8 Things to Make Life Easier

Ive always appreciated a life that is full of efficiency and effectiveness.  It is in my life mission statement (I'm such a nerd).  So why MS makes life more challenging with the amount of energy it takes to do things, it also challenges me to find new ways to make life easier.  Which I secretly love. 

Finding things that make life easier also leaves time to be doing more of the things you love.  We only have a certain amount of time; being efficient and effective doesnt mean to run through life faster.  It means to be able to have more time to enjoy the life your living and the people in it.  

Here are 8 things that I have found that make my life easier (and in some ways, even more cost efficient!!)

1. Lists

Yes, the ever loving making of lists.  We love lists: grocery lists, guest lists, who's our favorite celebratory lists.  Lists, though simple, hold so much power.

By writing something down, you are more likely to remember it.  It also helps to organize thoughts.  Head running in a 1000 different directions?  Write it down.  The focus ability will return.

Every evening I make a to-do list for the next day.  Some lists remain on the to-do list for a few weeks and that is ok.  When I wake up, my day is already "organized" and I am less likely to forget something or be stressing about something I waited to do last minute.  

This is also a relaxing method.  I write my to-do life list down in the early evenings so then I can relax for the rest of the day/night.  I dont stress about any items; if something pops up, I put it on the list and put it out of my head till tomorrow.  I leave the stress and anxiety of the day ahead on the paper.  

2. Eos Lip Balm

I know what you're thinking...how can a lip balm make my life easier?  Let me show you the ways...

First, they are adorable, unique and fun!  Using them is very posh.  

Second, they are extremely easy to find.  Chapsticks or lip glosses can so easily get lost in the bottom of a purse, fall out in the car, just disappear in its entirely for no reason.  However these balms are large enough in size (and what else do you put in your purse that is egg shaped?) that they can easily be sought out.  

Third, the balm gives an excellent glossy look without the "hair stuck on lips due to wind" dilemma.  

Fourth, they do an excellent job of moisturizing, meaning you have to use it less.  

3. Vaseline Spray and Go

Lotion has so many benefits in itself: it helps tans last longer, skin looking healthier, have to shave less.  So when Vaseline made a spray and go lotion, I was very excited to try it.  And it does not disappoint!  

 It goes on very easily, rubs in wonderfully and dries quickly so you can be on your way!  I have noticed that I do go through a bottle faster than I would a normal lotion bottle but for me the time saved is worth it.

4. Nail Time

I may go without make-up, I may go without doing my hair but I am never seen without my nails done.  Since before I could write, my Grandma Martin taught me to paint my nails.  And it has stuck these 20 plus years. 

Painting one's nails is very time consuming however.  I have gone all the routes in the salon: gel, acrillics, fancy manicure.  But they add up in $$ after a while.  

After much trail and error, I have found the perfect ingredient list for long lasting nail polish with no chips.  I can paint my nails personally and have the color last for a week or more (a true accomplishment!).

Here are my secrets:

-Nail bonder- the most needed first step.  This is what salons use (hence why salon manicures often last longer).  This is different from a base coat.  A base coat preps the nail by making a flat surface.  A bonder does exactly what it says: it helps to bind the color polish to the nail.  You can find a nail bonder either online or at a make-up store (Sallys, Ulta, etc).  It also dries very quick.

 (This is the best quality nail bonder I have ever used.  Highly suggest.)

-One to two coats of a nail polish.  It can be challenging for me to hold the nail brush at times.  I've found that the smaller, mini-sample bottles are perfect.  Plus, unless you use the same color weekly, a full bottle of nail polish will most likely expire before you use the whole bottle.  The little bottles are  cheaper and much more easier to use. 

-It is important to let the color nail polish completely dry before putting a top coat on; if not, this will lead to smudges.  I've used a personal UV light, fans, quick dry...but the most effective way I've found to help nails dry is after a few minutes to run them under cold water (or put them in a bowl of cold water).  This speeds up the drying process splendidly!

-Top Coat - instead of using an actual top coat, I use a nail strengthener.  It dries faster while still providing the shine and is good for the nail!  

-Every two-three days I do an extra coat of the nail strengthener.  This provides shine the whole manicure length.  Ive had many people ask if the color is gel/shellac; nope, its my nail strengthener.

5. Eyebrow razer

Whoever thought of these was genius!  Eyebrows are the death of me.  No matter how I get them done (wax, plucking, threading, etc), they start growing back immediately.  

These razors are so perfect for a quick re-boost of eyebrow power, allowing you to go longer in between eyebrow shaping days.  They also work great on peach fuzz. 

6. Neosporin

This is my secret weapon.  I have been fortunate enough to not have acne however no matter what my age, a pimple will pop up at the most inconvient time.  

I've tried almost every acne "on the spot" medicine and yet neosporin has the cure.  It makes sense, being that it helps with foreign objects in the skin (essentially what a pimple is).

 

I dab a little on top of the freshly clean skin and within a few hours, it's looking better.  I also use it as a preventive tool if I feel a pimple coming on or if there is an event approaching. 

This works great because I'm not a fan of the daily task of levels of make-up (primer, concealer, foundations, etc).  Im much more a powder, mascara and go type of girl.  This helps the process.

7. Hair Oil

When I first got sick, I used the time as an opportunity to re-vamp my hair's health; I used less heat, less products and more care.  And I'm very happy with where it has gotten me!

Happy, healthy hair means a lot of things: easier to manage, less time doing your hair, opportunity to let it air dry and go on with life.  Happy hair means happy life!

One of the most valuable things I have found on the road to happy hair is hair oil.  I've tried many different brands but this one is my favorite.  

It can go on wet or dry hair, great for the in-between shampoo days.  It also doesnt leave hair oily or heavy.  It is very light, refreshing and it smells wonderful!  

8. Organization

It can be challenging to go from chaos to organization.  However, I can guarantee that once you are there, it makes life so much easier.

Organization doesnt always mean spotless or spacious.  Organization means that things have a home and you can find that home when needed easily.  

 (it looks hectic but I know exactly where everything is. #prostatus)

Some tricks I've discovered to help with organization:

-Containers.  From shoe boxes to baskets, containers are a great way to organize items according to their "family" while also having them accessible and in many ways "cute".  I have all my medicine for example in one basket.  When I have to go someplace, I just pack the whole basket.  Easy!

-Closets.  It is so easy to just stuff things in the closet and forget about it.  Until you need that item.  Instead, organize your clothes by item (pants, shirts, dresses) - this helps in planning outfits too.  Do the same with shoes.  It may seem like more work to have to put things in their right order but eventually with time it will become second nature.

-Trash it.  Everything to me has value - money value, sentimental value, "Im going to need this someday" value.  My rule of thumb is if I havent used it in 1 year, then I probably wont be needing it in the next year.  This goes for everything: jewelry, make-up, products (granted, some expire shorter than a year), clothes, shoes, purses.  Some items can be donated or sold used; but others just need to be trashed.  

-Stick with it.  Once you have things organized, do your best to make sure it stays that way.  Granted, there will be days that nothing will be organized.  But it helps when you put yourself in the habit of hanging up your purse, putting the mail the mail bin, putting the book away, etc.  Practice makes perfect.

Organization truly is the mother of all tricks to making life easier.  It makes life more efficient, your time more effective and it has its cost advantages (its easier to not have to re-buy things when you can find them instantly).    

So there you have it...8 life tricks according to this MS sparkler.  Do you have an life tricks?  If so, share!  I'm all about the life is easy road!

Have a fabulous day!

Love, 

PS: My sister is getting married in just a few weeks!! Cant wait to share all the wonderful and beautiful things for the fabulous day, especially those created by my mom.

My job is to make sure the puppies are ready.  Sputnik is very excited about his new tux.  Can you blame him?  He looks so GQ.

 

I dated The Batman

So, I dated the Batman.  

He has been mentioned a time or two (or many) throughout The Sparkled Life story.

Why am I sharing this story now?  The story of the fact that I dated the Batman (thus being understated that we are no longer dating)?  Because when book time comes, I want to remember that this was a large chapter in The Sparkled Life.  And it's a good story.  Even if its ending isnt perfect.

The Batman, you dated? you question.  For real, yes.  

Batman examining a bat in the net

Bats are becoming sick, which is bad, because as scary as they are, they protect us humans from bugs and such.  Long story short, some guys from England (I could have that wrong) went caving in a bat cave spreading a disease called "white nose syndrome".  This white nose disease kills bats and spreads quite quickly.  Thus the decline of bats.

Because of this, environmental protection has gone to the bats.  Before a company can build in a certain area or an energy company can put in lines, if its a protected area, a bat survey needs to be done by an environmental contract company.  

Every night during Bat Season, huge nets go up to catch said bats and to examine them for the disease.   There is a list of about 30 or so people in the US who are qualified to identify the type of bats caught.  Batman happens to be on this list.  So not only was this his job, protecting bats and doing bat surveys, he also was the qualified leading bat identifier. #nbd

After identifying the bat, a little tracker would be put on the bat that the team would then follow and hopefully find the bat's family.  This all would lead to whether or not the area was infected with white nose, thus determining the ability to build or not. 

I know all this not only because I dated the man but took part myself in a bat survey night.  Yes, me.  I think I ended up spending most of the night sleeping in the truck but I did help put up the nets and help set up tracking reflector tacks on trees so that we could find our way in the woods in the pitch black night.  #workinghard

So thus the nickname, The Batman.  

We met in early December a few years back.  He was the older brother of my roommate's boyfriend, who also was a friend of mine.  From day one we were "together".  There was quite a bit of an age gap (for both our sakes I will not mention how many years...but it was over a decade).  And we werent exactly what one would call, from the outside, a compatible couple.

Corporate America meets real life Batman.  Thats why I have to write this down.  It's almost epic.

The weekend I moved to DC was the weekend he took a job in Philadelphia, making our relationship long distant.  (Im not a fan at all of long distant relationships). 

But we made it work.  We would work from home on Friday/Mondays to extend the weekends.  Both our jobs/bosses were flexible (and I think intrigued with the relationship as well) that they allowed us the freedom to either work from home or office as much as possible.  

This led to every other weekend being spent very differently during off bat-season.  Weekends to Batmans would usually include going up to his cabin in the mountains in PA.  Weekends to me meant metropolis DC.  The extreme of two worlds.  

Yet both worlds had what we loved to do the most: eat, drink good beer, bike and listed to good live music.  Oh and people watch.  We loved to people watch.

Bat season would begin in May and he would begin his 70-80 hour work weeks anywhere their job took them.  We'd work around each others schedules as much as possible, sacrificing what we could (usually sleep) to see each other at least every other week.  

Our relationship wasnt perfect.  But we had our system.  He didnt understand my obsession with Starbucks but didnt raise a ruckus because I had the income to supply myself with my daily need.  I didnt understand his need to buy silly cars but he too had the income to supply himself with a garage full of cars so thus kept my mouth (mostly) shut.  

Then MS hit.  And as Im sure it would do to any relationship, it tested ours.  From March, when I was diagnosed, till August, we were pretty strong.  He was with me when diagnosed, held my hand, supported me.  

I attribute part of my ability to remain with such a positive attitude to his teaching and guidance, his ability to show me that there is always a happy thought to think about, even if its just my puppy for the day.  He brought me flowers every time, put a garden in my room (literally), gave me a mini-fridge for ice packs and always brought presents.

We thought I was going to get better.  I was going to improve.  We would go back to our system.  We would go back to the way things were. 

But it was becoming more prominant as the days went by that this wasnt the case.  

Break-up details are not needed.  In summary what can be said was that I/we became overly aware that we would never be able to go back to our system.  So we had two choices: 1, rebuild the box we built to accomidate the new situation, create a new system so to speak or 2, determine the box was built and could not be changed aka ending our epic tale.  

Eventually, no matter how you tell the story, choice 2 was chosen.  After last year's Bike MS : City to Shore, Batman left without me.

My ability to date Batman taught me a lot of things, and not just about bats.  It taught me that you have to work at love.  It's not easy.  Its not always romantic.  You wont always cuddle on the couch and say "I love you sooooooo much".  There will be times you will be annoyed by the other person.  There will be times you will have to support the other person, help them with their confidence and even suck it up and help them with their stitches when they fall or cut off half their finger. #gross

  

It taught me my approach to love: you fall into love, you choose to stay in love.  Its a choice to stay in love because it is so difficult; but if its the right person you do it anyway because of the love, because of the person.

We fell into love fast and quick.  We choose to stay in love through lots of ups and downs.  But eventually, that choice to stay in love came to a halting stop as it became relevant that there was now a third person party aka MS that wasnt exactly loved, messed with our system and was no longer wanted.

And while I'm sure the break-up wasnt easy for Batman, he wasnt the one left behind with MS lingering like a black cloud.  I was.  

I get asked from time to time if I still love Batman and I reply "I always will."  I fell in love with him.  We went through the most challenging time of my life together in love.  But then one day we choose not to share in that love in a relationship.  That however does not change that first love falling. 

There is no easy way to leave behind loved ones, so I dont; I just move on without them physically but with them forever in my heart instead.  

To end this post, I'd like to end with a picture (of course we have a break-up picture...it wasnt on purpose...only coincidental) and my thoughts towards it.  I believe it sums it up perfectly.  

The break up picture. Some nice man took an innocent picture of two souls, one still on a bike and one in their wheelie, after the completion of Bike MS. What he did not know was this moment was actually the start of our official break up. The talk that made it apparent that MS didn't fit in the relationship. However, only one got to walk away without MS. I'll be forever grateful for this picture; it's beautiful, just like our relationship was. What's invisible is MS, the poison that broke that beauty. That's life. I'm grateful for him, our love and like this picture, I'll always have a piece of it with me. And one day, I'll find a new love and Im confident it won't end in shadows.

Love,

PS: Batman, if you decided to actually come across and read the blog again, thank you for all the memories, for being there for me when you could and for loving me when you did.

A turning of the page....

Life is full of chapters, new and old, good and bad, short and long.  Living is turning the pages in them, writing the destiny of the following chapters.

13 months ago to the day my life book was forced to change not only chapters but subjects, dreams, desires, routes.  13 months ago I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

When people see me with my cane or in my wheel-chair, they ask "What happened?", with sympathetic faces and/or concern, expecting a "simple" answer of a car accident, a fall, a mistake on the stairs.  

As I reply "I was diagnosed with MS", their faces go from concerned to confused.  Because usually you dont see many people diagnosed with MS in the state that I am.  They suffer yes but many get to continue on their same path.  I do not.

There have been two occurances in the past few days that have caused me to question "what the heck am I doing in life?"

 (My "uhhhh" face.  Yes I take pictures to document my emotions.  It's all part of the sparkled life.)

1. My first MS symtpom, the one that led me to the hospital 13 months ago was the loss of feeling/sensation in my feet/legs.  To this day I do not have sensation in my feet.  They are continiously swollen and ugly looking.  

Due to this, I had to give up my guilty but lovely pleasure of wearing wonderful heels.  And, since I had quite a closet of heels, I ended up selling all my beautiful shoes.  We've come to the end of that chapter...I've sold my last pair of heels.

 (My last pair of heels and my not so beautiful feet)

Its ironic because the last pair of heels Ive sold were actually the last pair I purchased before being diagnosed.  I never even got the opportunity to wear them.  They were very extravagent, felt with fur edges.  How could you not love them?

Now they are gone.  Some other woman, size 10, will break them in for me.  And I hope she wears them with pride.  I hope they bring her good luck and many good travels.

Turning page #1...goodbye beautiful high shoes.

2. After much guidance, thought and prayer, the decision has been made for me to go onto Government Disability.  

Of course I procrastinated as long as I could on first, sharing this information (my pride) and two, applying because I didnt want to accept it. 

But over the weekend I completed my application.  My application to the Government that I, the girl who had dreams higher than the heavens, need's their help.  

It would only make the story oh so more interesting if I came across both my Bachelor of Arts and Masters in Business Administration Degrees the same weekend.  

 (I'm not sure how I lost my middle name in the between period of the degrees....)

My Bachelor of Arts years werent as dedicated however I did complete my program in three years while simultaneously working my political career (as mentioned earlier here).  

My Masters however I was more dedicated.  I finished the program also earlier than a full time student would (I like being quick and efficient in school items :D).  I worked full time as an Admissions Counselor during the day then spent my nights in the building next door learning the powers of Business.  I fell in love.  

I had the pleasure of being voted "Top Leader in the class" and "Best to work for", two items I take highly considering those who voted.  

The funny thing about all this is I never walked across a stage for either of these degrees, both due to graduating early.  And now, I cant even walk across a stage without assistance.  

I will frame these degrees, to remind myself that though I may be on disability and I may be limited by Multiple Sclerosis, I've accomplished so much.  To remind myself that at my core, I'm that same girl, disability or not.  

Turning page #2...defined by disability status.

These are two significant turning pages, two significant chapter turns.  It's hard to let go of things in life, it's even harder to deal with the things you've lost when you had no control over losing it.  

And as I approach new chapters of my life and my Multiple Sclerosis sparkle story, especially the upcoming ones, I hope the strength I felt while wearing my oh so extravagant heels and while establishing a strong educational business profile continues.  

I pray I can find strength in what I have lost in the hope of investing it in the things I can still achieve in my future. 

I've said it before but I'll preach it again...take nothing for granted.  From your shoes to your education, everything in life is a gift.  And should be treated as such.  Yes, there will be days in which "everything" doesnt feel like a gift but rather a very heavy burden.  But then, the ability to even carry that burden is a gift.  

Always a silver lining.  Never stop looking for it.

Love, Eliz

(PS: Today I wore a blazer.  This might not seem like a big deal but I had sworn of blazers one by one after being diagnosed, reminding me too much of my past Business Professional Career.  But today I wore one.  Proudly.)

("Mom, why do you have to show everyone my bad hair day?" Sputnik. Love him)

PS: Mom is healing and doing better each day!  Thankful for everyone's positivism towards her healing.