Just a little post today

Still knitting away but with this heat I put aside the sweater and started a baby blanket in a beautiful sherbert green color.  It's a two row repeat so very easy, just a mild ripple pattern.  I'll pick up the sweater tomorrow when it cools off but for now...

Didn't get much sleep last night.  Don't know why; I just couldn't get my eyes to stay closed.  Got up after 3 hours of sleep thanks to Anne from Cardholder Services.  And the dog.  I'd like to sic the dog on Anne.

Supper tonight is using up stuff that is going bad in the fridge.  Potato/leek/mushroom soup and green beans with onion and some hamburgers.  I'm really craving meat tonight so I'll fix one on the Foreman grill.

Rehab is going well but I'm still not losing any weight at all.  I'm really tired of being hungry all the time and no weight loss.  If I add any calories, though, I gain weight.  Even at 1400 calories a day.  Sheesh.

Well, supper is nearly ready and I'm starved so...

Pushing myself too much

I really pushed myself yesterday at rehab and spent last night in a great deal of pain from the fibromyalgia.  Today is just as painful except I'm not trying to sleep in spite of it.  So it's a bit easier to live with today.  I don't think I'll push myself again like that.  Still, I put in 30 minutes on the exercise bike and will do another 25 later today.

I'm still working on my dad's cardigan.  Finished up the back and am working on the right front.  I'm past the pocket and nearly ready to start decreasing for the v-neck.  So far, so good.  I do need to get back to work on other projects as well since I'm doing so well on the cardigan. Although the sleeves have cabling on them so that will slow me down a bit.  But still, I think I can finish up other projects while working on it.  Like the little girl's sweater.  It might be big enough for my great-niece but I doubt it.  And I want to start a pair of socks for my dad.  It's not too complicated a pattern and the yarn is self-striping so I need a very simple pattern for that.  Just a small fake-cable down the sides, I think.

I'm gaining weight again.  I can't figure out how that's possible since I'm not eating more than 1300 calories a day.  I only seem to lose when I go below 1000 calories.  But I'm getting hungry all the time so I'm going back to eating meat again.  It looks like I'm only losing a couple of pounds a month though so it's terribly frustrating.  But I am increasing my stamina and my heart is getting stronger so I suppose I should be happy about that.  Just don't know why I'm not losing weight and gaining on 1300 calories a day.

I have some errands today so I won't be able to knit as much as I want and I'm not getting as much cleaning done as I would like but I am getting there.  Slowly, but I am making progress.  Time to go fix some lunch though so I'm off.

Still working through the fatigue

As if I didn't have enough projects going on right now, I woke up the other morning thinking my dad would look great in a red cardigan.  So you know where this is going.  I had to go to the library to find a nice cardigan pattern and then found red yarn and away I went.  I'm almost done on the back because it's straight stockinette.  The only pattern is in the sleeves.  A lovely cable.  I should be done by the time we go down there in early October.  And I'm thinking a pair of socks for him as well. 

I frogged the Monkey socks I was working on because I just didn't like them anymore.  In fact I really disliked them.  I think I'll put them away for a while and work on other projects.  My older sister, who was to be the recipient of the socks, has the socks I knitted for Mom so she's set for a little while.  I can get hers out later, when I decide on a pattern.

The past couple of days have been very full of fatigue for me.  Not sure if it's the fibromyalgia or the congestive heart failure.  Maybe a combination of both.  It's the consensus with all the nurses at rehab both here and at the other hospital that my chf is from the chemo rather than the heart attack.  The cardiologist won't consider the chemo as a factor but I'm going with the nurses on this one.  My heart attack was apparently pretty mild and the damage from it, they don't believe is significant enough.  Still, there is improvement in my heart function so who knows?

Today will be a lot of knitting because I'm still very tired.  I had rehab this morning and did all that was required of me but I don't have a lot of energy left to do anything else.  So tv and knitting.  And some cooking because we need to eat.

Off to finish up online, which I'm spending less time there because I have so many other things that need to be done.  Just not today.

Time to sort my priorities

Continuing to make progress with my health.  I'm eating totally vegetarian now although I am using milk and the occasional egg in my diet.  Not sure I will ever go fully vegan but we will see.  I'm knitting more now because I've decided to spend a lot less time on facebook.  It's like a vampire that sucks all my time and life so I'm only going to check it once a day for messages.  It's a love/hate relationship.  I love the people I've met there and learn some good stuff, but it takes so fricking long to read anything because my computer lags badly.  Even if it didn't lag it still takes a long, long time to get caught up.

I have a lot of knitting to catch up on in addition to the extra cooking I'm doing and the other crafts I want to work on as well.  Still not reading as much as I would like though.  But I hope that will come with time. 

Zach's sweater if coming along.  I'm almost to the point I was when I had to rip back and start over.  It's a really nice cable pattern, easy to memorize.  I haven't decided on Stephen's patter yet.  I want to finish up the socks first.  And possibly the little girl's sweater.  I've totally lost interest in it but I do think I should finish it up.  Same with the feather and fan blanket, although I know my interest will return on that one soon.  It's a pattern I can work on while online or while reading so when I get to the point where I'm reading again, I'll prop the book up (or use my Kindle) and knit away.

I'm making progress catching up on the cleaning as well.  Not huge leaps and bounds, but I am catching up slowly.  I'm still not allowed to do general housecleaning although I'm not far off from it so I work, but slowly and take frequent breaks.  Today is mostly knitting and cooking though.  I don't have rehab today but I am tired from the week of rehab, cooking and cleaning so I am taking the day off.  Supper will be simple for everyone tonight.  A taco/rice dish for the guys and potatoes/corn/green peppers/ mushroom casserole for me.  I'm just going to make it up as I go along. 

I've got some vegetarian cookbooks from the library but most of the meals call for ingredients that are expensive or impossible to get so I'm just getting ideas from them.  I work better when I'm just winging it anyway.

Off to do more knitting.  I've done half my exercise already and had my lunch of salad and home made cornbread without salt.  I used curry by mistake when making it.  I thought I had the cumin.  But it turned out really good so I plan on putting curry in next time as well.  I don't miss the salt so much and Zach didn't seem to notice it at all.

The store now carries Earth Balance, a vegan "butter" but I plan on using up what I've got now...Smart Balance, an olive oil/margarine combination.  We'll see.  I don't use soy much because my breast cancer was highly hormone receptive and soy has phytoestrogen in it.  No proof one way or another but I prefer to be cautious.  I use rice milk instead.  Tried almond milk but didn't like the taste.  I can drink rice milk on its own.  Not so much soy.  Still, I'm limited on fluids so I don't drink milk at all now.

I miss coffee a bit but I will probably drink tea in the cold months.  Instead of ice drinks.

Off to knit.