You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t been posting as much as usual lately and when I do manage to get a post up, it isn’t with the same enthusiasm I’ve had in the past.  I’ve also been slow to answer comments or to leave comments on my friends blogs.  It’s not a good place for a blogger to be, but there are reasons for my being mostly absent and I thought I’d fill everyone in on the details.

Life has been busy in the Russell household as of late..  Most of our time has revolved around our son, Lil’ B, who just turned 2 this past August.  It’s been obvious for some time that he wasn’t developing at quite the same rate as “normal” kids his age.  He’s only spoken a few times in his short life.  He has no interest in other children or in most activities that most two year-olds are happy to participate in. It’s been worrying his mother and I for quite some time.

This past week we received an assessment result that points to Autism. While this is a disturbing piece of news, it’s not the end of our, or his life.  Lil’ B isn’t completely withdrawn and he’s trying, at his own pace and in his own way, to communicate and do things that most kids do.  In a very real sense having the diagnosis will be a blessing more than a curse, since as a Military Family, we have the resources at our disposal to give him the best care available.

This is not yet an official diagnosis.  At this point we know that he falls under five of the six warning signs.  It will be about a month before we can see a specialist on the matter. Until that time we’re trying to pull that part of our lives back into something like a regular holding pattern.

Then of course there are the stresses brought on by more normal issues.  There are pressures from work on both sides of the table, pressure from family, financial pressures and a sundry of other little things that serve to distract from what’s really important.

And what’s that, you ask?

When things go badly it’s easy to forget the simple truths in life. Thant even though there are pieces of our day that are out of our control, as long as we are in good health, surrounded by people who care about us and whom we care about and have the capacity for hope, then there really isn’t anything more that we, as human beings, can ask for. Bad things happen to everyone, no matter how good a person they are.  If we dwell on those things, life isn’t really worth living, is it.

So, dear readers and good friends, I’m doing my level best to get the distractions of “what could go wrong” out of my fuzzy middle-aged brain and get backt o the things that mattter. Family, friends, food and of course, to this blog and my other projects.

I have things I’ve started and then been distracted from, and they will be coming in rapid-fire succession over the nest few days.  I also have a huge stack of ideas I need to star wading through over the course of the next few weeks.  Then we have the holidays coming, which ads another metric ton of things that I’ll be focusing on.  It’s going to be a very busy three months.

I hope you’ll share the ride with me.

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