MSfit Momma

Things I Find Helpful {MS Perks/Spoonie Swag Edition}

Hello MSFit’s and Spoonies! Today, I am going to share with you some programs that you might be eligible for because you are disabled. I am uncomfortable with the word “disabled” being attached to my persona because I am so much more than the fact that I have to live with Multiple Sclerosis.

I hate when people praise me for doing something that if I didn’t have MS, you wouldn’t be clapping for me doing. “OMG, she washed dishes! Look at her go take a walk around the block!” Actually, you would never catch me doing this in real life, even if I wasn’t rawkin the walker.

So since, I have this ball and chain to drag around with me, one day about 8 years ago (I’ve been diagnosed for roughly eight and a half years) I went looking for prizes! Some of these may be state specific but maybe, they will give you starting points of where to look to see if you can qualify for these perks and discounts too. Most of these discounts are not advertised. You can just call your cable provider and ask if they have a discount for if you have a disability. When I called our cell phone provider, they did have a discount for disability but they had a better discount, because my Hubs is a veteran so we went with that discount.

DISCLAIMER: I make no promises that these are still active by the time you read this post but I did verify all of these still being active as of February 2021 before I posted this. As with everything Covid related processing times may take longer to process, I’d assume. Also I am not very computer savvy so I didn’t include links because I don’t know how but I have given enough information on all of these that if you Google, you should be able to find them.

Utilities: If you live in California, you may qualify for a Medical Baseline discount with your energy providers if you have a family member living full time at your residence if you use certain medical equipment, are temperature sensitive, have a life threating illness or have a compromised immune system. Southern California Edison and SoCalGas will give you more kilowatt hours at a lower price. You will need a doctor to certify your medical condition. Eligibility is based on medical condition not income. You will need to recertify every two years or so. You should check with your local utilities to see if they have any similar programs.

Amazon Prime: If you have a Government Assistance card like, SNAP, WIC, TANF or Medicaid you can get a 50% off discount on your Amazon Prime membership. It comes out to $5.99/month. You get 2 day shipping on purchases. You can stream Amazon Prime shows. One benefit I really love is that they give you unlimited free photo storage. I don’t know if you’re like me but I take so many pictures on my phone and run out of storage pretty quickly. Since I signed up for the unlimited photo storage, they save them to the Amazon Photo app and I can erase them from my phone to free up space. When I need them, I can just open the app and pull them off to share or print.

California National Parks Pass: For persons with permanent disabilities you can purchase a 5 year pass for $3.50. You need to requalify and pay the fee again every 5 years. This pass entitles the bearer to a 50% discount for vehicle day use, family camping, and boat use fees at California State Park operated units. They also have other discount programs that are based on eligibility. It’s definitely worth a look if you camp or fish.

Image: 2 National Park passes on a wooden background

America the Beautiful National Parks Access Pass: Similar to the California parks pass, you can apply for a National Park Access Pass for free to visit national parks. If you process your application online, there is a $10 fee. You can purchase the free pass in person at some national park locations. To qualify you must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident with permanent disabilities. Applicants must provide documentation of permanent disability and residency or citizenship. This pass covers entrance fees or a personal vehicle fee areas (or up to four adults at sites that charge per person). Children age 15 or under are admitted free.

This pass is good at over 2,000 recreational parks. We have used it a few times in the past. A few years back we went to Yosemite. We spent 7 hours driving around the park. It was so beautiful. We have also used the pass in San Diego. When life goes back to normal we are planning to go to Zion Park in Utah because we only live about 6 hours away from there.

MSAA Cooling Program: I am very heat intolerant living with MS. I know for others they are cold sensitive. The MSAA (Multiple Sclerosis Association of America) has a cooling program where you can apply and they will send you a cooling vest. It is a vest you can wear over your clothes. You put ice packs in the pockets and it will help cool your core down. It’s not the sexiest vest BUT it does work at cooling you down. You will need to qualify based on income and with a doctors note.

Image: Sarah holds an ice pack to the nap of her neck to cool off

Medical Copay Assistance: Living with Multiple Sclerosis can be very expensive. Most of the major Multiple Sclerosis DMDs (Disease Modifying Drugs) have programs that can help you with your insurance copays to help cover the cost of them. You will need to check with your medicine manufacture to see how you might qualify. I am currently on Kesimpta and they automatically enrolled me in their program for the discount.

Standing in Lines: I know this sounds silly…If you go to a theme park, you can ask where you can go pick up a Disabled Access pass. After obtaining the pass, you (or your companion) go up to the person standing at the front of the line entrance and they will give you a specific time to come back to get on the ride. It does not get you on the ride right away. If the wait is 45 minutes they normally tell you to come back in 45 minutes but then you can go sit in the shade until it’s your ride time. There is no way I can roll all over an amusement park and stand in lines. My leg would be toast immediately.

Traveling as a Disabled Person: If you are medically disabled, you can get early access to airplanes (and I have been told cruise ships) so you’re not trying to get to your seat in a single file line of rushed people in an 18″ wide aisle. When you book your travel tickets, let them know in the special need section that you need disabled access. The gate agent will usually call your name about 5 to 10 minutes before loading the plane or the cruise ship. Also, anytime we travel by plane, I call the customer service number and have them assign us 2 or 4 seats together. If my Hubs and I are traveling alone he is my caretaker. He hands off my walker to the loading person and deals with the luggage. We have 2 kids (one with a disability) so if the 4 of us are traveling together, they group our seats together so we are sitting next to our children. In my experience, if I ask them to waive the assigned seating fee, they always have. I almost always have had to ask for the fee to be waived but I just mention that because it is an American with Disability issue, it’s covered under the ADA act to not pay more for reasonable accommodations.

Image: A walker with a foot in a leopard print shoe on a wooden floor

Princess (or Prince) Parking Pass: If the Department of Motor Vehicles says you qualify for needing a Handicapped placard, people, you park in that designated spot! Remember two things: 1) Not all disabilities are visible and 2) THE DMV DOESN’T JUST GIVE ANYONE THE HANDICAPPED PASS. I hate to say you earned it but by not using it, you are only making it harder on yourself. By having the placard, you get perks too: you don’t have to pay at street parking meters. You can use the green loading zone as a parking spot if you can’t find an available handicapped spot.

Do you have any Perks, Swag or Discounts you can share?

Things I Find Helpful {Saving the Green Edition}

Disclaimer: I am not a financial guru. These are all just fun suggestions. Some, you could even find on Pinterest. That should exhibit how NOT A FINANCIAL person I am if I find fun tips on Pinterest.

So are you a SPENDER or a SAVER? It has been said that opposites attract and generally speaking, a spender gets with a saver and vice versa!

I am not a natural saver. (So you can guess which one I am in my relationship…)

I have to make it interesting and fun to save. As stated earlier, Pinterest has so many fun saving challenges all you need to do is punch in, “Save Money” in the search bar. One that I have liked doing for the last few years is the “Penny a Day for a Year” challenge. You are supposed to put one penny in a jar on Jan. 1st, two pennies on Jan. 2nd, three pennies on Jan. 3rd, etc. By the time, you get to December 31st on the last day when you put in the three dollars and sixty-five cents you should have saved $667.95!

Image of a handwritten note on lined paper. A pennies per day adds up over a year.

I am not a cash spender so it was hard the first year I attempted this to find pennies every day so instead I took a half hour, figured out how much pennies that equaled monthly, set up auto deposit and save money without even thinking about it! There is also a similar one that is a dollar per week for a month. I figured this one out as well but I haven’t set it up yet. If you do this one, you should have $1326 added up over the year. Here it is below if you wanna try it:

Image: Monthly Savings Plan of $1 per week

I also use apps that give me cash back when I shop online (and in store when we’re not living through a pandemic…) like Rakuten or Ibotta. It’s not a ton of money but it does add over time. In normal times, if I am going inside store to shop, I mainly use Ibotta for my grocery store shopping. For online shopping I use Rakuten. During Christmas shopping time, I would head there first to see if there were any discount codes in addition to any cash back rewards. I even use Rakuten for my Target drive up orders. Just be warned every time you go to the website/app, it gives you a specific shopping code for that “shopping trip” so if you close the window or app, you loose that specific code and your cash back doesn’t get counted. I just start a list so when I am ready, I can open the app, get my shopping code, add my purchases and get my cash back. (If you are interested in using either of these apps you can use my referral code so we both get a bonus! Ibotta:55onra Rakuten: SARAYR46

I just started listing our items we aren’t going to use anymore on Mercari. It’s a very user friendly selling app. You can list the price, when someone buys it, you pack it, print a label and ship it off. Once the buyer gets it and verifies its in good shape, you get paid. So easy! I really like this because people who come to my house during yard sales always low ball me. My stuff is in good condition; I am not selling it to you for a dollar. I love that on Mercari, you can control the pricing so you both get a fair deal: you make some money, they get a bargain. Here is my referral code for Mercari: https://merc.li/MtvApXb If you follow the link from your phone it will direct you how to download the app.

One last thing that I do to make savings fun is participate in medical surveys. My favorite one to use is Rare Patient Voice. You enter your conditions and they will send you surveys. They all vary and you won’t qualify for every one but the payouts are nice when you do. You can earn $5 just for signing up with them. I don’t have a referral link but I still suggest you sign up.

What things do you do to save money? Does saving come naturally to you?

MRI’s in the time of Covid

I have practically been hiding in my house since March 12. 2020. I get mild anxiety if I have to leave the house, especially if there are a lot of other people out and about that might get close to me like at the beach or a grocery store. Saturday morning, I was sitting in the Drive Up area of the Target parking lot. I had pulled into the last opened spot. I had never seen the Drive Up area so full. The Target employees were moving pretty swiftly in and out of the store bringing out peoples orders. As we were sitting there waiting for them to bring out my order, I was watching hordes of people going in and out of the store. I didn’t see anyone not masked but just by the volume of people going in and out, I felt my chest get a little fluttery with panic. I am an extrovert. This has been one of the hardest seasons of my life to not have in person interaction going through lockdown plus bobbing and weaving to not be bit by an invisible monster.

I used to be super self-conscious when people would look at me on my walker. I would like to say in my years of living with MS, that I have gotten better about not noticing the stares. I’m not really sure if I have or haven’t but I have started wearing shirts that talk about Multiple Sclerosis so at least if they’re staring, I am spreading awareness about rawking an #InvisibleIllness.

Image: Sarah is wearing a orange shirt in her kitchen that says “Together we are Stronger. WalkMS 2020

I have had this appointment for my yearly MRI since December. Yesterday, I started to get really bad anxiety about going to the hospital. I had a really hard time falling asleep last night because I was so nervous. I had to do an anti-anxiety list to help ground myself. I knew I would be going double masked with a KN95 mask and another that is supposed to repel cooties. A friend dropped off latex gloves so I wouldn’t have to open doors without protection. In my mind, I was potently going to the monster’s lair since I would be at the hospital.

When I got to check in this morning, the room was jampacked full of people. I went to grab a number and rolled to an empty area. A customer service lady said I needed to go to the wheelchair/walker area that I hadn’t noticed. It just had looked like there were no seats over there to me which is why I had originally rolled to where I had. I get situated in my little space (and tried to remain as anxious free as possible in this fully packed intake room.) Then she asked the room if anyone had an appointment. Myself and another lady both said we did. She said come over here. I got up and started to roll to where she was. Then she told me to stay back so she could help the other lady first. No problem. I rolled back over to the walker area. I was almost there and then she called for me. I rolled back to her, got checked in and rolled to the other building to check into my MRI.

Image: Sarah is sitting in a lobby. Wearing a black sweatshirt with orange letters. She has on a floral mask and is holding up a peace sign with gloves on.

In this waiting room I was all by myself. The tech came and got me. I got situated and my MRI started. I only go yearly because 2 years ago, my MS had progressed into my spine. My neurologist feels like we already know it’s there and there is nothing to be done about it in my spine, so I only have to go for a 45 minute brain one now to see how it’s acting up in there.

I can’t even tell you what number MRI this was. I don’t mind having to do them. After awhile all those bangs, thumps, and zings become rhythmic and I can usually fall asleep during the MRI. On the other hand, my veins are not team players any more after years of blood draws and hospital stays. It’s often hard to find a good vein. If I know I am going to need to have an IV, I drink a ton of water the day before to try to plump them up. Today the tech was having a hard time finding one when it was time for the contrast. He started to say we can do a hand one and I begged him to please try again. I can handle so many things about being a person that sees a lot of doctors and hospitals but hand IV’s are my number 1 fear. To me they freaking hurt! The other tech who was watching my MRI came in and looked on my other arm too. They finally were able to do the contrast. I couldn’t see what they were doing in order to get it because I was still lying down with the headguard on. I know that my arm was bent at a weird angle with one holding it and pushing on my outer forearm while coaxing my vein and the other tech handing the other the needle and contrast stuff. My MRI was over about seven minutes later.

Image: Sarah is leaving her MRI with a black sweatshirt with orange and white letters. She has on a floral mask and her hands are gloved. There is a sign above her head giving a MRI safety notice

On the way out, I thanked them both so much for working so hard to find a vein for me. The tech said that the whole time of the MRI, I had been really still and when he said hand IV, my body visibly firmed up and they could tell, I was scared so they both really wanted to try to have me avoid the hand IV. I appreciated it and told him so. I am supposed to have my results in a few days. I meet with my neuro next Tuesday to go over the results and to come up with a game plan so I can get the vaccine.

Things I Find Helpful {Kitchen Edition}

Let me just say before we dive into this: I DO NOT LIKE TO COOK.

Bake- yes. COOK- NO!

That being said, I love to buy kitchen gadgets and items that make my life easier for the times I DO cook. I love one pot meals or freezer dump meals that you can throw into your sauce pan, crockpot or Instant Pot. Yesterday we had pork roast going in the crockpot and the house smelled so good for hours leading up to dinner.

When me and the Hubs moved it together 16ish years ago I knew how to make a darn good grilled cheese sandwich. I could also microwave like nobody’s business. In the years since, my cooking has improved greatly but it’s still not something I really enjoy doing. It’s more like, we need to eat dinner so I cook something. I’ve gotten spoiled since March that the Hubs cooks dinner 95% of the time these days. I don’t know if you are like me but the later it gets in the day, the more my fatigue sets in and the more I start questioning if we even really need to eat anything at all. Cereal counts as Breakfast for Dinner, right?

No one is paying me for these suggestions, I just find they really make cooking (I literally typed cookies first..) easier or kick meals up a notch.

My first suggestion would be to invest in an Air Fryer! I hosted a Pampered Chef party during the summer just so I could buy their Air Fryer at a discount. We literally use this every day in our house. It amps up the flavor on freezer foods. Take for example, chicken nuggets! It makes them crunchy or reheating pizza to crispiness, instead of reheating it in the microwave to semi-soggy glory. The Hubs uses it for chicken wings. The instructions say you can roast a chicken in there or even bake cupcakes. It has so many uses we haven’t even tried yet like dehydrating meat for jerky! One of my favorite things about an Air Fryer is that it doesn’t heat up my tiny kitchen in the summertime, like turning on the big oven would.

Image: Our much loved Pampered Chef Air Fryer

Next, is kind of an oldy but a goody,– a toaster oven! This also doesn’t heat up small places. It melts cheese on tuna melts to golden, bubbly goodness! Toasting up buns for pulled pork or burgers, yes please! I use my Instant Pot for many things but my number 1 favorite use is to cook large batches of chicken all at once to be the base of freezer meals. I do this so I can pull a ready to go frozen meal from out of the freezer in the morning and have something quick and ready at dinner time. We have a large freezer that we keep extra frozen items or if there is a good deal on something, we stock up, and leave it in the big freezer.

There are a lot of gadgets that can spice up cooking. A panini press jazzes up sandwiches. The Hubs loves our mandolin to slice veggies. We just got a pineapple corer last week. I don’t have the hand strength to use it but he does and OMG, it’s so easy to enjoy pineapple now! I LOVE my Kitchen Aid mixer. During the holidays, I got brave and baked a from scratch pie crust and a NY style cheesecake. We also use our mixer to make homemade bread or pizza dough for our outdoor Ooni pizza oven. We eat fresh individual fire grilled pizza at least once a week now.

I know I just rattled off a bunch of items for you to look into but you know what else I find really helpful in the kitchen? It’s my NUMBER 1 tip!!

Sitting!

I used to be really self conscious of this need but with a leg that likes to tap out, I am only hurting myself, when I make my own life harder! I sit on my walker at the sink to wash dishes or I sit while I act as Sous Chef and help prep items for the Hubs. We have a squishy memory foam foot pad to help keep my feet comfy, when I do stand. We keep items I need to reach in our bottom cabinets/shelves so I don’t have to exert much energy to get to them.

Image: Kitchen gadgets at easy to reach levels.

#MSProTip: Bean and cheese burritos are fantastic any time of day! Add a bit of oil to a pan, warm it up and throw in a can of pinto beans (drain about 1/2 – 3/4 of the juice depending how runny you want them. I like 3/4 for drier refried beans and the Hubs likes 1/2 the juice for more liquidy refried beans.) Add a few shakes of garlic salt. Smash them up. If you want to be really fancy, sprinkle dry parsley flakes on top. It ups the Wow factor!

Do you have a killer quick dinner recipe? Any gadgets you can’t live without (because I obviously have an addiction to kitchen tools.) Any tips or tricks you’ve learned to make life easier in the kitchen?

Things I Find Helpful {Household Edition}

Household Chores, blah. Dishes. Laundry. Sweeping. So many things to keep a household functioning. There are some chores that make sense for me to take care of and there are others that make sense for the Hubs to take care of. There are the tasks that are less of a bother for me to do and vice versa for him to handle. Or there are other duties we don’t mind taking care of at all and we just do them without being asked.

For example, you will never catch me mopping. It’s just not on my radar to take care of but he thinks of it and he just takes care of it. Pre-pandemic he never needed to worry if he would run out of his favorite soap and the kids didn’t need to worry if we had their favorite snacks on hand. We have been lucky to be home together during the pandemic and we have fallen into this rhythm where he cooks (which I absolutely HATE to do) and I clean it all up afterwards. Some projects we tackle together. #RomanceIsNotDead

The following products and ideas, I am not getting sponsored to share about; I just find they really help me with my household chores and I thought maybe they could help you too!

Laundry: Have you ever used Shout Color Catchers? In my house, it seems like we never have quite a full load of whites. But we do have light grey clothes and dirty towels that would make it a full load. You simply load your washer up with a batch of dirty clothes, drop a sheet in on top and start your washer! It catches all the random colored dye in the water and leaves your clothes the same color they started as. It’s life changing and energy saving!

Dust: I am sure this is not a surprising product but, hello Swifter Dusters!! I love these things! I have the hand held size handle and the extender size handle. Added Bonus: My kids love to dust now! They run around the house dusting all sorts of places. I especially love the dusters for places that I would not be able to normally reach like ceiling fan blades…which leads me to my next topic…

Image: Sarah’s laundry tools basket with laundry items

Steps: I am five two. I can not reach many cabinets and shelves in my house. The Hubs is six, one. He doesn’t even need to stretch to grab things from up in the heavens. If I want to grab the foil off from on top of the fridge, I have to open the freezer door, to get closer to where it’s comfortably resting on top of the fridge, pull it down and shut the freezer door. Same routine to put it back. So for simple things like this, I have a tiny fold up step so I can use it to get things easier. I use it almost daily to make my life easier but there are still a few places in my house that I’m still not tall enough to reach. (Plus the Hubs and kids are afraid I might fall.) For those tough to reach places, the Hubs bought me a heavy duty Gorilla Step Ladder. It’s nice and sturdy. It is a tad heavy but manageable. Now I can get down paper towels when he’s not home. I also have a handy grabber. It’s just a stick with a grabber clamp on the end so I can get bottles of stuff down or pick stuff up off the floor without having to bend down to get it.

The last suggestion I have is super simple: make a cleaning schedule. I have one sketched out for weekly, monthly, quarterly and sometime, if I am ever rage cleaning and need to release some anger, I have three projects written down that I want to complete at some point in life.

It just makes my life easier if I know I’m supposed to clean the bathroom every Tuesday. It doesn’t mean I will. It’s not set in stone, I have M.S. and am a Mom. A thousand other things could come up on Tuesday, or I could just decide to leave it for another day.

Do you use any products that make your life so much easier when it comes to cleaning up life?

Things I Find Helpful {Beauty Edition}

There have only been a handful of times that I’ve needed to wear makeup in the last year or so. I know how to do my make up so I look nice but I am no where near talented when it comes to those amazing make up looks my nieces can pull off looking like celebrities. When you add shaky hands and fatigue in the mix, makeup can be the last thing I want to do, but sometimes, it necessary.

Over the years when I am low on energy but I need to get my face done, I have come up with what I call my “5-5-5 Face.” Esentually, it breaks down like this…

5 minutes on my face, I use a foundation primer with build in highlighter. Then I apply my foundation with a beauty blender.

5 minute rest break. I sit on the floor, the side of the tub, really anywhere just to give my leg a break from all the standing.

The last 5 minutes I do my eyebrows, eye’s and lips. Since I am trying to look presentable but not exert too much energy, I use cat-eye stamps on my eyelids. I takes seconds to stamp it on and BAM! Already looking fierce! Then I use a highlighter crayon to cover my eyelids for a slight glow. I add mascara and my eyes are done!

Lastly, I use a dual cheek and lip color. I pat the color directly to my lips and cheeks and blend it in. If my hands are too shaky, all this may take slightly more than 5 minutes at a time, but you get the idea!

A picture ofSarah sharing her 5-5-5 Makeup Look

To wash my face I use a makeup remover towel. You just wet it with lukewarm water and take off your face! I also keep a pack of makeup remover sheets next to my side of the bed for those nights, I am just exhausted.

During March, when lockdown was still being strictly enforced, I decided to start using up all the little, random samples of products I had laying around my bathroom cabinets. It feels good to use them up and clear up space but by doing this, I was able to find out that foundation primer plus highlighter was even I thing!! This sample is almost out and I will be purchasing the full size Smashbox product.

Do you have any products you love? Any time saver products?

Stress Triggers and Cutting the Cheese

I hope everyone had happy holidays!! Ours was very chill and relaxing. The kids were excited at gifts they received. The Hubs and I cooked a delicious dinner of beef tips, mashed potatoes and asparagus. We watched WW84 and we’re bored.

I baked a crap-ton of cookies the days leading up to Christmas. I also made homemade cookies and cream ice cream and even baked my first ever cheesecake! It was all so yummy. We gifted some to some family and friends before Christmas. (Ring Doorbells sure make it hard to “Ding Dong Ditch!”) I enjoy baking and I am pretty decent at it. However, I know that when I am stressed out, I stress eat. This is a main reason, I have scaled back my baking (or try to give so much of it away.)

Image: Homemade Cookies and Cream ice cream served over a warm brownie

In the 3 days since Christmas, I have stress eaten so much of it. (I know that I am stressed right now by someone close to me being Covid positive and how I feel all the emotions about that.)

I know that when I am stressed, it triggers me to stress eat or stress shop.

I’ve gotten so much better about stress shopping. In 2019, I challenged myself to not buying any new clothes for a year. I had to break my challenge for two occasions when I needed outfits for two specific events and the clothes in my closet would not work. I don’t consider this failing, just more of an asterisk.

In 2020, I had to adjust to online shopping. Let me just say, I do not like shopping online. Unless it’s things I have previously bought so I know how it is, like gallon size plastic bags. In the early months of 2020, I bought so many things online that were the wrong size or the wrong type of thing and returns were hard.

As the depressing months of 2020 dragged on and I would be triggered by living through a global pandemic, I would add things to my cart, look at the total and close my browser and the urge would pass. If the urge didn’t pass, I’d put it in my online cart and wait a few days to see if I still needed/wanted it. Most the time, if I took a break, I would not feel like I HAD to buy whatever I had patiently waiting for me in my cart.

When I am triggered to shop, I now can take a step back and analyze what the deeper issue is.

I have not learned to control my stress eating, other than to just not have anything sweet in my house. I momentarily feel control and comfort when I eat these things. Then guilt kicks in. I have left myself notes, I have told myself to go do something else, just walk away, but it is so much harder to change my mindset to do with food.

Image: My first ever attempt at a cheesecake

I have been having stomach issues for the last few years. Prior to the pandemic, I was working with a nutritionist to help my stomach and to hopefully figure out what foods trigger inflammation and stress on my guts. At the beginning of December, I started to track what I ate on a food app. I stopped noting things when I realized the closer we got to Christmas the more, I should have been adding entries like, “ate 13 chocolate fudge cookies”, “had 2 bowls of ice cream”, etc. but I was embarrassed to share my truth on a private app, no one else would see.

Long story short, I have made the decision to cut dairy. I should cut carbs too. (I have an allergy to wheat and yeast but I love me some carbs.)

My game plan is to slowly cut milk products. In researching, I have found there are so many lactose free options that it seems really doable. I will eventually cut the cheese out, haha. So many people on Instagram suggested great brands to try for cheese alternatives.

As I am doing this, I am trying to be more mindful of the carbs I am also eating with the hope, I get in the habit of cutting those too. We have made the switch to organic meats and wild caught fish already. I am telling myself this is a change in lifestyle and it needs to be done with different choices. The physical pain from when I accidently poison myself with food is still seared into my brain and I try to remind myself of that when I get all boo-hoo about these changes. Sarah, it is not worth the pain.

I know myself well enough that I have to start with very small, POSITIVE, baby steps or I will just quit outright. I added the foods, I ate today to the app. That’s a small positive step!

I am uncomfortable but determined to try. Have you made a big food cut like this? Do you have any tips? I feel like there are so many different food options out there, I really have no reason to not make the switch other than myself trying to stand in my own way.

Sign Your Name On The Dotted Line

My kids started school on Friday. It’s dumb to start school on a Friday but it’s 2020 so I didn’t waste a lot of time thinking about it. Their first virtual day went really well. I was panicked last week (you may recall my complaining post about school starting) but it went really well. The district said they had worked really hard to make it so it would be like you’re kids are at school but most importantly you wouldn’t need to be right next to them like the end of last year, March to May.

I think there won’t be any issue with my daughter getting her stuff done. With my son, we might need to check on him a bit more throughout the day but he is asking for more independence, his teachers are asking parents to give the kids more freedom and so we decided we will also try to give him more time and space to be self reliant, to find solutions on his own before we race in to help him out or redirect him.

With the start of school comes the ginormous school packets of emergency cards and school agreements you have to fill out and sign. They have to be refilled out every new school year. As I was scribbling the forms out, I was reminded again of how ugly my handwriting has gotten. In high school, I used to have bubbly, flowing handwriting. My first job our of high school was at a bakery and I had to write obnoxiously, curvy letters in buttercream on cakes so my handwriting took on the same loops.

Two years ago, I lost feeling in my body from my collarbone to my toes. My hands basically quit working. I did 7 months of OT learning new ways to do things. The feeling has since returned but my hand strength had deteriorated and never came back to it’s pre-MS levels. I notice it more and more in the mundane activities of life. Taking a lid off a bottle. Filling out stacks of forms for two kids. Trying to flip the lid open on my shampoo. Fine motor skills if you will.

An assortment of pens that Sarah used to practice how to write again.

I get bored filling out the same info over and over so anytime a form asks my occupation, I put “Domestic Goddess” because its just a better title than Disabled. I always wonder if it gets caught by any data entry person as they just retype whatever I’ve written on their stupid form.

Raise Your Hand If You’re Secretly Bummed It’s Back To School

Raise your hand if you’re secretly (or, not so secretly) bummed out that your kids aren’t returning to in person school soon?

Mine start Friday. I am already dreading it. I haven’t had a break since March. I love them but Momma needs some alone time!

Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful that our district decided online was the safest option but when they’re in school, I get free time. I wander around Target with my Starbucks. I watch my shows in peace and quiet. I take long uninterrupted naps!

March to May their teachers did the best they could. They were thrown into an impossible situation. They were doing school about half day, split between workbooks and online learning. It took minimal supervision from me or the Hubs.

After talking to my son’s new teacher today, I learned they will be online the full 7 hours- breaking for recess and lunch like they normally would be at school. I haven’t heard from my daughters school yet on what it will look like but I am assuming it’ll be the same. Both of my kids are squirrels. This means that we are going to have to check on them often throughout the day to make sure they are actually doing whatever they’re supposed to be doing on their computers in their rooms while not being distracted by literally anything else when they mentally check out of whatever their teacher is saying.

Momma don’t got time for this! I am trying to remain positive and put on a smile for them. I am trying to talk it up. I am not talking badly about the situation in front of them. My daughter especially is sad they aren’t going back to in person because she misses her friends so much. Even a hint of annoyance on my part and her attitude about it grows to where she just CAN’T. (Tweenager)

We have to set the tone for them.

So the tone is: This Isn’t The Greatest Situation But We Will Get Through It.

But you guyyyyyysssssss…..this sucks.

I am trying to be optimistic but I am realistic too. I don’t see how this will go well for either of my kids. I don’t know how either of their IEP’s can be implemented either. I suppose it’s like MS, I just have to not overthink it too much and take it day by day, take whatever is thrown at me like a warrior.

Send Starbucks on Friday. I can sip it when I sneak out to the yard to cry. (I am sure there will be crying the first week or so by one of us.)

Also send Starbucks to working parents who are having to supervise their kids while they work from home. Those parents are heroes. They probably need it more than me. Send them the biggest size Starbucks. They deserve it. I’m just stressed out and whining.

I Burst My Bubble!

I burst my bubble and finally left the house Tuesday. Other than going to the dentist a few times in June and July, random drive-thru cravings (masked and heavily hand-sanitized before and after) and porch visits to my parents and sister’s houses, I hadn’t left my house since March 12th. No matter your views on the pandemic, I am taking it like it literally will kill me because my doctors keep reminding me it might due to my immune system. Maybe it’s overreacting but I am not willing to be a test subject to find out.

I have been going crazy the last week or so in my bubble…the safety of my house and yard. The Hubs suggested we go to the beach. It took me 3 days to decide to go. We talked out all the scenarios we could think of when you go to the beach…parking, too many people, people not masked, etc. We finally decided we would go very early and leave once people started arriving. The kids start school again next week so if we were going to go, now was the time!

We woke the kids up super early, packed up the car and headed off by 7:30 am You guys, I was so nervous! There were so many cars on the freeway. I didn’t say much on the 45 minute drive out there.

When we got to the beach at 8:15ish the parking lot was pretty full so I got even more nervous that there would be too many people and I wouldn’t feel safe. We started unloading the car, the kids were ready to jump in the ocean and I was just knew that when we got to the other side of the shower area that the beach would be jam-packed!

However, I think most of the people that had parked in the lot, were on the pier fishing because there was only one other lady and a smaller child on the beach. I felt so relieved and I finally relaxed.

We started to set up our spot. We purposely packed two huge comforters to give us a big area so hopefully no one would sit close to us. The Hubs and kids went down to the water. I sat taking in the sound of the crashing waves. It was really soothing. Doctors keep asking me if I am feeling stressed or depressed and I’m like, “Of course! We’re living through a pandemic.” After just sitting on the beach for awhile, I felt refreshed. We also saw a big pod of dolphins swim by too.

We left once it started to get crowded around 11:30. Most people were wearing masks. I also noticed people seemed to be walking far away from others to avoid getting too close.

On our way out of town, we stopped and got my favorite shrimp tacos.

The BEST Shrimp tacos from GreatMex Newport

What are things you do to de-stress these days? Do you feel like they help you relax?