FIRST EVER ONLINE HOUSE-WARMING PARTY!

As I sit here writing my Saturday post – a little late mind you – I have so much on my mind that I am a little overwhelmed today.  In just 8 days I will be packing up my two new pieces of luggage for my trip back East for my daughter’s wedding!  Time is suddenly flying past me, it seems, and I feel like I am teetering a bit!

When I return…

I will then have just 8 days to pull everything together to move into my new apartment (barring any problems with the application process).  I feel like my life has suddenly gone into hyper-drive.  Phew!

I’m really excited about all the changes that are coming up but my body is starting to struggle with the demand.  I have also noticed that the stress is suddenly hitting me and hitting me hard – in my gut.

This is where living with CFIDS and FMS becomes quite challenging.  Life continues to happen regardless to how my body chooses to respond.  And if life continues to happen for a long duration – such as the one I have recently found myself in – then eventually my body will just give up.

I am already noticing my body begging for me to lay down.  Unfortunately, that is where the rubber hits the road because I can only slow down so much right now.  Even though I am doing my best to rest as much as humanly possible, I have much to do to get ready for the wedding, as well as, pre-plan for my return and then my consequent move.

I often wonder how in the world I am supposed to keep moving forward when my body wants to do anything but.  I think that is probably one of the conundrums that those without this illness have with chronically ill people like myself.  I am still physically moving forward so that must mean that everything is fine.  I don’t look like I feel so people don’t realize that I just want to drop and not move for the next week.

Even more challenging, is trying to stay gracious, kind, and interactive with other people during this time.  I have all I can do at times just to stand upright, and yet, I need to be appropriately kind.  It’s not other people’s fault that this body of mine is playing tricks on me or refusing to do as I ask of it.  Thus, taking it out on them, at least for me, is inappropriate.  Unfortunately, as much as I desire to always be gracious and kind, I don’t always hit the mark.

The stress isn’t good for the asthma either.  I can attest to that because I am using my emergency inhaler on a more consistent basis.  Today I am feeling tighter than I have in a while.  I am thankful, however, that I least know what to do in these kinds of situations and that in and of itself brings a sort of comfort.

Last night, I spent several hours – in bed – working on a request that I have now received from numerous people.  Some of them more than once!   I have been trying to figure out how to respond to their requests while availing myself to a system that doesn’t overtax me or create more work for me.

Well, I finally figured it out.  I decided to incorporate these individual requests with the list I need to create for the move into my new apartment and put that list on my blog.  That way I can update it as needed and I have the information available for those who need it as well as for myself when I need access to it.

If you look at the top, right hand corner of my blog, I have added a new tab called, House Warming Registry.  That is the solution to my above delimma.   I decided to just randomly add things to the list as I found them, or better yet, as I thought of them (ha ha!) instead of creating the list by rooms.  I also added the price so that it would be easier for those who requested the information to go where they want.

I remember thinking when I finished the list that 53 items didn’t seem like very much.  But alas! I woke up in the middle of the night with several more things that I had forgotten!    I’m really glad I now have a place to go to when I think of something and just add it to the list.

I haven’t figured out how to keep track of who purchases what in order to insure that there are no duplicates so, if you have any thoughts on how I might be able to do that,  I would love to hear your idea!

I’ve also decided to do the House Warming Party (online) on August 21st which is next Saturday.  Lillie has graciously agreed to donate some of her e-books as door prizes!  Thank you Lillie.  If anyone has any other ideas for how to pull off the first, EVER, online House Warming Party, please jump in with your suggestions!

As for the House Warming Registry, I’ve decided to leave it there until all the items have been purchased.  After that, maybe it will be time for an Overcoming Crisis Party!  Now that would be fun! 

Hope this find you having a restful and quiet weekend!

UPDATE:  A reader got me to thinking about the date of the Online House Warming Party and I think they are right.  If I wait until after I move in, you all can see photos of me in my new apartment!  Now that would be totally cool!  (I think another reader even suggested that! )  So, when one gets great advice, what do they do?  Change the date!  So I will move the Online House Warming Party to …  October 9th, 2010!  Hope that works for everyone!

Lastly, another suggestion by a reader of this blog.  If you purchase something off the House Warming Registry, if you would be so kind as to leave a comment saying what you purchased, that will help others – hopefully – not purchase the same item a second time.  I will try not to look at who buys what.  That will be a work in self discipline! 

Determined to continue forward,