The house is quiet for the first time in a very long time. My husband and children have headed north to spend the day tobogganing with my husbands oldest daughter, her hubby and of course our grandchildren. I am sorry to once again stay home but I just don't do long drives very well. Not to mention it is one day where they can escape my illness and not have to consider my ability into their planning. It is a day away from illness :) I wish I could take a day away from it but that is not very likely to happen. I suppose if I got on the right mixture of medications it is possible but that just feels like a dream at this point in time.
Christmas was WONDERFUL and I am so pleased to have little ones who make the season that much more special. They declared this the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER and do so every year! They were so appreciative of all of their gifts, our Christmas Eve family get togethers and Christmas Dinner with my parents, brother and nephew. Now the excitement is for New Years Eve. They want to have a party..lol What this means is my parents over for the evening to play cards with my hubby and I. If you have anyone over, and there is food and snacks it is a party...lol I wonder if I will last through the evening playing cards. I sure hope so. Mind you my mom is quite sick with a chest infection right now so not even sure they will make it. If not the four of us will bring in the new year playing games.
Santa once again provided our family with year round passes for the Toronto Zoo and The Ontario Science Centre. This two passes will be great with home schooling the kids. We get to have field trips too :)
My hubby scored big points by purchasing me a kobo vox which is a tablet / e-reader. This is solved my issues with not being able to hold my books or turn pages. I can read again and that is such a wonderful gift. My kids were so impressed with my e-reader they used their Christmas money and saved up allowance to purchase their own! I love that I have instilled the desire to read into my children. Reading is a truly wonderful gift. It can transport me into another world where I can be distracted from my pain even if only for a little while.
As for a health update - I have not been doing very well these past few weeks. I am so glad that all of my shopping was done early this year! My Rheumy is very concerned about my lungs and ordered a lung CT. The last one I had in May before my diagnosis noted nodules and a thickening of the plurel of my lung. Now that we know I have a severe form of RA it is assumed they are rheumatoid nodules on my lung. She believes I have what is called Rheumatoid Lung. If that is the case I won't be able to take biologics, methotrexate and a host of other RA meds. If I understand correctly I will be down to just pain meds and the RA will run rampant without any medication to slow it down. This is a very scary prospect as I wait for my results. I will see my Rheumy on the 20th for the results which feels like a very long time from now. I know it isn't but if my lungs are as bad as my rheumy suspects then I am in for a very painful future. That is overwhelming when I am having such a difficult time with taking RA meds. I will try not to wallow in what could be and stay focused on the here and now but I won't lie it is difficult.
I have been giving a lot of thought to 2012 and what I want to accomplish. On the bright side I have learned what is wrong with me and I am being treated by a wonderful Rheumatologist who will do her best by me. I may or may not be able to continue working in 2012. I will continue with homeschooling which is so very important to me and my children. I have always wanted to write a novel and now is as good a time as any to make that happen. I have decided that NaNoWrMo is too fast paced for the unpredictability of my illness. I signed up and failed miserably with another difficult month with my RA. So this time I have a plan: I will spend time in January writing my outline and on character development and I will take it from there. I am in no hurry and will take my time to make this happen. It has been a life long dream and it is time to make it a reality. My other goal for 2012 is to dedicate more time to this blog and hopefully adding something of substance back to the RA Community. I am going to aim for 30 blogs in 30 days and see how that goes. Perhaps I can bring the subscriptions to this blog up from the single digits..lol
What are you goals for 2012? Do you make resolutions? Are you able to stick to them? I would love to hear from you.
© 2011 Rhonda
Showing posts with label National Novel Writing Month. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Novel Writing Month. Show all posts
Friday, December 30, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Making Dreams A Reality
Tuesday November 1, 2011 is the day that I take the first steps towards making a dream come true. A dream I have had since I was a child was writing a book. It was also a dream that I gave up over the past year of illness. My illnesses became a thief and stole my dreams.
Fellow blogger and friend Deb of The ABC's of RA reminded me of the importance of having dreams. Two dreams that I have had since I was a child are 1) To write a book and 2) Travel - Hawaii and the most recent is to get my kids to Disney while they are young enough to be in awe of all it has to offer.
When I first rediscovered my dreams it was with pain. I realized that with my current limitations they were going to be next to impossible. Or were they? Where there is a will there is a way. It required some creative thinking. So I got creative and here is what I learned.
I have looked into the travel and we can do a two week Disney Cruise to Hawaii...pretty cool way to experience both at the same time. The magic of Disney in a way that I will better be able to manage with my limitations. There are activities for the kids that are run by the Disney staff. They will have an amazing time that is not dependent on what I am able to do each day. It will not involve walking, walking and more walking as it would if we went to the parks. I can also use a wheelchair or scooter on the cruise if it is needed. I am so excited by this new information. We are saving up for the cruise and I have to tell you it is very cool to have something to work towards making it a reality rather than that wistful longing and not doing anything to get us there. My dreams are only dead if I allow it and I refuse to give up my dreams!!
Writing a book is more of a challenge. My hand deformities and pain limit the amount of typing that I can do. A quick e-mail to my brother the tech wizard and I was advised of the speech recognition software by Nuance - Dragon Naturally Speaking. I will be able to speak and have the computer do the typing for me. This is supposed to be the best on the market so I have ordered and now wait on delivery. Not only will this allow me to achieve my goal of writing a book but it will also make my job much easier. No more typing long e-mails that bring tears to my eyes and take 5x longer than they used to.
I went back through previous blogs and found a contest that I had been interested in but put aside due to the problems with my hands. November 1 - 30th, 2011 is National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to complete a 50,000 word novel within this time frame. You update your word count through out the month (scrambled so that you don't have to worry about plagiarism) and are considered a winner if you meet the 50,000 words. I have signed up for this contest :) Half the battle is proving to myself that I can indeed write a novel. My problem of course is I have no idea what to write about. I had a few ideas that I was working on months ago but I am in such a different place I feel the need to go a different direction. Essentially I have until Monday night to come up with the topic for my book if nothing else. It would be nice to have an outline going in to the contest but I have read enough about these contests to know that most people toss out their outlines fairly early in the process.
For the first time in a year I have a feeling of being alive. I could get used to this feeling!
What are your dreams? What are you doing to make them a reality?
Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween Weekend!
© 2011 Rhonda
Fellow blogger and friend Deb of The ABC's of RA reminded me of the importance of having dreams. Two dreams that I have had since I was a child are 1) To write a book and 2) Travel - Hawaii and the most recent is to get my kids to Disney while they are young enough to be in awe of all it has to offer.
When I first rediscovered my dreams it was with pain. I realized that with my current limitations they were going to be next to impossible. Or were they? Where there is a will there is a way. It required some creative thinking. So I got creative and here is what I learned.
I have looked into the travel and we can do a two week Disney Cruise to Hawaii...pretty cool way to experience both at the same time. The magic of Disney in a way that I will better be able to manage with my limitations. There are activities for the kids that are run by the Disney staff. They will have an amazing time that is not dependent on what I am able to do each day. It will not involve walking, walking and more walking as it would if we went to the parks. I can also use a wheelchair or scooter on the cruise if it is needed. I am so excited by this new information. We are saving up for the cruise and I have to tell you it is very cool to have something to work towards making it a reality rather than that wistful longing and not doing anything to get us there. My dreams are only dead if I allow it and I refuse to give up my dreams!!
Writing a book is more of a challenge. My hand deformities and pain limit the amount of typing that I can do. A quick e-mail to my brother the tech wizard and I was advised of the speech recognition software by Nuance - Dragon Naturally Speaking. I will be able to speak and have the computer do the typing for me. This is supposed to be the best on the market so I have ordered and now wait on delivery. Not only will this allow me to achieve my goal of writing a book but it will also make my job much easier. No more typing long e-mails that bring tears to my eyes and take 5x longer than they used to.
I went back through previous blogs and found a contest that I had been interested in but put aside due to the problems with my hands. November 1 - 30th, 2011 is National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to complete a 50,000 word novel within this time frame. You update your word count through out the month (scrambled so that you don't have to worry about plagiarism) and are considered a winner if you meet the 50,000 words. I have signed up for this contest :) Half the battle is proving to myself that I can indeed write a novel. My problem of course is I have no idea what to write about. I had a few ideas that I was working on months ago but I am in such a different place I feel the need to go a different direction. Essentially I have until Monday night to come up with the topic for my book if nothing else. It would be nice to have an outline going in to the contest but I have read enough about these contests to know that most people toss out their outlines fairly early in the process.
For the first time in a year I have a feeling of being alive. I could get used to this feeling!
What are your dreams? What are you doing to make them a reality?
Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween Weekend!
© 2011 Rhonda
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