I was making up a hundred excuses as to why I was going to skip posting tonight. Mostly because I am tired; today was just one of those days. Then the more I thought about it the more I knew I needed to do this tonight. End of story. I put my big girl eye drops in and here I sit, gently stroking the keys with a tale in my mind.
This past week has been nothing if not interesting and a little conflicted.
In an effort to try to bring in some extra income I was inquiring about selling a line a products that I know and use. The more I thought about it the more it dawned on me that I should use my energy to follow a passion, not just bring in some extra change. Again, here I sit.
I am going to commit myself to making some sort of income, no matter how feeble, off of my writing skills (and now the horror of any grammatical errors that may be painfully apparent in this post pops into my mind). I may dabble in some free lance stuff; I've already wrecked my chances with one online writing firm because I rushed through the application quiz after a long and typical Tuesday. Sad fact, there is no do overs with this firm. Oh, well. There are other options in the world.
After much pushing from outside intruders, I am also working to type a book. While doing this I am researching self-publishing and may or may not send the manuscript out to some publishing houses, but first one must have a manuscript... Right? One book that I am using as a rugged guide gave me a twisted challenge: for every chapter I read of his rough and tumble book I must take the time to pen a chapter of my own. Last night I put down about one thousand words. They may be rubbish but I figure it's a healthy start.
I hope to NOT detract from my posting on here, and still plan to share my little gems with you. Hell, most of what I post on here has little to no place in the book I am working on either. I may reach out to all of you as more words find their way onto the pages to see if there is interest in being Beta-Readers for the book. As more of it blossoms I will share the subject matter of the book and let you choose from there if there is an interest for you.
All that said, let's move on to the real fun of this past week and the reason this is my first post since the 20th.
I may or may not have mentioned issues related to my right eye in the past month. Quick recap: June 27th woke up with some irritation in my eye like I had been dealing with off and on since late March; no biggie went about my day. That night woke up in severe pain as it felt like my eye was being prodded by a burning fork while shards of glass moved about. I spent most of the 28th in misery barely able to open my eye. No drops relieved the pain. Previous occurrences had me believing I was dealing with repeated sties, but I had never had them before. I went online and was happy to see my doctor had an opening on the 29th at four something.
Monday morning dawned and I was exhausted and suffering, but off to work I went with eye patch in hand (we had purchased some cheap, uncomfortable thing the day before). Looking at my monitor was nigh impossible and the fluorescent lights were like staring into the bright noon time sun. I was in agony. On a lark I called my medical provider and explained my situation to the nice gal on the other end of the phone. Miraculously they had an immediate opening if I could head over right then. I snagged Collin and off we went.
Once there the doctor checked for foreign bodies - nada. Then he checked for sties - nada. Then he did a fluoracil on the eye; this is where they put fluorescent dye on the surface of your eye and look at it with a UV light. Before this he also blessed me with numbing eye drops. This was the best feeling since before this all started. He reported the presence of three scratches on my eye: one to either side and the third (like a bastard) straight down the middle. After all this, the doctor felt it may have been a form of sicca syndrome related to my psoriasis. Sicca syndrome commonly causes dry mouth and eyes. He gave me prescription for eye drops, ordered some labs to check my immune system (psoriasis being an auto-immune issue) and referred me to ophthalmology.
Fast forward three weeks to last week. Tuesday night I woke up to the all too familiar pain. Not again. I had been pretty much symptom free since the prescription eye drops kicked in around the 1st of July. The only blessing was that my follow up with ophthalmology was in five short hours. It didn't have a chance to get as severe as the previous episode.
I went in, explained all the symptoms, sensations and pain that I had dealt with. I explained the grainy, rock-like feeling when I would wake up. I expressed the discomfort caused by light and even the movement of my eyeball. The doctor took a good look at my eye and performed another fluoracil on my eye. After all of this she informed me it was not sicca syndrome, but she knew exactly what it was.
Brace yourself, the name is pretty self-explanatory:
Reoccurring Corneal Erosion Syndrome
In layman's terms, my eyelid is trying to peal my cornea off of my eyeball. Well, at least it is with the first layer. The way she described it was a little better... I guess. The first layer of the cornea is extremely delicate and it attaches to the other layers with tiny legs or tendrils. What happens when a person has the aforementioned syndrome is that their eyelid's mucus membrane dries out (typically at night) and sticks to the cornea. When the eye moves or attempts to open without proper lubrication the eyelid begins to tear the first layer of the cornea off. Given there are so many nerves in the eyeball it is EXCRUCIATINGLY painful. Thankfully, the cornea is one of the parts of human anatomy with the fastest healing time. By the time I was at this appointment she could tell that it was already repairing itself.
I am grateful I finally have an answer as to why this was happening. Better yet, we have a treatment plan. Yes, this is something that is completely curable. It just requires me to put an ointment that has a similar consistency to antibiotic ointment in my eye, every night, before bed. This helps retain the moisture in my eye and provides a protective layer. During the day I am to administer one to two drops three to four times a day to keep the eye well hydrated. I go back for another follow up on the 10th, and barring any further incidents I just need to be sure I keep my eye ball happily hydrated as needed.
If I go in and we find that things aren't healing up as they should, the next treatment option is a contact bandage. Basically, they would place a clear lens over my eye to keep the cornea moist and protected. I would need to wear this for TWO MONTHS with visits every other week to have them change the bandage. Um, no, thank you, please.
The doctor didn't even want to talk about the next step AFTER the bandage should it also not be a viable treatment option because it would mean I get to go visit the corneal specialist. Good people I am sure, but yea, no.
She is confident the first treatment plan she has prescribed will work. I am too. So far, so good. I just need to remember to put my drops in when I am at work. Once it clears up the eye drops will be completely on an as needed basis.
With this, I had kind of taken a break from here since I spend eight hours of my day staring at a monitor for work. This is one of the things that does not help the issue. Apparently, there are a lot of things that can exacerbate this syndrome; dry air, air conditioning, heat, not blinking enough, staring at a computer screen too long, and so on.
I will keep you all posted as to how the follow up goes.
Next post: Why the hell have I never made granola before??
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Monday, July 20, 2015
Out of This World
The rest of our long weekend was AMAZING. It was so restful and wonderful and much needed.
Saturday I did the normal and dragged my happy ass to the gym at 5am. After my return home I made a delicious savory breakfast of hasbrowns, sausage and eggs.
We all went for a walk to get the mail and then played in the backyard for about an hour. Eventually, little miss sassitude was hitting a limit we know all too well and it was nap time. While she snoozed away Collin went to visit his grandma for a bit. After nap time we had lunch and then made off on our grand adventure for the day: IKEA.
It is a really good place to go and wander around. I like to get ideas while we are there about various updates we want to make in the coming years. The wee one enjoys walking around and touching everything within her reach. She also loves the carts for going through the show room because they have these poles that come up next to the seat with a little metal flag at the top. Her adoration for them is due to the semi flexible nature of the pole and the "boing" vibrations. I also try to take a minute to peruse the "As-is" section for anything I can do something with. This trip we struck gold since I decided to meander back into the "handy person's" corner where they keep odd shelves and excess cabinet doors.
For five bucks a piece I found these nice sized smooth, white cabinet doors. I will be using these in place of canvases for an art piece I have been wanting to do with my toddler Picasso since we re-did our room. Considering canvases of similar size are twenty to thirty dollars each, I made out like a bandit. I am hoping we can find time for the art project this coming weekend, but I need to pick up more foam brushes first.
Toddler art is awesome and with the internet at almost anyone's fingertips, projects are plentiful. I am still steadily building the digital collection of all the inventive arts and crafts we have brought home from "school." Our little Monet loves arts and crafts time and I truly hope I can always keep that passion going for her. I have no ambitions for her to become some famous artist (unless she wants to), but I know how important creativity can be for other things such as problem solving.
Late last month and earlier this month they did space theme at school and oh, what disgustingly adorable things they made. Other than Pinterest, I have no idea how they come up with all these awesome projects (I have talked to the teachers and I know when their creative tanks are getting low Pinterest is where they go). They made footprint spaceships; I like to call this the S.S. Always Right.
This next one has to be one of my all time favorites (so far); like, I kept the physical copy favorites. Side note: 95% of the art she does gets scanned and tossed otherwise there would be walls covered in it and the clutter would be a nightmare.
The Alien Inside:
Back to the master bedroom project though, I plan to order some standoff wall mounts to mount the pieces once mini Jackson Pollock and I are done.
After a busy, busy day we came home and I made dinner (fish taco salads for the adults, yummy) and the whole time the little demon was walking around saying, "Night night." It was barely 5pm. This went on for the next hour with only a mild respite during the actual meal. By six, the wee lass was beside herself with sleepiness and was becoming increasingly whiny. We are the meanest parents ever, you know, forcing our child to stay up past six on a Sausday evening... What the hell.
As you can imagine we allowed the bugger to retire for the evening and then we began what we had decided would be a grade B-D movie night. And boy, did we start it off right with Sharknado 2! It was so epic and horrible and hilarious and ridiculous. It was a masterpiece. But it coculdn't hold a candle to the second movie we watched: ZOMBEAVERS! How could a person go wrong with a movie title like that? You can't. By movie number three I was fading fast but we made it about forty five minutes to an hour into Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark before I decided I must seek the comfort of my bed.
This movie night proved something very important to us: we can control what we eat and what we associate food wise with certain activities. As we drove home from IKEA making a plan for our evening post toddler bed time the first thing my brain thought was, "Movie night == CANDY, om nom nom nom. So disgustingly good...." Whoa unto the part of my brain who went there for the healthy woman beat the pulp out of them within a minute. Suddenly the words were coming out of my mouth, "When we stop to get the fish and chicken do you want to get some fruit to munch on with the movies?" YES! A small victory in making the right choice regardless of the situation.
So, that's what we did. we bought some red grapes and some cherries and we gnoshed on it the whole evening. It was delicious and I felt so much better for it.
Sunday was the anticlimactic day of the weekend. Where the shadows of work begin to loom on the horizon. It was still a great day. I got all the laundry done and mostly put away (I still have the kitchen towels to fold). I cleaned the garage... Again... Now that we are done with all the current projects throughout the house I don't think it will be too hard to keep the garage in good shape.After miss teething's nap we went to get gas and then visit Collin's grandma so that we could all visit. We got home and I prepped dinner, and then slagged off to the gym for another brutal work out. Both Saturday's and Sunday's included over three and a half miles on the elliptical in forty minutes. Someday I hope to translate that pace to the pavement. Some day. After the elliptical I did the normal weight machines, always striving to up the weight little by little as I become stronger.
It was 9:30 when I had the horrible realization that I would have to go back to work today. It made me sad, but all in all it wasn't that bad today. I was expecting a couple hundred emails to sort through and was pleasantly surprised to have received less than 190. I think my customer's are appreciative that I communicate my planned vacations to them as much in advance as possible (I put it down in my signature). I was able to quickly organize and respond to everything that had come in and I don't feel anymore behind than usual, so that made the afterglow of this weekend linger on, making it feel even more restful and restorative.
Makes me curious for what it will be like when I take maternity leave in the next couple years when we have baby number two... It will probably be surreal. With number one I only took two months (that was all I could afford) and it was over in a blink, but at the same time it was nice to re-enter the world (I've never been confident in my abilities to be a stay at home mom... I'd get really restless I think). At my current job we are allowed to take three months. It seems like such a long time, but in the same breath it seems like it is never enough. Blah! I don't like talking about this topic; it's a little too deep and a little to intimate, yet something that can so easily be misconstrued and twisted about.
Puppies and kitties.
I think I have earned an episode or two of anime now that I have ruffled my own feathers. First I need to get stuff together for tomorrow.
Hope you had a moderately tolerable Monday!
Saturday I did the normal and dragged my happy ass to the gym at 5am. After my return home I made a delicious savory breakfast of hasbrowns, sausage and eggs.
We all went for a walk to get the mail and then played in the backyard for about an hour. Eventually, little miss sassitude was hitting a limit we know all too well and it was nap time. While she snoozed away Collin went to visit his grandma for a bit. After nap time we had lunch and then made off on our grand adventure for the day: IKEA.
It is a really good place to go and wander around. I like to get ideas while we are there about various updates we want to make in the coming years. The wee one enjoys walking around and touching everything within her reach. She also loves the carts for going through the show room because they have these poles that come up next to the seat with a little metal flag at the top. Her adoration for them is due to the semi flexible nature of the pole and the "boing" vibrations. I also try to take a minute to peruse the "As-is" section for anything I can do something with. This trip we struck gold since I decided to meander back into the "handy person's" corner where they keep odd shelves and excess cabinet doors.
For five bucks a piece I found these nice sized smooth, white cabinet doors. I will be using these in place of canvases for an art piece I have been wanting to do with my toddler Picasso since we re-did our room. Considering canvases of similar size are twenty to thirty dollars each, I made out like a bandit. I am hoping we can find time for the art project this coming weekend, but I need to pick up more foam brushes first.
Toddler art is awesome and with the internet at almost anyone's fingertips, projects are plentiful. I am still steadily building the digital collection of all the inventive arts and crafts we have brought home from "school." Our little Monet loves arts and crafts time and I truly hope I can always keep that passion going for her. I have no ambitions for her to become some famous artist (unless she wants to), but I know how important creativity can be for other things such as problem solving.
Late last month and earlier this month they did space theme at school and oh, what disgustingly adorable things they made. Other than Pinterest, I have no idea how they come up with all these awesome projects (I have talked to the teachers and I know when their creative tanks are getting low Pinterest is where they go). They made footprint spaceships; I like to call this the S.S. Always Right.
This next one has to be one of my all time favorites (so far); like, I kept the physical copy favorites. Side note: 95% of the art she does gets scanned and tossed otherwise there would be walls covered in it and the clutter would be a nightmare.
The Alien Inside:
Back to the master bedroom project though, I plan to order some standoff wall mounts to mount the pieces once mini Jackson Pollock and I are done.
After a busy, busy day we came home and I made dinner (fish taco salads for the adults, yummy) and the whole time the little demon was walking around saying, "Night night." It was barely 5pm. This went on for the next hour with only a mild respite during the actual meal. By six, the wee lass was beside herself with sleepiness and was becoming increasingly whiny. We are the meanest parents ever, you know, forcing our child to stay up past six on a Sausday evening... What the hell.
As you can imagine we allowed the bugger to retire for the evening and then we began what we had decided would be a grade B-D movie night. And boy, did we start it off right with Sharknado 2! It was so epic and horrible and hilarious and ridiculous. It was a masterpiece. But it coculdn't hold a candle to the second movie we watched: ZOMBEAVERS! How could a person go wrong with a movie title like that? You can't. By movie number three I was fading fast but we made it about forty five minutes to an hour into Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark before I decided I must seek the comfort of my bed.
This movie night proved something very important to us: we can control what we eat and what we associate food wise with certain activities. As we drove home from IKEA making a plan for our evening post toddler bed time the first thing my brain thought was, "Movie night == CANDY, om nom nom nom. So disgustingly good...." Whoa unto the part of my brain who went there for the healthy woman beat the pulp out of them within a minute. Suddenly the words were coming out of my mouth, "When we stop to get the fish and chicken do you want to get some fruit to munch on with the movies?" YES! A small victory in making the right choice regardless of the situation.
So, that's what we did. we bought some red grapes and some cherries and we gnoshed on it the whole evening. It was delicious and I felt so much better for it.
Sunday was the anticlimactic day of the weekend. Where the shadows of work begin to loom on the horizon. It was still a great day. I got all the laundry done and mostly put away (I still have the kitchen towels to fold). I cleaned the garage... Again... Now that we are done with all the current projects throughout the house I don't think it will be too hard to keep the garage in good shape.After miss teething's nap we went to get gas and then visit Collin's grandma so that we could all visit. We got home and I prepped dinner, and then slagged off to the gym for another brutal work out. Both Saturday's and Sunday's included over three and a half miles on the elliptical in forty minutes. Someday I hope to translate that pace to the pavement. Some day. After the elliptical I did the normal weight machines, always striving to up the weight little by little as I become stronger.
It was 9:30 when I had the horrible realization that I would have to go back to work today. It made me sad, but all in all it wasn't that bad today. I was expecting a couple hundred emails to sort through and was pleasantly surprised to have received less than 190. I think my customer's are appreciative that I communicate my planned vacations to them as much in advance as possible (I put it down in my signature). I was able to quickly organize and respond to everything that had come in and I don't feel anymore behind than usual, so that made the afterglow of this weekend linger on, making it feel even more restful and restorative.
Makes me curious for what it will be like when I take maternity leave in the next couple years when we have baby number two... It will probably be surreal. With number one I only took two months (that was all I could afford) and it was over in a blink, but at the same time it was nice to re-enter the world (I've never been confident in my abilities to be a stay at home mom... I'd get really restless I think). At my current job we are allowed to take three months. It seems like such a long time, but in the same breath it seems like it is never enough. Blah! I don't like talking about this topic; it's a little too deep and a little to intimate, yet something that can so easily be misconstrued and twisted about.
Puppies and kitties.
I think I have earned an episode or two of anime now that I have ruffled my own feathers. First I need to get stuff together for tomorrow.
Hope you had a moderately tolerable Monday!
Friday, July 17, 2015
The War of "Good" and "Evil"
In my current personal journey the good is the mindful healthy choices I make and the evil is all the mindless indulgences, no not indulgences, consumption. I find that there are certain points where I struggle with this fine line more than others.
There is a constant war in my mind between the healthy woman emerging and the fat chick in the corner. More and more the healthy woman is winning, but there are still these lapses where I swear the fat chick ties her up in the corner to make her watch while I over indulge in unearned and unnecessary "treats." Basically I catch myself mindlessly eating and there is this voice in my head screaming, "Why? Why are you doing this? What are you doing to me?"
It's sad and scary.
I recently read a blog post from another woman who has traveled a very similar and parallel road to the one I am on. She hit her goal, more or less, but she still struggles with the same situations I find myself in. She still sees the her from the start, and she too recognizes that there is no end. Ever. The best I can ever hope for is to continue and maintain. Even once I hit my goal I will still have to maintain all the results. There will never be a day where the above battle isn't happening within me.
Every now and again, when I am in my darkest of places, the fat chick begs me to give in, just give up, I will never win.
But then I have these amazing glorious moments. An amazing work out. My pants fit a little looser. I can chase my daughter without running out of breath. The healthy woman exalts. She screams from the mountain top that she is alive, she is strong and she is damn well going to win this battle. She is stronger than the fat chick could ever hope to be.
Ever.
The triumphs of the healthy woman can be seen in our summer adventures.
Today was our second visit to the Oregon Zoo. We are members so we can go whenever for free. We've gone twice in just over a month. Both visits were great weather and since the wee one hadn't had any shots today (she had her 18 month check up last time we went) she was able to walk probably about a third of the zoo. She loves it. We practically had to drag her from the lion exhibit today. She was mesmerized.
She is also infatuated with the cheetahs (any big cat really), the bears, the giraffes and the elephants. Okay, so she is mostly infatuated with the entire zoo. Below is a picture from the first visit. The cheetahs were sleeping right by the viewing glass. She wanted to say, "Hi." A lot.
Today the cheetah was also laying there, but it was awake. When it yawned and rolled over we were certain it might startle our little zoologist (I mean it's a big kitty with a big mouth and some large teeth). She wasn't phased.
Another awesome summer adventure was our outing to Silver Falls State Park. She was enthralled by the waterfall (South Falls), but once we got to the point where we were to go behind the falls she had a complete meltdown. Someday we will make it the whole way around the little loop from the top around the bottom and back up. It was a beautiful morning with the temps in the low seventies.
After our halfway hike little miss enjoyed a half hour straight of going down the slide in the shaded, deserted play ground near the swimming area. It was thirty minutes of her chanting, "Slide, slide, slide...."
She is growing so fast.
I've decided to get an undercut next time I am in my stylist's chair. I think this will help me maintain my sanity while I am growing my hair out. It's just getting to be past shoulder length. My goal is to grow it to at least between my shoulder blades. There is something I want to do with it color-wise that I need length for it to look how I want it. Plus there are some hairstyles I'd like to try out as well. So as much as I hate my hair sometimes, I am going to push through. I think the biggest issue is the fact that it is summertime and warm.
Tomorrow morning I am going to hit the gym. I get the best high from my workouts. Last night was awesome. three and a half miles on the elliptical in forty minutes, followed by thirty reps each on the inward and outward hip abduction machines at 170 lbs. Then thirty reps on the leg press at 170 lbs. and then the machines that make up the 30-minute express circuit. I felt so great afterwards. I wish I could find a way to hold onto that feeling between workouts. I could see myself easily becoming a gym junkie if there was one closer than where I go.
Now to drink the rest of my detox tea and watch some anime
There is a constant war in my mind between the healthy woman emerging and the fat chick in the corner. More and more the healthy woman is winning, but there are still these lapses where I swear the fat chick ties her up in the corner to make her watch while I over indulge in unearned and unnecessary "treats." Basically I catch myself mindlessly eating and there is this voice in my head screaming, "Why? Why are you doing this? What are you doing to me?"
It's sad and scary.
I recently read a blog post from another woman who has traveled a very similar and parallel road to the one I am on. She hit her goal, more or less, but she still struggles with the same situations I find myself in. She still sees the her from the start, and she too recognizes that there is no end. Ever. The best I can ever hope for is to continue and maintain. Even once I hit my goal I will still have to maintain all the results. There will never be a day where the above battle isn't happening within me.
Every now and again, when I am in my darkest of places, the fat chick begs me to give in, just give up, I will never win.
But then I have these amazing glorious moments. An amazing work out. My pants fit a little looser. I can chase my daughter without running out of breath. The healthy woman exalts. She screams from the mountain top that she is alive, she is strong and she is damn well going to win this battle. She is stronger than the fat chick could ever hope to be.
Ever.
The triumphs of the healthy woman can be seen in our summer adventures.
Today was our second visit to the Oregon Zoo. We are members so we can go whenever for free. We've gone twice in just over a month. Both visits were great weather and since the wee one hadn't had any shots today (she had her 18 month check up last time we went) she was able to walk probably about a third of the zoo. She loves it. We practically had to drag her from the lion exhibit today. She was mesmerized.
She is also infatuated with the cheetahs (any big cat really), the bears, the giraffes and the elephants. Okay, so she is mostly infatuated with the entire zoo. Below is a picture from the first visit. The cheetahs were sleeping right by the viewing glass. She wanted to say, "Hi." A lot.
Today the cheetah was also laying there, but it was awake. When it yawned and rolled over we were certain it might startle our little zoologist (I mean it's a big kitty with a big mouth and some large teeth). She wasn't phased.
Another awesome summer adventure was our outing to Silver Falls State Park. She was enthralled by the waterfall (South Falls), but once we got to the point where we were to go behind the falls she had a complete meltdown. Someday we will make it the whole way around the little loop from the top around the bottom and back up. It was a beautiful morning with the temps in the low seventies.
After our halfway hike little miss enjoyed a half hour straight of going down the slide in the shaded, deserted play ground near the swimming area. It was thirty minutes of her chanting, "Slide, slide, slide...."
I've decided to get an undercut next time I am in my stylist's chair. I think this will help me maintain my sanity while I am growing my hair out. It's just getting to be past shoulder length. My goal is to grow it to at least between my shoulder blades. There is something I want to do with it color-wise that I need length for it to look how I want it. Plus there are some hairstyles I'd like to try out as well. So as much as I hate my hair sometimes, I am going to push through. I think the biggest issue is the fact that it is summertime and warm.
Tomorrow morning I am going to hit the gym. I get the best high from my workouts. Last night was awesome. three and a half miles on the elliptical in forty minutes, followed by thirty reps each on the inward and outward hip abduction machines at 170 lbs. Then thirty reps on the leg press at 170 lbs. and then the machines that make up the 30-minute express circuit. I felt so great afterwards. I wish I could find a way to hold onto that feeling between workouts. I could see myself easily becoming a gym junkie if there was one closer than where I go.
Now to drink the rest of my detox tea and watch some anime
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
I'll Give You A Water Challenge...
It seems to be popular right now. I think this is a good thing. Way too many people are not drinking enough water. As I have shared before, I drink roughly my weight in ounces of water almost everyday. I start my day drinking 32-64 ounces before I even eat (even more still on the Saturday gym mornings) then proceed to drink 100-120 ounces of H2O at work and polish it off with 96 or more ounces in the evening. This is strictly my water consumption. I'm not counting my tea or coffee or milk. Just water.
Some days are harder than others, but I do find on the days where I stick to the water consumption like I should, I am much less "hungry."
The wee monster insisted for about twenty minutes straight that it was night night time. So I finally give in at 6:35 and take her to bed. I tuck her in and say my good nights. I have now spent the last thirty five minutes listening to her babble and play and laugh. All happy sounds so I do not check on her. I just let her be. This gives me confidence that when she is older the method I want to try for bed time may just work.
It's this method I read about when I was still pregnant or shortly after birthing my demon spawn... The cliff notes version is that you set a nightly quiet time, say around 7pm (depending on age of course). During this quiet time the child is to be in their room, ready for bed. They can play (quietly) or read or whatever. They are allowed to come out a certain number of times (this is set by the parents), plus one final time to say they are ready for bed.
When they are ready, you tuck them in and say good night and go back to what you were doing during quiet time.
I think this is a great idea. With toddlers I think it is very achievable, but I'll know for certain once we really start implementing it with our own.
I know it's only the middle of July but there is a part of me that feels like summer is winding down... I think that is mostly that I feel like I am catapulting through time these days. It might also be that I yearn for the cool, crisp fall weather. Oregon has some of the most gorgeous fall weather, and has always been my most loved season.
The fact that our summer has been hot and heavy straight out of the gate might also further contribute to my autumnal fantasies. Our summer normally has a slow, sporadic start. Not the case this year. We hit June and it was 90 flipping degrees almost every day of the month. July finally brought some reprieve in the last week with our highs topping out in the upper seventies and low to mid- eighties.
I was discussing this next shocking fact with my father during our monthly visit on Sunday. Next month, Collin and I will celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. I will officially have spent a third of my life married to this amazing, loving, caring, hilarious man. Ten years... I can't imagine having spent them any other way.
Funny story about us, while I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy and such, in the early stages of our relationship (so the first four months; we were married a year after we met, after all) we both swore up and down we had no plans to get married anytime soon.... Yea, you can see how long we waited...
The significance of our anniversary date itself is something I will share in the coming weeks. I figure now is a good time to have a "lay it all out there" retrospective, because many don't know the anticlimactic whirlwind of events that led to us being Us. Some know bits and pieces, but I don't know if anyone knows the full blown story. Maybe it's time to share before any offspring (we still only have one; I'm including the future child we hope for) can read this blog. I figure by the time we reach that point in their lives this will be old and dusty like the papyrus scrolls of Egypt.
The kid is still playing and chattering away.
We have the next two days off from work. Tomorrow, we are doing something sinfully selfish. We are taking the little one to "school" (as she calls her daycare, and I am inclined to agree) and then coming home and going back to bed. We are doing nothing. Not a damn thing. We are going to spend some much needed time together relaxing. This last year has been a torrent of events that found us constantly going every time we had a day off. Whether it was packing, unpacking, looking at houses, inspecting this house, doing paperwork, painting, cleaning, removing the deck, laying down the pavers, replacing the hardware, cleaning and on and on, we have not taken a true day off at all.
Originally, we were to go camping this weekend. With an unexpected high value expense (engine rebuild in Collin's car) we just aren't in a place where I want to expend the funds for such an excursion. So, tomorrow is a completely lazy adult day. We will pick the little genius up from daycare a bit early, go to the store and then I will go to the gym. The rest of the weekend will be a family fun weekend. Friday we will make another trip to the zoo (I love having a membership!) and Saturday we may go to the BBQ/fun day at our dentist's office (celebrating ten years of being in business).
Pretty much it will be a go with the flow, relaxed weekend. With a visit or two to see Grams.
Ugh, I think I hear the asshole ice cream man.... He comes cruising through here at 7:30 in the evening with music that is blasting. The other night I was watering the lawn (which is dormant/dead at this point) in the back yard with earbuds in an screamo punk cranked up and I could hear it over that.... Somehow, magically, the tiny human slept through it.
Off to do something else.
Some days are harder than others, but I do find on the days where I stick to the water consumption like I should, I am much less "hungry."
The wee monster insisted for about twenty minutes straight that it was night night time. So I finally give in at 6:35 and take her to bed. I tuck her in and say my good nights. I have now spent the last thirty five minutes listening to her babble and play and laugh. All happy sounds so I do not check on her. I just let her be. This gives me confidence that when she is older the method I want to try for bed time may just work.
It's this method I read about when I was still pregnant or shortly after birthing my demon spawn... The cliff notes version is that you set a nightly quiet time, say around 7pm (depending on age of course). During this quiet time the child is to be in their room, ready for bed. They can play (quietly) or read or whatever. They are allowed to come out a certain number of times (this is set by the parents), plus one final time to say they are ready for bed.
When they are ready, you tuck them in and say good night and go back to what you were doing during quiet time.
I think this is a great idea. With toddlers I think it is very achievable, but I'll know for certain once we really start implementing it with our own.
I know it's only the middle of July but there is a part of me that feels like summer is winding down... I think that is mostly that I feel like I am catapulting through time these days. It might also be that I yearn for the cool, crisp fall weather. Oregon has some of the most gorgeous fall weather, and has always been my most loved season.
The fact that our summer has been hot and heavy straight out of the gate might also further contribute to my autumnal fantasies. Our summer normally has a slow, sporadic start. Not the case this year. We hit June and it was 90 flipping degrees almost every day of the month. July finally brought some reprieve in the last week with our highs topping out in the upper seventies and low to mid- eighties.
I was discussing this next shocking fact with my father during our monthly visit on Sunday. Next month, Collin and I will celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. I will officially have spent a third of my life married to this amazing, loving, caring, hilarious man. Ten years... I can't imagine having spent them any other way.
Funny story about us, while I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy and such, in the early stages of our relationship (so the first four months; we were married a year after we met, after all) we both swore up and down we had no plans to get married anytime soon.... Yea, you can see how long we waited...
The significance of our anniversary date itself is something I will share in the coming weeks. I figure now is a good time to have a "lay it all out there" retrospective, because many don't know the anticlimactic whirlwind of events that led to us being Us. Some know bits and pieces, but I don't know if anyone knows the full blown story. Maybe it's time to share before any offspring (we still only have one; I'm including the future child we hope for) can read this blog. I figure by the time we reach that point in their lives this will be old and dusty like the papyrus scrolls of Egypt.
The kid is still playing and chattering away.
We have the next two days off from work. Tomorrow, we are doing something sinfully selfish. We are taking the little one to "school" (as she calls her daycare, and I am inclined to agree) and then coming home and going back to bed. We are doing nothing. Not a damn thing. We are going to spend some much needed time together relaxing. This last year has been a torrent of events that found us constantly going every time we had a day off. Whether it was packing, unpacking, looking at houses, inspecting this house, doing paperwork, painting, cleaning, removing the deck, laying down the pavers, replacing the hardware, cleaning and on and on, we have not taken a true day off at all.
Originally, we were to go camping this weekend. With an unexpected high value expense (engine rebuild in Collin's car) we just aren't in a place where I want to expend the funds for such an excursion. So, tomorrow is a completely lazy adult day. We will pick the little genius up from daycare a bit early, go to the store and then I will go to the gym. The rest of the weekend will be a family fun weekend. Friday we will make another trip to the zoo (I love having a membership!) and Saturday we may go to the BBQ/fun day at our dentist's office (celebrating ten years of being in business).
Pretty much it will be a go with the flow, relaxed weekend. With a visit or two to see Grams.
Ugh, I think I hear the asshole ice cream man.... He comes cruising through here at 7:30 in the evening with music that is blasting. The other night I was watering the lawn (which is dormant/dead at this point) in the back yard with earbuds in an screamo punk cranked up and I could hear it over that.... Somehow, magically, the tiny human slept through it.
Off to do something else.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Fizzled
Like any writer (I do like to occasionally use that moniker), I have found myself in the middle of a creative desert. Every time I have happened upon an oasis of humor or an anecdote of anguish it is at the most painfully inopportune time.
Times such as in the middle of the night when I am wanting desperately to sleep, or while I am at work trying to bend the space time continuum to get products to my customers last week or worse yet while I am driving to anything somewhat important.
I tried to be good and jot little notes and memos to myself to keep the various flotsam and jetsam relatively intact within my otherwise flighty brain. There has just been so much LIFE happening it has drained me of my normal creative juices. I feel them slowly restoring and recharging, but I am carefully looking around the corner for the next catastrophe.
Things can always be much worse than they are, and I know there are so many who are dealing with so much more.
I don't even remember my last post. It had to have been pre-5k.
Where are we since then?
One thing that has been drifting aimlessly through my thoughts is the things I miss about CDs.
I almost miss them as much as I miss the popularity of physical books. Don't get me wrong, I love all the thrilling and exciting free e-books I can download to my phone, but I really love the physical presence of a book. The smell. The crispness of the pages as you break the spine for its first reading. The weathered, beaten feel of an old book you have read a million times over and could probably recite from memory. There is something innately real about them.
But I stray from the topic: CD's.
Most younger than my generation may have only had limited exposure to the wonders of the compact disc. How, sometimes, you could fix a mangled and scratched disc with a bit of toothpaste and TLC. Or how we had these cleaners that were the same size as our disc man... Google that if it confuses you young whipper snappers. The attribute I loved the most?
The case inserts.
Yea, most would be filled with band pictures and cool graphics, but I was in it for the lyrics. Straight from the song writer's mind and into this little booklet of musical magic. I wanted, no, HAD to know what the correct lyrics were. One of the most infuriating things in my teenage world was buying a CD, peeling off the cellophane (that sometimes needed the jaws of life to get open), pulling out the fresh insert and finding it only filled with a couple of pictures and thank you's from the band to their mom, dog, friend, neighbors, etc. Oh the rage.
A big reason this was brought out of the deep dark vault of my mind was listening to music at work. I'd be listening to a playlist on You Tube and it would be one of those lyric videos that some teenager spent hours decoding and deciphering (I remember doing the same thing, but with cassette tapes and CDs, and just in a notebook... I didn't have a computer, let alone internet...). While watching the words flit across the screen I'd notice some glaring error that makes me wonder who the hell dropped them on their heads as children and how many times.
We're all mostly human, so I guess I can forget about it... Obviously this it the case since I didn't think to site one of the errors that set this off...
This was good. We should do this more often... Try not to stay away so long this time.
Oh wait... It was me, wasn't it?
I am trying something new this week. I will see how it goes... You will only notice if it is going well.
Isn't that the truth in most cases?
Times such as in the middle of the night when I am wanting desperately to sleep, or while I am at work trying to bend the space time continuum to get products to my customers last week or worse yet while I am driving to anything somewhat important.
I tried to be good and jot little notes and memos to myself to keep the various flotsam and jetsam relatively intact within my otherwise flighty brain. There has just been so much LIFE happening it has drained me of my normal creative juices. I feel them slowly restoring and recharging, but I am carefully looking around the corner for the next catastrophe.
Things can always be much worse than they are, and I know there are so many who are dealing with so much more.
I don't even remember my last post. It had to have been pre-5k.
Where are we since then?
One thing that has been drifting aimlessly through my thoughts is the things I miss about CDs.
I almost miss them as much as I miss the popularity of physical books. Don't get me wrong, I love all the thrilling and exciting free e-books I can download to my phone, but I really love the physical presence of a book. The smell. The crispness of the pages as you break the spine for its first reading. The weathered, beaten feel of an old book you have read a million times over and could probably recite from memory. There is something innately real about them.
But I stray from the topic: CD's.
Most younger than my generation may have only had limited exposure to the wonders of the compact disc. How, sometimes, you could fix a mangled and scratched disc with a bit of toothpaste and TLC. Or how we had these cleaners that were the same size as our disc man... Google that if it confuses you young whipper snappers. The attribute I loved the most?
The case inserts.
Yea, most would be filled with band pictures and cool graphics, but I was in it for the lyrics. Straight from the song writer's mind and into this little booklet of musical magic. I wanted, no, HAD to know what the correct lyrics were. One of the most infuriating things in my teenage world was buying a CD, peeling off the cellophane (that sometimes needed the jaws of life to get open), pulling out the fresh insert and finding it only filled with a couple of pictures and thank you's from the band to their mom, dog, friend, neighbors, etc. Oh the rage.
A big reason this was brought out of the deep dark vault of my mind was listening to music at work. I'd be listening to a playlist on You Tube and it would be one of those lyric videos that some teenager spent hours decoding and deciphering (I remember doing the same thing, but with cassette tapes and CDs, and just in a notebook... I didn't have a computer, let alone internet...). While watching the words flit across the screen I'd notice some glaring error that makes me wonder who the hell dropped them on their heads as children and how many times.
We're all mostly human, so I guess I can forget about it... Obviously this it the case since I didn't think to site one of the errors that set this off...
This was good. We should do this more often... Try not to stay away so long this time.
Oh wait... It was me, wasn't it?
I am trying something new this week. I will see how it goes... You will only notice if it is going well.
Isn't that the truth in most cases?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)