One Garden Day at a time

Last year, I found out my gardening was very very limited, and it made for a very difficult spring and summer.
This past fall, I sent many of my plants with a friend who moved to a really great climate, and had plenty of sun for them in her new yard.

This spring, I decided if I am having a good day, and the weather is fine, I will allow myself to do one garden thing, that day.

I made a list and put it into roughly prioritized order, and began.

With only three days (spaced over two weeks) I have managed to get some pretty nifty stuff accomplished. First, I cut down a vigorous, almost virulent wild rose. Not the nice, pink, scented kind, but a rough tough customer, tiny white flowers, no scent, and the rose hips have no savor, either. The only thing it is good at is choking out the raspberries, so it had to go.

Then, I moved my Johnson's blue geranium. (it's the blue/violet flower behind the rose in the photo below) When I gifted some of my roses and peonies to Sherri, it meant the edge of the garden bed moved back about 3 feet, leaving poor old Mr. Johnson hanging out in the middle of the turf. I moved him back into the new outline of the bed.

The most recent task, finished today, was to move two volunteer hollyhocks back near the bed next to the fenceline. There are no more hollyhocks to be found in their old bed, I'm not certain why, but I was happy to find these fellows in the spring grass. The seeds for them came from my friend Ysabeau, and I am hopeful they will bloom this year. I've included some photos of their ancestors here :-}

As long as I keep to my new rules, my gardening isn't completely over.

The next forays will involve weeding and mulching, and avoiding slugs *shudder*

The dulcet tones of Spring

We had our sewer line replaced this past Friday.
This means the local utility company inspected their part of our sewer line.
This means I've been listening to their urban percussion for two days now, and I think they are only getting started. It will be good to have it done, but even better to have it FINISHED!

I find it pretty distracting while I'm trying to write :-}

Learning Curve

After empirical testing, I found that my new type of fuzzy brain happens an hour after I take my morning pills. I was hoping it would be from the combo of celexa and darvocet, but today I took the celexa alone, and yep, here comes the fuzz, right on time.

I can do housework and simple stuff even with dust-bunny head but any writing is really unproductive then. As is pattern knitting for Otterwise or web work for same.

I think I have a solution, though. I will take all the pills EXCEPT the celexa at my normal morning time, and hold off on the Celexa until early afternoon. That will give me the mornings for brain work *relieved sigh* Since it's a one-a-day med, that should work. If I take it too late in the day it could exacerbate my insomnia, so early afternoon should be the latest I take it.

I can already feel a difference from the Celexa re: pain levels. If I overdo I still have high levels of pain, but if I am cautious, the constant ouchy stuff is much abated (and there is much rejoicing!).

Rite of Spring

Each year, as I wind skeins into balls I save a little bag of the bits used to tie the long swoops of yarn together.

Each Spring, I sprinkle soft pieces of color around the yard where the birds gather.

Each summer I look for nests with that little extra something :-}

It was snowing yesterday

Today.......

Almost within reach

It's now absolutely official. My appointment with a new RA Doc confirmed I do have Fibro/CFIDs. It is good to have a firm diagnosis. Evidently I have a fairly advanced level. It had been shouting for sometime but only this year got loud enough to be heard over my bad ankle.
Now to jump through a few hoops at the insurance company to get the med least likely to have weight gain as a side effect *shudder*. I hope to be starting the new med sometime next week. If it is effective, it should make some difference in pain level by the end of the month or early next month. So IF it works, I should be feeling better anywhere from 3-5 weeks from now. If not, we'll shoot for a happy June. The doc says as long as I listen when my body says to take it easy, I should still be able to work out at the center. Probably not until the new med kicks in though.

I did get some good news. At my sleep study for retitration they found that I am healthier than a few years ago at least as far as the apnea is concerned. I only need the setting at 10 instead of 14. I guess those chair exercises and deep breathing exercises have made a difference! That and finding a mask that fits.

Despite the high pain levels I have right now, I got a better night's sleep than I can remember. About 5 hours at the clinic and 3 more at home. I've been getting from 3-6 hours of broken sleep a night.

I am sure there will be a few hoops to jump through to acquire the new mask with insurance, but it is always good to have a quest, don't you think?

The writing is going well. I grab a cup of coffee and do my writing thing as soon as possible while my mind is fresh. I have only missed one day this week. That was yesterday, because of the doctor appointment and sleep study.

Willows Dancing

There are a lot of survivors here in the world.

Some of us have survived abusive childhoods.

Some have had to find a way to live after a lightning strike of fate changed our bodies or minds in a moment.

Some of us have adapted as our capabilities ebbed and flowed, day by day.

We survived as we developed behaviors that protected us and helped us thrive within the changed worlds where we had to exist.

Like a willow sapling seeking light will bend to grow in whatever space it can when trapped between older, tougher trees.

Those same survival skills shape us as life goes on, as the willow will keep the

curves of its confinement even after it is free to grow straight.

The willow is still beautiful. We are too.

First Sign of Spring

Oscar spotted the first sign of spring in the yard on Friday. This is his photo

Building new habits, breaking down old

Sometimes I forget it's at least as hard to build new habits as it is to get rid of old habits, especially when you are trying to change many things at once.
I took some time to really think about what was important to our life right now.
Health, money, communication, all those good things :-}

Health is almost in line, I'd say. I quit smoking 7 years ago, have been eating a high ratio of healthy to low ratio of unhealthy things, and have found a pattern of eating that keeps my metabolism high without giving me too many calories.
I still slip, especially if I am having an emotionally hard time, but I find it easier and easier to get right back on track.
The next thing is to incorporate more exercise. I have what I need, now, and will begin on Saturday to exercise everyday, whether at home or at the center.
Whenever I get sick, it tends to derail that, but as long as I get centered and start again as soon as I am well, that is good enough. I have learned the hardest way if I continue to exercise when I am also fighting fevers, I just get sicker and sicker, for longer and longer.

Writing has been more difficult, and a longer journey than other changes. Writing is important to me, not only for income, but because I feel more complete, more connected to the world. It punches a hole in the isolation that has skeined itself around my life since I got sick.
I took some advice and looked at other times in my life when things worked well, and tried to identify what I could change about my current choices to bring some of that same success to my writing.
One big thing is to change my sleeping schedule. When I was in college, I found the earlier I got up the better I could write, or organize the day, or create, or do detailed analysis. 4:00-4:30 and 7:00-7:30 were the best times, if I got up at 5:30 or 6:30, I felt horrible. Not certain what that was all about, but I needn't understand it to use it.

So, first step is to get back onto the schedule that makes me most productive. I've set my alarm for 7:00. On Saturdays that's about the time Oscar gets up anyway, to catch an early Yoga class. The other days, it will give me an extra 90 minutes before he gets up on a work day, more on his days off. The great thing is Oscar's not likely to hear my alarm, and will still get his rest.
I love my husband dearly, but I can't write or focus on anything mentally demanding when he's in the house.
I tell him it's because he's just too sexy, but mostly it's because when he talks to the cats, I think he's asking me something and it breaks my hard won concentration. He's pretty sexy, too, of course. The main thing is, when he's home and awake, I want to spend time with him.

I tried to start my writing day after he leaves for work, but its never as powerful. I can plod along, but I just don't get as much accomplished. I tend to back track and lose focus. Those early morning minutes when I can lay out the tasks for the next steps in the manuscript make the rest of the day incredibly more productive.
It also helps if at the end of my writing day I lay out what to do the following day. That way I am never faced with a blank page.
I think my writing has improved this past year, even if I haven't made any money recently. It will come. Faith in myself is another improvement. :-}

After I have that down, I may get up even earlier, especially when the writing is going well. I might even accomplish my page counts before Oscar gets up for the day. One step at a time.