Posts Tagged by the mundane one

multitasking mixup

I had just finished eating a late supper, because I was outside splitting wood all evening, and was planning on taking a phone call from a ADHD online acquaintance and trying to the the kids prepped for bed all at once, and decided to multitask.

So, I was getting my 6yo son, sensoryboy, ready for bed and getting him a melatonin at the same time as getting two caffeine pills for myself, and handing my 11yo  daughter her melatonin.

In my attempt to multitask, I handed her her melatonin, got my caffiene pills, THOUGHT I handed the boy his melatonin, and then popped my caffiene pills and drank them down, while getting a drink for the kids each.

It was only when my son was standing there telling me I didn’t give him his melatonin yet that I realized that I took his small white melatonin pill that was under my large pink “wide awakes” and I never even noticed, because I was rushing, and trying to multitask.

the three of us started laughing so hard, we could not tell TMO ( theMundaneOne aka hubby) what I had done, and then just as I gathered myself to tell him while till giggling, my son “herpderped” me.

he HERP DERP-ED ME!

HAHA it was well deserved.

FYI, melatonin with 200mg of caffiene doesn’t really do much of anything.

FYI part duex. don’t get on my ass for taking 200 mg of caffiene…it’s the equivalent of a large tim horton’s coffee…with no sugar, and less shit flavour :P

never a dull moment around here I tell ya.

 

 

 

Suicide Rates among people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Source: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art49960.asp

<snip>

Some may view suicide as an extreme measure, but according to Dr. Paul E. Whitcomb, “Fibromyalgia sufferers have one of the highest suicide rates.” And OB/GYN News reported, “Among the 1,163 with confirmed fibromyalgia, for example, the rate of suicide was ninefold greater than in the general population, as reflected in Danish mortality register statistics. The suicide rate among the 106 women with possible fibromyalgia was increased 20-fold.” If this is truly the case, what makes suicide a high probability? Oftentimes, we do not want to hear the question from our Doctor, ‘Are you depressed?’ To us, that only means that he is going to label me as depressed and not try to figure out what’s really wrong with me. Did it ever occur to you that maybe ‘I’m depressed’ because I HAVE fibromyalgia and/or CFS? If this is the case, treatment is necessary because depression is a whole separate illness. Looking into the life of these sufferers can help those who do not suffer with this illness to understand why Judith Curren was so desperate for her painful existence to end. What could her life been like? What is your life like? What is mine like?

Have you ever thought or experienced…

I am in pain every day of my life. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t hurt somewhere.

I can’t sleep, or I sleep poorly.

My spouse is calling me “lazy.”

My friends have abandoned me because I can’t keep up with them.

Everyone thinks I’m “crazy,” including my Doctor.

I’m fat!-Probably because of medication and not being able to exercise due to pain.

I can’t play with my kids; I have no energy.

My finances are a mess because I can’t work as much, or I can’t work at all.

<Snip>

MuffinTin Miracle!

So a few weeks ago I “liked” a page on facebook for “muffin tin meals” when I saw it on a friend’s status as it looked kind of fun for the kids, and I wanted some more info.

When I saw what they were doing with “muffin tin mondays” I decided I’d try it with the kids. I have muffin tins I NEVER use ( as you can see by the picture! lol) I liked the idea because it is derived from Bento boxes from Japanese traditions, and as an ADD person I find Asian culture’s streamline organized ways to be calming to my mind.

Anyway, in my usual ADD fashion I forgot about it for a week or so, and then in a rush one evening this week past, and from having literally NO clean plates in the house due to our current canoe project taking up a lot of my time, I needed a solution!

Once again a possible ADD disastrous supper due to no clean dishes, and little time to prepare anything decent, I became a Super ADD Mom, and got some major cool mom points for remembering the muffin tin idea.

I dug out some muffin tins and scoured the fridge for leftovers, and made a muffin tin meal for the kids. We had worked late on the canoe and everyone was tired and cranky, so I just threw in some fast bite foods to fill the tummies fast, and cut up their hot dogs in bite size manageable pieces with some raisins for the boy, and hummus for the girl.

THEY LOVED IT!

HOW SIMPLE an idea, but how BRILLIANT! A mom and former preschool teacher from California came up with muffin tin meals!

Now, the kids are asking for muffin tin meals at every supper, and if I can dish it in a muffin tin, I am!

The smaller sized sandwiches or hotdogs cut make it easier to eat, and they are HAPPY to have them cut for the muffin tin. If I suggested cutting a hot dog served on a plate in half to make it more manageable to hold they’d normally get really upset..possibly even major meltdowns, but in a muffin tin, they are happy to have it cut.

The girl HATES her foods touching each other, so this is PERFECT for her. Potatoes and corn and chicken all separated. Even gravy for dipping. She’s not whining about foods touching.

The hyper boy is making less mess and actually SITTING for supper!

In fact he was so excited for “our muffintin meal” for supper the other night he cleaned the WHOLE table off ( it was stacked with crafts, recycle, and the breakfast dishes)….and he worked really hard to wipe the table off! He was so Proud of himself! he said to me ” i’m being asponsible aren’t I mommy” with a big grin on his face.

Then in the evening after the kids were in bed. TMO and I were cutting beef up and I put the crock pot and slushie maker on the table for counter room, and in the morning the boy said ” AWWW man I JUST cleaned this WHOLE table and someone went and messed it ll up!”

I laughed so hard…nice role reversal. I cleared off the table and told them if they like muffin tin meals to keep the table and dining areas clean. Today they kept it clean again, and even put new place mats in place, and made a bouquet of fresh flowers from the garden. :)

So far… this is like a small miracle in my house! We are planning on shopping for some nicer looking colourful muffin tin type trays for the kids soon, or maybe making more traditional bento boxes.

The Mundane One has also said he’d like to eat that way too and spent some time on google looking at bento boxes.

Thanks @muffintinmom !! She and I connected on Twitter last night, and best part of all…. SHE’S a Super ADD Mom too!

Muffin Tin Mom

If you want to check it out, follow @muffintinmom on twitter, or read her blog at www.muffintinmom.com

a short, but much needed break at the beach

We live on lake Ontario. We have always enjoyed going to the quite beaches during off peak days/times, and taking walks.  we are in a very touristy area, so some times it can be jam packed. We love it on quiet days after a hard rain when no one is around. We have not done it in quite some time…I hope we can do it more often.

TMO’s guest post of the week…Chickens!

Peck & Poke

It was too rainy today to do much of anything outside with tools, but we had a break for long enough to take a few pics.

The first is our two girls standing on their roost watching me. These chickens are called Red Shavers, and they are a Canadian breed developed somewhere near Cambridge. Their colour is sex-linked – the pullets/hens are red and the cockerels/roosters are white – so sorting chicks is really easy. At least we know we’ll be getting all hens when the chicks arrive next month! Poke is on the left, and Peck is on the right. It isn’t the sharpest picture, but I was hurrying since it was sprinkling.

Next shot is of the back of the coop. Poke is still looking out the window being curious. I always heard that chickens were a bit thick-headed, but these are very bright and curious. They aren’t budgies by any means, but they’re definitely friendly and interested in us, and not the stupid birds my great uncle had in his coop. Maybe it’s because he had 30 or more and didn’t see people as part of their flock, while we have only 2 who think we’re just funny-looking chickens.

The last 2 shots are the front corners of the coop. We’ve got a padlock on it because we’re a little concerned about a couple of neighbouring kids – one in particular who comes across the back field and climbs the fence. After all the work, we don’t want the chickens getting out and lost. The other shot shows the nest-box side. Our two girls are using an old kitty litter pan for laying eggs at the moment, but when we have more pullets we’ll need more space so I’m making a box which can be attached to the side for them to share. I haven’t made the pegs for securing the door/holding the box yet, so the blocks of wood will keep it tight.

The roof isn’t weather-proof yet, and couldn’t be done in the weather we had today, so the tarp is keeping the rain out a bit. Tomorrow, we’ll get the roof done properly and put the whole thing up on stilts (it’s currently resting on the base without the legs attached to the bottom.

Anyone wanna chicken-sit tomorrow while we finish?

SIT. I said SIT.

-The Mundane One

a photo blog post of our garden progress.

the house we bought has a l shaped garden, long and thin, and a back area to garden in. I didn’t get to it last year, things got away from me, and it became too late. The Mundane one was very disappointed about it, as he love the garden, even thought he cannot do as much as he used to be able to do before he got sick.

So when I went to tackle the back garden area there was 3 foot high grass and old dead brush to clear first.

So I raked the dead brush and burned it, and then started with getting the grass cut down.

then I cut the grass…i tried digging with the shovel to trn the roots, but it killed my back, after sweating my butt off, i grabbed the lawn mover and mowed the tall grass with the lawn mower tilted up, to keep it from stalling out…like in a chomping motion. finally got it all chopped down, and then had to rake it all out to be able to start tilling.

then I tilled it over a few days, in between fixing the tiller 3 or 4 times. ( hubby did most of the tiller fixin’ work.)

This evening I took it back to the guy I bought it from and he’s gonna tinker with it. He plays with them and fixes up old stuff. If he’s not ADHD at 81, i’ll eat my shirt. He’s got unfinished projects everywhere, and a barn that screams ADHD organization. Every flat surface is covered, and there are piles everywhere. but he’s happy and it’s his space, and it’s been that way all his life, and he knows where EVERYTHING is. He stood around talking to me for a good 20 minutes, which *I* personally find funny, cause I can shoot the shit with just about anyone, but *I’m* usually not the one trying to get a word in edgewise and making motions towards needing to leave without being rude while the ADDer rambles on about 20 different topics that go from one to the other “stream of consciousness” topic changes. It, didn’t bother me a bit but it was a neat thing to witness and realize as I’m standing there.

I think I could sit and talk to him and his wife for hours. She is a  Mini Pearl impersonator, and she is GREAT!

The sweetest, funniest thing I think I have ever seen, is that in red nail polish she has written on his barn door “We eat at 12 noon and 5 pm SHARP, for an HOUR! Thanks Hilda” he chuckled and said she did it cause people come by and he just can’t be rude and not chat or see them. So, now people just know NOT to come by then. :)

with most of th4e tilling done we strung string across the garden to mark north and south so we can lay the 4 by 4 foot squares facing south for optimal sun.

Hubby was there with a compass and getting down to fine points on the north and south, I told him “it’s a garden, not rocket science dear!” he rolled his eyes in that “you and your ADD” to me, while I rolled my eyes at him in that “you and your OCD” this is why we’ve managed to make it 11 years…we keep it interesting butting heads constantly :P


then we strung thre areas for the 4 by 4 foot squares. We will have 13 in total. I wanted to start slow, and go with 4 or 6 this year and then add them as we go, but Mr perfection that he is made a plan and even hauled out the graph paper, named the squares and areas of the garden, and planned EVERY single plant in the 13 squares. i mock in a kidding tone, because this will help us save money, but currently I’m in massive pain, frustrated as hell that it is taking so long, and feeling a bit overwhelemd at the idea of getting in & caring for 13 squares! Gardening and ADHD don’t go well together. I’m anxious at the thought of the arguments of having let lettuce go to seed accidently, or killing plants be forgetting to water them. I’m going to have to make gardening a morning daily chore. once I get into doing it, I don’t mind, I find it meditative, but I have SOOO many things to do already.

so, this picture was taken this afternoon, just before I took a break to eat something, and then take the tiller to the old guy to have a look at it. 5 squares edged. the 6th being measured out to I can dig, and the white sheet of plywood marking where the 7th will go. after that I still have 5 more to till again, rake, de-root, mark out, and edge before we can start planting.

Back at it again tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t rain! I’ll be out in it anyway.

The Mundane One’s rant of the week

Ottawa kids soccer league stops blowout wins

A team that wins a soccer game by more than five goals will be declared the loser in an Ottawa children’s recreational soccer league.

Wha?

Cappon said he found out about the rule from the referee when he scored the last allowable goal for his team during a recent exhibition game, bringing the score to 6-1 early in the second half… His team spent the next 20 minutes just passing the ball and keeping it from their opponents, he recalled…

“I felt like I was mocking them sort of when I really didn’t want to … I didn’t feel good doing it, and I don’t think they felt good receiving it.”

WTF? They expect the kids to just stop TRYING? Is this supposed to be showing good sportsmanship? Because, telling kids NOT to do their best ISN’T good sportsmanship, it’s exactly the opposite.

Since the new policy went into effect, the league has received little feedback about it, (league chair) Cale said. In any case, he said, the league isn’t going to reverse its decision this early in the season just because because one or two parents aren’t happy.

Of course not. But we won’t point out the fact that they obviously didn’t PUBLICIZE this “rule” at all, right? It’s an excellent way to keep the complaints down: make some changes that people won’t like and hope that no one ever noticed that you did it.

Pardon my French, but this is fucking re-fucking-dicku-fucking-lous. Playing sports has become a complete joke – they don’t keep score for the younger kids, they discourage competition in team games, undermining the entire point of learning teamwork, and try and make every kid “feel good” regardless of their level of talent. But really, what does it accomplish? The kids who are not as good still KNOW they are not as good… do we really need to treat them like they are morons, too?

This kind of crap just burns my ass. Let the kids fucking play, and keep score. You know what I have never seen?

* Kids playing a game of baseball/soccer/hockey/football in a back yard and not keeping score…
* Kids who did keep score in their backyard game being somehow harmed by being on the losing team.

Could we PLEASE stop trying to protect kids by refusing to let them compete with one another?

I personally believe that this is the kind of shit that leads to MORE bullying, because now children need new ways to sort out their social hierarchies since they can’t classify by sports/academics/skills any more. What you end up with is a situation where the clear-cut playground leader is the kid who can be the biggest thug.

I love my children… I want them to succeed at life. But the definition of success includes overcoming adversity, and learning to lose fair-and-square builds character.

We need to stop turning children into little bundles of entitlement. You don’t always win in the real world, and hiding that fact from them until they’re adults does NOTHING to serve their ability to function in grown-up life.

I hate paperwork

doing paper work…i hate paper work

the amount of paper work that it takes to get things from our disability support is a full time job in an of itself. they changed the way you file for gas for medical travel.

It’s a TOTAL pain in the ass. they are cutting me short for mileage to my ADHD dr appointments, using google maps and having me travel on back dirt ( bog) pot hole infested unmaintained roads to shorten the distance, that are not even plowed in the winter and are considered snowmobile trails in the winter.

I don’t travel those roads, so they are cutting me short on klm per trip of the crappy 18 cents a klm to travel it… the trip is 137 klm round trip. it minimal, but it’s the point, they try to cut corners every chance they get.

Last year they took away the back to school clothing allowance for children, and the winter clothing allowance for children.

the 18 cents per klm doesn’t even cover the actual gas we use to go there and back. ( lets not even factor in maintenance and wear and tear on our vehicle, and the fact that we are too rural to take a bus, or taxi cab.)

and now for every trip I take BESIDES that appointment for medical travel, I have to fill out a medical cost form, submit gas, parking receipts for THAT day. We live rural, so we don’t buy gas ON THE DAY, we buy gas and fill up for multiple trips, and try to do so when gas prices are lower, since they go up and down more than a cheap hooker on Jarvis Street ( local Toronto ref sorry)

So, I just KNOW that when I submit one gas receipt for two seperate trips, because it was a 40 dollar gas purchase we made knowing we had multipul medical trips coming up, it’s going to confuse the morons that seem to work in our local office.

Once The Mundane One had to step by step, with a calculator, talk the worker for disability through a math calculation, because they were trying to say they over paid us, and were cutting us off for a funding we needed and were entitled to, and they still owed us for for another 5 months.

People seriously lose their brain matter when working for an agency or company that requires them to work from the step by step instructions in a book, they cannot think for themselves. it’s insane really!

He had to finally talk to her supervisor to get it straightened out! this is the level of competence we are dealing with here. We are smarter than them literally, but they treat us like we are retarded because we are disabled.

did I mention I hate paper work?

All Nighter

All nighter drive in weekend.

Our local drive in is wonderful, I love it there…laid back, a fun park for the kids, and NEW released movies for a GREAT price. the second you drive in the gate you go back 20 years.

The playground it all the old wooden and metal slides, and teeter totters, and old swings. the kind you could get a splinter from, or a cut from the painted over rust on the sides of the slide.. it’s GREAT :) Survival of the fittest :) We survived…I’m not into raising wimps :P

On the Victoria Day weekend they always have an all nighter, 4 movies back to back.

the boy being 5 still gets in for free, and the girl cub is $3….so it’s a good bang for our limited buck.

We don’t have a lot of funds for entertainment, in fact the internet is what we consider our entertainment fund, and we try to do a lot of stuff for as cheap as possible or free ( and a bit of gas money), but we always try to swing going to the all nighter.

We spent the last of our money this month ( save some gas for the kids swim glasses midweek) to go to the all nighter…Sadly… it almost didn’t happen because CFShubby (The mundane one) was in so much pain going, the idea of being cramped in a car for almost 12 hours between going and being there and getting home, we had a bit of a meltdown from frustration before we left. Living with CFS is not easy for anyone.He was too sore… I was frustrated at the idea of him not being able to go. I’m a problem solver, so I was trying to come up with ideas to make it better for him and didn’t want him to miss it & The kids would be dissapointed if we didn’t go. HE was crabby because my ideas were none that appealed to him ( thought he is a bit stubborn, and sometimes I think if he at least TRIED the idea, it might work. shhh)

He came with us….and made it through…but it is pretty bad when he can’t even do these things as well anymore. It’s a whole other blog post, but I’m so tired of my husband’s life being limited to coming to the living room to try and play some video games with the kids for a few hours before needing to crash again.

Anyway…for $23 ( and the gas there) we saw 4 new movies. Shrek 4, Iron Man 2, Clash of the titans, and She’s out of my league.

I tolerated but chuckled in a few places at Shrek 4.. it actually has a real good moral lesson to ADULTS who gripe to much about their lives( so basically all of Twitter)

Iron man 2 was good….I enjoyed it…except for the bathroom trips with each kid, and therefore missing some of the best action scenes. RDJ is hot as usual as Tony Stark…but I much preferred him in Sherlock Holmes. ( glad there is another one in the making :) )

Clash of the titans.. I didn’t watch, I mostly dozed through it…too much mumbly dialogue…thick accents for my CAPD and it was going on 3 am…. no ADHD meds left in me, and not entertaining enough for my attention span at that hour.

She’s out of my League.. was actually what I’d have to stick in the category of “good” and though I would not pay a full theatre price to see a basic, typical boy gets girl, boy loses girl” romantic comedy…if you do get the opportunity to see it for cheap, or rent when it comes on DVD, it is worth the watch just for the one HILARIOUS shaving scene…it by far tops the 40 year old virgin waxing scene :)

We got home as the sun was coming up, and I made breakfast for everyone, as I watched the birds and the chimpmunk living in our wood pile wake for the morning get breakfast too. I watched a Starling steal hay from our bales we put around the house in the winter, and take them up to a tree and add it to it’s nest.Then we all crashed in bed exhausted.

It’s going to be a short, kind of lazy day. It’s like Sunday to us today being the holiday weekend.

Everyday Conversations

The Mundane One and I over Lunch.

me: you should have seen the boy on the balance beam this morning, he was really going..so fast, he was flying like a bat in the wind

hubby: bat in the wind?
( I always get those “old sayings”/metaphors/assimilies wrong since I grew up with a deaf father, who heard them wrong all his life and passed them onto me, so i knew I said it wrong by his question)

me: ya, you know. like really fast.. I guess that one is wrong too right?

hubby: uh YA.. you’ve been saying that for months now, and I keep trying to ask you what the hell…

me: ya. i dunno. i got that one from my dad I guess…. bat out of hell then right?

hubby: ya I guess that would work

me: whatever, he was going really jam fast!

hubby: jam? what is THAT?

me: giggle.. ya. I dunno, just came out, meant to say damn.. but…

hubby: jam tho?

me: YA… I’m trying to curse less for fuck’s sake ok? so, I said JAM instead of DAMN

hubby: (laughing) so.. ok.. how’s that working for ya so far?

me: really fuckin’ great! :P

hubby: ( shakes head and laughs at me in the knowing.. you’re hopeless, but I love ya anyway look)

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