My Introduction…

Hello. My name is Mrs Little By Little and this is my life, my introduction. Little by little is how everything moves around here. I’m a wife, a Mom, a Lupus warrior, a Sjogren’s Sister, a full time healthcare worker, and a lover of DIY and home decor.

I do have big ideas and dreams but sometimes they take me a while longer to achieve than most people. But that’s okay. One foot in front of the other is all I can do. Sometimes that refers to projects and sometimes that refers to my personal life. Sometimes it’s all I can do just to get through my work day or work week, and then sometimes I actually accomplish something around the house. Unless you suffer from chronic illness that might be a little hard to understand- limited, not limitless, energy. We live by different rules set by our bodies. Sometimes we call it the Spoon Theory.

What is the spoon Theory?

We start the day with a certain amount of spoons and we have to bargain and budget how many we use a little differently than everyone else. What may require one spoon for a healthy person (think taking a shower and getting ready for work) may require us to use up three spoons. By the end of your work day you may have enough spoons left to tackle a project but mine may have all been used up by the end of my work day and that means I’m down until morning. C’est la vie… such is life for a chronic illness sufferer. For a better idea of the whole concept I’ll link the original story of the “Spoon Theory”.

Perspective

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t talk about these things for pity or to whine…it’s just how it is. I’m not alone, and I’m not any different than anyone else who deals with chronic illnesses. We just deal with it in our own unique ways. Remember, I’m in healthcare and I come in contact with people with cancer- even children with cancer- and lots of people with lots of different ailments and issues so I know it could always, always be worse. It does give me perspective. I’ve had two brain surgeries for Arnold Chiari malformation, I live with multiple autoimmune diseases and fibromyalgia, I get Botox injections in my neck every 3-4 months for Cervical Dystonia and to control a very bad head tremor, and have a bum knee from a fall that never really got better limiting a lot of choices I make BUT I’m still here. Moving forward. One foot in front of the other. I’m able to work- many with my conditions aren’t. I’m able to do lots of things many with chronic illnesses aren’t able to do. So, I am very thankful for my blessings.

Why Am I Telling You All Of This?

Why am I telling you all of this? I don’t really know. I feel like if I’m going to blog, then you need to know who I am, I need to be transparent. Maybe there’s someone out there like me looking for some encouragement. Maybe there’s someone out there like me not looking for encouragement and I surprise them with a small spark of inspiration for their own life or home. Hopefully there’s someone who says, “well, if she can do it, I can too…”. That, my friends, would be pretty awesome.

Working on this 100 year old house is a long slow process. I hope to share it all with you. Trust me, I have plenty to do. Along the way, I’ll share everything I use, everything I do, and hopefully some little tricks that help accommodate my chronic illness friends out there. We can get there just like everyone else eventually, it just may take us a little longer than the rest. So what? It’s not a race. All we have to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other guys, and we can tackle anything. Piece by piece at our own pace- Little by little.