Tips Archives - Page 3 of 6 - The Sweet and The Salty

Getting Out and About When One Child Uses A Wheelchair And The Other A Stroller: The Outside Edition

By Jody February 1, 2016

I recently found myself in quite a predicament trying to get out and about with my son using a wheelchair and my daughter getting a bit to squirmy for the baby carrier I had been using.

I scoured the internet looking for a solution and was pretty bummed there weren’t many readily found options out there.

It took quite a bit of digging until I eventually came across The Random Tandem Connection and all of a sudden life got a whole lot better.

This bar/clamp solution has been a game changer for me by allowing me to attach my daughter’s stroller to the side of my son’s wheelchair, making a stroller/wheelchair “double stroller.”

(Since this picture was taken we have gotten his seat and seat back replaced, it was falling apart!)

This is what I use when we go on walks around the neighborhood and I have been loving it. (This makes it too wide to go thru doors so its best for outdoors. I share my solution for when we go to appointments and other places indoors here.)

When I first got it and tried it out I was using an Uppa Baby Cruz and the shape of the frame of the stroller made it really challenging to attach, which made it really frustrating and time consuming so not as useful.

We decided to purchase this stroller instead and it has been pretty much seamless ever since. The smaller the frame of the stroller the less cumbersome and quicker it will be to attach.

This little contraption has seriously made such a difference for me. Before we had it and a stroller it worked well with, I wasn’t able to get out and exercise my favorite way, long walks around the neighborhood.

Being able to take both kids on a walk together has been such a treat for me and the kids love sitting next to each other and enjoying the ride.

Plus getting outside and going for a stroll keeps them busy when I need a break but can’t really get one. Also it calms them (and me!) and sort of “resets” us all when everyone’s getting a little out of sorts.

My son takes his big brother role of looking out for his little sister very seriously. When we first started using it I told him we needed to make sure she didn’t roll away and this was his solution :)!

How does the Random Tandem work:

The Random Tandem Connection consists of three bars, six clamps, and a safety strap.

To connect the stroller and wheelchair simply attach three clamps to the frame of the wheelchair and three clamps to the frame of the stroller, in spots parallel to each other.

Here’s a clamp on the stroller.

Here’s a clamp on the wheelchair.

Attach one clamp towards the bottom, one in the middle, and one towards the top of both the stroller and wheelchair.

Next line up the bars one by one and insert into each clamp and tighten.

Loop the safety strap between the stroller and wheelchair and there you go!

You’re all set, attached and ready to roll!

It does take a bit of practice at first.

The beauty of the Random Tandem is in its ability to attach at all types of angles. Once you get the angles down that work with the particular stroller and wheelchair you are attaching it gets easier the more times you attach and go.

I really hope this system helps you get out and about more if you’ve found yourself in this same situation.

It was such a breath of fresh air for me to be able to get out and, well get a breath of fresh air on my own with both my kids!

Let’s Talk: Have you found yourself in the same predicament? What tips or solutions do you have? What’s your favorite activity to “reset” yourself and/or your kids when everyone’s feeling out of sorts?

(This post contains affiliate links. Read disclosure policy here. I only link to what I personally use, love and/or see as useful. All opinions are 100% my own. Thank you so much for your support along this journey, whether that is you reading along and cheering us on, or if you find something I linked to useful and you contribute, at no extra cost to you, by making a purchase through my affiliate link. Either way, I sincerely thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by and read these words of mine.)

I Guess Adult Coloring Is For Me

By Jody January 28, 2016

So I never thought that I would be jumping on the adult coloring book bandwagon, but here I sit.

I had seen people raving about adult coloring books and how relaxing it was but I just didn’t really get it and have to admit I thought it was a little silly.

Then I saw a comment somewhere on the Internet from someone saying that they didn’t get why it was so special either until they sat down and tried it themselves and walked away a new person.

That peaked my interest enough to look at some on Amazon and mention it to my mom. Well along came Christmas and what did I find under the tree but an adult coloring book and some colored pencils for me :).

Needless to say I have discovered that adult coloring is a good fit for me!

Since Christmas, I have only completed one page in my book. But really, who cares?

The beautiful thing is it doesn’t matter how quick or even how good I am at coloring the pages.

What matters is that it’s something creative I can do that I enjoy and there’s absolutely no pressure about it at all.

I don’t feel like a new person when I walk away from a session of coloring, but I do walk away a more relaxed person and that definitely says a lot.

In addition to being relaxing, it also felt pretty good to finish my first page and look back and realize that instead of picking up my addiction of choice when I had some downtime, I had made a series of healthier decisions to spend time on something rejuvenating and restorative for my soul rather than wasting time on what I know drains and depletes me.

Will I even finish the whole book by the end of the year?

Probably not, it took me a whole month just to do one page.

But that’s okay and that’s the beauty of it, there’s no time limit, no right or wrong way to do it, and no one depending on me to get it done.

It’s just me sitting down, relaxing, and having some good old-fashioned fun.

And doing that, I’m learning, is important in this life to help offset all the pressure filled stuff.

(Tip: I have one spot where I usually sit to relax and I keep my coloring book and pencils in the end table drawer right there for easy access. I keep a lap desk, similar to this one here, next to where I sit as well. I store the colored pencils (in their box) along with a pencil sharpener in a gallon size ziplock bag. The colors I’m using for the particular picture I’m working on I keep all together in a rubber band in the ziplock bag so I don’t have to keep searching for them when I sit down to color. This way everything’s right there and ready to go when I am!)

UPDATE: I now use this case here to keep my colored pencils and Tombow brush markers corralled! I love my new case. Now I’m even more ready to color when a few minutes of free time arises!

What to do with completed pages? I plan on keeping some of them for myself but some I’m planning on sending off as fun mail for family or friends. My first completed one is going to my niece because she’s pretty awesome!

(This post contains affiliate links. Read disclosure policy here.)

Let’s Talk: What do you do to rejuvenate yourself when you have a few minutes of downtime?

Help With My Mornings? Yes Please!

By Jody December 26, 2015

Mornings at our house are really hard.

One of my children has really bad reflux and it is at its worst during the first couple of hours that they are awake and therefore those first couple of hours are spent trying our hardest to push through and get done the absolute basics if even that in between cleaning up the aftermath of that reflux.

There have been numerous times that I have been feeding one child with one hand and holding a bucket in front of the other with my other hand.

We go through a couple different outfits every morning and it has nothing to do with being indecisive about what we want to wear.

These morning time challenges come morning after morning following night after night of being up late.

As a result I found myself always starting the day off already behind. This cycle of starting the day already behind was very much a challenge for me for quite awhile.

I’d read quite a few books and articles on time management, organizing etc trying to find some solutions but didn’t have much luck finding any strategies I could successfully apply in our unique situation.

Well I’m excited to say all that has changed!

I have finally come across some solid strategies and advice that have helped to bring a nice rhythm and routine to our mornings (and evenings as a result!) that is giving me that little bit of headway I have been craving.

What is the resource you ask? It is the Make Over Your Mornings 14 day Online Course by Crystal Paine.

(Click here to try the 1st day for free!)

I have been an avid reader of all things Crystal Paine for years now. I read her books, her emails, and regularly devour her blog, Money Saving Mom.

Her blog not only helps women get it together in the area of finances but also in life in general.

The words of wisdom she shares on her blog have empowered me to be an intentional wife, an intentional mom, an intentional friend, and intentional with all the day to days of life.

One of the unique things about Crystal that has stood out to me over the years I’ve been reading her blog is her genuine ability to think outside of her own circumstances and truly be able to see the intricacies of the challenges others are facing, even if she is not facing those same challenges.

Crystal is not a mother of a special needs child herself but she is one who I can say gets it.

She gets it in the sense that she knows she doesn’t get it but she knows it’s hard, it can be isolating, that mothers of children with special needs have unique challenges they face and she doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge that the hardships a mother of a child with special needs experiences are different than her own.

This is something I have long admired her for.

When Crystal announced her 14 day Make Over Your Mornings Course was available for purchase I bought it quickly and confidently knowing I would be able to apply her advice in some way to help me get a grip on my mornings.

(Click here to grab your Make Over Your Mornings course!)

When I started the course (which can be done in 15 min a day!) I was absolutely blown away, not just by the top notch quality and content of the videos and included downloadable workbook, but by the fact that several times throughout the course (specifically on Day 2 and Day 8 of the videos) Crystal gives very specific applicable advice for parents caring for a child with special needs.

She then takes it a step further and gives some very needed (for me at least!) affirmation and encouragement in the video segment for day 8 “Creating a to do list that serves not strangles.”

I showed my husband the video for Day 8 and he was very pleasantly surprised as well. We’ve found it to be very rare (and maybe we’ve just been looking in the wrong places) but we rarely come across someone with the success and reach that Crystal has, who does not have a child with special needs herself, who considers and includes families with a child with special needs the way she does in her Make Over Your Mornings Course and as I have seen her do on her blog.

I don’t want to give the impression that if you go to her site or take the course you will find every post dedicated to special needs parenting. That is not the case at all.

What you will find though is a site and course dedicated to helping women live their lives well, and that means all women, including moms of children with special needs.

I wholeheartedly recommend the Make Over Your Mornings Course. It’s a course I think all women (single, married, mom or not, working or stay home, have a child with special needs or not) will find beneficial.

It’s not a course you’ll be rolling your eyes at saying I can’t do that, I have tube feeds to do, therapies to get to, doctors appointments to schedule or anything else that is overwhelming in your life.

I get it, I am there and I have found the course to be very practical, helpful and applicable to my unique circumstances as a special needs mother.

The information and action steps contained in the course are laid out so they can be applied to your own life in a way that makes sense and works for your unique circumstances.

One final very important note, Make Over Your Mornings is NOT a course about waking up early, it’s a course all about how to use your morning time well (whatever time mornings start for you) for the sole purpose of living the rest of your days intentionally and well!

***If you want to know some specifics of the changes I’ve implemented in our mornings as a result of the course, a couple people asked that and I shared more about it in the comments. Just scroll down a bit and there’s more about that there 😊.***

Click here to grab your Make Over Your Mornings course!

Not 100% sure the course is for you? No worries, there is a money back guarantee AND you can try the first day for free by clicking here and scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page!