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This is how we enjoy our snow days.
Redneck Sledding
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Monthly Archives: January 2010
Daily Journal – January 13th, 2010
Today was a good day. My stomach was loads better. I did get dressed. I even made a lovely beef stew. The only issue I have had today is that I have been extremely tired. Oh well, I just have days like that.
I have looked and looked and just cannot find a Wednesday meme that I want to participate in. Well, I found a couple that appealed to me, but they did not look like they were currently active. I will keep trying to find one for Wednesday. I have enjoyed doing the memes.
So I decided to work on the Skippin Ninja persona. I am going to create a blog dedicated to the adventures of the Skippin Ninja. This will be a huge stretch for me. It is one thing to use your imagination and keep the adventures to yourself. It is something else to share them with other people.
I have been asked to consider writing a book about me and my life. Based on some of the topics I blog about and other things that I have not put in my blog. If anyone has an opinion about whether they think a book would be a good idea for me to write or not, I would appreciate hearing it.
Picture of the Day – January 13th, 2010
The last few years of having a mom who was “checked out” due to severe depression has been hard on my daughter, Anna. In an effort to try and rebuild that relationship and because she really enjoys taking pictures, she was given a page in my blog to show off her pictures. All the pictures you will see in this section, will have been taken by my daughter. I personally think she does an awesome job.
Anna enjoys see any feedback anyone has about her pictures, so if you like what you see here, why not leave her a comment and let her know
Minnie Under Blanket
The Skippin Ninja
I did a funny not-so-superhero name generator and loved the name it came up with for me. The Skippin Ninja. I instantly got a really cool mental image in my head.
When I was a kid and things were bothering me, or I was really sad about something, I would pretend I was a superhero of some sorts to get through the day. That little game helped me make it through more than one really bad day when I was growing up.
I played it only in my head, and no one ever knew that is what I was doing. However, it always gave me the extra little bit I needed for whatever reason. As a superhero, I had more physical strength, and I had more confidence in myself. I had something that was secret, and it belonged only to me.
With that I game I could slay the dragons in my life. I could right the wrongs that had been done to me. I could become impervious to hands that hurt and words that hurt.
I mentioned this little game and how it made me feel to my counselor a few weeks ago. She suggested I use it now, as an adult, to help get through bad days. Whether it was a bad day from depression, or anxiety, or my diabetes was making me feel bad, of if my asthma was acting up.
I had not really given it much thought since then. However, when that name came up from the name generator, The Skippin Ninja, I totally saw my new alter ego.
I get this mental image of The Skippin Ninja kicking the snot out of any depressed thoughts, suicidal thoughts, or just plain negative thoughts I might have, and then just cheerfully skipping away, whistling a merry tune. I can also see The Skippin Ninja motivating me to make sure I check my sugar when I am supposed to and not procrastinating when it comes to shot time. The Skippin Ninja is so full of confidence that when I get anxious or am close to a panic attack, she prevents my anxiety from overwhelming me. I can envision the Skippin Ninja, skipping around the people in my life that I need to set better boundaries with, all the while making silly faces and mocking them so that those people are no longer intimidating to me.
Watch out bad days, The Skippin Ninja is on the prowl.
Daily Journal – January 11th, 2010
I spent most of Monday dealing with some sort of stomach thing. It was either a virus or one of my medications for diabetes was upsetting my stomach or it very easily could have been my gastroparesis acting up.
I had a nice chat with my new daughter-in-law today. It is still hard to wrap my brain around the fact that I am someone’s mother-in-law. I do not feel like I am old enough for that to have happened.
I have a confession. I never got dressed today. I felt so bad from whatever was making my stomach upset, that I never could get the motivation to get out of my pj’s.
Picture of the Day – January 12th, 2010
The last few years of having a mom who was “checked out” due to severe depression has been hard on my daughter, Anna. In an effort to try and rebuild that relationship and because she really enjoys taking pictures, she was given a page in my blog to show off her pictures. All the pictures you will see in this section, will have been taken by my daughter. I personally think she does an awesome job.
Anna enjoys see any feedback anyone has about her pictures, so if you like what you see here, why not leave her a comment and let her know.
Anna enjoys see any feedback anyone has about her pictures, so if you like what you see here, why not leave her a comment and let her know.
The sky before the snow started
The Queen's Tuesday Meme
The Blabbermouth Meme
1. When you were a child did you ever blab a family secret and get in trouble for it later?
I honestly cannot remember if I did this or not. However, knowing how kids are, I am sure I probably did.
2. Have you said anything in the last 24 hours that you regret?
Not in the last 24 hours….
3. Have you ever blabbermouthed something to a significant other that in hindsight you really should have kept to yourself?
Yes, absolutely.
4. Have you ever written anything on your blog that you wish you could take back?
Nope. I have written things that are certainly painful for some people to read, but I do not wish to take any of it back.
5. Are you the blabber or the blabbee? Tell us your most embarrassing blabbermouth moment.
I have been both. I am not really one or the other now. Trying to think of the most embarrassing one is difficult.
I think the most embarrassing one is the time I passed on the information that I had been told about a particular incident, and the person I told it to already knew about it. In addition, the things I had been told were actually not true. So not only did I get busted being a blabbermouth, I busted the original blabbermouth in a lie.
6. Who is the biggest blabbermouth tattletale in your household?
This one is easy. My daughter. Whenever I do something that I wish to keep secret, I have to specifically tell her to keep her mouth shut. It never works.
7. You are the Blog Paparazzi! Which blogger’s real photograph are you most interested in getting?
I am new to blogging so I am just now building my list of blogs I read on a regular basis. Every one I go to now already has a real picture of the blogger.
8. If you could hire the loudest and most skilled blabbermouth in the universe to do your talking for you and advertise it well, what message would you like to spread to humanity? Don’t hold back.
I would really like my town crier (blabbermouth) to pass on the message of not making judgments about people with mental illnesses. They have a disease, just like diabetes is a disease. They cannot help how they behave when their disease is out of control and most likely how they are behaving is not how they would behave if they were getting treatment. We should be supportive of people with mental illnesses and encourage them to get help for their disease.
Eye Of Newt And Tongue Of Frog…..A Little Of This And Some Of That…
Every time I do an internet search on depression and anxiety, I am amazed at the amount of sites that state that they have the best depression and anxiety cures. They consist of herbal remedies, prescription medications, yoga, spa, relaxation, lobotomies, the power of positive thinking, meditation, hydrotherapy, hypnotherapy, electric shock therapy, behavioral therapy, no therapy, instant cures, prayer, sweat lodge, leeches… I am sure you get the idea.
I have a hard enough time picking a restaurant when I have more than two to choose from, there is no way I could see all those sites and then decide on what depression treatment would work best for me. I would either be so overwhelmed by the choices and not be able to choose anything or I would close my eyes and point my finger and whatever ever my finger pointed to is what I would try for my depression and anxiety.
I do not know how other people wade through all of that and pick what they think would work for them. Most people I know who are dealing with severe depression are incapable of making decisions when there are that many items to choose from.
Most of those sites claim to have the “best” cure for depression and anxiety. Or they say they have the “only” true cure for depression and anxiety. How can they know that theirs is the “best” cure or the “only” cure? People are so different from each other and there is more than one cause for depression. Even someone who takes a more traditional, medical approach for the treatment of their depression often end up having to try more than one medication before the right combination is found for them.
After I tried to kill myself, I was not really given any choice about where I was going to get treatment from. At the time we had no medical insurance, which meant that there was no way I could afford to go to a private psychiatrist. The hospital told me and my family that I should go to a local mental health, out patient facility. It is government funded, and the patients are charged for the services there based on their income.
The only choice I really had at the time was whether I was going to get help or not. If I did not get help, I believe my family would have had me committed into a state run mental health facility. I chose the out patient facility. I did not even have to worry about how I was going to get there. My husband asked my mother to take me.
I was pretty angry at the time, because I felt like they were treating me like a child. However, now I see the wisdom in what they did. They knew that I was not in a place where I could make any decisions about my own well being, so they made things very easy for me.
After I started treatment there it took about 8 different medications and a trip to a state run mental health facility before the proper combination of medicine could be figured out for me. I also see the counselor once a week. So when I read the sites that claim to have the “best” or “only” cures, I am very skeptical. I am not discounting their product and saying it has absolutely no value in the treatment of depression. What I am saying though is that, in my opinion, there is no singular thing that works on depression. I believe that most people need to employ the use of more than one type of depression treatment/medication, and these sites advertising they way they do, can be very misleading to the newly diagnosed.
I rarely recommend, or advise anyone about depression and anxiety treatments, but today I feel compelled to. Choose carefully when deciding what treatment you think will work best for you. Do not get discouraged if you have to use more than one type of treatment for your depression. Finally, if you are like most people with severe depression and have a hard time choosing where to start, get someone you trust to help you make that decision. There is no shame in asking for help.
Daily Journal – January 11th, 2010
Oh what a nice, quiet day it has been. My husband and daughter have spent the day away doing things for other people. They took a truck load of firewood to my grandmother, chopped up some firewood for us, went to my mother-in-law’s house to repair/replace some frozen/busted water pipes. I have had the house to myself and Minnie and I have been cuddling under the covers together.
Minnie
I got very clever this evening. I had accidentally let the fire die down until is was nothing but coals. I put some more wood on it thinking it would start back up. It did not. In the past when we would go camping, I would just blow on the hot coals and the fire would start back up. Seeing as I have asthma now, I do not have the lung capacity to do that anymore. I got the air mattress pump and pointed the nozzle towards the hot coals and pumped the handle. The fire started right back up and there was no work involved. Yay me!
What is it and what do you do with it?
Welcome to Monday Mayhem where no two Mondays are ever the same. This week we are doing the “What is it and what do you do with it?” meme. For each image, describe in your opinion, what it is and what you would do with it.You can use a simple explanation or story. Have fun.
A small fish tank. I would put a goldfish in it and name the goldfish Jaws.
The bottom part is a headless octopus robot. Where its head should be is a dog with long ears, sticking straight up in the air. I would use it to rule the world.
This looks like some sort of fungal disease on someone’s foot. I would do nothing with it. In fact I would run away. This is the very reason I have a foot phobia.
It is a hot air balloon. As simple as that. I would do nothing with it. The idea of flying through the air with only a little flame keeping me there is so not appealing.
A dollar bill, and approximately my net worth.
This picture is very interesting. To me it appears to be some decorative stone work on the side of a building. It is very appealing to me. I would probably stand on the side walk and stare at it for a while.
Poo! Poo! Poo! I see enough of this from my dogs.