All About Me

An image of Amanda, wearing a purple t-shirt and with a short pixie cut hairsytle, sitting in from of a cluster of oxeye daises. Underneath it says, "Hi', I'm Amanda" and is used to introduce readers to her About page.

Hi there, my name’s Amanda, and I’m delighted to welcome you here.

I’m a 30-something mum to Little Man and wife to Thea. Both Thea and myself are chronically ill, and Little Man has ASD & ADHD, so life is pretty challenging at times. I’m personally mostly housebound and sometimes even bedridden, and so having a space online where I can share the things I am passionate about and hopefully find a purpose in my life beyond simply surviving my illnesses makes a huge difference. Especially when I can write about the things that are important in my life, like LGBTQ+ issues, disability & chronic illness, and faith.

Amanda, a white woman with long dark hair, and Thea, a non binary transfeminine with short hair and glasses, and cuddling and smiling at the camera

LGBTQ+ Life

In 2020 Thea came out as both bisexual and non binary transfeminine. As a result of this I began to question my own sexuality and realised I wasn’t as straight as I always thought I was. I now identify as panromantic asexual, and am passionate about sharing our journey and the resources that have helped us (you’ll see lots of book reviews on the blog now!)

a white square with 16 icons on it depicting various forms of disability in black and blue colours. From top left to bottom right these icons are: someone in a wheelchair; a wheelchair in a house; someone in bed; someone helping another person using a cane; an eye with a line drawn diagnonally through it, a pair of dark lensed glasses, two hands using sign language; an ear with two arrows pointing to a hearing aid, someone sitting on a bench, someone using a cane, someone being pushed in a wheelchair; someone using a walking frame; a wheelchair user playing basketball, a wheelchair using a ramp, someone with a prosthetic leg using a cane; and a wheelchair user getting onto a bus.

Disability and Chronic Illness

As mentioned previously, Thea and I have a whole list of chronic illness diagnoses between us, and the past 5 years have been a steady decline into increasing debilitation for me in particular.

2020 brought with it some of my worst experiences physically, and I began to lose hope of ever recovering to a functioning level again. Things are slowly improving, but I’m still very limited and so I may write from time to time about my health issues, the things that are helping me, and the issues that are affecting the disabled and chronic illness communities.

Creativity

I have always loved creating things, and when I am feeling well this is my favourite way to pass the time. My favourite ways to get creative these days are crochet and writing. You can find a list of all my writing here, including my Young Adult novel, which I am excited to be working on again after ten years of leaving it sitting on a dusty shelf. You’ll also find me talking about writing sometimes over on Twitter.

Faith & Spirituality

My Faith is incredibly fluid, and can be summed up as: I believe that “God” is the creative force behind all life, which is a limitless energy and presence that can be found in all religious paths and none. I’m a Christian, I celebrate the Pagan Sabbats, I love New Age teachings, and I often write about how these influence my life.