As we enjoy the last day of 2013, I can’t help but reflect on how amazing this year has been. It certainly had been a year of adjustments, growth, discovery and challenges. I found myself a bit lost over the holidays having broken from our normal routine. It was good to let go of the daily hectic agenda, and maybe reset my clock so that I can start the new year’s daily routine with less hype. I had been asked on several occasions if I had drank too much coffee as I just had so much to get done, I couldn’t help but be over-wired.

Looking to the New Year, I’m hoping we will get a final decision from the DDD on how they’re going to support David’s self-directed program. I’ve been managing on my own till now (with the support of our awesome crew), but I’d like to get a few things in order and put a few people on the payroll.

Plans for the new year include:

• Continuing to publish David’s comic strip online as well as the new comic strip for the newsletter he’ll be working for.
• Further developing content for the PuppyDucks website
• Extending our reach to spread the word about the PuppyDucks , using SEO as well as joining groups and reaching out to people directly. I still prefer the later, as I also like to read and see what others are doing and how maybe our ideas can help them as well.
• Developing and writing the new books for Dave to work on. The books need to be written for any illustrator to then develop the artwork, so this is a big ticket item on our agenda.
• Final stage of publishing the books and getting them on bookshelves, as well as a few other items to help bring PD to the next phase.

There are a few other things that we have lined up, but too soon to talk about. I guarantee they’re very exciting! For now, we’ll leave the list as is.

There’s a lot of work ahead, and through all that I still have plans on how I can offer a variety of things for Dave to do. Once the weather starts to warm up, we’ll also have the benefit of outdoor activities, like riding his new bicycle that he got for Christmas, continuing to work on his frisbee skills, and working on his getting a few baskets in at the local township basketball court. Until then it looks like Candy Crush, reading books, puzzles and a few other games will have to suffice for free time activities. I’m sure Dave will be happy about that as he prefers to stay inside.

To everyone who showed such incredible support and participated in helping us reach our Facebook goal, I offer my sincerest appreciation. Thank you so very much for the supportive e-mails, for continuing to come back to the website, as well as forwarding and telling your friends and family about our efforts here.

Our sincerest best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year! ~ The PuppyDucks Mom