It's been a tough year thus far. I don't think there's been another year that became an adjective, a negative one at that. "Ack, it's so 2020!" Even more depressing are the headlines about how the Pandemic is negatively affecting those with special needs. Evidently, we are not "all in this together" as we were told back in March of 2020. If your family is faced with disability challenges, then I suppose you realized that pretty quickly. This past year I started a habit of telling myself "I'll process that later” and just simply continued moving ahead. I tried not to think or feel things too deeply. Ahhhh, coping mechanisms. Last month my daughter texted me some thoughts and validated that my spring had been stinky. She also suggested I try to find someone who could unpack that with me. And, while I MAY "process that later", it already brought me comfort. Somehow the simple acknowledgement that MY spring (during these times when we were apparently “all in this together”) WAS rough made my endurance feel validated. Most likely yours was pretty lousy, Continue Reading
Archives for August 2020
How to print a pictorial grocery list in minutes…it’s a game changer for our daughters.
The girls always enjoy having a purposeful trip to the store. Coincidentally, I always have trips to the store...not necessarily enjoyable. Over the past decades we learned to head inside with a deep breath and a prayer. I know that the girls will want to assist with the task. They will want to find certain items to add to the cart. Subsequently, I can guarantee they'll go rogue when it comes to the list. Next they'll get distracted in the aisles and take out a few people with their wheelchairs when they lose focus. As a result, I have ten extra gray hairs when we leave. But we do it anyway. Life skills. Entertainment. The Pandemic of 2020 changed how we do our grocery shopping. For a few months I was the only one, the designated shopper, who went into grocery store. Thankfully, the girls understood the fears and stopped asking to join. By early summer I realized that my attitude towards getting groceries had changed and I dreaded the whole ordeal. Although a little late to the game, I finally tried ordering groceries online for curbside pickup. I love Continue Reading
Getting the wheelchairs to mountain tops (in the Lehigh Valley PA Appalachian region)
High atop Hawk Mountain You know by now the girls are driven to be out and going. And conversely, they are NOT pleased to be home and sitting still. This Pandemic is just a magnifier of that struggle. We continue to look for out of doors areas to visit. I don't know all the latest "facts and figures" but it SEEMS safest to be outside. But that is not always the easiest way to go with power, or even manual, wheelchairs. The two recent flash floods didn't add to our convenience, either. So when the girls wanted a field trip to send a caregiver off to college with style, I found something new to do about an hour drive from us. As is currently normal, you need to grab your masks for public areas. Map to Cabelas in Hamburg PA If you are from the North East you are probably already familiar with Cabelas sporting store in Hamburg Pa. Some people enjoy the store as a field trip destination in itself. They have different backgrounds in the store of large and small game that have been preserved among a faux backdrop of the great outdoors. As one of the largest Continue Reading
