Monday Make a Difference

[lucylee]

Hmmm... maybe trying to meet my perception of ddad's expectations created this perfectionism in me? Both my parents were perfectionists, typical only/first borns, but I think my dmom tried to lessen the pressure on me. Still, I remember worrying a lot about doing things "right" and LOTS of times ddad would say something like, "Look, Lucy, you don't want to do it that way, do it THIS way," (re: cleaning the garage, or washing the car, or whatever. I would always think, "How does HE know how I want to do it??? Maybe I DO want to do it this way." (That was just my argumentative nature coming out. In my head. I rarely let it come out my mouth.)

That reminds me -- * FORGIVE ME IF I ALREADY TOLD THIS -- dgs has a problem with humming (while he's doing his work) and talking. Got in trouble Friday because he "couldn't stop" doing either one! Had to pull two cards. (That's their discipline system. Third call would mean parent contact.) I was trying to explain to him how he could just sing in his mind, silently, imagining the words. I said, "You don't SAY EVERYTHING that comes into your head, do you?" He said, "Most of it, I do." ~~~ sigh ~~~ Easy to see this child is related to me, right? I hate to squelch his humming, because when he is here at our house and he is playing by himself, I'll hear him humming or singing to himself, and it is the HAPPIEST sound. You can just listen and know he is so happy. Rose? LadyM? Elizabeth? Any others with experience with kids with special needs? Anyone have any thoughts?
DDIL also said she may see about following up on the therapist that was suggested earlier, re: his chewing problem. He was chewing up a piece of paper when ds picked him up at school, and didn't want to give ds the paper!

So anyway -- I haven't done much CANI today...
I have a load of laundry in the washer and one in the dryer... making progress there...
Made one DPC, had to leave message... they haven't returned my call yet...

(((Cathy)))

So happy for ds11, LadyM!!! That is so great that he has confidence to do these things that take him out of his comfort zone.

Meant to tell Harmony, our church board/council also has too much power, IMHO. I like the Baptist way of letting each member vote on any issue of any importance at all -- hiring new preacher, buying property, etc. All members attend business meetings and vote. We are discussing sale of some property at our church now and only 14 people were at the meeting to put this in motion. We have over 200 members, but probably only 100 or so in attendance any given Sunday.

Well. Must start supper.

[Twins' Mom]

Lucy, I also hum when I'm busy and engaged in something. Once the gal in the cube next to me was really really upset because I was distracting her! DD also hums.

[Elizabeth]

For lucylee:
DD17 has never had a problem with talking and humming. Her noise sensitivity makes that less likely. It's ME that has a problem with talking to myself. I do not SAY everything that is in my head, but, by golly, I may write it! In school, this has the added advantage of looking like you are paying attention and taking notes, even if it is just your grocery list.

[lucylee]

Thanks, Twins & Elizabeth -- I've had a lot of people mention that they or their children do that. You know, I do too -- but mostly when I am in a car or somewhere where there is other background noise that (I think!) will be louder than my humming & singing to myself. I just realized that. Only once has someone called my attention to it, but I know I do it. I hope dgs can learn to do this appropriately without losing his joy, you know?
He reportedly had a better day today -- only had to pull one card, for talking and he said he made a 100 on the test that was supposed to be a take-home test last week, but which the teacher let him make up Friday, since he had "forgotten" to do it. I think there is soooo much going on in this child's head all the time, that he just can't keep up with some of the stuff his teacher is telling him -- and this year, the teacher is trying to put more responsibility on the students, rather than babying them along, like kindergarten and first grade teachers may have.
For example, one morning, ds said he woke him up, and dgs sat up and immediately started talking about something in ancient civilizations, just as if they had been in the middle of a conversation about it five minutes before. While he and dh were waiting for me at the ballgame Saturday, he was asking dh about copyright infringements in music.

Harriet, I have made a difference in the laundry pile around here! Last load is washing now and as soon as I post this, I will put clean sheets on the bed. Thanks for your good start to the day!
Also talked to dmom on phone, cooked supper and s/s kitchen.
I guess I really AM working on constant improvement, LadyM, even if I get discouraged from time to time. It is too much (right now, all at once) to try to make myself do dailies AND weeklies AND zones AND paperwork/photo/scrapbooking/etc all in one day every day -- so my goal for Sept is to do at least ONE something every day. Usually I'll get more than one thing, because momentum carries me a little ways, and as Dee says, "Begun is half done."
Today my one thing was weekly -- laundry, and bi-weekly -- changing sheets.
Since I am feeling a lot like Twins:

I can't quite get started on anything, to be honest.

-- so I am giving myself a POTB for that much.

Good for you, Elizabeth, on setting rules for yourself and the sharing of the camper. I love what you said:

That establishes the hierarchy of who is considered first. Don't like it? Get your own camper.

Glad to see someone is getting some rain and fall temps... surely we can't be far behind. USAToday always reports the highest and lowest temps in the USA each day. Yesterday guess where the highest was? Andalusia, Alabama. Not sure exactly where that is, but it's close enough to tell y'all what it's like around here! (However, it is very common for California to have both the high and the low!)

I can't believe how fast time flies! It seems like just yesterday that you were planning six weeks before leaving Florida, Dee! Now y'all are planning to go again, and everybody's talking about holiday cleaning and preparations and here I am... just proud I changed my sheets.

Blessed, that WAS a very interesting encounter with the priest. If y'all had just ignored him and gone on your way, I can see why he might have reacted like that, but you said "hi," so yes... I'd be a bit taken aback also. I'm glad you had a chance to see a bit more of his personality before you left!

[Sunny]

Hello everyone.

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes for dh. He also says thank you! This is his 80th birthday and such a great milestone it deserves a great celebration. He has talked for months about this special day, counting down the days until yesterday.

We had a really nice day yesterday. Ds#3 came about 10 am and drove us the 50 miles to his home. He and ddil wanted to take us to lunch at Woodbridge, about 20 miles north of their home and dh chose Cracker Barrel; we all like that place. We got inside just ahead of a tour bus! After lunch we drove just a few more miles to a Target and spent about an hour walking around there. From there we went to watch dgs17-C's soccer game which started at 5 pm. (Too bad, but his team lost 3-1). Dgson's girlfriend and her dmom also came to watch the game. After lots of hugs all around ds drove us home. I really could have driven, but he had left his truck at our house, so needed to get that...ddil drives that to the school where she works! Dh and I were tired are ready to go to bed when we got home, but first had to eat as we'd had no supper. All we had was a bowl of cereal.

Thank you, Deeyour fixing your dh's pills ahead reminded me that I need to fix dh's for the rest of this week and order another refill online.

Cathy, I sure hope your kidney starts feeling better soon. Years ago when I was five months pregnant with my firstborn I was very sick with a kidney infection, to the point that I called my doctor to make a house call --- doctors did that back in 1969. Anything I ate or drank came right back up! It took three weeks and antibiotics to get better before I could go back to work.

Harriet, I'm glad you found a car that you really like quickly. Wishing you many good miles in it.

***
This sat here while I took DMinnie for a short walk. I think she can tell time as well as I can. She should be good for the night now.

Oh, I meant to say that I talk to myself all the time. Most of the time it is silent, in my head. But sometimes it is outloud, well, in whispering. Dh will hear me muttering and ask What did you say? and I'll have to tell him I was talking to myself.

[lucylee]

This week & next are making me a little crazy already. One more thing I need to put in J&C...
Tomorrow -- I will have dgd from 12-4, taking her to speech at 1, and then picking up dgs after school
Wednesday -- dentist appt at 8:30, and y'all know how I hate morning... and I'm not too excited about the dentist, either... then get allergy shots... church that night
Thursday -- repeat of Tuesday
Friday -- repeat of last Friday, pick up dgs at 1:00... College Town...
Saturday -- ballgame/sauna
Sunday -- church (REALLY don't intend to skip again, even though it will be another late night Saturday)
Monday -- termite inspection people will be here at noon
Tuesday -- teacher's meeting, elementary school Constitution Day parade, nursing home singing
Wednesday -- church
and then MAYBE a break Thursday/Friday. Not sure what ds's schedule will be for that week.

Sunny -- I am so glad your dh had a good celebration! I did not realize it was a milestone birthday! That is wonderful!

[Harmony]

Hi! Busy day here.

Yes, the board I was talking about is our Church Board, who "run" our church. We vote on a lot of things as members, constitution changes, elections, any capitol improvements over a certain amount of money, things like that. We recently voted on a change to the constitution which said board members had to also be Elders. Well, in our denomination, Elders are all men. We voted that other church members, outside of Elders could be on the board. The reason we voted on that change was so that they could have a woman on the board. I was certainly in favor of that because the woman they had in mind is very level-headed gal who is certainly an asset to that room full of men!

But yesterday all the scheduling of things around our minister candidate was in the bulletin, and it is all coming up this coming Sunday, the 15th.

I would never complain about our "board" which we call moderators here! They do a superb job!

My Doctor apt. went well, she took a bit of extra time with me as I had several concerns to talk about...one which had me in tears by the time I was out of there. I came home a bit rattled and found that getting busy in the house helped that a lot.

Went with DH to his doctor, a new one he hadn't seen... and I liked him very much. Bursitis in his elbow and we got all the information on that. DH got a shot in the elbow and a net-like compression 'sleeve' to wear for 3 days. If this comes back and bothers him the dr. can do outpatient surgery and remove the 'sac' in his elbow that holds fluid.

Interesting thing that happened while he was there...his BP was higher than normal...and nurse asked if he hadn't taken his med this morning because that should have lowered it. Ah, probably he forgot AGAIN, and I wasn't here this morning to notice them still in his pill box and prompt him to go back in and take them... so the 2 of us figured out a way to help him remember to take them. Let's see if this works.

Got some groceries on the way home. One LOL washed and hung up.

I am pretty worn out. Lots of days in a row of hard work and today much running around...

Cathy, sure hope you feel better soon.

I am always trying to improve, but it is internal talk to myself. Don't think at this stage in my life I'd put up with constant criticism from somebody trying to improve me!

Oh, and I used to whistle all the time when I worked around. Used to amuse DH..he said he never knew anybody who did that. I don't have much range of voice, so that's why I used to whistle. Don't know when I stopped doing that...

[lucylee]

I have to say, I am so glad dh doesn’t have expectations of perfection or anything for me. Dh thinks I am pretty much perfect as is, LOL. Especially since his heart problem developed, he has been sooo appreciative of anything and everything I do. He never complains about the house or anything I cook or any of that stuff. He doesn’t care how I dress, how much I weigh, or anything like that (except he does not want me to cut my hair!). He says I look beautiful no matter what. I realize that is a HUGE blessing.

I worry a lot that I pressured ds to be perfect, because I know I have a lot of my ddad in me. However, somehow ds apparently has been immune to the negative effects of those efforts. I am also VERY thankful for THAT!