Welcome to Everything and Nothing from Essex. My name is Deanna.

There's really nothing terribly interesting about me other than the fact that I like to write about the ordinary days in a grace-filled, often humorous way that makes them seem anything but ordinary as I look back on the string of days behind me.

But that might have something to do with the passel of children I'm raising.

I blog about parenting (often special needs parenting), faith, and everything and nothing in-between.

This blog started as a way to sort through not only becoming a first time mom at 25, but becoming a first time mom to a baby with Down syndrome. (spoiler alert: I am no longer 25...well, except when I'm "rounding down" from somewhere in the early 30s-cough-)

I'm a music teacher, and s ometimes I pretend to be a writer  (see: My Book tab). Sometimes I lazily let the words fall where they want to just for the sake of recording the experience.

I struggle between raising my Special Needs Mom flag high and contentedly living the life of just a super normal (slightly boring) mom.

Half the time I am convinced I am completely screwing my kids up. The other half I contentedly rest on who they were meant to be in spite of my mistakes as a mom.

I prefer to laugh rather than cry.

And I drink way too much coffee.