Home at last

When my mother passed away, I was not able to keep a lot of the things she left me. My sister took them on the understanding that if /when I wanted them, they were there to pick up.

As you know, we lived in a fifth wheeler for six months, so I didn't have room for all the things I loved such as Mum's tea pots. When we rented again, I asked for them back.

I have a few household chores to do today, then we are going to clean the fifth wheeler for sale. God willing. I still depends on how many spoons I have today.

Today's to do list looks like this:

1. Do a couple of loads of washing and dry and put away
2. Cook pork chops in the slow cooker for dinner
3. Clean the fiver if enough spoons

I was showing my friend around yesterday, and she noticed Mum's teapots. It was just a small thing, but I felt happy that the teapots that had been promised me since childhood had come home at last.

Ending the chapter

So today we put our fifth wheeler up for sale. We were travelling round Australia but 3 months into it, I tore my meniscus in my left knee and I couldn't manage the 5 steps into the fiver. Eventually I became housebound and 3 months later, we decided to sell it and rent again.

We live in a country township which is quite a distance from my family and friends, so we have made a point of having them over each weekend.

Today my old friend from school days, Ann and her partner are coming to see us. We met when we were 11 and we are both 67 now. I am so grateful to God that we are still close. After seeing the house and a cuppa, we will be going to the local pub for a meal.

Yesterday and today I didn't take the new diabetes medication called Forxiga. It gave me thrush and a kidney infection. Plus my sugars went from 9 to 10-12.3! Fasting... still you have to try don't you?

So on my to do list today is

1. Tidy the house
2. Enjoy my friends

Oh, and check the advertisments to see if anyone has responded to the ads for the fiver. It's sad that we didn't manage to travel like we hoped, and selling the fiver is ending the chapter.

House of happiness

We love our new home, but it sure gets cold up here. This morning we woke to 10C and the windows were running inside. Thank goodness we have a large reverse cycle air conditioner/heater.

Today I plan to vacuum and wash the floors, dust and clean the bath and toilet. This will have to be after the usual morning chores. God willing, I will have enough spoons.

On today's to do list is:

1. Clean the kitchen
2. Make our bed
3. Do a couple of loads of washing
4. Dust
5. Vaccuum and wash the floors
6. Make a slow cooker bolognaise sauce for spaghetti tonight.

I have chucked out some leftover cake for the birds. It is like an airport here this morning. 

I am planning on getting some plants in baskets to hang along the front verandah. Currently, I am doing a google search to know which ones would be not only pretty, but hardy. Our house is a house of happiness and the plants can reflect that...  

Chronic illness: it is what it is!

So the day has started off without any appreciable spoons. However, I have purposed to do some chores in the house regardless. Simply because they have to be done.

With the last two days slack on housework, there are dishes and washing and some other chores that are shouting to be done.

My sugars are still 10.4 this morning in spite of taking the new diabetes medications for a week. So I accept that I am never going to feel really well. Fibromyalgia and angina coupled with back pain also seem to do that. So I am going to just concentrate today on the most crucial homemaking tasks: having clean dishes and cups and some clean clothes and towels.. No lists today, this is all I can manage.

So today's list of to do's are:

1. Soak and wash dishes and put away after air drying
2. Catch up on the washing and put it away after the dryer has finished
3. Cook some lamb stew in the slow cooker for dinner

Granted it's not much to do, but my body feels like it's trying to climb Mt Everest. But enough procrastination: I must push on. No fairy godmother is coming- I'm it!  

It's mundane. It's frustrating. It's tiring! But it is what it is!  It's chronic illness! 

You can't have one without the other!

Having to pace myself yesterday, I woke with some spoons which was just as well as we had to take our daughter to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. She is a survivor of APML leukaemia and she needed her six monthly blood tests in preparation for her visit with her haematologist next month.

As we had to be in Melbourne early, we had an early start from home. We virtually just had breakfast, dressed and ran out the door. So no lists or housework plans were made. That will have to be tomorrow.

The trip was 400kms all told and it was very tiring. For all of us. We all had a nana nap when we got home.  We got some fish and chips on the way home as we just wanted to eat and crash.

In this picture of the Alfred, you can see the room I was in when I had my 3 stents put in in 2007. It's the third level, last window on the right. Chris and I would watch the helicopters come in on the heliport just in front of the hospital. It is built over the road and leads directly to the Trauma Centre.

So, housework wise, it was a dud of a day, but we were able to help our daughter with her cancer journey, fulfilling our promise to her the day she was diagnosed. 

In chronic illness you sometimes have to push yourself to live the life you want. It isn't easy: in fact it takes a lot of determination and prayer.  Lots of both. I don't think you can have one without the other!

It's all about those spoons!

I am so happy to report that I have some spoons! For the first time in ages I have woken refreshed! It is such a novelty.  But the novelty is fraught with danger in that I can overdo it today and return to a flare of my fibromyalgia tomorrow.

Chris and I have been longing to get to the shops and buy some new clothes. He has told me to forgo the household chores I had planned for this morning, and just get ready to go shopping.

So I will just be preparing some bolognaise sauce in the slow cooker for dinner tonight and leaving.

Hopefully, I can get through without another flare tomorrow. It's all about those spoons! 

A land awash in floods

Australia is a land of bushfire terrors followed by torrential rains bringing floods. Today has been such a day with a bushfire near us and then a massive storm bringing rains that have flooded our roads and the little stream at the end of our property.

We are grateful for the rains of course, but the changing weather is playing havoc with this fibromyalgia flare. I think it's ending, but new weather changes make it return with a vengeance. Such has been today.

I haven't followed any list and have had to go back to bed this afternoon. I expect to be in bed early tonight too. It simply is too hard to keep awake. I no longer fight it but go with the flow. It is what it is. False guilt is now a thing of the past...

Today I have only really managed to cook devilled sausages with vegetables for dinner. 

As I look out the back door and see the stream overflowing and the birdfeeder full of water, I realise that that is exactly how I feel with weariness... overflowing with it. A woman awash in fatigue, and a land awash in flooding rains..

Our first guests

As you know, we had guests yesterday and today. They were the first to use our guest room and they confirmed that the new bed and mattress were very comfortable.

We ended up going out for dinner at the town pub, and we had a very nice time with lovely food as well. After the meal, we came home and had a game of UNO and retired around ten o'clock. Which was late enough for me, as I suffer from chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. 

When I woke up this morning, I found that the cat had vomited on our bed, and I had to wash our doona and get it dry in time for bedtime tonight.

My pain was at a high level today so I didn't feel well enough for church. Besides, it gave me more time to be with our guests who were loving our new home.

Today I didn't follow any lists. I did the washing and meals and I plan to have an early night. But tired as I am, I still am glad that I was able to practise hospitality. I sure enjoyed having our first guests! 

We must make memories

There's widespread flooding everywhere today.  One of the roads is impassable still. Fortunately, we are staying home today as we have guests coming this afternoon.

With all the thunder and weather changes, it is playing havoc with my fibromyalgia flare. I am in considerable pain today and I long for a nana nap already: it's only 1pm!

So far I have done a load of washing and am using the dryer. We have had breakfast. Xena has been fed. I will soon be making a ham and cheese toasted sandwich for our lunch. We will be having a big meal for tea tonight.

I am following Saturdays' List as I plan to go to church tomorrow. 

Still on my to do list is:

1. Lunch
2. Change over the washed clothes and put in dryer
3. Cook the defrosting chicken for our roast dinner

I am really looking forward to having my guests come, but I am forcing myself not to go back to bed.

The struggle is real. But I feel if I don't practice hospitality and have people come see us, that my life will be the poorer for it. 

So today, I am taking some paracetamol tablets with my toasted sandwich, and pretending I am having a good day. It's all part of making memories...

Cats and dogs

We have had very crazy weather this afternoon. Torrential rains, which are a blessing with all the fires we have had recently, caused flash flooding, almost blocking the one main road into our little town. This is a picture taken just after the deluge near our place. 

Having been warned of severe thunder and possible hailstones, I brought my washing in, and Chris moved our small white car under the carport. Unfortunately, the Sierra ute and Play Mor fifth wheeler were in the firing range. However, there was little hail and the rains washed the van for us. It is soon going up for sale.

We watched the storm through the back glass sliding door and were horrified to see a fireball come down, almost hitting the shed in the paddock behind us. It was a ball of glowing light with a tunnel in the centre, with swirling energy like the sun in the middle. It was so very bright and was accompanied by the loudest crack of thunder overhead. Chris said it's the worst storm he's seen, and he has worked outside most of his adult life.

Our area is well known for chaotic and harsh weather. It has snowed in previous years and gets very, very cold. I can see a lot of thick socks, minkie blankets and warmed up wheat packs to take to bed in my future.

To be honest, I think I prefer the colder weather. You can always rug up to stay warm, whereas cooling off is more difficult. I even love rain, especially when you don't have to go out in it. The sound of the rain falling on our tin roof was lovely. I love it when it rains cats and dogs!