Living On A Dime

Category: CFS/FM

Keys to Success And Avoiding Excuses

Avoiding Excuses and Taking Responsibility

From: Margie
Your blame game article brought to mind this quote I ran across somewhere about avoiding excuses. (I don’t know the author.)

“Excuses are monuments of nothing, built upon bridges to nowhere. Those who use this tool of incompetence are masters of nothing.”

I love this quote and its message about avoiding excuses. It really wraps things up into a nut shell doesn’t it? Often, without even thinking, people automatically blame something or someone and simply make excuses when they do something wrong. So be careful and start listening to yourself.

Here’s an example of excuses people make when they play the blame game: A couple arrives late for church and the husband says, “We are late because my wife didn’t put the keys in the right place,” instead of saying, “We are late because I didn’t make sure I knew where the keys were so we could leave in time.”

Can you see the difference? Did you notice how subtly a person’s explanation of an event can shift the blame? Start listening to yourself and see how many times you start your sentences with – this happened because of such and such instead of just saying, “I goofed.” In most situations when we blame someone else, there’s no real pain in admitting our own mistakes and even when there is, you are a better, bolder person for taking responsibility. Besides, the people you know will come to respect you more when you take responsibility for your actions.

Excuses and blame are what destroy people but doing the best you can with what you have, avoiding excuses and not giving up is what leads to success!

-Jill

Photo By: Images Of Money

June 19, 2019
A day in the life of Jack helping!

A one year old can be ever so helpful! Here’s a day in the life of Jack in pictures helping mom when he was one year old! (more…)

December 29, 2017
About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia is a debilitating and largely misunderstood chronic illness. Here is a discussion of symptoms and my experiences, along with information about getting diagnosed. (more…)

April 5, 2017
How to cope with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

You can read Part 1 in our series About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.

And Part 2 on Getting Diagnosed if you have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

How We Live with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

Things that make my Fibromyalgia worse:

Lack of Sleep
Stress
Too much exercise like climbing the stairs in our old bi-level house. (BIG MISTAKE!!!)

Things that seem to help Fibromyalgia

Taking a regular Alka-Seltzer, not the ones for cold.
Sleep
Air Bed may help. It did for me for a while but now I’m sleeping on my $20 garage sale couch because it’s easier on my muscles.
Pain medications (over the counter or prescription)
Stretching
Reducing stress (Ok, I know MUCH easier said than done but do what you can.)
Massage (I am lucky that my husband has learned how to do it for me so I don’t have to pay $80 a week to go once a week!)
Neuromuscular therapy works best for me when I have someone else do it.
Hot Baths (I have to take one almost nightly to ease the pain enough for me to sleep.)
Ben Gay Cream
Heating Pads
Resting, just sitting and reading or watching TV.

And yet, another rough day in the life of Tawra with CFS.

Things that help my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Taking regular Alka- Seltzer, not cold

Taking NADH – This is a supplement sold though http://www.immunesupport.com . This is the only thing that I have found helps me. It did not help my mom or brother at all. It did give me more energy and made me feel a little better. It is fairly expensive ($40 a month) but worth it if it works. If it doesn’t work after a month or so, stop taking it, it’s probably not going to work for you. It DID NOT cure me. It only made it so that I have a little more energy and my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome wasn’t quite so bad.

Cutting out gluten. This helped me but not mom or my brother. You might check for food allergies as they can make symptoms worse.

Cutting all social activities (I keep it very limited. I have one friend and I see her for a few hours every 2-3 months)

Limiting phone calls

Reducing Stress

Getting Sleep (With 4 kid that’s the same as impossible, even with my husband getting up with them at night.)

Cool, dry climate – I felt much better in Colorado and Idaho than I did/do in Texas and Kansas. Some people report also feeling better in places like Arizona and Nevada.

Running the Air Conditioner- Removing the humidity from the air helps a lot.

Eating on Time – I get very sick if I don’t eat on a regular basis. I really go downhill fast. My husband can usually tell and forces me to eat something, even if I’m not hungry. It helps a lot to eat every two or three hours.

I have recently cut out most of the sugar. It has helped a lot, especially with brain fog and low energy. It was NOT easy at all to do, but I felt it was something I had to do. I am still working on not back sliding.

Wearing all cotton clothes – I feel like I’m going to “crawl out of my skin” if I don’t wear cotton. I don’t know why but I think it’s because I get hot in anything else.

Bee Pollen, Vitamins, Anti-depressants, Fish Oil, etc. have not helped me one bit. The bee pollen even made mom worse!

These are things that seem to help so far.

First, you have to realize that you are sick. Once I stopped fighting being sick, started using my energy on other things and worked with it instead of against it I started doing much better! I’m not healed but I went from being flat in bed to at least being able to do the dishes during TV commercials.

I cut out almost all social activity. I am an introvert (I get my energy by being alone) not an extrovert (like my husband, a person who gets energy from being around people) so social things really make me sick. If you like being around people and it helps you feel better then do more social things.

I stopped gardening (my favorite thing to do) when I moved to Kansas. It just makes me too sick to work in the heat. Now I am doing small amounts of gardening as I can, mostly in the spring and fall.

My kids can do one outside the house activity at time and that’s it. Swimming lessons, karate, music– We allow only one.

I often have cable TV. Now I don’t normally advocate cable if you can’t afford it BUT in this case I think it really helps. When you are chronically ill, it really helps to take your mind off the pain. Sometimes you get so overwhelmed that you need a break and this helps. I don’t watch things like soap operas or daytime talk shows. I watch HGTV, Discovery Channel and other things that keep my brain focused on something productive. I try to be careful, though. I really enjoy doing home improvement stuff so it can get discouraging if I watch too much and can’t physically do it. Don’t watch junk. You don’t need to be filling your mind watching scandalous stories about what other people (who aren’t real anyway) are doing.

My husband does a lot of the hard things like scrubbing the tub and shower, and vacuuming.

I clean in spurts. I do something for a few minutes, then quit and do something else. My house is never spotless but it is mostly picked up and neat.

My kids take a nap whether they are tired or not. They play in their room quietly for at least 1 1/2 hours after lunch. They also go to bed at 7:00 p.m. I really need the break and, by that time of night, I am just too tired to do anything anymore. They usually play quietly (or not so quietly sometimes! :-) for an hour before going to sleep. This isn’t just for me. In my opinion, most kids stay up way too late these days!! Except for special occasions, kids under 12 should go to bed no later than 8:30 p.m. Frequently, kids are grouchy and have bad behavior because they are tired (off track, but that’s my two cents).

Getting on Disability

A word about disability. I went on disability when I was 20. I used my own Social Security because had I worked since I was 15 and had enough credits. If I would have gone on my dad’s Social Security, I could have gotten $700 a month instead of $300 because I was under 21. Another big mistake, but we didn’t know at the time.

Anyway, I got on disability in 1991 when no one believed in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, let alone in a 19 year old having it. IT WAS A MIRACLE I even got on! I DID NOT want to go on disability. I felt like I was giving up by doing it but I really had no choice. I had no medical insurance, couldn’t work even though I had tried to “force myself” to work, so I really needed help.

Now it is much easier to get on disability. I would say if you can, start applying as soon as you realize you can’t work any longer. You can always go off if you start feeling better. It still takes a long time to get on. You will be denied several times and have to appeal. It can take 2-3 years to get on sometimes. I have tried to work many times (at least 10 different jobs) in the last 22 years and I just haven’t been able to do it. Even with the website and book, I only do it about 5-10 hours a week now, which is why we haven’t made a very solid income from it yet. It is work like anything else and I just don’t have it in me to work 4-8 hours a day on this business.

I hope this helps give you some insight on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. There is a lot of information available on the Internet. Be careful what you believe and REALLY read up on some remedy ideas before you give it a try. Many people will tell you their product will cure you because they’re just trying to sell something. Not everything will work for everyone and not everyone will want to deal with the side effects of some things they try.

If you want even more information, Mom has written an e book, Common Cents When You are Sick, which goes into great detail about how to cope with not only FM and CFS but when you are sick in general.

-Tawra

Jill’s Two Cents:

Hot water can make CFS patients weaker. For example I took a very hot shower once when I first got sick and I became so weak I couldn’t turn the water off or get out of the tub. I was alone and it was a scary feeling. The same thing happened once when I got into a hot tub.

When I drive I can’t have the radio on, the windshield wipers running and someone talking a lot to me all at once. Too many different noises and activities make things worse, so I try to drive without the radio and avoid rush hour traffic.

I read a book on Multiple Sclerosis once and was surprised how many things that affect the muscles of an MS patient affect me too so I try doing some things they suggest to help MS patients.

Massages are a nightmare for me. Anything that messes with my muscles (exercise, excitement etc.) causes me to be weak and sick for quite a while.

We have included so much more in our Common Cents When You are Sick e-book– things like what I had to do with the clothes in my closet so I wouldn’t become overwhelmed.

Not everyone is alike and not everything works for everyone, so just try different things and see what helps you.

As Tawra said, many things that worked for her didn’t work for me. When I first became sick, I got really bad cold sores all over my lips like nothing I had ever had before.

I went to the pharmacy one day and started talking to the pharmacist and she asked me about my CFS. She saw the cold sores and recommended Lysine for them and my CFS. It worked. I have not had the cold sores and, after taking the Lysine (minimum of 1,000 mg twice a day or more), it helped with my CFS.

She told me Lysine is a little known secret that helps with viral infections. She said the pharmacy companies don’t want people to use it because it doesn’t cost as much as cold medicines and they would lose a lot of money if people didn’t have as many colds. Whether this was true or not I don’t know but it does make sense to me and I do know it helped somewhat to control my CFS.

I also find it interesting that researchers have now found that CFS is probably caused by a virus, which would explain why the Lysine is helping me.

-Jill

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August 20, 2015
Happy Birthday! Tawra’s Theme Song

Happy Birthday! Tawra’s Theme Song

It is Tawra’s birthday today so I had to post her favorite theme song. I think you will find it pretty funny. I am very proud of my daughter. I could go on with a bunch of mushy words but I think when you get my age and can say your kids have done a great job with their lives says it all. Happy Birthday sweet daughter of mine.

A friend of mine sent it to me in 2000 after our very difficult and trying from Idaho to Kansas.

Our house had been for sale for 3 years and we couldn’t sell it. Mike lost his job and hadn’t found work in Idaho for 9 months so we decided to just leave our house vacant and move back to Kansas. We rented a U-haul, loaded all our stuff and then discovered it was too small.

Since we were in no man’s land in Idaho we had to wait 4 days in an empty house to get another truck. We had to unload the first U-haul and put the stuff in a hangar at the crop duster airport across the street because it was pouring down rain. Then we had to take the first truck back to get the second.

We re-loaded the new truck. We only had my mom, my sister in law, Mike and I to move all of our stuff and watch 4 kids, 3 of them toddlers (My niece and nephew were there too).

We headed out towing a pick-up truck and driving 2 cars. (One was my sister in law’s.)

About 2 hours from home, we came to a place in the roadway where there was no road. In the mountains in Idaho, the highway department decided to tear out the old road and put in a new one. It took us about 4 hours to go 20 miles on a one-lane dirt “road” that had a huge drop off on the side.

As soon as we were past that, we realized that the pickup was separating from the tow bar. We didn’t know that the tow bar wasn’t quite big enough and by the time we discovered it, only one wheel was still attached. We had to take our ’73 old Beverly Hillbillies truck off of the tow bar, unpack the things stored in its cab, and move people and things from the car to the truck so we could tow our car instead. We finally got to Boise (4 hours from our starting point) 10 hours later.

During the entire time one year old Elly kept throwing up about every 30 minutes. She was in the car with just me driving. Try cleaning up barf while driving on a narrow mountain road… Let’s say that was a neat trick! LOL

We were all so excited to get into the hotel and into the pool! About 5 minutes after we got in the pool, Elly had diarrhea and it leaked out of her swim diaper, so we all had to evacuate the pool. So much for unwinding.

The next day we got up, got everything and everyone packed and went out to McDonald’s to eat breakfast. When we returned to the vehicles to get going again, the pickup wouldn’t start. We begged a local repair shop to move us to the front of the repair list, explaining that we were traveling with 4 young kids. Even though they graciously did that, we still spent the next 5 hours at McDonald’s with 4 kids, waiting for the truck to get fixed.

We finally left Boise and made it to somewhere in Utah about 8:00 p.m. We just spent 2 days on the road and we were about 7 hours from our house in Idaho. This doesn’t even count the more than a week we had already spent in an empty house before we left waiting for a truck to pack.

We finally made it to Colorado the next (very long) day, with Elly still throwing up all along the way. We got stuck in Colorado for two weeks because she got so sick and dehydrated that we couldn’t go any further. She was car sick.

After she recovered, we had a big family fight with some of our extended family right before we left. (Why does it always happen when you’re stressed out anyway? :-) Finally, we headed the rest of the way to Kansas. My grandparents ended up coming with us to help us.

We had more problems along the way but finally made the what should have been a 10 hour drive to Kansas in 19 hours, arriving at 1:00 a.m. We pulled into the driveway of the house that I had rented over the phone from Idaho. (NEVER, EVER DO THAT. IT WAS A VERY DUMB THING TO DO!) There was pile of trash about 9 feet wide and 4 feet high in the front yard. The white bathroom was so filthy it was literally black! It smelled like rotten eggs because the house water came from a sulfur well. It was a cheap rental and at the time we were making two house payments on $9 an hour income, so it was what we had to live with.

We couldn’t spend the night in the house like we had planned so thankfully my grandfather, who is ex-military, was able to get us a place to stay that night on base at Ft. Riley. I just sobbed and sobbed that night when I was outside getting Elly out of the car. I think 10 years later I still haven’t recovered!

We had to spend the next day cleaning up the nightmare of a trailer house that we had rented. After all of this, I told my friend in Idaho what had happened and she sent me this song. Laughter is the best medicine. Now it’s my theme song. I thought you all would enjoy a good laugh and understand why I appreciated it so much after all that.

Tawra

Note from Jill: Tawra didn’t even begin to describe how bad that house was. I came later after they had cleaned it and it was still awful. The doors had a one inch gap at the top of them so every fly in the state of Kansas decided to make her kitchen their home and there was constantly a pond of gross water in their crawl space with all kinds of critters growing. It was bad

Note from Mike: The frogs in that pond were nearly the size of soccer balls… Returning the U-Haul to ask for another one was like a scene from National Lampoons Vacation… and I had never seen road workers directing traffic across country before. No matter how strange life gets, it can always get stranger! We definitely need a redo on that part of our lives!

July 29, 2014
CFS and Fibromyalgia Humor

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Fibromyalgia (FM) Humor

Those of us with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) or Fibromyalgia find life very discouraging at times. Laughter is the best medicine so read this and laugh!

I know that this is off the subject of frugal living, but since I have CFS and Fibromyalgia, I thought it might give others who are in the same boat a good laugh. (more…)

May 9, 2014
Help Us Plan Our Family Vacation!!!

Help Us Plan Our Family Vacation

We got some money back from taxes this year and were want to use it to plan a trip to take the kids somewhere. We’ve only been on one 3 day vacation where we were not visiting family and we want to make the most of the opportunity.

We were considering going the week before Memorial day.

We had thought about trying to go to Disneyland, but after talking to our Facebook readers, we decided it was way to much hassle. We weren’t sure it would really be worth it and we didn’t have enough money anyway. I still can’t grasp the concept that it’s worth working 7 weeks to pay for a 1 week vacation, but that’s just me. :-)

So we are planning to go to Branson and Silver Dollar City for our family vacation. (For those of you not familiar with it, Silver Dollar City is a fun family amusement park with a cave tour.)

Here are my questions:

What hotel would you recommend that has a pool and breakfast? Preferably less than $70 a night if that’s possible and, since there are 6 of us, that limits which hotels we can use.

Are there ways to get cheaper tickets into Silver Dollar City other than e-bay? We don’t want to get there and then not have the tickets be valid. :-)

What are some good places to eat? Most of our meals will be McDonald’s or Wendy’s, I’m sure, but one or two nice sit down nights might be nice. If I’m going on vacation, I don’t want to be cooking!

What else is fun to do in the Branson area? We might stay one or two extra nights and do something else besides visit Silver Dollar City but what would be worth doing? I found zipline tickets on Groupon but are there any other things you would recommend? Our kids are ages 4-16. They would probably not appreciate any shows ($200 are you kidding!!!) or fishing.

Since we have never really gone on vacation, I am HORRIBLE about trying to plan these things and I think I need to get some anti-anxiety medications just to get me through figuring out the hotel! LOL

So, pretty please, share you ideas with me!

Tawra

April 1, 2014
Doing Projects with CFS/FM

Doing Projects with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

If you are wondering how I accomplish projects around the house when I have CFS and FM, I thought I would show you.

For this project, I was making a coat rack out of an old window.

The first week I washed them in the tub since they had been outside for a long time.

Then I painted them outside. I forgot to take an after picture but you can see it in the next one.

Then the next week, I started by cutting the wood for the back.

Then I sat down and had a cup of tea.

Then I painted the front side. You can see the window I had already painted the week before in the background.

Then I sat down and had a cup of tea.

Then I painted the back side.

Then I went inside and had a cup of tea.

Then I put the back on the window and brought it in to hang on the wall.

Then I laid down to have a cup of tea.

So it’s Tea. That’s how I get so much done! hehehe

I got the thing hung on the wall but after I got it up there I hated the way it looked so I am going to have to find something else to do with my “purple window almost a coat rack” project. :-)

Tawra

BTW, just so I don’t get any emails. I made one pot of tea with one tea bag that gave me 3-4 “cups” of tea. :-)

PS. For those of us who are older and wiser and have CFS we just stick a couple of hooks in the wall then spend the rest of the day drinking our tea with our feet up. : ) : )

Jill

September 13, 2013
Ordinary Day Poem/Let Me Hold It While I May

A while ago, I wrote a post about how we should savor ordinary days. In that post, I mentioned a poem that I had read about this subject but I had not been able to find the poem to give to those who wanted it. Well, it’s amazing what you can find when you clean off your desk and get organized. I know I really need to practice what I preach! So here it is. I am sorry I have tried but can’t find who wrote it.

(more…)

September 11, 2013
CFS, Fibromyalgia And Chronic Illness Tips

Reader Submitted Tips for People Suffering CFS, Fibromyalgia or other Chronic Illnesses

Erica Writes: After all this time I never realized you suffered from Fibromyalgia and CFS. Blessings to you. I can’t imagine keeping up with everything you do when you have CFS. I am the warehouse manager for our school districts food service department. My job is very physical. I was diagnosed 7 years ago. I also have Lupus. I read through your Fibro/CFS humor and I was wondering if I could in any way contribute to your comments? :)

I discovered that the Fibromyalgia fog was so bad that I started to write everything down. Everything. We kept a notebook on the kitchen table. If the kids asked to go somewhere and Dad and I both agreed they could go, we had to write it down because I wouldn’t remember the conversation. I kept post-its in business. I had them everywhere. I wrote myself notes about everything. The worst part about this that I would often forget what the notes were for.

I hope this short note finds you and your family well. May your Holiday be filled with great joy. May your blessings continue to be many.

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Tips for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/CFS/CFIDS Sufferers

Dee from Jamestown, North Carolina Writes: I ran across your web site because my Mom wanted more recipes after seeing the Potato Candy recipe in our small, hometown paper. While (now, very!) hooked on your site, I had to add some things about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.

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May 29, 2013
More CFS, Fibromyalgia And Chronic Illness Tips

Tips for People Suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

Alice Writes: I also have fibromyalgia. I do work full-time and make a decent salary, but I do a lot of things to survive. I wondered if they might be helpful to your readers. Also tips as to what worked for me….

Not all of this is frugality, but survivability when you are working with fibromyalgia.

If you can all afford it, pay someone else to clean your house, do laundry, stuff that requires physical ability. I don’t care about whether the tub has visible stains but when all the dishes in the house are dirty and getting moldy, and I’m exhausted, I need help.

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May 29, 2013
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and a Large Family

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and a Large Family

(Originally posted in October 2008)

I received this question from a reader and thought I would share my response in a post by itself since I know a lot of people are wondering this.

I love the information you publish on your website. Great stuff.

I am sorry but I just don’t understand, but in fairness to you, I have to ask THE question. And this question comes from someone who is a medical professional.

Why on earth would someone who has chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and discusses her constant fatigue, allow herself to become pregnant? And this from someone who is “disabled”?

I am at a loss. I treat many patients who have your medical issues and know how debilitating all of this for them. Why add more burden to your family members when you are barely able to cope on a daily basis? Not being mean-spirited, I just do not understand.

Dear Reader,

I can totally understand why people would wonder this. Here’s the thing, I am going to be sick whether I have kids or not. I became ill when I was 16 and have accepted the fact that I will be sick the rest of my life unless they find a cure or Jesus comes.

I have always wanted a big family. I wanted 6 kids in fact. After 2 we thought for sure we would have 4 and after 3 we thought we’d die! LOL Yes, we took a few years to recover.

The thing is, the amount of joy we get from our kids WAY outweighs any hardship.

My kids are not perfect by any means but now that they are getting older we are really seeing the rewards of our “hard work”.

Yes, I am sick but we have a system in place now that has made our lives much easier so we decided to go for it. We have talked about whether or not we should do this for 4 years. I wanted more kids but was not sure if it would be too much for us to have more.

Mike and I both prayed that if this was something we shouldn’t do that God would take our desire away for a larger family. After 4 years of praying, it never went away. We decided to start trying and figured if it wasn’t something we should do then God would let us know. Well, after trying the first time we got pregnant. With the other three, it took from three months to almost a year of trying.

It helps to realize that we give up some things so we can have a large family. We don’t have a church right now but when we did we didn’t do a lot of activities at church. We don’t do a lot of other activities like football for the kids and other activities that require a lot of energy from me. Do they miss it? No. If they really want to do something like that we will do it but we limit it to one activity at a time.

So the long and short of it is, we just feel like this is something we should do. The first three are older and help out a great deal so I really don’t think having another child is going to be huge burden on us after the first year or two.

Please realize that I have a wonderful mom and husband who do everything when I’m on bedrest the last 3 months. I think for Nan the rewards are worth it but you would have to ask her. LOL (So mom, are they worth it?)

One up side is that I feel WONDERFUL for the first 4-6 months of pregnancy. Two days ago, whatever it is that makes me feel so good kicked in and I feel like taking on the world! I wish I could figure out what it is and take it all the time. :-)

Anyway, that’s why.
Tawra

Grandkids are like chocolate: You never can get too much. Of course they are worth it! But I understand our reader’s question and where she is coming from too. The reality is that it will be hard but my kids have been ill since their teens and they had a choice to just get by or to try and live as much of a “normal” life as they could.

All people have struggles in their lives at some time or another and things that need to be overcome. Ours just happens to be a chronic illness. I think that is why God has given us families in the first place– to help and support each other all through our lives.

Hopefully, the situation will be easier this time than ever before. Michael was gone four days a week working out of town when the first two were born and we were in a strange town and didn’t really know anyone. It was pretty much me taking care of Tawra and then it was Tawra and the baby and then Tawra and two babies with Michael taking over on the long weekends.

We lived many miles from the store and from doctors, which was hard, but now it is just a few minutes to these places. Michael works at home most of the time now and the two older kids are a really big help already. Even little things like the fact we have central air and don’t have to bring in wood and build a fire makes a world of difference.

I won’t say we won’t be very tired but we have found that, “This too shall pass.” They do eventually get potty trained and learn to feed themselves and it gets easier. My daughter keeps coming up with more projects for us but, so far, this has been the biggest one of all. :) :)

-Jill (a very happy “Nan”) (that’s what my grandkids call me: short for Nana)

P.S. I, too, would like to thank the reader who asked the question for not being mean or judgmental about it. It is much more enjoyable to answer questions when someone is just curious or doesn’t understand than when the person wants to hit us over the head with a hammer. :) :)

January 28, 2013
Saying I Love You with Food

Saying I Love You with Food

In this day and age of fast food restaurants and convenience food, we tend to think that most people, when going through a hard time, don’t need a meal or a jar of soup brought to them.

Many years ago, before there were stores or fast food restaurants on every corner or microwaves in every kitchen, a neighbor bringing in a meal was sometimes a matter of physical survival. That isn’t usually the case these days.

Even so, I hate to see bringing a meal to someone who is sick, has just had a baby or has lost a love one fall by the wayside. We often think the person or family can just pick something up or cook something easy in the microwave. They probably can but there are a couple of reasons why it is still nice to bring someone a meal.

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July 12, 2011
Save on Groceries When You’re Sick
Save on Groceries When You’re Sick

I have been disabled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia for 22 years. One of the hardest parts of living with this illness is dealing with food; buying it and making it. Because of the nausea, I don’t feel like making food in the first place and then, because of the brain fog, I can’t think of what to make. Because of the sheer exhaustion, I simply don’t have the energy to shop or prepare food. This can lead to a LOT of meals of cereal and toast. Because I have a husband and four kids who also have to eat, here are some ways I’ve come up with that can help you to cope and save while you’re sick:

These suggestions are useful if you just have the flu or a bad cold or if you are chronically ill like I am.
- Keep meals very simple. Write a list of 10 meals your family loves that you can make in 15 minutes or less. Here are examples of ours:
  - Fried Ham Slices, Baked Potatoes, Apple Salad, Peas
  - Lemon chicken, dinner rolls (pre-baked), broccoli and cheese, orange slices
  - Tacos, apple/orange slices and sliced cucumbers, peppers and carrots
  - Stir fry, sliced peaches
- Use frozen foods. Frozen foods are very nutritionally sound so don’t be afraid to use them. You can buy bags of already chopped onions, peppers and broccoli and there is no prep work on your part, aside from dumping them in your pan or steamer.
- Go shopping early in the morning or late in the evening. When there are no crowds you get in and out quicker and you can also get a parking spot closer to the door.
- Time your shopping trip for about 1-2 hours after you take your medication. This way you won’t be in as much pain and will be able to think more clearly while at the store.
- Ask your husband to do the shopping. This may not work in all families but now my husband does the big Aldi shopping trip for me. It is just a few blocks from his work and he can be in and out in 20 minutes with a huge shopping cart full of groceries. It is much easier for him to do this than to deal with a wife who is dead on the couch from one shopping trip. Now, I just make short trips to the store to catch sales during the month.
- Don’t feel guilty if you can’t use coupons. I’ve tried and, let me tell you, dealing with them expends more energy than just figuring out how to make our meals cheaper with other products. Because of the brain fog, I literally can’t think most days. If you’re like this, don’t feel bad if you aren’t able to shop with coupons every time (or at all).
- Have kids clean up. My kids as young as three years old have always helped clean up. Each child takes his own place settings plus a certain number of items off the table (usually 4-5 additional items depending on how much is on the table). Then one child finishes clearing the last of the items on the table, one wipes the table and one loads the dishwasher. We rotate responsibilities each week. When clearing, they are required to put the things that go in the fridge or pantry back where they belong. Then all I have to do is clean the pots and pans.
- Don’t feel bad if you have to use things like paper plates or disposable pans. If you are using these and cooking at home you are saving much more than if you had to send everyone out to eat.
[dining]

photo by: qmnonic
December 27, 2010
Getting Diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

Here are many of the symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, along with information about how to get diagnosed if you have one or both of them. (more…)

August 21, 2010