The short List of what’s SO MUCH BETTER about life for the past month:
My stairs: I can EASILY walk up them
My hair: I can lift my arms to comb it, even keep them up to *tada* braid it!
My daughters hair: My arms and hands are strong enough to do it again.
My couch: I can get off of it without a 30-90 minute mental pep talk/threats.
My sheets: I can pull them over myself at night.
My toilet: Aaah the relief. Okay, couldn’t resist that, sorry! But seriously, if you’ve never looked at those toilet extension things that make a toilet higher and coveted it... you are normal... I cannot say the same for myself.
My medicine bottles: Now visited only once a day!
My keys: I can turn them one handed.
My clothes: I can handle them myself. If you really want to know what an overachiever I have become, I even get dressed standing up! Try not to be jealous of my skills.
My sleeping kids: I can carry them most of the time. Even on stairs, mostly.
My dreams: They are no longer about being helpless to save my kids in an emergency.
My basement: What do you know, it does still exist after all. Convenient since my washer and dryer live there.
Tornado season: Okay, tornado season is not cured, but we are better prepared since I can access the basement again, and I even put together a tornado watch kit in foot lockers which I carried downstairs myself!
My deodorant: I can now reach my full arm pit. Those of you close to me should be happy it was winter, and that I couldn’t exercise or even move enough to work up the slightest sweat.
Things on the floor: I can step OVER them, instead of hazardously shuffling through them, sometimes unsuccessfully. Not that there’s much of anything on the floor these days- did I tell you my mom is staying for the summer?
Shoes: I tie them.
Typing: 10 fingers again!
My shampoo bottle: I can squeeze it with my hands instead of my teeth.
Jars: I don’t have to ask my preschooler to open them.
The top shelf: Accessible again! Without even propping one arm up with the other.
My arms, elbows, hands: I suspect I could use them again to help me stand up, that is, IF I needed them, which I don’t, by the way. Although, I’m not likely to test that theory in the bathtub any time soon. It only takes once being stuck in the slippery buff to no longer think of a bath as soothing.
Seat belts and car seats: No longer a feat of frustration and sheer willpower.
Disciplining children: Much more consistent. When all you have is your voice to manage the small to large issues, they figure out pretty quickly you can’t actually enforce many consequences. (ie, Can I have this junk food? No? It doesn’t matter since I can finish it before mom can get to me to put it out of reach.)
Nurturing Children: Snuggles, holding them, energy to do fun stuff again, even singing them to sleep again since I'm not physically demolished and mentally/emotionally at the last frayed strings on the end of my rope by bedtime.
Morning: It is not only a part of my day again, but its pretty much the same as the rest of my day- normal!
Jason: Well, he hasn’t changed per say, but he does get a little awesomer every day, so I deem that of note. He’s had to be both parents the first 1-4 hours of every morning for months and months, without ever treating me like anything had changed, or like I was sickly.
My stairs: I can EASILY walk up them
My hair: I can lift my arms to comb it, even keep them up to *tada* braid it!
My daughters hair: My arms and hands are strong enough to do it again.
My couch: I can get off of it without a 30-90 minute mental pep talk/threats.
My sheets: I can pull them over myself at night.
My toilet: Aaah the relief. Okay, couldn’t resist that, sorry! But seriously, if you’ve never looked at those toilet extension things that make a toilet higher and coveted it... you are normal... I cannot say the same for myself.
My medicine bottles: Now visited only once a day!
My keys: I can turn them one handed.
My clothes: I can handle them myself. If you really want to know what an overachiever I have become, I even get dressed standing up! Try not to be jealous of my skills.
My sleeping kids: I can carry them most of the time. Even on stairs, mostly.
My dreams: They are no longer about being helpless to save my kids in an emergency.
My basement: What do you know, it does still exist after all. Convenient since my washer and dryer live there.
Tornado season: Okay, tornado season is not cured, but we are better prepared since I can access the basement again, and I even put together a tornado watch kit in foot lockers which I carried downstairs myself!
My deodorant: I can now reach my full arm pit. Those of you close to me should be happy it was winter, and that I couldn’t exercise or even move enough to work up the slightest sweat.
Things on the floor: I can step OVER them, instead of hazardously shuffling through them, sometimes unsuccessfully. Not that there’s much of anything on the floor these days- did I tell you my mom is staying for the summer?
Shoes: I tie them.
Typing: 10 fingers again!
My shampoo bottle: I can squeeze it with my hands instead of my teeth.
Jars: I don’t have to ask my preschooler to open them.
The top shelf: Accessible again! Without even propping one arm up with the other.
My arms, elbows, hands: I suspect I could use them again to help me stand up, that is, IF I needed them, which I don’t, by the way. Although, I’m not likely to test that theory in the bathtub any time soon. It only takes once being stuck in the slippery buff to no longer think of a bath as soothing.
Seat belts and car seats: No longer a feat of frustration and sheer willpower.
Disciplining children: Much more consistent. When all you have is your voice to manage the small to large issues, they figure out pretty quickly you can’t actually enforce many consequences. (ie, Can I have this junk food? No? It doesn’t matter since I can finish it before mom can get to me to put it out of reach.)
Nurturing Children: Snuggles, holding them, energy to do fun stuff again, even singing them to sleep again since I'm not physically demolished and mentally/emotionally at the last frayed strings on the end of my rope by bedtime.
Morning: It is not only a part of my day again, but its pretty much the same as the rest of my day- normal!
Jason: Well, he hasn’t changed per say, but he does get a little awesomer every day, so I deem that of note. He’s had to be both parents the first 1-4 hours of every morning for months and months, without ever treating me like anything had changed, or like I was sickly.
I'm sure I will think of more things to add, but this is what popped to the top of my head as I wrote in my journal tonight.
