I’m green, very green …

I’m a frustrated homemaker. Have been all my married life and – dear heaven – that’s a damn l-o-n-g time!

This morning I made the bed. I sometimes don’t bother to do a proper job of it and I know many of you don’t either. So don’t get all judgemental!  LOL!

I brought out clean towels for the bathrooms and admired my handiwork with a contented smile on my face. Those who know me well will know that I have not had much time in recent years to do these little tasks; the current domestic worker usually did that for me.

Getting back to the green. My immediate family were taken aback by my decision to replace the dirty beige colour on single feature walls in 4 rooms with a muted green that I love. The risky behaviour on my part has been rewarded, IMHO.

The pic shows the work-in-progress in our bedroom. Antique pictures will hang above the bed; I’ve just got to research which box they are packed in! Our single garage is still packed full of unopened boxes and I am only allowing one box at a time into the house for unpacking and *further* donations to local worthy causes…..

The duvet cover will be replaced by a new cover in white or very pale cream made by yours truly. Just don’t ask me when! The floral tapestry cushion was bought with a substantial outlay of Euros in France! Once again, the greens tone in beautifully with the other greens in the small room.

The second picture shows part of the feature wall in the living room – a definite work-in-progress. The stuff dumped on the writing bureau will be replaced by a nice lamp and a jacaranda wood framed circular mirror made by John  Early of Dargle in KZN will hang above it.

As you may have already deduced, I am really enjoying feathering my new little nest!

 

 

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Re-locating ….the news is out…..

Sooo… here we go……. on the road again…..

I remember that my paternal grandparents were always moving. Or so it seemed to teenager Eileen. Usually moving around and staying with my parents and their siblings. I also remember watching in fascinated horror as my diabetic granny injected herself with a steel torture instrument loaded with insulin several times a day.. but I digress as usual. That is a story for another day.

We live a profoundly privileged life and we have recently been given the choice of either staying where we are in a (too) spacious home with a garden or moving to a considerably smaller home in a gated security complex. With the years going by, we’re not getting any younger so it made perfect sense to accept the opportunity to move back across town. We will be returning to Milnerton and will have the pleasure of living closer to our sons and their families. The fact that these children are keen on the idea gives us great pleasure; we can’t be too terrible as parents and in-laws! Right? Right? LOL!

There comes a time for all of us when we need to scale down and de-clutter.  However, talking about it and subscribing wholeheartedly to the principle are two totally different things! It’s bloody hard to toss items one has had for years. And don’t give me the hoary old “If you haven’t used/worn it in a year, out it must go”. It’s not as cut and dried as that. I won’t be cutting down to “4 mugs, 4 plates & 4 spoons” as cheeky middle son suggested! Yes, grateful that I don’t have to go that far. 🙂

My business will continue as normal with a slightly changed focus. More news on that soon.

Anyway, this is the first advice to many that I interact with on social media. More to come as the weeks go by. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Odyssey : Interrupted…..

“ I try to take one day at a time,

but sometimes several days attack me at once “

I used the above quotation in June in the series of posts on quotes that resonate with me.

Well  at the moment I have to say that several months have attacked me all at once recently. Since June I have been bombarded with truly huge challenges on all fronts; business-wise, health-wise, personal-wise, feel free to  imagine any ‘–wise’ you can think of and  it has challenged me! And (never begin a sentence with ‘and’ Eileen!) the concerted attack continues unabated.

The result is enormous stress or I should say  events that are causing very stressful  loss of focus on all  mission-critical fronts and will continue to do so until the end of the year.

The catalyst for all of this can probably  be laid at the door of our impending re-location to  a lovely leafy little suburb called La Rochelle.  It will be our second  suburban move since moving to Cape Town in 2005. We currently occupy two apartments in a nice old building and we are in the process of packing up both; together with a garage which is crammed full of ‘stuff’ both business and personal.

Our home apartment is not so bad – the cupboards are pretty neatly sorted. A dear kind person has offered to just pitch up on moving day and load all our garments ‘as is’ on their hangers into her car and transport them to our new home. Cool! We are profoundly grateful to her.

My books are mostly packed and ready to roll. My chests full of craft & hobby paraphernalia must still  be attended to but I am leaning towards just transporting the drawers ‘as is’ as well.

Our business apartment is not so simple and we are presently surrounded by literally dozens of boxes packed and labelled, packed and not labelled, not packed  and ………..  ya getta da picture I am sure.The result of  darn nearly five years of not sending archive paper back to our clients. Of course, the clients have been quite happy to leave their stuff with us – saves their space!!  The garage has many more such boxes waiting to be shipped and  we only have 3 weeks to go to D-Day.

I better get to end of this post and go do something useful ! 🙂

We are determined to move with as little junk as possible and  the physical strain of all this angst  is getting to us a bit. We are not getting any younger  so it’s a case of pacing ourselves and  forging ahead in an orderly fashion. List-maker that I am, there is not much that will miss my attention even as thinly spread as we are at this time.

The loss of focus on the health and wellness  aspect of the Odyssey is hugely upsetting indeed but as Dr Anna says “ Do not beat yourself up about it” .  I will just renew /redirect focus as soon and as often as  I can. In between the (organised?!) chaos, I am still trying to keep up with all my health newsletters, still checking out the “Metabolism Miracle” option, getting to gym  occasionally and hiking on mountains and in forests every so often…… What more can I do with everything else going on?!

Talk again soon I hope…… keep well and be in touch please if you can….

Wellness journey : spoil yourself a little!

Hello everyone 🙂

On what can be a very long journey to optimum wellness and ideal weight, we sometimes need a treat. Something out of the ordinary to look forward to and experience. To get our minds off our eternal preoccupation with eating plans and exercise schedules.

I had such an experience today. A wonderful pre-birthday gift from a guardian angel who has come into my life.

At a recent networking breakfast for women business owners, I met an enterprising young woman who is passionate about  aromatherapy, reflexology massage and – of all things – she is passionate about foot care. This was, of course, of interest to me as a diabetic needing to take special care of my feet.

For the first time in my life, I was treated to a full body aromatherapy massage. From head to toes, I was pampered with lavender-based oils and hot stones warming my tired muscles – all in the comfort of my own home. Wonderful!

Treating ourselves to something we really enjoy can make all the difference to our frame of mind. It need not be anything that costs a fortune.  Not at all. A little downtime for your favourite hobby? A good sleep? A new lipstick?  Coffee with a friend?

I took a dear friend with me to a card-making session on Saturday morning. We had a great morning, totally relaxed, ‘sticking bits of paper to cardboard’, as one of my very cheeky sons put it!

On your own journey to wellness, try to find time to treat yourself.  It makes the world of difference!

I am really upset … 3 Poor self care and diabetes complications

Those of you following this blog will know the story about my friend T who works for a friend/client of mine. At Christmas time he scraped his foot while swimming and by March his foot had been amputated.  He is still getting around on crutches while he awaits a prosthetic foot.

I was upset once again yesterday when I was told that T was admitted to hospital last Thursday with deep vein thrombosis in the remaining ‘good’ leg. He remains hospitalised at this time and I will contact his son later this morning to get the latest update. The grave danger and possible consequences in this situation do not have to be spelled out.

What really, really gets to me is that this whole unfolding crisis could quite probably have been avoided completely. It need never have happened.

T really needs to supplement his pension income, his employer wants to accommodate this but also has to deal with T’s lengthy  absences from work. It has placed my client in a  difficult situation which will have to resolved one way or another.

When we blithely ignore the warning signs that our lifestyle is causing our bodies to deteriorate, we are literally toying with our  lives. There are thousands of medical conditions that can befall us over which we have no control whatsoever. Surely it makes sense to take charge of what we can control and influence? But we just don’t do it.

I am relentlessly driven by a number of things to continue on my odyssey back to optimal (optimum?!) wellness. I cannot just let it go. I cannot just let things slide – much as I am so often tempted to do. I deviate from the path – badly sometimes – and yet I cannot throw in the towel.

• I value my financial independence and the lifestyle that this affords me.
• I dread the day my children have to step up to the plate and provide for me financially.
• I fear being dependant on others to care for me physically. I cared for my dying mom-in-law for over a year before she died and it was a harrowing experience for both of us. Well do I remember the two of us crying bitterly in each other’s arms as I changed her filthy disposable nappy yet again. The anguish she suffered from the pain and loss of dignity is something that still lives with me  26 years later.
• I am angry at myself for the stupidity I exhibited over many years in not looking after my health and lifestyle.  I still exhibit this same stupidity ; work and stressful deadlines still predominate in my life.

One small consolation is that sanity has now prevailed long enough for me to appoint a temporary office assistant. After only 3 mornings with us, the ‘advent of Nicky’ is changing my office landscape and I will talk more about this in a later post.

Eileen’s Odyssey : quotable quotes

Quotations that I come across often give me pause for thought, provide motivation to keep me headed in a chosen direction or focussed on desired outcomes. I like this one. 

Until I get through this deadline week, keep well, keep strong and see you soon!

 

"You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die, or when.

You can only decide how you’re going to live. Now."

                                                                         Joan Baez

Ag shame….

I cannot believe that I was last active on this blog on 17th January. As I’m sure I have said before my life is ruled by SARS. The Receiver of Revenue has non-negotiable deadlines and nasty penalties for non-compliance; which explains where I have been for 2 weeks.

Being a sucker for cute pictures, I am kicking off this weekend’s posts with one of the cutest pics I have ever seen. It comes from a selection of National Geographic’s best pictures.

See you later I hope!

To brighten a gloomy Sunday morning..

We Is Friends!

You & Me is Friends ..
You Smile, I Smile ..
You Hurt, I Hurt ..
You Cry, I Cry ..
You Jump Off A Bridge …..
I Gonna Miss Your E-Mails!

~~

Go on, Mr Rat, make my day!

One of my baskets landed up at Admin’s house over the New Year weekend. Typically bold and curious, Sylvester thought it was just perfect for a little doze.

But don’t be fooled by his relaxed demeanour! He’s a mean rat catcher! So Mr Rat if you are reading this …. be afraid.. be very afraid…

I would be honoured…..

Hopefully you will note that subscriptions to this blog are now available. Simply enter your e-mail address and hit enter! An e-mail will arrive in your inbox requesting confirmation of the subscription. Please confirm and – hey presto! – you will receive an e-mail each time I post more trivia on this odyssey.

I would be truly honoured to have you as a subscriber to ‘Eileen’s Odyssey’.
Best wishes to all from this side of the mountain.