All posts by Little M.S. Runner

Forty-something, married with two kids and two dogs. Trying hard to live every day to the fullest with multiple sclerosis, impaired vision, and deafness. Couldn't make it without my Savior, Jesus Christ.
Funny story, Photos, Piper

Dogs and delivery drivers

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Our dog Piper loves loves loves to meet new people. She’s what I call “aggressively friendly”. When anyone comes to the door, she’s right there yapping and jumping like the crazy dog she is.

Today the UPS driver came to pick up a package we were returning to Amazon, so I had to wiggle through the front door to give him the box. The entire time Piper was jumping at the glass door, just begging to join us. The driver was laughing at her antics and when we were done with our exchange he reached into his pocket and pulled out a dog biscuit! I was so surprised, and I told him thank you. I said she’s really harmless and she’s never bitten anyone, but that the FedEx driver was so scared of her he won’t even come up our driveway.

He said nothing, because maybe he didn’t want to bash the competition, but he gave me a smirky smile that told me he thought that was pretty funny.

I tried to get a picture of her with the biscuit but she scarfed it down too quickly.

Books, Multiple Sclerosis

Slow down, you move too fast…

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This new “job” doing bookkeeping for the church has been a really great thing for me. Missing the work these past four years, and wondering if I was even still capable, really wore down my confidence level. But as I do this job, day by day, my confidence is building back up. This time, however, I’m doing the work with a full reliance on God to help me through.

The only problem might be that I’m taking it a little too seriously. As my husband said to me the other night, I’m going at this like it’s my career. True, I was up a little too late straining my eyes on balancing and reconciling. I forced myself to go to bed and get some rest, but it was too late. I had already pushed myself past my limit. The next day I had some serious pain in my left eye (my ‘good’ eye). It figures the right eye was fine, as she is absolutely useless. The sharp, throbbing pain was surprisingly more tolerable than my regular headache. I just put an eye patch over that eye, sat back with a cup of coffee and my Les Mis soundtrack, and rested for awhile. It was much better by the evening, but hopefully I’ve learned my lesson not to overdo it.

Today the kids are home for a snow day so it’s nice to have the company. They are busy playing their video games and I’ve just been putzing around the house, doing some reorganizing. It’s a lazy day, and I’m loving it. I started reading Lord of the Rings this week and I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would. Humor was not something I expected, but it’s given me a few laughs and I’m only on the third chapter. I’m trying to move away from my normal genre of legal thrillers. I just finished Angela’s Ashes and Cider House Rules and they were both great books. My list of books to read is growing shorter, so if you have any books you would suggest I read, let me know.

I’m struggling to find a smooth transition to a closing, so I’m just going to leave it here. Have a happy Friday everyone!

 

 

 

Friends, Music, Theater

Dreams come true

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I love the theater. I really do, but until recently I have only had a vague realization of this truth. I went to see a professional ballet with a friend and my heart leapt into my throat the moment I stepped into the theater, and that’s when I knew. There’s just something magical about it that I can’t explain. 

Ever since our high school band played a medley of songs from Les Miserables and my instructor sat down and told us the whole tragic story, I’ve dreamt of seeing it on stage. I just really fell in love with the music, mostly. When they turned it into a movie, I went to see it the day after Christmas and I bawled. The movie was great, but the live show has to be better. Because, you know, it’s LIVE.

All of this to say that it’s been a sort of secret dream of mine for over 20 years to see Les Miserables live, and when I saw that it was coming to our area the weekend of my upcoming birthday, that spark of a dream was reunited. I know I’m mixing metaphors, but whatev, it’s my blog lol. When I shared this dream with the ladies in my church group, they squealed. They wanted to go too! We could all go together and it would be magical! Oh my gosh, I couldn’t believe I had found other ladies who felt the same I did about the theater and were totally up for going, and sharing my birthday with me. So, it’s settled. We have our tickets and we’re going to see Les Miserables! It’s going to be so epic, I might even wear make-up.

Food

More talk about food

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I love most donuts, but if I had to pick the one that never lets me down, it’s the apple fritter. Years ago my kooky family conducted an apple fritter taste-off (if I can find the blog I posted then, I’ll add it here). We each submitted our favorite brands of fritters and then voted based on several criteria. It was very scientific and very fun. I come from a family of food loving nerds. It’s part of why I’m awesome.

Anyhoo, my hubby came home today with a box from Cops & Doughnuts, with two large apple fritters included for me. These things will last me a few days, for sure. They are not as large as the fritters from my personal favorite, Sweetwater’s Donut Mill, but they are right up there with the quality. Cops’ exceeds in the texture – soft and chewy on the inside and crunchy at the edges – but I’m afraid Sweetwater’s has them beat on flavor. I could barely taste the apple, sadly.

I reported these observations to my husband about three bites in, and continued eating. A few more bites of that gooey goodness and I had a startling realization: I think this is better than Sweetwater’s!

I don’t know. It’s been several months since I’ve had a Sweetwater’s fritter so it’s hard to compare from memory. It would be ideal to compare side by side but they are in totally different cities. So unless I can find a fellow fritter enthusiast who would find this cause worthy of driving around the state, I’m just going to call it a tie for first place!

Food

My Friday night fare

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It’s Friday night and the boys are off doing wrestling stuff and my girl, the picky eater, is busy with Youtube. Folks, this means I can fix my dinner with no interruptions or annoying distractions. I’m kind of excited about this one, so I’m sharing while it cooks.

Roasted butternut squash soup, made by yours truly, and Brussels sprouts cooked gently in a pan of vegan butter. All to be capped off with a smooth, dark beer.

I’m very much looking forward to sitting down to this feast.

Now, why is it that Brussels sprouts can smell so awful and yet taste so good?

Daily Snippets, Food

Get in my belly

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When you’ve been sick for days and your appetite is coming back, but you just want to lie in bed and snuggle under your cozy comforter, the tummy rumbling is a big nuisance. The super cozy socks you are wearing don’t help. I did manage to get up and fix myself a bagel with peanut butter. I’m still hungry though. I believe that’s a sign of returning health.

My husband says I’m like a fat person living in a little person’s body because all I think about is food. It’s true, that’s pretty much a good portion of my thoughts most days. Food and Jesus, but Jesus first, of course.

I have fresh veggies down in the kitchen just waiting for me to dress them up. A butternut squash to be roasted for soup, Brussels sprouts calling my name, broccoli eager to be dressed up and consumed. Even the carrots are waiting impatiently in line for their appearance on the cutting board. I have been missing you, my friends! Today I will return to you!

Daily Snippets, Disability, Food, Hobbies, Kids

Dang it all…

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I could not come up with a better title than that. Because, well, it’s after 10 pm and my brain is mush. So yes, I’m going to write a blog with mush-brain and see how you like it. Ha!

So what’s happening lately? Well, the kids are back to school, sort of. We had a big fat snow day on Friday and then a scheduled day off to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Of course nobody went sledding because it’s cold man, and all the wifi is indoors. I’m still working on getting my routines back, aka my groove.

I’ve got a new responsibility I’m pretty excited/nervous about. I had been praying for some time about wanting to get back to doing what I enjoy, which is accounting. I miss it so much I obsess over our household budget and I balance our checkbook way more often than necessary. But alas, my prayers have been answered! My pastor called me last week wondering if I could help out the church with some bookkeeping and payroll. Heck yes, I said, I’m on it. I warned him that I was nervous because this is the real-est responsibility I’ve been given since my disability, but he assured me they were very forgiving, and grateful to find someone willing and knowledgeable. I’m stoked. It’s a little scary realizing that my to-do list now holds tasks that must not be overlooked, but I think I’ll be able to adjust just fine. Up until now it’s just been a lot of household junk like vacuuming and cleaning toilets. Which no one really notices if I forget to do.

I’m also doing a lot of crocheting. It’s such a relaxing thing for me, it’s a form of therapy in a way. I was running out of projects so I came up with this insane idea to make an afghan for each of my nieces and nephews, of which I have 12. These afghans are easy to do but they are time consuming so I’m just going to knock them out one at a time and give them away as I finish them. I’m starting with the oldest child first and we’ll go from there. Of course after I had this brilliant idea I found out there were three women in my extended family who are all pregnant, each with their first babies, so I had to put the afghan project on hold in order to make some adorable soft baby blankets.

All this busy-ness with accounting and crocheting leaves me zero time to obsess about food. Which I suppose is good, but it means I haven’t really discovered any new recipes to try and I’m getting rather bored with my vegan diet. No matter, I really can eat oatmeal and potatoes all day if need be, with a smoothie thrown in once in awhile. I’ll get over this hump, I’m sure.

Not a whole lot else going on around here, and if there is I can’t remember what so it must not be all that important. Good night folks, and may you dream of delicious donuts!

Food, Multiple Sclerosis

Not worth all the cheese in the world

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So I’ve mentioned before that I gave up meat, dairy, and eggs for health reasons. I’ve been taking note of my disappearing MS symptoms ever since giving up dairy in June. It’s seriously amazing to me how much better I feel. No fatigue, no nerve pain in my feet, no premenstrual headaches. Two of my favorite foods in the world were always coffee with half and half and pizza. So it’s been a sacrifice, for sure. But so worth it, for how good I’ve been feeling. Then earlier this week I gave into temptation, two days in a row. I ate pizza one night, and the next night a chicken & broccoli casserole with cheese. Both were delicious, I’ll admit. I was hopeful that it wasn’t enough food to have any effect on my symptoms. But then two days ago I had a hint of the nerve pain in my foot. It lasted all of five minutes and went away, so I figured that was the end of it. Not too bad, I thought, I can handle this!

Of course, I spoke too soon. Yesterday The Headache arrived. It crept in around 2 pm and by 3 it was in full force. Y’all I am the biggest baby when it comes to headaches. I have no tolerance for them. At. All. It seriously ruined my entire afternoon and while I knew it wouldn’t last and with a couple Aleve it could be taken care of, the whole time I was thinking, that food was not worth it. Not even close. So back to the vegan diet I go. It’s difficult at times, yes, and I kind of feel like a pain in the rear at family functions or other group gatherings, but I’ve gotta keep sticking with it for my health.

Daily Snippets, Funny story

Hobbling Along

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We are into a new year, 2018, and I’m still hanging on. Hobbling, to be more accurate, but still. Yeah, I ended up going to the urgent care to get my ankle checked out. It was still pretty swollen and in considerable pain from my fall down the stairs after Christmas, especially after Piper the Hyper Dog rammed into it running after her ball. Definitely dropped a real fudge bomb there. And it was so loud my son came running up from the basement to see what had happened. Both the kids were downstairs and heard it plain as day. I won’t even apologize for that one. That was some serious pain and with zero warning. Anyway, I didn’t break anything but it is sprained. I’m wearing a brace on it throughout the day to help keep me from bending it as I go up and down the stairs (which is all day long, ugh). The swelling has gone down, mostly, and the pain is not as bad, so I just have to ride this out. And remember to be a lot more careful on stairs from now on. 

Daily Snippets, Funny story, Multiple Sclerosis, Partial Blindness

Accident-prone

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My husband says I get hurt more often than anyone he knows. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I certainly get hurt more than at least my immediate family. Christmas morning I burned my fingers. I was taking a pan of bacon out of the oven when I knocked off the oven thermometer. So of course I let my instinct to move it with my bare hand take over, and that lasted all of a half second before I dropped everything where I stood and proceeded to spew fudge words under my breath as I ran to the freezer to find cold things. Burns are the most painful things ever, y’all. All dern day I had to keep my fingers on ice or they would start screaming at me. So basically I was relieved of most of my planned kitchen duties, other than putting away clean dishes with my one good hand. Thank goodness my mother-in-law was there to save the day.

Then today I went to the hospital to have my monthly Tysabri infusion. All went well with the infusion, but then as I was rushing down the stairs to be sure my ride didn’t leave without me, I miscalculated the number of steps and fell down the last one or two. I’m not sure, it all happened so fast, but I think it must have been the last two steps that I missed because I twisted my ankle real good and I fell hard. I dropped everything I was holding as I went down, of course, and just laid there, afraid to move. I was looking up to see if anyone would come to help me get up. Two people across the way just stood and stared, but then eventually I was surrounded by employees from the building. A nurse offered to have me stay and get the ankle checked out, and a valet driver brought me a wheelchair. Even my paratransit driver came inside looking for me, and was able to help me into the van. I really wish I had the whole thing on tape because I think it would give everyone a good laugh. Graceful I am not.

It’s now several hours later and I’m wondering if I should have taken that nurse up on her offer to stay and get the ankle checked out. I kept my leg elevated the whole drive home and then I’ve iced the ankle periodically throughout the day, but my it is still pretty swollen and I can’t bend it. Ah, I guess I’ll just give it a little more time and rest and hopefully it will heal up on its own.