Way too cold for me, already!

I used to love Winters back when I was a kid. Cold and snow wasn't going to stop me. Scarf, hat and mittens meant I could go out and play in the white stuff as much as I wanted. Extra socks and wellie boots kept my feet from becoming icicles, and "layering" clothes meant 2 or 3 blouses and a couple of jumpers so that I looked more like a Weeble than a child. It was so much fun, we'd be out building snowmen and having snowball fights ...

Now that's all just memories, as my arthritis means my joints can predict the weather with far more accuracy than any tv weather man or gal. That low deep throb reverbates to let me know when cold, damp, rain or snow are on their way, and there's no joy in that knowledge.

Added to which, I just cannot stay warm any more. Even in bed, under 3 quilts and an extra one folded across the bottom, for my tootsies, I shiver, and my hand that is outside the covers, gets icy cold. My nose, well, let's say that if I was a dog, I'd be a really healthy one, as my nose stays cold and wet!

It does not help that I am a cheapskate. I pop the heater on for a few minutes of a morning, so that hubby can be warm as he gets out of bed and gets dressed.  When I'm in the kitchen, feeding animals, I pop the one gas burner on to take the edge off. When I'm cooking the heat from that helps get the kitchen nice and cosy.

What irks me right now, the most, is that it's NOT EVEN WINTER yet! This is supposed to be Fall! I want an Autumn, and it slid in and out in about a week.

I'm not a "bah humbug!" type of person, but my heart just does not enjoy Winter the way that I did when I was a child.

I still love seeing the Winter scenes in pictures, and I love hearing children laughing outside as they play in it, but other than that, I'm just not into it any more.

Now, Christmas, oh I still love Christmas. The Nativity. Father Christmas. Carols and Christmas songs. The lights. Old movies. Magical memories. Picking the perfect gift for each person. I am most definitely a Christmas person. For the last few years, I've not had a tree up (an accident waiting to happen, with 4 furry felines!) and I do miss it but safety comes first. We already had a cat set fire to our kitchen a few years ago, we do not want the living room going up in flames as well.

Explaining hat to the insurance man was almost funny.
"The cat did it."
"It's ok. You're covered even if you left a pan on the stove and it burned dry ..."
"Nope, the cat switched the burner on and the dehydrator was sitting on the stove top and that's the plastic that's all melted and flared up."
He was a nice man. Yes he probably thought I was nuts, but Outlaw had reached up before and turned the gas on, and I'd had to open windows to clear the air. This time, he had somehow managed to turn it more and the starter had sparked, successfully lighting that burner.

Over $4000 in damage ... and then the darn cat committed suicide less than a week later :(  He was an indoor/outdoor cat, and we found him on the side of the road, near our gate, just looking as though he was asleep.

He's buried in our pet cemetery in the back yard.

Hence, no Christmas tree with dangling lights and shiny trinkets that it would no doubt delight the felines to pull down.

Most of my Christmas gift shopping is done. I did it though friends online, who have home based businesses, some of whom do wonderful home crafts and through my AVON. I have just a couple of things left on my list. Since I don't like crowds and traffic, it's the perfect solution for me, and I've found awesome things for some of my favourite people.

Well, stay warm, my friends. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families, this Thursday.

If you still have Christmas shopping to do, please take a look through the Holiday Gift Guide on my website www.youravon.com/rosemarydempsey  I'd love to have your support, and you can use code WELCOME to get a 20% discount off a $50 order!

Way too cold for me, already!

I used to love Winters back when I was a kid. Cold and snow wasn't going to stop me. Scarf, hat and mittens meant I could go out and play in the white stuff as much as I wanted. Extra socks and wellie boots kept my feet from becoming icicles, and "layering" clothes meant 2 or 3 blouses and a couple of jumpers so that I looked more like a Weeble than a child. It was so much fun, we'd be out building snowmen and having snowball fights ...

Now that's all just memories, as my arthritis means my joints can predict the weather with far more accuracy than any tv weather man or gal. That low deep throb reverbates to let me know when cold, damp, rain or snow are on their way, and there's no joy in that knowledge.

Added to which, I just cannot stay warm any more. Even in bed, under 3 quilts and an extra one folded across the bottom, for my tootsies, I shiver, and my hand that is outside the covers, gets icy cold. My nose, well, let's say that if I was a dog, I'd be a really healthy one, as my nose stays cold and wet!

It does not help that I am a cheapskate. I pop the heater on for a few minutes of a morning, so that hubby can be warm as he gets out of bed and gets dressed.  When I'm in the kitchen, feeding animals, I pop the one gas burner on to take the edge off. When I'm cooking the heat from that helps get the kitchen nice and cosy.

What irks me right now, the most, is that it's NOT EVEN WINTER yet! This is supposed to be Fall! I want an Autumn, and it slid in and out in about a week.

I'm not a "bah humbug!" type of person, but my heart just does not enjoy Winter the way that I did when I was a child.

I still love seeing the Winter scenes in pictures, and I love hearing children laughing outside as they play in it, but other than that, I'm just not into it any more.

Now, Christmas, oh I still love Christmas. The Nativity. Father Christmas. Carols and Christmas songs. The lights. Old movies. Magical memories. Picking the perfect gift for each person. I am most definitely a Christmas person. For the last few years, I've not had a tree up (an accident waiting to happen, with 4 furry felines!) and I do miss it but safety comes first. We already had a cat set fire to our kitchen a few years ago, we do not want the living room going up in flames as well.

Explaining hat to the insurance man was almost funny.
"The cat did it."
"It's ok. You're covered even if you left a pan on the stove and it burned dry ..."
"Nope, the cat switched the burner on and the dehydrator was sitting on the stove top and that's the plastic that's all melted and flared up."
He was a nice man. Yes he probably thought I was nuts, but Outlaw had reached up before and turned the gas on, and I'd had to open windows to clear the air. This time, he had somehow managed to turn it more and the starter had sparked, successfully lighting that burner.

Over $4000 in damage ... and then the darn cat committed suicide less than a week later :(  He was an indoor/outdoor cat, and we found him on the side of the road, near our gate, just looking as though he was asleep.

He's buried in our pet cemetery in the back yard.

Hence, no Christmas tree with dangling lights and shiny trinkets that it would no doubt delight the felines to pull down.

Most of my Christmas gift shopping is done. I did it though friends online, who have home based businesses, some of whom do wonderful home crafts and through my AVON. I have just a couple of things left on my list. Since I don't like crowds and traffic, it's the perfect solution for me, and I've found awesome things for some of my favourite people.

Well, stay warm, my friends. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families, this Thursday.

If you still have Christmas shopping to do, please take a look through the Holiday Gift Guide on my website www.youravon.com/rosemarydempsey  I'd love to have your support, and you can use code WELCOME to get a 20% discount off a $50 order!

The Struggle is Real

One of the sadder things about getting older is losing one's independence, and dealing with pain. It happens to so many, but is never easy. Even worse though, I think, is when younger people have to go through that. 

Recently, a friend had foot surgery. She has 2nd grade twins who she home schools, and is very much an "on the go" person. She was getting so depressed at her lack of mobility while she could not use that foot. I tried to keep her spirits up, and she asked me how I am so positive, when this is my reality day after day. The thing is, this was all new to her, whereas I have had years now to heal the depressive "woe is me" and get to the "it is what it is" and "letting go of what I can't change". Don't get me wrong, am I happy to be basically bedridden 90% of the time? NO! Of course not! But I have made my peace with a body that no longer does what I want it to, and no longer trust to allow me to stand or walk safely without something sturdy to hold onto. I don't like it but this is how it is and there's no changing it.

However ... the things I can do ... I do to my fullest ability! When I cook, I trundle myself down to the kitchen with my walker, and then sit to prepare the ingredients and use the stove. While I am down in the kitchen, whether preparing hubby's pack lunch, breakfast or dinner, I'll sit and feed my animals or wash the dishes.

With my AVON, hubby will bring my boxes in and onto my bed, and I'll log them all in first, and then get my invoices printed up. Then, because I've been sat up awhile and kind of twisting getting stuff out of the boxes to check them in, I'll have to lie down on my side again to "rest" my back and relieve the pain. After resting, he'll bring me the printed invoices, and I'll bag the orders, stand the bags in the boxes, and he'll take them into my other room for me.

I don't know how I'd get along without him, he's my second rock. God being my first.

The thing is, I do as much as I can. When we do deliveries, I can still drive, but he's the one that gets out of the car and takes it to my customers. I have come to terms with my limitations.

Recently, my friend, Dimple (she who comes and cleans for me weekly), helped me with a project that's close to my heart. I have many. This time it was for a local shelter, Safe Harbor.

In my first marriage, I was an abused wife. 

My ex used to hit me all the time, embarrassed me by offering me to his friends (who I think were as embarrassed by his behaviour as I was), and even tried to make me miscarry my youngest daughter by pushing me down a flight of stairs, dragging me out of the house "cave-man style" by my hair and then kicking me in the stomach (supposedly - he said then - because his girlfriend was pregnant at the same time and didn't want to run the risk of us being in hospital together).

I was so young. I was demoralized. I had nowhere to go. I'd left and gone to my mum's a few times and he would come there, crying, and she'd say "he's your husband, talk to him". It was only when he got mad there one time, and she said something, and he grabbed her by the throat, that she realised exactly WHAT I had been going through. It took me 5 years to get away from him, and then I was 22 and with 3 small children.

So, I know how these women feel. 

I was going to donate some AVON to the Salvation Army as they also run a shelter that we donate to weekly, out of hubby's paycheck, and Dimple suggested Safe Harbor as an alternate, so we made up these awesome bags with a skin care product, a fragrance and a couple of other goodies like lotions, etc and she delivered them for me. She said the lady there was really happy to get them and knew the women would love them.

It might not be much, but we did a small thing, that made some other folks lives a little better. Their struggle is real. Being able to pamper themselves a little may help them as they work through self esteem issues.

Everyone has their own demons to fight.

It was my great granddaughter, Zayleigh's, birthday this past weekend and she is the big 3. My grandson is down from New York to spend time with her, and took some pics. She looks good in his fireman's hat, doesn't she?

He, on the other hand, I feel badly that he is so poor he cannot afford razors! LOL. I rag him about his fuzz all the while, he just rolls his eyes and grins.

I hate that he doesn't get to see her as often as he likes, but am glad he does get to spend some time with her. He loves and misses her so much.

I'll get to see HIM this weekend, before he goes back up to New York. It's been 22 months, and I miss HIM! LOL :)  He is still my baby boy! Way taller than me now but that doesn't change a thing!

I'm proud of the man he has become and is still becoming.

His struggle is real.

I guess my thing today is that pain, in different forms, and life in general, aren't always easy and everyone has their own struggles that they deal with. We have to try to be kinder, and make a difference when and where we can.

Have an awesome day, my friends.

The Struggle is Real

One of the sadder things about getting older is losing one's independence, and dealing with pain. It happens to so many, but is never easy. Even worse though, I think, is when younger people have to go through that. 

Recently, a friend had foot surgery. She has 2nd grade twins who she home schools, and is very much an "on the go" person. She was getting so depressed at her lack of mobility while she could not use that foot. I tried to keep her spirits up, and she asked me how I am so positive, when this is my reality day after day. The thing is, this was all new to her, whereas I have had years now to heal the depressive "woe is me" and get to the "it is what it is" and "letting go of what I can't change". Don't get me wrong, am I happy to be basically bedridden 90% of the time? NO! Of course not! But I have made my peace with a body that no longer does what I want it to, and no longer trust to allow me to stand or walk safely without something sturdy to hold onto. I don't like it but this is how it is and there's no changing it.

However ... the things I can do ... I do to my fullest ability! When I cook, I trundle myself down to the kitchen with my walker, and then sit to prepare the ingredients and use the stove. While I am down in the kitchen, whether preparing hubby's pack lunch, breakfast or dinner, I'll sit and feed my animals or wash the dishes.

With my AVON, hubby will bring my boxes in and onto my bed, and I'll log them all in first, and then get my invoices printed up. Then, because I've been sat up awhile and kind of twisting getting stuff out of the boxes to check them in, I'll have to lie down on my side again to "rest" my back and relieve the pain. After resting, he'll bring me the printed invoices, and I'll bag the orders, stand the bags in the boxes, and he'll take them into my other room for me.

I don't know how I'd get along without him, he's my second rock. God being my first.

The thing is, I do as much as I can. When we do deliveries, I can still drive, but he's the one that gets out of the car and takes it to my customers. I have come to terms with my limitations.

Recently, my friend, Dimple (she who comes and cleans for me weekly), helped me with a project that's close to my heart. I have many. This time it was for a local shelter, Safe Harbor.

In my first marriage, I was an abused wife. 

My ex used to hit me all the time, embarrassed me by offering me to his friends (who I think were as embarrassed by his behaviour as I was), and even tried to make me miscarry my youngest daughter by pushing me down a flight of stairs, dragging me out of the house "cave-man style" by my hair and then kicking me in the stomach (supposedly - he said then - because his girlfriend was pregnant at the same time and didn't want to run the risk of us being in hospital together).

I was so young. I was demoralized. I had nowhere to go. I'd left and gone to my mum's a few times and he would come there, crying, and she'd say "he's your husband, talk to him". It was only when he got mad there one time, and she said something, and he grabbed her by the throat, that she realised exactly WHAT I had been going through. It took me 5 years to get away from him, and then I was 22 and with 3 small children.

So, I know how these women feel. 

I was going to donate some AVON to the Salvation Army as they also run a shelter that we donate to weekly, out of hubby's paycheck, and Dimple suggested Safe Harbor as an alternate, so we made up these awesome bags with a skin care product, a fragrance and a couple of other goodies like lotions, etc and she delivered them for me. She said the lady there was really happy to get them and knew the women would love them.

It might not be much, but we did a small thing, that made some other folks lives a little better. Their struggle is real. Being able to pamper themselves a little may help them as they work through self esteem issues.

Everyone has their own demons to fight.

It was my great granddaughter, Zayleigh's, birthday this past weekend and she is the big 3. My grandson is down from New York to spend time with her, and took some pics. She looks good in his fireman's hat, doesn't she?

He, on the other hand, I feel badly that he is so poor he cannot afford razors! LOL. I rag him about his fuzz all the while, he just rolls his eyes and grins.

I hate that he doesn't get to see her as often as he likes, but am glad he does get to spend some time with her. He loves and misses her so much.

I'll get to see HIM this weekend, before he goes back up to New York. It's been 22 months, and I miss HIM! LOL :)  He is still my baby boy! Way taller than me now but that doesn't change a thing!

I'm proud of the man he has become and is still becoming.

His struggle is real.

I guess my thing today is that pain, in different forms, and life in general, aren't always easy and everyone has their own struggles that they deal with. We have to try to be kinder, and make a difference when and where we can.

Have an awesome day, my friends.