Calling in my spoons!

It is 14C or 57.2 today which is good weather for being busy. I need to devote today to saving my produce and freezing it and cooking. 

I have bought too much fresh produce and I am not getting to use it before it goes limp. In my crisper are 2 bunches of celery, 2 leeks, 3 halves of pumpkins, 3 lettuces and 2 packets of carrots. Even by making some soups, I will still have too much. The veggies are not mouldy or brown but definitely not crisp- they are limp. 

I will freeze lettuces, celery, pumpkins and carrots and the two bags of brown onions expiring there as well. I have been obviously buying up big in the produce to try to stockpile a bit, but it's all going pear shape! 

I really can't afford to waste my money by throwing it out. I have to freshen them up and prolong their life.

I plan to make some  butter tarts, some sultana muffins, some cookie dough that I can freeze to use on the days when fibromyalgia has me snookered. I will be taking out some lamb steaks to thaw for dinner tonight, which will be steak, mashed potato and peas and gravy.

Mostly it will be a kitchen day today, as long as my spoons allow anyway.  I am sitting here calling in my spoons! 

The Queen of List Making

So I did it again! Instead of cleaning up after dinner, I went to bed with dishes in the sink. I hate when I do that!

I mean, with fibromyalgia robbing me of a good restful sleep, the mornings are hard enough to face. Having a dirty kitchen to wake up to is the pits!

Most would think that it's just laziness, but by the time I have cooked dinner my spoons are almost gone. Yes gone! I am so done in by the end of the day that even lifting my arms up to put my nightie over them creates pain.

Oh, yes, I make lists and read motivational blogs and You tubes, but to no avail. I am the Queen of List Making. Yet my limited spoons dictate that I do very little and I am left with ashes in my mouth.

I know I said before that I have been keeping busy and that's true, but I now have a rebound fibro flare and coupled with our autumn cold snap with rain, I am in a lot of pain.

You would think that I would have worked out this fibromyalgia lurk after twenty years. And for the most part although I hate it, I have learned to exist with fibro without feeling false guilt that leads to depression.

Most days I accept my disability, but deep inside is a perfectionist screaming to get out! On days like our current lockdown days, due to Rona, I try to nest and I overextend my limits. Hello, Fibro Flare!

I am grateful to my husband Chris. He is an mild mannered man who is happy with how I do manage to keep our nest. He and most people who come to visit- well in better days obviously- are happy with the state of our home.

It must be that I am my own worst enemy: trying to do the work of a much younger healthier self: everything in its place and a place for everything. But always straining, never achieving thanks to Fibromyalgia.  I need to accept what is and hang up my crown as the Queen of List Making.

Today I am doing just a few things:

1. Cooking a chow mein in the slow cooker
2. Doing those dishes from last night
3. Giving in to the latest flare and taking a nana nap

Home is the new church

So today is Resurrection Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead. It is a joyful day in the Christian calendar and one I look forward to each year.

I am so grateful that Jesus saved me from my sins and that when I die, I will be with Him for eternity. That is a wonderful promise to hang onto in these uncertain times.

This year will see many of us viewing online Easter services and I will be doing that later, but today I will be taking Communion with my sister and one of my sons online. We will be FaceTiming.

We did this last week and it was very fulfilling. What better way of celebrating Resurrection Sunday than by worshiping and remembering Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us all?

I have some homemaking chores to do:

1. Make pumpkin soup
2. Fold a load of washing and put it away
3. Clean my kitchen

I will get to this hopefully after Communion today. I will be taking it under our picture of the Last Supper where Christ introduced Communion as a way for Christians to remember His sacrifice. 

It's quite pleasant to be home doing it: like other things we have to accept for the time being: home is the new church! 

Staying busy

So in the wake of the Corona Virus comes anxiety and uncertainty and I have been finding my adrenaline racing. With listening to too much news, I am inclined to get depressed and so, I am staying busy. Well, as busy as fibromyalgia and spoons allow.

I am finding by keeping busy that my mind slows down and this brings my blood pressure and heart rate down as well. There is less adrenaline pumping through me. And less angina.

My friend, Mrs Sylvia Britton of Christian HomeKeeper is a very gifted writer. She has blessed me so much with writing her Lists for the chronically ill woman. I follow them most days and they have helped me so much for many years now. 

Sylvia graciously allowed me to post her Lists here and on my other blog and I am eternally grateful.

Recently she has written a post which is so very helpful for us concerning coping with isolation and the Corona Virus.  Once again, she has graciously allowed me to share this with you. Thanks again, my friend.

Sylvia's advice is always scriptural and sensible, and I have found a sense of peace since staying busy.

So today I have:

1. Done a load of washing
2. Put it away as well as a load I found in the dryer! :)
3. Cleaned my kitchen
4. Made some Jewish Penicillin 
5. Roasted some chicken drumsticks for dinner
6. Sorted out our medications for the week
7. Watched Episode 7 of The Chosen  very moving... 

Highly recommend watching it.  He is our Hope and I am so grateful to Jesus for His sacrifice, His salvation and His grace to me.

My body is hurting with the fibromyalgia flaring, but I would prefer that to sitting fretting about Rona. 

I really think the answer to anxiety sometimes is staying busy.

Doing it my way!

So thanks to fibromyalgia making my life from day to day so unpredictable, I can't keep to a homemaking cleaning routine.

I simply don't know how each day is going to be until I wake up. It's unpredictable. Only in the morning (which usually is not a good time for me), will I know if I have any spoons (energy) or not. 

A lot of course depends on whether I was able to sleep well or not. Because most of the time I toss and turn and don't get much relief from pain even in sleep, I wake up feeling like I have been hit by a truck.

So in the 51 years of being a housewife, I have learned a trick or two about getting it done. And by getting it done, I don't mean perfectly: I mean good enough to keep us comfortable and healthy.

Perfectionism went out the window 22 years ago when Fibromyalgia joined the 'Ailments Club' along with life time members- Angina, Arthritis, Asthma, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Spinal Canal Stenosis, Diabetes 2, Hole in Heart, Polymyalgia Rheumatica, Depression and lastly but by no means least, a torn Meniscus in the left knee. Oh yeah: and Heel Spurs. 

But I digress: I have learned a few tricks along the way for that rare day I just may have some spoons.

Here's a few tricks I have found along the way to help with housework.  You will see it's not very orthodox, but's it's effective and I like doing it my way! 

And so Easter is upon us!

Today is Maundy Thursday, the eve of the Crucifixion of Christ. Usually I attend a Maundy Thursday service commemorating Christ washing the feet of His disciples and introducing the first Communion.

Of course with church services being banned, I won't be attending this year, but I will be focussing on Christ and His atoning sacrifice. 

I usually have a quiet time of a morning where I worship God and give thanks for His salvation. Not even Rona can stop that.  I will probably watch church services live streamed throughout Easter as well.

Today I have a few things on my to do list:

1. Go to the chemist and pick up our scripts that were ordered yesterday
2. Clean my kitchen
3. Go to the post office to pick up something I bought on ebay
4. Cook lamb steaks, mashed potatoes and salad for dinner

Obviously not a lot to do, but as much as my spoons will allow today. 

Horace wants more!

So earlier today we heard our almost tame magpie, Horace pecking at our back garden door. He is getting very cheeky and comes right up onto the porch.

When he has finished whatever we give him, he often calls us to give him more. We find him irresistable.

My fibromyalgia was a little better today and I actually had some spoons, so I was able to get a few things done. Not a lot by normal standards, but a fibromite, it is quite the feat. 

On my to do list today were:

1. Change our sheets
2. Make the scones that Chris loves
3. Cook sausages, eggs, baked beans and mashed potatoes for dinner

The scones turned out nice and I served them with butter and strawberry jam. I also ordered repeat prescriptions from the chemist and will pick them up tomorrow. 

It is such a joy to be living where we are: we are grateful to God for not only the house, but for a little magpie who always wants more! 

Staying home for real comfort.

So like most  of the world at the moment, we are staying at home to help stop the spread of the Corona Virus. 

We have accepted that this will be the new normal for at least six months and with acceptance comes a certain amount of peace.

As we talked about earlier, Chris and I are focussing on making our home a cosy nest. We have been getting a lot done that makes us both glad we have this home to nest in.

I have been cooking things I know Chris loves and have joined the local chemist's phone app for ordering our repeat prescriptions without going in. They make them up, then phone us when we can come and pick them up.

As spoons allow, I am doing my cleaning by zone according to FlyLady  However with my fibromyalgia flaring due to changing weather- lots of rain, that hasn't been a regular thing.

By and large I have enjoyed being home. There's a peace knowing we won't be likely to get Rona and also that by staying home, we in turn will not be passing it on should we get it.

I have been playing scripture in the background and changing to worship music at times as well. Whenever I find I am worried about Rona, I start praying. That is such a wonderful tool and brings an immediate sense of peace.

I have a few things I want to do today:

1. Do my dinner dishes as I just didn't have the spoons last night.
2. Bake some scones for afternoon tea
3. Make another veggie intensive chicken chow mein with rice for dinner

That will probably be it for today as I am feeling extremely sore and tired. Just another reason staying at home is real comfort.

Making room for more

So yesterday I did an inventory of our pantry and fridge stock and decided that I really should replenish it and even make room for more.

With us living on the aged pension, we have lived from pay to pay and day to day, but with the CV dictating our lives, we decided to use the $750 grant from the Australian government to stock up on food.

So on my to do list today is:

1. Tidy the fridge and pantry
2. Fold today's washing and put it away
3. Make Shepherd's pie for dinner

I was able to grocery shop online as I am a senior and also disabled with fibro, back and heart problems. One can apply for Priority Assistance and they will deliver your groceries if you provide your Customer registered number from Department of Human Services aka Centrelink.

I had to chuckle when I checked the bottom of the pantry: there's so much cat food there. I think Xena per rata has three times the amount of food as we do. (And still she is fussy)

I better get a wriggle on and sort this pantry out before the food is delivered. I am grateful that I have the means and quite enjoy the feeling of making room for more! 

She's such a diva!

So I brought a cup of tea in to Chris this morning and found our Xena with her head on his arm and fast asleep. Chris pats his arm and she comes up and lays on it. Chris then covers her up.

She normally sleeps beside me or nestled on my legs, but her preference is to sleep in the bed with us.

I grabbed the phone on the bedside table and took a picture, by which time she had woken up. She knows I like to come back to bed to share a cuppa with her daddy, which displeases her somewhat.

Here she is giving me The Look which says do not disturb us. She thinks she owns our bed! When Chris comes in at night when she and I are both asleep, she miaos at him because he disturbs us. And he apologises to her!  She not only rules the house, but she's such a diva!

I have to make the cookie dough today as I ran out of spoons yesterday. With the weather change: it's raining quite heavily- my fibro is flaring so I am not sure if I will get to do this today. We will see.

So on my list today is:

1. Fold a load of washing
2. Make cookie dough to freeze
3. Cook rissoles for tea. Having with mashed potatoes and veg and gravy