I’ll be there as an exhibitor and author and I’ll be giving away ten autographed copies of Delightfully Different. The keynotes and noted speakers looks impressive, and I know there are over 200 speakers total.
Let me know if you are coming! I would love to meet you face to face, and I might even tell you where to find the best beaches and the best shave ice.
You might have noticed that I was off-line most of last week and the beginning of this week. We have been celebrating Chinese New Year. This year we are taking no chances with our luck.
Not only did we attend the Chinese New Year parade and feed the lion, we also decorated for the New Year. I couldn’t resist buying these guys when I saw them at the street vender during the Honolulu Chinatown block party.
I brought a steamer and spent a full day making gau, a sticky pudding made with mochi flour, brown sugar, vegetable oil, and water. I even made it the old-fashioned way this year instead of in the microwave.
Here’s how it turned out! I gave some to my in-laws since gau is supposed to help families stick together.
Hubby and I got these to bring good karma to our home.
And this big one to place in our entry way.
I also spent time organizing and cleaning the house, and of course we had a wonderful Chinese meal that included a whole chicken for family harmony combined with a whole lobster for a harmonious marriage and noodles for long life and shrimp dumplings for wealth.
Kung Hee Fat Choy! (May prosperity be with you!)
Even when you fail to comment, seeing that someone looked at my posts still warms my heart. I debated about sharing my blog stats; finally, I concluded that this is important. My family celebrates New Year’s twice since my husband and children are of Chinese descent. Therefore, sharing the fireworks now actually makes more sense.
A special Mahalo to my top five commenters in 2011. FYI Four of them are not connected to the autism community. God Bless them for continuing to have my back! Oh and they were also the first to respond to my e-mails about Miranda’s blog and three of them repeatedly commented on her blog too and the other two still read her blog and made sure I knew they understood. God bless them!
Mahalo to Charlotte from Lifes a Charm, a mom offering insights beyond her years as she raises two young boys. Mahalo to Grace from Blessed Elements, a grandmother and very creative soul, offering ideas about ways to go green to help save our planet while sharing her beautiful jewelry. Mahalo to Aspergirl Maybe, a mom sharing her journey from questioning whether she is an Aspie to the actual diagnosis. Mahalo to Karma Per Diem aka White River Bluff, who shares her amazing photography, knitting talents and stories about overcoming workplace bullying and breast cancer.
I am putting my last, top five commenter in a separate paragraph because he is probably the one who actually has the least amount of time to comment, and I owe his entire family more than I can ever adequately express. Mahalo to Phil Dzialo from Healing, Empowering, and Thriving, a retired high school principal and father, sharing his young, adult son, Adam’s 
story on his long road to recovery from a near drowning. He also shares my book and my blog on his site, and as a retired principal, he offers wonderful insights of how to change our school culture to overcome bullying.
Phil’s equally wonderful wife, Sharon is a former teacher and school counselor and author of a book detailing Adam’s story. She also offers her supportive insights and her positive energy through e-mails and comments too. They both literally have their hands full caring for Adam, yet they never have let me down. I haven’t actually gotten to know their daughter, Aimee except through their stories, but I admire her too. God knows I love this family as much as I love Adam’s smiling face.
Last, but far from least, mahalo to Bobbi Sheahan, who brought the largest numbers to my blog with her two wonderful guest posts, Your Child Has Autism and I Don’t Know What to Say: Seven Ways to Go the Extra Mile to Keep Your Friendship Thriving and The Friends of Special-Needs Parents Respond and They Have a Lot to Say.
Least you missed it there are many others who helped me through 2011 including others who guest posted and who were featured on my blog. I wrote about many of them in November and December. I may still be a misfit and a small voice, but I now know at least some of you are listening because having enough views to fill the Sydney Opera House five times is no small feat.
May 2012 be a year of blessings for all of you!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Overcoming bullying is a process and for kids with long memories, who experience longterm bullying, the process is far from simple. I advise you to seek medical help to overcome more severe bullying or for any bullying that causes personality changes, such as profound anger or sadness. Make sure the school protects your child from further bullying too.
Today, I am happy to have Signe Whitson back for a second guest post with more information to help parents.
According to the American Justice Department, one out of every four children is bullied. Studies show that those statistics leap for homosexual youth, who are bullied at an alarming four times the rate of heterosexual youth. What’s more, 85% of children with disabilities are regular victims of social exclusion and verbal and physical abuse by their peers. It doesn’t take a statistician or a news reporter to make clear that bullying is an epidemic among today’s children and youth.
What is it that affords resilience to some young people while others are driven to self-destruction? It is an important question for parents to ask, since understanding the answer provides clues on how to protect their own children from the life-threatening impact of bullying.
How to Help the Bullied Child
Resilience literature talks about the importance of things like intelligence and creativity in strengthening a child, and champions the role of at least one consistent, loving caregiver in each child’s life. These factors cannot be understated. Another protective factor seems to be instilling a positive future orientation in each child.
What is a positive future orientation? When a child is in the heat of the moment—facing intensely cruel physical and/or mental cruelty at the hands of his peers that makes school attendance unfathomable and daily life unbearable—is that child able to see beyond their current situation and believe that things will get better? The ability to “take a long view” is difficult for young people who, by their very nature, live in the here and now. Teaching kids to think about how things will be in the future is a critical factor in helping them move past the torturous moments of the present.
Instilling a “this too shall pass” mindset is critical in strengthening our kids to endure and persevere through difficult times. Make it a habit to help your kids think about their future. Ask them questions like:
The precise questions are not as important as the fact that you are helping your kids develop a view of their future and to stay focused on how life can be, as opposed to the realities of how it might feel in the present.
Protecting children from bullying is a complicated, multi-layered task. Parents must fortify their children with coping skills and internal strengths to stand up to the bullying their will see, hear, observe, and receive. Knowing how to take the long view and live with the faith that things can be better is a critical factor in helping kids withstand the here-and-now realities of their world.
For more information on teaching your child skills for coping with bullying behavior, check out Signe’s latest book, Friendship & Other Weapons: Group Activities to Help Young Girls Aged 5-11 to Cope with Bullying. Please visit www.signewhitson.com for information on her workshops and trainings for parents, professionals, and kids. “Like” Signe on Facebook, or Follow her on Twitter @SigneWhitson.
Delightfully Different Life 