The holidays are upon us. In our house, Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving. The house gets decorated, winter candles are lit, and Christmas music fills the rooms. The kids are old enough to help decorate. The dogs even have Christmas bandanas around their necks. Our…
At the beginning of November, I got sick. It was inevitable, though I had received a flu shot and we were careful. Sometimes you just get a little unlucky. Usually when this happens, I give it a couple of days to see how I’m doing. If…
If you’ve been on social media lately, you’ve probably seen a flood of posts with the hashtag #10yearchallenge. This trend, popular on sites such as Instagram and Facebook, prompts users to post a picture of themselves from 2009 next to one from 2019.
Life can be full of disappointments. They are opportunities for children to learn how to handle them, think about them, and react to them. Ella rolled into the Young Naperville Singers rehearsal full of excitement and anxiety. The week before, she had auditioned for…
Everything in our lives is difficult, from the things we need to do to survive to the things that we love to do. That doesn’t mean we live a bad life. I’ve been reading some columns on SMA News Today recently for inspiration and…
Just a couple of years ago, I knew little to nothing about cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic disease that affects approximately 30,000 people in the United States alone. My perspective is wildly different now that I have friends and co-workers with CF. I’ve learned…
Life is typically made up of occasional, seemingly random thuds. Thuds are moments when we sit up and take notice. We don’t usually know what we’re noticing, but there is no mistake that thuds are significant. The first thud, as it relates to this story, occurred when my…
Ella has been singing with the Young Naperville Singers (YNS) for a few months now. Her singing voice continues to improve as she gains confidence. She sings around the house, while getting dressed, and in the shower. The kids at YNS have been practicing…
One would think it might be easier to get a lifesaving medication, but it’s not. I pursued Spinraza (nusinersen) for a time, only to stop. I’ve been keeping quiet about it because what if I don’t get it? It’s possible, even though I…
My computer screen stared at me as a wave of unread emails and messages flooded my inbox. I work in management, so it’s not uncommon for me to respond to dozens of messages on a typical workday. This is not normally a problem, but for some reason, I…
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