7 Final Takes for 2017

(Christmas picture of my family with my parents)

1. It may come as a surprise to some, but I will be retiring this blog in the New Year. Passing for Normal has served its purpose. If you read my posts in the spring, you watched me come to grips with the diagnoses of my children and my acceptance that their permanent inability to pass for normal will always cause me a portion of grief. But I've also come to accept that I will never pass for normal, so there we go. It's time to leave the past in the past and look forward. 

(And since Anne Kennedy went from An Undercurrent of Hostility to Preventing Grace, I have a process to follow. But I don't think I can quite come up to her level of snark.)

2. Adolescence in children on the spectrum is much more exciting than that in neurotypical kids. Life with Miranda this year has run the gamut from fascinating because of the real live person she's turning into to hair-pulling frustration with her inability to get emotionally unstuck (love that ODD), with plenty of tears in between. She is growing and changing, which is good, but it's painful for all of us. But we do have support from friends and family and church and school and doctors and therapists, so we are constructing a new normal for her in 2018. She'll make it and will be stronger on the other side.

3. Then there are the kids on the spectrum whose adolescence is delayed. There's Alex, with his wonderful long hair (one year into working towards the goal of a man bun), but much shorter in stature than his younger sister and much more immature. We've been watching him carefully and will be consulting an endocrinologist in the new year about HGH. He's 14 years old now and his program at school has completely switched to a vocational pathway. Archway has been so good for him these last 2 years and we trust in their process. 

4. My parents had a fun year, flitting back and forth to CA to see the other grandkids (they are very happy to have 7) and then a long vacation/pilgrimage to Italy. Dad had his second knee replacement and mom had cataract surgery on both eyes and both are well at present. 

Love those darlings. Hope to see them next year.

5. My honey changed jobs in January and while, for the first half of the year, it was an appreciated new challenge, since August it's been crazy and crazy-making. Too much work, too few staff. Still, the opportunity for him to work from home on a regular basis was good for all of us. We miss him when he's not home. 

6. I only read about 150 books this year (I think last year it was closer to 220) but that was partly because I read Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series 2-3 times over the summer and I don't count rereads. Fun books, but incredibly impressive world building. Other new authors I loved on first sight: Mariana Zapata, Ernest Cline, Ben Aaronovitch, and Loretta Chase. Plenty of old favorites in my reading pile; stalk me on Goodreads if you want details. 

7. I didn't see enough movies this year, but I never do. Of course we saw the necessities (Jedi, Ragnarok, Guardians 2, Wonder Woman, Dunkirk, Blade Runner 2049, Kong, F8te of the Furious, and Logan). I still want to see Justice League, Jumanji, Darkest Hour, Logan Lucky, Baby Driver, Atomic Blonde, Valerian, Get Out, Molly's Game, Spider-Man, Cars 3, and King Arthur. Eventually. 

And that's the year.

Read Anne's list; she's always good. And here's Kelly.