Let’s Catch Up: 2019 Review, part one

April 2019 was the last time I was consistent on my blog, and a lot has happened since then. I got burned out and overwhelmed, so I needed to take a break from blogging. My life has continued to burn me out and overwhelm me, but from a blogging perspective I’m feeling more like myself again!

To help catch everyone up on life’s happenings, I wanted to do a summary of 2019. No matter how “quick” I try to make these, they always end up long. This post will be January through June, and part two will be up next week. These summaries will include links to my Instagram posts (where I’ve remained active) for further details, when they’re available. A few items, especially earlier in 2019, will also include links to blog posts. All links in this article are to my own material.

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Impending Hip Surgery

Thank you all for your patience while I took a break. I was burned out and having a rough time with my mental health. Unfortunately, infertility is still a major part of our lives, but that has needed to be put on hold for a few months because I need to have surgery on my right hip.

On August 13th, just one week from now, I will be having surgery on my hip. The surgeon we met with originally had been practicing in Denver, but then she moved up to Vail (which is two to two and a half hours from Denver). She is an amazing surgeon and was willing to work with all of the complications of my life and health conditions. We live in one of Denver’s suburbs, but we will be driving up to Vail for my surgery. Since it’s such a long drive, and surgery check-in is usually very early in the morning, we will be spending the night up there before the surgery.

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Mood Tracking for Self-Care

Chronic illness takes a toll on your mental health, even when nothing you have is fatal/terminal. Infertility also takes a toll on your mental health. Both of these things have a dramatic impact on your life, so it’s normal (and expected) for these things to have such a huge impact on your mental health.

Blank wooden scrabble tiles with "Mental Health" spelled out in tiles laid on top.
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Food Journaling for Self-Care

Food and eating are both hot button issues in our current social climate. Between diet culture, increased nutritional knowledge, and increasingly globalized food choices, it can be overwhelming to figure out what to eat. Enter my April self-care challenge: eating for self-care.

There will be some modifications to this challenge for primarily tube fed individuals included later on. I could not figure out how to include people on TPN, and I do apologize for that.

Gray haired man in a gray suit holding a banana as if it was a gun and making a "grr" face.
Accurate representation of “diet culture.”

Every single body is different. Even if we all ate exactly the same things, exercised exactly the same ways for the same amount of time, and slept the same amount every single night, we would still all be different sizes and shapes! If we did everything the same, some of us would be very ill, some would feel amazing, and the rest would be somewhere in between. Why? Because no two bodies have the same requirements.

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Autism Acceptance Month: My Undiagnosed Childhood Experience

Honestly, I can’t remember a time I didn’t feel different in some way. Siblings are frequently different from each other, but I always felt extra different, without every knowing exactly why. I was an overly passionate child: quick to anger, quick to cry, and quick to laugh harder than anyone around. Once I started school, the differences between me and the other children became more obvious. I remember standing on the playground in kindergarten, feeling overwhelmed and confused. The other students picked up on my differences quickly, and that’s never a good thing. Above all else, I simply couldn’t understand why I was different and what it was that other people did that was so different.

Deep pressure therapy is used to help calm the nervous system. I believe that’s what I was trying to achieve here, as a toddler.
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Perspective on an Undiagnosed Childhood: Autism Isn’t Stereotypes

It’s Autism Acceptance Month! To learn more about what that is, exactly, please see my intro post from this year and this post from last year.

Today we have a very special post from my friend, Vanessa Matelski! Vanessa draws chronic illness comics as PotsieSpoons. She uses the comics to show various aspects of her life. Vanessa is also autistic, and I wanted her to provide her perspective on autism and how it impacted her before diagnosis. I hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I did! Please check out both her website and Instagram!

Vanessa, PotsieSpoons

All of the images in this article were created by Vanessa! Make sure you follow her on Instagram (@potsiespoons) to see all of her fantastic illustrations and comics!

Read Her STory, Here:

Two Easy Tips for a Lower Waste Lifestyle

Does the idea of a more natural and lower waste lifestyle sound appealing, but daunting all at the same time? It doesn’t have to be a monumental task! I started this series in October 2018, and then took a break for the holidays. January and February, I posted some products that I love and make a lower waste lifestyle easier. Now I’m back, to give you two more super simple tips to help lead a lower waste and more natural lifestyle!

For the first three easy tips, see my October 2018 post.

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Autism Acceptance Month 2019: Why It’s Important and What I’m Doing

It’s April! That means it is Autism Acceptance Month! Notice I’m saying “acceptance” and not “awareness.” I wrote more about that last year, but it’s worth repeating: “acceptance” and “awareness” are not the same! Almost everyone is aware that autism is a thing and it exists. Unfortunately, due to a lot of marketing propaganda, a lot of people believe it is something that should be eradicated or is “evil” (this post by another author addresses this). That is simply false. Autism is, put as simply as possible, a difference in how an individual processes the world.

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Get Outside!: Outdoor Activity for Self-Care

It’s officially spring here in the northern hemisphere! The days are getting longer and warmer, and life is starting to wake up from its winter slumber. Spring is my favorite season, and always has been. It might be because I’m a March baby, but there’s something so pleasant about the gentle, warm days and the smell of blooming flowers!

Winter officially lasts from mid-December until mid-March, even though “winter weather” doesn’t always listen to the calendar. Here in Colorado, we usually get a large storm in October, and possibly another one or two before the year is over, but the majority of our snowstorms occur in January, February, and March. This year, that was especially true, with several feet of snow over the last two months! Technically, we’re not fully out of our winter weather here in Colorado, but we’re getting close. (Our official “planting outside is safe now” time is the end of April.)

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