Life Lately – Jan 2023

I stated recently in my newsletter (subscribe here) that I would publish a Life Lately post to update you on all. the. things. going on with me behind the blog. So, here it is! I think I will make this a regular series too, or at least do one of these posts whenever there’s something new to tell!

Sometimes, I have a little more to share than what I can fit into my email newsletter. And I know some of you who read regularly may not be subscribing to my emails yet. However if you are subscribing, I’ll have more on the subject of my emails at the end of this post. I’ll also be sharing some important info if you are having trouble getting and reading my emails too.

Blogging has changed so much over the years. In the beginning, it was much more of a personal journey or diary. Nowadays, I think of it more as an online magazine. However, my favorite blogs are the ones that still have that personal aspect too. And I want to create that atmosphere here.

I do consider all of you who show up here to be friends! So, I want not only for you to get to know me better but also for me to get to know you better. If you ever feel comfortable sharing a little about yourselves in the comments, please do!

Since I have a lot of random things to talk about today, I thought I would just label each in categories. Here we go!

Health Lately

Staying healthy in my 50’s has been a little challenging so far. While thankfully there’s nothing seriously wrong, I started out 2022 with a long respiratory illness and ended 2022 with a long respiratory illness! Some of the problem is I probably need to take better care of myself. However, I do have a bit of asthma, so when I get sick it tends to take me forever to get better.

I caught covid for the first time right before Thanksgiving which pretty much dampened that holiday. It really felt like I had a terrible case of the flu. By the time I was finally feeling better, it was only a couple of weeks before Christmas and one week before my youngest son was coming home with his relatively new girlfriend, who we were still getting to know.

Needless to say, my house was a complete disaster. I had boxes and items stuffed in corners everywhere from some closet cleanout and organization I had started and not completed. In fact, it’s still needs to be completed! There were no Christmas decorations set out or Christmas tree set up. There were also still some presents to buy and wrap.

And oh yeah, we had bought a new mattress back in November that would be arriving the same day they would be arriving. Plus, our plan was to move our current bed into my son’s old room at that same time to make it a guest bedroom. Let’s just say I was pretty stressed out with everything that needed to be done in a short amount of time. Ha!

Everything worked out, and we had a really good visit with my son and his girlfriend. We have loved getting to know her!

After they left though, I started feeling bad again! This time it felt like a really bad cold, and I was so exhausted from playing catch up. Thankfully, the rest of the family stayed well. On the other hand, I coughed constantly from before Thanksgiving until sometime after New Year’s Day.

In spite of it all, we had a really nice Christmas. After I was feeling better, Jeffrey and I also were able to travel to Tennessee to see my dad whom I hadn’t seen in almost a year.

My Battle with Ocular Rosacea

Most of you probably know from reading my blog that I struggle with rosacea. When I was younger, I had a lot of flushing and redness along with breakouts. Thankfully, I don’t have a lot redness now, but I still seem to get a few pimples regularly.

At the beginning of 2020 though, I started having new problems involving my eyes. With the help of a doctor, we got it under control quickly, and I forgot about it. Then last summer, it came back and has just escalated. My lower and upper eyelids get red scaly patches, swell, itch, and my eyes are extremely dry. At it’s worst, it’s not only looks bad but is very irritating.

I’ve been to the doctor several times now and am taking an antibiotic that’s hopefully helping. I’m also putting an antibiotic ointment on my eyes and putting in eye drops around the clock. I feel like I plan half my days anymore around eye care and treatment! I will be done with the eye ointment soon and hope the redness does not come back again once I’m done.

This has been very frustrating to deal with, and the only moisturizer my eyes seem to tolerate right now is the CeraVe Moisturizing Cream. I also clean my eyes with these soft cotton pads and just plain water unless I need to remove makeup. Keeping them clean is so important with this condition. Plus, I have to be so careful with anything that I moisturize my eyes with so that it’s not stopping up any oil glands around my them.

Below, I’ve got all the eye creams I’ve tried in the last couple of months. They are all good ones to try if you have sensitive eyes and are recommended if you deal with ocular rosacea. However, I honestly can’t seem to use anything right now except the CeraVe cream?? But, we are all different and some of these below might work for you.

Eye Creams for Sensitive Eyes

Beauty Posts

Since I’m having so much trouble with my eyes, I am reevaluating posting on beauty. I may even shift away from posting very much on the topic for the foreseeable future. For now, I just can’t do a lot of eye or skincare posts where I try out a lot of different products. I haven’t done as many of them anyway since I’ve had so much trouble with my eyes. Plus, once I find products that what work well for me, it’s better that I just stick with them rather than risk the extreme reactions my skin and now my eyes sometimes have to something new.

I will continue to talk about makeup products that I love and update posts with all my favs that I use everyday and tolerate well. Right now more than ever though, I’m just so thrilled to find something I like and that lives well on my skin!

I may even post some about my sensitive eye journey if any of you are interested. I do have a few tips to share now that might be helpful. However, anything very in depth will probably wait as I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with my own situation. Unfortunately, there’s no true cure for this condition, though it can go into remission. If any of you have dealt with it, any tips that worked for you would be most appreciated!

My Email/Newsletter

One of the reasons I’m doing these Life Lately posts from time to time has to do with my email newsletter. As I mentioned above, I can’t always fit all of my happenings behind the blog into one or even several emails every week. And some weeks, I really don’t have all that much to chat about!

For now, my emails are strictly for letting you know when I’ve published a new post and for providing a link to that post. I’ve subscribed to other blogs that keep it pretty simple like I do. Yet, there are others that seem to provide a whole second mini post just inside their emails! While I sometimes wish I could provide a little more content for you in my emails, I’m just a one woman show here! And I try concentrate all my effort into each blog post I write.

So if you are not already a subscriber, I would love for you to subscribe here to get new post updates. They are the absolute best way to keep up with anything new here on my blog. In fact, the first thing I do after scheduling or publishing a post is schedule or send out an email about it.

If you follow me on social media, I’m so glad and appreciate it so much as well! I certainly invite each of you to give me a follow either on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest. Sometimes, I might post a little different content there or hop on Instagram stories and chat. Unfortunately though, it’s not always the best way to keep up with my new blog post updates. Due to their algorithms, my posts there don’t always show up in your feeds. And sometimes, I just can’t keep all my social channels updated in a timely matter as much as I would like!

Getting My Emails Lately

I’ve had a reader say recently that she cannot go to my blog posts by clicking the Read the Post link in my emails. Occasionally in the past, I’ve had a reader say they weren’t getting my emails in their inbox (you might want to check your spam box to make sure they aren’t going there and mark them as not spam).

I’ve recently checked all my settings in my Mailchimp account and fixed one issue which should make things much better! Unfortunately, once my emails are sent out, I have no control over them getting to your inbox just like I wouldn’t a letter I sent through the Post Office. Plus, all of you use a variety of email clients with different filters and settings.

However, here are some tips I’ve found and other things I’ve done on my end that may help solve any problems you might be having:

The first one is to check your settings and filters in your email account to see if possibly anything you have set is blocking my email address or email from landing in your inbox. Also, there could be a possible setting that might prevent you from opening the links in your emails too.

Next, I’ve put a link at the top of my emails now that says “Click Here to View This Email in Your Browser.” Hopefully this link will work for everyone and will open my email in your browser on your phone or computer. You should see my email as it was written in your browser and be able to click the link to see my blog post.

The last tip that seems especially important for receiving my emails is to add my email address which is dianna@dressedinfaith.com to your email contact list or address book.

I hope these tips help! And please let me know if you are still having any issues with my emails after trying these. Maybe, I can do a little more research, and hopefully, we can find a solution.

It’s been so nice chatting with all of you today. And I know I seem to have nothing but health issues or problems to share this time! I promise it won’t always be this type of chat, but I do want to be real with you too. We are all going through something in one season or another. Life is certainly not always as it looks in pictures online or on social media! And don’t forget to leave me comment today on life lately for you.

Dressed in Faith

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19