This week I rocked because.... Episode 9

(I picked up the rock on the right from some land we looked at when we first moved. 

It had rained and the wet surface of the rock shone a deep red, so naturally I had to pocket it.)

There have been highlights and lowlights the last two weeks. Post-event malaise, aka kitchen face-planting, does tend to take the shine off life. But once the self-pity and drool is wiped away I can reflect on some of the good times that have peppered that same time.

I have had some highlights where I pulled a rock star performance from my nether regions to shine for an hour or three.

This week I rocked because....

• I had my first piece of writing (the same one I performed at the Emerging Writers Festival) put up on the Writers Victoria website. That it was also entitled FUBAR just makes it all the more special. As they say, start as you mean to go on.
• I managed to frock up, Dorothy shoes on, for my neurology appointment this week. Despite the mehness of the appointment, I had sushi and saw a guy full steampunk, long black leather jacket, top hat and aviator goggles, at the hospital. If that doesn't bring a smile to your face nothing will.
• I managed to brave the teenage boy funk of the youngest's bedroom and wash his sheets and remake his bed. 
• I squirted cleaner at the mold in the shower. It may not have worked but I still squirted.
• I have been able to keep up with my #lookingup sundown photos each day despite decreptitude. May have resorted to taking one out my toilet window. But at least I took it!

So tell me, how have you rocked this week?

• Feel free to share with anyone else who you think may benefit from recognising and celebrating, just how much they've rocked this past week.

Cheers
Michelle :)

And a little chipper Van Morrison to start the day.

Remember to head on over here to donate to my Clicking My Heels For Dysautonomia, raising money for the Greg Page Fund for Orthostatic Intolerance and Dysautonomia research, at The Baker IDI. Thanks to the generosity of many we've already raised over $2,000, keep donating and hopefully we can reach $10,000.

This week I rocked because..... Episode 8

Okay so it's been a while. Life, illness, and the like all got in the way of maintaining a regular segment on the blog. But I feel like now really is the time to bring it back. With my health still swirling around the drain and the current political discourse in our country, it is easy to feel overwhelmed with a wave of ennui, or frustrated, murderous rage, that is thwarted by your body of patheticness (used to be just 'arms of patheticness' but as it's spread I think the use of 'body' is far more apt).

Regular blog readers or FB followers will know that my health is, well...really there are no nice words to describe it of late. The fact that Mr Grumpy forced me (literally drove me into the carpark to make the appointment not telling me what he had planned) to go try out a powered wheelchair, suggest he may have seen through my carefully concealed decline. So it is time to focus on some of the small victories that have been swamped by the blargh.

Despite the decrptitude, I have had some highlights where I pulled a rock star performance from my nether regions to shine for an hour or three.

This week I rocked because....

• I baked bread from scratch. Spelt, walnut and oat. Yum. Sure there was payback, but the smell of that loaf baking in the oven was worth every minute of ugh.
• I managed a 2 blog posts. When I've had days doing more mouth breathing than conscious though this past week, that's worthy of excitement.
• I tidied my bedside table. All my pills are in their boxes. The empty packets in the bin. The 78 hair bands back in the bathroom draw. Even my puke bag is neatly compacted on the table. 
• I have managed my lawn laps 3 days in a row. Admittedly there were stops. Half way through I may have thought I was a crazy woman for trying to make my limbs move whilst swallowing down mini-voms. But I did it. 
• I have made myself go out and look at the sunset. To just appreciate the beauty of the sky. Looking up is kinda nice. 

So tell me, how have you rocked this week?

• Feel free to share with anyone else who you think may benefit from recognising and celebrating, just how much they've rocked this past week.

Cheers
Michelle :)

Sing it Pharrell!

Remember to head on over here to donate to my Clicking My Heels For Dysautonomia, raising money for the Greg Page Fund for Orthostatic Intolerance and Dysautonomia research, at The Baker IDI. Thanks to the generosity of many we've already raised over $2,000, keep donating and hopefully we can reach $10,000.

This week I rocked because..... Episode 7.

How does Friday come around so quickly? I swear it sneaks up on me each week. Mind you, no longer working and a week punctuated with coma sleep will mess with your ability to keep up with the space-time continuum. So probably not all that surprising. Plus being easily surprised does make life a wee bit more interesting. Ooo look it's Friday! Ooo look the coffee grinder is full! Ooo look.....!

The old brain hasn't been working on all four cylinders this week as evidenced by the fact that I have a stock of "I Rock" pictures sitting, waiting in a specific folder for today's posts, yet forgot entirely. Instead I had a "Oh shit! I need a photo for today's post" moment and headed out to the backyard with my phone, a pen and some sticky labels to hunt down a long suffering Thor for today's picture. The dumb is strong today.

Despite this, I have had some highlights where I pulled a rock star performance from my nether regions to shine for an hour or three.

This week I rocked because....

• I wrote a Saturday post last week. I have no idea why I did this as Saturday is not known for it's huge reader numbers. But it went off on the forums and over over on FB. Seems a lot of us have difficulties with talking. Who knew?
• I cleared off a garden path so that I can now safely make it down the slope we live on, to pick lemons from my lemon tree. This was something that has been annoying me for months. Every time I would head out to grab a lemon and I would be thwarted by the overgrown path of doom that required a machete and Indiana Jones to navigate. I swear I heard the onion grass mocking me from the centre of the path. Take that onion grass!
• I made a batch of bone shaped biscuits, or Puppy 'crack' biscuits as I like to call them, for the mutts. There's not much Thor and Freyja wont do for a taste of those savoury titbits of China white.
• I also made a batch of hotcrossless buns. I have no idea where the baking mojo came from, or why I thought my protesting body would agree to me making them. But I managed them and just embraced the following coma sleep, rather than ruing it's existence. 

So tell me, how have you rocked this week?

• Feel free to share with anyone else who you think may benefit from recognising and celebrating, just how much they've rocked this past week.

Cheers

Michelle :)

Thanks to everyone who has been participating in TWIRB over the past 7 weeks. It's been great to see so many people celebrating the victories big and small over the week. So important to remember them in light of the day-to-day living with chronic illness.

I have had some messages from people saying they have trouble commenting on the blog. I'm not sure why, but it seems that commenting from a phone is playing up the most. I did have someone suggest logging in using Safari as an option. Not that I know how you log in using Safari. or what Safari is exactly, other than the go look at lions and giraffes version. But hey if you do, give it a go and see what happens. :)

This song by C2C featuring D Martin is one of my favourite pick me up/rock/celebrating songs. How can you not feel happy listening to this? And the dancing is just amazing. 

This week I rocked because.....Episode 6.

Well it's that time of week again. Time to bask in the awesomeness that is you, and all you have achieved this past week. Things have been a bit up and down this week here at Chateau Rusty (I seem to be saying that a lot lately), but I have been able to achieve some bits and pieces in between the moaning and pity parties for one.

This week I rocked because:

• I managed to wash my hair not once, but twice! "Whoa, Crazy Lady", I hear you say. But hey. It was nice to have clean hair for an entire week.
• I managed to get some crafting going on and am in the process of immortalising some of my old work material into and art piece. Has been quite therapeutic.
• I cooked my eldest a sticky date pudding and made the toffee sauce from scratch as well. He's been great taking me to all my appointments and generally caring for his decrepit old mum, so it was the least I could do.
• After somewhat of a post-new diagnosis melt down, I went and sat out in my garden, felt the soil between my toes and just let myself breathe. Didn't even beat myself up for it (well mostly) afterwards.
• I even shared a short video of the difficulties I'm having with my facial muscles at present over on FB, not pretty by any stretch of the imagination. I ummed and ahhed about it, but glad I did now as it led me to a great support page and some truly lovely fellow patients/friends who shared their stories with me. Which is what this whole awareness, unmasking of illness malarky is all about.

So tell me, how have you rocked this week?

Feel free to share with anyone else who you think may benefit from recognising and celebrating, just how much they've rocked this past week.

Cheers

Michelle :)

I've been listening to a bit of Sia this week and these lyrics seems to have stuck out. 

"I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose
Fire away, fire away
Ricochet, you take your aim
Fire away, fire away
You shoot me down but I won't fall
I am titanium
You shoot me down but I won't fall
I am titanium"

This week I rocked because.....Episode 5

(source)

It's that time of the week again and despite it being Friday the 13th I know there are a bazillion ways you rocked this past week. Things have been a little stressed over here at Chateau Rusty, hence my brain purge post yesterday. But I have not been deterred. In between moments of stress induced insanity, and a body that has decided that weakness is fun, I have managed to rock on and off. I put on my red glittery slippers and pulled out some rockstar moves. Because you can't keep a red glittered girl down.

This week I rocked because....

• I managed vacuuming again. I know, I know, it's an exciting life I lead.
• I had a shower, brushed my hair, and got dressed to see my neuro. All this was achieved despite feeling that I was really to keel over on the couch.
• Mr Grumpy gave me two bunches of lovely flowers, one red roses and one Autumn toned ranunculi. I divided them into a number of smaller bunches and spread colour throughout the house. So lovely and they have lasted a full week.
• I ordered a vintage styled magazine, Frankie, that I've wanted to subscribe to for ages. The first one arrived today and I am rather excited to sit down with a cuppa and read.
• I have upped my pain meds with no side-effects except that I can stand on my feet without wanting to cry now. Woo Hoo!

So tell me, how have you rocked this week?

Feel free to share with anyone else who you think may benefit from recognising and celebrating, just how much they've rocked this past week.

Cheers

Michelle :)

And a little bit of music to inspire you whilst you think of all the way you rocked this week. I'm back baby, no matter what my body throws at me!

This week I rocked because.....Episode 4.

(source)

Well it's that time of week again. Time to bask in the awesomeness that is you, and all you have achieved this past week. Things have been a bit up and down this week here at Chateau Rusty, but I have been able to achieve some bits and pieces in between the swooning and general whimpering in a corner.

This week I rocked because:

• I managed to do 15 minutes on the Wii Fit, the basic yoga, for four days straight. 
• I continued to shred some more of my old work notes and forms. Very cathartic.
• I vacumed 3 rooms in the house.
• I planted a group of tiny geranium cuttings in some pots.

So tell me, how have you rocked this week?

Feel free to share with anyone else who you think may benefit from recognising and celebrating, just how much they've rocked this past week.

Cheers

Michelle :)

This week I rocked because....Episode 3

It's that time of week to think of all the different ways you've rocked it this week. In the midst of the gastric storm I've had this past week I thought I'd be struggling to find some victories but there have been quite a few.

This week I rocked because....

• I managed to cook my son's birthday dinner which included 2 curry sauces from scratch (green and red Thai curry) and a strawberry flan.
• I started to shred all my old work stuff that I have been holding onto since my last work day in November of 2007. I am about 2/3rds of the way through and feel lighter than I have in years.
• I didn't beat myself up for crying when the pains in my stomach got so bad that I couldn't get out of the foetal position. 
• I took on a new craft, albeit unsuccessfully. But that has only made me even more determined to master it. There will be a rag rug in my house and it will be awesome. Plus, I'm half way too a rocking set of Princess Leia hair buns!
• I managed to hold my hand still long enough to take the picture above.

So tell me, how have you rocked this week?

Feel free to share with anyone else who you think may benefit from recognising and celebrating, just how much they've rocked this past week.

Cheers

Michelle :)

And a little perky music to get you in the mood. Saw these guys back in the early 90s, when I had an, as then undiagnosed, badly broken foot. Even back then I was stubborn. 

This week I rocked because.... Episode 2.

(source)

Well it's that time of week again. Time to sort through the fog that is the last week to think of all the times you rocked. Last week was fantastic and so lovely to see all the various things people had achieved during the week. It's amazing what we are all achieving in the face of various difficult health situations.

It's been an interesting week here at Chateau Rusty with a nasty pea-souper invading my brain for much of the past seven days. However this is no impediment to rocking.

This week I rocked because....

• I managed to make a yummy roast vegetable salad, complete with cutting up the vegetables myself. No mean feat when your hands have all the strength of a wet tissue.
• I painted up an old frame to display a postcard I love, that was sent to me by my BIL.
• I coloured my hair and managed to minimise the dying off my forehead and ears.
• I got through a few loads of washing with minimal need to recover.
• I remembered to take all my meds on time all week. 

So tell me, how have you rocked this week?

Feel free to share with anyone else who you think may benefit from recognising and celebrating, just how much they've rocked this past week.

Cheers

Michelle :)

And some more motivational music to start you thinking about all the ways you've rocked this week.

This week I rocked because....

I'm starting a new weekly event here on the blog. It's something I've been thinking about since I wrote this post last year.

So often we get overwhelmed with the daily stress of dealing with chronic illness. It can seem like things never get better. That it is just difficult, after stressful, after disheartening.

Unless we consciously start to look for the good, however big or small it may be, we can miss just what we do achieve. 

Unless we start to document those events, it is easy to forget just how much we've achieved.

Victories come big and small. For some, it could be making it through a shift at work. For others, simply getting out of bed or managing a shower. Lets face it, some days simply managing not to cough-sneeze your medication into your right nostril (true story) is up there with creating world peace. Each is an achievement and needs to be celebrated. 

So from now on Friday on the blog will be known as, 

This week I rocked because....

In the comments take the time to think about and write what you've achieved this past week. 

I'll start:

This week I rocked because

• I made it up to 10mins on my minicycle.
• I managed to shave one and a half armpits (no easy feat when you can't lift your left arm).
• I managed to stew up some rhubarb.
• I potted one plant.
• I made it through a night out, and got to sing show tunes.

So tell me, how have you rocked this week?

Feel free to share with anyone else who you think may benefit from recognising and celebrating, just how much they've rocked this past week.

Cheers

Michelle :)

And just in case you're having trouble thinking of the ways you have rocked, I give you the best motivational song of all time. Put on your beret and your way too tight jeans, and get your strut on.