Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Day 42 of 365

It seems as though this blog, which originally was planned just to be a picture-a-day blog, has turned into a "look what I made" picture-a-day. And today isn't any different.

When I first started writing this 40+ days ago, I knew I had to make some changes. I was just coming off of my last rotator cuff surgery, still going to physical therapy several times a week, and was getting ready to start new arthritis medicine. I was struggling with pain all day, every day, and knew that I had to change my outlook. I had looked back and realized after living in the previous year and a half I had nothing to show for it. I didn't know if taking a picture a day would get me anywhere, but now 40 some days later, I think it's starting to.

It has given me a reason to get up in the morning. Now, every night before I go to bed I run through in my mind what I want to accomplish for the next day. It's small things. Like yesterday. I wanted to get through all the old receipts for the year and get the Dick and Jane magnets done. Today I wanted to gather all the old magazines in the house into a pile and decide what to keep and what to discard. I also wanted to do something with one of the cake mixes I bought on sale the other day. I still can't keep myself working throughout the entire day. And there are some days it takes all I have just to get out of bed and write.

But as I'm writing every day, I am finding hope. I have documentation that I've already lived (and baked, and sewed, and wrote) for a month and a half. Even on my worst days, I can pull myself out of my pain. It's still there - always - but I'm learning that if I keep myself focused enough on something else, I can ignore it for short periods of time.

Baby steps. I hope that I can continue to take these small steps forward.

Speaking of baby steps, I made some baby chicks today out of a chocolate cake mix, homemade buttercream frosting, and some yellow candy coating.


They're called Cake Pops, and I got the idea from Bakerella here. She also has a book with LOTS of ideas for cake pops.