Just in case you all thought I was boasting with my last couple of posts (and honestly, I probably was crowing a bit simply because no one else would notice), now comes the accounting. Remember the spoon theory? The one that posits that on any given day we have x number of energy units or spoons? Well, I'm back to tell you that I used up all today's spoons (and it's only mid-afternoon). I did as I had planned but now I am out of energy, hopeful that I will sleep deeply tonight so that tomorrow I can finish what I started. As planned, I did make another batch of bread and butter pickles, and got 4# of cukes sliced for dill slices to jar tomorrow. Right now they are brining in a dark cool corner of the house. But I'm not going to do anything with the beets except peel and slice them, nor will I make zucchini bread or zucchini chocolate cake as I had planned because I have used up all today's spoons. I've learned the hard way, if I do one more task I will start using up tomorrow's spoons as well. Yes, there are pots and utensils to put away. Yes, the floor is sticky in spots from dribbled liquid but I'm ignoring its cry of mop me. Tomorrow's another day, but it's humbling when I think of what I was able to do so recently. I am GoatGal, hear me whine...
'Fessing up: Just in case you all thought... - My MSAA Community
'Fessing up
Good for you, goatgal! Not only did you accomplish a multitude of tasks, but you realized when you had done enough! By the way, how can I get some of those pickles?
Stop by the kitchen for a bit. I'll make sure you leave with some pickles and a dozen eggs. I'll make sure you get one of the pink cartons, stamped with "Mother Cluckers from Old Woman Farm."
I'm on my way. I'm sending you a recipe for microwave pickles that I started making a few years ago. They're wonderful with a little less work, either canned or put in the fridge.
goatgal You sure did a lot! Get some rest. I love the spoons, an you deserve a few extras!
Incredible, and yummy treats from your days hard labour. Sleep well tonight, tomorrow is a new day. 🤗
good 2 hear now rest
Ha ha, whine away you deserve it.
I just had to laugh!! You are a perceptive and sensitive human and express yourself very well all the while delighting us with your self awareness!! My days now are so different from even 2 years ago, I am dismayed. But like us all, I do as much as I can and then flop until another spurt rears it energy and I slip and slide through the next challenge or I don't and just sit it out. It has taken me awhile to learn this new way of being. Sigh.
(but you're doin' it!) 
You got a boatload done!
For what it's worth, I admire that kind of perseverance.
I hope you have an abundance of energy tomorrow.
Great for you. You got quite a bit accomplished probably more than my 2 teens who try to clean house and unfortunately I get to live in it. I was diagnosed Jan 2018 and I'm still working on my limits but I am going to start doing the spoon thing you was talking about maybe that will help me to keep track. It's kinda hard when you forget everything but your head that is attached to ya.
Wow, goatgal, you accomplished a lot. Not to mention growing all that food in the first place.
Oh my no! Good neighbors grew the food and shared their bounty with me. My gardens are small and tended this summer by mice and voles (who've done a great job of eating everything I started). Like most of us MSers, when temps get into the 90s, I can't accomplish much outdoors. Indoors, thanks to AC and ceiling fans, I can do something with what others grew and were kind to share with me. My labor is less than theirs!
Oh my goodness! No need to whine. I’m super impressed at all you got done...and very proud of you to have learned not to start using tomorrow’s spoons today. Hard for us all to accept, but accept we must.
The spoons metaphor has been useful to me. I'm hard headed, so it was a while before I learned that if I overdid some activity, there was a price to be paid. And it's especially true in summer when the heat will burn up my energy more quickly.
I certainly wish that I can let you have some of my spoons, as I would give them to you. I do enjoy your rants and whine, however, I do not see your posts and replies as such. As for the mice, moles, and voles ~ they are little stinkers! They have managed to eat all of my daisies, by the roots, this past winter! 'Mouse' traps do work but there are so many!
Stay cool, and Keep Smiling, goatgal 
With my lack of finger dexterity, I've caught more of my fingers than mice! I have set more than a dozen traps in the beds. I've baited with peanut butter, oatmeal, bird seed, raisin, gummy bears trying to adhere something to the triggers. The little stinkers have managed to steal all the baits (though in the last month I have eliminated two rodents), and now I find them flipping the traps over, taunting me! Every night in the garden, these mice are partying, telling tales about how they have outwitted the old lady. One of these mornings, I expect to go out and find them climbing to the top of the pea fence going "nyah, nyah, nyah" and daring me to chase them...
I know. I have issues with my manual dexterity (it takes me over 1/2 hour to just sew a button, but that is a story for another time) and those mouse traps hurt! Those mice, moles, and voles certainly party, at my expense. I know, I sometimes hear their parties, between the walls, if you know what I mean.
goatgal I read that it helps to mix a small amount of cotton in the peanut butter (from a Qtip or cotton ball). It gets stuck in their teeth & they stay on the trap longer trying to get it out.🤣 -Kris
Thank you! I'll try it because now they have moved into the chard bed and are eating the roots of the chard (just as it was recovering from being nibbled on as transplanted seedlings). Since the heat index has been in the 100s for the last few weeks, they stay pretty much underground (where it is cooler) but even at dusk with this humidity I don't last long outside. I'm going to try baiting the traps inside before going out to set them in the garden beds. I was going to start some seeds for fall but it's hard to find the motivation given the rodent problems and the heat.
A... the “spoon theory”. Such a useful tool for those of us with MS. Congrats on your accomplishment.
I like the spoon theory, haven't heard that one. For those of you that may hear the housework calling, remember this: "Housework is as loyal as man's best friend. It is always there for you."
I learned this in a course called Optimal Living with MS (sponsored by the University of Southern California and the National MS Society). One of the presentations was about monitoring the energy available for tasks, projects, and activities. The lecturer said it was useful to think of energy as quantity, for example, a certain number of spoons. If I have seven spoons of energy, how many will I use for doing the marketing? When the spoon or spoons are used for that activity, how many will I have left for what else remains to do this day? A lot of folks are probably intuitive about this, but I wasn't. Before I began thinking of energy as a finite quantity, I often tried to do too much and worked myself into a state of exhaustion (that old MS fatigue thing). And since I still have one more batch of canning to do (this time, corn relish, beginning tomorrow), I still haven't mopped the kitchen floor. As you note, it is always there for me!
So PROUD of you goatgal!
YOU DID IT! Great job in ALL your accomplishments!!! I know how used up we can get from MS. But we always have tomorrow and cleaning up is a
never-ending job as my mom would say.
Blessings to YOU❤becky
love your spoons ...now this is a great way to describe how we feel ...
Not what you're looking for?
You may also like...
3 month check up of Tecfidera/MS with Neuro today
Saw doctor for follow up on leg pain today
Had my follow up visit with my Neuro yesterday
Catching up
When do you give up driving?
Hippo Therapy running a muck...(sorry, it was too good to pass up!)
DON'T GIVE UP ON EQUINE THERAPY JUST BECAUSE I WAS STUPID
spoon theory explained
Hang up at the doctors office
