We were fortunate to have great weather. It can be quite wet (that’s why it’s so green) but it hardly rained the week we were there and we had lots of sunshine. In fact many of us got sunburnt, one of the last things we expected on this particular trip!

Connemara is very scenic. It’s mostly countryside, with beautiful unspoilt beaches and the mountains of Connemara National Park.

I was pleased that my health was relatively good during the trip. Because my Crohn’s wasn’t too bad and because I’ve been doing some exercise I was able to join in the walk to the top of Diomond Hill, something I wouldn’t have attempted a year ago.

Here’s a slideshow of my photos from the trip:

You can also look at them here without a slideshow. Or you can select the family photos only.

Also in July, Esther made her own birthday cake which she designed in the shape of a Tardis. She made one for our family and another one for her friends.

For the last few months my Crohn’s Disease has been a little better. That’s a reality I’m very happy about. A couple of weeks ago my Crohn’s Doctor did an internal exam. She only had time to make brief comments right afterwards, which were that the worst affected places didn’t look significantly improved from a year ago.

That was another reality and it conflicted with the first reality in a rather discouraging way. I had to work hard to hold onto the first reality, that I definitely have been feeling better, in order not to get discouraged.

My attitude, even though it’s all in my head, is also a reality. It affects my physical realities since stress is thought to affect Crohn’s and feeling discouraged or worrying about the illness is stressful. Also, I make more effort to exercise and eat healthily when I’m not discouraged, two things I believe might help to some extent.

In my follow-up visit after her vacation I’ll have more time to talk with my doctor. I think some of the places which weren’t the very worst have improved, which would make her observations less in conflict with how I’ve been feeling. I did ask her about that in the brief talk and she said it was possible, but she was more focused on what wasn’t better. I understand why but for the sake of my attitude, which affects so much else, I need to keep the reality of ‘what isn’t better’ in perspective and not let it push out all the other realities of my life.

On summer mornings I like to go out early. It’s warm but not hot and it’s quiet. I like to see the morning sun shining through the trees and across the grass of the parks near my house. And enjoy the peacefulness before the busyness of the day gets underway.

I was always a morning person. But in the last few years since developing Crohn’s I’ve often not felt well enough to do much of anything first thing in the morning. In recent months I’ve been a little better and this happily has given me my mornings back.

I started exercising in the mornings again, at least a little, most days. Exercise isn’t exactly at the top of my ‘fun things to do’ list but I believe it’s so good for me I try to be disciplined about doing some regularly. I’m very happy when it gets warm enough that it’s pleasant to exercise outside, early in my day.

We’re going to Ireland next month with my extended family and I hope that will be a wonderful trip. But overall I think it’s the smaller things which make the most difference to how I feel about my life. The things I can do every day (at least at this time of year), like going outside on summer mornings.

When I signed up for broadband TV I thought I chose the cheapest package. Recently, I threatened to cancel because of price increases and that produced an interesting disclosure from the company. I could save $20 a month if I cut back to broadband network channels only.

I wish I’d known that in the first place since I wasn’t even watching the other channels in my package. (If you had my package you probably wouldn’t either)

Connecting and being part of a community are in my dreams. Church provides opportunities for those. It used to be the ‘right package’ because everything in it was important to me.

Now I’m looking for ‘connection and community only’ packages. I don’t have a dream church (our current theme) because all churches include things that wouldn’t be in my dream package.