I’m astounded when I think about the market for bags of ice. This week, with our refrigerator still broken, we have been keeping a few things in a cooler and replacing the ice frequently. I don’t think I’ve ever before questioned or contemplated the fact that I can get bags of ice at nearly every grocery store, convenience store, and gas station. Who needs all of this ice that there is such a market? Do enough refrigerators break that frequently all over the country? Or are that many people camping and entertaining? I love reading the nutrition label. Calories: Zero. Ingredients: Water. I’m astonished and grateful that it is so easy to come by frozen water. I’m also really looking forward to a new refrigerator being delivered tomorrow.
At the other end of the temperature spectrum, Texas was, unsurprisingly, hot. After Higgy Con we had a few hours on Monday morning before we flew home, so of course we went to the Peppa Pig Theme Park! Since most theme parks are filled with rides we call Jenny’s Nightmare, a park designed for younger kids was perfect for me, although even Daddy Pig’s roller coaster looked like too much. When asked what roller coaster I would like, I replied, “a train.” Carl and the girls rode the mini coaster, and then we all went on a tame boat ride. My absolute favorite thing was riding the dinosaur. It was very tame, but with just the tiniest bit of wobble as the Dino went around a monorail. The disappointment of the day was that the store only had t-shirts for toddlers and babies. Sarah was extremely upset because she had her heart set on getting a Peppa t-shirt. She loves new shirts like Amy likes stuffed animals, and we have acquired many of each this summer. Now that the girls get an allowance, it is not as much in our control about when Sarah gets a new shirt. She had a lot of money saved up and some of the t-shirts came from conferences, so in the past two months she has acquired ten new t-shirts! Often these shirts provide entertainment and interaction because she likes to spell words out of the letters on a shirt – especially if you can spell “isn’t it” or if you can count the number of Ts on the shirt.
Last night we went out to dinner to celebrate Amy’s two year brace-a-versary. You know how when you watch an athlete doing something challenging but they make it look easy because they are just that good? I think that is the case with Amy. She is so good at wearing a brace that she makes it look easy, as if it’s no big thing, but it has been a journey and she deserves all of the credit for persevering! In the bracing world, people usually talk about brace compliance or brace adherence to mean how much a person wears their brace. I want new terminology. I want it to be brace ownership or brace determination, because Amy has decided that she is going to go above and beyond the daily hourly requirement or suggestion for what will make a difference (16 hours). We were told that if you are regularly below your recommended number of hours, you might as well not bother wearing it. Every additional hour can make a big difference in helping your curve not get worse. Amy wears her brace for 18-22 hours per day! She tracks it using an app on her phone, and if I ever say anything about her bracing it is usually to remind her that she can take a break. Now, if only I could figure out the magical way to induce Schroth (scoliosis-specific physical therapy) ownership and determination as opposed to Schroth compliance (always with a “fiiiiinnnneeee” in response to my prompt). Amy is an incredible example of taking on a new challenge, persevering through the feelings and the squishing, and still being sparkly, dynamic, and present in her life. When she was a toddler I used to think her theme song was “Break My Stride” by Matthew Wilder because the lyrics are about nothing slowing a person down. She may not think of that as her theme song, but I still do. She is a force of nature, but she is so sparkly, sunshiny, kind, thoughtful, gentle, and graceful as she moves through life, that you might not see it as anything other than easy sailing. I don’t know what athleticism of being goes into it, and she may not either, but she is an inspiration through and through, and nothing can squash her sunshine for long, no matter how hard she is squeezed.
Many any pressure you feel just push your sunshine more forcefully into the world.
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