This exciting ( and sometimes funny) blog will help you visualize the potential you have to expand your travel horizons as a caregiver! Yes, you CAN travel with an older loved one who has disabilities. You are not stuck! With a little planning and flexibility you can still travel and see what is out there in this wide wide world. There are few barriers and even more opportunities that you can make work for you. Join us as we explore the country trippin with dad!
Disney cruising with Dad- day 2
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I truly believe that sometimes God taps you on the shoulder early in the morning to make sure you don't miss his majesty in action. It happened the first morning at sea. My eyes popped open for seemingly no reason and I made my way to the balcony just in time to witness our ship glide into Nassau. How a ship that size maneuvers with the precision it does is absolutely mind boggling!
Mind you, I really didn't get much sleep as Dad seemed convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was letting someone walk out the door with "stuff I might need" later. He was quite perturbed about this lapse in judgement and spoke loudly about it half the night. I do have a few tricks up my sleeve for an especially talkative roommate and eventually we both were able to get some rest. Nonetheless I felt like I'd gotten enough sleep around 8:00 am to get our day started. It looked like half the ship had the same idea I had to grab an early breakfast. The doors to the buffet were overrun with early birds planning to disembark in Nassau. I had no such plans so, I calmly made my way through the crowds and got coffee and headed back to the room to let the crowds die down. This gave me plenty of time to drink my cup o joe and watch as we entered the port. I got Dad up and dressed and made my way back to get breakfast. What a nice feeling it was knowing we weren't going to disembark, rush around, buy things we don't need etc. We literally chilled out on our huge balcony and enjoyed the space.
I so rarely do this (OK, I NEVER do this on a vacay) that it felt a bit strange. But it also felt like the exact right thing to do. Lets face it. We'd packed so much into our first day that I knew over extending ourselves was NOT the answer to the quiz question, "how should I spend my vacation?" We really indulged by taking a nap before dinner!
Triton's restaurant was our dining destination which is where we'd had soup and salad our first hour on board. Our wait staff was well prepared for our arrival with chairs already pulled out and hot tea waiting. Can I tell you that the main course of Chateaubriand should never be had anywhere except on a Disney cruise. I am not kidding. Best beef evah!
After dinner it was all about cruising around and enjoying the sights and sounds. My miracle for the day? Finding ourselves seated in front row seats for the Disney show "Frozen" totally unexpectedly! Like pretty much everything on a Disney cruise, the theater shows are a big deal. And Dad really enjoyed the whole spectacle. He asked me more than once, 'do they get paid for that?'
Bellies full and eyes full of wonder, we headed back for bed time totally jazzed about the whole evening. But not before I got to walk off a few ounces and catch some night shots of the ship (oh yes, AND get in a bite of strawberry crepes at the night buffet. Remember that Disney calories are magical! Arrgh!)
There comes a time in every womans life when she knows it's time for a change. There's a subtle and discernible shift in the air around your brain where everything starts to look off. My time came during our church fast in January. Fasts are great times to confront LOTS of things, such as our cravings, our shortcomings and the dross that clutters up our lives. Funny thing, my hair started feeling like part of the clutter. On a hot day, there it was suffocating and clingy. While cleaning and cooking? There it was hanging all over the place. Falling into my food while eating? All too common. Then there were the constant comments and apparently hard to control urges to touch my hair by stranger after grabby stranger (without permission of course). I started feeling like my hair could have hosted its own Facebook page and been waaaay more popular than me! So my white roots started growing out but I had no particular plan in mind for the new growth. Styling my hair with so
I have been trying to take better care of myself lately and surprise, surprise, I've been succeeding. I think it's one of those things where you take your eyes off the ball for a season and the ball balloons up from a tennis to a basketball! Lol. Seriously though, I think some of us are better wired to effortlessly juggle multiple responsibilities; I didn't get that wiring. It's the ability we all seek in life but unfortunately strive too hard to achieve. And striving tends to be futile and unbecoming. As a caregiver I've found that it was all too easy to make excuses about taking good care of my temple. I could recite Romans 12:1 easily and part of me wanted to be that acceptable sacrifice. But another self-serving part of me wanted to wallow in the seemingly overwhelming desire to stuff my feelings of frustration and fear down with food. I just couldn't seem to get 'it' ALL done? I can remember recently sitting in the doctors office crying a
Sometimes, you just get these crazy ideas and you think, 'why not?' That's how it generally is when Raymond goes out of town for a class reunion or a golf outing. I always say, "when the cats away, the mice will play", so my mind immediately constructs some fun adventure Dad and I can get into. See, I used to sit at home and mope a bit when he'd leave. You know, the old, 'woe is me!!, why can't I be having any fun?!?!' * cue the violins * Then, it dawned on me one day: Why AREN'T you having fun? Fun is a CHOICE. I flipped the script and next thing you know I've got us booked to go to San Antonio. No...the OTHER San Antonio. You may not already know this dear reader but, I actually live in San Antonio, FLORIDA ( people who live right up the road in Tampa have never even heard of San Antonio Florida so, don't feel bad. LOL). Anyway, I've never spent any real time in Texas so, I says to Dad, "You wanna go to the OTHER San
I am totally reading this backwards :)
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