{...a breezy life} at briemarisa.com

It's a very strange springtime Monday here in NJ, as the snow has been falling steadily all morning. I love how we made it through the entire winter season with nary a flurry and we get snow the first week of spring.

Typical.

I've been relatively absent from my blog through this strange-weathered month of March, without any reason then that I just sometimes lose my words. I can usually tell as soon as I sit at the computer if I will have something to say and lately, I have sat down, reached in, and came up with nothing. And not because I didn't have anything to say, but that my inner monologue wasn't making it to my fingers.

A good friend of mine from my high school/youth group days is a screenwriter. His name is Jacob Krueger and he co-wrote the screen play for The Matthew Shepard Story, for which Stockard Channing won an Emmy playing Matthew's mother. Jake now runs a school for screenwriters. I am lucky enough to have once received some free advice from this now-seasoned professional: when you have writers block, just sit down and start writing anything. Write about how you need to take out the garbage, about what you had for dinner, whatever nonsense that you can think of and eventually, you will kind of release a real flow of words. It's a technique that I need to employ more often. I don't write for any professional reasons. I write because I enjoy it and because it is a release for me, so it's insane that I would avoid my computer because I don't feel like I'm spouting Shakespeare that day. For one thing, pffffft. My writing is more SpongeBob then Shakespeare, so why aspire to nonsense and for another, why walk around with a clogged brain when it's as simple as sitting down and just banging away on the keys? So there's that.

Last week we met with PJ's teacher for Parent/Teacher conferences. He has made so many amazing strides in a few short months, and while he still has a long way to go, we are very happy with how hard both PJ and his teachers/therapists are working. We went from PJ being a huge behavior problem to being well-behaved, learning everything he can get his hands on, being a friend to his classmates and an asset to the classroom. PJ still displays some of his nonsense when the activity isn't what he wants, or during transitions. But, he only needs to be redirected once and then he's "all in", as his teacher said. And in case you needed further proof that he is the grandson of my father, he scored at or above average in all of the mathematics objectives. Atta boy. :-) Last week I got to visit his class as the Mystery Reader, and it was so much fun to walk in and see him sitting in his little blue chair for circle time, smiling at his classmates. It's not like Early Intervention, where I was next to him for every single step. He's becoming his own little dude now and it is amazing and wonderful and it breaks my damn heart!

We are ready for spring around here. It was a long, gloomy winter and even though it's still hanging on, I can taste spring. I am longing for walks after dinner and time at the playground. We can have picnics after school and not wear jackets. My kiddo is an outdoors type of kiddo, and I can't wait to see what kind of blossoming he does with a little sun.

And now the news is on, which means that, as usual, I am up too late. It's time to call it a night and head off to bed.