The WheelchairMommy

Have you read my FAQs lately?!

May 22, 2013 By Priscilla Leave a Comment

I don’t really have a rant today, especially with everything going on in Oklahoma. I have everything to be grateful for and more.

So, instead of following Jenni’s suggestion and rant about something, I’m going to share a funny and direct you to my FAQs.

A dear friend of mine brought it to my attention that my blog was flagged as an “adult site”. One of HER friends saw me in her FB feed and thought he’d check me out. Check my blog out. NOT me. Sheesh.

Anyways, whatever content filtering his office is using flagged me as something I’m not. I found this quite troublesome.

I’m a mom. I have 3 kids. I don’t talk about sex and I don’t talk about …. oh, crap. I DO talk about the S word in my FAQs

.I thought that might be the culprit so I started rattling them off to my husband and turned beet red at what I had written. I COMPLETELY forgot I added that racy stuff to my answers.

I read 50 Shades a bit ago (don’t judge) and I let it influence my answers just a tad. I wanted to be funny and a smart @$$. Ooops.

My darling husband is going to see what he can do to have me taken off that “list”. After all, it is JUST on my FAQs PAGE and it does warn you that it’s an UNCENSORED look at my paralysis.

Have you read my FAQs??

Filed Under: Must Read, Wheelchair Life

End of year teacher gift

May 21, 2013 By Priscilla 1 Comment

I always struggle with what to give my kid’s teachers. That’s the real reason why I chose to homeschool – KIDDING.

In all seriousness I have no idea WHAT to give them. They can only get so many coffee mugs and I’m sure they LOVE starbucks and target gift cards BUT after doing that many times over I decided I wanted to give Lucas’ teacher something sentimental but useful at the same time.

We are going to give her a book she can add to her classroom bookshelf and a gift card SHE can use.I want to add a PERSONAL touch so I’m going to tape this into the book.

I loved the All About My Mommy sheet I got for Mother’s Day so I searched for one for the teacher. There are a FEW out there but I didn’t love them so I whipped up my own version.

Ours version already has a picture on it but you should be able to easily print a picture to fit the square if you do a little cropping before you print it.

Please feel free to click on the image to remove my website name so you can print it for yourself. Make sure you save it to your desktop before you print it or it won’t print the proper size. It should also be in landscape mode, or uncheck scale to fit media!

It printed nicely on half of an 8.5X11 sheet.

I’ll laminate it before I put it in the book.

Now I hope his teacher doesn’t see this before I give it to her on Thursday.

Oh, and on Friday I plan to text her and give her a bottle of wine.

She deserves it.

Filed Under: Extracurricular Tagged With: teacher gift

list of fave posts

May 21, 2013 By Priscilla Leave a Comment

I’m supposed to share with you a list of my favorite posts, but I’m busy coloring my hair so I’m going to take the lazy shortcut and direct you to My Story and my Must Read category. Wheelchair Life will probably get you some interesting stuff too.

I honestly SUCK at always categorizing so I don’t know how much will be there and my about me page/my story hasn’t been updated in about a year. . .

Why don’t you tell ME what your favorite post is and I can make a list of reader favorites?! Hmmm… That sounds like a GREAT idea.

Filed Under: Must Read, networking/reviews

Struggle – Blog challenge

May 20, 2013 By Priscilla 8 Comments

I thought about not participating in the prompt today. My blog is usually a happy place unless someone dies and I try not to write about the negative in my life if I don’t have to.

This is my happy place to look back on our children’s childhood that is all too quickly flying by.

BUT – a challenge is a challenge and I don’t have anything else to write about, it’s fitting to my “now”, and being more real is never a bad thing.

My husband is a better parent than I am.

That’s the way I feel, at least.

I don’t have the energy I feel I need, and it seems I never get enough sleep, even when I do.

I’m sure my husband gets tired too, but he manages to keep going.

My body just won’t let me. It just stops and I can’t force it to keep going.

I wasn’t always like this. I used to be able to go-go-go.

I don’t know if I reached my limit or if something more serious happened last year, after my surgery and infection.

I get grouchy easily, too and it sets the mood for the entire day.

There are no specific triggers and it can last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks.

My husband during all of this? He’s doing everything he can to keep his cool and not join me in my grouch-fest.

He takes over at bedtime on the nights that I just CAN’T.

I struggle with having the perfect house. When things are dirty or messy I can’t focus and it seems like a constant circle.

I’m okay with tidy but I can NOT do chaos.

Filed Under: Family

5 fave blogs and why

May 19, 2013 By Priscilla 2 Comments

Picking and choosing is always difficult for me. I’d love to just give you links to each and every person I follow, because I ~~stalk~~ follow them for good reason. However, Jenni asked that I share FIVE with you, so I will stick to 5. She’s the boss.

I’m going to try and make this somewhat fair and not pick my local blog friends. I have more than 5, so I would never be able to narrow it down and we’d be back at square one.

I will share with you 5 people that I adore and would love to meet someday (or would have loved), but we live in different states and you know how that goes.

Sam is a homeschooling Mommy to 6. I “met” her close to 3 years ago. I honestly can’t even remember when or how. She’s been a huge mentor as I’ve entered the realm of homeschooling and she’s made our transition much easier. I think following her and other veteran moms, I was able to go into our first year more relaxed and trusted that everything would be okay. The day would be better if we just let everything fall into place on it’s own instead of forcing it.

I totally feel like a crazy stalker to include Bridget, BUT I’ve been wrapped up in her blog from the day I found it. I guess “found” is a little bit of a stretch. Jenni shared her as a blogger she adores last week. I can clearly see why. She’s beautiful and has an amazing story that you will just find your self lost in. You MUST read how she met her husband (he was her college professor once upon a time, shhhhhhh) and the why and how she took on the role of Mommy to four kids much earlier than she probably ever planned for. She’s definitely one of my favorites and I just barely “met” her.

I think I met Jessica at the beginning of my twitter life, or maybe we met through SITS or Scary Mommy. We rarely remember how other bloggers came into our lives we just know that certain ones are there to stay, no matter what. I don’t want to give too much away about her story. You will just have to read for yourself, but she’s a very strong woman with a heart of gold. We need more Jessica’s in the world.

I doubt I need to bother with including Tanis, because everyone knows who she is, but I consider her a total blog star, so I’m including her anyways. I was totally giddy when she actually COMMENTED on my blog the other day and later told me she reads my blog ALL. THE. TIME. Color me silly but she’s always been one of my favorites, so that just totally rocked my bloggy world. We would totally be best friends if she weren’t all the way in the frigid North, eh! Pssst, don’t tell her I said that.

My last choice isn’t updated much anymore. Avery died, but her parents are still fighting for and working as hard as they can to get the word out about SMA. Prior to seeing a link to her blog last year, I’d never heard of it. It’s a horrible genetic disease and just writing about it now makes me want to go in and wake my babies up and kiss them a hundred times and just rejoice that I’m so beyond grateful that my 3 kids are healthy and we will never have to know the heartache Avery’s parents do. That’s exactly why I have to share it with you. So many parents can’t say they have what I do. Some only wish they had dirty footprints all over the place and jelly smears on their windows. After learning about SMA from Avery’s blog, I learned that a man I knew when I was a teen lost a little boy with the same disease. I followed their story on facebook. That time it was more personal. If nothing else, learn what SMA is and spread that word. That’s all Avery’s parents are asking. On a night you need a good cry take a look through the blog. It will make you giggle a little, too. They created a bucket list of things Avery wanted to do before she died. It’s very sweet.

Filed Under: Must Read, networking/reviews

A story from my childhood

May 18, 2013 By Priscilla 3 Comments

This one is tough to write.

I was 5.

We all remember little snippets from we were that age.

I assume that most of them are happy and fun.

Most of mine are, except the one that isn’t.

The one I’ve chosen to share.

My sister Lisa died in 1986, shortly after she got married.

She was 18.

Mom, 2 of my other sisters and 5 year old me with Lisa just a month before she died. I *think* this was the last time I saw her alive.

It was just a few months before I turned 6.

I clearly remember walking into the funeral home.

We went through a door to the left side of the back wall.

It led us down a hallway.

There was a door to the left.

We went in.

Her casket was on the left back wall.

She was wearing purple.

It was her favorite dress.

I still love to wear purple. It makes me feel happy.

I remember screaming in prayer many nights for God to bring her back and take me or bring her back and I’d never disobey.

Anything.

Just bring her back.

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: blogeverydayinmay

fav photo of me

May 17, 2013 By Priscilla 14 Comments

I was having dinner the other night and I told my husband that Friday’s post needed to be a favorite picture of me.

It was totally a statement and not even remotely a question but it really was.

I had NO CLUE what I was going to use.

He looked at me and grinned and asked if I was going to use one of my FREE FALL pictures.

How did **I** not think of that!?

I’m writing this a bit early because when I’d normally be prepping this post to you I will be OUT – with a new friend.

Funny story about how we met: It’s December and Lucas is at rehearsal for a school play. It’s only going to be an hour, it’s not on an actual school day, parents are NOT allowed to watch, so I’m stuck waiting around the courtyard. I made Will bring his schoolbooks and we get to work, for a bit. Nathan is doing his thing and we don;t get much done and then I notice this other mom with a kid that looks about Nathan’s age. I go up and introduce myself and we chat. We find out our bigger boys are NOT in the same class but we want to exchange numbers anyways. I give her my card. She looks at it and then tells me she’s been reading my blog for a couple of years now and thought I looked familiar but she didn’t want to say anything, then she saw wheelchair mommy on the card!

ANYways … ready for my favorite picture of me?! My husband has this very same picture hanging in his office. No, it’s not weird that he has a picture of his wife with another man hanging on his wall.

Thank you Austin for being a FABULOUS photographer and Phil for being an AMAZING tandem master. This is my first tandem – October 20, 2012 (yes, I said first…I’ve been back for more!)

Filed Under: networking/reviews, Wheelchair Life

Do you let hardships overcome you?!

May 16, 2013 By Priscilla 16 Comments

“Write about something difficult about your “lot in life” and how your working to overcome it.”

Ironically, I’m not sure I have anything to complain about.

Yes, I’m paralyzed and it sucks sometimes, but there’s nothing to “overcome”.

It happened. There may be a cure someday. I may be able to walk again. I might not.

I have a wonderful marriage and 3 healthy kids.

I know people who are struggling or ending their marriages, so I can’t complain about the socks I find in the couch.

I have siblings that have far more heartache and pain, for me to whine about not having the use of my legs would just seems silly.

Surely, you remember me writing about Dylan?

My Mom and Dad raised their kids in poverty and I have things they only dreamed of having.

I have friends that would love nothing more than to have some of the things I take for granted.

I won’t say it’s easy and that I’m okay with my paralysis. I’m not. I accept it and I don’t let it rule me but I’ve overcome it. I don’t let it overcome me

Filed Under: Family, Wheelchair Life

a day in my life

May 15, 2013 By Priscilla 2 Comments

A day in my life, huh? Well, NO TWO are ever alike. They all differ greatly but here goes.

First and foremost: coffee. Or else. Thank you DARLING for bringing it to me in bed most mornings. You are a keeper.

After coffee, making the bed and getting dressed we dropped Lucas off at school, picked up the mail and came home. Will did his chores and we made it through our school day. It went relatively well. Nathan napped for most of it, which is a rarity. As you can see most of our school curriculum is on the ipad. Thank you technology.

Fortunately most of it is in actual book format and we don’t USUALLY need the internet because this happened and it wasn’t until AFTER lunch that DH was able to help me trouble shoot it. IT’s like I’m missing a limb when the internet is out. I need an intervention.

We even managed to eat lunch and relax before Nathan woke up. I read a magazine and fiddled online while Will played minecraft. I also managed to secure a playdate with my darling friends and fellow homeschool Mommy, Whitney. I have not seen her in AGES and I can’t wait to hug her and her sweet boys and catch up on all that we’ve missed.

Nathan woke up just as we had to leave so I grabbed some cheese and a squishy food and we headed out to pick Lucas up from school. Will wanted to talk about what was going on in Minecraft so I let him sit up front. He’s 8 now and can legally sit without a booster. I know I shouldn’t really let him, but he LOVES it.

We came home and everyone grabbed a snack, or 3? and watched a little TV while I put laundry away and got the chicken out of the freezer so it could defrost for dinner.

I really wanted to check out our local farmer’s market so I hauled the kids back into the van and we enjoyed peeking at all the fresh produce. I didn’t really need anything right now but I can’t say no to bread and cheese so this loaf came home with us. The boys kind of enjoyed pineapple aqua fresca and Nathan got his first skinned knee. I think it was his first?!

Oh. These 3 pictures of a red car? That’s on my dashboard and I’ve been too lazy to move it so I had Will document it so I could complain about it and admit that I had the energy to take pictures but not to actually move it.

We played outside for a bit and caught up with a neighbor friend we haven’t seen in a few months and then Daddy FINALLY came home.

I made chicken tacos and Daddy made a mexican martini.

Do you know the secret to shredding your chicken in under a minute?!

Toss it in your mixer!! LOVE LOVE LOVE.

The kids begged for dessert and we caved in and let them have a few vanilla wafers and Will had a piece of chocolate. They begged to go outside and play but after last nights adventure that kept them out until 9 am I said ABSOLUTELY not. Lucas was crying that he didn’t want a story but then again that he did so while Daddy ran around getting everyone water, I nursed Nathan and read a story to Lucas. Our poor boy is having STILL having nosebleeds and always tired. He wakes up tired and always says he doesn’t want to go anywhere because he’ll be tired.

Filed Under: Family, Must Read Tagged With: blogeverydayinmay

10 things that make me really happy

May 14, 2013 By Priscilla 5 Comments

10things

My kids. They are my world. They drive me nuts and make me happier than anything else in this universe, all at the same time.
My husband. He is the most amazing man a woman could possibly ask for. He does everything he can to please me and rarely demands what he wants. He spoils me.
My extended family. They mean so much to me and I only wish we lived closer. Two hours is far enough that you can’t just hop in the car and GO and come back easily.
Skydiving. It really is the most fun you will EVER have with your clothes on. You should try it. Phil won’t disappoint.
Writing. I may not be the best at it and I may not always hold your attention but it’s about me and my life anyways and I love it.
Coffee in the morning. Wine (or tequila) in the evening. Need I say more!?
Good Food. I love to try new recipes and cook, when the littles man lets me. When he doesn’t? Take me out somewhere FABULOUS!
Sleeping in! My amazing husband let’s me do it as often as he is able and I can’t begin to repay him or thank him enough.
My friends. I adore my old friends, even the ones I haven’t seen in years and I cherish the new friends. Every single person has helped make me who I am today.
Reading. I can’t get enough. I love books. I love blogs. YOUR blogs. It’s a fantastic escape and I could never give it up.