Welcome to Apple Creek Cove! We are up and going!
I’ve wanted to do this for so
long and I let perfectionism get in my way of doing it. Well, guess what? I have kicked perfectionism to the curb! Perfectionism gets in the way of so many
wonderful plans because a perfectionist would rather not do it at all than not do
it perfectly. Expecting yourself to be
perfect will not only destroy plans, it will literally make you sick.
Apple Creek Cove came about
almost a year ago in an effort to follow a New Year’s resolution to chronicle
my transition from the working world to early retirement. I want to share my efforts to find new ways
to efficiently manage our household. I know what you’re thinking and you are
wrong, wrong and wrong again! This is not another
blog on cleaning house and doing laundry. The information you’ll find here
will benefit everyone but it’s aimed at making the lives of a very special
group of people easier – those of us who suffer from chronic pain. According
to the American Chronic Pain Association, about 86 million people in the United States
cope with some form of chronic pain. If
you cope with chronic pain or someone you love does, this blog is for you.
I suffer from Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,
Myofascial Pain Syndrome, Peripheral Neuropathy, Peripheral Lymphedema, Sjogren's
Syndrome, Arthritis, four herniated discs, Carpel Tunnel Syndrome, short term
memory loss, sleep apnea and depression.
Recently a doctor asked why I was depressed! Apparently the look on my face made him
quickly rethink his words. He backtracked
and said something like “with all that’s wrong with you, it’s not surprising you’re
depressed.”
When I was younger (and healthier) I was described by some
people as being a perfectionist to the point of almost being OCD. (Can’t everyone find their husband’s black
socks in the dark, blindfolded, with one hand tied behind your back?) The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines perfectionism
as disposition
to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable. As I was researching perfectionism
(can’t write a blog post that’s not as close to perfect as possible), I
discovered that I am not a perfectionist!
I am actually a high achiever according to the Perfectionism Quiz on
About.com.
According to the test results a high achiever strives toward perfection, but has a healthy
understanding of what is and isn't possible, and is able to enjoy the journey
without getting overly hung up on the results. The only exception I have to the high achiever
designation is a tendency to procrastinate.
Procrastination is what a perfectionist does because they worry that the
project is not going to be perfect so they don’t start. The fear of not doing it correctly is that
real. That’s exactly what I’ve done with
this blog.
I love research. I mean LOVE research. As a paralegal, nothing brought me more joy
than going to the law library and researching case law. I just don’t know when to stop! My legal research professor told me on more
than one occasion that I had to stop chasing rabbits! And boy did I chase rabbits getting ready to
write Apple Creek Cove. I enjoyed the
process of planning a full month of topics but told myself that I couldn’t launch
with only a plan. I had to have a month’s worth of posts written and scheduled
to post every morning. Well guess
what? I don’t have that month’s worth of
posts ready but we are going ahead with this!
Here on Apple Creek Cove a
household staff is not in the budget so we have 3 options: (a) Nothing gets
done until we qualify for an episode of Hoarders
and/or have no clean clothes or dishes, (b) my precious husband works all day (while
I sew and/or read all day) then comes home to cook, clean and do the laundry or
(c) I find a way to do it. Option ‘c’ was the logical choice but it didn’t take
long for me to realize that my standards and methods were going to have to
change. Realizing it and accepting it was
not the same thing. It surprised me how
hard it was to accept that I couldn’t vacuum and mop every day. Several days in
bed from over doing it drove that lesson home quickly.
