Saturday, 14 June 2025
Stopping perfectionism in its tracks.
Sunday, 18 May 2025
Because of motherly love
Saturday, 12 April 2025
I think I've earned it!
You may recall I posted about my new wheels- my motorised scooter coming.. well it came this week!
I have had a burl around the block and am very pleased with it. But I have had problems with health again and it's been hot, so I haven't been out a lot on it yet.
I have been waiting for it since December 11 last year. As it turns out, my case manager for my Aged Care package went on holiday and it was sitting in the warehouse waiting for her to clear it for delivery.
It's no use complaining and I am very grateful that I have it. My knees have been paining me very badly lately and my angina is causing my problems.
Adding having only one functioning lung and a hole in the heart and my swollen legs thanks to lymphedema, I guess I have earned it... lol
Wednesday, 9 April 2025
I don't think I would cope!
Well, my fibromyalgia flare has abated, and I have been doing a lot of knitting as watching TV bores me to tears.
We are in Autumn or Fall here in Australia and the mornings and evenings are cold, so there's nothing nicer than doing some handcrafts in the warmth each evening and throughout the day.
I have been a bit depressed lately and I think it's because I have been watching too much news on world events. So I decided to turn it off and bring my attention to something positive.
I often listen to the Bible on YouTube read by David Suchet. It tends to put my mind at rest and gives me pleasure.
Most mornings I do breakfast and medications and go on the computer to check emails, answer any comments in my blogs and check out groceries specials and organise our medications and get the scripts that are due, refilled. Then I tidy my home.
I have a lot of joy in watching the birds that come into our back garden and one of my morning chores is to feed them after I have fed Xena our little white cat... separately of course lol
As I am often low on spoons, I need to pace myself in the afternoon and often take a nana nap in order to be able to cook dinner.
We don't leave the house much at all, and to be honest I prefer it that way. But with my motorised scooter coming soon, I may find I quite like shopping again....
Life is pretty simple- almost boring, but with all that's happening in parts of the world, I am glad for the boring life. I don't think I would cope very well running for my life away from bombs!
Thursday, 3 April 2025
Quietly dwelling
Every day I need a nana nap to get through to dinner time and really there's nothing I can do to change that. I am forced to go with the flow.
I used to buy Lite N Easy food as part of my Aged Care package, but Chris and I have become sick of it. I have no choice but to cook.
As dinner times are when my spoons are usually spent, I sit down at the kitchen table and prepare whatever I can beforehand. Then it's just a matter of cooking some meat and doing some gravy.
Both ageing and fibromyalgia keep me living in pain, but I try to not complain about it too much.
I know at this season of my life that I can take that nana nap when I need to or leave the clothes to be folded another day. Likewise I can go to bed as early as I want... there are no schedules to keep.
Each day brings its challenges but even so, I am glad to be here...life is still sweet!
Even in this quiet season of my life it is very comforting to know that I am just where God wants me to be-quietly dwelling in the simplicity of acceptance and peace.
Saturday, 22 March 2025
I won't succumb to it...
I am currently unwell. My spoons have evaporated and everything that can ache or pain me, is. I am in a fibromyalgia flare.
We Aussies are in to our autumn or fall but the weather has been erratic with many days over 30C or 86F. With lots of rain to make it humid and steamy. It's bad weather for a Fibromite.
We have air conditioning but I have missed being able to go out into our back garden. So with temperatures forecast to be in the high 20's, I find I will be able to do that later on today.
I have managed to do some basic household chores. Our beds are made. I have tidied the kitchen and done a load of washing.
There's a tray of sirloin steak out on the benchtop thawing. Later on in the afternoon I will peel some potatoes to mash and some pumpkin to go with it.
The birds are calling me. I am going to change the washing over and put it in the dryer then rest. Every Fibromite knows if you don't rest on bad days, a flare will last longer.
After the next few chores, I am planning to go outside and read...and I won't succumb to false guilt.
Friday, 28 February 2025
Maybe I should have rephrased it
Thursday, 23 January 2025
It is what it is
So while I was still asleep, just after sunrise, Chris took some photos of our back garden.
He told me there were about 40 corellas eating the birdseed and meat scraps from dinner that I threw out after dinner.
Later on some rosellas joined them and after they left, the sparrows came down. Our place is like an airport.
Later on our cleaner from the Aged Care Provider is coming for a couple of hours and I will be straightening up the kitchen and loading the dishwasher as soon as I finish talking to you.
The washer's already going as I am washing some bedding for her to change the beds today. Of course, I will be using my dryer.
With fibromyalgia and polymyalgia rheumatica, I always use it. I have tried using my clothesline but the pain is really debilitating and I can't bear it. Like I always say, it is what it is.
Wednesday, 15 January 2025
There's plenty that I do.
- Maintenance in between weekly cleans
- Pet care and feeding our cat Xena
- Washing and folding and occasional ironing
- Menu planning
- Grocery shopping online
- Cooking
- Kitchen cleaning and dishes
- Gathering rubbish for bin collection
- Budgeting and bill paying
- Scheduling doctors visits
- Updating prescriptions and filling pill containers for the week
- Organising social events occasionally
Tuesday, 24 December 2024
Letting nothing you dismay!
Friday, 13 December 2024
Better days are coming!
Saturday, 28 September 2024
Enough acid to rival Chernobyl
Sunday, 24 December 2023
It is what it is!
Monday, 20 November 2023
We're going for a run
As you know, I have had to resort to using a wheelchair when I go out. It is not something I am happy about, but it is a necessary part of adapting to my new normal.
Along with walking, there are a few other things I have had to adapt to as well.
I sit on my shower seat. When I get out, I sit down again and dry off. That's about all the time I can stand.
Most times, Chris stacks and unstacks the dishwasher and this has stopped me having to stand and bend.
I always use the dryer even in good weather. I miss the smell of sun-dried clothes, but it is what it is.
I do make my bed for company, but even so it is just pulled up quickly, nothing fancy. I can't stand to tuck it in and I can't bend either...
With the ageing Australian Government Package, I have a support worker come every two weeks. She changes our beds.
Also within this Home Care Package, I can order ready cooked frozen dinners from Lite N Easy. The meals are designed by a dietitian and cooked by a chef. They are quite delicious and save me from having to stand to cook and I know we are eating well.
I am grateful for all this as it allows me to still be mistress of my home in spite of illness, pain and disability. But even so, I find myself longing for the soon rapture of the Church.
It will be so glorious to not only see my Saviour, but to be able to breathe easily, feel joy and go for a run...
Friday, 3 November 2023
Loving Australian Damper
Sunday, 29 October 2023
Are you a senior Aussie?
Thursday, 28 September 2023
When the spoons are gone forever
Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Time on the phone paid off
Once a year someone will come and wash our windows for us. The is all part of the Australian Government's plan to keep seniors in their own home instead of a nursing home.
I had to access three different goverment bodies today via phone with a waiting time of an hour or more, but with the ability to be approved so quickly and for the blessing it will be, the time on the phone paid off.
Monday, 24 April 2023
It still is that for me!
Yep, it's still Safeway for me! With fibromyalgia brain fog and old age, tell me the new name of a place or person I knew, and it is lost forever... they will forever be the name I first called them!
So I had a phone consult today and the doctor wants to wean me off prednisolone after only four days.. it hasnt really done it's job quite yet, so I am going to spin it out for a few more days ...
Today I have washed some minkie blankets off our beds, ran and then emptied the Roombas, cleaned the toilets and ordered online medicines and groceries.I did some rounds of crochet in between tasks..
Chris loves bangers and mash so that's what I will be doing for tea tonight..
The Prednisolone fills me with fake energy, but I don't care... I will milk this Polymyalgia rheumatica situation for all it's worth! I know I won't be long on the meds so I may as well turn the antsy feelings for my good...and get the benefit of some pseudo spoons!
For those who don't know... in Australia Safeway Supermarkets took on the name Woolworths many moons ago: but as I said, it still is that for me!
Tuesday, 1 March 2022
The downside of country life
Walking into the bathroom, I must have passed close to this horrid spider who could easily have jumped on my head and such is my fear of spiders, it possibly would have killed me in a cardiac event brought on by fear!
Not an overly big spider by huntsman standards, he would have been about 3 inches across. But he was big enough to induce panic in us as we scurried to find a broom and the fly spray!
I didn't want to lose this guy as we wouldn't know where we would find him, so there was a great over use of flyspray and frantic loud bangs of the broom. Suffice it to say, he got a burial at sea!
It is said that they come in pairs, so we were watching everywhere until his mate was found. And she was...
I was in the adjacent laundry and found her sunning herself on the glass panel in the back door. I grabbed my flyspray and went to spray it, but then realised that she was outside the door. She too had to be gone because I didn't want her coming in the house. I'd had enough excitement with her mate's intrusion.
A few sprays of the flyspray had her on the move, and a few heavy thumps of the broom, and she was no longer. Except for food for the birds and ants.
Indeed, I had to chuckle at how fast I moved, considering my two damaged knees and fibromyalgia. It's marvellous what an adrenaline rush can do for a body!
Not only did the fear of losing the huntsman to perchance come back to terrorise me, rattle me, but so did realising that I had married a man who refused to rescue me from dangerous wildlife! Such was my expectation of my knight in shining armour! :)
Don't get me wrong: I still love living here in the Australian bush with my liver-lilied Chris, but snakes and huntsmen are definitely the downside of country life.