Monday 8 August 2022
We really like our new house
Monday 25 July 2022
More spoons to enjoy life.
Saturday 25 June 2022
On a wing and a prayer
Saturday 18 June 2022
It's a pain in the neck
Wednesday 25 May 2022
We just have to embrace it
Our fiver got to South Australia to its new owner and they rang us to tell us how pleased they were with it. So that's good.
We are taking our GMC Sierra to the mechanic for a good overhaul Monday and then we will decide what we will do with it. Over here they are seen as a luxury ute and we think a young buck would love it. That's what we are hoping.
My twin and son and granddaughter continue to recover from Covid but are still very much under the weather with it.
I am convinced that our prayers have helped keep my twin. She's so many serious health issues such as lupus and I was afraid for her.
I have done a load of washing, cleaned my kitchen and am about to make some lunch. I have a flare of fibromyalgia again and my spoons are nearly all gone. I will be taking a nana nap soon.
With an imminent move, I am not looking forward to the energy output, however I am looking forward to being nearer family.
I will miss the birds and our feral cat who is gradually becoming less timid as we feed him. We have named him Teddy Bear as his face is surrounded by bushy fur and he is gingery brown and looks like a teddy.
But I know in life that one rarely gets everything one wants and so we have weighed up staying or moving. We have decided that we want to be closer to family, particularly our daughter who has had leukaemia.
With a bird bath/feeder and garden swing to take with us, we will continue to feed the birds as we watch from the swing in the garden.
It's true what they say: nothing is sure except death and taxes. Life is full of change. We just have to embrace it.
Monday 9 May 2022
It was a good day!
Friday 22 April 2022
Chipping away at the stone
Sunday 17 April 2022
It is enough!
Friday 1 April 2022
And a good sleep
Saturday 12 March 2022
This too will pass
Saturday 5 March 2022
When you got no spoons everyone has to help!
No, I knew from 20 years experience that my respite from pain would be short-lived and it was. But because of planning for it, it hasn't seen me in a total mess, overwhelmed with meals and mess.
I had my handmaiden, aka dishwasher and I kept up with the dishes. I did a load of washing a day and I dried it in the dryer. But my greatest life saver was my frozen dinners I have in the freezer. They saved the day.
In all honesty, though I haven't kept the house running smoothly all by myself. I have had to enlist Chris to help me with stacking and unstacking the dishwasher and I asked him to put his own clean clothes away as soon as they came out of the dryer.
He has been really good actually- a blessing really. He also encourages me to take a nana nap, and feeling so fatigued and sore, I am so glad. We all need a hand when we are feeling so wretched and when you got no spoons everyone has to help!
Sunday 6 February 2022
You wouldn't see June Cleaver doing that!
Wednesday 8 December 2021
A merry little Christmas
We are waiting for the real estate to carry out their 6 monthly house inspection for our rental. There won't be any problems. We love our home and have a lady come do some cleaning every two weeks. Just the stuff like vacuuming and mopping that we can't do anymore.
I have washed all our bedding over the last few days and stored our doonas away because we are now in our summer. Next week I will wash our pillows.
I will be making some sugar cookies to try out my Christmas nativity rolling pin. The cookie cutters came yesterday. I want to get the dough right before I make them up for Christmas gifts. If our little granddaughter is here before Christmas Day, I will let her help. She loves being in the kitchen and I let her cook or bake.
Our doctor is going to do a phone consult for us this afternoon. It's mainly for prescriptions but I need some advice on meds for Chris's fluids. His feet are swollen like balloons. (He has heart failure) I could have gotten in to actually see the doctor this afternoon, but Chris won't go, so I settled on the phone consult.
I put our little Christmas tree up and hung a wreath on the door..
Just taking things quietly each day. With another flare of fibromyalgia, it's enough. Like my 18" tree! We are going to have a merry "little" Christmas.
Tuesday 30 November 2021
But then again, maybe not!
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!
Friday 19 November 2021
Choppy waters ahead
Well our day is still in full swing. I have dishes to do and clean washing to fold up and put away. We went to the chemist and picked up prescriptions yesterday. Apparently there's a world wide shortage of one of my anti-depressants, Dothep 25 and I am on my last script. I have been waiting for 2 months for some. The Dothep anti-depressants help me with my fibromyalgia pain. I hate to be without them.
The practice of keeping extra meds in case of emergency has paid off for me. But I will be out soon. That's a worry as the sea gets very choppy when I mess with my anti-depressants. I think they are in a container somewhere on their trip to Australia.. Apart from those few tasks, and cooking, that will be all I can manage today.
I am praying that I get those anti-depressants before I run out or there will be very choppy waters ahead.
Thursday 18 November 2021
Coming to terms with it
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.
Monday 13 September 2021
Finding beauty in a horrid day
I had trouble waking up this morning. My fibromyalgia has made me feel like I have been run over by a truck. However the day has not been a total loss.
I did a load of washing and now have to put it all away. I am not sure if I have enough spoons left for that because I also washed a whole stack of dishes and I am not sure if I have enough energy left to cook.
I am still in my PJ's. I just might need to take a nana nap or rest at "the beach" so I can recharge. We will see...
The weather has been nice today and I left the back door open and listened to the birds and the stream running. The sun was shining on the water and the birds were calling and coming down to eat the seed and watermelon I left on the back porch for them.
It's important to try to find something lovely in every day, no matter how bad our fibromyalgia is to bring a balance of goodness and beauty in an otherwise horrid day.
Wednesday 1 September 2021
Life is good in spite of setbacks
I am trying to keep up with my home making duties. I have to do some dishes and clean my kitchen.. My knees are paining me so much today, that I won't be able to do much more.
Fibromyalgia is back again and spoons are scarce. I am also psyching myself up to take a shower. Lucky we have a shower chair now. Funny how you don't think twice about it until chronic illness comes a'callin!
With the brain fog, I get side tracked often too. Now I ask Siri to remind me to change the loads of washing over from washer to dryer. I need to find an app to tell me I have left stuff out that should go in the fridge or that I have nuked a night time snack and find it in the microwave in the morning hahaha
I am planning on using my slow cookers a lot today. I will be slow cooking the pork chops in a sweet curry sauce with the rice. I will be making some Jewish Penicillin in another slow cooker and I will make a chow mein in the other slow cooker for tomorrow.
After that, I plan to feed the birds and watch them eat... sitting out on the porch under the apple blossoms on the neighbour's tree... it's the first day of Spring here in Australia. Life is good in spite of setbacks..
Tuesday 24 August 2021
If I get those few things done
I didn't get some things done yesterday. My spoons disappeared and I ended up taking a nana nap to ward off another fibromyalgia flare.
Waking up after a disturbed night's sleep, I realised that fibro has found me again. I have severe pain in my arms and neck as well as a newly diagnosed urinary tract infection. Hence the disturbed night's sleep.
In spite of that, I have a few things I would like to do today. I need to fold washing which is easy as I can sit and do it.
As I promised, I will make some sultana muffins for Chris as I can reach it if I sit at our breakfast bar on the high stools. Same thing for dinner prep. Just a mixed grill for tonight.
Chris is going to change my bed and I will wash the sheets and anything else in the hamper. With my pain relief making me tired, that will be enough for today and if I get those few things done, I will be very happy.
Monday 19 July 2021
More than enough to do
We are on a snap lockdown. I need to get some prescriptions filled. Also I have some mail to pick up at the post office.
Apart from essential services such as post and chemist, everything else is closed or people are working from home.
This is our fourth lockdown this year and is mainly because people are not following protocols when they have been interstate. Oh well, as the young ones say, it is what it is.
I have dishes to do, a load of washing to fold from the dryer and cook dinner. After the chemist and post office.
The way I feel today with my fibromylgia flaring and back pain, it will be more than enough to do...