108 spiders are a girl's best friends

savingholmes

It's good to plan something to look forward to. You are doing really well on the exercise front too. Tackling frogs.... and then a reward is a good way to go.

Msmoneyspider

Thanks again, Savingholmes, for your encouragement. Yesterday was another tricky day, the sort that would ordinarily throw me off track. Posting here is really helping me to see where I sabotage.

Four different issues came up, that could potentially cause major consequences. I decided to tackle them the Dale Carnegie way and 'live in day tight compartments'

Ask yourself, “What is the worst that can possibly happen?”
Prepare to accept the worst.
Try to improve on the worst.
Remind yourself of the exorbitant price you can pay for worry in terms of your health.

A final one, especially for anybody in the care profession, is document the steps I took to mitigate against the worst case scenario.

Using the above method, two issues are now resolved, the third I will get an answer today at 3.00 pm. If it is not what I want, I should still be able to appeal and have a 50% chance of success, I will give it no more thought unless the appeal fails. The fourth is really tricky and is potentially disasterous, but I can honestly say I have mitigated and documented and I have someone monitoring the situation very closely, so my conscience is clear.

I slept fine last night and now I am going to my art class. If I leave half an hour early I can get some steps clocked up, in the countryside. It is a beautiful morning and I am going to savour it.

DIA reminded me of another book, which was a favourite of my mother's and she often quoted from it:-

"I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life" Thoreau (Walden).

Msmoneyspider

I found a 'Thank You' card in my bag yesterday, opened it up and there was £40.00 in it and a message to treat myself to something I love, so I did!!

I bought a soft, grey jumper which was well cut, flattering and will look good smart or casual and a new candle. The candle is a stunning watermelon scented, magenta candle with dark purply red crystals twinkling on top and it is absolutely gorgeous.

To me it symbolises reclaiming my power and balance, the harmony of fire and water, male and female, earth and spirit.

A mystic friend of mine, texted yesterday to say that since the 'Wolf Moon' there is nothing 'in retrograde' and the next three to four months are an exceptional time for the planet and it's inhabitants to make lasting, positive changes, who am I to argue ……. I will go with the flow x.

doingitanyway

I love that Thoreau quote and plan to do some marrow sucking of my own in life

Your art class has given me food for thought. I would like to do one myself so I will start looking for a class

Your found £40 was a present from the universe so I'm glad you spent it on a treat.

Have a positive day

savingholmes

I agree with DIA - what a find the card and the £40. The candle sounds beautiful

Msmoneyspider

Hi DIA/SH, starting that art class was one of the best decisions of my life. I have been going for almost four years now. I started it as part of a program to rebuild my brain, after my last bout of autoimmune encephalitis and I credit it with keeping me well.

An artist and her sculpter husband, live in a cottage, in the grounds of a gated estate. Their studios are so inaccessible, that the last mile requires a 4x4 and intimate knowledge of the terrain. I park, where the tarmac ends and she picks me up for the final stetch. There are stunning views and when we can we paint outside and eat her homemade biscuits - pure bliss,

I went for a walk, with a friend, before work yesterday, to a popular local beauty spot. I have done the same walk hundreds of times, since I was a child. This time, for some reason, we followed a dogwalker, over the river, through a forest, got completely lost and stumbled across the most amazing waterfall, with a seat at the bottom for contemplation, which I am certain few know exists. It is a relatively short bike ride from my house, so it is my new spot for communing with nature!!

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost.

PurpleFairy26

Sounds idyllic, glad you found it.

savingholmes

The waterfall and bench sound amazing as does your art class. I'm going to give a local craft club a go and see whether that works for me. Crafts help keep me sane - but since I got varifocals I've found some of the crafts I used to do a lot more difficult.

doingitanyway

The art class sounds amazing it is true but so does the location and set up. My class will be at the local college I expect and the journey includes a high street. Not quite the same allure

I think I will investigate further...

Msmoneyspider

Go for it!!!

It is Sunday and I will be batch cooking. We aim to eat 90 percent organic, for various reasons and we buy our meat, fish and wine, in bulk, from local suppliers. This costs around £500.00, approximately, every two months and we get a weekly vegetable box (£14.00). After that I budget around £70.00 a week for miscellaneous food shops. So on a good month our food/wine /miscellaneous costs come in at around £650.00 a month.

What had been happening, before my return to MSE, and cutting back on work, is that I was not planning at all well. We had got into the habit of getting fish and chips on a Friday night and a Chinese takeaway on a Sunday night (£200.00 a month) and we were all buying our lunches out (200.00 a month) - Reality spend of £1000 +. All the extra work I was doing, which I was not enjoying, was funding takeaways which were making us sluggish and porky - how insane is that.

This month, with more time and energy, we have had no takeaways, taken our own lunches to work and Uni and eaten really healthily and have come in around my new budget of £550.00, which although high for most MSEr's, is extremely good for us and half what we had been spending ……...

I really, really want to keep this going. I have to keep strict boundaries on what I say yes to though as my time is precious. I will wind January up tomorrow and re-commit to my version of an MSE February :money::money: