#Spoonie essentials

[spooniechef]

Household Tips: Burnt Pans

Less a recipe today and more a hopefully helpful hint on how to deal with the consequences of brain fog without too much in the way of excess pain.

See, I’m generally very proud of my cookware. I have a thing where I ask my parentals for a cooking essential or two every year, because I can’t really afford the good stuff and though I don’t ask specifically for the good stuff, they will tend to see it as an investment for me and treat me to something really nice. Which means I own a nearly humbling amount of Le Creuset cookware. Well, I mean, three pieces - two saucepans and a baking dish. For me on my part-time wage, it’s humbling. The saucepans in particular have lasted over a decade with barely any signs of wear and tear.

Except yesterday I was making lamb dopiaza - the recipe’s in here somewhere, and it is the easiest thing in the world. Except I was also making aloo gobi - a somewhat harder recipe but I may include it anyway - and, as it turns out, I was having a particularly bad day when it came to brain fog. Easiest recipe in the world and I nearly screwed it up twice. And then, when I was hyperfocusing on the aloo gobi, I forgot that when trying to boil off the excess liquid from the dopiaza, you are in fact supposed to stir it more often than when it was on low heat. End result: a tasty dopiaza but with burned crap at the bottom of my precious Le Creuset saucepan. And there was no earthly way I was going to be able to scrub that off under normal circumstances. The fact that the plumbing in this place is a little dicky at the moment when it comes to hot water did not help. But I had to do something. That’s my good saucepan. It’s the only one I have that’s the right size to boil up my pasta.

Thankfully, I am well-versed in Google-fu, and after some digging, and a little experimentation with what I found, my Le Creuset pot is now clean as it was when I started my experiments, the bottom isn’t scratched, I’m not in that much more pain than I was when I started cleaning, and I am so very relieved. So I thought I’d share. Basically, all you need is baking soda and tin (aluminium) foil.

Rinse out your pot/pan with hot water and drain

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons baking soda on the bottom of the pot and then add a couple of drops of water to make a paste

Let sit for a couple of minutes

Take a golf ball-sized wad of tin foil and scrub the bottom of the pot/pan

Rinse again; touch up with a bit more baking soda paste if required

Tin foil does the kind of solid job a wire scrubber will do without the kind of damage you can get with that kind of thing, and the baking soda fizzing breaks up the yick to make it easier to scub off. Apparently you can do a similar sort of thing by scrubbing the damp bottom of the pot with a dishwasher tablet, but I thought buying dishwasher tablets when I don’t have a dishwasher was a step too far. If you do have a dishwasher, give it a shot if you ever end up in that situation.

That’s the tip for the day - a way to make one of the most onerous tasks in the kitchen a damn sight easier, and prevents heart attacks if you ever accidentally burn stuff to the bottom of your best pot or pan.

#The Spoonie Chef #Spoonie essentials #tips and tricks

[pyjamacryptid]

me surrounded by all of my medical paperwork that disability services deems “not enough evidence” to claim support, after applying for the 5th time:

#spoonie #actually disabled #all because I don’t ‘tick a box’ #all because of elaborate recited corporate language that essentially spells out ‘not disabled enough’ #Australia may have - objectively - sort of good health care (up for debate obviously but it’s not Bad either) but jfc #the hoops disabled people have to leap through …. #only to be assessed by people who have no fucking idea what we deal with #sigh #I quite literally have to hand over sensitive vulnerable information #my whole life story (since BIRTH) #to faceless strangers #and wait to be judged worthy of support #how do they not expect anyone to be disheartened by this?? #spoon tag #disability #disabled #chronic illness #chronic pain #chronically ill #medical conditions #healthcare #healthcare system #Australian healthcare #personal

[desertwaterwitch]

Here’s my recipe for my sun water cleansing spray! First spray I’ve ever made. Even added some protection to it because damn, I need it.

First I used the element of air to cleanse the spray bottle. Opened my window to the cold night, and let the air do it’s thing.

Next I set the bottle on the selenite slab while I got ready, to make sure it stayed cleansed and charged.

Ingredients:

I am out of moon water so I decided to use sun water! Let’s get rid of that negative energy taking hold of you!

1. 3 drops of lavender (I meant to add only 1 but more came out)

2. 2-3 drops of peppermint

3. 1-2 drops of tea tree (this is the protection part)

To give it that extra charge I held it and pictured myself standing in the sun and squinting at how bright it is. It was hard to do with my mental state.

And there you go! I’ve been so down and some personal things have made my mental health even worse, so you can bet I sprayed myself down with this! It’s heavenly. 😇

PS: maybe I’ll make one for my mom! That way she can have that same cleanse and protection herself, with her thinking it’s only a linen spray or something lol.

#witchcraft #cleansing spells #cleansing spray #witchblr #witch community #baby witch #beginner witch #broom closet witch #spoonie witch #water witch #witches of tumblr #protection spell #spellwork #magick #easy spells #lavender #tea tree oil #peppermint #essential oils #sun water

[ub-sessed]

Bujo for spoonies?

Punk bujo?

I'm an effort to put my life back together and recover from a major illness and massive emotional losses etc., I've started using some of the techniques I have seen in bullet journalling.

The problem with all the bujo ideas I see on Pinterest etc. is that they seem to put way too much emphasis on the aesthetic aspect of it. Like I get if people find the artistic side of bullet journalling rewarding, but I have limited manual dexterity and a tremor, so my pages are never going to be pretty. And I have limited energy and time, so I just can't put that much time and energy into creating something pretty. Also, all those flourishes and stuff take up a lot of space that I could be using for practical content! My tremor keeps me from being able to write small or neatly, so I need a lot of room. Like, I want my pages to be pleasing to the eye, but that's for usability reasons.

I also am really turned off my the obsession with productivity that I see in a lot of online bujo. It all seems to be about achieving more! Pushing yourself harder! Meeting goals! All these trackers and stuff seem to be designed to set up expectations for you to live up to. This is the exact opposite of what I'm striving for. I'm trying to learn to accept my limitations, stop pushing myself so hard, value myself even if I don't fill in all the little boxes

So I'm wondering, is there a spoonie bujo community? Like, bujo that recognizes that we don't all have the capacity to make our journals look like Live Laugh Love decals? That we don't all have the time/energy/motivation to fill in a load of trackers every day? Bujo that is badass instead of beautiful? Punk bujo?

#bujo #spoonie #spoonie bujo #bullet journalling #bullet journaling #punk bujo #recovery journal #time management #setting realistic expectations #tracking progress #tracking symptoms #celebrating progress #recognizing accomplishments #visualization #journalling #i have been keeping a journal for 41 years #creating order #bujo for spoonies #essential tremor #bujo that says Fuck your obsession with being pretty and productive

[andromeda-sapphire]

✨ Low-Spoons Witch Tip: ✨

I found these Nature’s Truth essential oil blend sprays at Rite Aid a while ago and I’ve been able to get a few different scents there (lavender, peppermint)

I use the sprays to help energize me and keep me focused (peppermint) and to help me relax and sleep (lavender). They really help with emotional regulation too. I originally bought the lavender one to help me sleep peacefully because I was having really bad PTSD flare ups and it helped SO much!

And they smell amazing!!! 💕 I was actually really impressed by the lavender one because it smelled so good!

Before bed, I spray the lavender one on my pillow to help me sleep and give my dream jar spell a good shake to promote vivid dreaming and dream recall.

✨ Witchcraft doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy ✨

#witchblr #essential oils #oil blends #spoonie witchcraft #low spoons #spoonie witch #budget witchcraft #witchcraft #chronically ill witchcraft

[daltongraham]

So with my essential tremors, and the fact that we eat every meal on our bed, I frequently spill food on myself. Especially soup. Damn you, soup.

So it occurred to me: what I need is a bib!

Does anyone have a recommendation for an adult bib? Snazzy would be nice but is not required.

#essential tremor #spoonie life #spoonie hacks

[chaoticfandomthot]

At what point does a bath become a soup

#asking for science #also because my bath is so full of ingredients i think it qualifies as soup now #for my fibro i have to put 2 different types of salt #three different essential oils #and to make myself feel better i had petals sometimes #it tastes more than my ex mom's chicken #aiden originals #fibromyalgia #spoonie

[chronicallye]

I am so out of spoons right now but I physically can't go home.

#chronic pain #disabled #hypermobile ehlers danlos #babe with a mobility aid #hip dysplasia #pots syndrome #essential tremor #chronic illness #ableism #chronically ill #spooniestrong #spoonie #extra bendy babes #eds zebra #zebra #chair bear #new york city #burnt out

[sleepyandbi]

when u have enough hypermobility issues for it to cause pain and for the rheum to mention it but not enough for it to be actually diagnosed, treated in any way, or for the rhem to write an accommodations letter

#when u become an expert on hypermobility and essentially treat yourself #spoonie #hypermobility #chronic pain #doctor hate

[juroguro]

march 23

#symptom tracker #spoonie stuff #3: chest xray 2 days ago was fine; essentially failed the pulmonary function test today lol. waiting back on official results though. #chest pain is the same as always; snotty throat today+ allergy-like runny nose + itchy eyes this morning. difficulty breathing with pft ofc #4: arthritis is weirdly bad today; chest pain normal; not as snotty #9: arthritis suddenly got terrible in evening; can barely walk. taking a covid test tomorrow bc have to be at parents house for a week. #stress from that and midterms are probably what's killing me. and period lol. chest is bad; fatigue is worse. need to hibernate

[astridthewitch]

𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 :

rest is essential. it is not a reward that needs to be earned, it is an obligation, a fundamental right to being a human. you can research that topic when you wake up or after you recharge from putting your feet up. you can do that spell after you have the mental and emotional energy to do so after taking the rest you deserve.

Rest. Relax. Recharge. Go take that nap. Go pet your dog and fall asleep while listening to their breathing. Go put your feet up and lean back into your chair or couch and read a fun book that has nothing to do with your practice or improving your life. Go rest. Go relax. Go recharge and then do whatever it is you want to do when your battery is full. 🤍

#friendly witchling reminder #witchy thoughts #baby witch #spoonie witch #self care #is essential #not a reward that has to be earned

[spooniechef]

Emergency Calories - Potato Salad (0-1 spoon)

I've been largely out of spoons lately, with weather changes, unexpected absences at work and resulting overtime, and all associated pain flares making most things difficult to impossible. I'm feeling better at the moment, so the next few posts are going to involve how I've survived the last few weeks. Because aches or no aches, we still need to eat, and UberEats is too damn expensive for all the time (especially with gluten intolerances).

Now, I've spent a good portion of my adult life fucking up potato salad. Somehow, I thought it was just ... potatoes, mayonnaise, done. Except ... not quite, apparently, because the mayonnaise would always seem to separate and it was never quite right. So I eventually started looking up recipes to find the common thread that makes other people's potato salad work when mine didn't. Took a good bit of searching, but I finally found it: vinegar. Or lemon juice - something acidic, anyway. As well as adding a certain amount of tart zinginess to the potato salad, it also seems to keep the mayonnaise creamy and smooth even when refrigeraged a few days. So while I got recipes from a lot of sources, I've never strictly used any of them, preferring to figure out the best way to do it by guess and by gosh so I can just thow everything together without thinking about it too much. So I'll give a basic overview and some notes for potential additions to jazz it up a bit. The great thing about potato salad is its versatility. Plus, potatoes are relatively cheap.

Here's what you'll need:

~2lbs (or 1kg-ish) potatoes

~1 cup mayonnaise

~1-2 tablespoons vinegar

Additions to taste (see notes)

The easiest way to do this in terms of potatoes is use baby new potatoes, cut into quarters. If you're doing anything larger, you probably want cubes about an inch square. Making sure the pieces are of uniform size is helpful. And I don't know how it is in other countries, but if you're in the UK, get more potatoes than you think you'll need. Our produce has been shit lately, and it's pretty standard to have to cut away bits of yick or just throw whole potatoes away.

Here's what you do:

Chop your potatoes and put them in to boil. Once boiled to reasonable softness (not mashable-soft, but not too firm either), drain and leave to cool and dry.

In a separate bowl, add the mayonnaise, vinegar, and whatever else you're putting into the dressing.

Add potatoes and fold until everything is fully covered.

Serve immediately and/or put in the fridge for later.

As I say, these are largely approximates because I measure it all by eye at the moment. It's pretty easy to get the hang of. Basically you want just enough vinegar to not have the mayonnaise swimming but enough to suit your tastes. And obviously you can jazz it up to suit you - here's some things that have been suggested in various recipes or just sound nice:

Hard-boiled egg

Crispy bacon bits

Dijon mustard

Chunks of dill pickle

Herbs and spices in general (paprika is usually suggested, as are chives, and obviously salt and pepper to taste, but I like adding onion salt, garlic pepper, and a little bit of celery salt)

Onions (I prefer green onions/scallions, but thin-sliced red onion can add some nice colour)

Honestly, play around with it, because potato salad is wonderfully versatile. Googling for recipes showed me that there are as many potato salad recipes as there are people, so I just left it at the absolute basics as a sort of a blank canvas to experiment on.

Potato salad lasts about five days in the fridge, and can be a meal in itself if done right, so it's great for a source of emergency calories. Enjoy!

(Oh, and side note: if you are gluten intolerant, do not try this as pasta salad. I tried to make pasta salad by the same principles and the dressing was fine but gluten-free pasta is disgusting cold. Even the good kind of gluten-free pasta. Sorry, fellow gluten-intolerants; we're going to have to stick with potatoes.)

#the spoonie chef #recipes #spoonie essentials #emergency calories

[weaselle]

@ffoxer howdy! happy to oblige :)

i used to have a dresser and a bunch of hangers in my closet and like, closet organizer thingamabobs, but instead of using any of that stuff my clothes were always in several piles around my room.

And i felt shitty about it all the time but couldn't seem to make myself the kind of person who kept their clothes folded and organized. My room was constantly cluttered with clothes like drifts of snow scattered and piled here and there. Like, i felt really REALLY shitty about that. Deep shame

any ADHDers and spoonies out there relate?

SO one day, i said to myself, what if i'm okay the way i am? What if i just need to refine how i already do things a little bit instead of insisting on reinventing my entire identity?

Did i really care about being the kind of person who's socks were rolled just so, and whose shirts were all folded perfectly and arranged by color or whatever?

no

What i did care about was not living in a cluttered, messy, unorganized, embarrassing space.

And it turns out my piles WERE an organization system. What's more, my piles were a system that had been shaped by the way i actually use my clothes, it was a system that made sense for how i live my life. And i bet it's the same for most of you who relate to what i've been saying so far.

There were the clothes that were dirty, the clothes that had been worn but could be worn again, and the clean clothes (often dumped from the washer to the bed with the intent of folding and putting away, then slept next to when that didn't happen, and finally transferred to the floor next to my bed or piled in my closet once i gave up)

These three piles (dirty, clean, wear again) made up my "i wear this stuff all the time" wardrobe, and then everything else was still in the dresser i never actually used, with a few remaining almost-never-worns hanging in the closet.

This made my dresser, essentially, just a bin of clothes i could label "rarely wear"

And the thing i hated about my piles was that they looked messy, and took up too much space, and cluttered my room, and anyone who came into my room instantly assumed i was a disaster of a human because that's what it looked like. And, honestly, that's what it felt like too.

But i could change all of that and still have piles if i just... put my piles in bins! Then they would clearly be on purpose. And contained. And on purpose contained piles aren't a mess! They're a tidy organizational system.

So i got rid of my dresser and most of my hangers and i bought four of those plastic bins with the lids that you can get anywhere from hardware stores to target. Now, if you want to inhabit a fancier lifestyle, you can get nicer bins, they make all kinds, from canvas to wicker to polished wood or whatever suits your style and budget, I'm currently using the plastic ones, but when i move i'm planning on getting something more like this

the point is, these bins contain my piles without me having to change the piles at all.

now instead of having to sort all that stuff into different drawers i just have 4 simple bins

1: clean clothes

2: dirty clothes

3: stuff i might wear a second (or third) time

4: clothes i almost never wear

remember how those first three piles make up my "wear all the time" stuff? Well, each of the first two bins are big enough to contain all those clothes (which for me is about two loads of laundry).

I have a smaller bin for clothes i've worn but could wear again. And the last one, almost-never-wear, is actually the biggest one. And naturally a couple almost-never-wear things still get hung in the closet.

So when my "wear all the time" bin is empty, that means the dirty bin is about full, and i just add the might-wear-again stuff to it and carry that bin to the washer. When it comes out of the dryer, i still follow my natural instincts to dump them in a pile and forget about them, it's just now i dump that pile into the clean bin, where they belong.

And when i'm digging for something in the bin and can't find it, just like when i would dig in my closet, i can just dump it all out on my bed to find things like i used to, but then it goes back in the bin with a sweep of the arm.

The clothes naturally sort themselves out this way, too. Say every time you go to do your laundry because you "have nothing to wear" there are the same few items left in the bottom of your clean bin. Well those are clearly part of your almost-never-wears and you can dump them in that bin before you wash your laundry. When the weather gets cold, i put most of my shorts and tank-tops in the almost-never-wear bin. I make room for them by taking out my everyday winter wear to go in the clean bin.

I can put the bins where it makes the most sense for how i use my room naturally. For instance, my sweatshirts and jeans i might wear again always used to wind up draped over the back of my desk chair, so now i put my could-wear-again bin right by my desk. If I want my room to be extra tidy, i just stack all the bins in the closet where the dresser used to be, which takes like twenty seconds.

and the BEST part is, because my bins are just the piles i was naturally already creating, my clothes stay in their bins, which is inarguably a system of organization, and my room is actually clean and orderly, no messy clothes piles in sight!

i did a similar thing with my paper piles and now there's very little clutter and i don't feel like a failure of a person about my room the way i used to!

I have accomplished Clean Organized Room without having to change who i am or how i live! 10/10 highly recommend

#my life #spoons #adhd #laundry

[lycomorpha]

IDK who needs to hear this but...

Taking shortcuts & finding ways to make making your artwork easier isn't cheating, & it doesn't make you a bad artist.

In fact, if you're disabled &/or chronically ill like me?

I'd say it's essential to making the work sustainable & doing the spoonie maths.🥄

The drawings are deliberately unfinished btw

...

...

...

(& when I say IDK who needs to hear this... I mean I need to hear this 😬)

#drawing #pencils #pencil art #colour pencils #colour pencil #colour pencil drawing #color pencil #colored pencil #pencil #sketching #sketchbook #art journal #pencil sketch

[legendsobsessions]

Are you fucking tired? Are you in way too much pain for your age? Do you have no idea what the normal baseline is? Does the phrase, "All your tests came back completely normal" spark rage in you?

If so, join Team Ibuprofen!* We don't actually have a goal, but we're fucking tired of Abled people and our own shitty bodies! Reading and discussing the cripplepunk manifesto is essential for joining up. Our uniform is just a hoodie that says "Back & Body Hurts." We talk about comfy mobility aids, spoonie cooking, and responsible pain management.

On occasion, if the spoons align, we might just terrorize an ableist!** What could be scarier to them than a proud disabled person living their best life and reminding them that their lack of disability is a temporary condition? MULTIPLE DISABLED PEOPLE. THAT'S RIGHT MOTHERFUCKERS.

Join today! I'll talk your ear off about canes. Hearing impaired? I've got the rant locked and loaded in powerpoint form too! I don't give a fuck what your disabilities are, we can find a way to work with them! Because you, as a person and not the summation of your deficits, are worth it and fuck anyone who says otherwise!

*Take ibuprofen responsibly, with food, to prevent the formation of ulcers. Combining it with tylenol also helps.

**Brandon, if you are reading this, I swear to Arceus it's called a joke.

~@gotta-pet-em-all

Genuinely, Fluff, could I get one of those hoodies?

#rotomblr #pokeblogging #pokeblog rp #pokemon irl

[21stc3nturyd1gitalb0y]

I saw your patch post, and was wondering what "no spoons" mean? if you don't mind <33

i don’t mind at all! spoon theory is a commonly used way to illustrate chronic illness. spoons act as the unit in the analogy, essentially representing the amount of energy a person has for certain tasks. that’s why you will sometimes hear chronically ill people refer to themselves as “spoonies” or state that they are “out of spoons” as a way to say they don’t have the mental or physical capacity on a particular day.

#punk #chronic illness #chronically ill #spoonie #spoon theory #chronic pain #cpunk #disability