April Is...

April is Autism Awareness month! Please take a few minutes to learn about the many different forms of Autism.
Asperger's Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), and other forms of autism are occurring at alarming rates in our young people. Approximately 1 out of every 150 children will be diagnosed with some form of Austism.
My daughter was misdiagnosed as ADHD and later was correctly diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Unfortunately, due to the slow diagnosing, she is no longer eligible for some of the programs that would have helped her tremendously in school and life.
Most people who meet my daughter have no idea she is living her life with Asperger's Syndrome. I'm sure there are a lot of people who think she's just a brat or needs more discipline. She's very "black or white", the "gray area" just isn't there. Thankfully she is on the milder end of the spectrum and doesn't have as many problems as those who are more severe. Daily I wish her educators would learn more about Autism spectrum disorders-I give every teacher who has her some information from the Mayo Clinic. It's a great place to start. Unfortunately most just set it aside and we have many unnecessary problems throughout the entire year because they "didn't know this is part of how an Aspergers child behaves or thinks" or "Aspergers is just an excuse-she should know better" (that one really irritates me-she would know if YOU'D TEACH HER!).
I'm asking everyone to take a moment to look at any one of the following sites and spend a few minutes reading about this rapidly growing issue. Our kids don't need "fixed". They need to be taught using different methods. They are square pegs people are trying to fit into round holes.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/aspergers-syndrome/DS00551
http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer
http://www.autismspeaks.org/
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm
Thank you from my family and all the other families you will soon understand better.

Some changes for my shop

I love my custom requests and I love my family.....not always the best mix though. Since there is only one of me, I have decided to no longer post listings for custom orders. However, I just can't stop taking them so I've decided to continue to do them but only when someone contacts me. I've got so many youth and adult undies waiting to be sewn that I'm going to start working on them and only do customs if requested.
I also am going to rephrase how my custom times are figured. I want to be sure that everone understands that 2 weeks is 2 business weeks so they don't count the weekends since I don't work on Saturday and Sunday. I just need to be able to spend more quality time with my family and can't if I'm working on custom orders and sewing for my shop. Summer break is coming up so quickly and I will have both kids home plus all the summer therapy sessions will keep me out more.
Streamlining my shop will allow me to keep making quality products and since they will already be done when they're listed they will go out to you faster. My custom orders will flow better too since I will be able to keep control of what come in and when it will be ready to ship. My plan is that this will make a better situation for all of us and keep the product quality too.