We are blessed to have a way to share our extraordinary lives that prove why for us, Walking Is, Way Overrated. You'll see... Stories, Life lessons, Problem Solving, Aging with a disability, all intended to encourage and help out anyone who may be new to using wheels for legs, aging, have a loved one facing challenges or you may just be interested in reading something unique. You may even smile! All glory goes to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Being in the kitchen together can be a challenge for us. Craig does all the cooking, often on his own. However, sometimes, I give directions like he's my arms and "legs" and that's where things can get challenging. Craig is a laid back fellow and I am a freak for not overcooking supper and that means timing is everything. I am guessing it's so critical for me because supper is my main only meal of the day.
Today world's collide as we not only share our daily life ( Walking Way Overrated ) cook burgers but I get to share and review the swatches from my handmade interference pigments from Let's Resin. That's the other world (HeArtfully Creating ). Join us...
Initially as the Thunder Storm Warnings flooded in all day, we excitedly went outside at about 7pm last night as the blue skies had become filled with changing dramatic cloud formations. My words can't express God's beauty so watch what we saw below in our vlog. Which contains one very sweet, big surprise.
About forty years ago, I began discovering the challenges of hygiene and physical accessibility. Times
like when I was recovering from a broken leg or spine surgeries, staying at my parents home (unable to freely access a bath tub or shower), or even if I went away where access to easy bathing methods were a challenge. I even tried getting hair permanents (curling hair with rollers and a chemical solution wreaking of ammonia) that dries out your hair, even burning some off. Resulting in hopeful curls or waves, trying to delay that oily greasy hair thing.
If you've ever been recovering from surgery, illness or live with a physical challenge like I have since childhood, then you know what I am talking about. In fact when you are in the hospital, you may also have experienced sponge or bed baths. What's that you ask? It means a nurse sets a bowl of warm water by your bedside with a washcloth (not usually a sponge), bar of soap and towel in hand. I remember it happening daily. Depending how long I was to be laid up for, my hair was never washed in bed, so no matter how clean I may have felt after, the greasy hair feeling increased daily. Back then I never heard of dry or waterless shampoos (which is what this video is about). You know how icky your head and body can feel when you can bath. Hard to believe that in the middle ages bathing was apparently annually if it all!
Watch Video Here
People don't talk about this much so I want to share ideas, reviews and offer what I can to help anyone with mobility issues that want to know ways of feeling clean even when you can't access the shower. Today I want to share a video Craig and I made last year, that I totally forgot about, testing out something called waterless shampoo. Watch to see if it was successful or not.
Good morning everyone! Yay the sun is shining and very very slowly the temperatures seem to be warming up. Definitely seems very delayed compared to every other year I've been on this earth. Just recently, I went to turn on our 55 inch TCL Roku television only to face darkness. After investigating all of the YouTube videos on the subject. And after spending countless hours trying to press button sequences and unplug and re-plug and unplug and re-plug, trying to reboot and reset this television that was less than 2 1/2 years old.... There was sound and you could select channels blindly, but nothing else changed. It hit me really hard realizing just how addicted I was to that idiot box. It was like experiencing withdrawal from sugar or something. Well maybe not that bad, but noticeable.
So we accepted that it was not going to work and we're able to give it away to someone who said they had a friend who could fix it. Tell them they could have it. It wasn't worth trying to find a part and repaired since it looked too complicated for us to manage. No I've been kind of enjoying the challenge of watching TV we need screens like the one you'll see in this video. We definitely have a lot of screens to look at it's just none of them are close to 55 inches. As we look into the open white space we now have because this big black wall is gone, things feel hopeful and better. Craig and I realize we didn't know what we were thinking getting such a mammoth television for such a small space. Maybe we were trying to avoid going to the movie theater. Come to think of it Covid happened a few months after we purchased it. Hmmm...
WATCH VIDEO HERE
It's time to move on, it's time to get going... Tom Petty's song is when I like to play whenever it's time to move on, it's time to get going. That's what I decided had to happen with my old power wheelchair. A couple of big changes in the last few days. I had kept my power wheelchair that was almost 18-19 years old, just in case my new one broke down again. If you look back at these blogs and videos you'll see that I had some issues getting my new chair set up. In fact they had to replace that wheelchair entirely within the first six months because the first one was a lemon. Having a lemon for a wheelchair doesn't work well and doesn't exactly instill trust to the point that you want to get rid of your really old but still working wheelchair. So finally, as I look at that big clunker sitting in our living room piled up with stuff, I felt it was safe to finally see if there was someone else who could use it. Thank you God a home was found fairly quickly. Now we have another big space. Spaces are good because then I get to fill it up with something. Just praying and hoping my no four year old wheelchair continues working.
Art Supply Heaven
Worlds are colliding in this blog because not only are we dealing with the television issue, I was happily distracted watching out new metallic watercolour paints and continuing to set up my new watercolour palette as my art supplies from Currys art supply shop in southern Ontario arrive.
After another night and I'm trying to camp out in our living room. While Craig sleeps soundly, I foolishly get distracted trying to communicate with others. Have you ever tried to do that when you're completely exhausted and falling asleep. But so determined to do it but you don't give up and before you know it sun is rising and you still haven't successfully sent any texts or messages. I definitely need to do some soul-searching to try to understand why I would forfeit so much rest in order to worry about that
After the hoyer lift break down the other day, see the video for that story here. Unfortunately, dear Leeann ended up with a lot of very black grease on her shoulder from supporting the boom part of the lift while Craig was disconnecting the hydraulic cylinder. We felt bad about it (didn't know it was greasy up there). Knowing what a great laundry guy Craig s, I told her to leave it to him and he can get the black grease out. The Next Video shows how he did! Here is the vlog for that fun day.
There are more details below the video about Craig's laundry tools and my DIY formula ingredients.
Watch Today's Video vlog
DIY Talk
It's that time of year when crawly critters start returning into our home. I usually nag Craig to keep the bugs at bay with RAID. He will spray the front door threshold, up and around the door cracks. Living on the ground floor means creepy crawlers work their way in. Concerned about him breathing in RAID fumes, I have been trying to create DIY critter repellents. DIY sprays are so easy to make for countless purposes. Never being someone to follow recipes, I just look for ideas on the internet and then wing it from there. I like to over do the amounts of everything just to make it strong.
Here are some notes on the loose recipe for my DIY Spray Formulas:
Bergie Critter repellent spray:
You do not need to use all the oils. I have them and used them. I am using ones that were mentioned in various recipes. Peppermint oil is a key main ingredient- just using one or 2 more will keep them at bay.
A Spray bottle
Rubbing Alcohol - fill bottle %50%
Distilled or Tap Water - fill bottle 50%
I just Add a lot od drops or pour what I think is enough of these oils:
Peppermint Oil (deters a lot of crawlies)
Lemon or Orange Oil
Tea Tree Oil
Cinnamon Oil
Should be some cayenne pepper but we used a bit of fine ground black pepper.
Wintergreen Oil
Spray ever 7 days or after rain also.
Peppermint and shaved Irish Spring soap will help repel rodents also like, skunks, rats and mice. Safer than moth balls.
Laundry Guy: stain removal tools
And Craig used (to work out all kinds of stains)
Method Laundry Stain Remover (Craig discovered that the stain remover is really just method laundry soap inside a bottle that has a little special brush like a toothbrush to work out stains)
So if you don't have any of that just use the laundry detergent or Dawn dish soap apparently works really well too and a used soft toothbrush.
Today one of my biggest fears came to pass. All I can say is Thank You God for blessing me with the best of care and that things didn't happen the way they could have. I have a number of stories about how I believe God protected me. How? Things like my brand new wheelchair batteries stopped working just after I arrived at a safe location, instead of the middle of a crazy freeway/expressway!
Find out what by watching our vlogventure for today.
I name these particular vlogs Worlds Collide because we have more than one vlog/blog. So when the subject matter covers our life and creativity or our faith in Jesus, worlds essentially collide! Makes sense to me anyway. Walking Way Overrated is our life vlog/blog And Heartfully Creating is my creativity and Sure Hope Gazette is our Christianity Blog/Vlog
I name these particular vlogs Worlds Collide because we have more than one vlog/blog. So when the subject matter covers our life and creativity or our faith in Jesus, worlds essentially collide! Makes sense to me anyway. Walking Way Overrated is our life vlog/blog And Heartfully Creating is my creativity and Sure Hope Gazette is our Christianity Blog/Vlog
WATCH Below
Thank you for stopping by!
This posting coincides with my creativity/art blog- Heartfully Creating here: https://heartfullycreating.blogspot.com and Our Life blog- WALKING WAY OVERRATED: www.walkingwayoverrated.blogspot.com
Hi guys! Finally finally finally, we can see the yard and the White Mountain has been annihilated. Here's a short vlog that also includes a big surprise for us!
This vlog was a challenge to edit. It was the morning after another night of camping out in the living room. That's where Craig sleeps on the great futon my Dad made for him and I tilt my wheelchair back and try to sleep beside him. The morning after was Craig's 70th Birthday. That meant we were celebrating with cake for breakfast. Not just on his birthday morning, but the day before. We call that birthday eve. But since we only drink coffee for breakfast, we simply must have a slice of cake with it.
Since Craig's birthday was on Sunday, we also spend the morning at our online church with Pastor Charles Lawson.
We are experiencing snow again! I will spare you guys from another snow related vlog. They don't seem to end. It's definitely most unusual for this time of year to not have experienced green grass and some new growth by now. April is Craig's birthday month and the night before we had one of our living room indoor camping adventures. For fun, and blogging content that will most likely cause most viewers to nod off. It is fun for us to have visual record of some parts of our unique life, either way. Admittedly it was embarrassing as I edited this vlog, to find out why you must watch!
We don't attend a physical building for church anymore as you will see. In this vlog we recorded not just Craig's birthday morning but how we. go to our online church. The pastor is Charles Lawson, you will hear his voice in the background.
Hi guys. It's been a trying spring. Well, trying as we wait for spring. It's April 22nd and we still have snow on the ground. In all my years of living in northwestern Ontario, I have never seen snow stay on the ground for so long. Usually we've had green and even possible crocuses trying to poke through. Pretty sure I remember that correctly. Here are just a couple short videos from the last couple nights of the lovely "Spring" we are having so far. One is a pretty cool surprise. I do love dramatic weather.
