Well, it's official.

I'll be having surgery again soon for a ruptured extensor tendon that occurred after the last surgery. It's something I'm not happy about, of course, but it must be done. This means I'm non-weightbearing until six weeks after the next surgery, which should be within a week or two. So, at least two more months of being unable to walk at all.

I will admit: initially this was a pretty hard pill to swallow. It seemed like recovery was going so well - better than I'd expected even - and to have that all yanked away was rather devastating.

It took me a couple of weeks to wrap my head around this and accept it. But now that I have, while I'm not thrilled, I'm looking on the bright side.

I already know how to get around on one foot.
It won't be nearly as painful as the last surgery - no bones will be relocated.
I have all the tools in place to make recovery easier - I hadn't packed up all the various mobility aids and grab handles yet.
Plus I know how to use those tools!

So, no, it's not great, but I'll be okay. I still have some unfinished crafting projects, I ordered a new pile of novels from Thriftbooks, and I am finishing up my first novel, The Widow in the Woods, to prepare it for publication.

There are important lessons here.

Patience.
Making the best of a bad situation.
Accomplishing something instead of wallowing.
Adapting.

There are a lot of things right now that I can't control, so I'm focusing on what I can control. Really, that's all any of us can do, and this is widely applicable whether our problems are economy-induced, a physical disability, or a series of bad events.

It's what preppers do.

We do the best we can with the situation we're given, and we actively work toward improving it.

Last night, I lay in bed listening to the thunder and pummeling rain, watching the lightning from my window. It was a glorious show from Mother Nature. It reminded me how much there is to enjoy, even in simple things like a summer storm.

I have lovely, supportive daughters, close friends who have never let me down, and all of you cheering me on.

No matter how this works out, I couldn't possibly lose as long as I'm grateful for those treasures.

Love,
Daisy

Having something to eat isn't guaranteed.

We're facing threats to our food supply from many different angles: supply chain breakdowns, drought, food facilities being ravaged by fires, skyrocketing inflation, and outright shortages. No longer can we live in the comfort of unthreatened abundance. We're learning exactly how delicate the system really is.

Prepping and putting back supplies is incredibly important but what we're seeing now goes beyond that. You have to be able to produce and acquire more food. You have to be able to put back your harvests to eat during the winter. You have to be able to prepare items that once were as convenient as popping open a can or little plastic container.

You need a paperback copy of How to Feed Your Family No Matter What, our Organic Prepper anthology with ALL of our content about food. You'll get more than 500 pages of content that are all about food when you can't just go to the store and buy whatever you want.