Gin & Lemonade is a disability lifestyle and parenting blog, sharing my adventures fighting ableism, promoting accessibility, and picking up all the toys in my house. I’m Lorna, and I started this blog in 2010, after moving to Edinburgh. More recently, after experimenting with country living for 4 years, the family and I are back in Edinburgh. I’ve always written about my life as a disabled person. And now I write about what it’s like to be a disabled mother.…
‘Happy Birthday, baby!’ ‘Go to sleep, Mummy.’ ‘Aren’t you excited?’ ‘Sleeep, Mummy.’ Isla crawled into bed between us, then well, went back to sleep. ‘What time is it?’ ‘Five o’clock.’ ‘Well, shit. G’night,’ I said. Two hours later. Stickers and balloons in bed. ‘What, no penguins?’ Isla asked. ‘C’mon, guys!’ Her favourite thing of the early morning was a helium balloon that we bought in Inverness (more on that shopping trip later. Because it was indeed a trip.) Back to…
Isla: Mum, you ran OVER my Bugles! (We have graduated from Mummy/Mumma to plain Mum when she’s pissed at me.) Me: I’m sorry, does that really um, grind your gears? Isla: What? Me: Never mind. Sometime later… Isla: I’m still hungry. Me: I’ll fix you a plate. You better eat what I give you. (Ham, grapes that I thought were olives, and raspberries.) Me, again: Isla, c’mere and get your deconstructed sandwich. Isla: That’s not a sandwich. Me: Hence the…
I’ve decided I’m still a writer. I need to write more, but I’m still a writer. I have lots of notebooks. Some are even full. I also have a husband whose nicknames don’t stick, and a daughter who has too many. I have CP and a sporty wheelchair which I love, even if my post-baby hips are too big for it these days. I don’t know where I’m from. New York, by way of Dallas and the Highlands. And Glasgow.…
Imagine, if you will, a time when you wore something other than sweatpants. You went to meetings, you had a ‘phone voice’, you had ‘Things To Do’ on a list. On your desk. A desk that wasn’t in your house. You may have even had a boss. A boss who had more than one tooth. And now, Fridays aren’t the same. The closest thing you have to meetings is cake time with other mothers. There is a lot of cake.…
