Ordinary and good!

It's Wednesday morning here. I have just finished putting the groceries I got online away. It's so convenient for Chris and I seeing as we both are unwell

I have done a couple of loads of washing and am thinking about doing some lunch. Toasted cheese and tomato sangers sounds good and easy.  

My kitchen needs to be cleaned but I am out of spoons as I didn't sleep well last night. The weather is changing as it's autumn here and we can experience all seasons in one day. It plays havoc with my fibromyalgia. It's making me feel miserable.

I am thinking of taking a nana nap before I do the kitchen. But before that I will take some Panadol Osteo   to help relieve my fibro pain. Pacing and resting are not an option with fibromyalgia: it's a necessity. 

After I clean the kitchen I will cook chow mein and rice for dinner and if I have enough spoons I will fold the day's clean clothes and put them away.

It's an ordinary day here and I am glad. When you think of what's happening in the world, I can truly gratefully say that God has blessed me with a day that's ordinary and good! 

Maranatha! Soon and very soon.

 

It's 5pm and it's been a beautiful day here. I have our dinner in the slow cooker and have lit the lamps and drawn the blinds. 

I plan to spend the rest of the night knitting for the new great-grandbaby. Of course I realise that the little jackets may not even be used should the LORD come for us. That's just fine with me. 

I am living as usual but looking up and praying that Jesus come soon. As this picture says, this world is not our home. I guess I am homesick for a place I have never seen but know exists. 

I am so glad that we who believe in Christ Jesus will all meet one day when all the angst here is replaced with joy. 

May you rest in His Love tonight. Sending my love from my little nest in Melbourne. Talk to you soon here or There. Love you all. God bless. The Rapture is near! Maranatha!

If you don't know Jesus as LORD, you can be Rapture ready by being saved. You don't want to be left behind. Today's the day of salvation... don't leave it too long.

© Glenys Robyn Hicks

“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Revelation 3:10

Making the most of my spoons

So for the last few days I have been enjoying a respite from fibromyalgia pain. The weather has been lovely and sunny and the warmth has permeated my being and soothed a lot of muscle pain.

I have been decluttering our home and making extra meals to freeze for later on. It has been a novelty and a joy to have spoons to do it.

Aware that it can bring on a flare if I do too much, I have been pacing myself. I do 15 minutes sessions of decluttering with a rest in between. With cooking, I do about half an hour of food prep then take a rest as well.

I am enjoying my new dishwasher too. It certainly makes keeping up with the dishes and keeping my kitchen tidier easier. And that I find, encourages me to cook.

I really don't know how long this respite will last, but I'm grateful each day that I have absence from pain and fatigue.

Until you have a respite, you don't realise how challenging your life is. So for the moment, however brief it may be, I will be making the most of my spoons.

 

It makes my spoons quiver!

So yesterday we had more family come for Christmas. We had a lovely lunch, feasting on the abundant leftovers from the feast on Christmas Day. 

Because I had pushed myself physically the day before, my fibromyalgia was flaring and my back was spasming because I had been on my feet preparing food for a long time. I was feeling overwhelmed.

I was feeling hospitable, it was just because of pain that the day was on a downer for me personally. I tried my best to be cheerful. We Fibromites and chronically ill people become consumate actors in playing the cheerful game.

My step-daughter was very gracious and helped me make teas and coffees and carve left over ham, and not for the first time, I was very grateful to her.

With 35C temperatures- 95F, I was also very grateful for our air conditioner. The dining area was very comfortable and we passed a pleasant day.

My little 4 year old great-granddaughter Evie came to me and asked me to show her my bedroom. So taking my hand, she led me to my room, looked at the ensuite, and declared, "Nana, I love your house, and I love you too!"  It made my day.

Her declaration of love warms my heart even now as I talk to you. I am sitting here in fibro pain with my two freshly broken purple toes throbbing. (I kicked the corner of the dining table leg, collecting two toes for the price of one.) But the happiness of my little lovely Evie's declaration overshadows even the pain today.

The house is tidy, the washing in the machine and the Christmas tree and decorations are put away. My robotic vacuums have been run today. We are now officially post Christmas.

We placed the tree still decorated into a closet that is empty, and should the LORD tarry, it will be a simple matter to reinstall it next year. Not that I really can imagine another Christmas right now. 

Quite simply, nice as it was, it makes my few remaining spoons quiver! 

I am too tired to shout!

Today is Monday morning. I have to do some washing and restack the dishwasher. I have run Sadie the Roomba and am about to do bloods, meds and breakfast. 

Later on at 11 a man is coming to do some flatpacks of furniture for us. I am hopeless at this and Chris can't do it anymore. It's a coffee table and TV lowline unit. It's $40 an hour but we had to factor that in when we bought them. It is what it is! 

At 2.30 we have to pick Dianne up and take her to a doctor's appointment. Then I have to go to the chemist and get her meds made up. 

It's supposed to rain for the next 10 days and the rain has been consistently heavy and constant. I think we are going to need an ark soon.  It is making my fibromyalgia worse, and I am pushing myself to get Di to doctors and physio. 

I will neverthless be busy with doctors and physio for the rest of the week and possibly next two weeks or more. I am glad Di's knee has been done though. It's all over bar the shouting! With no spoons at all, I am too tired to shout! 

Ordinary but good

It's Friday morning here. I have just finished putting the groceries I got online away. It's so convenient for Chris and I seeing as we both are unwell

I have done a couple of loads of washing and am thinking about doing some lunch. Toasted cheese and tomato sangers sounds good and easy.  

My kitchen needs to be cleaned but I am out of spoons as I didn't sleep well last night. The weather is changing as it's autumn here and we can experience all seasons in one day. It plays havoc with my fibromyalgia. It's making me feel miserable.

I am thinking of taking a nana nap before I do the kitchen. But before that I will take some Panadol Osteo   to help relieve my fibro pain. Pacing and resting are not an option with fibromyalgia: it's a necessity. 

After I clean the kitchen I will cook chow mein and rice for dinner and if I have enough spoons I will fold the day's clean clothes and put them away.

It's an ordinary day here and I am glad. When you think of what's happening in the world, I can truly gratefully say that God has blessed me with a day that's ordinary and good! 

Hopefully it will work

So I have noticed that even on a rare good day with my fibromyalgia, I still have a dip in energy by 3 or 4pm. Usually that's my time to start preparing dinner. I simply run out of spoons.

Because I don't want to make eating frozen dinners the norm, I decided to try a new plan. I am going to cook a few weeks to a month ahead and freeze the meals.

Any day that I find myself having enough spoons, I will cook a few meals at the same time and gradually build this up to a month of meals in advance.

I know it's going to take a lot of planning, but I think in the end it will be worth it. I actually started yesterday.

Firstly, I went through my fridges and freezers and grouped meats together. Yesterday I made 4 meals each honey chicken with vegetables, potatoes and gravy, then another 2 meals of Mexican chicken with rice. Today I am going to bake the chicken rissoles and kievs and add mashed potato and greens.

The next day, God willing- and spoons available, I am going to cook some stews with a lot of vegetables, using up my pork and beef steaks. 

On the next Spoon Friendly Day, I plan to make up 6 meals with my sausages. I find my slow cookers- I have 3 of them, so handy plus they don't heat the kitchen up like the oven. We are in our summer at the moment.

I am not sure if I can freeze baked potatoes and bacon successfully, but if I can I will do that for lunches.

We will still be having salads with our meals but I buy the packet salads that are already cut and washed, and that not only saves on spoons but helps me with my arthritic hands.

I know this way is not a new thing to most people, but it is something new to me. Hopefully it will work. 

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 Kingfishers 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 onto the decking 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. 

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.

It's calling my name!

Today is a mild day weather wise. We are sitting on 20C with mild winds and no storm activity. I am sitting here wondering why I have no spoons and am lacking the energy even to have a shower.

Fibromyalgia is a mystery to me. Just as I think I have it worked out, a new or worsened flare springs me unawares, and I find myself unable to think clearly. Even my eyes have trouble focussing today, so pacing myself's not going to work.

There's much to do here as well because I have been in a flare for a few days now. I am even too tired and sore to follow any lists at all. Except Thursdays' List. All one does on Thursdays is rest. I think I will have to treat today as a Thursday. Which is the beauty of Lists: you can exchange days to accommodate how you feel....

There's a few things I must do today:

1. Cook a beef stew in the slow cooker
2. Rest

The first one is done and the second is a work in progress. I feel no false guilt anymore.  It's the only way I can get over this flare. Otherwise tomorrow will be just like today where it's all too much. 

For today, rest is my own prescription to get well. Besides, I can hear my bed: it's calling my name! 

Making 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...

A joyful day!

Today has started out to be most joyful. I have been watching the birdlife in our back garden and you can see some of the birds enjoying the bread I have just thrown out to them.

Another happy event was the heavy rain just stopping at the taking of the video. With many bushfires around us still burning-(they can burn slowly for months with all the undergrowth), it is good to know the rain will be helping put some of them out. 

Weather is strangely cold for the hottest month of the year. We are sitting on 17C with temperatures set in the middle to high 20's next week. 

My fibromyalgia is still flaring with weather changes making for great muscle pain and fatigue. So today I will be following the Monday List

On today's to do list includes:

1. Folding up some of the washing that I didn't get round to on Saturday
2. Making a Shepherd's Pie with vegetables for dinner
3. Sorting my pills out for next week and recording prescriptions repeats needed

All in all, I will be resting as well as working, pacing myself as I go. And you can be sure I will be looking out at the flowers lifting up their heads to the rain as the birds fly into my garden.

What a drenching!

There's nothing nicer than being in bed listening to the rain on a tin roof. Especially if you don't have to go out in it...

L

I took this picture from our back door just after I fed some bread to the birds that frequent our garden. I love the smell of the rain! We are getting some relief from the heat with a top temperature forecast for 21C or 69.8F. 

It was my plan to go to church this morning, but with all the storm activity yesterday my fibromyalgia's flaring and I honestly can't make it. Hopefully, next Sunday will be better.

Usually, I listen to the Bible on You Tube and worship and rest at home when I can't go. Which is often, unfortunately. 

I will be hanging up the clothes I took out to wear there this morning. Later on I will cook some curried sausages in the slow cooker, which is my favourite way of cooking when I am in a flare.

There are a few dishes in the sink soaking in hot soapy water as per Sylvia's Sunday List. I will attend to them later on after I have had a rest. 

It isn't ideal that I am seeking to go back to bed so early in the day, but such is the life of a chronically ill person. I no longer feel any false guilt over it like I did in the early days of finding out what my new normal would be.  I can only get through this flare by resting...

So list of to do's today:

1. Hang up clothes
2. Set slow cooker going with sausages for dinner
3. Rest

And last but not least, I will be rejoicing as more rain falls giving our parched land a drenching! 

First we have tea

We had a very fitful sleep last night due to the temperatures being so high yesterday. Our reverse cycle air conditioner just doesn't make it up to the front of the house and our bedroom is right at the front, faces east and catches the sun all day. It was like an oven in our room with the temp being 23C all night. Our fan only blew hot air around....

It is supposed to be 30C today with thunder storms later. We always have our Emergency phone app on to advise us on fire activity as we live in the country. Last year Chris's son, who lives near us, had to evacuate his family because of fires and this is something we are prepared for. 

In the front guest room we have our important documents, spare medicines and some clothing and our photos on USB  disk. They are easy to grab in case we get the evacuation call. With high fire danger today and lightning strikes a possibility, we have our fire plan in place. Yes, it's firmly in place,  along with our little white cat, Xena's cat cage. Just in case...

I am currently listening to the Bible on You Tube and it is great for times when I am in a fibromyalgia flare and can't take in what I am reading. This is my preferred method of quiet time on days like today when my fibro is bad and I am lacking sleep and spoons. 

So because of lack of spoons and much heat, we plan to stay home today. So far, I have showered, dressed and taken my medications. I have a few things planned for today:

1. I need to fold and put away three loads of washing.
2. I want to make a lamb stew in the slow cooker for dinner (so as not to heat up the kitchen)
3. I want to resume following FlyLady by jumping in wherever the zone is for today.

I usually use FlyLady and Sylvia Britton's Lists for chronically ill women depending on how I feel each day.  I use the List for the day, then I may follow FlyLady's zone for 15mins. Today I am doing 15 minutes of cleaning in Zone 1 in FlyLady.

If I get these three things done today, it will be good. I will just cross off those things I achieve. We will see. But first we have tea. Everything goes better with a cup of tea!