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Hello to all. How's your day so far? Mine is it's usual shambles, but I am trying to get a handle on all of it. Even being diabetic, I tend to forget to eat at the right times, so have started leaving myself notes around the house reminding me to.

Of course, my husband and daughter think I'm nuts. The idea of their wife and mother actually doing something about organizing herself after all these years is sort of alien. Who's this stranger who's taken my wife/mother's place? I must admit it is a shock to me also, after so many years living happily in a chaotic jumble. Who really cared? Meals got given at approximately the right times, clothes got washed and ironed for work or school, the animals got fed and the rest simply muddled on.

That has worked for this family for many years, so why this sudden desire to work to  schedules, have everything neat and tidy, and generally make this place uninhabitable from the point of my family?

Well, I think it stems from some crazy desire to do one thing right in my life. I was very good at my job (nursing) for over thirty years, I like to think I have been a satisfactory wife ( i.e. my husband is still walking around large as life and three times as annoying!) some forty years later, and our adored daughter seems to be doing just fine ( we won't talk about her love life!). So what really is the problem?

Because friends I have have these wonderful houses where everything is in its place, the ironing does not hit you as you walk in, and you don't fall over two cats who consider this is their house, one bedroom for each and a fridge too!

Cat heaven. What more could a cat want? Well, there are times when we do  not agree with the human's desires to sleep in the bed and object to the doors being shut at night, but hey! we do just fine for the rest of it.

I like these houses when these houses when I visit. I do not almost kill myself falling over tools that someone should have taken back to the shed six months ago. I do not have to fight my way to the kettle because everyone else wants a cup of coffee at the same time as i do ( and will get it for me anyway!) and isn't renovating the bathroom so as to be able to shave without cutting his throat.

So why do these lovely friends of mine invade my house frequently, stare around with wonder, obviously expecting a missing person to jump out and say: "I love your house. It's so homely." They too can have one like mine. I'll move into theirs, no worries. They can have mine.

The only catch is: They have to take the cats, my husband and my daughter! I'm not open to offers, that's the whole deal. Please take it!

blogs

Okay, it's time to start your blog. A day or so ago I touched on one idea for it, but you may have others. However, get one thing straight about blogs. Do not simply write religiously for a week or even a month and then abandon it because no one seems to be taking any notice, or, if they are, they are not making their presence felt.

Some people have their blog up for months before something in it hits home with a viewer or two. There are no hard and fast rules about when your blog will be discovered. But it is fair to say that, if by say three months it has not attracted even one viewer, then it is pretty safe to kill it off and start again.

You do not have to post every day. You might want to only post once a week. But should you leave it for any longer, it will get buried in the pile of new ones that are being established and have a far harder time getting any viewers at all. Every day is good to start out, even more per day if you have the content. There is time, when you get established, to drop back to once or twice per week.

Give your viewers new stuff to think about. If you rehash and rehash, everyone, including you, will get thoroughly sick and tired of it and all scramble to find something else to take their attention. If you have been blogging about your one-year-old, have a little change and talk about the dog or the cat and the interaction that goes on between the toddler and the dog or the cat, and incorporate a bit about how all three interact.

If you are using your blog to try to sell items, have a look at some of the successful ones before setting up your own. I know, there are a stack online already doing that. That's fine. Why not develop your own style? Fiddle around with it until it is what you want, not what you are told is needed. It does not cost you anything to read a blog usually, and, if it does, you should be able to glean an understanding without forking out any hard-earned cash to buy a subscription you really don't want.

Let me know how it goes!

Diabetes and wounds or cuts

Hello, how are you all today? I am debating which ache is the worst. I had a Carpal Tunnel done last Thursday and it certainly wasn't the ball of fun I half expected it to be. Then there is one tooth that starts its demands for attention, but is always too sneaky to actually be felt the next day.

Is it the top canine? Nah, too far forward. How about the one next to it at the back? No, that one only hurts when I am silly enough to use it to bite something hard. Not sure? Oh well, no doubt it will make its presence known tonight again, as it has been for the last week. It really doesn't help that I am a complete wuss where dentists are concerned, although I have found an absolutely lovely Irish lady.

The stroke and the diabetes are with me all the time, but the remains of the broken shoulder (which resulted from a comedy of errors involving my husband and a goat and my tiredness!) and various other parts are relatively new. The shoulder got broken at the end of April, but it is still healing, thanks to the impact of the diabetes.

I really want to hammer that home. Diabetes can delay or hamper the healing of even a tiny scratch, as I have found out, and anything major such as work on bones or a deep cut may take even weeks to heal, unlike ordinary cuts and bruises.

My own experience of it is: have the procedure or a cut somewhere, or even a small irritation like a tiny splinter. Digging this foreign object out now usually results in plenty of blood and something that very rarely heals without antibiotics, either applied or swallowed. My immune system is reasonably shot, I would say, although I do not attract colds and the flu as yet. My turn is coming, I suspect, as I am also not one of those who faithfully line up each year to have the latest, greatest flu shots which sadly seem to miss the strain that is currently in vogue. Call me skeptical if you like, but I have long disliked any cure that appears worse than the original disease. The one and only time I was forced, as I was starting my nursing career, to have the injection, I couldn't move out of bed for a week and my Matron almost phoned my parents to remove me before I deceased and caused a scandal in the small country town where I worked.

So be careful with cuts and operations if you are a diabetic. Do have the flu shots. Just because I have very little success with them does not mean to say that they are not a good idea. I thoroughly recommend anything that might prevent any illness from getting a hold, especially if you are a diabetic, frail, bedridden or have any physical problem whatever.



 

Starting a blog again

Hello all. Amazing how long I have had this blog and done absolutely nothing with it. How many others like me are out there? Thousands? Millions? Do you even remember why you set it up in the first place?

If it was to make money, give yourself a pat on the back. If it was to discuss who's hot and who's not, fair enough. You can slowly start to ease into the business of using your blog for marketing and giving the world an idea of what you are about, even if it seems a daunting prospect.

Just remember, nothing ventured, nothing gained. A friend was lamenting one day about not winning a big Lotto payout. After listening to what she would have done with the money and other bits, I said: Oh well, better luck next time.

Her reply flattened me: What next time? I'll never win, so I never take a ticket. That's for fools and those who  want to waste their money.

Do you look at your blog like that? Wouldn't it be better to try to build up the blog so it at least may have a chance to make some money for you? Sharing what you have been doing is all very fine. So is keeping everyone updated with everything you have put up with through the day. But maybe you need a spin-off blog which is going to make you some money, instead of wasting time. It is easy to do after you have been blogging for a bit.

Sure, many people want to know what your cute one-year-old managed to do yesterday. But many more may just be interested in that neat nappy/diaper holder you discovered online and simply had to have. Even better if it does everything it is supposed to do and takes care of some problem you have found with every other bag.

Check around and see if you can promote it and the shop it came from. Many will be delighted for you to do so, and you may even end with some cash from doing so. It certainly does not hurt to try. Or perhaps you need to take a look at Amazon or Clickbank if you are in a panic about creating your own products just yet. These markets can be a potential income, if you read all the requirements and choose wisely before deciding to promote the items that appeal to you.

Hope this has been of some help to those just starting. Join me as i continue in this vein or write about my diabetes and its trials and tribulations, or my very enlightening stroke.
Bye for now!.