Welcome, Pediatric Stroke Basics, and Returned Kites

My mother has been sending people over to my blog (thanks Mom!) in the middle of finals week when I have nothing posted (eh, thanks Mom?).

So a brief overview to those of you new here:  Sparkling Squirrel Year (now in it's 11th year!?) was started as a way to record my progress on my annual theme (in 2007 it was rodents, in 2003 it had been sparkling wine) and write about books and food, all of which I still do (this year is YEAR OF PIE, as is rather obvious when you scroll down a bit).

At some point I started posting photos of my kids (Dianthus and Aster are not their real names, nor is my husband's actual moniker "The Mister") and then myself, and it's become a more free-form way to apologize to friends and relatives for not keeping in better touch.

I typically post purple flower photos with streak for stroke posts

Except during May.  May is Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month and somebody at the Children's Hemiplegia and Stroke Association (CHASA, at chasa.org) years ago decided to start having a "Streak for Stroke" that involved doing something repeatedly (e.g. in the sense of winning streak). I decided to start blogging up a streak for stroke (inexplicable purple flower photos and all) every May.

During the month I will direct readers to information about pediatric stroke and write about my experiences as the mother of a pediatric stroke survivor.  [Aster (now 5) had a stroke (or similar "insult to the brain") in utero and has hemiplegic cerebral palsy as a result.]  I'll also continue to write about pie, books, and the world around me.

You can click on the Labels "Streak for Stroke XXXX" or "SFS about stroke" to find stroke information I've posted during past streaks.

And welcome.

For those of you keeping track of other things, the whole flock of Mississippi Kites soared into town at about 8:03 a.m. today, Wednesday May 3.  The Mister had seen an early wanderer, but not a whole group, and I had seen none this year.  According to my data, this is the latest we've seen (2012-2016 has been April 25 to April 30), but then there was a rather impressive storm keeping anything from flying over the weekend.  It has happened before, but it was rather amazing to catch the moment they arrived.