Supermarket happiness

Saturday morning is supermarket shop morning. Hubby always says he hates going, but I think he secretly doesn’t mind really. In fact I even think he’ll keep going with me, even when I get my driving license back and he doesn’t need to......

Unlike hubby, I generally don’t mind the Sainsbury’s run. Like most things, if you go with the right attitude then you can have fun.

“Fun at the supermarket?? How on Earth??”, I hear you cry! Well here’s two things that happened today. Two things in one trip!! And I wasn’t even trying lol

First there was a young girl dressed as a witch for Halloween. I heard her tell her dad that she was going to look at the toys and off she went. I carried on shopping and as I reached the top of the aisle I pushed my trolley around the corner....... out of the blue this little witch girl jumped out and grabbed the end of the trolley, shouting ‘GAH!!!’ A small shriek escaped my mouth. She scared me! But the fright soon turned to laughter. Hubby was also laughing heartily from across the aisle. The poor child immediately started apologising, telling me she’d been waiting to jump out on her dad and she thought it was him because we both had Comfort and 3lt of milk in the end of our trolley. 

As we went round the next aisle we heard her telling her dad that she felt really bad for scaring me. I walked back round to her, laughing and telling her not to worry, that she’d made us laugh. We all laughed together and it was great to see a kid just being a kid. I suspect she’ll get a few more laughs when she retells the story of when she scared the stranger in the supermarket. I do hope so!

Then I went to the tills. I saw a lady putting her shopping onto one of the belts. Now all us ladies know that there is a ‘knack’ to this..... a way of putting the shopping on....... an order. I’m right, right?? My husband does not agree. He’s more of a ‘chuck it all on and then throw it into the bags’ type of person. Every week he laughs at my insistence in putting toiletries and large items on first and fruit, bread and soft items on last. 

So I watched this lady and she was taking it very seriously. At one point she even pointed at items as she mentally worked out if it was all stacked correctly. As she finished and the cashier started to ring her items through I chuckled and complimented her on her ‘system’. I told her I’d always prided myself on my skill in this area but that she’d just put me to shame because she was clearly a pro!! She laughed and we shared top tips. It was made funnier by the face on the young guy behind the till, who clearly had no appreciation of the finer skills of food shopping...

Why do I spend time writing about a supermarket trip in a blog? Because it’s a reminder that happiness and laughter is catching. We could’ve plodded round the aisles, annoyed at having to go through the mundane act of shopping, but we chose to engage with others and had a much happier experience as a result.

A simple lesson but an important one :) 

Living with.... xxx

Changing seasons

The changing seasons has brought dark mornings already and the clocks don’t change until next week! It’s also brought me a cold :( but it’s not too bad so I’m hoping it passes quickly.

We’ve just had a lovely weekend away visiting my sister and brother in law in Manchester.  We spent Saturday walking up Marsden canal to the edge of the Peak District. I still haven’t beaten my most steps on my phone pedometer....... we covered just over five miles but it still doesn’t beat the eight I walked on 19th January 2017...... just before I had my grand mal seizure. That ‘personal best’ is a dragon I still have to slay. Although I have returned to the scene of the crime (part of it at least) and I also beat my most steps in a week when we were in London in May this year (when I covered 23 miles). I used to be able to cover that in a day’s hillwalking but it’s all progress. 

Sunday was spent playing mini golf and sharing laughs. It was a great way to spend the weekend and coming home with a cold made it even harder to get out of bed this morning. Dark, cold, stuffy. Boo hiss!

I definitely notice huge progress, both physically and mentally, from this time last year. My legs carry me further and my head doesn’t play as many tricks on me.

Next week I’ll be celebrating a year since I was signed out of palliative care. I’d always thought there was only one way of doing that, but it seems you don’t have to die. Which is good!! It’s scary to remember I was ever in palliative care to begin with, but somewhat life affirming to be able to celebrate a year since being signed out........ walking out rather than being wheeled out is definitely the best way to exit! 

Next scan is in a couple of weeks. The stubborn part of me will be disappointed with a ‘stable’...... I’m going for an ‘improvement’. But I won’t be greedy. Stable will do just fine. 

Living with xx

More big days!

There’s been a few big days recently.......

Our gorgeous son celebrated his 21st birthday last week and we joined him and his friends to celebrate on Sunday night. 

We’re hugely proud of him. His life changed dramatically at a time when I could do little to help him. As I was lying in hospital and then going through treatment, he was busy moving to Belfast to study at Queens University. He’s held down part time jobs alongside his education since he was 15, and has grown into a clever, funny and handsome guy with a good work ethic and a caring nature. We’re proud to have him as our son and look forward to seeing what he sets his mind to achieving after he finishes university next year.

Tomorrow I celebrate one year since I took my last steroid! That is a major milestone for me. They were a necessary medication for me at a time, but I was so glad to get rid of them. A year later and my body is still shaking off the after effects...... I’m menopausal, depend on medication to sort out an under active thyroid, remain chubbier than I used to be, experience occasional anxiety issues, experience short term memory loss, sporadic muscle and joint pain, am often tired........ and don’t even start me about my stretch marks and sore feet!!  There’s also still the small issue of the brain tumour...... but it’s much less angry with me and appears to be playing nice.

I feel like I’ve aged 20 years in the last two. But I’m still here! I remain the luckiest unlucky girl in the world.  I’m happy and I’m living a fun and hopefully useful life. This weekend I will celebrate a year off those nasty steroids by taking a nice walk with my husband and dog! It’s been a while since we visited my favourite tree and I think it’s time I gave it another hug.......

Living with....xx

Optimism

The other day I was at a work event in which we were given a list of words and we had to circle the three ‘values’  that were most important to us. One of my chosen words was optimism. My colleague and friend found this hilarious and told me to tell other colleagues “the tumble dryer story”....... it made us laugh so I thought I’d share it......

The Tumble Dryer Story (aka Optimism)

On Saturday our tumble dryer broke. It started blowing cold air. Hubby YouTube’d what to do and tried to fix it, but it seems ours doesn’t have a reset button behind the back panel.... As it was the weekend we decided to wait until Monday to ring the white goods fixer guy!

I commented “Well, at least it broke at the right time of year...” Hubby looked at me quizzically and reminded me it was almost October. “I know”, I said, “the radiators are on!”......*pause*.......*cogs turn*...... ”Although, I can see how summer might be better so you could hang stuff out on the line!”

We laughed heartily and I was still laughing two days later; hence why I told the story in the car on the way to the work event. Stupid? Yeah probably a bit. Totally random logic? Yeah, definitely. Optimistic? Yeah. And that’s cool with me! 

Whatever gets you through. Embrace that stuff!!