Ellen Living

One of the hardest things I’ve had to deal with living with a chronic illness is taking care of myself and making sure I get what I need.  Like some other people I’ve met I tend to put the needs of others before myself.  Unfortunately when I do that I end up with a flare-up with my fibromyalgia resulting in the inability to take care of myself or do for others.

It’s a reality I deal with and this week I tried to take care of business before going off to SOBCon, a conference featuring bloggers from all over the U.S.  I thought I was taking care of myself but the truth was I wasn’t listening to my body when it started aching more, I just pushed harder.  The result was a flare-up of the fibromyalgia that I was unprepared for and I had to cancel going to Chicago for the event. 

It was a hard decision to make and while I feel a bit better today, flying to Chicago would have been difficult at best and my worry was that I would have spent Saturday in bed rather than down at the conference listening to all the wonderful speakers (although I could have done like Ellen DeGeneres did last week and have my bed down in the conference room ).    It wasn’t easy to accept not going to Chicago.  I hate when I can’t do something I had planned.  The reality in life is that we don’t always get to do what we had planned, chronic illness or not.

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If you are a tea lover you need to check out Adagio Teas. They sell loose teas and teaware to make sitting down with a cup of tea a wonderfully aromatic experience. No, I don’t work for them or anything, I’ve just been drinking their tea, hot and cold for the last few days.

An acquaintance suggested I try out the tea so I visited the website and found that they offer quite a selection and have a clever teapot to make cups of tea. So, I ordered 2 starter kits, one for me and one for a friend. Then, I saw the iced tea set and got that too. I do love to shop.

So far I have had hot English breakfast tea and blood orange and then I made a pitcher of blood orange iced tea. I love the blood orange tea, both hot and cold. The aroma that fills my house is absolutely delightful.

I love using the IngenuiTea pot to make my cup of tea. It’s so easy to brew a cup and it’s the best cup of tea I’ve had in a while.

If you are a tea lover you may want to check out Adagio Teas. I’m going to splurge and try out their white peach and oriental spice teas.

Do you have a favorite brand or flavor of tea that you love?

The greatest gifts in my life to this day was having an adult relationship with my mother where she was more than mom, she was a flawed, imperfect yet beautiful woman. I miss her so very, very much.

When I was a child I only really knew my mother from afar. You see, I was the 7th of 8 children (my mother’s nickname was Bunny) and my mother had little time to spend with me. As a teenager she was emotionally and sometimes physically unavailable because of illness, both physical and mental. But I will say one thing. I know regardless of the circumstances that she loved me. I’ve never doubted that.

As a teenager I got involved with alcohol and drugs and there really wasn’t a parent there to reign me in. In my early 20s I hit bottom and got professional help. Part of that help was therapy. During therapy I went back in my childhood to examine and then heal the hurt, the wounds. It was hard work and I went through a time where I felt the pain of not having my mother available during my childhhod. My therapist guided me through that time and brought me to a place where I began to see my mother as more than just mom, she was a person, a woman who had been through some horrible things in her life both as a child and an adult.

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I woke up early this morning with the sun streaming in through my window and a purring cat in my face.  I went to the kitchen and made coffee and I have to say the coffee is near perfect.  The birds are chirping outside as I write this post and I have to say, life is good.

I am not a religious person but I do believe in a power greater than myself, whether it be God or the Universe.  I keep my heart opened to what that higher power has to offer me.  I have a friend who is Baha’i and have gone on a few retreats with her that have enriched my spiritual beliefs and life.  At one retreat I came across a prayer that sang to me and I thought about it last night after I wrote my post on evolving.  The prayer is

God!  Refresh and gladden my spirit.  Purify my heart.  Illumine my powers.  I lay all my affairs in Thy hand.  Thou art my Guide and my Refuge.  I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved; I will be a happy and joyful being.  O God!  I will no longer be full of anxiety, nor will I let trouble harass me.  I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life. 

O God!  Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself.  I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord. 

When I woke up this morning I felt my spirit had been refreshed and gladdened.  Today I am turning my worries and fears over to the Universe.  By letting go of my troubles I can open my heart up to others and be of service in some way.

How do you refresh your spirit?

One of my reasons for starting ellen Living was to have a place to discuss more personal issues and topics and keep my Confessions of an Infomaniac centered more on technology and Internet topics. Well, here I am…what to talk about…oh, there is this post over at Monk at Work asking, What Would Make You a Better Person?  Thank you Adam for giving me a jumping off point.

Who am I?

The past few years I have retreated more and more into my own world and not socializing as much as I would like.  Some of my retreat is due to health issues, some of it due to settling into a rut of “comfortability” in my own small world.  I feel safe in my little world.  The problem is that I am not growing, changing and evolving.

Since 1990 I have lived with a chronic illness called fibromyalgia.  In 1993 I left my career of being Administration & Circulation Manager for a group of newspapers and tried to work part-time for a couple of people.  It didn’t work out very well back then.  What I really needed was to get my illness under control.  It took time.  I went back to school for a while and then started working again about 10 to 12 hours a week for a couple who understand my limitations. 

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When I got my new cell phone from Verizon this year I noticed pretty quickly that I had only a few ringtones, not like my old phone that had quite a few.  I was pretty bummed out.  I’m not one who is willing to pay to have the latest and greatest ringtones.  It goes against my nature.

Not to fear, Phonezoo is here.  Phonezoo allows you to create your own ringtones from your music, share them with others and download ringtones already made.  And, it’s free.  The only caveat is that if the music you are uploading is copyright protected you need to mark the ringtone you create as protected.  Then, if someone else wants to download that ringtone they need to prove that they have that song, thus no copyright infringement and musical artists still get their royalties.

Creating and downloading ringtones is a breeze.  If you want to create a ringtone you just upload the song or sound you want to use and select the portion you want to use.  Then it’s ready for download. With my cellphone a text message is sent with the ringtone and I just select to save it as a ringtone. 

The first ringtone I made was of an old-fashion phone ring which has no copyright protection so anyone can download it.

Create free ringtones at Phonezoo

Here is a ringtone I created from Mika, a British pop singer.  You can listen to the ringtone but need to be able to upload the song to prove you own it as well.

Create free ringtones at Phonezoo

There are theme songs from television shows, all types of music and common very day sounds. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Delight.com is new fuel for your daily shopping fix!

I love coming across new sites that feature fabulous products and deals to boot.  That is what I found when I stumbled upon Delight.com.  Here is a site that showcases a product a day starting at noon that either has a discounted price, free shipping or a free gift.  Most of the products are aimed at women but once a week they include an item for men and on Sundays showcase artwork and unique design items. 

You can also see the items for the last 30 days though beware, that special item might be sold out.  I found that out when I found a tote bag that looked unique and found out it was — Delight is the only place I can find it and it is sold out…

For each item that is showcase their is a blog post sharing more indepth about the article and you can share with other shoppers by leaving a comment.  Don’t have time to visit the site everyday, that’s okay, enter in your email address and be alerted to the new item of the day.  Or, if you use an RSS feed reader subscribe to their feed to receive updates.

And, don’t be greedy, share Delight.com with your friends.  They will love you for it. 

Well, what to say.  I’m Ellen and I have created this blog to share with you things that help me deal with daily living.  That’s a pretty broad topic don’t you think?  Think of this blog as a place where we can share about serious issues in life and yet at the same time discuss fun and entertaining things that bring us pleasure.

So, take off your coat and stay awhile and prepare to engage in a conversation about “Living.”