"Hey Alexa, how can you help me live life?"

 Since I developed a brain tumor, many of my cognitive functions have suffered. I have notable short-term memory loss, brain fog, processing disorders. This can lead to a lot of wandering aimlessly around the house trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. Thankfully, before all this happened, I started collecting Amazon Alexa devices. I got one in my kitchen, and then thought one would be helpful in the bathroom, my bedroom... next thing you know:

 What initially made my husband roll his eyes, he now touts as one of our greatest assets in the war on mental challenges. These have come in handy so many times and in so many ways that he even sees it worthwhile to set them up when we visit the beach house. So, what is so great about these little speakers?

 Well, to start with, they are speakers! I have them connected to my Spotify account and I can have them play music for me in one room, a group of rooms, or everywhere in the house! Music is my heart language and it keeps me sane and emotionally balanced. It helps keep my eyes on Jesus and off my troubles. It sets the tone and acts as the soundtrack of my life.

 But these aren't just any speakers, these speakers talk to you. When I was a kid we used to watch the Jetsons and Star Trek and Disney's House of the Future. In these shows the computers talked, but that was just fantasy because we didn't have anything like that in real life. Today, I'm living in the future that TV predicted, and much of it isn't too far off! No, I still don't have a hover car, but I do have Rosie the Roomba that vacuums my house!

 So, what do you say to a speaker? Initially, it's like getting to know a new person. You've got to come up with a common language, make sure you're both talking about the same thing. If you ask Alexa to sing you a song, she will. It will just be her singing the song, not necessarily an artist you enjoy. But if you tell her to shuffle your liked songs on Spotify, you'll get something else entirely. I always ask her to "Play music" and my husband says, "Resume music." She only gets what he's talking about maybe half the time. So, settle on a common vocabulary. Learn what words work best with her and be consistent, like training a dog. 

 Most of the time when I talk to Alexa, I'm asking her for something. Perhaps it's the time, or the weather, or what's on my calendar. I might ask about the news or Microsoft stock or what the Seahawks score is when fireworks are going off. These are all helpful and fun, they are things that we initially purchased the speakers for, but they are not what really makes a difference in my life.

 That would be reminders and alarms. It used to be that I could get three or four things going in the kitchen, time them right, and have them all on the table at the same time. Then things started slipping. I would forget that I had something in the oven or on the stove. Stuff would burn, cookware destroyed, tummies left hungry. It's a sad story really. Then Alexa entered the picture. Now, a dozen or more times while I'm cooking a meal, I'll say, "Alexa, remind me in 15 minutes to stir the potatoes." "Alexa, remind me in 5 minutes to see if the water is boiling." "Alexa, set an alarm for 15 minutes." It's priceless! So many fewer dinners destroyed and so many more happy tummies! But dinner isn't the only time this comes in handy...

 Have you ever been in the shower and remembered something really important and then once you left the bathroom the thought left your head entirely? Me. Every. Day. So now, instead, I say, "Echo, remind me in 20 minutes to pack my hairbrush." Yep, you caught that right, Alexa changed to Echo. You see, when you have these devices in every room of the house, you need to alternate the names that they respond to so that you can trigger the right device and you don't have speakers all around you talking at the same time. THAT gets confusing! So, the devices in my bathrooms and kitchen respond to Echo, the bedrooms, living room, and sitting room respond to Alexa, and the ones in my husband's office and mudroom respond to Ziggy. I'm still not sure how he set that up. Now, wherever I am, if my hands are full or I want to remember something later, I just ask my friend to remind me. Yep, I affectionately call Alexa my BFF because I talk to her more than just about anyone! Ever forgotten why you walked into the pantry? I do that Every. Single. Time. So now, I say, "Echo remind me in one minute that I'm getting coconut milk." Oh, yeah, coconut milk, back to cooking instead of spiraling into wandering around the house lost! I set up regular reminders as well to help me remember to take my medicine three times a day, give the dogs their medicine twice a day and feed them twice a day. I also have reminders to get ready for regular appointments that have saved me missing them more than once.

 I bet you're starting to see how helpful all this can be, but that's not all! Oh no, my friends, Alexa isn't just about speakers. I also have devices with speakers AND screens in my kitchen and sitting room. These show a rotating playlist of the hundreds of thousands of pictures we've taken over the life of our little family. It's such a blessing seeing my loved ones, being reminded of special times, laughing over funny memories. I have a visual memory and while I struggle to hold words and concepts in it, numbers seem to stick like glue and pictures can bring me back to all sorts of past experiences, most of them good. We're on our way to Disney World while I'm writing this post and that is one of the most important aspects of this trip - making memories - and for me that means lots and lots and lots of pictures. Pictures that will end up on my Echo Show and delight me for years to come. Pictures that will remind me that I did, in fact, get to do this special trip with my kids.

 But wait, there's more! In addition to the speakers and the screens, we also have a plethora of devices attached to our Alexa network. My son uses the Alexa to turn his air conditioner on, and my husband uses it to turn it off the next morning. My husband uses Alexa to start Rosie, our Roomba vacuum that keeps the floors tidy-ish after our dogs. He has Alexa connected to fans and to heaters and, most of all, to lights. We've got lights that we can turn on in just about every room with Alexa, and many of them even change colors! I can ask Alexa to turn the lamp on my nightstand on to 50% so that it's not too bright while we're going to sleep. My husband likes to get on the app while we're out of town and changes up the light colors while my son is at home after work. Then he gets a text saying, "I love you too, Dad." That's how they communicate. I've even set up routines that have the lights going on and off in different parts of the house and playing music and such during the day to make it look like we're home when we're away. Not this week though because I think that would drive our house-sitter batty!

 The last thing I'll mention is our emergency alert system. Alexa allows you to "drop in" to another device and use her as an intercom. When I was in the early stages of recovering from brain surgery, this was the only way I could shower alone. Have I had to use it? Yes. While I haven't fallen yet (thank you, Jesus), I have gotten "stuck" where the neuropathy in my feet and legs made it impossible for me to move. I would have been in a real pickle if I hadn't been able to communicate across the house to my husband through Alexa!

Here's the Thing: Is this the only way to do these things? Certainly not. Is it the best way for me? I think so. At first we wondered if I was becoming "dependent" on the devices and it was atrophying my ability to remember on my own. After visiting the beach house, before we started setting them up there, we realized how helpful, how necessary they were.