Friday Fun~Some Interesting Videos

I hope y'all had a wonderful time yesterday. You probably talked too much, ate too much, and I hope were surrounded by love.

I ran across some interesting videos this week on YouTube (yeah, yeah, I spend too much time on YouTube) having to do with disabilities. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If so, these are worth millions of words. I always say disability is a perception problem. In some ways we are more creative, determined, and more adaptable than our able bodied counter parts. The able bodied are hampered from reaching their full potential.

(All of these have YouTube standard licensing)

The first one I saw was at Rose B. Fischer's blog. It's called the Social Model of Disability by Geoff Adams- Spink. Just think if the shoe was one the other foot as this animation demonstrates so well.

The next one is also self explanatory about inclusion for disabled people. The last one is the perfect example of why I can't read for pleasure since my second stroke..on dyslexia. One of the best explanation videos I've seen to date.

So we're all in this together. Stand up and be heard.

Redefining Disability Project~ Post #2

This is question #2 from the list of the Redefining Disability Project.


2. If you have a medical diagnosis, do you see yourself as having a disability? Why or why not? If you don’t have one, how do you view the concept of disability or the people in your life who have them?

Up until two years ago, I was invisibly handicapped. I was disabled but able. Multiple back surgeries and joint replacements will do that. While I was technically disabled, I really didn't view myself disabled because I could pretty much do what I wanted within a set of limitations. I never bothered to try and file for Social Security Disability because I knew I would be able to adapt to somewhat normal movements despite my doctors trying to get me to file. Yes, it took years, but I proved them all wrong and did it within reason.

But, all that changed with my stroke. Now, my brace wasn't temporary so bones could heal. My brace and possibly a cane would be a visible part of my life forever. I progressed from wheelchair to walker to cane very quickly in a matter of months. My arm with the spasticity was visually nonfunctioning. My speech pattern had changed with the aphasia.

Now, I am visually disabled so I'm disabled. The fact that I can't use my right arm, can't move my wrist or fingers is not only a visible sign of being limited, but is limiting things I want and should be doing. This is different. Now I'm disabled for all the world to see and hear. No one asks why I have a handicapped license plate. Just like when I turned thirty and they stopped carding me to buy alcohol in a convenience store. 

It's a sad turn of events, for sure. A proverbial slap in the face. Not that I liked people asking why I was handicapped. There was a comfort in not being visually handicapped. I looked no different than anybody else. I could even deny the fact for myself for certain things because although limited I could function. No, I wasn't lifting several hundred pounds anymore, but only I knew that. Denial can be a beautiful thing.

If I get excited or giggly, you can't understand a word I say...or even be able to say a word. I'll just have one arm gesturing wildly. With only one hand gesturing, do you only understand half of what I'm saying? I've often wondered over the past two years. Yeah, I talk with my hands. It used to be sign language, but now it's just emphasizing everything I say, but that's how this bad habit got started.  

To prove my use of visual impact of my speech, look how many graphics I use in my blogs instead of others. I still try and use hand gestures because my husband is legally deaf. He reads lips are facial features to understand his 95% loss of actual hearing what is being said to him. I could teach him sign language, but he's a stubborn Irish man and clings to his 5% and is resistant to learning it. He turned 66 last Saturday. I pick the fights I can win.

Why do I fight the term disabled? Doesn't everyone want to be normal or viewed as normal? Is there a stigma attached to being classified as disabled? Are there preconceived notions attached? Are we second class or even third class citizens because of being disabled?

Yep, it's a matter of perception. The world touts the "beautiful" people. But true beauty is what really counts and it's inside of all of us. Yes, even me. It isn't like battling cancer. We didn't die or lived to be touted as heroes. We wear outward scars of our battles as we struggle to find our new normal. We seem somehow lacking to those who view us on a daily basis. We are missing limbs, eyesight, mobility, and can't be everything for everyone else. We have an innate need to be needed and useful part of society too. Instead of being looked down on, or pitied, or scorned.

I have found that beauty begins within. You need to recognize it in yourself for others to see it. Find your talents. Even if you can no longer do this or that. You still are a valuable commodity. You still have something to offer and bring to the table with the "norms." Stand up, even figuratively, you have fought harder than any of them to get where you are or still be where you are at. Disabled is just a word used to describe us. I prefer the words "victorious survivor."

Nothing is impossible with determination. 

Monday Mailbox~ A Survivalist with Disabilities

I had a couple of interesting emails this week. They both concerned my book Are You a Survivalist or a Prepper? The gist of the emails were this...How am I a survivalist/prepper if I'm disabled too? This book just got its first 5-star review on Amazon! I'm excited.

Interesting question, but I am still both just slower at it now. I guess the easiest answer is that I started the ball rolling before my stroke. I had all the building blocks in place. If I hadn't I would have to hire a handyman or specialists to do the conversions for me.

But now for the longer answer. Being proactive for any eventuality is a lifestyle. I learned and practiced this lifestyle since I became responsible for my children. The world of responsibility changes once you have another mouth or five to feed, clothe, or be responsible for instead of just your own. You start thinking in terms of future instead of the pleasures of the moment. You are the custodians of the future.

Growing up with parents and grandparent, who survived war shortages and the Great Depression doesn't hurt either. Like all elder relatives they have an impact on your life and how you grow up. By the time I was born most of that strife was history, but not forgotten history. It missed me by that <holding thumb an index finger a half inch apart> much. I was too young to remember the hardships.

I never forgot the stories. I knew history had a way of repeating itself in various forms. The World Wars were dubbed the war that would end all wars was not true. Did wars end, no, but we don't feel the impact as a society as we once did.Years spent hiding under a desk in mock atomic blast drills are still in my memory. Not that a desk would stop annihilation from a nuclear bomb, but it might protect us from some falling debris. Money would never be as tight as the Great Depression, or will it? Where are we now? Very close.

So when I became the parent, I wanted my children to know a life of ease, but not forget the past. While I passed on the stories from their grands and great-grand, I began implementing my own strategy of what I would do if it happened again. My Momma always told me never to forget there would be an again. I started researching ways to put food up for long storage, making friends with people who knew these things, and studied hard because now the future was in my hands. I've devote my whole adult life to this concept of again.

Not that the errors of the past have repeated themselves in my life, but maybe in my adult children or grandchildren's lives. They will be armed for that eventuality. My stores are not for some future calamity, but comfort for daily living the smart way. But if there were ever a crisis on a global scale, we would survived.

Now that I've covered the background information into my current mindset let's get on to my present condition. My stores that I have been collecting and rotating for years has come in pretty handy in the past nine months to the day of my stroke.  Imagine you have a grocery store, albeit small, in your home. How often do you need to go shopping? How much do you really have to cook from scratch or chop vegetables? Especially, if you have them pre-chopped and frozen or dehydrated already? My stores are my life line. It saves me money and it's practical. Yes, my stores will eventually run low and I'll have to replace them.

That's why I still coupon and weekly grocery shop. Granted I'm not hitting ten stores to get the best price even free anymore, but still I'm replenishing what we are using. My garden died last year, but I had enough in stores to handle that. In my book, I talked about putting up my stores with twenty mouths to feed for six months to a year, how much do you think two mouths would have depleted the supplies? That's right, not much. My storeroom still looks like this and that's with my children pulling for their families too. By the way, this is two shelves out of ten.

But Jo, you are a hemiplegic. No, I can't shop by myself anymore, but my children are beside me learning as I go. Then they are  leading by example for their children by practicing the same preparedness behavior.  I don't object to spending good money for something I need or want, but I'll squeeze a penny until it screams for mercy. If I need a new computer, I'll buy a new computer as good or better than I want for a great price. I have valuable knowledge to impart on the future generations.

After my stroke I bought one of those slice-o-matic things that you see on TV. I couldn't justify the price before when I had a knife and skills to use it. But now, it's about convenience. I can pop vegetables in it and slice away to my heart's content for my dehydrator.  Perfect uniformed slices every time and with one hand. So I can continue taking advantage of BOGO (buy one get one free) sales.

While I finally had to fork out the cash for a new stove, my solar oven and twig stove are dismantled for future use. Yes, it is an added drain on electricity from my solar panels but that's why I didn't totally go off of my regular electricity server. I'd planned for total off-the-grid living for our property. It may be a few years for that move. At least until I can get one of my children's family to move out there with us. That doesn't stop my son-in-law from building the trailer homes for the property though.

My stroke was a bump in the road. Eventually, I'll figure out a way to do all the things before or regain the use of limbs that don't work like gardening on a large scale instead of in raised pots. Until then, I'll keep plugging away at my new book, have the knowledge I do, and do what I can.

Are you prepared?

Keep writing and loving the Lord.