Foggy Brained Ideas from a Tired Caregiver

Sleep deprivation is part of the parenting gig. New moms are easy to spot with their top knots and coffee tumblers. A safe bet is the top knot, make up free, coffee tumbler toting woman you see has not slept in weeks. She is wiped out.

Lack of sleep does all sorts of wacky stuff to the body. Short term effects include cognitive impairment, inability to concentrate, drowsiness, and top knot hairdos. These side effects explain why early phases of parenthood are a blur.

For caretakers of an individual with disabilities, seasons of sleep deprivation can extend well past a decade. My daughter did not sleep consistently until puberty.

sleep, perseverance, CaregiversKim AlbrechtMarch 14, 2017inspiration

Hard to Hear Special Needs Advice No One is Telling You

This is tough to discuss without coming across cold and insensitive. Special needs parenting is no joke. There is exhaustion, heartbreak, and ample opportunities for worry. We will cry. We will need to be picked up.

With the above reality comes a slippery slope of spending too much time in these areas. I thank God for people who did not allow me to linger and risk the chance of a downward spiral...

community, Caregivers, grace, truthKim AlbrechtMarch 7, 2017inspiration

Christian Camps for Special Needs Adults

Overnight Christian Camps for Adults and Teens with special needs plus bonus links to filtered searches to find the perfect fit.

camp, summer, vacation, sleepKim AlbrechtFebruary 20, 2017information

Why Caregivers Are Lucky In Love

Long term caregivers are incredibly fortunate. We have continuous opportunities to grow in capacity to love. We have a second, a third, a hundredth chance to get it right.

Loving perfectly is more complicated than what is depicted on a bumper sticker or groovy 60’s song. Rather, it is a slow process that does not come easy. The biblical definition of love from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 has countless opportunities to hold a mirror up to our hearts and remind us where we are growing and where there is room for God to be invited in...

Caregivers, grace, growth, loveKim AlbrechtFebruary 14, 2017inspiration

What about me?

Recently, you read stories of a Midwest Tribe of friends who were part of a winter survival strategy. They sounded amazing, right?

When we moved to California I knew I would miss my friends, but assumed establishing a West Coast Tribe would happen easily.

The assumption was finding folks to settle into doing life with its mess, mistakes, and bad choices would arrive with the furniture truck.

Wrong...

community, prayer, lonlinessKim AlbrechtFebruary 1, 2017inspiration

Five Winter Survival Strategies

Stocking up on bread, wine, and toilet paper are legit snow needs in the Midwest. Dangerously low temperatures close schools because pipes freeze, buses can’t start, and kids stick tongues on flag poles.

Remember the polar vortex of 2014? Anyone? It was so cold people complained the air hurt their face.

The journey with our special needs loved ones will occasionally take us through seasons of winter. Maybe “winter” is no sleep, advocacy, hospital stays, or all of the above.

community, perseveranceKim AlbrechtJanuary 25, 2017inspiration

Keeping Cool in the Carpool

My special needs daughter was the cause of many disrupted car pool drop offs when she was in grade school. When she did not want to comply, she did what was coined as “the plop”. The plop consisted of all 90 pounds of a 10 year old girl completely limp on the ground.

We had occasions where she would plop in the middle of the crosswalk.

I kid you not. She would plop smack in the middle of the street.

perseverance, grace, Caregivers, schoolKim AlbrechtJanuary 17, 2017inspiration

50 Shades of Gray Done God's Way

I am falling in love with the color gray.

Strange.

For over a decade yellow has been my everything. This past summer when we painted the house, I campaigned for yellow siding and a bright door to match. It was an unsuccessful campaign, but the effort was fierce and yielded a fabulous turquoise door.

So the whole gray thing is taking me by surprise.

I mean….gray? Really?

Doesn’t the color wheel put yellow and gray as opposites?

Actually, is gray even on a color wheel? Isn’t it so drab and sad that it’s not even called a hue, tint, or shade?

perspective, truthKim AlbrechtJanuary 12, 2017inspirationComment

Just Get Over It

I can be a really crappy friend.

I blame it on 20 years of coaching high-level gymnasts. 25+ hours a week spent with “my girls” where I was paid to point out flaws and demand correction. The expectation being issues were to be taken care of regardless of fear, mood, health, environment, or whatever.

No excuses. !NO DRAMA!

Just fix it so you can move on and be better.

While this made me one heck of a successful coach (if performance is the litmus test), it also has made me a crappy friend to others and to myself...

healing, grace, truthKim AlbrechtDecember 31, 2016inspiration

“...and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey." -Deuteronomy 26:9