Alison Hodgson

Expert on the etiquette of perilous times.

Reading is our drug of choice

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This is Christopher at church. Some Sundays he brings the mug he made in Ceramics class. The look on his face is reserved for when he’s indulging a request of mine (posing with his mug for a picture) but doesn’t mind.

Tomorrow is Christopher’s sixteenth IEP (Individualized Education Program). This is the plan that is created to determine what services a child in Special Ed will receive and what accommodations will be made to support the child. This is also where goals are established for the coming school year. The goals, whether or not they are achieved, reveal the child’s progress.

Last week he took a vocabulary test (PPVT-4 for those in the know) and scored the age equivalence of a 25-year-old. Christopher is sixteen.
That’s pretty impressive for any kid, but for a young man who is hard of hearing it’s flat out amazing.
I’m proud of my boy.

Welcome

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Today I have a post up on the Breathe Christian Writer’s Conference blog on the subject of writing true. It features a previous post, from this blog as well as a bit of writerly commentary.

If you are a writer—of any sort—I highly recommend you come to Breathe. It’s sponsored by my writer’s group The Guild and we work so hard for it to be a wonderful, enriching experience. The feedback we get, year after year, is that it is.  I’m going to be writing soon about why I recommend attending writer’s conferences in general, and Breathe specifically, regardless of where you are in your writing.

If you are visiting here from the Breathe blog, welcome.

Oprah Schmoke Bra!

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The other day I was driving across town to meet my sister Torey at her house. With the help of Siri, I texted her our location which was about ten minutes away. She texted back her own, which was about 10 seconds from her home.

“This isn’t a race.” I said and Siri texted.

“Really?” Torey replied. “Oprah says ‘Life is a race…make sure you win” she added. Her husband was driving so she could text with impunity.

“Oprah Shmoprah!” I told Siri.

“Oprah Schmoke bra.” Siri texted.

“Siri helped me with that,” I said.

“Siri help me with that.” Siri texted.

Later at lunch, Torey said “That’s my new thing: making up quotes from Oprah.”

It hadn’t occurred to me that the previous quote had sounded decidedly un-Oprah-ish. But then we both love to facetiously quote her quoting, I think it’s Maya Angelou, “When you know better. You do better” because—honestly—I know a lot of things I neglect to do.

Six years and one day after May Day

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Yesterday I remembered  a post I had written on May Day back in 2006. That was a really good time for me. God’s love had become profoundly real. I was grabbing people’s sleeves and telling them, “The Bible is FULL of the love of God.” This was often met with nervous glances. No one knows what to do when someone says something obvious with total wonder. Only kids can get away with that sort of behavior.

I had been held hostage by the grace of God for years, roughly since I became a mother. Stockholm Syndrome had finally set in and it was wonderful.

These days, I’m focusing on hope and clutching at people’s sleeves again stating the obvious with awe. Hope seems to be really important to God too.

Up until a few months ago I’d missed that as well.

If you’d like to read that post, it’s right HERE.