Friends,
Kate Born’s Presentation was awesome!
Wow! Talk about someone putting a lot research and energy into her presentation about exercise for us with MS and then presenting it so awesomely…Kate really shined.
Kate shared her powerpoint with us. I’ve attached it to this e-mail. As a result, I will personally be building in more recovery days as I continue to ramp up for our “Day of Endurance” August 26th. Thank you so much for doing this for us Kate!
The dance was fun!
It looks like everyone who came to the dance Sunday evening had a ball.
Thanks to Dr Ng from Marquette University for bringing these dance opportunities to our MS community! I hope we see more opportunities for dance in the future.
Students will be back tomorrow!
Dr Becky Thomas, Dr Sarah Andreucci and their Physical Therapy Assistance students from Bryant Stratton College will be returning tomorrow. This is an excellent opportunitity for the students to gain knowledge about people living with MS and get some hands on experience. It’s also beneficial for us living with MS to learn from the students and their leaders.
Nutrition Program – Tomorrow, May 3rd
Alison will be here tomorrow, Wednesday, May 3rd @ 11:00am. She will be presenting on hydration, electrolytes, and why it’s critical for us living with MS. Especially us who exercise. Alison will educate us on early warning signs, cause and effect and what to do proactively.
This will be beneficial to our volunteers as well. It will help us identify signs of dehydration and help us keep our friends with MS safe and feeling well.
Nice Article in the Waukesha Freeman today
Nick from Pewaukee Park and Rec shared our first bike ride on their website. Faith Rae from the Waukesha Freeman contacted me and Joan and worte the article. Thanks Nick and Faith!
Let’s enjoy our Friday bike rides! They really are unique. I’m so thankful so many people show up and ride with us.
Parking Etiquette
We have more people coming who are using walkers, poles, canes, crutches, wheelchairs, etc. For us who are able to walk without assistance, let’s leave the blacktop parking for those who are challenged to walk or can’t walk and park on the gravel section.
We also have permission to park across the street in the Acuity Foam parking lot. Feel free to park there as well. Thanks for your cooperation!
Friday Morning Bike Rides
Let’s ride this Friday! The weather looks like it’s going to cooperate so let’s ride!
We’ll be meeting Friday mornings at 7:00am at Nettesheim Park in Pewaukee. It’s on the SE corner of Hwy SS and Oak Street. The GPS address is: N26W27495 Prospect Ave, Pewaukee, WI 53072. Come a little early so you can get your bike out of your car and be ready to ride as close to 7:00 as possible. We’ll ride until about 8:45. Let’s ride and have some fun!
For those who wish you could join us but can’t; please know we have you in our hearts on these rides. We’re riding with you and for you. I hope you too can join us someday. We really need to get this MS thing figured out. Let’s keep working on it together.
Our Rickshaw is here!
Is it challenging to get up out of a chair or shift your weight in a chair? Do you want to build core strength, back strength and arm strength? This machine is for you.
Tom Holtackers, who lives with MS and has been a physical therapist working with people with MS at Mayo Clinic for years looked at all the equipment we have and said we really need a Rickshaw. Tom sent me the link to it and highly encouraged us to get one.
Thanks to Tom and anyone who made financial contributions to our mission, we were able to get this to help our friends with MS. Let’s put it to good use and get stronger.
Rest, Recovery, Wellness and Safety
We’ll be having biweekly workshops that focus on achieving our fitness goals and preventing injuries. They will be the 2nd and 4th Fridays from 11am – 12pm. Please join us for hands on activities and learn how to rest, recover, be well and stay safe.
Upcoming Topics:
May 12th – Linda Catterson will be doing a presentation on energy work leading up to an introduction to Therese from Eden of Energy in Minnesota who will be with us on the 19th.
“Join Reiki Linda as she introduces Eden Energy Medicine (EEM) to the gym. EEM was developed by Donna Eden who was diagnosed with MS at the age of 16. After fifteen years, Donna decided to find her own way of dealing with her symptoms after doctors told her there was nothing else they could do. It took her two years, but she has been almost symptom free ever since!
Linda will lead the group through ten simple techniques designed to get your energy flowing. You will feel calm and refreshed after the class.
These techniques can be done from a sitting and/or standing position, and with one or both functional arm(s).”
Linda will not be doing Reiki during the time she’s presenting so please plan accordingly.
May 26th – Tom Holtackers will facilitate a discussion about emotional health – we can all use help with this. Living with MS is not easy.
June 9th – To be determined
June 23rd – To be determined
Future topics could include: emotional health, nutrition, yoga, tai chi, wellness topics, safe use of gym equipment for your body and more. What topics would you like to see? Please let Joan, Traci, Ricky or Dan know
Golf Outing June 30th – We need your help…and Golfers!
Do you golf? Would you consider golfing for us? We have room for more golfers and would love to have you join us. There are brochures about it at the gym.
We also need help with silent auction items and creating baskets for the raffle at “Teed Off at MS”, ePlatinum Health’s annual golf scramble.
We are looking for donations of new items to create raffle baskets. Popular items have included: tickets to sports games; camping gear, picnic items, gift certificates to local shops and restaurants.
If you have a personal relationship with a local business, please ask them if they’d be willing to donate to benefit our gym.
Please either bring the items to the gym or let Rick Talbert know about it. We would appreciate your help with this…thank you in advance!
Day of Endurance Journey – Progress – Let’s share!
It’s time to record our progress again 😊. Sunday, May 1st concluded another two-week period. They go by fast!
Each two-week period, let’s record our longest distance or time of each event we’re working toward for the “Day of Endurance”. Along with that, let’s share a few words about how we felt after our long event for the two-week period leading up to the day of endurance on August 26th. That’s it!
Each two-week period, let’s try to do just a little more than the last two-week period and record (share) it again.
Let’s enjoy our journey…together!
COVID
We didn’t have anyone new test positive for COVID this past week. Yeh! It’s still around so let’s not let our guard down and do what we need to do to stay safe.
To all who have reported their positive testing to me…thank you for letting me know and for being socially responsible and staying away until your symptoms are all cleared up. If you do come down with it, it’s important we let people know that you have been in close contact with so they can watch for symptoms and help stop the spread.
We’ve all been dealing with COVID long enough and are very well educated on it by now. I’m not telling you what to do but I’d highly encourage you to wear a mask again if you haven’t had it recently. Let’s make good choices and be safe.
Please stay home if you have any symptoms or know you’ve been exposed to someone with the virus. Please don’t come until your symptoms go away. Let’s also give each other some space when talking to one another and continue wiping the machines down before and after you use them with disinfectant. Again…let’s be socially responsible and stay safe!
Let’s get together!
We’ll be getting together again from 9:00am – noon on Wednesday and Friday mornings at the gym. I hope you’ll join us!
Wisconsin Metal Parts – Westmound Building
MS-Just Keep Moving, Inc.
W228N791 Westmound Drive
Waukesha, WI 53186
Prayer Group Due to Alison being here, we will not be having our prayer group Wednesday. I just love the way we share, pray and laugh together while we witness prayers being answered weekly. It’s truly amazing!
Thanks goes to God and to everyone that joins us. Let’s get together to share, listen, talk, give thanks, and pray however God leads us.
MS Just Keep Caring – Our Caregivers support group will be the first and third Friday of each month from 10:00 – 10:30am. The next one will be this Friday, May 5th. If you’re a caregiver of someone you love with MS, please join us and share your experience of caring for your loved one. This has been very helpful for many. Thanks to all who participate!
Our Facebook page is private. That means you’ll need to join if you want access to all our fun and progress. We’re now up to 364 members. That’s up 5 from last week…awesome! https://www.facebook.com/groups/2639832389489709
Our Facebook page is very active and fun. Lots of people are doing more and sharing their journey on Facebook. Feel free to join, post and share your experiences and comments.
There were some awesome pictures, videos and comments shared again this past week. Thank you to all who are sharing!
Thai Massage with Ricky Heldt
Ricky will be here Wednesday and Friday doing Thai Massage. Ricky says he is comfortable to work with you even if you’re not wearing a mask. Ricky will continue to wear one to protect you.
Many continue making great progress with chronic pain relief, range of motion, walking better and a new sense of hope when Ricky works with them. Please keep in mind that consistency is key. Not only with Ricky…with exercise too. We need consistency to realize the benefits long term. We want you to have long term benefits and relief.
Ricky has a sign up sheet based on first come first serve. You can pick the time slot that works for you. I highly encourage you to take advantage of Ricky’s Thai Massages each day and sign up for your time slot as soon as you get there.
Reiki with Linda Linda will be here on Fridays doing Reiki. Many people say Linda’s Reiki work is “magical”. We’re thankful for Linda sharing her gifts and talents to us. Feel free to let Linda know you’d like to do Reiki with her. She also has a sign up sheet.
Inspirational Humor with Adam Wollert
We’ll be having our inspirational humor zoom call with Adam again next Tuesday. Adam is a gift to all of us. Thanks to all who joined us today!
Please join us if you can.
Tuesdays @ 1:30PM
Here’s the link to join us…I hope you do!
Join Zoom Meeting with this link
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9431389152?pwd=bWlYbFNaazVnM1M1cWxWMitlODdXUT09
Meeting ID: 943 138 9152
Passcode: 3qP2hu
Phone: 1-312-626-6799
Let’s reach out
I encourage you to share a smile and encouragement with someone. Perhaps you could call someone that you have not talked with for a while just to say hi and see how they are doing. We all could use a little extra love and encouragement.
MS is tough. Let us have faith, remain calm, be flexible, help each other and learn as much as we can about the challenges of each day as we make good choices.
Let’s keep moving and smiling 😊
In God We Trust…we are in good hands.
Dan
P.S. Last week I said I might have some more egret pictures for you. Here’s one that I thought was pretty nice.
It’s hard to get them to spread their wings on command but this one cooperated just as I was wishing it would spread it’s wings.
Here comes a great blue heron flying over a couple of egrets
And then it made a graceful landing
The pictures of the egrets and the great blue heron were taken just outside of Pewaukee along Hwy 16.
I made it back to the Mississippi river and happened to catch a juvenile eagle fly by
These pelicans were solving some of the world’s challenges. Their particular challenges that day were what to do when the Mississippi River floods. It’s really flooded right now.
I was watching the cardinals for a while and happened to snap this picture. Ready…set…go! I got lucky.
This morning, I was out for a walk at Nashotah Park and came across this barred owl. I was pretty excited when I saw it.
I’ve been watching a sandhill crane on its nest for the past few weeks. This morning, I noticed one chick has been hatched. Pretty cute as it stuck it’s head out of mommy’s wing saying “hello world” 😊
Daddy was standing real close watching over the two of them. Kind of like a family picture only Daddy is a little blurry.
For those of you who can’t get out and enjoy nature due your challenges with MS…my heart is with you. You are with me every time I’m out there. I enjoy being out there and I also enjoy sharing with you. I know how hard it is not to be able to get out and enjoy nature. Let’s enjoy nature and God’s beauty together this way.