SEVEN THINGS

In the spirit of sharing too much, being completely new-agey hippy-dippy, self-carey, and holding hands and singing KumBaYa, here are seven things I try to do every day to stay healthy.

(Betty, before you start typing, I also bathe and pray and tidy and load the dishwasher, so zip it. These seven things are touchy-feely, in my spinster head taking good care of myself things.)

(You know. All of the crap you hate.)

READ: This is a no-brainer, especially for somebody who has had her nose buried in a book for as long as she can remember. I love to read the paper in the morning, perhaps flip through a magazine in the afternoon, and then jump into a good novel before bed. Books have been a constant and soothing companion for me, and being surrounded by them is bliss.

WRITE: Before I started writing this here blog, I used to send emails to my friends and family sharing all of my silly antics. And before that, I used to scribble little thoughts and notes in various and sundry notebooks and journals. Mrs Giokaris is to blame for this. She was a favorite teacher from high school that asked us to keep a daily journal. I remember mine being decorated with lots of Ziggy cartoons and hearts and whatnot, and as the years passed, I continued the habit and filled dozens of notebooks. (I still have every single one of them down in the garage. Burn them immediately when I go, will you please, Dearies?)  Now, my daily journal is visiting with all of you. I still hanker a bit for pen and paper (which is where planning comes in...see below), but we'll get to that later.  I also write a bi-monthly column for Needlepoint Now, and might get enough courage to actually assemble a book someday.

EAT: The wheels are off the bus with what I have been shoving in my face lately, but I know that how and when I eat is an enormous part of how I feel. If I stick to two meals  day and eat between noon and 6pm, that's an A+ day. And if the first meal is a yogurt or a BelVita breakfast bar and the second meal a salad with protein, I've really hit it out of the park and I do a little Happy Dance on the dialysis scale. Egg McMuffins, cheese and crackers, garlic stuffed olives, and chicken wings, though.  Not so much. I know, I know. Staying on track and keeping within the transplant guidelines is critical. I guess I allowed myself a few days (OK, weeks) of eating like a frat boy because of the stress of it all, but I'm back on track today, Dearies. Operation Keep Going is....back on track.

SLEEP: Yikes. My sleep has been a complete mess, but thanks to the Benedril I think we're OK now, I am also making a concerted effort to go to bed at a decent hour and let myself sleep as long as I want/need to on non-d days. I finally gave up the guilt over sleeping so much when I realized it was one of the best things I could do for myself.

STITCH: No need to explain this to those of you who are in this thing of ours.

COOK: I finally came up with a brilliant solution to our dinner dilemmas around here. While I was at d yesterday I texted Magoo and directed him to the cabinet over then fridge where I keep all of my cookbooks, I told him to pull one of the Ina cookbooks, flip through it, and pick something for Sunday dinner. (Of the billion and a half things he could have picked...he went with chicken piccata.) I can't shop for the ingredients, but he can, and then on Sunday afternoon I can go into the kit hen and dice and chop and stir and sautee' to my hearts's content, and we will have a good meal. We're kind of winging it (no pun intended, since we had the Hooters) other nights, but preparing meals makes me feel good and like I'm contributing in some way, so prepare I shall.

PLAN: I know it's very silly for a person like me to use a planner, but pasting stickers and writing little notes and decorating Erin every Sunday night gives me hope.

I know, I know. TMI. But I figure there might be one or two people out there bored enough to have read this far, and sometimes I think writing and visiting with you all everyday is the only thing keeping me semi-sane. Let's face it, kids...these are strange times and any little thing we can do to survive is good.

So there you have it...my seven things.

What are yours?