Conquering Naniland

I'm going to blog more often again when I can organize myself to be able to use my computer again. I finally have the padding figured out to be able to stay in the current wheelchair without pain. There is a support post for the back of the chair that hits my tailbone in a way that pushes it in and up. Remember, I use a wheelchair because I have little to no movement in my legs and hips, so moving around to relieve the pressure is not an effective "easy fix." Add to that it took a while to identify what point in my body the pain was coming from and what part of the chair was responsible for the pressure.

So now that I know what kind of padding and where I need it, I can spend the day in my chair. Now I have a new problem to solve. The mechanical base necessary to make the chair do what it does makes it too high to fit under a table. That doesn't just mean I'm challenged setting up a computer working area but sitting at a table to sort through papers or bills without things dropping all over the floor or eating a meal present obstacles. I also don't go out much. As much as the chair is supposed to give freedom and mobility, I don't like going places alone anymore. Sitting at a table in a restaurant when I must tilt the chair forward to reach the plate is pretty embarrassing. The humiliation is still there, but it's easier to deal with if I'm not alone.

I started physical therapy on my legs. In the over a year to get the chair including 5 months that I couldn't sit in the old chair that caused my out-turning hips, my legs and hips have become too weak to use a slide board or to stand and pivot. I just started in-home PT with the therapist showing David and the 4 aides that are here most often the exercises so I can do them every day. My immediate goal in the next few months is to be able to use a grab bar to stand for just a little.


Television

I love the ad for the Volkswagen Atlas! It's set to The Birds and The Bees and starts with the Beetle rocking with steamy windows and the young couple upgrading as their family grows after seeing the new cars "rocking." They show you the source of the rocking in the Atlas; a family of five with a dog and squealing happy kids. I think the ad is incredibly sweet.



I've read articles criticizing the use of innuendo or nitpicking that innuendo. Oh please! It's a cute way to show 5 different models of different sizes selling the largest one as a family car. Is it risqué? Um, considering that drugs for erectile dysfunction are on TV in all their "you know you want it" glory and the Go Daddy girls, no, not risqué at all. And as far as nitpicking "logical sense," it's a commercial not a drama. -eye roll-



The Handmaid's Tale

I decided not to put my book reviews on The Chronicles of Nani. I still post my few lines of non-spoiler thoughts with my rating at Good Reads. I'll link to those reviews here if you'd like to read them.

I just finished The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwell. I gave it 5 of 5 stars. You can see my review here: my review



That's a little bit of what's going on in Naniland, a world I must conquer daily. But I do conquer it!

When "New and Improved" Actually Is Improved

I'll be amongst the first to say to be wary when a product is "improved." The worst are "Better Flavor" or "New Recipe, Same Great Taste" what if I liked the flavor the way it was? If the "great taste" is the same, why did the recipe need to change? I admit that, as much as I've always loved the restaurant and they make what I've loved as my favorite sandwich for a long time, I haven't been to Panera since everything on their menu has become "clean." After "cleaning" will my Bacon Turkey Bravo taste "soapy?"

But this is not about the Bacon Turkey Bravo. I do not come to bury Panera's Caesar salad. I don't even know if it's dead. I come to address a greater scare than cleaning my favorite sandwich as an adult. Campbell's messed with my ultimate comfort food since I was a child!

Classic look of Campbell's Chicken and Stars

I don't remember a sniffle or tear that wasn't "cured" with Chicken and Stars soup.as an adult it has always been and still is the soup I go to when I feel the need for something to make me feel warm inside. So imagine when just after I turned 50 the stars were different! Remember, I gave myself permission to be proud of my AARP years and complain about things that used to be better. This would be an easy thing to complain about being bad because it changed. But, we'll...

The new stars in Campbell's Chicken and Stars

Instead of the solid little stars of my first half century, the stars are bigger hollow stars. Well, they look more like stars and you can actually chew them. The old little stars just kinda slipped down my throat. It could have been a trainer for taking grown-up pills, to swallow something whole with liquid. The new stars make the soup a little heartier. It also reduces the choking hazard. But the best part is that so many of the old noodles stuck to the can, pan or bowl! The new hearty noodles ALL come out of the can and are much easier to spoon out of the soup cup; every last one!

Now I think I'm ready to get a Bacon Turkey Bravo, or at least pop open a can of Chicken and Stars for lunch.

Rumor Has It We Won!

Behind Stripes and Spots

Me and Rumor, Toledo area winner 

of the Westminster Dog Show

That's a picture of me, because it's my column, and my pal Rumor. Mommy says it's a picture of alternate fact, whatever. I read a tutorial about making friends with photoshop. I think it's a good first try.

I think Rumor is a great-looking dog and he'd be great to play Domino in the movie! Domino is one of the dogs next door. When Daddy lets me go outside with him and the dogs are out we sniff at each other through the fence. Mommy says "if they get together supervised, they might be friends. If they get together unsupervised, they'd be a Disney movie." I think that would be fun!

Neither one of my friends next door is a German shepherd, but I think one of the dogs should be a big dog for the movie. Rumor would have good star-power for a costar too! I learned a lot about movies after watching Keanu with Mommy and Daddy. Keanu's part was way too small for the star of the movie. The humans who costarred got most of the screen time. I think our movie will be better because dogs are easier to work with than humans. Humans have big egos.

This picture is from the Keanu movie

I'd have to see his current publicity shot to see if he could play me. Some kitten-actors just don't keep "the look." I'm almost 4 and still as adorable as a kitten, so an actor who plays me would still have to have "the look."

Mommy just said something about ego. I already said human egos were bigger than dogs which is why dogs are better to work with. Boy, she reads slow.

So, congratulations to Rumor for being the best dog in the dog show! Now how about being a movie star? I guess I should send Disney an email. I need to tell the dogs next door that we gotta write a script!

Mood Boards

This is my new project this year. I've seen them on Pinterest and I've seen them used for the inspiration challenge at Ginger Scraps. I think they are pretty cool to look at on their own too.

Mood Boards are used for many things. They can be digital, done by hand or even done on the corkboard. Grouping things by color can inspire decorating or clothing. A board showing rooms painted in shades on a paint sample with other items can be used to help clients make paint and trim choices in new construction and marketing departments create them to brainstorm

They can also be visual aids for teaching, or an interactive project.

Mood Boards can have a therapeutic use or they can just be an outlet for expression.

It can be a photography display or just pleasant wall decor in an office.

There really are no rules, which is why I'm attracted to them.

This year I plan to scrap at least 2 each month. I haven't decided if the mood boards will be part of my regular scrapbooks or if I'll add them as pages in my annual scrapped diary, aka project 365. Maybe I'll decide they aren't worth printing and I'll just put the images in my personal journal. If a great-grand niece or nephew reads them after I'm gone and sells it, they can use them when they decorate the sets for my homes or offices for the movie. I've been told I write colorful stories and I'm only 50, I still have a good 40+ years to do something movie-worthy!

One oh my Januarys

Credits: #2017 January mini kit by Connie Prince, photos from web; fair use

I did 2 in January. One was fun and encouraging, the other was depressing but a little therapeutic. I think the depressing issue may need to be another art journal. Perhaps for therapeutic use, a board is good for things that just bug me a little. The mood boards are kinda fun so far.

Projects and Goals

Yes, I'm getting off to a slow start this year. But a slow start is better than no start, right? I did some rethinking and re-organizing of my projects and goals this year. Some of them are very similar to the projects that have always been and somethings have been dropped or are new. Without further ado, here are my planned goals and projects for 2017.


Health and Wellness

I'm returning to counting food points. Planned full time on February 1. I have a food app on my phone and tablet that figures points like the old Weight Watchers system. When they changed to the new point system, I dropped my membership. Doing the Simply Healthy program for 2 weeks, then the regular points for 2 weeks worked well for me. However, I noticed the system they switched to increased the points for sugars and starches and other things that seemed like it was steering more toward weight loss/maintenance to ward off diabetes. That's fine, my mom was a Type 2 diabetic and weight, carbohydrate consumption and/or genetics contribute to that disease which has become more commonly diagnosed. With the many things wrong with me, my blood sugar is one of the things that has always been consistently spot-on. I'm sticking with the program that works for me, as long as I'm doing well, rather than changing how I nourish myself to treat something I don't have.


In the next couple of weeks parts will be here to repair the lift recliner that I spend most of my time in. That time includes using a board across the arm rests as a table to use the computer. Right now I can't sit straight up in it which makes working on the computer painful after a while. That makes scrapbooking and blogging difficult. I'm behind where I want to be with both this month. When the repair is done I'll be physically and mentally in much better shape to have my creative mojo. With my creative abilities working go I'll be able to blog more often and scrapbook more often


I'll be getting together with my doctor this week to get physical therapy started. The object is to concentrate on my legs to strengthen my hips. It's not going to mean I'll walk again, but it may mean some increased movement and I can exercise again. My big goal with exercises to strengthen my legs is really to just be able to hold the grab bar in the bathroom and just stand for a couple of minutes.


Scrapbooking

I'm sticking with the page-a-day goal. I haven't reached that goal the last two years, but I'm still on track to finish all of my scrapbooks by the end of the year! My idea of doing the current month for all the years I had to catch up worked well. I finished 2008 last year. I only have December for 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2016, 2010 has been done for a while and the rest of the years start in October or November.

I'm proud to say that by doing Project 365 as a diary-style scrapbook, focusing on brief journaling every day, has been a success! I've finished every year since 2014. As for the scrapped pages for 2017, I just finished week 3, so I'm still holding strong this year. Truthfully, I really enjoy the daily and weekly expression and it makes it easy to keep up.

I'm also planning to do a few mood boards each month. I'll post a blog about what mood boards are and what they do in a few days. They fill so many purposes and several areas that I think have potential to be very constructive for me. I'm not exactly sure how I'll organize this project yet, but I have done two of them so far.


Reading

Last year I had a personal goal of being more aware of current events and national and world news. I overdid it. The world outside of my backyard is ugly and it's getting worse. Personally the worst part is that I believe we are one of the bad guys. It makes me sad and afraid. This year I'm going to try to stay more uninformed. It's safer for me emotionally; I want to smile again.

I didn't read anywhere near enough books last year. Part of it was from reading too much news, but part of it was not getting out enough. I do a lot of reading while waiting. I read while waiting for the bus or waiting for the doctor. I also read a lot when I go out for lunch on my own. The new wheelchair doesn't fit under most restaurant tables so I tend to stay home. I may consider more out for coffee options once the weather is more conducive for me to be out more.

I access both my Nook and Kindle libraries with my iPad. I have 16 books downloaded on the Kindle app and 11 on the Nook for a total of 27 books. I want to read at least half of them this year. That and at least trying to read less news is my reading goal.


Finances

I really hope to find a customer service job to earn enough to pay for those aides. Insurance doesn't cover home help and it's not really an option because there are just too many essential things, getting cleaned, dressed, housekeeping that I can't do without help. Right now I'm okay, but in a year my retirement savings will be gone. If I can pay my aides, regular monthly bills and medical copays so I can leave what's left of my investments alone, that would be great. I don't know if there's an honest work from home job that pays that much or if my MS compromised nervous system has the energy to do it, but I really do have to try. Vocational rehabilitation says they can help because MS is a recognized disability. I just need a letter from my doctor saying what kind of work I can do and how many hours a week I can work. Maybe I still have some Type-A magic left in my tank!

With a heavy and anxious optimism fighting hard to keep me afloat, as always

this, or something better.