Well I've been seriously negligent on my blog posts and I apologize for that. 2013 was a doozy of a year. Our business has been growing by leaps and bounds, major thanks in part to our awesome customers and friends.
Alongside our business upswing, life keeps happening. (Funny how that works.) When I started the Maisondestencils blog, I lived in sleepy Astoria, Oregon with my husband and our older son. I treasured the rain, our amazing friends and neighbors, being a Goonie for life, and the historical significance of our town. I loved our Craftsman home, which was featured in quite a few blog posts. It turns 100 years old in 2014. we were going to throw it a birthday party.
In April of 2013, our older son was diagnosed with Autism. I was due to have our second son within weeks and we were faced with a very difficult dilemma of living near no family and suddenly needing a lot of support for his future. You may or may not be aware that children diagnosed with Autism (or ASD) now have better support than ever and are eligible for amazing services, but these services vary wildly from state to state. Oregon, we came to find out, did not offer us the best chance for our son's future. So we left everything behind and moved back to California, where my Mom and Dad and Laura, (my sister and Maisondestencils founder) live.
The age 2-3 year is pretty pivotal for kids on the Autism spectrum. Graham, my older son, is now 2.5 and we're knee deep in services for him (We do about 25 hours of therapy a week). He's doing extremely well (He just asked me for pizza at 6 AM!) and while we don't have a crystal ball, the future looks bright. This is a major reason why I haven't been putting out many blog posts. They would probably read, "I answered email and took Graham to speech therapy. Answered email and went to occupational therapy." lol!
We'd been in our new house in Southern California for a few months when my husband said to me, "I don't think I want to move anymore. I think we're done." And I agreed. We've both moved a lot in our lives and while I had dreamed that we'd always live in Astoria, moving to So Cal had a note of finality to it. So I made a custom stencil I had always wanted to make for my family, but for some reason, always put off. I wanted something that would highlight every place we've lived, every stop on our journey.
I really love the way it came out. I bought a piece of plywood at Home Depot which my husband ripped down to size. The denim blue color is actually a few old paint colors I mixed together. Total cost, $6!
I also want to point out that I attempted to pick up (Bless you people who actually stage your pictures) and still missed a sippy cup! That's Graham in the picture. He's watching Cars right now. :)
Laura came over (we only live 10 minutes away now, nice perk!) and she loved the sign. She told me I needed to list the concept as a custom on the website, so I decided to do just that. You can check it out here.
Things are finally calming down now as we unpack our last boxes, so I hope to be back in the blogosphere more. We also have plans to launch our Youtube channel with a little more oomph in 2014, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Hope you've all been doing well. I do keep on Facebook, so I see a lot of familiar faces there. We truly feel blessed to have the nicest customers and it's our privilege to work with you guys. I also want to mention that we love designing customs (obviously!) so if you ever have an idea you need help executing, email us at info@maisondestencils.com.
Take Care!
You my dear have had a very eventful year!!! As a mother with a child born with heart abnormalities, I know your personal and family priorities change, you make decisions that benefit the whole family in a positive way. Wish you all the best~~~Mickie
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you're back and that things are going well for your son. You are so lucky to live near your family.
ReplyDeleteI am the mother of an Autistic daughter. She is 20 now. I know what you are going through--she was diagnosed at 3yrs old. Those early years with a nonverbal child were really rough. But we had an exceptional school system here in Minnesota and it really has worked wonders on her. She is very high functioning now and I owe that to the dedicated teachers she had while growing up. Do all you can to be involved in his education and most importantly--fight for him. Make sure he is getting the very best and if that means you change schools or move again--do it. It is his future. Good luck and always remember that God chose you to parent this special child because He knew you would be able to do it.
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