Recently I was able to visit my sister for a few days by myself. The very first evening in town something felt off. I realized what it was as I headed through town walking the sidewalks back to the car after our dinner out. I found myself frequently turning around to check on the caravan that I usually travel with. Only they weren't with me. Strange feeling!! It made me realize how I had grown accustomed to travelling as a group for almost two decades. For many years, when we went anywhere, we arrived as our own parade. Often six of us in a line, two driving power chairs. Not just any two, though. A matched set. A pair. Identical twins. Either one of those situations causes people to take another look and so the combination adds up to an extra looong look to process. It can be interesting how people process our family. I understand it. I don't generally take notice anymore as it is just a part of our comings and goings. But that time it was hard to overlook. As we headed into the grocery store to hit up their hot and cold buffet for lunch we passed another group chatting on Continue Reading
More than you can handle
Some days are just too much. This is what I found myself thinking today. It was a day of tending to a sick daughter without the help of a husband because he was also sick. It meant absolutely nothing was getting checked off my to-do list. But the worst, to me, was that I was finding rest by napping in spurts at various locations of the house. Getting woken up with complaints of discomfort each time I started to drift into deeper sleep was painful. I had cancelled and rescheduled appointments that were going to be missed, which felt like two steps forward, one step back. I still needed to take the healthy daughter to her physical therapy appointment after school. Then, after helping her to change from her work clothes, attend a fundraiser together. I started to feel cranky and irritated. It brought back a vivid memory... A decade ago I had another moment where things were most certainly too much. One day, as I hurriedly attempted to make it to one daughter's tennis match, I discovered that the van lift had stopped working. Now please understand, just a few hours earlier I Continue Reading
