Not in Any Particular Order

• I heard a story of transformation last night that brought me to tears. I have said many times about how different the road ends up looking when you have a child with special needs. Sometimes, many times, nothing looks the way you had envisioned your future, not the number of children you decided to have, or the kind of home you thought you'd live in, or the travel you thought you'd take, or the career choices you would have made, or the activities you thought would occupy your time. Most of the changes in our life are for the better, or have made me a better person, and the woman who spoke last night shared her journey of youth to adulthood, to parenting, to special needs parenting, and ultimately to a place that is taking some of those dreams and hopes she had as a young woman and moving the pieces around so that some of it will work again in this so-different life she now has. It was inspiring, and courageous and a joy to witness. I hope each of my friends has a similar reawakening.
  
• In our own corner of the sky, Descartes has been researching "adventure vehicles" or at least that's what I am calling them. They look a bit like this or like this.
  Could be the perfect way to go camping with Jake and Lucy. We aren't gonna be the family that takes a year off and travels around the world with the kids. As adventurous as Jake is with trying food, I don't think he would be happy with that much constant change. Maybe Lucy and Mommy can take a few adventure trips out of country when she is older, but we need to figure out what our family looks like if it doesn't look like all of the things Descartes and I planned. Off-the-beaten-path camping might be a happy thing.
  
• Descartes and I have sort of decided that we are going to try to take our kids to as many National Parks as they will tolerate before they start leaving home. Descartes' family was sort of a road tripping family, and while I think my mother would rather eat dirt than sleep on it, we did our share of National Parks when I was a kid too. As a family, we've already been to Point Reyes, Muir Woods, Golden Gate, and Yosemite, and Jake has also been to Fort Point, Alcatraz, Pinnacles, Lassen, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton. In fact, Jake took some of his last baby steps right on the boardwalk next to Old Faithful. The day we got home from Montana he walked by himself across the living room (he was two)
  
• For some unknown reason a subscription of Golf Magazine recently started coming to my house. I canceled it this morning. Some marketing company did a very bad job determining my behaviors.