Here I was, ready to jump back into blogging. I wanted to post a couple of times a week. But as usual, life happens. Paul and I have each been dealing with some crappy family stuff these past few weeks. Needless to say, it has been quite stressful for both of us. I have a great t-shirt with this wonderful slogan to remember during these times:

Because of my fibromyalgia, when I am stressed it takes a toll on me physically, not just emotionally. The physical part shows up in different ways or places in my body each time I have a flare-up. This time, it is showing up in my elbows and my arms, so my go-to let’s-calm-down-with-some-yarn-and-knitting-time is not working for me. It’s extremely frustrating, but I do remind myself it’s just temporary. Once I take deliberate care of myself, these symptoms will ease up.

So, I have to figure out other ways to calm my stress response and settle my nervous system. Creating a calm atmosphere doing something else I love helps. I love to read but….can you see where this might be going?…holding a book or my Kindle hurts my elbows and my arms. HOWEVER… unlike knitting, I now have a modification for reading. For Christmas this past year my niece gifted me a remote for my Kindle which has solved the problem. (I’m trying to figure out why there is a big space below here. Scroll to keep reading!)

It is wonderful! My reading time does entail a rather complicated setup of a blanket folded just so to prop up the Kindle so I don’t have to hold it, but I have come up with a great system and now I can rest my arms and just hold the remote to read my book. It’s perfect.

While I’m reading I like to have my twinkle lights on, as well as my Himalayan salt lamp, to add a nice calm glow to the room. I also have a small essential oil diffuser that I use with lavender oil and chamomile oil. This makes a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere while reading.

I am putting some links to these items here in case you are interested:

Page Turner for Kindle

Himalayan Salt Lamp

Essentail Oil Diffuser

Lavender Oil

(I am an Amazon Associate so I do get a small commission if you purchase something after you follow these links. I know there are some polarized views about utilizing Amazon so, you do you, wherever you are in that continuum. Ultimately, I do find Amazon terribly convenient and the associates program helps me a little bit with my income. So that’s me doing me.)

And by the way, you might be wondering if typing hurts my elbows and arms. It does! But I have discovered the wonderful world of voice-to-text on my Windows program. Pretty handy. Actually pretty hand-off-y. Ha!

I’m off to go teach a knitting lesson at The Spinning Room yarn shop. Yes, I’m still teaching knitting as it does not entail too much actual knitting for me!

While I do that, please enjoy a video of our dogs, Moose and Wink:

I’m venturing into the YouTube universe. Dog videos are all I’ve got right now but please “like” and “subscribe” if you like and want to subscribe!

Please comment below if you like this post and please keep coming back! (and please bear with me as I work out the kinks with this new blog post format…)