It is through story that we all can learn. Both in the sharing and in the listening. This blog is a diary of both my journey as a dyslexic woman, wife, mother, and author, as well as, my family’s journey.

 

I stumbled into the world of writing quite by accident. Growing up I always found writing difficult, frustrating, and sometimes quite excruciating. I was bumbling along in college and one day decided to transfer to The Academy of Art University, where I was promptly informed I had to take another English course, on top of the two I’d already had. This one was on narrative storytelling. The art of using dialogue to show, not tell. 

 

This wasn’t your run of the mill essay writing course. I struggled to transition out of the world of English 101, I was so happy when I passed—that I've never forgotten what I learned. 

 

I had no real desire to become a writer, but I did have a desire to record my journey in life. As I began my path into motherhood I wanted to photograph and never forget what was said, done, or experienced. I grew life inside myself, gave birth, and was actively teaching that life to thrive. It was miraculous in nature, awe-inspiring and I never wanted to forget a thing!

 

My facebook page began to tell the story of us, Josh, Jen, Landon, Lyla and sometimes our dogs Charlie, Maddie, and our newest edition, Togo. My stories began to get a bit longer. A bit more intentional. And after I “outed” my family on the D word, my husband, along with a litany of friends, used peer pressure to encourage me to take our stories into the world of blogging. 

 

While I had lots of anecdotal stories of motherhood. The one’s that had the most resonance were the ones in which I let people catch a glimpse of the way I parent. One eye on the now, one eye on the future and very specifically how I parent my kids to overcome the obstacles of being dyslexic. 

 

I am not a perfect parent. No one ever in the history of mankind has ever been perfect. But I do my best. I take time to be intentional with how I teach my children and I hope that these glimpses into our struggles, our learning experiences, our decisions to lean into adversity will both inspire and challenge you, the readers. 

 

I am raising my children to be warriors this is very intentional on my part. What do I mean by warriors?

 

“There are two types of warriors those in war and those who are forward-leaning and openly willing to make it through adversity to achieve a goal.” -Thom Shea, Ret. Navy SEAL

 

Our goal is to raise children who are unafraid of failure and who never give up. To raise them to be people unshy of doing hard things. To achieve any goal they set for themselves or are given by those in authority over them despite the hardships or obstacles they encounter along the way. Dyslexia comes with its very own special set of adversities, in addition to life's, in fact, it has no shortages of hard things.

 

This decision to raise my children to lean into those adversities, those struggles, to find ways to never give up, to overcome the obstacles makes them the very definition of warrior kids. This decision is both a short term goal and a lifelong commitment. You'll see me reference the SEAL's often, not because they have any formal connection to the world of dyslexia, but because they showed up in our lives when we needed warriors to teach us to overcome and walk a warrior's path, to be unbreakable.

 

Not only are we teaching our children we are also holding ourselves accountable to walking it out in our adult lives too. You’ll see my story mostly in “Adulting.”

 

“Kidding Around” are my children’s stories of both struggles and accomplishments. 

 

“Soap Boxing” is when I get the urge to teach ya’ll something about my world. In the future, I will be adding a resources page, a coming soon page, and an author page as I have several book projects in the works. 

 

As I mentioned earlier, I stumbled into the world of writing. A friend followed my stories on facebook, decided she liked my style and asked me to collaborate on a book project. It sounded fun, but I replied, “I’m not a professional writer.” 

 

My friend begged to differ, “Maybe you’re not professional yet, but you are most certainly a writer.” I said yes, and promptly discovered exactly just how difficult writing can be. My friend Erica is to blame and I will be forever thankful to her! 

 

Passions usually come from learning to do hard things and discovering you really like it. Welcome to my corner of the world, there will be typos, grammatical errors, and a few stumbles along the way—I'm dyslexic, get over it. 

 

Love,

Jen