This too sahll pass

I am not feeling confident at the moment

 why?

My thyroid going too fast. I had been taking iodine supplements from the naturapath & this has set my thyroid going too fast. Why? Good question. The answer is that I have a strong family disposition to Graves disease. Graves is an auto immune over active thyroid condition.
I have been on thyroid medication since October or Novemeber and its not yet back within normal parameters.

The thyroid going too fast leaves me with a delicate balance managing the SIBO, and I've had a few bouts of its awful symptoms.

With the SIBO raging I have tiniea too. The burning & itching has woken me a few times so I've been treating my toes twice daily with tea tree oil & salt baths, with lots of salt in them.

It also gives me anxiety, so I feel like crap, have to manage various itchy areas, can't eat aything sweet and my mind is racing & catastrophising about everything! Arghhh!

So what can I do?

I have been writing out affirmations twice daily

meditate daily

get good sleep

stay at home, which is made easier as it is holidays

eat what I can eat, salty or spicy is a good sweet craving filler

Realise I am not feeling, thinking, reacting or iteracting normally & tell people where appropriate

Read for pleasure, clean the house and play with the kids

I will get my thyroid levels back into normal range, and life shall go on

This too shall pass

The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyzcyn

What a huge volume of information, useful information. Easy to read information too, a book that has an alternative to almost everything you could think of.

The sub-title is "Promoting thrift as an alternative lifestyle". I believe it lives up to that.
My grocery bill has dropped and I am beginning to think differently.

It was almost 1000 pages, took me 3 successive renewals at the library but absolutely worth the time and effort to read this amazing book.

I would buy a copy but am confident I could reserve it again from the library if I wanted a refresher course.

GET REAL by Mara Rockliff

What kind of world are you buying?
This easy to read book sure packs a punch, not to mention pricks a conscience!
I had not read anything quite so confronting regarding everday spending. I did skip the cahpters on food, thinking that what is true for the USA may not be (hopefully) true here, so I opted for ignorance as a default.

It is easy to read and is well written but the content is quite unsettling. I had never thought about the conditions in which garments were made or how much the workers were paid. This book actually lists questions to ask the staff where you buy the goods, would I do it? I think I'd be more comfortable just op-shopping in the future.

I am glad I read it and would reccomend it to everyone & it will certainly change my spending habits!

Nothing Left Over by Toinette Lippe

I picked up this book from our local library thinking it was on simplicity. It says on the cover " A Plain and Simple Life", and in that I am interested.

While I found the latter half of the book to be dry as she labored about ordinary life it did contains some truly amazing insight and has left a lingering sense of wonder in me.
I am grateful for coming across this book and feel my time invested has been wonderfully rewarded as I gleaned some insight from aother perspective. I love books for this value and I get to learn new words.

I learned "diffident" from this book. I had to go to the dictionary to discover its meaning, as I was only presuming from reading the text. It means, Modest or shy because of a lack of self-confidence. I got that by a quick google search!

From Toinnette I gleaned the concept of contentment as, 'being satisfied with having enough for my needs'. It is a little different than minimalism or frugal living but not entirely disssimilar, but broader in its application as a life philosphy. It oozes generosity as we are constantly faced with supply beyond our own needs. For example, she seeks quality in clothes rather than spend masses of time in searching through second hand stores for suitable items. This is something I have done many times only to then send them back as they are ill fitting or otherwise not suited for the pupose intended. This is more time efficient and I have taken it on board and shall shop smarter. I have very plain taste in clothes also so this should be a matter of simply changing how I buy clothes.

One particular passage struck me from this book, it was her commentary on a bible passage. Not something I was expecting to discover in the pages of this unassuming book but it really is a treasure worth keeping.

I will quote the entire passage as I would like a copy of it;

"There is something in the third chapter of Genesis that addresses the question of fear and presence. Remember when God calls to Adam and says, "Where art thou?" and Adam responds, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself". This is the first time in the Bible that God asks man where he is. Until then, presumably, this had not been necessary because Adam and Eve were simply present. But once they had eaten of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, they wandered and their minds wandered, and both God and they no longer knew where they were. Once fear enters, we are no longer present. Fear is fear of the unknown. In the present fear doesn't exist.
There is actually a reference in the next chapter that I have always found both fascinating and relevant. It says, "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod". When I was studying Hebrew I discovered that the word nod means "restless" or "wandering". I don't know why the word was not translated in the King James version. Giving it a capital letter like that makes us think that it is a country in its own right. I believe that what is meant here is that after killing his brother, Cain no longer knew how to be still and in the present moment and that he became a wanderer, or nomad." (Pages 212 - 213 Nothing Left Over by toinnette Lippe 2002)

She adds the bible text & comments after relating a story about how she became anxious over the where abouts of her adult son and how it drew her out of the present, even though it turned out that he was fine. Her fear was of the unkown. I so appreciate the story and need to live more in the present, because it is all I have. I am confident that I can develop the habit of living in the present, it will only take practice and effort.

This is a book that inspires me that any topic is worthy of writing about and is of value.

Song Of Songs by Solomon

"Thus, I have become in his eyes,
one bringing contentment"

Ah, water to my soul. I picked up the bible to read last night for the first time in...a long time.
The above is what I read & then savoured through an unsettled nights sleep.

I felt divine contnentment at no longer 'trying' to please one who is already.

Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey

I liked the concept of this book but it took me some effort to get through it.

The chapter on Martin Luther King was fascinating but too graphic for me, the images play in my head well beyond reading.

I enjoyed reading about Gandhi. I have not read anything else about him. History was not really taught when I went to school nor have I developed an interest since then. I found it fascinating that India called Gadhi a holy man but has not adopted his philosophy, they continued in their ways.

The chapter on Paul Brand was a good read too

Henri Nouwen is a name I have come across before. I admire that he found his place in a community for the diasabled but I am left confused.

In reading this I see that my questions and doubts regarding the Christian faith are not unique and they do in some way create a path for the inquirer, which is not what I was expecting. My dear friend in the church said Yancey was one of her favourite authors, I can see why. He expresses the doubts & questions that must be so common and yet comes to safe conclusions. I find myself on the outside looking in. I value the independent thinking and am more looking for questions rather than answers. A big turnoff for me in the church was that they had an answer for everything, even if it was sometimes illogical. My favourite answer is I don't know, which I find very satisfying.

The Penny Pinchers Club by Sarah Strohmeyer

What a delightful story!

I am into saving and am part of an online community called Simple Savings, so this seemed like a book I would like.
I did.

Sarah writes very well and the story is about ordinary people, believeable characters (mostly) and how people are not always what you assume from the way they look. Everyone has a story.

I did borrowed the large print edition (so it was extra easy to read) from Mornington Peninsula libraries.

The book

The story of a womans journey of being out of control with spending to learning to live a new and fulfilling way through the Penny Pinchers Club that meets in the basement of a local library. She is fuelled by the idea that her husband is going to leave her and ir becomes her driving passion in her new quest. The group provides more than just household hints, they take her into their lives and help her. They go through her finances, shop together and meet up. It is quite a communal effort and story of people helping each other.

She is transformed as she gains the confidence that comes from takeing responsibility for her actions & then doing something to create a different future. Most notably when a new challenge appears near the end of the book her approach to money is then applied to this life situation with the same successful results.

I liked the story line & the characters, it is well written and easy to read .
She even included some hints on the last page.

It is well worth the time to read this book.