Long time no see. It seems like there is more time passing between my blog entries these days. Maybe it's the short days and the long evening shadows of early winter that have me moving and responding at a snails pace. It seems like so many people are sick or have illness in their families.Maybe it's always been this bad, but I don't think so. Perhaps it's my age making me aware of the ever ticking clock... When I go to the local store or out and about in our town, it seems like almost everyone, even the children, have a visible mask of some type of duress on their faces. Maybe I just need to move to greener pasture. I know that most people think that living next door to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park would be a dream. At one time it was. Now a lot of us generational natives think it is more of a nightmare. It's very stressful living in an area that is not designed by nature to have 14 Million visitors a year. If you have ever been to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge on a weekend in October or when, God forbid, it is a Rod Run event, you understand the challenge of living here on a daily basis. Yin and Yang I suppose. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in a warm tropical environment or even somewhere that maintained a mild climate without severe season changes. This area is especially hard on us folks with Fibromyalgia. The barometric pressure is up and down like a roller coaster and the Smokies have a mind of their own when it comes to weather, it can be 60 degrees one evening and snow on the ground the next morning. But I digress...as usual. The holiday season has begun full force in our area. Actually it started the first week of November with the kick off of Smoky Mountain Winterfest or Festival of Lights, not sure what they are calling it these days, throughout our county. Millions of lights and decorations galore with each town trying to out do the other. I fear we have become Whoville...
so I guess that makes me the Grinch...
The Holidays are so hard to deal with but I did find a helpful guide to dealing with the stress of the Holidays when you have Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue. -chronicfatigue.about.com Just go to the bottom of the page and there is a Holiday Survival Guide link.
I feel so bad for women who have small children and are also dealing with this condition. I guess my only ray of sunshine with this mess is that it did not hit me until I turned 40 and my daughter and step-daughter were both out of high school and in college. So I was not sick when they were little. I cannot imagine how you guys do it... you are my heroes. One thing I have learned and I think regardless of your age or where you are in your parenting is that you must learn to say "no" without guilt and without explanation if necessary. Everyone is pulled in so many directions and we only have so much to give. This Christmas my daughter and son-in-law will be here prepping for a move to Colorado at the end of the month. This in its self will add a little stress but they know my limitations and they are not offended when at 6pm I announce it is my bedtime, or take a two hour nap in the afternoon.
My decorations are minimal and somewhat tacky. I found a teal green table top aluminum tree at Big Lots. Love it. Teal green lights and matching little ornaments. It works for me. No outdoor anything... we already have enough LED's to land the mother ship in our little town.
You sure can't compete with that. I think many folks in our area simply don't even make the effort with exterior lighting any longer. It just seems dim by comparison I suppose.
