Category: Life

The Spirit of Chirstmas

On By WendyIn Life1 Comment
Charlie Brown Christmas Puzzle

I love the magic that surrounds this time of year.  I wish everyone could feel it.  I’ve been alone on Christmas before and it’s a very sad time.

The Spirit of Christmas to me is in the magic of Giving.

I don’t mean presents here.  I mean giving something of yourself that you don’t normally think of giving.  Donating to your favorite charity, having a friend over to share in your Christmas traditions, surprising someone who isn’t expecting it with just a little something.

I’m not a commercial person.  I hate how Christmas has become a race to see who can get the most expensive, the greatest number of toys.

It is not the gift that counts, it is the spirit in which it is given.

Many people stress being with family on Christmas.  That is very hard on people who aren’t very close to their family, or who don’t have a family.

I’m so glad that I have my very small family.  Stuart and I are just so good together.  Our dear dog Sandy, and our huge cat Max round out our immediate family very well.  As much as my little family means to me, it is the love of my dear friends that continually surprises me.  They are a gift to me.

What I really want for Christmas this year, is the ability to spend more time with my friends this coming year.  Of course, that would mean that I would be feeling better, that would be very nice too.  (I would like for more of my friends to understand that just because I’m having a hard time with my illness, it doesn’t mean I want to be alone all the time.)

May your Christmas be filled with magic.  Make sure that the people you love know it.  It’s very hard not to get so caught up with the business of the season and forget about taking time to reach out to someone in need.

Every year on Christmas Eve we watch It’s a Wonderful Life.  This is a very magical movie that shows us all just how much we affect others without even knowing it.  We should all try to live a good life, because we never know if what we are doing may change someone else’s life forever.

Again, have a very joyous holiday!  May you all feel the magic of the season!

Much Happier Day

On By WendyIn Life, Meniere's Disease2 Comments

The Christmas Spirit has finally hit our household.

I’m feeling much better about things than I have been.  Today I got so much more done than I have in so long.

But let me start over.  Last night I had a complete meltdown!  I hate it when that happens.  It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s not pretty.  I feel so sorry for Stuart when I’m like that.

Now, today things look so much brighter.  I seem to have a renewed sense of hope.

I got so much done today.  I cooked.  I vacuumed.  I cleaned up the kitchen.  It was wonderful!  I felt so useful, and I felt like I was much more me.

Tonight we put together our Lego Christmas Train while listening to Christmas Carols.  Yes, the Christmas Spirit has found its way to our house.  Thank goodness!

The name of my blog doesn't fit.

On By WendyIn Life7 Comments

I’ve been thinking and I just don’t think the name of my blog fits.  When I started it I thought I was going to be able to make more strides toward a healthier me in a shorter amount of time, but things are moving pretty slowly.  That’s ok, I know I will be making strides, but I don’t feel like my blog is just about that.  I want it be more about me.  Not just my health issues.  I want to talk about my love of cooking, my art, being environmentally conscious, working on becoming Foster Parents…..

So I need your help.  I need some ideas to rename my blog.  So far I have:

  • Determined Lady
  • Wendy’s Musings
  • My Unexpected Life
  • My Life: The Adventure

I’m leaning toward My Unexpected Life, Stuart voted for that one too.

I did check to make sure these were not already blog names, but now WordPress says My Unexpected Life is unavailable.

The rest of the suggestions are available.  I’m disappointed though, I liked My Unexpected Life.  I felt like that summed my life up pretty well.

What do you think?

Do you have any other suggestions?  (suggestions are very welcome)

Thanks for sticking with me.

Christmas Parties

On By WendyIn Life, Meniere's Disease2 Comments

I had 2 Christmas parties to attend this week.  One on Thursday night and another on Saturday night.  I am very proud of myself that I made it to both of them.

The first party was full of people who know me well and understand my situation.  My hearing deficit, my dizziness, my Celiac disease…  They are a wonderful bunch of people who tried hard to make me as comfortable as possible.  I was suffering from disequilibrium pretty bad, and my hearing was much less than desirable, but I had my amplifier in one ear and it helped a lot.  I pretty much sat in one place and if anyone wanted to visit with me, they came to me.  When I told them I couldn’t hear them very well, they would make sure to come closer, speak clearly, and be sure to face me.  I’m not great at reading lips, but if I can hear part of the conversation I can read lips a little, and then I can piece things together.

These friends were also wonderful about making sure I had gluten-free food to eat.  I did make sure and fill my plate before anyone else to avoid cross contamination. (There was a lot of bread and cookies and such on the tables too, and just one crumb is all it takes.)  One friend was even kind enough to make gluten-free brownies for me!

The party on Saturday night was a completely different story.

I wasn’t feeling well…a little unsteady.  My hearing was horrible.  There was so much noise in this house, and unfortunately I didn’t charge my amplifier enough so it was dying very fast.  With in the first hour I was almost completely deaf.

I was lucky enough to be sitting by a friend for most of the time and she would interpret what was being said for me so I would know what was going on.  We also left the party right after we opened gifts.  (I will say I was thrilled with my gifts!  I felt like I had Christmas a little early.)  I just wish I could have heard all the Christmas wishes from my friends.  I also knew to make sure and eat a full meal before going to this party, because there wouldn’t be anything there that I would be able to eat and be assured that is was safe.

I did have one heart warming experience.  I was sitting on a little couch after we opened our presents and my friend’s son, Nate, came running up to me and hugged me and said, “I love you!”  Nate is a very special little boy.  He is often very shy, especially when there are a lot of people around, so this just thrilled my heart.  I haven’t been able to spend as much time with him as I would have liked over the past year.  He is 2 1/2 years old, and has a huge part of my heart.

How do you handle a party situation?  I know many people don’t want to feel different, and avoid these situations because they can’t hear or because they are afraid they may have an attack.  I did have to take Valium while I was at the party Saturday night, but I didn’t feel bad enough that I thought I was going to have a full-fledged attack.  I also prefer it if people know what is wrong with me.  I want people to know how to talk with me so I’m more likely to hear them.  I want people to understand that I might grab a hold of them if I get off-balance as I walk by.  This made the party on Thursday night much easier than the party on Saturday night.

Does it embarrass you that when you can’t hear someone?  (I sure get frustrated some times!)

Do you avoid social situations? (If I’ve recently had an attack, or feel like I might have one,  I stay home.  But lately, I’m pushing it a little bit more and trying to be more social despite my fears.)

Do you have warning signs before you have an attack?

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any". Alice Walker

On By WendyIn Life, Meniere's DiseaseLeave a comment

I saw this quote by Alice Walker, and I thought about how much I believed I had no power over anything in my life when the Meniere’s was bad.

I was so dependent on my husband for EVERYTHING!  From paying all the bills, to helping me get to the bathroom.  I had no choice for anything in my life…but that’s not exactly true is it?  I could have completely given up and just packed it all in.  I could have stopped trying to get out of bed.  I could have stopped caring that I had to be taken care of and just given in, but I fought it every step of the way.  Sometimes, it hurt my husband, but most of the time when I really needed him I let him help, but when I didn’t need help, I let him know in no uncertain terms.  (My biggest regret is that I wasn’t easier on him.)

There were a few times when I thought it would easier just to give up and take a bottle of pills and stop being the burden that I felt like I was.  Those are the times I gave up all my power.  But then I’d realize that just because this disease had control of my body, it didn’t have control of my mind.  So, I worked as hard as I could to find a way to live a better life with Meniere’s.  I never thought that I would have the chance of getting rid of the vertigo, and living a mostly normal life again.

A very hard day.

On By WendyIn Life, Meniere's Disease2 Comments

I tossed and turned last night and had a hard time waking up this morning.  Finally, I forced myself to get up around 11am.  (I should have stayed in bed.)

After breakfast and a quick trip to the store to see if I could find a dish that would fit in one of the slow cookers at the house, so we could make the cheese cake, I started preparing things for Thanksgiving.  (No, we didn’t find anything that would fit, so I had to make 2 small cheese cakes.)

When we came home I started to work in the kitchen.  First, I needed to print out my recipe for GF Stuffing.  The biggest mistake I made was checking my email.

OK, this is the 3rd time that I’ve tried to write about this.  But without getting into details, it appears that I will no longer be able to have a relationship with my niece.  My husband’s sister is mad at us because we got upset when they defaulted on something we co-signed on for them.  It’s horrible.   I love my niece dearly, she will be 3 in February, and now I won’t be having a relationship with her.

So then I cut up the veggies for the stuffing, I should not have used the food processor, because the onions and celery now look more like soup than chopped.  I toasted the bread for the stuffing, and cut it into little cubes.   I made an herbed butter to put on the Turkey,  I made up my own Poultry Seasoning, after reading what was in the poultry seasoning I bought I didn’t want it in my food.  I made the cranberry sauce, and the cheese cake.  My husband trimmed the asparagus and the green beans.

Then we went to the store and picked up our turkey, and Brussels Sprouts.

When we got home, we saw our neighbor, who was telling us the latest scoop on our HOA.  You would not believe the power trip these people are on.  They are breaking so many rules, fining people for nothing, and taking away rights.  I simply do not understand, we live in a small neighborhood (only about 85 houses), you would think we could all get along.  So this got me all upset too.  We feel so helpless.  There are so many ridiculous things going on in this neighborhood, and even if we could do something about it, right now we just don’t have the energy with everything that is going on with me.

Well, at least the cranberry sauce is done, and the cheese cakes are cooling.  Everything is pretty much ready to go.

Except me.  I’m absolutely terrified about tomorrow.  And all this stress from today is not helping things.  I don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight.  I’m happy I was able to go by the library today and pick up a bunch of books that were on hold for me.  At least if I can’t sleep, I won’t be bored.  I do so love to read a good book.

I just finished American Gods, by Neil Gaiman.  A very thought-provoking book, of course I’ve liked everything I’ve ever read my Neil Gaiman, so it was pretty much a given I’d like this book.  (my favorite of his is a young adult book, called Graveyard.  A great book!  of course Good Omens with Terry Pratchett is awesome too.)

Reading is one of my stress reducers.  What do you do to reduce stress?

Shopping, Sleeping, and Heartburn

On By WendyIn Acid Reflex, Life, Meniere's DiseaseLeave a comment

Yesterday my husband had the day off because he has to work this Saturday.  It’s neat to have him all to myself on a day during the week, but it’s sad we won’t have Saturday.  So we decided to do some shopping!

Streets at Southpoint Mall, Durham, NC

 

The Christmas shopping sales started a little early this year.  We got a flyer from Macy’s and they had a Cuisinart Immersible Blender on sale for $18.99, I was excited because I really needed to replace mine.  I was also looking for a mini-slow cooker. One that’s only about 1.5 quarts, I found one at J.C. Penney for only $9.99!  What a great find.

We walked the huge halls of The Streets at Southpoint Mall for a couple of hours, checking prices, deciding on if we really needed something, and finally having lunch.  I was so tired.  But we had 2 more stops to make.  One at Target to see if they had a couple of things we needed, that trip proved fruitless.  And a stop at the hardware store to pick up a timer for my crock pot, so I can now leave it on when I leave the house and don’t have to worry about getting home to turn it off, and a couple of other things we needed around the house.   We got a call while we were in the hardware store and found out it would be a good time to go and pick up one of the Crock Pots I’m borrowing for Thanksgiving.

So off to pick up the Crock Pot….and a nice visit with our friends.  Including seeing their new baby.

By the time we got home I was exhausted.  My whole body hurt.  Especially my hip.  When I tried to sleep last night my hip hurt so much I just couldn’t sleep, even after taking Trazadone.  I also had to take a pain pill.  I hate taking all that medication.  Finally, I got to sleep, and it wasn’t really that late.

Just like me asleep with the dog and cat.

This morning I got up and ate some breakfast, but I felt so droggy.  I felt like I was still feeling the effects of the drugs I took the night before.  So I put some beans, BBQ sauce, and Chicken hot dogs in the new small cooker and I went back to bed, I did not want a repeat of the way I felt on Sunday.  I slept until about 3pm.

When I woke up, I felt much better, and the house smelled like someone was cooking. Of course, it was my slow cooker telling me I could eat any time I wanted.  I was surprised that it was pretty good.  There was a lot more liquid in the mixture than I put in, so I would have liked it more if it was thicker, but it was still good.  I ate my Beans and Dogs with my home-made Sauerkraut.  It was very good.  However, before I was even finished I was running to the bathroom, again.  Every day, it’s crazy.  I keep having to run to the bathroom from 1-5 times a day.  (3 today)

So later, I wanted something else to eat but I was afraid of eating anything too heavy.  Unfortunately, I’m out of bread and haven’t made any, and I’m also out of any plain crackers.  So my darling husband make me a few pancakes.  After eating I’ve had the worst heartburn.  I took Maalox, something I don’t like to do, I stretched, my husband patted me on the back, I burped a lot, but nothing seemed to help.  Finally, I ate a little apple sauce, and everything is calming down.

I read about an Acid/Alkaline diet a while back and the main part of it I didn’t really pay attention to, but I did decide to try some eating some of the foods that they have on the highest Alkaline list when my stomach starts to scream with too much acid, and acid reflux.  During the summer, this is easy because Watermelon is a very alkaline food, but now that it’s fall, I didn’t know what to eat.  So of course, I searched the handy-dandy internet (how did we ever get along without it?), and found that apples are also a highly alkaline food.  Not as alkaline as watermelon, but still pretty high.  And the pectin in applesauce is supposed to help with GI problems.  Maybe I should eat more applesauce, or perhaps I should make another apple crisp?  Ummmm, apples.

The Meaning of Health.

On By WendyIn Chronic Illness, Health, Life2 Comments

One of the first things I need to do on my journey to better my health is to define the meaning of Health. Look at each part of the definition, and see if I already fit in to it, or decide what I need to do to get to it.

Most people define Health as the absence of disease. If you aren’t sick, you are healthy.
However, according to the World Health Organization:
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

The American Holistic Health Association describes 4 aspects of one self and each aspect must work in harmony for the whole to be healthy.

  • The physical you requires good nutrition, appropriate weight, beneficial exercise and adequate rest.
  • The emotional you needs to give and receive forgiveness, love and compassion; needs to laugh and experience happiness; needs joyful relationships with yourself and others.
  • The mental you needs self-supportive attitudes, positive thoughts and viewpoints and a positive self-image.
  • The spiritual you requires inner calmness, openness to your creativity, and trust in your inner knowing.

We are responsible for our own health! So many of us have grown up believing that our health is in direct correlation with the health care we receive.  However, we are the only one who can make the lifestyle decisions that create well-being (or health).

The American Holistic Health Association has developed a quiz to help you determine your current degree of wellness.  (Let’s see how I do?)

Wellness Quiz

  1. Do you wake up with enthusiasm for the day ahead? (very often not.  I often wake up and think, what’s the point.  I can’t do anything….but I try, every day, I try.)
  2. Do you have the high energy you need to do what you want? (very rarely)
  3. Do you laugh easily and often, especially at yourself? (yes, most of the time I find it easy to laugh at myself and other silly things in my life.  This is why I watch cartoons.)
  4. Do you confidently find solutions for the challenges in your life? (I’m trying very hard to do this.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed, but I’m trying.)
  5. Do you feel valued and appreciated? (I feel loved.  Valued and Appreciated?  I don’t know.  I think my husband feels these things for me, I just often don’t see why.)
  6. Do you appreciate others and let them know it? (I do try my best to let others know how much I appreciate them and care for them.)
  7. Do you have a circle of warm, caring friends? (I think so, but lately I’ve been feeling like that circle is getting smaller.)
  8. Do the choices you make every day get you what you want? (I don’t know.  Sometimes I think they do, other days, no I don’t think so.  So I’d have to say, the choices I make on some days get me closer to what I want.)

“If you answered “no” to any of these questions, congratulations! You have identified areas in your life that you may want to change. This can be valuable information.”

So I have some work to do.  Of course, that’s why I’m here.

Any Suggestions?

I enjoyed reading and getting much of this information from AHHA web site. I’m sure I will refer to it many times in the future.


Green Cleaning

On By WendyIn LifeLeave a comment

As I was cleaning today I was thinking about how differently I clean now than I used to.  I grew up with all sorts of chemical cleaners.  If there was a cleaning problem you used some cleaning product to fix it.  We had window cleaner, toilet cleaner, kitchen surface cleaner, bathroom cleaner….

Did we really need all that those chemicals to clean our homes.  Nope.

Now I use microfiber towels for a lot of my cleaning.  There are different types of microfiber towels, there’s a multipurpose one, one for glass, one for polishing…  I bought a group of these a while back.  I thought it really didn’t make much difference which towel I used where, but I have found that some of them are really good for cleaning, and some are really good for polishing.

I usually wet a multipurpose cloth with water (cleaners will reduce the effectiveness of these cloths), ring it out, then I wipe all my counters down, my stove, my microwave….Then I go back over the areas that show streaks with my blue polishing cloth.  It is wonderful for my black appliances, they just sparkle.

The multipurpose kitchen cloth is normally all I need to clean the grease and grim from my kitchen.   However, if I need more cleaning power this is what I use:

  • Lemon juice – cuts through grease, removes stains, and deodorizes. One example of using lemon juice is on wooden cutting boards: cut a lemon in half, sprinkle generously with salt, and scrub the cutting board with it. Another example is cleaning your kitchen sink, just sprinkle baking soda in your sink then use part of a lemon as a scrubber, then rinse and your sink will sparkle and smell great.  If you have a garbage disposal make sure to put the used lemon in there and run it with water for a little while to keep it fresh and clean.  Using lemons in your cleaning routine leaves a fresh, natural citrus scent.  Lemons or lemon juice does wonders in the bathroom too.
  • Baking soda – all-natural sodium bicarbonate is an excellent all-around cleaner that you can use all over the house. Use it to polish surfaces such as stainless steel without scratching. It also softens hard water and removes acidic stains. Baking soda is a natural deodorizer, and is great for use in the fridge, basement, or litter boxes, to name a few places. Sprinkling it over the carpet before vacuuming is also useful in absorbing odors. Mixing baking soda with water and spreading this mixture in the oven will loosen baked on grease and grime. Simply spread over soiled areas, let it sit overnight, and wipe clean. Safe to use around food, a baking soda and water paste is also ideal for cleaning the refrigerator.
  • Distilled white vinegar – about as multipurpose as baking soda, vinegar is a natural deodorizer and disinfectant, and breaks up grease and dirt, lifts out mineral deposits, and helps cut through mold and soap scum. Use it as a spray, mixed with water, to clean windows, and even as a natural spider-repellant. Use it straight in a spray bottle to combat mold and mildew. Vinegar is also excellent for use in shower stalls and bathtubs, where soap scum is a problem. Mixing vinegar with organic salts will give it extra power and provide scrubbing action. Vinegar mixed with hot water is also an excellent floor cleaner for mopping. Vinegar is also an excellent glass cleaner.
  • Olive oil – an excellent, all-natural treatment for wood. Use alone, or mix it with lemon juice for a safe and effective furniture polish.

With just a few items that you probably already have in your pantry, you can safely and easily clean your home.

Remember, if you decide to use some of the “green cleaners” on the market there is no standardization for terms such as “non-toxic”, “all natural”, “biodegradable”….  Many of these terms are simply useless, be sure to read the ingredients.  If they are vague, don’t buy it.

Be careful when buying “organic” cleaners.  In the food industry organic means grown or raised without pesticides.  However, with household cleaners it simply means that all the ingredients are carbon based, which includes some harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that release dangerous fumes.

For more information on more green cleaners, making your own, what to look for in products, and what terms really mean; check out The Greener Choice.  I was very impressed with the information I found there.