Prov. 14:27 advises that “a patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly.”

Moses complained that he was too “slow of speech” to undertake the task of speaking to Pharaoh and being a leader for the Hebrew people (Ex. 4:10). Yet look how God was able to use Moses.

Amen.

And, ritardando.

Tinntinnabulation

May I just say that playing handbells with the symphony orchestra -- which I just finished doing earlier this evening -- is a magnificent experience!

It's even nicer when the exacting, no-nonsense maestro introduces your group as "virtuoso performers."

Yes, one of the five women in this photo was me, a couple of years ago. You get to guess, if you don't already know me...

Now, only eight (maybe nine) more handbell performances to go in the next week and a half! Woo hoo!

P.S. JoyDad is such a trooper, keeping the home fires burning and taking care of the girls while I do all this.

P.P.S. Update: the show got good reviews (not to mention standing ovations both nights so far!)

Christmas in August

You could potentially walk into our house any day of the year, look over at what's playing on DVD, and think Christmas. That's because Joy's very favorite videos are Baby Einsteins, and one of the most favorite of the favorite is Baby Santa. These magical videos are about the only thing that can keep Joy somewhat occupied for a span of more than a minute or two without direct intense supervision. So we've heard the Baby Einstein Orchestra do Jingle Bells so often we could sing it in our sleep.

But wait, there's more. This year, Christmas in August also means that I washed my last load of cloth diapers this weekend. After six years of stinky launderings, I am SO done. Wahoo! Joy hasn't been the slightest bit interested in potty training. [Clarification edit: and she still isn't. No, we are not done with diapers per se. We are not even started being done with diapers.] However, the Medical Assistance under which she receives her intensive autism therapy will also pay for diapers, once a suitably-disabled child turns four. We've gotten through the prior authorization paperwork hoops now, and the first shipment of diapers arrived this week, directly to our door. Talk about your early Christmas presents! I am done saving the environment via cloth diapers, virtuous as it was. It feels great to be saving mama a little bit now.

Last but not least, I also started playing Christmas music this week. I ring handbells with a semi-professional community group, and Saturday was our kickoff rehearsal for this year's Christmas concerts. It's a little incongruous to have Christmas bells ringing in my head already before school starts, but I do love to have that outside interest and sneak away to ring bells with my colleagues! Here's an MP3 clip of "Sleigh Ride" to give you a sense of how we make holiday celebration with handbells. Merry, merry!