How to deal with frustrations

 I'm still focusing on using up as many of our present stocks of UPF foods as I can, so we then endeavour not to buy any more, except for minimally processed 'good' foods like baked beans.  I've decided I'll start making my own bread again, as bought breads, even the sourdoughs that I like, still have ingredients that we wouldn't find in our own kitchens.  

I've also been working out strategies for coping better with husband's....foibles, shall we say.  I KNOW he can't help it, he doesn't do things deliberately to annoy me (although it does feel like it sometimes!), it's down to both his worsening cognitive condition and some of the medications he takes for his heart failure, and he's largely oblivious to what he's doing/saying and how irritating or frustrating it can be.  As you've probably gathered by now, husband talks ALL the time, except for when he's asleep (thankfully!), he talks at me constantly, he commentates on all TV programmes or those little reel videos he watches on his computer, he gets quite irate at a lot of things on the news and voices his opinions loudly.  He still insists on watching the TV news 3 times a day though, even knowing it's going to annoy him.

Now, I'm partially deaf, diagnosed probably over 10 years ago, and husband of course knows this....but he forgets constantly.  I cannot hear him if he's talking at me from another room, or if there's some other noise going on in the same room, e.g. the ever-present TV or radio, or an appliance in use in the kitchen, so I generally call out "I can't hear you" - I'm aware that he's saying something but can't hear the words clearly.  This happens numerous times a day, which I find more and more frustrating as the day goes on.  When he's coming in from outside, as soon as he opens the back door he's talking at me, regardless of the fact that he can't see me and therefore doesn't know where I am, I may well be in my bedroom or the bathroom.  So now I've decided that instead of constantly telling him I can't hear him, I'll just say nothing, simply ignore him, until he realises that I can't hear him and comes to find me.  Before anyone asks, yes I do have hearing aids, NHS ones, which are clearly the cheapest and most basic type (they're not adjustable) and find them totally useless for enabling me to hear better - all they seem to do is to magnify the background noise which I was previously unaware of.  The batteries don't last 5 minutes either, I seemed to be constantly having to change them, and they're obviously small and fiddly.  So I don't wear them.  I've no idea if NHS hearing aids have improved since then, I suppose I ought to ask my GP for a new referral back to audiology.

The other thing I find most frustrating is husband's terrible short term memory - when you've answered his same question 5 times in one morning it does get very wearing.  So I've decided to try and answer him calmly, then quickly go to the bathroom or bedroom, shut the door and roll my eyes, thump a pillow and mutter under my breath until the frustration is out of my system.  Again, I know it's not his fault, but it doesn't half get annoying when it happens literally all the time, every single day.

There are other things about his behaviour that irritate me but I'll focus on just these two things for the moment....once I've mastered those (which may take some time 😂😜), I'll move on to the next couple of things.  Wish me luck!  

Bright sunshine today but still very cold, we had a hard frost last night.  However, from tomorrow the temperature is forecast to rise quite significantly, and last all week.  Bliss!