Return of the Cheer Peppers

It’s that time of year again – when a bunch of peppers start peppering the internet with their thoughts, art, poems, and community appreciation.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t sure about signing up to Nanopoblano this year. It’s been a tough year for a number of reasons, some of which I won’t talk about here, but others that involve some health issues (mostly chronic stuff), autistic-ADHD burnout, and a change in living circumstances. If you read some of the posts last year, you’ll remember that my parents, me, and my husband were planning to move out of the house together to be closer to my sister and her family.

The whole thing fell through because of some issues with the land registry and part of the land our house is on (a whole story for another time!), and then my sister and her family had to leave their rented accommodation (landlord was selling up) and move in with us whilst they found somewhere else to live instead. On one hand, at least there was some room for them here, and they’ve now found somewhere to buy with help from both sides of the family, but will be here into the new year, probably. My parents have currently put moving on pause, and we don’t have any plans to move for a while.

So there’s been two other adults, a two year old, and two young cats living with us since April/May this year. Very difficult for our now 12 year old tortie Coco, who hasn’t taken it that well and mostly stays upstairs in the attic room with us, hissing and occasionally growling if she comes into contact with the other two cats, when she does venture downstairs. We knew she would find it difficult because she’s always been territorial and possessive of her humans (she’s very sweet and loving usually), but it has been stressful.

The year started well, and Dan settled into his new job which involves him travelling once a month (most months) up to Scotland to stay with his Dad and go into the office in Glasgow. It was difficult to adjust to having him gone a week or two here and there but it got a little easier when I tried to keep myself busy.

I managed to work on my art for a few months but then I started to get ill a bit more frequently with various chronic things including arthritic flares, then severe back pain that lasted around two months in August and September. Then we got Covid again, and I’m still feeling some lingering effects of fatigue from that, and possible exacerbation of my chronic underlying illnesses. Ironically, it was just a week or so before we had booked our boosters.

All to say, this is mainly why I’ve not been able to write or blog, or haven’t managed to do as much art as I would have liked this year. And why I wasn’t sure whether to do Nanopoblano, considering when I did try to do it last year, I just didn’t manage the full month due to the stress of the will-we-won’t-we manage to move situation.

This year is a little better and I’ve decided to do it a bit differently – by doing some of my posts on Instagram instead of all of them here. At the end of the month, I’ll collate and post what I wrote and shared on Instagram on one big post so people can still read them here too. It releases some of the pressure to write big posts – as much as I try to do shorter ones, I always end up writing and writing (just as I’m doing here!).

It also gives me the excuse to get out and take photos of things, and to document my day to day more. I’ve fallen out of the habit of taking photos and appreciating what’s around me. I’m also going to attempt to get myself back into drawing and painting again this month – basically a month long commitment to creativity!

In other news, I have managed to already meet my 52 books a year goal so I’m reading more leisurely without any pressure on myself. I’ll share some of my favourite or more memorable reads from this year, and also films or series we’ve watched. In October of course I watched a few spooky horror things but less so than last year. We ended that by watching Practical Magic last night which is always a fun watch.

I’m looking forward to trying, at least, and to reading other people’s posts. You can find the full list here: Cheer Peppers 2024 Team.

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