(wow, I need to step up posting...almost a month between entries again argh)
Last week we spent a blissful, relaxing six days in upstate New York with Geo's grand parents (also known as "the greats")
Sure it was humid, rained a lot, and rivers flooded. Who cared though? It was vacation and we relaxed and slept and ate too much delicious food, and maybe we even got stuck in a mud patch at a winery that ended with our truck and the guy behind us being covered in mud (or maybe we didn't...we did haha)
It was great spending a week with two people who've been committed to one another for more than 60 years. Getting to see a marriage like that first hand was kind of eye opening. Geo and I talked about it after we left and we came up with the following things that must make a marriage like that successful. They are, in no particular order, doing the little things, being each others' closest friend, and being kind to one another.
It seems simple, right? Be kind, do the little things, and be friends. I think a lot of people forget these little basic things when the day to day stuff starts to pile up. Kids, bills, groceries, cars, mail, jobs, hobbies, etc etc all make up such a large part of our day to day life that we can often forget that those things matter too.
Geo works third shifts; he sometimes works 12 hour third shifts and more often than not, he works many many days in a row. Our time together while he is awake is very limited; in those few hours we have to cram as much as we can into them. Discussing the kids, the bills, work, what have you; it's easy to forget the little things so this year, as it draws closer to our anniversary, I'm going to work very hard on doing the little things every day even if it's just waking him up more gently or making sure his favorite coffee cup is clean when he gets up.
What are the little things in your relationship that you can do to make things easier on your partner?
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Hello My Name is Chrissi
Annnnd I have a laundry soap problem.
Or rather, I have a laundry soap BUYING problem.
There are very few things I feel like I need to have multiples of as far as household goods go; the things I have to have multiples of are:
Boxes of pasta (at least two back ups at all times)
The Notebook on DVD (don't judge me, if you're a bird, I'm a bird dammit)
Diet Coke
and...
Laundry soap.
The first three are pretty self explanatory, the laundry soap flummoxes even me. No idea why, but when I only have one bottle of laundry soap in the pantry I feel sort of panicky. Like, what if there's a laundry emergency during a blizzard and I don't have enough soap (highly HIGHLY unlikely scenario, but still, what IF?) What if people came over to stay for a day or two and I ran out of soap? The horror.
The odd thing? I'm walking distance to TWO places that sell laundry soap. It's not like I'd ever be in a position to NOT get more soap. I highly doubt that production of laundry soap is going to cease and it's going to become a black market hot ticket item. If I was smart, I'd make my own laundry soap. Apparently it's cheap and plentiful that way which might put me at ease a bit more.
So that's one of my quirks and I'm sharing it with all of you...you're welcome (??)
Here are a few reasons I need to stock pile laundry soap...
Or rather, I have a laundry soap BUYING problem.
There are very few things I feel like I need to have multiples of as far as household goods go; the things I have to have multiples of are:
Boxes of pasta (at least two back ups at all times)
The Notebook on DVD (don't judge me, if you're a bird, I'm a bird dammit)
Diet Coke
and...
Laundry soap.
The first three are pretty self explanatory, the laundry soap flummoxes even me. No idea why, but when I only have one bottle of laundry soap in the pantry I feel sort of panicky. Like, what if there's a laundry emergency during a blizzard and I don't have enough soap (highly HIGHLY unlikely scenario, but still, what IF?) What if people came over to stay for a day or two and I ran out of soap? The horror.
The odd thing? I'm walking distance to TWO places that sell laundry soap. It's not like I'd ever be in a position to NOT get more soap. I highly doubt that production of laundry soap is going to cease and it's going to become a black market hot ticket item. If I was smart, I'd make my own laundry soap. Apparently it's cheap and plentiful that way which might put me at ease a bit more.
So that's one of my quirks and I'm sharing it with all of you...you're welcome (??)
Here are a few reasons I need to stock pile laundry soap...
Friday, June 7, 2013
PSA of the Day: OCD
I haven't been blogging much; time has been slipping away from me and I just haven't had the chance to sit and write, however I've got something on my mind and I know it'll be good to get it all out :)
The other day at my chiropractor's office, the chiro, massage therapist, and a client were having a discussion about things that bug them. As it inevitably does it turned into an "oh my god my ocd..." type conversation. OCD, you know, obsessive compulsive disorder; the disorder that movies have shown as someone having to wash their hands or count things. Clearly OCD is being annoyed with little things right?
Overheard conversation
"omg, I am so ocd about my microwave timer. If it's not at zero it really bugs me"
"me too! or if I find dishes in the sink after I've washed them! ugh! ocd right!?"
"ha ha, I have you all beat, I can't handle the shoes being out of line at the door, I totally have to straighten them or it'll drive me crazy"
All of these things are NOT OCD. These things are annoyances. These are things all of us dislike (to a certain extent and you can substitute whatever word you'd like instead of shoes: dishes, blankets, whatever) but they are NOT OCD.
What, pray tell, is OCD then?
Let me give you an example.
You're nine years old and go to the grocery store with mom. You've managed to turn in all of your homework on time that week and as a result you've got five bucks to spend. You've been collecting baseball stickers for weeks and every single pack you've bought you've bought with your own money. You're so excited to go to the aisle you've gone to every single week for a month to pick out the packets of stickers. You tell mom you'll be right back, you're going to grab your stickers like you do every week when you come grocery shopping. So you confidently walk to the aisle where the stickers have been every single week for the last month and....they aren't there. You look high and low in that aisle and you can't find them and the panic sets in. You can't think; you get stuck. You look and look and finally, after starting to get concerned, mom finds you and you're in tears and you can't stop talking about where the cards were and how you can't find them and now what. Mom finds them an aisle over and you get your cards and all is right in your world, right?
No, it's not. The whole way home you talk about the cards being in the wrong spot, you talk about how you can't believe they'd move them. Mom and sissy tell you they are sorry that they were moved but now you have them, so concentrate on seeing which ones you have and which ones are duplicates.
But you can't, all you can think about is how the cards are always in the same aisle and they were switched today and then all of the sudden the same feeling you had standing in the wrong aisle kicks in and you feel like you can't breath and maybe if I talk about it again it'll make more sense. So, hey mom why were those cards in the wrong aisle? why would they switch them? who do you think switched those cards? weren't they even thinking that someone might be looking for those cards and when they couldn't find them they were upset?
By the end of that day, you're exhausted; all you wanted was the damn baseball stickers but they weren't in the right aisle and as you fall asleep you ask mom again why someone would move those stickers...and you hope that in the morning you don't have to worry about the aisle again because you are so tired and you don't want to think about it anymore.
THAT is OCD. THAT is not an annoyance; that is a panic inducing, physically and mentally exhausting OCD attack. That is what OCD is, not the microwave timer being at 4 seconds. Not your shoes being out of order. With those things you fix them and you on your way, you aren't worried about the timer being at four seconds because when it's zeroed out you're fine. When your shoes get straightened up, you don't have a full blown panic attack thinking that someone may have moved them while you were out of the house and holy shit what am I going to do and all you can think about is straightening up those shoes the second you walk in the door.
We've been pretty successful in eradicating the R word; we know that it's belittling to those who truly have mental or physical conditions that make them "retarded" in the medical sense...why is it still okay to use things like "ocd" or "a tourette's moment" or "spazzing out" to describe your behavior when it's CLEARLY not any of those things, it's just something that bothers you or it was something you shouldn't have said or done.
We have a mental health problem in this country and it's that those suffering from mental illness can't openly talk about it because we have everyone else using medical terms to describe every day stuff. You can't openly talk about your severe depression because "oh everyone gets depressed sometimes, just shake it off" You can't talk about the crippling panic attacks you have going to the grocery store because "it's all in your head" You can't talk about the fact that your lips are severely cracked because your Tourette's syndrome makes you compulsively lick your lips because "shit fuck damn HAHA HAHAHA Tourette's is so funny right!?"
Words have power; they can heal or they can hurt...please be aware that when you throw terms around like that you can be hurting someone; someone who is already hurting because they are dealing with that very thing every single day. Use your words to heal and help not hurt and tear people down. As the saying goes "Be kind to everyone, for you don't know the battles they're going through"
The other day at my chiropractor's office, the chiro, massage therapist, and a client were having a discussion about things that bug them. As it inevitably does it turned into an "oh my god my ocd..." type conversation. OCD, you know, obsessive compulsive disorder; the disorder that movies have shown as someone having to wash their hands or count things. Clearly OCD is being annoyed with little things right?
Overheard conversation
"omg, I am so ocd about my microwave timer. If it's not at zero it really bugs me"
"me too! or if I find dishes in the sink after I've washed them! ugh! ocd right!?"
"ha ha, I have you all beat, I can't handle the shoes being out of line at the door, I totally have to straighten them or it'll drive me crazy"
All of these things are NOT OCD. These things are annoyances. These are things all of us dislike (to a certain extent and you can substitute whatever word you'd like instead of shoes: dishes, blankets, whatever) but they are NOT OCD.
What, pray tell, is OCD then?
Let me give you an example.
You're nine years old and go to the grocery store with mom. You've managed to turn in all of your homework on time that week and as a result you've got five bucks to spend. You've been collecting baseball stickers for weeks and every single pack you've bought you've bought with your own money. You're so excited to go to the aisle you've gone to every single week for a month to pick out the packets of stickers. You tell mom you'll be right back, you're going to grab your stickers like you do every week when you come grocery shopping. So you confidently walk to the aisle where the stickers have been every single week for the last month and....they aren't there. You look high and low in that aisle and you can't find them and the panic sets in. You can't think; you get stuck. You look and look and finally, after starting to get concerned, mom finds you and you're in tears and you can't stop talking about where the cards were and how you can't find them and now what. Mom finds them an aisle over and you get your cards and all is right in your world, right?
No, it's not. The whole way home you talk about the cards being in the wrong spot, you talk about how you can't believe they'd move them. Mom and sissy tell you they are sorry that they were moved but now you have them, so concentrate on seeing which ones you have and which ones are duplicates.
But you can't, all you can think about is how the cards are always in the same aisle and they were switched today and then all of the sudden the same feeling you had standing in the wrong aisle kicks in and you feel like you can't breath and maybe if I talk about it again it'll make more sense. So, hey mom why were those cards in the wrong aisle? why would they switch them? who do you think switched those cards? weren't they even thinking that someone might be looking for those cards and when they couldn't find them they were upset?
By the end of that day, you're exhausted; all you wanted was the damn baseball stickers but they weren't in the right aisle and as you fall asleep you ask mom again why someone would move those stickers...and you hope that in the morning you don't have to worry about the aisle again because you are so tired and you don't want to think about it anymore.
THAT is OCD. THAT is not an annoyance; that is a panic inducing, physically and mentally exhausting OCD attack. That is what OCD is, not the microwave timer being at 4 seconds. Not your shoes being out of order. With those things you fix them and you on your way, you aren't worried about the timer being at four seconds because when it's zeroed out you're fine. When your shoes get straightened up, you don't have a full blown panic attack thinking that someone may have moved them while you were out of the house and holy shit what am I going to do and all you can think about is straightening up those shoes the second you walk in the door.
We've been pretty successful in eradicating the R word; we know that it's belittling to those who truly have mental or physical conditions that make them "retarded" in the medical sense...why is it still okay to use things like "ocd" or "a tourette's moment" or "spazzing out" to describe your behavior when it's CLEARLY not any of those things, it's just something that bothers you or it was something you shouldn't have said or done.
We have a mental health problem in this country and it's that those suffering from mental illness can't openly talk about it because we have everyone else using medical terms to describe every day stuff. You can't openly talk about your severe depression because "oh everyone gets depressed sometimes, just shake it off" You can't talk about the crippling panic attacks you have going to the grocery store because "it's all in your head" You can't talk about the fact that your lips are severely cracked because your Tourette's syndrome makes you compulsively lick your lips because "shit fuck damn HAHA HAHAHA Tourette's is so funny right!?"
Words have power; they can heal or they can hurt...please be aware that when you throw terms around like that you can be hurting someone; someone who is already hurting because they are dealing with that very thing every single day. Use your words to heal and help not hurt and tear people down. As the saying goes "Be kind to everyone, for you don't know the battles they're going through"
Monday, May 20, 2013
The End is Nigh
The end of the school year that is! The kiddos have eight more days of school and then they are done for the school year. Hard to believe that my two itty bitties will be starting first and fourth grade in August considering I swear they JUST started this school year a week or two ago, right?
The biggest change of all this year has been SarahAnne. She went from crying every day the first week of school to being sad about school being over because she'll miss her friends. She's gone from not wanting to read anything to voraciously reading every thing she can get her hot little hands on. She was shy and not wanting to talk to other kiddos to being a little social butterfly who has many inquires for playdates. It's been so fun watching the change itty Bits has gone through in the last nine months.
Gabriel has done very well in third grade; he's made a few good friends and seems to coming into his own as a preteen boy (side note: PRETEEN BOY!??!! how in god's name did that happen??)
Now to start the summer which should be fun. We have all sorts of plans-a trip to New York in June, a weekend away to Michigan, a tumbling and cheer leading class for Bitsy, golf lessons for Gabe, and all sorts of other fun stuff (including floating in the local pool a couple of evenings to watch a movie :P)
Hope the school year has been productive and wonderful for the rest of you!!
The biggest change of all this year has been SarahAnne. She went from crying every day the first week of school to being sad about school being over because she'll miss her friends. She's gone from not wanting to read anything to voraciously reading every thing she can get her hot little hands on. She was shy and not wanting to talk to other kiddos to being a little social butterfly who has many inquires for playdates. It's been so fun watching the change itty Bits has gone through in the last nine months.
Gabriel has done very well in third grade; he's made a few good friends and seems to coming into his own as a preteen boy (side note: PRETEEN BOY!??!! how in god's name did that happen??)
Now to start the summer which should be fun. We have all sorts of plans-a trip to New York in June, a weekend away to Michigan, a tumbling and cheer leading class for Bitsy, golf lessons for Gabe, and all sorts of other fun stuff (including floating in the local pool a couple of evenings to watch a movie :P)
Hope the school year has been productive and wonderful for the rest of you!!
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Happy happy HAPPY!
A very happy 80th birthday to dear sweet Grandma the Great today :) Eighty years and still as amazing and fabulous as ever. Love you lots and lots...and be on the look out for a special blog post for you this weekend :P
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
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