Celebrate the small stuff.

It's Friday and that means it's time for a celebrate the small stuff post.

I've actually been slacking in these and a lot of other blog related stuff lately. I have been busy in other areas though and that brings me to my first celebration.

My first draft of my current WIP is complete YAY!!!

I am trying to wait for a couple of weeks before starting the editing process but really struggling with this right now as I just want to get on with it. On top of that this book is making me nervous all round. For a start it's Christian fiction and not having published anything Christian fiction before I am worried how it will be received as I know some people are instantly put off when they hear Christian fiction. Before becoming a Christian I used to be one of those people.

Now, I realise of course that Christian fiction can be just as good as any other kind of fiction. In fact Francine Rivers, who write pretty much nothing but Christian fiction, is one of my favourite authors now and is an absolutely amazing writer. If you haven't read any of her books you should, she's brilliant. Redeeming love is my personal favourite. Her characters are brilliantly crafted and the plots just Wow!

Which brings me to my next celebration this week. Their are rumours that redeeming love is going to be made into a film. A big woop woop and a mega happy dance. You have no idea how excited this makes me. On her blog Francine Rivers reveals that she is talking with several interested parties about the possibility. AMAZING!!!! I am a very happy bunny right now.

I found a video on You Tube that gives a good idea of the book. It's a fan made book trailer. They did an amazing job of it.

My third celebration, medication. 

I put off for a long time going on prescription medication and finally gave in a couple of weeks ago. At first it made me really sleepy and a bit spaced out but I seemed to have got more used to it now and so that area has improved. It's having a small effect on the pain, it's certainly taken the edge off a little but not as much as I hoped. Still a little less pain is something to celebrate right and this is just a trial on the way to finding something that does work so fingers crossed. 

on a silly note, I was a little unnerved when I saw who had checked my medication, an LOL. hehe.

Book week. Yes it's book week this week and my son wanted to be hiccup from the book version of how to train your dragon by Cressida Cowell. Look how cute he looks.

We'd ordered him a dragon from Amazon but it didn't come in time so on the Wednesday night we were in a mad rush to make him one. There were wings to but the refused to stay on his scooter so we had to opt for just the head. I think we did and okay toothless, (book version not film version, who is decidedly toothy but whatever) what do you think?

here's the book cover where you can see the book version of toothless that I copied for the head.

He went to school all smart looking and returned in true Kye style looking like a very battle worn hiccup, hat askew, dragon beheaded, and Viking sword broken, but he had a blast and that's all that matters. 

Hubby had a fight with a tree last week and as a result had to be off work for a week due to having this week already book as holiday he has enjoyed a two week vacation all be it a sore one as he badly bruised his foot. It was fun watching him hobble around with my pink spotty crutches at the beginning of the first week though, when he could barely put any weight on his foot (no pictures sadly, every time I tried he would drop the crutches and refuse to pick them up till the camera was down. Such a meanie lol). The celebration though is he is feeling much betters and a lot less sore now and will be backs at work Monday. Which as much as I love him I am very much looking forward to as I get my peace and quiet back lol. 

He has spent the last three days out playing with the car as he is installing one of those fancy sterios with the tv screen on which you can watch tv and movies, mobile connection through Bluetooth, GPS, reversing camera and all that jazz. Kye will love being able to watch movies in the back of the car so that's great, although I did put my foot down when Dan wanted to attached either the playstation or xbox too it. Dan becomes absorbed by computer games and I had images of being stuck in a car park for hours on end while he just completed this bit and then this bit and then... Well you get the idea. 

Last but far from least and this is a real big celebration item. The lovely Samantha Bell one of my all time best friends passed her driving test yesterday. Well done Sammy I knew you could do it. She is far more braver than I.

Here's the lovely wammy :)

It's been a good week this week and I've actually really enjoyed it despite some pretty bad pain days, so how about you what are you celebrating?

Love and hugs Joss xxx 

For those of you who don't know, Celebrate the Small Stuff is an awesome blog hop, hosted by The Vikilit's writing blog.  It enables the blogger community to come together every Friday and check out what everyone is celebrating this week. If you want to join in or find out what others are celebrating, just click the link (in blue above) and sign up to the linky link on the Viklit's blog.  :)

Progress

It's been a while since I've done a blog post and a lot has been going on. I have been writing up a storm on my current work in progress and have gone from around 5000 words to over 70k in less than a month. Which is epic for me. I can't remember the last time I got so enthused by something I was writing.

I think it has a lot to do with giving up second life. It is so easy to get absorbed in that game and it just isn't worth it. You just end up wasting so much time and money and it's so stupid really, but it did play a role in my life for the last few years as I struggled to come to terms with my dissability. I guess Second life gave me a place where I could be normal or at least feel it at any rate. I could walk, dance, ride horses, do all the things, normal people do. That's what's hardest about my back injury. It makes you feel as if your not normal. As if you are holding everyone else back and getting in everyone's way. It changes your life completely and nothing is simple anymore. 

For example: you can't just think, I'll go to the toilet now. First you have to ask can I get there without my crutches. Regardless of if the answer is yes or no, once you get there you know your staying there for a while, because your back can't take the return journey straight away. So then you need to think about a book or something. If your using crutches to get there you then need to take your bag to carry the book in and sometimes when it's really bad, you have to stop on route and sit in the chair in the hall for a while and that is just to go to the bathroom, so going out, takes even more thought and consideration. 

I understand why some disabled people give up and stop leaving home altogether. If it weren't for my son and my husband, I probably would have too but the need to be with my family and to do as much with them as was physically possible has pushed me to try and find solutions to my problems. 

Starting out there was my mobility scooter and it was brilliant. It changed my life dramatically and meant I could be a normal mum, who could take her kid to school, but it wasn't good enough for going out to shops. It was too big and incredibly heavy for my husband to lift into the car. So we got a wheelchair.

I haven't got on well with the wheelchair. I've never had very good upper arm strength and so getting myself around made me exhausted and fast. Being pushed just wasn't an option for me. I needed to do it for myself. I didn't just want to give in and let this beat me. I didn't want to be completely reliant on someone else being there to get me round. 

Recently though, crutches were brought to mind. I was sceptical they would help but for want of anything better to try, I rushed out and brought some. No boring gray ones for me, if I was doing this I was getting fun colourful ones, that I could feel less self conscious about. So I got these:

They weren't cheap and I researched the best make for not only long term use and comfort but for use with a back condition like mine. I was sceptical, I really was but now I've had them over a month and for the first time in years. I have been able to not only go out with my family without wheelchair or mobility scooter but been able to walk around, not just one but two relatively large shops in one day. 

Now this might not seem like much, but when you have only been able to sit in the car and wait while your family go into shops and explore, for the last 2 or 3 years, it is amazing to get to do that again.

It was a huge achievement for me and the first time was amazing for all of us. We were so happy and it was a very excitable day in the Solheim house. Especially as the first time, around the two shops, was achieved during a period that we classed as a bad day. Where my back was very tender. 

Other changes are my blue badge which enables us to park in disabled spots and on double yellow lines, which gets me much closer to the shop to start with and give me an even better chance of making it around the shop. 

Lastly there is my new pain medication. Yes I finally caved and agreed to Perscription pain medication which wasn't an easy choice for me. I had heard so many horror stories, but in the end the pain just became to much. 

It hasn't completely gotten rid of my pain but it has eased it. It has other effects to though. It makes me very tired the first few days I was taking it, I struggled to keep my eyes open.

Given a choice, no one would choose this but sometimes in life we don't get choices and we are forced to ride an emotional roller coaster. I'm on mine but I am adapting and coming to terms with it. Slowly. 

But here is where I want to get serious because here is where you can help people like me and it's simple. Don't stare! We are people just like you. So we had some bad luck, so what. Will get on with it and get over it, but that is made a lot harder when people constantly stare at you. It makes you feel judged. It makes you feel like you don't have a right to be out there in the world with all the normal people. Feeling like that, worrying about others opinions, has been the biggest and hardest hurdle to me. 

So look if you must, but at least offer a smile or a friendly word along with it.

I hope you all have a lovely day and I'll try to blog again soon. 

Love and hugs 

joss xx