The Shining Beautiful Series

Mikelle is in her wheelchair smiling with three of her favorite girlfriends surrounding her with love.

A Tale of Two Celebrations: Mikelle’s Memorable Birthday Bash

A Home of My Own, Daily Life, Family, Friends, Self-Determination, Special Needs Parenting /

Celebrating Mikelle’s Birthday in the Shadows of Her Grandma’s Home This summer, Mikelle celebrated her birthday at the home of her brother Kasey and his wife Allison, once her beloved Grandma’s house for sixty-two years. Although it marked the second birthday without her Grandma, gathering friends in the revitalized backyard breathed new life into the celebration. […]

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brown and white photo with people gathered around the kitchen table talking. Featured hands and coffee cups.

Conversations Over Coffee: Navigating a Chaotic World

21st Century Rehabiliation Solutions, A Home of My Own, Community, Daily Life, Self-Determination, Special Needs Parenting, Uncategorized /

The kitchen table in Mikelle’s cozy condo hosts countless conversations. It’s where the Shining Beautiful team gathers, supporting each other through the chaos and adventures of everyday life. Each day, the table—and sometimes the coffee table—is laden with coffee mugs, a fresh breakfast or a plate of freshly baked chocolate croissants, and the weight of

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Spring Time Strategies for Self-Care.

21st Century Rehabiliation Solutions, A Home of My Own, Community, Daily Life, Family, Self-Determination, Special Needs Parenting /

Hello Beautiful! Spring is sprouting here in the Rocky Mountain area. Daffodils and forsythia burst with bright yellows, fragrant pink and purple hyacinths delight us as we walk the neighborhood. After that wild March Madness, we hope that we can share our Springtime Strategies for coping and self-care in a world of constant change.  We

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Are We Doomed?

Uncategorized /

Part Two   Exhaustion Sets In In last month’s blog post, Mikelle and I lamented that we are still in the middle of a staffing crisis ourselves. Since then, I have met with other parents experiencing some version of this crisis in their own families. Compounding our situation are life challenges like parental surgeries and

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Rethinking, Reimagining, and Resolved to be Resilient.

21st Century Rehabiliation Solutions, 21st Century Rehabiliation Solutions>Assistive Technology|A Home of My Own>Daily Life /

We at the Shining Beautiful Series are rethinking our entire way of providing support for Mikelle to define a new and vibrant rhythm to life in a world that changes daily. Over the years, we have engineered, refined, and established a remarkable way of supporting Mikelle, effectively maximizing her self-determination and control over her life.

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Birthdays, Community and COVID

21st Century Rehabiliation Solutions>Assistive Technology|A Home of My Own>Daily Life|Blog>Family|21st Century Rehabiliation Solutions>Self-Determination /

Typically, each year we celebrate Mikelle’s birthday at Cheeseman Park. We have been doing this for so long I actually can’t think of the last time we didn’t celebrate there. We celebrated her 29th birthday when the temperature roared by 105 degrees. We celebrated in down coats and gloves with rain drizzles in 59 degrees

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Holiday Harmony

A Home of My Own, Community, Daily Life, Decisions, Friends, Healthy Living, Self-Determination, Storytelling, The Pursuit of the American Dream /

Many of you, who came of age in the 1970s like me, remember being inspired by a television commercial. It was a Coca Cola commercial, where a lighted candle appears on the screen, and we see a young, beautiful woman singing, “I’d Like the World to Sing in Perfect Harmony,” the camera pans out. We

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