What I Don't Do Well

There are a lot of things that I don't do well, but one of them is not taking care of myself very well. It's not like I am reckless and just go willy-nilly doing whatever, which I do, but not to the extent that I did this past Saturday.

You see, if I stand too much or lift too many heavy-ish things, I risk hurting my back. It seems that I've always had issues with my back for as long as I can remember in my adult life. An innocent twist here and a heavy lift there and BAM my back is unhappy. In more recent years I've decided that I don't like to be in pain more than I need to - let's face nobody likes to be in pain. Anyway, I've been getting good at asking the hubs for help lifting pretty much anything that is more than a five pound bag of sugar or heavier. A lot of times, I will carry the hefty-ish item myself on the sly, only to be discovered and then lightly reprimanded for carrying whatever. I'm glad for the help now that I know that it's for the health of my back.

WELL this past Saturday after I found the canning jars I was really excited to do some canning. The project of the day was potatoes. I got two bags of potatoes and after I was left alone for the afternoon I got to work getting the potatoes prepped. Knowing that standing too long will cause me problems, Tom was kind enough to find me a stool to use while I'm working on things that don't require standing. I set up my work table and got to work peeling 10 pounds of potatoes...all while sitting on my very comfortable stool.

One thing leads to another and pretty soon I'm moving back and forth from the work table to the sink and transferring potatoes from my giant bowl to a stock pot full of water for boiling. The stock pot by itself is a little heavy, add water and potatoes and it's a lot more heavy. Fortunately, my work area in the kitchen isn't vast. So transferring the pot from the sink to the stove is just a couple of steps or so. 

To be honest, I never think about if I'm going to be in pain at the end of the day. I'm just enjoying the process so much! 

Nine canning jars later I'm ready to transfer the jars along with the All American canner to the garage. Here's where it gets a little physically demanding. The cart that I use during my canning adventures is this ONE. It is the perfect size to tote my canner and the jars and other tools in one trip. The only problem with using the cart for this particular canning session was the fact that there was 40+ pound bag of scratch in the cart which made the cart hard to pull and left not much room to transport my supplies safely in one trip. I'll tell you what, that thing was HEAVY! I could have wrestled the bag out of the cart, but I would have been in much worse shape.

After I was able to get things out to the garage and the whole process started, I felt the first twinges in my back. It only got worse from that point. By the time Tom had returned I was in a lot of pain and STILL trying to get things done - I had to do two rounds of canning to finish the project on Saturday. Even though my back hurt and I knew better, I continued to do the lifting like I probably should not have. 

The rest of the day was not great. The pain was terrible and it was a reminder that I REALLY need to pay attention to what I'm doing and not over-do it so much. However, to do the things that are fun I have to fit them into the weekends that go by fast. 

The day is coming though, I won't have to work so hard to cram all the things into my weekends. That day can't come soon enough, now that I know that it will be here soon-ish. Until then I'll try to remember to be mindful of the things I'm getting myself into and rest more than I think I need to and be thankful for prescription naproxen!

This is more like homestead life...