A Review of the Caregiver's Notebook

A couple of months ago, I was given an opportunity to review a promotional copy of Jolene Philo's new book, The Caregiver's Notebook. I jumped at the chance to get my hands on this book. I found Jolene's previous books, Different Dream Parenting and Different Dream for My Child, when Matthew was still a little guy and we were first entering "Special Needs World." These books were a lifesaver to me in the dark lonely days at the beginning of our journey. I had no doubt this new book was going to be just as enlightening and useful to our family.

I was definitely not disappointed. This book is such a blessing and I wish I had this when Matthew was smaller and first having all of the tests. As a mother of a child with health issues and the daughter of disabled father, Jolene thought of EVERYTHING parents like us need to have in a caregiver notebook. 

I love the arrangement of this book, from suggestions how to use the book down to a Bible reading plan and prayer guides to help heal our spirits and battle our feelings of helplessness as caregivers who might not see results of all that we do for our loved one.

Cosmetically, The Caregiver's Notebook is beautifully produced in warm soothing colors, it is solidly designed and will fit into a purse or diaper bag with no problems. There are enough pages in the calendar section to last three years, so you won't have to re-copy information every year on a new calendar.

All in all, I cannot recommend The Caregiver's Notebook enough. It isn't only for parents of chronically ill children, it would be immensely beneficial to adults who are now caring for their aging parents and other relatives.

The Caregiver's Notebooks is available through 

•       Amazon •       Barnes & Noble •       Christian Book Distributors

Jolene Philo is daughter of a disabled father, and she parented a child with special needs. She’s a former educator with 25 years of public school experience. Her books related to special needs include the Different Dream series and The Caregiver’s Notebook. Her blog,www.DifferentDream.com, offers practical resources and spiritual encouragement for caregivers. She also a guest blogger for Not Alone at www.specialneedsparenting.net and Friendship Circle of Michigan at www.friendshipcircle.org. Jolene speaks frequently at special needs and foster care conferences around the country and conducts special needs ministry training workshops for churches. She and and her husband Hiram live in Boone. They are parents of two married children and grandparents to one adorable toddler, with two more babies on the way. You can connect with Jolene on Facebook (@A Different Dream for My Child), (Twitter( @jolenephilo), 

Pinterest (JolenePhilo), LinkedIn ( Jolene Philo), and at her websites,www.DifferentDream.com and www.JolenePhilo.com.

Disclosure Notice: I received a promotional copy of The Caregiver's Notebook from the  publisher, all  thoughts and opinions are my own.

Seven Saturday Snippets: January 5, 2013

This is my first ever post to the Seven Snippets link up which is hosted by Bringing the Sunshine. If you have not had the pleasure of visiting this great site and meeting Andi and her gorgeous family, you are in for a treat. Not only is she a great writer, but she is also an amazing photographer. Please stop by and show her some love!

~1~

While visiting Bringing the Sunshine yesterday and reading Andi's Seven Snippets, I saw that she posted a link to site to generate the name of your patron saint for the year. I am a converted Catholic and I love learning about the lives and history of the saints and as much as I can about my faith, so I thought, what the heck, let's see who my patron saint for this year will be...St. Dymphna, the patron saint of neurological disorders among other causes. Very appropriate given Matthew's epilepsy diagnosis...hopefully this means good things coming our way, not more challenges.

~2~



As mentioned in my last post, one of my resolutions for 2013 is to write on her more regularly and hopefully gain some new followers. The best way I think that I can do this is to set up a schedule of posts and when they will be up. Here's what I'm thinking right now:

Monday- Writing Prompt via Ellen Stumbo
Tuesday- *still undecided and open to suggestions*
Wednesday-Wordless Wednesday
Thursday-Thankful Thursday
Friday-Friday Faves
Saturday-Seven Saturday Snippets

I'm not posting on Sundays, because that's family time :)

~3~

Mommies of Miracles is starting a new virtual book club starting January 14th called "You Have Time to Read???"  I am big fan of Mommies of Miracles and all the work they do to provide a sense of virtual community to parents who are trying to navigate their way through the world of special needs and caring for medically complex kids. I am super excited about this new project they are starting and have already signed up to participate. I'm a big book junkie and that fact added with one of my favorite special needs resources is just a big bucket of win.

The first book up will be A Different Dream for my Child by Jolene Philo. A writer and speaker about special needs parenting, Jolene has a wonderful website, www.DifferentDream.com, where she helps connect special needs parents with resources they are searching for. She is one of the kindest people that I have encountered in this whole blogging and writing journey and I have her words of encouragement taped to my laptop so that they are there when I start doubting what I am doing in this journey. Her other book, Different Dream Parenting was a life raft for me when Matthew was first starting to get sick and we were learning more and more diagnoses and I'm happy to say that I passed it along to another mom who was just starting to venture into Special Needs World. I can't wait to read this book. 

The inaugural "You Have Time to Read???" book discussion group will be broken over a 12 week course complete with study questions . More information is available at  www.mommiesofmiracles.com/resources/book-study/

~4~

In an effort to step out and find some time to develop some new interests, I signed up for a Sewing Basics 101 class at our local fabric shop. I LOVED it! I can't wait to sign up for the next in the series where you learn to sew garments with elastic. I'm sure Matthew can't wait to be my model.

  

~5~

Tomorrow the hubby and I are hoping to have a movie date so that we can finally see The Hobbit. I say hope because we have been trying to go out alone together for months, but something (or a little someone) always changes our plans. If we can pull this feat off, it will be our first time out alone since The Hunger Games came out in March of last year.

~6~



I am thrilled that today I made my fundraising goal for the Special Olympics! This is my first year participating and I was able to raise $320. Aquatica will be chilling down their wave pool so that 104 other teams and myself will take an icy dip to earn all of the money we've been collecting. This event has already earned over $69,000 for Special Olympics Florida.

~7~

It's getting to be close to time to start planning a certain little boy's third birthday party. This year's theme will be Superheroes! Dad is super excited because I've finally picked a theme that is in his wheelhouse of experience. Guess I'll be haunting Pinterest from now until March trying to find all of the fun stuff that a party needs.

I hope that you all have a great weekend and stop by to visit next week!!