Friends,   

I hope you had a nice Christmas with family and friends.  Ours was nice.  Many Christmas blessings of love and joy were shared.  Some, in ways we did not expect and were hard to accept.

Happy New Year!  Some of us are really happy 2019 is done as there were many challenges.  I have a friend who had a cardiac arrest and spent several days in ICU on life support, recovered from that (with no brain damage, a true miracle) and then hit a deer on his bicycle at 30 MPH and spent several days in ICU from that.  Heā€™s finally recovering.  He says heā€™s ready for a brand-new year in 2020.  We have some of our friends with MS that have been very challenged this year and unfortunately, unable to join us.  They too are ready for a better new year.  Right friends?  We miss you!

Others take a look at 2019 in review and have made life changing strides forward and achieved accomplishments they never thought to be possible.  Once again, friendships were built at a deep level in 2019 as a result of people ā€œallowingā€ others into their lives and others stepping up to help in some way.  This group is absolutely amazing in that regard. 

Iā€™m so thankful to be part of this group and Iā€™m really thankful for all who make this possible.  Itā€™s not easy for people with MS to get out and come here, but you do consistently.  It wouldnā€™t be possible for this to happen if it werenā€™t for our selfless, fun loving volunteers joining us each week.  Thank you to all for making this possible and letā€™s have some more fun, make more memories, build more friendships and make more progress in 2020.  Ready?  Letā€™s go!

We will be here tomorrow (New Yearā€™s Day) to get the year started rightā€¦together, moving and having fun.  I hope youā€™ll join us tomorrow and all year.  Letā€™s make 2020 an amazing year for all involved with MS-Just Keep Moving and our friends on our Peppy Pedalerā€™s bike team.

The Westwood Aquatic Class Registration is now open. 

MS Water Exercise – Begins 1/13/20 – 10:00a.m. – 10:45a.m.  Iā€™d highly recommend you do this.

Register online at www.myiclubonline.com or call 262-513-7204

Ricky Heldt has offered to join us on Friday from 11:00am ā€“ Noon to do some yoga with us.  As many of you know, Ricky is awesome!  Hereā€™s a message from Ricky:

Hi Dan,

I am free on Friday, January 3rd if you want me to come and do some yoga with you all!

 I also want to let you know I made the online yoga program free so anyone can now afford it. I thought you might like to share this information below to your folks. Attached is also a flyer.  If you want, I could print some and mail to you if that would help your people. Hope to see you soon.

Thank you for your help spreading the word, 

Ricky

Iā€™ve attached Rickyā€™s flyer so you can join him in your home in 2020 for free.  Hereā€™s a linkhttps://openlotusyoga.com/online-yoga-class/  Try it!

Yoga is awesome for us living with MS and Ricky is an awesome person to learn from as he really loves what he does and heā€™s a very patient teacher who knows how to touch peopleā€™s hearts.  Heā€™s really good at yoga and teaching it.

Sharing.  We do a lot of sharing as a group.  Suzanne has requested we get together to share ideas, gadgets and things that have worked for others as mobility gets more challenging.  Weā€™re all at different levels and have different needs.  Many of us may have already experienced many ideas worth sharing.  For instance, Paulette told Warren about a one-handed cutting board, so he made her one and it works great.  Perhaps she can bring it in and show how it works.

Hereā€™s a note from Suzanne about doing this:

TIPS, TRICKS, IDEAS. SUGGESTIONS TO JUST KEEP MOVING!

DOES ANYONE HAVE AN IDEA  OR WAY THEY DO SOMETHING, THAT MAKES DAILY LIFE A BIT EASIER?

SOMETIMES WE GET IN A RUT DOING SOMETHING THE SAME WAY AND DONā€™T REALIZE THERE MAY BE A BETTER WAY, A BETTER TOOL, OR A BETTER USE OF STUFF WE ALREADY HAVE.

SOMETIMES WE THINK OUR IDEAS OR ā€œFINDSā€ ARE NO BIG DEAL, BUT THEY MIGHT BE AN IDEA THAT COULD REALLY HELP SOMEONE.

FOR EXAMPLE,PUTTING ON SHOES OR SOCKS, TEETH, SKIN CARE, OR EVEN MAKING PASTA! 
HEY, GOT ANY IDEAS? IF SO, LETā€™S GET TOGETHER AND SHARE.  FRIDAYS AFTER WORKOUT SEEMS TO BE A GOOD TIME. LET ME OR DAN KNOW AND WEā€™LL SET SOMETHING UP!

SUZANNE WEIGEL

We have Ricky here this Friday so letā€™s start this next Friday and see where it goes.  I love the creativity of this group, hopefully we can help each other by sharing ideas, tips and tricks.  Great idea Suzanne!  I hope people engage and share.

Weā€™ll be getting together again Wednesday @ 11:30 for our prayer group.  Weā€™ll be giving thanks to God for our blessings and praying however God leads us.  Wow!  Iā€™m hearing some powerful comments about this time together.  Prayers are being answered weeklyā€¦thank you God!  Feel free to join us.  If you need to come in a little early to get your exercise in before this starts, feel free to do so.

Letā€™s ā€œJust Keep Movingā€ again in 2020.  It doesnā€™t matter where we start.  We can all 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.  Letā€™s stick together, keep our chins up and keep sharing our journey.  Better days are ahead.  For those of you who havenā€™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 youā€™re able to make it back soon!

I hope youā€™ll join us both Wednesday and Friday again this week.   Rememberā€¦consistency is key.  With MS, it takes a lot of consistent effort every day to make small improvements.  Yes, itā€™s frustrating so be patient and consistent and youā€™ll be amazed how your quality of life will continue to improve.  Itā€™s been about 17 years of exercising just about every day for me and Iā€™m still making improvements (encouragement, love, support, nutritionand proper rest help immensely too).  It takes time so please be patient.  It sure is better than MS getting worse.  I really donā€™t know what my life would be like if I didnā€™t do this (nor do I want to find out).  Iā€™m so thankful you are all joining me on this journey of making progress with our MS and quality of lifeā€¦THANK YOU!  Weā€™ll continue to learn togetherā€¦thereā€™s so much power in the love and support we all share with each other.

In the past, Iā€™ve been telling you to bring a friend.  Unfortunately, weā€™re going to need to start a waiting list for new people.  Please feel free to continue to share your experience and what weā€™re doing together.  Let me know of anyone who would like to join us.  Iā€™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, Iā€™ll encourage them to do that.  If youā€™ve joined us in the past, please continue to join us.

We are here to help you and anyone with MSā€¦no strings attached (well maybe an occasional story about the progress youā€™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 Iā€™ve learned and feel blessed with the progress Iā€™ve made.  I hope you make progress in some way too!

Place:  W228N791 Westmound Dr.
Waukesha, WI

When:  Wednesday morning from 9:30am ā€“ 12:30pm (open gym concept, come for all or part of it)
Friday morning from 9:30am ā€“ 12:30pm  (open gym concept, come for all or part of it)

Dan Erschen