<p>My daughter is a beautiful ballet dancer. I mean that in the fullest possible sense — she moves through a studio with genuine refinement, with intention, with the kind of body control and grace that years of serious training quietly builds into a person. She is aware of every line, every angle, every position of her limbs in space. She is, by any measure, extraordinarily coordinated.</p> <p>She also walked into a glass door last Tuesday. Full face. Didn't see it coming. A

<p>Let me paint you a picture of a Tuesday afternoon in our house. It could start anywhere — did someone leave the milk on the counter again, who turned off the turntable mid-song, is the music too loud, was the volume already too loud before that — and within approximately ninety seconds, we have a fully escalated, absolutely heated, completely absurd situation on our hands. We are not arguing about anything that matters. We are arguing about milk. We are arguing about it wi

Going Granola Without Going Nuts · Neurodiversity · Sensory · 7 min read When someone first said the words "retained primitive reflexes" to me, my brain immediately went to tiny little monkeys doing some kind of ancient ancestral survival dance. Which is not exactly what it means. But honestly? Not entirely wrong in spirit either. Once I understood that primitive reflexes are movements literally built into every human baby for survival, and that most of us graduate out of the

When you first start hearing terms like 504 and IEP , it can feel like a whole new language—one no one handed you a dictionary for. I remember thinking, Aren’t these basically the same thing? (Spoiler: they’re not.) I’m not an educator or a lawyer—just a mom sharing what we’ve learned along the way. But understanding the difference between a 504 plan and an IEP was a turning point for us. So, let’s break it down in plain English. What is a 504 Plan? A 504 plan is designed

Going Granola Without Going Nuts · Neurodiversity · Sensory · 6 min read You buy the cute new sweatshirt. It is soft on the outside. It seems perfect. You are feeling like a pretty great parent. And then your child puts it on and announces that it is scratchy on the inside and they absolutely cannot wear it. Or the sock. The seam. That specific seam at the toe that is, apparently, completely intolerable and makes the entire morning fall apart. Or the zipper on the sweater tha

I’m going to be honest. I thought I had a pretty decent handle on ADHD. Not expert level, but enough to feel like, okay, I get what we’re dealing with here. I had the general picture in my head of what ADHD “looked like.” And then I read something that made me stop and go… wait, what? There are not just one or two ways ADHD shows up. There are seven types. Seven! And suddenly I realized I might not have understood this as well as I thought I did. First, What Happened to ADD?

Going Granola Without Going Nuts · Neurodiversity · Sensory · 5 min read Stimming. No, it has nothing to do with gardening. Nothing to do with stem cells. Not a new workout trend. Not something that happens in a laboratory. Stimming is short for self-stimulatory behavior. And once I understood what it actually was, I realized I had been watching it happen in front of me for years without having a name for it. This is one of those pieces of the neurodiversity puzzle that does

Going Granola Without Going Nuts · Neurodiversity · Occupational Therapy · 7 min read I want to start with a confession. When someone first mentioned the words "retained primitive reflexes" to me, my brain immediately conjured an image of tiny little monkeys running around doing some kind of ancient ancestral dance. Like some prehistoric survival routine from a nature documentary. Which is not exactly what it means. But also, not entirely wrong in spirit. Once I understood th

Going Granola Without Going Nuts · Neurodiversity · 8 min read I have been a parent for fourteen years. And for the first seven of them, I thought I had a pretty good handle on it. I had a whole child who was thriving. I had figured some things out. I had a system. Rules worked. Routines worked. Clear expectations, consistent follow-through, and we were mostly cooking. Was I a parenting expert? Absolutely not. But I felt like I was getting my footing. And then we got our firs

Going Granola Without Going Nuts · Neurodiversity · 6 min read It was a beautiful sunny day. Mimi was on her way. We were heading to a baseball game and from where I was standing, everything looked great. And then, in what felt like about sixty seconds, my son was in the middle of a full meltdown. The culprit? A missing baseball belt. Now, as an adult, I want to tell you that I handled this with grace and wisdom immediately. I did not. My first instinct was somewhere between

Going Granola Without Going Nuts · Neurodiversity · Family Life · 6 min read If you have more than one kid and at least one of them has ADHD, you already know the scene I am about to describe. Everyone is fine. The house is calm. Maybe too calm. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, someone pokes someone else. Says something provocative. Starts something. The temperature rises. Someone retaliates. And within about ninety seconds you have gone from a quiet afternoon to a full p

Going Granola Without Going Nuts · Neurodiversity · 8 min read Let me paint you a picture of me a few years ago. Crunchy mom. Supplement binder on the counter. Essential oils in every room. Sourdough on the counter. Opinions about everything. Very strong feelings about what we would and absolutely would not do in this family. I would never put my kid on medication. Never. Not an option. We were going to handle this the right way, the natural way, the intentional way. I had i

I used to resist routines. They felt rigid. Restrictive. Like the opposite of the life I wanted to create. I mean… I’ve always considered myself a free, go-with-the-flow, adventure-loving Sagittarius. I happily credit all my fun traits to that… and, if I’m being honest, a few of the not-so-great ones too. Too honest? Maybe. Commitment-phobic? Yep. But let’s not dwell 😅 Routine was never really my thing. But with neurodiverse kids…routine isn’t limiting. It’s regulating. And

Going Granola Without Going Nuts · Neurodiversity · 5 min read If our house feels off, I check one thing first. Not behavior. Not consequences. Not whether anyone is trying hard enough. And honestly, this post is as much a reminder to myself as it is to anyone else. Because I know better. I really do. And yet there I am, staying up too late trying to squeeze in me-time or knock one more thing off my list, only to feel it the next day. We are all works in progress over here. W

There are a lot of things I try to do well as a parent. Healthy food. Lots of time outside. Less screens (no screens during the week unless its key for schoolwork). Allll the things. But if I’m being honest? There are really two BIG things that keep our house from completely unraveling: Sleep + Routine That’s it. It really is that simple. Not perfection. Not doing everything “right.” Just protecting those two things as much as we can. And when I think of it as "protection",

Going Granola Without Going Nuts · Neurodiversity · Family Wellness · 6 min read Let me set the scene for you. It is 4:30PM. Everyone is home from school. Someone is already crying about a snack. Someone else is doing that thing where they are technically in the room but completely unavailable to reason with. The dog is losing his mind. And I am standing in the kitchen wondering why the afternoon feels like a grenade that went off the moment we walked in the door. Sound famil

Before I dive in, I want to say something clearly: The intention of this space — of Going Granola Without Going Nuts — is to share real stories from our family. What works. What doesn’t. The weird things we experience. The things that make us laugh. The things that stretch us. I want to normalize life with neurodiversity. I want to talk about the awkward moments, the overstimulation, and the “why is this about socks?” conversations — so we all feel a little less alone. But th

If you are trying to “be the calm” while your ADHD teen is passionately explaining why putting their shoes on is an assault on their independence… welcome. You are among friends. This is your official reminder that you can be a grounded, crunchy-ish, nervous-system-aware parent without becoming a barefoot monk living on deep breaths and chia seeds. This is Going Granola Without Going Nuts , after all. And nowhere is that balance tested more than when: Your teen is overstimul

When we first entered the world of 504 plans, I’ll be honest—I was overwhelmed. There were lists, examples, and well-meaning suggestions flying at us from every direction. What I really wanted to know was simple: What actually helps a child learn and feel confident? I’m not an educator or a medical professional—just a mom sharing what worked for our child. Every kid is different, but these accommodations made a real, noticeable difference for us. Preferential seating (close t

Going Granola Without Going Nuts · Neurodiversity · Educational Advocacy · 6 min read Let me be upfront about something before I get into this. I share a lot on this site. What has worked for our family, what I have learned, what I wish I had known sooner. But I want to be clear about one specific thing: I am not a psychologist, a diagnostician, or an educational specialist. I am a mom who did a lot of research and eventually knew enough to know we needed professional help. T