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Today I went back to the lab for some more tests. I have been feeling a lot better overall, but I am still having some lingering issues that I am hoping we can get resolved. I am having a lot less problems with my stomach. During my last appointment, my doctor felt we could switch me to a different med. It isn’t as strong, but has less long term side effects. I wasn’t too sure if it was the right choice, as I had bad stomach pain again after a few days, but now it seems like my body is adjusting. I have some mild stomach gnawing in the mornings, but it seems to go away quickly. If anything, maybe I need a slightly higher dose or two doses a day, but I want to give it another week or two before I ask.

This is the first week I think I am starting to really feel more like myself. I picked out a dinner that I wanted to cook for the first time since I have gotten sick. I have been still cooking at times, but it has just been whatever my family requests. My dad has thankfully been handling a lot of the cooking for me. I made sticky chickpeas with rice and steamed broccoli for my dad and me the other night. I really enjoyed it! And then yesterday my gf and I went out for a nice walk and stopped at the antique mall. We have a huge antique store in our town. If you were to take the time to fully look at each and every booth, I think you could be there from open until close. I got a really funky looking chicken vase/planter. We also stopped at a few different smaller shops on our walk back home.

After we got home and took a break for lunch and some tv, we went and worked on cleaning up the garden. We weren’t aiming to get it all done in one day, instead we just focused on the front yard. We pulled all the weeds, cleaned out junk that got blown in, and put away planters left over winter. We didn’t really get any hard frosts until after December, so I kept all my large herb containers in the garden so I could collect them for cooking. But after we started getting snow and hard frosts, I kind of just left the planters in the yard because I didn’t have the space to bring them inside. I tried not to push myself, but I did have to take a couple breaks. It is still a bit early to start planting, even if the weather has been nice. It is still about another month until last frost.

Today is two weeks since I started watercolor! I have been really enjoying it. I haven’t really gotten to where I am painting things yet. I have been doing abstract pieces and learning colors and water control. I hadn’t really been following any tutorials or lessons, but I did start doing that this week. I haven’t been trying to look at how other’s paint too much yet because I was nervous of putting pressure on myself to have my art look some certain way. Now that I am getting a feel for what I am doing, I am looking at following some lessons on youtube. For me, I really needed to learn more about water control. I was always told “watercolor uses more water than you think”, so I was introducing way more water than I needed to into my paintings. Last night I did some practice art while paying more attention to how much water was on my brush, and I was pretty happy with the results! I still haven’t decided what sorts of things I would like to paint. I really think I am just happy putting color on paper. I don’t claim to be a big art consumer or say that I understand art, but I have always thought abstract art was interesting. It may not always be the most aesthetically pleasing thing to look at, but I feel a draw to abstract pieces.

I found a really cool art shop within walking distance of my house. The current owner recently bought the business. The place is kinda more meant for art students, but she was really welcoming and helpful. I got a few tubes of watercolor paints that I liked. I am finding I like working from pans more. I feel like I waste sooooo much paint when I use it straight from the tube. So I put these paints into some empty pans that I got. Another day I might go back and get some paper. As I am watching tutorials, I am noticing that my paper isn’t really behaving the same way as other people’s. Any paint or water I apply to my paper seems to dry very quickly. From my understanding, lower quality paper tends to dry much quicker.

I have been trying to practice painting most days. Once I have all my odds and ends done for the day, I have been enjoying wrapping up my day with painting while I watch a movie. It has really been good for me to just relax and clear out some of my health worries, even if only for a little while. I have been spending extra time trying to make sure I am taking care of my mental health as well as my physical health. It is hard, since a lot of it requires planning and energy, but I also know how important it is to my overall well being.

Remember to do something kind for yourself today, take your meds, and drink plenty of water. I will see y’all next time.