Home remedies and heart tonics

It's been a long few weeks. Some of it has been super exciting and then there are the life patches that remind me how tender I can be at times.

I spent last week dealing with a sick cat child, who is such a happy child, that he never gave any indication of not being well. Only once he couldn't keep his food down did we find out that he had a blocked colon. Badly blocked. Oh the Jewish guilt (which is the only Jewishness i seem to have hung onto) and then the drama of staying at the vet and X-rays, procedures, meds and my other two not eating because their brother was missing. What an incredible reminder that they are far more than just pets and they really do have little hearts and souls.

Eragon at home and on the mend.

We ended up having to change the diet of all of them and I learned how vital it is to feed cats food specific to who they are. It makes perfect sense. It's how we should be eating. So they are all on hairball control food because they're a fluffy bunch of Persian kids.

On top of that, there gets a point in a growing business, where it has to grow. You know, like get a second full time staff member. It may not seem stressful, but it took me ages to adjust to it all, so I've been overworking myself and juggling a few too many balls again. I don't have to boast about my business partner more than I already do, but I haven't said how lucky I am to have My B, who is the #ChatFactory community manager and she's totally rocking it. I was outsourcing some work for a while, but life got in the way again and I've had to carry a bigger load than I should. That's changing though and we're hiring.

To add to all of that, I have a mending heart. For the first time I chose not to put anything on social media or to blog about it, but there was an amazing guy around for nearly 5 months. In a nutshell, our perception of a free spirited relationship and degrees of commitment just couldn't hold us together. So I'm back to being that single girl with three cats and an eternally optimistic outlook on life and love.

Needless to say, when we were graced with a long weekend for Women's Day, I jumped at the opportunity to hibernate. I've been in desperate need of "me" time and I grabbed it over this long weekend. I didn't drive my car or get out of my pyjamas for the whole of Sunday and Monday.

I was completely nurturing and kind to myself. I'm starting to have more faith in the theory that we should be treating ourselves the way we want to be treated, so I cooked delicious meals, spent quite time just lying around and being with me. I thought about what makes me happy, just by being me and I took the time to really enjoy my own company ... my own great, special and loving company.

Admittedly, it only helped heal the heart a little and for the rest, I drank wine (not alone, because my cats count), listened to music and turned love songs into messages from me to me and I lay quietly with myself.

Between waking up to check if my cat child had eaten or used the sand tray and forcing myself not to check my Facebook (or his) at crazy hours, I had to come up with a better sleep idea.

I'm not a tablet taking girl and sadly I only have a shower in my flat, but I do have a garden filled with home remedies.
I drink sage or mint water all day and I literally stroll into the garden and grab a few leaves. I'm a great believer in kicking off my shoes and wiggling my toes in the grass, to settle my being and feel centred again ... and then there's lavender. Wow, that stuff can grow and it's totally under utilised.

So, I picked a whole bunch and found a little gift bag lying around. If you haven't squished lavender in your hands, you really should. There's a natural oil that bursts through and the scent (I know you either love it or hate it) is quite something to absorb.

I still didn't sleep through, because cat child had a hairball to deal with an my panic about him isn't over yet. I got tangled up in the emotions of ignoring Facebook at yet another ridiculous hour, but it was definitely easier to return to calm with a whiff on lavendar and a little help from mother nature's pharmacy.