Fun With Spoons

Check out this lovely necklace made for me by my awesome friend Andrea at Purple Dragonfly!

Have you heard of the Spoon Theory? It was originally written by Christine Miserandino, a young lady with lupus, who took spoons from nearby tables to serve as a visual aid when asked by her friend about daily life. She had her friend describe their daily events & removed a spoon for each task. People with MS or some other chronic conditions have adopted it to give others an idea of what life is like for us. Basically we all start with a specific number of spoons of energy, sometimes less & sometimes more, but those of us with a chronic illness always need to be conscious of how many spoons we have for the day & how we will use them. Getting a shower = 2 spoons, eating breakfast =1 spoon, going to work = 4 spoons, etc. Depending on the individual and the type of day they're having, the number of spoons used for each task varies, but once your spoons are gone they're gone. You may borrow from tomorrow's spoons, but you will have less for the next day. This just means that if we're going on an outing for the day, I need to rest up the day before or the day after because, odds are, my daily ration of spoons will not be enough. With careful planning, I can usually get a few tasks in & still have enough spoons for fun! For more detailed info on the Spoon Theory, read Christine's post.

Even though I have to be careful how I use my spoons, I still have lots of fun! I may not be able to chase my kids around in a game of tag, but we find other lower energy ways to have fun. We still go to ball games of all sorts, visit theme parks, and have adventures outside of our home. If we're staying in we'll play board games, have a baking contest, do some quick crafts, or something else that won't drain my strength too much. See below to find out what Herbie & I did with our spoons today!

We played a fun round of Battleship with Turtle Mae!

Looked at some of the old DC Unexpected comic books

Finally, we watched the girls play some Minecraft before enjoying a little UFC 2 before bed