I'm not alone

First let me say both of my children did an excellent job of choosing mates! My son and daughter-in-law are amazing and I couldn't have chosen better if I had hand picked them myself. But we got a double blessing when we connected with our in-laws! Both families are amazing. How great is that? Having support in all aspects of life is so important but in this disease it is crucial!
My husband and I recently traveled to California to visit our daughter for the baby blessing of our newest grandson. My daughter's father-in-law is always so concerned with my health. It really makes me feel so loved when he asks how I'm doing and I can tell he really wants to know. How adorable is this photo? My husband is on the left and he is on the right.
Yesterday he connected me with an amazing article in the Deseret News that I wanted to share with all my fibro brothers and sisters. It really hit home with me. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705372627/Chronic-fatigue-fibromyalgia-cause-bone-crushing-fatigue-pain-for-many.html

The thing I love about this article is that she talks about how when people ask how are you, your brain goes into overload. At least mine does. How do you answer that simple question that "normal" people answer a hundred times a day. You don't really look sick, you look perfectly fine. Do you say "I'm fine" which is the easiest thing to say. You really aren't fine, you are far from fine, but who wants to hear you talk about how you really are feeling? Most days my biggest sense of accomplishment is that I cleaned the kitchen, YAY! But really that is a big accomplishment. I'm fine with that. I've learned that I have to take my small accomplishments as big like other people would celebrate major accomplishments.

Here is what I have done, maybe this will help others out there struggling to find a sense of accomplishment in the small moments of their lives. I've made a list of things I can do each day that take only about an hour or less (some only 15 minutes). I choose tasks to do according to how well I feel when I wake up in the morning.

clean fridge, vaccum, clean bathroom, clean baseboards, scrapbook, read, indexing for church, cross stitch

This is just a sample of my list. I only choose one or two "chore" items a day. If I try to do more than that, my pain scale rises. If you break down things you can do with your day into small time frames, nothing seems like a mountain too hard to climb. It also gives you a chance to do some things you love to do in between some of the things that are more "chore" in nature. Some days we know are our "bad" days and we are completely down and cannot do anything. Those days happen and we have to allow ourselves to have them. That is the nature of this beast. But that's ok. It is what we do with the good days that count! Give yourself credit for you small accomplishments and Enjoy the moments!