First Post

Now that I finally picked a name, I have no idea what to write.

I find it obnoxious to read a person's blog and have them not properly introduce themselves in the first post, so here goes:

I am 29 years old, a married mother of two boys, ages 4 and 2 1/2.  The oldest was diagnosed with Autism almost a month ago.  I have lived in Canada my whole life.  I was raised Catholic, and consider myself Catholic, though some of my beliefs differ from most other Catholics.

I plan on writing whatever comes to mind, so I will doubtlessly write about all of the above things and more.  I will very likely get up on a soapbox from time to time, though hopefully not so often as to get boring.  I write my thoughts, so please don't take my own life situation and how I choose to handle it as advice.  I imagine I will write about Autism often, because my life often is dictated by my son's condition.  I am by no means an expert on the subject, and may try some unorthodox things to help him cope.

I love my husband and my sons very much, and I am very close to my family.  I love to read, play video games, and watch my Toronto Maple Leafs play hockey.  (And by "play hockey", I mean mostly lose.  <sigh>)  I am overweight and have recently started excercising in the hopes of getting back to a healthy weight and feeling more energised and better about myself.  We'll see how that goes.

I called the blog "Finding My Voice" because of a number of things.  I used to be painfully shy.  It took until I was 18 years old for me to hold a comfortable conversation with a stranger.  I can be very outspoken now, but I still feel very awkward in new situations, and am very unsure of myself socially.  Last year I was asked to write and give a talk at a religious retreat, and rediscovered my love of writing.  So that's why I started a blog.  I feel that I need to write.  I have something to say.  Not necessarily something that desperately needs to be heard, mind you.

I chose nanspeaks as the address for my blog because Nan is a nickname those very close to me use, and I've felt for a number of years that "Nan" is the name of my true self.  So this is Nan writing this blog.  My true self is finding her voice.  I am interested to see what I may have to say.

So for now at least, this is my online diary, to help get my thoughts out, and see where my writing takes me.  Thank you for taking the time to read my random blathering.  We'll see if I can get more entertaining as I go.

With Love,
         -Nan