Some assembly required My triple deuce day was an escape from everything around me. To be honest, this experience wasn't even on my radar. I was looking for some family photographs and stumbled upon a kit to make a kaleidoscope. At first glance this seems pretty simple. I imagine that my mother got this kit as a gift and planned to assemble it on her own. After reading through the instructions I understand why it's in the box. This kit's instructions were written and illustra

One last time Day 221 was my chance to visit the places I remember as a child. That's not a first. Today was about the one time I would take my mother on her last tour of the country life she lived. The women in this family are extraordinary. I give my mother credit for that. We picked mom up this morning from the funeral home. She was cremated and we walked out with her in a beautiful red rose decorated vessel. The four of us took our positions in the vehicle and as my siste

Sphero I bought this experience almost a month ago with the idea of tearing up the room that my mother was living in. Things changed but i had to achieve this experience. Day 220 was all about the sphero. This is a little robot, mine happens to be a replica of the Star Wars BB-8, which makes it 1000 times more adorable. This mini bot should have been amazing. It was not. My little rolling friend kept losing his head. I guess by design it needs to float around the spinning bal

To the point On day 84 I made a beautiful knife. Life happened and that experience was left a tiny bit incomplete. On my 219th day I finished putting an edge on that blade. The experience required a teacher. My dad and I have spent many days together in good times and in very bad. He's someone pretty special and he knows so much about so many things. Today he taught me how to use a whetstone so that my knife would cut. The process was pretty simple once he explained it. I did

Fancy Moon Clover That's my unicorn name. I discovered it today while accomplishing my 218th experience, unicorn cereal. NO, I've never eaten the delicious unicorn. My original intention behind the purchase of this treat was to help my mother play some sensory games. I learned them from her speech therapist. We started with bowls of sugar, oatmeal and cheerios. Our goal, stimulate the senses and start a conversation. We did everything but hear my mother speak. She was not tal

Tied up in knots This day has been pretty long. I managed to get through most of it without any idea what I was going to do. I have to admit that the next few days are going to be pretty difficult for so many reasons. On day 217 my cousin came to the rescue to teach me to crochet. This is something that I have wanted to learn for most of my life. She taught me the double crochet stitch. I spent a lot of time making a chain of yarn with the hook that I could have done faster

Not your cardboard granola bar For the last month I've been protein obsessed, not for myself but for my mother. We were doing everything possible to control the calories and content of the food she was eating. My uncle found an amazing plant based breakfast bar loaded with 22grams of protein. On the 216th day of my personal challenge I ate one of them. Why did I wait so long to try one? These bars are fresh made without preservatives and ridiculously expensive. I wanted to sa

How do you summarize a life? How do you capture extraordinary humanity in a single photograph? On the 215th day of new experiences I planned a funeral for my mother. She was the planner in the family. She was such an organizer that she had labels on her label case. Her hand written tags are attached to most of the boxes in her office. She wanted to know how and where to find the things that were important. Our family drafted a short explanation of who mom was in her 79 years.

You never know when your first time might also be the last. I had my first glass of Pinot Grigio for mom, but that’s not today’s real first. On the 214th day I experienced the one and only thing I never wanted during these 365 days and thousands after. If you’ve been following my journey you know that mom has been fighting. In the early morning of day 214 my mom found peace and her fight ended. She was a force. On the last day of her life she fought with every breath to stay

I’m on fire It’s 4/20 and I’m sober as can be. I should have planned a more appropriate experience to honor the date but instead I did my first night time glo run. This event was super hero themed and appropriately I wore my Wonder Woman shirt and cape. My event was at Six Flags theme park and it felt like opening weekend. The lines were typical and there was nothing to do until the sun set. Once we actually started to walk the chill in the air kept us moving at a pretty good