The Funniest Someecards Of The Week!
Spring break is around the corner and I’m planning a trip. It’s not going to be one that’s really far away at a tropical location, but it will be fun regardless (I'm going to the mountains for a few days). Now, I’m not a stranger to road trips. Last spring break I gave you tips on surviving a spring break road trip. In that article, I briefly talked about the infamous “spoonie bag”. What is a spoonie? I hear you asking yourself, “What the heck is a spoonie?” That’s easy. A spoonie is simply someone who suffers from a chronic or invisible illness. Any chronic illness can qualify; gastroparesis, MCAS, POTS, EDS, Crohn’s, IBS… you know, the alphabet soup of illnesses. You can read more about Spoon Theory here. A spoonie is someone like myself who has to decide on a daily basis how they will spend their energy for the day. What is a spoonie bag? The perfect spoonie bag will be different from illness to illness and person to person. A spoonie bag is one that holds all the important things that you need to be able to get through a day, a trip, or any kind of outing. When I’m traveling, my spoonie bag may look a little different than it would when I’m just heading out of the house for a couple hours. Think of the spoonie bag as your medical kit; the kit that contains all the things you may need for any kind of medical emergency. Instead of bandaids you’d find in a standard medical kit, I carry salt. Salt and increased sodium intake is very important for my type of chronic illness. I have POTS, or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, and one of the ways my doctor has me manage symptoms is by increasing my intake of sodium. I will share with you the things that, in my opinion, all chronic illness sufferers should carry in their spoonie bag and the things that just make sense in my spoonie bag for POTS. Spring Break as a Spoonie It’s around the corner. Spring break. And, whether you’re college aged like myself or you have kids of your own, it’s inevitable that you’re talking about going somewhere, anywhere but staying home. Road trips of any length are difficult for your average person. Add chronic illness to the mix and shew! But here’s the bottom line. Our life is up to us to live. Managing chronic illness somewhere other than home can give you the relaxation and peace of mind you deserve. So, grab your Spoonie Bag and let’s get to packing. Here’s all my essentials: Hand Sanitizer. Post covid, this is a no brainer. Any kind of illness can trigger a flare for me. So, I keep hand sanitizer around for times when I may not have easy access to a bathroom sink to wash my hands. It’s great on spring break trips for pit stops at gas stations. Sick bags. I get nauseated easily and not only when I eat the sketchy gas station food. Personally, I love those compact blue vomit bags from the hospital. They aren’t the prettiest bags, but frankly they get the job done efficiently. They stay folded up nicely in my bag, and as a bonus you can get them in bulk on Amazon. Ginger candies. These are GREAT for nausea. These are sweet hard candies you suck on like a cough drop (but better!). Get yourself some! Medical grade electrolytes. If your electrolyte isn’t medical grade are you really getting the amount of sodium you need? Sports drinks have way too much sugar and not enough sodium. Some of the popular brands like Liquid IV or LMNT don’t contain any sugar. You have to find the balance. Some sugar is needed to properly absorb sodium through the sodium-glucose cotransport system. NormaLyte is a medical grade electrolyte that was made specifically for people with dysautonomia. Check out their free samples and see the difference it can make. Emergency salts. Some people, especially those with POTS, carry little packets of salt with them wherever they go. You know, those little packets you can pick up at fast food places for your french fries. It can help if you find yourself in a mini flare after having overdone an activity. I keep my NormaLyte on hand. It’s in a powder form and can be mixed with water that I keep in my bag at all times so it’s very handy. Phone chargers. I keep extras in my bag. My phone contains all my medical records and other emergency contact information. Speaking of medical records…. Medical records. I keep a one sided sheet of paper with my medical records in case of an emergency. If something were to happen to me and someone needs to know what medications I’m taking, who my doctors are, and who my emergency contacts are they will have access to it. Extra medicines. I always pack my meds, but I keep a medicine organizer in there filled with other various meds just in case. This is especially important if you’re traveling by plane and checking your luggage - you need to have a day or two of medicines readily on hand. Sunscreen. Aren’t sunburns the worst? Salty snacks. I have been known to have actual pickles in my bag. You know those individually wrapped but ginormous pickles with all the world's sodium content? Those. And I will not apologize… want a pickle? I mean, I guess pretzels or popcorn would get the job done too… if you’re in a pinch. haha! Water bottle. Hydration is important for everyone. Have you tried using one of those vacuum insulated stainless steel water bottles? Game changers. Kindle/E-reader. For longer road trips, these are lifesavers. Hand warmers. It’s not summer yet, and if you have Raynaud’s phenomenon where your extremities go numb and start to get cold and tingle then you’ll appreciate having a hand warmer. They make rechargeable warmers that can be used for longer than disposable ones. Raynaud’s phenomenon and POTS can go together according to this article. Extra compression socks. If you have POTS, you know compression socks. I keep extras in case I sweat through mine or just need a change. What do you keep in your spoonie bag? Did I miss anything really important?
50 Phrasal Verbs, Definition and Example Sentences Here are 50 phrasal verbs, definition and example sentences; Catch out to show that sb is doing wrong One day he caught her out when he found some letters she’d written. Catch up on (sth) to deal with a special activity to complete it. You have to catch up on your reading. Catch (sb) up on (sth) to give sb the latest news or information about sth Can someone catch us up on the latest news? Catch on to become popular This game will catch on among young people. Catch up (sb) to reach sb by walking faster John caught up with you later. Catch up in (sth) to be involved in sth unwillingly They weren’t part of
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March 19th is a national flag day celebrating equality and the trailblazing work of writer and journalist Minna Canth.
Super last minute, Sam and I decided to go on a day trip to Catalina Island. It's just off the coast of Southern California and takes about an hour by ferry to get there.
Today’s image is from StockSnap I love a good challenge. Especially if it’s an incentive to fix a problem I’ve been having. Well, a few problems. So I’m going to go for it. I’m go…
Hey Ya'll! Sorry the absence lately. Last week was a rough one personally so I took a few days off from blogging. Today I'm going to share with you our adverb posters. We actually did these about 2 we
Start off the month fresh with the Jump Rope into June Jump Rope Challenge! A great way to hit the reset button and finish strong.
"Whatever."
I'm 25, single and going to get married one day. But exactly when I'll stroll down the aisle... well, I have no clue. But according to a mathematical theory, I need to get the show on the road. Journalist Brian Christian and cognitive scientist Tom…
Kuli Kohli has always used writing as a means of escape from the prejudice she has experienced as an Asian woman with cerebral palsy.
One of my favorite parts of the school day is writing time. I love joining together on the carpet to discuss what writers do, I love the mini-lessons that are to the point, I love hearing Martha Stewart's lullabies everyday and I love scooting in beside a writer and conferring. This year we have incorporated Lucy Calkins' Units of Study for the Common Core. I have to say I like it a lot better than the old Units of Study but still love to create my own lessons. Below are charts based off the charts in the book (with slight changes). I really love the checklist for each genre. My students are constantly at the chart or looking at their personal one inside their writing folder. I said above that I love creating my own lessons. If you have read my blog before you know I love to use mentor texts as examples. In every genre, we use several books to name authors' introductions and conclusions. It can be quite eye opening what the students notice. For this realistic fiction chart we used Junie B. Jones, Mittens, Amelia Bedelia, and Knuffle Bunny. For this next chart we really explore one text, I Am Too Absolutely Small for School by Lauren Child. Everyone in my classroom loves Charlie and Lola, including me! To prepare the chart I only have the title and the book pages. The students decide how to label what the author is doing. An ABSOLUTE must for our writing time is a rubric with writing examples that we call Stage Pages. Before the unit our first grade team reads over the rubric for the county and we create pages that look like Emerging, Progress with Support, Meeting and Exceeding. We keep them in page protectors so we can model how to add on to a paper that isn't meeting standards or how to enhance a meeting to an exceeding story. Three stars = meeting standards The students and I refer to the rubric every day. We make goals for our time each day based off the rubric and it really helps to refer to during conferring. NOW comes the number one thing that influences my students writing....other student's writing! Each day we start our workshop by admiring someone else's work. I purposefully select students' work that hits on the lesson from the day before, shows tremendous growth, hits on our lesson of the day, or extends the work we've been doing but tries something new. By the end of the unit (20 days), I usually have selected a page from each student. During the workshop, I usually try to look out for pages to admire. I'll say to the student, "At the end of writing can I borrow your paper?" Then I make a copy (so we can keep it up in the classroom) and then the only other thing you need is Post-Its. Happy Writing!
How does change happen? For the civil rights movement, it began with a group of people who decided that separate but equal wasn't good enough.
