Me #1: “Crap. I forgot the salt and pepper.”
Me #2: “That’s ok, you’ve got red onion. And cheeeeese.”
Me #1: “It’s good, but that does not make it ok. I’ll just have to try again tomorrow.”
Me #2: Whatever. This omelet is delicious!”
I’m on a little omelet kick lately. I wonder how long it will last?
When I have my cochlear implants on I can hear and understand a good majority of things, but when they are off I hear nothing. It’s true I had lost the majority of my hearing before I was implanted, but the surgeries removed what small level of hearing I had left. It’s just one of the very slight downsides to getting cochlear implants, no sweat. But what that means is that I am 100% deaf when I’m not wearing the earpieces, which is mainly when I’m sleeping and showering.
My kids understand this new reality and have adapted. If they wake in the middle of the night and need their mom, they use sign language. If that’s not sufficient, they get an earpiece and battery from my charger on the nightstand and hand it to me to put on.
And as you can see from the photo, when I’m in the shower and they want to tell me they are going outside to play with a neighbor, they leave a note under the bathroom door!
Kids who live with a deaf parent learn to be creative. My kids are so smart and resilient and I couldn’t be prouder!
You’ve heard people say it, “just take it one day at a time”. It’s a way to give reassurance when life overwhelms you. And generally, I would say it helps, to break big things into smaller things.
But not always. I hate to admit it, but MS fatigue really kicks my butt sometimes. This past week or so has been yet another of those times. I struggle. Not only with keeping up with my routines caring for the house and feeding the family, but also with the most basic of self-care tasks like making a sandwich or taking a shower. It’s just utterly draining.
So here is what I decided to do with today: rather than one enormous day at a time, I took it 15 itty bitty minutes at a time. I just set a timer and when time was up, I examined how I was feeling. Some times I felt good enough to go another 15, and other times I determined I needed to rest – but only for the allotted 15 minutes.
You know what? It worked well! It helped keep me from retreating into a slump or getting distracted and losing track of time. And best of all, I stayed to feel useful again, in spite of the fatigue.
I am reading this book – “Sharp Objects: A Novel” by Gillian Flynn. It’s so hard to put down! I just have to know whodunnit. I think it must have been Adora but don’t tell me. I’m only two thirds of the way through.
I’ve always loved a good mystery. I am my mother’s daughter 🙂
This is a good way to warm up your slippers! At least she’s not chewing on them, right?
So. I’ve been feeling rather irritated with myself lately, or just irritated in general, I can’t decide which. I find myself wasting a lot of time. It’s true that I have a lot of time with being home all day, no job, kids at school, and I can certainly afford to waste it. But I just don’t feel satisfied with that. I believe when I get in the habit of wasting a lot of time, that it sends me on a sluggish spiral down to Lazy Town. Then nothing gets accomplished. No book gets written, no good meals get planned or prepared, the dust starts to settle and cake up on the surfaces (metaphorically, mostly. Mostly.).
So I made an executive decision today and uninstalled Facebook from my phone. Because I’m pretty positive that’s what’s causing most of this. Not all, but a good portion of it. I also spend a lot of time reading books on my phone, but I’m not ready to call that “wasting time”. I love the books.
Here’s the issue with Facebook lately. My feed is 90% BORING. The other 10% contains thoughts and stories and updates from people I actually know. I know some people have decided to check out of Facebook altogether, but that 10% I would be missing is too important to me to give up. So rather than giving it up, I’m just going to limit my exposure to the section of the day when I intentionally sit down with my laptop to “work”. I have my alloted time every day to work: pay bills, plan meals, write, etc. and when I’m done working or need a break I can hop over to Facebook and catch up. So I’ll still be around, but it won’t consume my time or thoughts. In theory, of course, it’s only been 12 hours 😉
I grew up in Michigan. We have all the weather here. I love most of it, but especially the snow kind. This morning we had the first snowfall of the year, and I’m not kidding, when I got out of bed and looked out the window my heart skipped a beat and I had to catch my breath. Those clichés became for real, you know?
So today’s tidbit is that I am excited for this season, and below a picture of my kids and the snowman they created at 9 am. I mean, I was still in my pajamas, out in the front lawn, to take that picture. Don’t ever say I don’t sacrifice for the blog. You are welcome!
Today I did something kind of funny but kind of scary at the same time. I decided to fry an egg for a late breakfast, so I put a pan on the stove and turned on the heat to start warming the pan. Then I went upstairs to get a pair of slippers because my feet were cold. While I was upstairs I found a basket of clean towels that needed folding. Of all the laundry, towels are the thing I hate folding *least*, so I thought to myself, “what the heck, might as well fold these towels while I’m up here.” As I was folding I was thinking about how cold I’ve been feeling, and remembered that we had an electric blanket stored in the hope chest near our bed. So, I decided to dig that out and give it a go, bring it downstairs to see if it still worked.
And that’s when I smelled it. It was very subtle, but I have a keen sense of smell so I pick up these things. It was a definite smell of HEAT. Oh, dear lordy I left the stove on!! In a near panic, I headed down the stairs – cautiously but quickly – to be sure there was no catastrophe (i.e. FIRE) going on the kitchen.
And thankfully, there was no fire. Not even a scorched-to-hell frying pan. Just a really hot, really lonely, really ready for the egg, frying pan. I turned the stove off, removed the pan from the hot burner, and headed back upstairs to finish with my derailed train of thought activities.
It turned out fine, but I really need to be more careful. New rule: Stay in the kitchen while I’m cooking. That, or just stick to fruit smoothies. Far less dangerous!
Little M.S. Runner 