Today is Wellness Wednesday! Usually, I have D.I.Y Wednesday but in keeping up with life stuff and being more authentic and open about who I am and what life looks like for me I’m going to be changing up a few things and alternating things each week to keep it fresh, bring more content and grow this blog baby of mine up.
I’ll start by saying lupus sucks. It does, I’m not even going to pretend it doesn’t. Add in inflammatory arthritis and I’m a walking, talking bundle of positivity and light. Okay, I’m not totally miserable but it has been an immense struggle for me to balance life as it looks now, give myself credit when I make it through the hard days, and not push myself too hard on the good days. I do try to stay as positive as I can but I will be honest when I say, people who suffer from illnesses that you can’t see, pain you don’t understand, and mental health struggles day in and day out hate being told “just be positive” or “being positive fixes everything”.
We hate it, don’t do it.
Having a positive mindset does help manage the tough days and enjoy the good days, however, it doesn’t fix the problem. Like medication, exercise, healthy eating and so on which are part of my daily life helps with symptoms, none of those things can cure it. So things that do make me happy like this blog have fallen way behind.
In my time away I did do a few things which you will read about as I get back into the flow of writing again but I’ll give you a quick overview.
- I wrote a book and I published this year. my first blog post back was shameless self-promotion lol
- I attended my very first author retreat in San Diego in Sept 2022 ( this will have to be a 3-part post lots to share)
- I did the longest and hardest hike to date in the snow at Lake Louise
- I finally finished my office reno (only took 3 years)
- Still working on my ensuite renovations (bathrooms take forever)
- I took a creative photography class
- have a reading goal of 300 books to read this year
- Starting a new treatment for Lupus (scared shitless)
And a partridge in a pear tree.
Don’t want to spill everything, you’ll read about it soon enough. This week’s lineup is fantastic. I’m not sure what tomorrow will be I’m flying by the seat of my pants here but on Fan Fiction Friday I have the delightful June Harding here for a chat about her debut novels. Yes, that’s plural. And Saturday we are mixing it up with Savvy Bookstagram Saturday, our new segment meeting some fantastic people who live love, and breathe all things book related. We will have influencers on the blog, and businesses will still show up on Saturday too you know I love to promote those, and more trips, DIYs, and rants from me will be here too. So buckle up, welcome back, and thank you for the unrelenting support, well wishes on bad days, encouragement on good days, and everything in between.
Love, a humbled and very grateful Magnolia xx
Rustic Magnolia 