It has been nine whole months since I have had the time, and most days the motivation, to post on HIVE. I've been busier than I ever thought imaginable. I've been swamped with life, other writing commitments and even days that leave me exhausted from working around the homestead.
The first thing I did when I started writing this post was to look around at all the changes that have happened over the last nine months. I discovered lots of formatting advancements here. I discovered I was dropped as a Steemitblogger (aka Lifestyle Lounge member). Not that I blame them; I was MIA for quite some time. Maybe one day I will be accepted back into the fabulous group, but until then, I am planning on writing more frequently here as some of my writing clients and contracts have ended.
EDITED: I am still in the steemitbloggers group!! 
Let me try and get everyone caught up in this post...
My Health
Some may remember back in January 2020, I had my surgery on my left hand and elbow from the auto collision. I recovered from that surgery, but am under the same surgeon's care for a potential new surgery. The feeling in my left hand is still numbness and weakness. Yes litigation in the court system is underway but with the current situation in the world (don't get me started on this, has hindered ANY actual court hearings; only zoom-like calls and depositions)
Moving on to my auto immune disease updates. I am currently under the care of an Otolaryngology/ENT at a hearing and ear institute here in my state. I have had a total of three inner ear injections of gentamicin and I'm not going to lie... they hurt like a b*tch! These injections are supposed to reduce the number of episodes, lessen the vertigo I suffer from and hopefully work to avoid more injections or surgeries on my inner ear. After all the injections, no major change had occurred, so my specialist decided to take another form of attack to help me.
Currently my specialist has me on SERC; which is not covered by insurance or available for ready use here in the US. So a specialty pharmacy has to make the compound for me. SERC is basically a betahistine dihydrochloride combination that's supposed to help with:
- ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
- loss of clear hearing
- problems with balance (vertigo)
And again... no significant changes noticed.
So I continue taking the SERC and in six months we start discussing the first of three surgeries on my ear. For now I have partial hearing in my left (the good) ear and my right (the bad) ear can only register 82dB (decibels). That ear misses all tones of speech, most traffic when in a car and I have difficulties distinguishing conversation. It really makes for a tough day. I have pretty much stopped driving anywhere as I fear I will miss sounds and issues. I mostly just drive down to get the mail from the mailbox every few days. When it comes to shopping, I use Instacart or I wait until my husband can take me. For talking on the phone, I use a bluetooth earbud. For TV viewing, the volume can be quite loud. I get through the days.
My Career & Writing
In the summer of 2020, when the world was going to hell in a hand basket, I was able to pick up a writing and editing gig with SF Gate and wrote a few gardening articles, but found I really enjoyed the behind the scenes of editing over writing. That client contract was for six months but ended up being eight months in total.
Then I picked up a writing gig for a cannabis website. I wrote about a dozen articles, got paid and moved on.
I spent four months being a ghost writer and had fun spinning romance novels for others. This is a nice way to expand creativity because the entire 25-50k word count book is a blank page to fill with love, second chances and romance. I really did enjoy this outlet for writing, but have come full circle back to my own passion and love... gardening.
I am currently under contract for more gardening articles for a newer gardening website. I happened to find this writing opportunity on the Writers Write website. I usually do anywhere from 2-3 articles per week ranging from 1-3k word count. Trust me, these keep me busy.
In all the hustle and bustle of writing and editing off screen, I continued to put together the 
New Season Upon Me
With my own gardening season upon me, I have seeds sowed just waiting for the weather to be warmer and more consistent, a new cannabis grow that just went into the flower stage and I made clones over the holiday weekend.
I have expanded my flowers and herbs in this upcoming gardening season. I have also expanded my Etsy store; where I have been averaging $250/USD per month in seed sales for the last six months.
We have been on a feverish search and find for more property here. Our little 1/3 acre of land is not enough for what we have planned for the future... so we are constantly seeking about 10 acres of land (with over half of it wooded for hunting, foraging purposes) and a clearing for our new little homestead home. In due time the right property will come along.
So that's been my life... how about you?
This post was made from https://ulogs.org