About

Hi, I’m Karen, known on an older blog as Kcinnova. I changed blogs when we moved to a new town and started a new life on the opposite end of the country.  I was a full-time homemaker for 22 years, with plenty of volunteer jobs (and even the occasional paid gig) sprinkled in there along the way. With my husband is retired and the kids mostly grown, the time was right to go back to work part-time. My job as a church administrator was a ministry and a way to pay for my other hobbies: scrapbooking, quilting, beading, and spending time with girlfriends. However, after my trimalleolar fracture (a.k.a., breaking my ankle into smithereens) in late 2015, followed by the resulting traumatic arthritis AND the birth of two grandchildren, I reassessed where I wanted to put my limited energy. So in late 2018, I joined my husband in retirement. We’ve been married for more than 30 years and have 2 kids still at home.

Why SPOKALULU?

My new hometown is full of spokes—bike spokes. There are bikes everywhere: under kids, under commuters, under anyone who has the ability to get out and ride, with or without assistance. And living here might just produce a lulu of a tale, what with my husband being newly retired.  He claimed that I was his mid-life crisis (PROJECT TROPHY WIFE), and for his first year of retirement, he was my personal trainer and chef.  We survived his crisis, despite not achieving the goal of drastic weight loss (mine, not his — he is naturally thin).  He still makes healthy dinners for us on a regular basis, but he had to scale way back on the personal trainer gig. I was not the easiest trainee for a handful (foot full?) of reasons, including my injuring out repeatedly (thanks, genetics!) prior to breaking my ankle. While a lot of people talk about diet and exercise — something I’ve struggled with for many years — I no longer have the ability to walk or hike long distances. More recently, I’ve been learning about Intuitive Eating and it has changed my attitude about food in a really good way. My goal is a healthy life and an ability to play with my family; doing this in a pain-free manner would be ideal but not realistic. If you don’t know about the Spoon Theory, please look it up.

What is a FULF?  In a nutshell, it’s my Flubbed Up Left Foot (some people choose other words) and the term was introduced to me by my blogging friend Barb at So The Thing Is…   (She tells me that it was her podiatrist who coined the term.) I had several surgeries on my left foot for hammertoe and plantar fasciitis. I say with seriousness that going through that scared my right foot to go straight. But on November 13, 2015, the biggest change of all arrived: I fell and thoroughly broke my left ankle in a non-spectacular but incredibly painful trimalleolar fracture. After external reduction in the ER (that’s when the medical staff puts the dislocated joint back into a semblance of where it belongs) and more than a week of reducing excessive swelling, I had surgery (5 hours in length) on November 25th of that year, and there is now a small hardware store in my left ankle.  I spent 6 weeks in the stranded turtle position, slowly learning to walk again with the help of physical therapy. In June of 2019, I went back into surgery for ankle fusion because of the traumatic arthritis. The surgeon took out a few bits of hardware but it isn’t any prettier in there now (or on the outside thanks to scarring). I spent more time in stranded turtle position, then learned to walk up and down stairs via crutches until I could place more weight on the now permanently unbendable ankle. Eventually I’ll need to have more surgery due to advancing traumatic arthritis down my foot. Fun times.

You can learn more about my trimalleolar fracture by putting that phrase in the search bar.