It seemed like only yesterday when I was publishing my last post, but it seems that was a whole 2 months ago! There has been so much happening over the last couple of months, to be honest blogging (and stitching) has been the last thing on my mind.
(UPDATED: To remove the information about my family member.)
Then not long after hearing the news about (my family member) my flatmate decided to move out, with hardly any notice, and in fact started moving out that same weekend. Considering I get paid monthly, and I had just had some higher than hormal expenses that month, that put me into another tailspin as I had to find the rest of the rent prior to payday. Since then I’ve basically had “zero” non-essential spending, and have been living out of my cupboard and freezer contents … which has actually been really awesome!! Not only have I not been wasting food like I normally end up doing, but I’ve also managed to lose some weight by not having the money to buy “crap” and put it in my mouth! In the last 2 months I’ve managed to lose 3.2kg (7lbs). It’s been an extremely stressful time, I have to admit, as I honestly thought I would have to move out of my home and/or sell items to find rent. I had adverts on 4 different websites, and it took 6 weeks before I finally found someone to move in. She’s only been here for 2 weeks so far, so I’m still not spending money properly until I know she’s going to stay around for a while longer … but it was a huge weight off my mind to know I had the rent covered for the next fortnight! She’s actually really lovely – she’s a nurse and only stays here when she’s doing night shifts at the nursing home she works at. I had to adjust the rent down to accommodate the fact that she’s not here all week, but I decided it was better to have slightly less rent coming in than no rent whatsoever and have to move out!
Work itself has been quite stressful too … but in a different way. While I was under so much stress at home it gave me time to really clear my mind and focus on what I wanted to do, and make plans to try to still retain my home etc. While doing that it also gave me the time to understand to a certain extent why I’ve been so unhappy at work lately, and was able to voice that to my boss – I don’t know whether things there will change quickly, if at all, but it was to outwardly voice my concerns and my boss is happy to work with me to ensure that the work I’m given is rewarding and meets my needs as well as providing a challenge … so I guess that’s all good! Plus I applied for a different role elsewhere for 12 months a few days before that discussion, so time will tell on that front too I guess …
Then I had my own personal health scare – I thought I was having heart problems when my left hand went numb out of nowhere followed by lightheadedness and chest pains. The next morning I whisked myself off to see a GP to make sure everything was OK. It turns out my blood pressure was fine, but the nurse was so lovely I ended up bursting into tears and being a blubbering mess – bless her she was so kind and compassionate. She does my B12 shots every 3 months so I’ve got to know her relatively well now, and she really was a blessing to me that morning! When I saw the GP (not my normal well as he wasn’t available), she re-ran a series of blood tests that my normal GP had run 2 years previously, plus added an Insulin test. When I got my tests results back last week it seems most results were OK but my Insulin test came back to show that I have insulin resistance and I have to really be careful now with my diet as I’m more at risk to cross the line into diabetes country. As it is my blood levels were right below the borderline for diabetes on it’s own, but this adds a whole new risk. So now I’ve been ordered to have no carbs at dinner, and I’m trying to have low GI foods on the whole, and little to no sugar whatsoever. Seeing as I’ve been so health-conscious due to money issues, it’s actually been really easy making the adjustment so far. I’ll still continue to eat the foods that I have in the pantry for now, rather than throwing it all out and buying from scratch, but I’m just being very very careful about what I eat! I’ve also been given Metformin tablets to take, but I haven’t started those yet … come this Monday, though, and I’ll start giving those a try, along with doing some exercise daily before work!
As for stitching, even though stitching is usually a great stress relief for me, for some reason this time it just hasn’t been giving me the sense of peace that it normally does. In fact most nights I’ve been coming home from work so tired I’ve just been laid in bed watching TV without my stitching … and I’ve always watched TV with my stitching in hand, so that’s really unusual for me!! I have tried to force myself to stitch, though, to try to get my mojo back again, and that’s worked for a short time, but as soon as the working week comes round again I’m back into the same routine of coming home, climbing into bed, and letting the world pass me by while I stare at the TV. On the weekends, though, I’ve gradually started doing more stitching over the last couple of weeks – and I’m slowly starting to feel at peace at home again which I haven’t felt for an awfully long time since Ian lived here. Maybe that’s why I’m not stitching as much, that I feel calm and at peace already? Who knows? Either way I’m not beating myself up for not stitching and just doing what I want to do every day 🙂
In saying that, though, I have managed to do a tiny spot of stitching since my last post … and in fact finally finished a very overdue travelling pattern today so it can get on it’s way to the next person on the list! I think, though, that I should start a new post, as this will also be part of my WIPocalypse update for the last 2 months … enough woe is me for this post … and if any of you got to the end of this one, then you well and truly deserve a medal!!!
Feather Stitching 