She is not afraid of the snow

 

Recently Chris and I have been stocking up our fridge, freezer and pantry. The world is a very sad place and nothing is sure...

We aren't living in fear- we just think with the price of diesel, strikes, problems in distribution and so on, that it would be prudent to have some back up food in the house.

So far we have enough groceries to last us about six weeks on a planned menu that doesn't use all our reserves at once, yet nourishes us. I have a few extra packs and tins of cat food for Xena.

In line with this, I have been getting prescriptions filled promptly and buying extra diabetic supplies. Again, enough to last us about six weeks. And that includes pain killers for my fibromyalgia.

Already we have had distribution problems with shipping containers banked up on wharves and no workers willing to unload them. With all our various health issues that require many tablets a day to control plus insulin injections, we are aware that having a few weeks in advance if possible is also prudent.

My antidepressants weren't available for months and if I hadn't been wise, I would have had a meltdown. Fortunately I had a couple of boxes of them in obeyance. 

Whilst I don't advocate stocking up because of fear, it is not wrong to anticipate difficulties in obtaining basic supplies and acting accordingly.

© Glenys Robyn Hicks   

 

She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet-Proverbs 31:21

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.

Through troubled waters to Home

We   are  now  into  2022 and   I  was  considering  how  fearful  some  of us  are  as  the   New  Year approached  and I was  comforted  to realise  that God has got this!   There  is no need to fear.

How can we have the peace we need as we face yet another year of uncertain times? By remembering Who is our Backstop, our Guide and our Comforter..

Jesus has brought us through every day until now... He guides us through each day through His Holy Spirit... He comforts us as we travel through this world on our way  Home with Him. 

    He is able. 

         He is. 

              And was. 

                 And will be....

Emmanuel- 

      God with us. 

          Not far from us. 

             Here. 

                 Now. 

A very present help in trouble...

Let  us join our hearts  and hands united in faith,  and not fear the future. We are in very good Hands... and  may  God give us His Peace  and guide us  through troubled  waters to  Home....

© Glenys Robyn Hicks

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Revelation 1:8

If you are not sure where your eternal Home will be, please read this link. Don't go another day without assurance and peace that comes with salvation...

Drowning in fear?

 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16   Click here to become a Christian 

The old hag came a'calling

There's a very scary sleep condition called Sleep Paralysis. Basically the brain is trying to wake us up but the body can be paralysed. It's also known as the Old Hag Syndrome because one often is conscious of something malevolent in the room or at close range.

I have had this happen to me. I woke up to find I could only move my eyes. I couldn't move my legs or head. It felt like someone was in my room and I had the most awful feeling of dread. I fell asleep again to wake up in the morning with the feeling that it was a very vivid nightmare.  It is the scariest thing...

I try not to allow fear overcome me when I try to go to sleep. In case I bring on a nightmare, I always go to sleep focusing on something positive.  With falling sleep being  difficult enough with fibromyalgia, I practise relaxation techniques that I learnt to cope with panic attacks.

This experience I liken to a nightmare, only I was conscious enough to know I was awake and it was real.

I really detest this happening as I guard my sleep judiciously thanks to it being so scarce with my fibromyalgia pain. After dinner, I won't watch anything on TV that may make me anxious, nor do I eat anything so as not to cause a disturbed sleep due to my digestive system handling food.

Feta cheese gives me nightmares, so I only eat that during the day. In fact all cheeses give me nightmares, and on occasion they have triggered a migraine.

After dinner I change into my pyjamas- if I have bothered to get dressed that is. I wind down with some rounds of Candy Crush and then I join Chris for a snuggle in front of the TV.

But even then I have to be very selective about viewing what he's viewing. If it's not a "chick flick" or is violent or will make me think too much, I just take him in a nightly cup of tea or hot milk and finish off another few rounds of my game. 

It seems I do become fixated on getting a good night's sleep, and it is true: I do.  With all my medications, about an hour after taking them, I feel the need to head towards bed. And saying about the medications, I am on 24+ pills a day and if I don't sleep for 9 hours, I wake up feeling hung over.

Anyone who suffers from Fibromyalgia will know that a good night's sleep is crucial to coping with the daily pain and they will also guard their bedtime habits like I do.

I want to enjoy my sleep, and I don't ever want to have to tell you that once more, the Old Hag came a'calling...

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!