The holidays require a lot of socializing with people you might not normally socialize with. This is a time of year I try to balance pushing and giving in with my social anxiety. The balance can be hard to find. For me, it is the anticipation of the event that creates the anxiety.... who will … Continue reading Social anxiety: When to push and when to give in →

I am wrapping up my writing project for 2025 and starting to think about what 2026 will look like for me. I know what I do not want - daily job searching on LinkedIn, Idealist, and Indeed. My brain needs more than that, especially after a year of this daily routine. As I was doing … Continue reading The next book →

We foster failed with our sweet Duchess but not in the way most people experience foster fails. Hindsight helps me see where we potentially went wrong, but our intentions were ALWAYS in everyone's best interest. I boarded our pups so that when Duchess came to our house she could check things out and get settled … Continue reading Foster Fail →

I wrote over the weekend about the first grade school shooter civil trial currently underway in VA. This case bothers me on many levels.... as a parent, as a special education teacher, and a behavioral consultant. I also asked some podcasters who investigate unique cases if they would cover it on an upcoming episode. Fingers … Continue reading Failed by many adults →

As a former behavioral consultant, I have sooo many questions about the first grade school shooter trial. The first being why the civil trial is happening before the criminal trial. But I caught snippets of the civil trial this week and it had me scratching my head and wondering so many things. I am going … Continue reading Something’s off →

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a new writing project with a colleague and long time friend. It has evolved from a podcast to an E-Book with a companion podcast. Think workbook-style reading for parents as they listen to the podcast with personal stories to connect. Writing again has definitely been good … Continue reading What does it mean to be “uniquely wired?” →

Last weekend on my drive to the downtown Raleigh Kava bar, I passed by a sign that made me chuckle with a very funny memory. The sign was for Adventure Landing, an indoor fun park for children. The memory was from my first job out of undergrad. I have written about that job before. Click … Continue reading A funny memory leads to a new project →

When I was in graduate school, I worked with preschool age children with autism. It was challenging work, but also super rewarding. One of the parents gave me the poem below for Christmas. I still have it in my bookshelf all these years later (and I am still friends with most of the parents of … Continue reading Always be a Keymaker →

Someone with the last name Slater popped up on my social media feed this week. Meta said we had one mutual friend. I reached out to that friend asking if the Slater on social media was THE Mr. Slater. He confirmed they were one in the same. Mr. Slater was somewhat of a legend at … Continue reading Mr. Slater and the writing tapes →

We completed our third and final move to our forever home last month. We knew back in January that we were definitely moving back home. More on the full story here. We found our home on Easter weekend, completely by chance, and fell in love instantly. Aidan described it as the first house since Wild … Continue reading The redneck easement →