A Day in The Life of a Disabled Mom

a beautiful day

2012-01-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

We are lucky our winter so far has not been bad. The sun is out today. Yesterday it almost got up to 50 outside. I think it is the calm before the storm. I'm loving it. Christian just left with my friend and her son. She is babysitting while Daniel and I go find a sweater vest for his solo coming up. I really do not like shopping with him. Wish us luck.

off to a rough start

2012-01-05T05:48:00.000-08:00

I thought we were doing pretty good getting back into routine around here. It took me three times to get Daniel up. Christian was up and ready. Daniel takes Christian on his way to school. I am restricted to daylight driving. They went to leave and he realized his windows were iced over. Long story made short I ended up having to take Christian. I just waited till it was light enough. We made it with 5 minutes to spare. I did get in trouble from Daniel because I did not wake him up soon enough and didn't let him know about his windows. I always get the blame. I worry about him when he goes off to college. Mom will not be there to wake him up or o tell him he needs to go defrost his car early enough. I came home showered and am off to the grocery store. My home away from home. Luckily I got Christian to school on time or I would of had to take him in through the office in my pajamas.

Back To Routine

2012-01-04T18:04:00.000-08:00

I thought the kids would not want to get up this morning for school. They surprised me! They got right up. No complaints. After they were off to school, I went to my doctors appointment. It seems I spent much of the morning there waiting. I have been going through this hassle with medicaid. Hopefully after today it will all be taken care of. My doctor declared me still disabled. I thought so, I've only been disabled for 36 years.

Christian had religion tonight. Daniel and I went to pick him up. I took him to Dairy Queen. Daniel usually is gone a lot at show choir practice. It was nice to spend some time alone with him. Wednesday nights are my favorite tv nights. I like to watch The Middle and Modern Family. I love the Middle because the kids in it are the same age as my sons. I can really relate to it. well, I am off to read my book before I get to tired. I am on this James Patterson kick. I just finished 10th Anniversary, now I'm reading I, Alex Cross.

Last Day Of Vacation

2012-01-03T08:09:00.000-08:00

Christian and I just got back from breakfast. There is a restraunt right by our apartment. Christian loves going out to breakfast. I enjoy taking him out. It is the only time he eats good. My scrambled eggs and toast are never right. H e will eat scrambled eggs at my mom's house. Oh well! The kids go back to school tomorrow. I will miss them, Maybe? I think we are all ready to get back into our usual routine around here. I better close for now and get back to my laundry!

Snow

2012-01-02T18:42:00.000-08:00

I had Daniel take me to the store this afternoon. It was pretty slick out. We went to Walmart. I think the whole town was there. It was very crowded. I almost went down in the parking lot on a bit of ice. Tomorrow is the boys last day of break. Wednesday it is back to the morning routine.

2012-01-02T07:38:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is the second day of 2012. I have decided to start blogging again. I need something to do with my spare time. The kids go back to school Wednesday. I will miss having them home. Getting back into routine again will be hard for us. A lot of stuff has gone on in my life since I last blogged about a decade ago. My kids and I have moved to Huntertown, Indiana. A very small town! We are living in a new apartment complex that was just built. It is nice but has been quite an adjustment for all of us. We lived in a house for seven years. Daniel is a junior at Carroll high school. He is very active in the show choir. He has been inn three plays. The Beauty and the Beast, he played the Beast. AIDA where he played Zoser the high preiest, and Check Please about blind dates. Christian is in third grade at St. Vincent De Paul School. He switched schools. It has been an adjustment for him but he is really happy there. Christian will be making his first Communion in May this year. He is very proud of that. Myself, just trying to keep busy and get through the winter weather. Winter and I are enemies. It is hard for me to drive and just get around. My cane is of no use on the snow and ice.

blogging again

2011-01-17T10:36:00.000-08:00

Thought I would start blogging again. It has only been about a year or so. Not much new going on in our lives. My oldest son Daniel is now 16. Christian is about to turn eight next month. Christian is home today from school, he is sick. Will blog more later, have to take him to the doctor.

What to do?

2008-12-30T09:58:00.000-08:00

As you can see from my post lastnight I was pretty tired and pushed the wrong button before I typed anything. It is 1:00 in the afternoon and I'm tired of being in the house. I met a friend for coffee this morning which was nice. I just want to get out and do something with the kids. Problem is most things to do cost money. My kids have such a big age gap between them that it is hard to do something that they both will like. Christian is happy just going to McDonalds and playing in the play area. Daniel wants to be going somewhere where I am purchasing a video game. Christian is happy to go to the library while Daniel thinks that's boring. He rather play video games all day. I am so ready for school to start up.

Well you all have a great day!.

Its getting late

2008-12-29T19:28:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over

2008-12-29T14:05:00.000-08:00

I have not blogged for so long that I forgot my own password. I hope everyone had a great christmas. I'm sure you all heard about my sister. I just think what he did is horible. He sounds a lot like my ex. Despite everything she is doing very well. Marla is a very strong person and will persevere through all this. My kids have ben home now since the 19th of December. I love them and all but i am ready for them to go back to schol. I need my normal day to day routine back. Christian's new word now is bored. Everything he does he says he is bored. We get up at 6:30 in the morning and he is bored. I tell him we just got uo. When people get up they usualy do not start doing things right away. I do not think he realy understands the word. He gets it from his older brother whom is constantly bored.

I do not know why I have not blogged in a while. I wil have to start doing it again. I just tend to get busy with the kids during the day and at night i am usualy to tired.

School with Christian

2008-11-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

Today I went and helped out in Christians kindegarten class. They have centers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. His teacher loves the extra help. The more I go ,the more I get to know the kids. They are really a sweet bunch of kids. My center today was weighing objects. They had some objects to weigh. They really got into it. Some new the answer before they even weighed the object.

Every 25 minutes the groups rotated. Some were quiet some loud. One group really got into it and were chanting , "apple", "apple" just a bit to loudly. Needless to say that the teacher told us to be quiet. There were no questions today about my disability. I think the kids are starting to know me better.

The hard part was when It came time for me to leave. Christian started crying. I hope that after I left he was okay.

Halloween

2008-10-31T20:05:00.000-07:00

Today was a beautiful day for the kids to trick or treat. It was in the 60's here. Christian had a party at school today. They got to wear their costumes and have a little parade. He and Maizie went trick or treating together tonight. They both got a lot of goodies. Christian is not into sweets. Most of his candy will go to me. I do not mind that at all, especially the chocolate!.

This morning i took Christian to Dunkin Donuts. He absolutely loves going there. He wanted two cake doughnuts with chocolate frosting. I did not think he could eat both of them but he did. He is a good breakfast eater. There is a restaurant nearby that he loves to go to and have eggs. He will eat and eat there. Once the owner came by and asked him what his favorite thing was on his plate, he said the toast. I do not know what it is about the toast but he will eat his and mine. I try and tell him that i can make toast at home just the same but mine never seems to compare.

band ext ravaganza

2008-10-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

It seems I have not posted anything for a while. I had my kids conferences and then they were home on fall break. It seemed they were home forever. They were even saying they were ready to go back to school.

My son had his band extravaganza last night. All the grades from both schools meet. They each play a song and last is the marching band from the high school. He has been playing the trombone since fifth grade. He is pretty good at it. He informed me that next year in high school he is joining the jazz and marching band both. I was extremely happy to hear that.

paren/teacher conferences

2008-10-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today was my parent/teacher conference at Christians school. He got all E's and +'s on his report card. He got a check mark because he was having trouble distinguishing a square from a rectangle.
He is really starting to pick up on recognizing words. Everywhere we go he is pointing words out to me. I talked with his teacher about volunteering in the classroom. I am going to help out a few times a week. It should be fun. Tomorrow is Daniel's conferences. He is in eighth grade so I will be doing some walking. His classes are pretty close together. When I was in middle school I had to cover two whole floors . They always let me leave five minutes before class got out so I would not get ran over in the hallway. I am looking forward to meeting his teachers. He is taking Spanish this year and just loves his teacher. A good teacher always makes a class more enjoyable.

St. Lukes Hospital

2008-10-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

My sister found this picture of me and put it up. I am lying on the mat in the therapy room at St. Lukes Hospital in Cedar Rapids , Iowa. I spent a lot of time there. I was about seven in this picture. I was in the hospital for many months. After a while the nurses , doctors, and therapists became like family in a sense. In this picture I was hamming it up. Trying to avoid my therapy session i'm thinking. The expression on my face is like, "I don't think so", "I'm not doing that again". I never really liked my therapy sessions. After I started back to school they even had a bus come and get me to take me to therapy. I could not get away from it. I think I even pretended to be sick once.

Even though I never much cared for my therapy It helped me to get to where I am today. I do not go to therapy anymore. I belong to the YMCA and go to walk the track. That is my therapy. I try to walk a mile. I will go and start walking and others who start at the same time as I do are finished before me. They will say things to me like, "You go girl" or "your doing great hon". I enjoy the words of encouragement. Some people come and just take off running. I always want to stop them and ask them to carry me along with them. I started out to where It took me 2 hours. I am now down to 45 minutes. It is very calming and stress relieving to walk the track.

Alone at last

2008-10-17T14:47:00.000-07:00

As much as I love my children, I also love my quiet time alone. My dad picked Christian up a bit ago. He is spending the night there. Daniel is out and about outside with his friends. It is almost to quiet. I think I might order myself a pizza and get an on demand movie. Daniel will probably end up staying at his friend's house. I at times find myself missing my kids when they are gone. I spend so much time missing them that by the time I figure out what to do with my time they are back home.

I had an incident last night where one of my sons friends just kind of said he was moving ou of his house and wanted to move in to mine. Before I really had a chance to respond he was bringing over his clothes and computer. He is a wonderful kid but I just can not take on another child. I am not the most assertive person and had no idea what to do or say. I told him he could spend the night and cool off from whatever transpired at home but he would have to go back home or find somewhere else. That was a hard one for me. I did not get much sleep lastnight because I was trying to think of the right thing to say.

I am off to read the newspaper and enjoy my quiet time.

Just another day.

2008-10-16T19:49:00.001-07:00

Today was a great day . I went to get gas after I dropped Christian off at school. I love the current price of gas. I then went to Goodwill to look around. Sometimes you hit the jackpot there, other times you are not so lucky. My sister came over and made filets on the grill. It was reallly good. Maizie and Christian hav such fun together. Well, good night for now. I am half asleep as I'm typing this.

A bit more about myself

2008-10-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

In my first post I introduced myself as short and simple as I could. Being that It was my first post I did not want to bore anyone. I thought that in this post I would tell you a bit more about myself. I walk with a cane and wear a brace on my left leg. I am blind in my right eye and deaf in my right ear. I have been this way since I was six years old. I basically grew up this way. To me my disability is nothing. I have encountered people who will say,"oh you poor thing" as I walk by but I just kind of shrug it off and wonder what their problem is. I never really know how to respond to that. Sometimes I will just say thank you and smile. I don't think they are being mean or anything. When I was younger something like that would have me in tears for days.

I have always been a spiritual person. I think that is what has helped me to get to where I am today. Not only that but my determination and the love and support of two wonderful parents. Yes, I may seem a bit odd or different to someone who just sees me for the first time but I really am just like anyone else. That is something I have always taught my kids. That no matter what color a person is, in a wheelchair, uses a cane or whatever their differences may be we are all the same .

very therapeutic

2008-10-14T18:59:00.000-07:00

This is my sixth post since I started my blog. I have to say I find it very therapeutic. After I get the kids to bed it is nice just to sit down and pluck away at the keyboard. I have always admired both my sister blogs. They are both two very talented and wonderful people. Marla is still teaching me things. I need to learn how to post pictures.

Today was one of those lazy days for me. I did not do a whole lot. Christian and I went to the store before I took him to school. He was hesitant at first. He told me going to the store is boring. I said I know but if you want to have some food we need to go. He was up and ready to go in a flash. daniel had his band concert last night. The band played three songs. They were great. He plays the trombone. He sang in the choir to. Christian even enjoyed it.

I'm bored

2008-10-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

I sound like my fourteen year old. He is always bored. I finished my laundry and straightened up the house so I thought I would write some more. Yesterday I went to see the movie Walle about the robot. It was very cute. It was also nice to have a little time away from the kids. I love them very much but lately I find myself longing to get away from the stress. My oldest son Daniel is now a teenager and we most often do not see eye to eye on things. He tends to think he can live by his own rules. I just get so burnt out from dealing with him.

I love to read a good book. It is my escape. I love to read non fiction. I am always looking for a good book to read. If you know of any let me know. I tend to get latched onto one particular author but after a while I get tired of that person. The latest book I have read is called The Betrayal by Ann B. Gabhart. That was really good,I read that in a week. It was about the shakers.

My other favorite escape is shopping. Even if I can not buy anything it is relaxing just to walk around looking at things.

2008-10-13T08:47:00.000-07:00

Thank you to every one who has read my blog and commented on it. This is still new to me. I am looking forward to visiting your blogs as well.

I just got done dropping Christian off at school. He is in Kindergarten now. I am still not quite sure what to do with myself while he is gone. I am so used to having him home. The other day I went on a field trip with him and his class to the apple orchard. I always try to prepare myself because little kids are curious and have tons of questions about my disability. The first question was, "did you break your arm?". We had four kids in our group. On the bus ride there the little boy i was sitting next to told me i had yucky teeth and did i ever go to the dentist. It is funny what little kids say. The field trip was a lot of fun. I guess I better go for now and get some laundry done or something. Not that I really want to.

Another day gone by

2008-10-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

Today was a beautiful day out. I took my son to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I thought it was really cute. My son thought it was sad and was crying on the way out. He did not understand that it was a happy ending and all of the dogs got homes. He tends to get very emotional at some movies. For Christmas I got him the movie Snoopy Come Home. He is a snoopy fan. We watched it together and I've never seen him cry harder. I almost started crying myself. He cried when snoopy left charlie brown to find his previous owner.

Here it is almost eleven at night. I can't believe how fast the days go by lately. It seems Friday comes and then before I know it Monday is here and we are back to our weekly routine.

a bit about me

2008-10-11T04:51:00.000-07:00

I am a disabled mother of two lovely boys. I am starting this blog with the hope that I will meet others like me. At the age of six I had a stroke due to a brain stem hemorrhage. It left me paralyzed on the right side of my face and the left side of my body. I have had to overcome many obstacles to get to where I am today. The most rewarding of them all is being able to be a mother. It is frustrating and challenging but I would not change a thing.