Yes, I fell off the face of the earth…
In a matter of 5 days, my treo crashed TWICE. Is it because I said such lovely things in my last post? I’ve installed a new program to save my preferences, so evidently this is a common occurrence or they wouldn’t have software to protect you from it.
Anyhoo, I have been back in SC, just me The Kiddos and The AP. The Brother has a nice take on the trip. I sooooo want a Wii. Especially since now The Super Doc has prescribed me to workout. Yeah, I know I needed to but I guess I just needed a professional to tell me to motivate me.
To add to the weekend I got to spend time with The HS BFF and her family. We hadn’t even met each other’s 2 year olds yet! It was a nice get together.
As far as blogging goes, I am slammed packed in January. I didn’t realize it was going to be this busy or I would have taken some vitamins or something. After my meeting tonight I have the weekend to catch up on spending quality time with my family before I fly off to Houston on Monday for the rest of the month. Well, I’ll be back on the 31st just in time for the month-end crunch for work. I think Feb 1st I’ll just sleep all day. Would that be OK?
So I have been way behind on commenting on people’s blogs because I have been reading them on my Treo but saving them so that I’ll remember to comment when I’m at my computer next, so I have like 383 posts marked as “unread” in my Reader for me to wade through when I get a spare 4 hours to do that. It’s crazy but I miss everyone, so I hope that you stop by and read this so you know that I miss our “conversations.”
I have another thought provoker for you….
–Virgil
I’ll make it last weekend’s Success Sunday (don’t feel bad Gwen – it’s THURSDAY for me! Ha!)
Treo Post
Trying this out to see if I can post from my Treo without using the Mobile Blogger (a pain). I’ve had my Treo for about a year now and it took me a week to decide to get it. Even among the wave of blackberries and iPhones I must say I have grown fond of my gadget. I have even learned to wrap my right brain around it to make it more visual, thus more and more functional.
Any other Treonauts out there?
To everything…my turn, turn, turn…
There again, another lyrical reference in my post title. That’s pretty hilarious that I realized that about myself.
Anyhoo, I love the “spectrum” of responses that I got to my last post. Mandolin Mom sent me a text message saying, “when are we going to hear YOUR opinion?” So fair is fair.
When I had this group discussion in person, there was also a spectrum of responses. My final statement was that there isn’t a “catch all” comfort phrase for everyone for every situation. In other words, a phrase may speak to one positively and offend another. I think that is what diversity is all about. Acceptance and tolerance is another issue…
I personally find a lot of comfort in knowing that everything happens for reason, season, or lifetime.. That thought gets me through (and will get me through) the toughest times of my life. Knowing that Someone Else is in control is very comforting and it allows me to enjoy my life.
It reminds me of the strategy that The Teacher gave me: “take away his control.” In other words, I couldn’t give The Elder a choice of what he wants to eat, to wear, to go, etc. I, as his care-taker, took care of that for him. He did not need to be responsible for such things. He did not need to worry about those things and build up his anxiety which came out in very impulsive, aggressive, and frustrating ways. I had a really hard time with this strategy. I was so used to giving him a choice of 2 things, mainly to just get a response from him since he did not answer open-ended questions. “Do you want oatmeal or grits for breakfast?” when I should have actually just said, “We are having oatmeal for breakfast.” or “You will wear a coat to school.” Again, SO hard for me to do. I still catch myself giving him choices where I shouldn’t. (To clarify, picking a movie, toy, game, etc are fine choices. It was his basic needs that I needed to take full control of.) Shortly after starting (not perfecting) the strategy, we started to see a huge difference….he was “freed up to be a kid, have fun, relax, and be happy.”
Similarly, I can act out impulsively, aggressively, and in frustrating ways when I’m trying to be in control and do it my way when it may or may not be obvious to me that I am not in control. It gives me much sympathy and empathy to my Kiddos when they are fighting me on things that they can’t wrap their young brains around. There are just some things in life that I feel I will just never understand, but can rest in the assurance that somehow, somewhere, it is fulfilling its purpose, even if that purpose has absolutely nothing to do with me.
Great discussion guys! I might do this again sometime. I’m out of town this weekend but will do the drawing for some mystery prize from the responses to the last post (so get them in quick if you haven’t yet…you got til Tuesday!!).
By the way, sorry I’m so behind writing at everyone’s blog (including my own). I’ve been away from my computer a lot lately and have been reading posts on my Treo and it is a pain in the you know what to submit comments via a Smartphone! I shall return! Thanks for continuing to visit here and welcome new readers/commenters!
