Taking a little me time

Munchkin is at his dads this week, and I'm in dire need of a pick me up.  Funny how not having your baby with you makes it hard to realize your purpose in life.

I'm off to the salon!  My ends are frizzy, my roots are grey, and my eyebrows are straining to meet in the middle.  It's about time. 

Hopefully I'll return in a few hours with a renewed sense of self,  and a desire to get something done this week.

The First Day of Summer Break

At last it is here!  Summer vacation has arrived, complete with all the excitement and optimism.  It's just past lunchtime and we're already bored.  We've done chores, played games, planned future activities, made dish detergent, and even attempted "rest time".  I think more time needs to be spent on the future activity planning!

We're toying with the idea of a days of the week plan adapted from something I found on Pinterest.  Make Something Monday, Take a Trip Tuesday, Wet and Wild Wednesday, Thinking Thursday, and Fun Friday.  So now I'm pouring through my pins looking at all the tidbits I've been setting aside for this very purpose and trying to categorize them.  We plan to jot the ideas onto slips of paper in a jar for each day, then do a random draw each morning, or maybe the night before.  God forbid I implement this and am missing something crucial at the last minute!

Munchkin seems excited, but just like his Mama wants to over think the plan.  Wish us luck!

Back on the wagon, post holiday season

Had a fairly busy month, so I've been absent lately.  My little one turned 6, and he now thinks he's an adult.  Christmas went well.  Took the gentleman friend for the first time.  The weather has sucked with good doses of snow about once a week.

I'm just trying to take it easy and enjoy life right now.

The magic of siblings

I myself am an only child.  In fact I only have three cousins.  We are a very small family.  I've always been curious what it would be like to have a sibling.

My ex-husband has a sister, and though there were vague attempts at making a connection, one was never made.  It didn't really seem like he even liked her, they fought like children.  "He's looking at me", "She touched me" it was incredibly annoying to an outsider.  However, there was always an undeniable bond that I would never understand.

My honey has a sister, and they seem normal to me.  They enjoy and enrich each other.  Their bond is almost a little sickening, but I do love to watch it.

Honey is having a rough time lately.  His Mom had a very serious health scare.  His parents moved some 13 hours away.  His job is pretty crappy.  In general not a great holiday season for him.  I try to be supportive, I try to nurture, but there's only so much I can do.  Enter Big Sister.

In the course of one phone call last night from his sister, Honey's attitude improved, practically a 180 turnaround.  There is a level of reassurance, and love that only family can provide, and I'm so glad that Honey has that.

Recipe failure

I tried tonight to make a comfort meal from my honeys childhood. When he was little his Mom made salmon cakes which he enjoyed very much.  When she remarried, his step-dad didn't like them, so that put an end to them.

He's been having a rough couple weeks, so I thought I'd try to make them for him as a pick-me-up.  FAIL!


I looked at about a dozen recipes online, and none were like those I remember making previously that I enjoyed myself.  I seem to remember using mayo, but I couldn't find one that listed mayo as an ingredient.  So I figured I was confused and made an interpretation of one I found online.  Salmon, eggs, fresh bread crumbs, dill, and pepper.  Mix, form, dredge, chill, and pan fry.

They were awful.  The salmon was frozen fillets that I poached with lemon juice, vermouth, and some minced onion.  It was fabulous.  The bread and eggs were fresh, the dill was dried.  I keep wondering if the vegetable oil was past it's prime, though oil turns over pretty quickly around here.  I can't really say.  I wonder if they were missing some mayonnaise?l

I might try again, but this time I'll just wing it!

How do people live like that?

I have recently become fascinated with two reality shows "Hoarders", and "Billy the exterminator".  I never had any interest in either before, but once I saw them, much like a train wreck, I can't look away.

Last night on Hoarders there was a man, Sir Patrick, who never wanted to grow up and face reality.  I am not a particularly  judgmental person, and I have many friends and acquaintances who dance to the beat of a different drummer.  This guy was freaky.  He was a tiny man, who had about 12 names, thought himself to be a leprechaun, collected a ton of porcelain dolls, and in my opinion was clearly not heterosexual though they mentioned him wanting a lady companion.

His house was dripping with angel statuary, oriental nick knacks, he wore kimonos.  He was a-ok with who he was, and had no problem explaining things to his doctor, and his organizer, like it was perfectly normal.  Until they opened the fridge.

Though his house was cram packed with stuff, it seemed clean.  But inside the fridge there were roaches.  Maybe a coupe dozen little roaches in a little puddle of goop under the bottom crisper drawer.  He came UNHINGED.  This had never happened before, his world of "Camelot" was not dirty.  He then decided that the entire kitchen should be dumped.

I obviously don't endorse filth, but who among us has not found a spill under that crisper that you hadn't known about?  It's the perfect hiding place for yuck, and I don't think that it makes you a bad person.  He was in Florida, and to my knowledge there are a ton of bugs there.  If this was the biggest of his problems, I think he was doing just fine.

Now onto Billy.  This morning there was a show about an obviously poor family who had a roach problem.  And by problem, I mean PROBLEM.  Their home was infested.  Not one surface was clean.  There was garbage piled high, when they moved the fridge the wall was covered.  These people lived in this house, and they didn't have a problem with it until their fancy pants cousin came over and called Billy.

I am not the most tidy person.  I have my own issues and do tend to cling to things to brace me during personal crises.  But we're talking about family heirlooms, and things that hold personal memories for me. Not to make an excuse, because I know it's a problem.  I am not proud of it, but I'm working on it.  I have someone in my life now who is supportive, and is really helping me work through it.  But bugs?  Really?  NO!

My home is over 100 yrs. old, and has lots of little cracks and crevices the creepy crawlies can find there way in, and as soon as you seal one, three more open.  It's a losing battle.  I just keep up with it.  As the seasons change we get a few "water bugs" by the back door, which I know are in the roach family, but they are loners.  I see one, I kill one, and that's it.  Then we get a mouse, and again I catch it, and it's over.  One of each per year.

When is the moment that your brain flips the switch and says "this is normal".  I know that my collection of stuff is not normal, and I know that bugs are not welcome.  But for Sir Patrick, and the Louisiana family that switch was flipped.  They had resigned themselves to their crazy, and were just going with it.  I fear that even if they get their current issue under control, they have obliterated a fine line between normal, and insanity, and will head back to this same place.  There are much deeper seated issues there, and despite the best effort of those involved, these people need way more help than a half hour reality show can provide either of them.

Neurologically based Chiropractic

Like tons of other people, my life is crazy.  I've got a lot going on, much of which is detrimental to me, but beyond my control.  I show signs of those stresses, in ways that are then detrimental to those around me sometimes.  I'm cranky, and snippy, and my loved ones don't get to see the best me there is.  That's not fair to them.

I had a nasty kink in my neck, and decided to see the chiropractor.  The first appealing thing about him is that he's got a "cash donation" system, so you donate as much or as little as you can.  That means when I'm really in a bad place, I don't have to forgo getting some help for lack of a money or insurance.  He is also a very likable guy, and I feel good about his advice, as well as the care he gives.

He has recently switched from a traditional approach to a new "neurologically based" model.  So, rather than go in and get crunched on, you now take a class, get a brain wave test, take digital pictures of your posture, and then meet again with the doctor for a report of his findings.  Today was my visit to hear his report.

So, my Alpha waves are on target, and my Beta and Theta are imbalanced.  He tells me that my Beta is my elevated.  My stress response is tuck in the "on" position.  My Theta, the growth and repair phase is also stuck and doesn't disengage.  I'm not sure how that happens, that I'm over and under reactive, but he says its possible.

So now I'm on the schedule for twice a week adjustments to my spine, which will ideally reduce stresses on my frame, and allow my body to open it's healing pathways to fix itself.  Sounds like hoodoo, but he has an example to make every question I asked make perfect sense.  At the end of the day, even if it is hoodoo, I feel better when I leave.  We shall see....