Friends,   

I missed you all last week.  Thanks for the nice card with all the well wishes, prayers and blessings.  It brightened my day and week.  I was hoping I would be feeling well enough to make it in but I wasn’t quite there yet.  I’m feeling quite a bit better now though.  I was able to exercise Saturday and Sunday and return to work on Sunday.  I’ll be there this week…looking forward to seeing you! Let’s keep moving!

So, what’s happening in your life lately?  I always love to hear stories of you doing well and fun things despite your challenges of living with MS. 

I’m excited to hear more about John’s trip to California.  He rode the MS bike ride in California on Team Davey who is the guy with MS that has become a good friend and donated the e-bikes to us.  It’s amazing how God works through us to connect us and live His plan for us.  Who would have thought John would go to California and ride on Team Davey?  Everything happens for a reason doesn’t it?  Who knows, perhaps Dave and his wife Anna will come to Wisconsin and ride with us too. 

John also rode in a fund raiser for Johnnie’s Big Push which ultimately goes to the National MS Society.  Be sure to ask John about his trip. It sounds like it was awesome and amazing! 

We’ll be getting together again Wednesday @ 11:30 for our prayer group.  We’ll be giving thanks to God for our blessings and praying however God leads us.  Feel free to join us.

Linda will be doing another alcohol art class this Friday.  Thanks Linda!  Here’s a message from Linda  “In honor of this week’s snow, we will create winter trees in the alcohol ink group! Meet around 11:30 in the breakroom.  Newcomers welcome! “

We all need to “Just Keep Moving”!  It doesn’t matter where we start.  We can start with laughing which is great exercise in itself.  Other than that, we start with the body parts that will move and keep moving them as much as we can.  Let them rest and then move them again.

I know there are still many of us going through other life challenges in addition to our challenges with MS.  Let’s stick together, keep our chins up and keep sharing our journey.  Better days are ahead.  For those of you who haven’t been able to make it by us on Wednesdays and Fridays lately, please know you are missed and in my thoughts and prayers.  I hope you’re able to make it back soon!

I hope you’ll join us both Wednesday and Friday again this week.   Remember…consistency is key.  With MS, it takes a lot of consistent effort every day to make small improvements.  Yes, it’s frustrating so be patient and consistent and you’ll be amazed how your quality of life will continue to improve.  It’s been about 17 years of exercising just about every day for me and I’m still making improvements (encouragement, love, support, nutrition and proper rest help immensely too).  It takes time so please be patient.  It sure is better than MS getting worse.  I really don’t know what my life would be like if I didn’t do this (nor do I want to find out).  I’m so thankful you are all joining me on this journey of making progress with our MS and quality of life…THANK YOU!  We’ll continue to learn together…there’s so much power in the love and support we all share with each other.

In the past, I’ve been telling you to bring a friend.  Unfortunately, we’re going to need to start a waiting list for new people.  Please feel free to continue to share your experience and what we’re doing together.  Let me know of anyone who would like to join us.  I’ll communicate with these people through e-mail or phone and help them any way I can.  When we have room for them to join us, I’ll encourage them to do that.  If you’ve joined us in the past, please continue to join us.

We are here to help you and anyone with MS…no strings attached (well maybe an occasional story about the progress you’re making, smile, high five or a hug).  I remember how challenging life used to be when my MS was bad.  I get great joy sharing what I’ve learned and feel blessed with the progress I’ve made.  I hope you make progress in some way too!