It's gonna be a PJ's day.

 

The rain is pouring down but it's not cold just pleasantly warm after the last few days of summer heat. Xena is still asleep on my bed.

Chris is watching TV and I have got the breakfast dishes soaking in hot soapy water. The house is tidy and cosy. Life is good.

I woke up early and left Chris to sleep. I heard the birds calling each other and watched as my beloved magpies came down searching for some left over sausage among the rice dish I put out for them last night.

Carefully opening the sliding door that opens to the garden where they congregate waiting for me to feed them, they sat only inches away from me. Gradually they are coming closer to feeding from my hand. 

The washing machine is churning away at the load of clothes I am washing. I try to do a load a day so as not to use up all my spoons in one hit, folding them and putting them away. 

People with fibromyalgia would understand the need to pace oneself in order to achieve some completion of household tasks. There's so much job satisfaction in even doing one load of washing and putting it away. 

I have some steak thawing for dinner tonight. I am planning on cooking a vegetable intensive beef stew.

With the cooler weather and rain, the menu begs for a stew...

I still haven't changed out of my pajamas and it's 1pm but I don't really care. We aren't going anywhere and I am feeling pretty laid back and a tad achy. It's the change in weather.

It was a pretty slow but pleasant morning with Chris making me some breakfast and a cup of tea. The panadol is kicking in helping me with the aches and pains of fibromyalgia that's reacting to the weather change, but I am glad to report that it's not a fibro flare per se.

So in spite of aches and pains, I am feeling pretty good today, but even so, it's gonna be a PJ's day. 

On a wing and a prayer

We have been busy looking for another home to rent. It's been a nightmare. There aren't many homes to rent and when we apply, we are vying with about 20 other people for the same home.

Most days we have to go to look at these houses and as we are in the country, it is at least an hour's drive each day. I am exhausted.

So much exhaustion is hard to take, especially when it brings on a fibromyalgia flare. But as in lots of things in life, it just has to be done.

I think the most stressful part is actually securing a property to move in to. The actual move is not so bad, and this time we will be paying my grandson to help us move.

With the fifth wheel and tow vehicle sold, we are in a position to get someone to do the move for us and it's especially important with our failing health to enlist help this time.

We are going to miss the birdlife here for sure, but with us being in our 70's, we have decided that we need to be closer to family and hospitals if we have an emergency.

This house is old and has no insulation and is incredibly cold and it's our winter now. With the price of electricity going up on July first, we won't be able to afford the heating in our all electric dwelling.

We are feeling the cold and are looking forward to ducted heating again.

Today there's no house viewings as it's Saturday. I have used the time to catch up on washing and I have two slow cookers going with different meals in them.

I am contemplating using Prednisolone for a few days so that my neck and jaw pain (TMJ) abates. I don't know if it will help my muscle pain in my shoulder and upper pain, but it can't hurt.

Today is the first day for awhile that I have been able to post as my muscles feel like they're tearing. But I just wanted to touch base and tell you what's happening in our part of the world at the moment.

Next week is another day of house hunting and tonight I feel like I am running on a wing and a prayer.

 

The downside of country life

So  the other night I was going into my bathroom when I noticed this huntsman on the frame near the door. My heart nearly stopped!

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.

Our little haven

 

So yesterday was a day of horrible fibromyalgia pain and fatigue. I felt a little down so I came to my couch and sat next to Chris for a cuddle and rest. 

We love feeding the birds that come into our back garden and all through the day, our garden is like an airport. Birds of all types come to dine and drink and it is so restful and fun to watch them.

They have their own little antics and natures and they can be quite amusing. And apart from watching their different natures and antics they have something else that we find very attractive: they have babies.

It's such fun to watch the mothers feeding their babies and to watch the babies venture further and further from her as they learn to feed themselves. They fly but are still juvenile and yesterday their mothers were distancing themselves from their chicks and refusing to feed them, much to their annoyance. 

The magpie juveniles are especially raucous and squawk even with food in their mouth. They are almost always feeding. The minor bird mummy also is weaning her chicks from her and as soon as she moves away, they follow like the duckling family juveniles do. So fun to watch.

But by far, my favourite birds are the Kingfishers which have also had babies. Whilst laying on the couch, I can see outside and I was delighted to see a mother Kingfisher with one of her three babies on our garden swing.

They were watching the porch which was covered in birdseed for the galahs and rosellas. I had thrown out some cut up luncheon meat, and they were waiting for the magpies to vacate the porch so that they could dine. Kingfishers are shy and besides, magpies are three times their size. So they wait.

It is the season for little white cabbage moths too. They are flying around the agapanthus plants and I guess they are mating because they seem to be in pairs. As are the pigeons that come for the seed.

There are three that regularly call in and partake of the parrot seed on the ground. There's a little female who just wants to eat, but there also is an amorous male who has romance on his mind. He pursues her constantly and hopes to make her his by dancing for her. 

He fans out his tail feathers and hops towards her, then takes a few steps back. He repeats this courting gesture until she tires of him and runs a few feet away. But he is insistent and pursues her over and over again. I hope that he wins her heart as it is such fun to  watch the young birds as they leave the nest under their mothers supervision.

We have a bird bath/feeder in the back garden which we used to fill with seed, but now with torn meniscuses in both knees, I cannot get down the steps to fill it, so they get fed from the back sliding glass door. I just toss the food onto the back porch. They don't care where it is. 

They are quite used to me now and I have them almost eating out of my hand. So much so that as soon as I open the door, they come flying in to the garden from all directions, calling each other.

We have water in the bird feeder and in a plastic container in front of the steps. They bathe and drink and sing and they enjoy our back garden as much as we do.

It's a lovely place to recoup one's spoons during a fibromyalgia flare. The daily scenes are so peaceful and we love our little haven and we know the birds think of it as their haven as well. Their constant visits and frequent broods of chicks speaks of a place of plentiful food, water and safety.

We are grateful God lead us to this little country town- it is a gift from Him: our little haven

But then again, maybe not!

 

With the start of our summer tomorrow, we have been having some very lovely days this last week and today. I have enjoyed the respite from constant rain and so has my body.

Fibromyalgia has taken a back seat and I am enjoying having some spoons. It's been so long that it is a surreal feeling. 

I have been washing our bedding after the winter months and will be packing away our doonas. We both don't sleep very well and so we prefer minkie blankets. They are light and easy to throw off if we get too warm, yet warm enough to preclude the need for the heavier doonas for a drop in temperature.

It's such a joy to open the windows throughout the house too. We are fresh air freaks. There's nothing like the smell of the early morning. 

I am going to make up my favourite cookie recipe today. And I think I will bake some sultana muffins for Chris. He loves them. 

In stark contrast to flare days, I have already had my shower and gotten dressed. I need to take our bloods and give Chris his insulin injection. I think I will serve him some soldiers for breakfast this morning.

I have pork chops thawing for dinner tonight. I may do an egg salad to go with them. It's salad weather here at the moment.

As I must pace myself so as not to bring on another flare, I think in between tasks I will go out in the back garden and sit on the garden swing. My friends the birds are so tame that they actually come down to eat almost from my hand. It's so relaxing!

I have a lot of things I want to do today, but nothing compares to sitting in the swing in the sun watching the birds. So maybe I will get all those things done, but then again, maybe not! 

Fibromyalgia is a wicked ruler.

So yesterday we went to see our daughter after lockdowns were lifted. The weather was beautiful and we bought some fish and chips for lunch and we ate them in the car overlooking some water. It was lovely!

We haven't been out socially for about 4 months, and it was a real novelty to keep on driving with no restrictions. We had a lovely cup of tea with our daughter and caught up. 

Driving home, we took the long scenic route. It made us feel glad to be alive. Last night, I slept like a baby but unfortunately woke up in top of the range pain. It's going to rain.

Fibromyalgia is such a wicked ruler. It can come and bite you on the heel, just  after you've had a lovely and special time. Maybe it was sitting so long yesterday, maybe because of the changing weather. I don't know. All  I know is I have another fibro flare.

Sitting here typing and in pain, I have come to realise that in spite of knowing that fibromyalgia will rear its' ugly head the next day, it's important to keep living.

The only alternative for me is to stay home permanently and wrap myself in cotton wool but be miserable doing it. I don't want that to happen.

So I will put up with rebound flares after using all my spoons if it means that I have a life other than that of an invalid. I am more than that.  I want to have episodes of pleasure in my life no matter how brief.

I need to make memories and keep in contact with my family. I will overcome it, even if fibromyalgia is a wicked ruler.

Things on my to do list are just basics today. Dishes, cooking and resting.

Coming to terms with it

Fibromyalgia is flaring and my spoons are scarce today, so it's just basic home duties for me.  Dishes, washing and meals.

If I can get down the steps today, I want to sit in the garden swing. I need the fresh air and relaxation that watching the birds brings. They are getting quite cheeky and tame now. I only have to open the door and they converge on the back porch/decking chirping at me to get them something to eat. 

They stand there practically with their hands on their hips, feet tapping: why are we waiting? Quite funny. I know they case the house out- I see their shadows on the roof and carport. I will miss this place. Chris wants to move back into "civilisation" when we sell the fiver. With Covid, we haven't had any chance to get people here to see it. 

As with coming to terms with the knowledge that my fibromyalgia and other issues will not get better, so I am trying to come to terms with missing out on country life.

One leg out, one in!

So today we signed a new lease for another year at our little country cottage. We love it here and if one has to be in lockdown like we are, there is no better place for it. 

Because we have cold winters here, we have bought an electric portable heater with realistic flames like the one we have in our living room.  So as we still have cold days in October, I am hoping the heater comes soon. The cold is the only down side of living in this little cottage. 

With my fibromyalgia, I feel the cold especially and some days I feel like I can't warm up. Sometimes I go to bed with my electric blanket just to warm up.

Anyone who suffers from fibromyalgia know that our thermostat is broken. We act like someone who has a fever: we are hot, then cold, then hot again. It's a conundrum as well as a nuisance. Like so many symptoms of fibromyalgia, there's no real explanation as to why.

I used to think it was because I am on blood-thinners for my antiphospholipid syndrome and stents. That was until I joined a really helpful online group for fibromyalgia sufferers called Fibro Blogger Directory. 

There the other members shared about this and many other fibromyalgia symptoms and I quickly learned that I was not the only one with a broken thermostat who slept with one leg out and one in the covers.

 

You don't get that in the city

 

What we saw from our back door. Xena is sitting eyeing off the Kingfisher who isn't at all perturbed by her. Nor was the rosella who flew in for some seed and watermelon. Never a dull moment in our backyard.

It was such a lovely day. We sat on our couch and just listened to the stream and the birds were calling and coming down to eat and drink and bathe in our birdbath. It was relaxing like a day at the beach, which is what we call our couch, "The Beach"

Later the Kingfisher was joined by his mate and two others who dine at our place frequently. They came to an inch of Xena and she just sat in the sun watching them. They've got her pegged: she's a scaredy cat!

Chris's face was paining him from his Bell's Palsy and my fibromyalgia was making me feel as if I had been run over by a bus, but the peace and the sunshine made us glad to be alive.

Some corellas just joined the chorus and a kookaburra started laughing nearby. Not for the first time, we commented how much we love our little country cottage and its wildlife. You don't get that in the city.

Of birds and sunshine

 

It's Wednesday morning here. I have gotten up early because I have to repack a smart TV that was delivered and it wasn't what we ordered. Chris will then take it to the Post Office and send it back. Then we will get a refund.

After that we have to go to the chemist and get some scripts made up. It's pretty ordinary stuff, but it's a half hour drive and with lockdown still enforced here, it's an outing. We are going stir crazy! Getting supplies and medication is legal, so we don't have to worry about being fined $5000 AUD. The fines have been increased because there are many people going about and ignoring lockdown. I guess they are over it too, but it is what it is.

I have last night's dinner dishes to do before we go anywhere. Due to having no spoons, (energy) I will take my shower before bed. The weather's supposed to be nice today and I am looking forward not only to the drive, but sitting in my walker on the back porch and watching the birds. The sun might help me with my fibromyalgia pain in the neck and shoulders. Along with the pain killers I will pick up from the chemist today.

There's nothing like sunshine and bird watching to chase the blues away.

Like, sure that will work!

As you know, I really love watching the many birds that come into our back garden, and I feed them all the time.

Xena our cat also watches them, but I am not sure what her motives are! Anyway, they have gotten used to her sitting watching them and they eat freely in front of her.

Of all the birds, my favourite are the kingfishers and I always leave a treat for them on the actual porch. The others eat further down near the bird feeder, but the kingfishers always come up checking for treats.

It started out with one brown kingfisher, but now there are about four brown ones and two black and white.

No matter where they are, I have my "love glances" from the LORD. He always causes me to turn round or look up just as they appear. He is so loving and good! 

It is winter here and we have rain which exacerbates my fibromyalgia. So today I am planning on just doing my dishes and cooking. Pork chops with mashed potato and salad are on the menu for tonight.

My knee is still so sore and I feel like my polymyalgia rheumatica is coming back. I am toying with the idea of putting myself back on my Prednisolone. We will see.

With opioids being so restricted and my paracetamol aka Tylenol being practically useless, I am going to try to distract myself watching the birds and taking my mind off it. Like, sure that will work! 

We need an ark!

THURSDAY NIGHT: We are having unseasonable weather with flooding and high winds. Currently having our tenth power outage in 24 hours with large trees blown over lots of roads and in the parkland opposite our house we are out of our diabetic medicines and we can’t get to the chemist.

We have been advised to stay home for safety. I am so glad we are on a steep slope.

FRIDAY: We managed to get through to our closest chemist so we have our diabetic medicine again! We had dinner at Chris's son's as they had gas to cook with. They live near us! 

We have no heating whatsoever and it's winter and the weather is freezing. My fibromyalgia has come out to play! 

SATURDAY:  So pleased that the power came back on last night. 

SUNDAY AFTERNOON: We have just got the modem back on but the phones are still on SOS only. 

The waters came up very high so that the cows couldn't get any food from their pasture behind our back garden. A farmer asked us if he could go through our back garden to leave some hay bales for them. Of course we said yes and he managed to place some in the small island of land in the middle of the flood waters. 

I don't need food or medicine so it doesn't matter that we can't get out for the moment. 

The farmer who came through to feed his cows was very nice and he said he's lived here all his life and has never seen the weather and floods as bad as this one. The weather bureau said the waters should recede soon.

This is the view today from our back porch. The hay was delivered to the island strip of land because through habit that's where the cows were plodding looking for feed. The farmer's house is in the background.

My focus for today is to wash all the dishes and do some washing... I will be cooking lamb stew for tonight. 

More rain is forecast for the next few days with more flooding. If it gets any worse, we are going to need an ark! 

Enjoying some morning sunshine

 

Chris and I are not getting enough Vitamin D so we took the opportunity yesterday to sit on our garden swing together and catch some rays.

Xena found some meat I had left out for our magpies and kingfishers and you can see her in the start of the video. 

We just listened to the silence punctuated with some birds calling and we just luxuriated in the warm rays.

Just beyond our fence is a stream running through the back of our property with some paddocks rolling out along the stream edge. The cows come to graze a couple of times a day, moving right along all the paddocks, grazing as they go.

With winter on us now, we try to get outside and get some sun and it is really nice to feels the rays on our skin but I have to be careful as it's very easy to fall asleep. It wouldn't be very restful to fall onto the scoria under the swing.

It's nice to focus on pretty birds, cats and cows and get away from the news and I only really listen to it once a day. I need to know about lockdowns rules and so on. After I find out, I switch it off.  

We have been on lockdown again last week and metropolitan Melbourne has had it extended for another week. It has been lifted a bit for us as we are regional. But we can't travel far.

My fibro and polymyalgia are flaring and I find myself longing to go to bed, but I try to resist going back. I prefer sitting on the swing holding Chris's hand and enjoying some morning sunshine.

Our winter wonderland

Yesterday my step-son and his wife came and detailed the fifth wheeler and tow vehicle. Today they are coming to take pictures and we are going to advertise it on RV magazines. Prayers that it sell quickly. 

We must get a newer car as ours is on its last gasp and is not fixable. Being in the country with our nearest supermarket and chemist a half hours' drive away, a car is essential. 

It's Saturday morning here and I only have some dishes to wash and cooking for dinner to do. Which is great as I am nearly out of spoons already. Once again, my fibromyalgia is  taking my body hostage. Just after I thought my flare was over.

I woke up at 5am feeling cold so I had to boot up the electric blanket again. Chris did the same with his. We woke up to a winter wonderland. Even the bird bath was frozen solid. 1deg C which is cold for us Aussies. We are still in autumn and winter officially starts 1 June, but it is just preparing us for a cold wet one I think.

Our back garden's like an airport

So today as I was resting on the couch with a fibromyalgia flare, I saw that a whole lot of birds had come to dine on the new round of birdseed and strips of steak leftover from dinner last night.

We had galahs, parrots, minor birds, pigeons and even a duck. They were flying in and taking off so much that our back yard looked like an airport.

Chris took a video but because he couldn't get too close to the back door without frightening them, the video isn't as clear as we would have liked. However, you get the idea.

With it being a cold rainy day today, it was the perfect day for a lie on the couch and as always, the picture window/door provided a wonderful view of the birdlife.

It's pretty cosy here though with the fire going and dinner bubbling in the slow cooker. Once again I am grateful for this house which nurtures us so much, especially during times of lockdown or recovery from fibro flares.

The view from our couch always changes like a screensaver, even if it's just a couple of butterflies flying past, a duck waddling in the yard or our back garden looking like an airport. 

 

 

The only blessing about getting old

 

It's Tuesday morning here. I have our cleaning lady coming at ten. Before she gets here, I want to tidy the house and get a load of washing done. 

She usually vacuums and mops the floors and cleans the bathroom for me. As an aged pensioner, the government has certain home care packages for the aged and I have been approved for one. I do pay a fee for her services, but it is subsidised through the government Aged Care Plan. 

I consider myself blessed beyond measure. Those jobs are ones I can no longer do and as Chris is quite unwell himself, I don't even ask him to attempt to do them. 

Having home help is not a matter of being lazy- with fibromyalgia, heart and spinal issues and arthritis, there are a lot of tasks I just cannot do anymore. 

As I have written before, I am grateful for all my labour saving devices and the Home Package Care Plan I qualified for.

I think it's the only blessing about getting old...

I envy our cat!

 

I don't believe in reincarnation, but if I did, I would come back as a cat. Xena has the best life ever!

She is a real diva and has two beds, two couches, two director's chairs and endless corners with interesting things like a foot cushion or a printer to lie on. Then there's the sunny window sills and benches for whenever a cat nap is in order. Which for her, is often. I do envy her sometimes.

She has trained us well.. food and water are always available and her litter tray is kept nice and clean. Even her bedding is washed regularly, perfumed and softened with fabric softener.

Our cat's life is a good life. The only tasks in a day are grooming and sharpening her nails on her scratching post- that is where we have trained her well...

With my fibromyalgia pain at an all time high with our colder weather, I often think how wonderful it would be to have no responsibilities and a cosy bed at every turn to fall into. And to be able to peacefully sleep for at least 16 hours a day without feeling guilty would be a dream.

Yes, a cat's life is very desirable.... I could see myself as a feline. But with my bad record with health issues, I probably would be sent on a one way trip to the vet in a steel barred cat cage! 

I hope his mother's not nearby!

So I went into my laundry to check on my dryer. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move very, very fast from Xena's litter tray area.

Moving the laundry hamper out of the way, I saw a brown baby snake. He looked like a worm but he had a fat head of the snake variety.

I knew it wasn't a worm because he was too fast and as I watched him, he slithered back under the door into the back yard.

Flinging open the door, I thumped my broom to scare him away, but he had already disappeared. Probably under the house.

There's a half inch gap under the back door. Enough for a baby snake to get in. Chris is going to fix a metal door draught stopper strip along the underside of it.

It's made me slightly (much) frightened. Not that I wasn't expecting to run into a snake eventually with living in the country. I just didn't expect that it would be in my home!

I hate snakes and confess to momentarily thinking of moving or burning the house down! But I quickly came to my senses.  I hope his mother's not nearby! 

New Year's ponderings

Happy New Year everyone! Well, it's been 2 years today since I started this blog. It was just after giving up the nomadic lifestyle in our RV and moving into our rented country cottage.

So like most people, I am thinking about my direction for the New Year and in particular the plans I have for this blog.

I want to share about my battle with health issues, particularly fibromyalgia and how it effects our life as homemakers. Who I call "Sacrificial Home Keepers" 

I also want to include medical events for my reference and also I want to share news du jour for us.

One of my goals in blogging here is to plan my day and list it. I will truthfully cross off that which I have managed to do and hopefully I will follow it on to the next day.

I also want to read the Bible through in a year. Well, listen to it, anyway! I listen to  it on YouTube.

Another goal is to bring my life verse, Philippians 4:8 into my life by focussing on what is good and true.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are  true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

Praying for a happy year and a safe one for you. Remember that the Bridegroom's coming for His Bride soon! Let's dwell on that and look up! 

Read the Bible  https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-reading-plan/thematic.html

• Wash clothes and fold them
• Cook vegetable lasagna for dinner  
• Clean kitchen

Flying with the birds

 

We came home on Boxing Day from spending Christmas Eve and Day with Chris's daughter. Xena was especially glad to see us- almost as glad as she was seeing the birds coming into the back garden to feast on the remains of the nibblies platter I ordered. (I took a photo for you!)  See the kingfisher on the door mat that the wind blew over?

We had a lovely Christmas with family and it was very relaxing. So much so, that my fibromyalgia flare is lessening. I actually woke feeling refreshed and my muscles weren't feeling like they were tearing like they usually do.

It's been so long since I have had a respite from fibromyalgia flares that it felt strange. Good, but strange. Isn't it sad that one lives on the edge of agony so much that when the pain even abates just a little, you find the sensation agreeable but foreign? Such is fibromyalgia!

I received some nice presents for Christmas, but my favourite gift by far is some spoons or energy! I feel like I have won the lottery! Now if my broken tail bone would hurry up and heal, I would be rapt!

You know too how I said we have a lot of kingfishers around? Well, yesterday I was washing some dishes and I saw a kingfisher on the fence in front of me. I grabbed some offcuts of  beef that were on the chopping board from the stew I was preparing and quietly opened the back door. I pitched the meat towards it and it came down to eat it, but its mother, who was quicker flew down and carried it off, much to her baby's consternation.

She flew off with the beef dangling from her beak and her baby followed squawking in protest. I am sure she would have been a good mother and shared it with him. It made my day. I have found God often treats me with little scenes that delight me like that. I call them Love Glances. Just between Him and I...but I digress..

Having a few spoons has brightened my spirits. I have washed clothes, done dishes, made our bed, cooked lunch and prepared dinner. 

I must hold back and pace myself though or I will crash and burn and be of no use tomorrow. It's a trap that I have fallen into before. But meanwhile, I will pace and plan cautiously even though I feel like flying with the birds!