Friday, April 22, 2011

Special Holiday issues

The holidays are always stressful.  Christmas, Thanksgiving, and, now, Easter.  Most of the problem I have with it is organizational.  I can see how many people with Fibro would have trouble with the actual work of the holidays; the cooking and cleaning and such.  I don't have too much trouble doing the work, I just don't know what I'm supposed to be doing when. 
My head is not organized enough to sort things out and see what needs to be done.  I spent two hours today getting everything I need to make 5 Easter baskets because I didn't have it together enough earlier to think of what I needed. 
I did do one smart thing, however.  I am making a dessert that I was warned not to make, as it is tricky.  What I have found, however, is that if I do one step at a time, it's actually pretty easy (at least so far, I'm not done yet.  Maybe I'm speaking too soon!).  The dessert is little cake pops.  I'm making little chicks, and we'll see how complicated they are when I get to the finishing stage.  Yesterday, I made the cake, let it cool, and put it in the fridge.  Later in the day, I crumbled it all up very fine.  Done for the day.  Day two, today, I mixed in a bunch of frosting, and made little balls out of them, then wrapped them in a baking tray and stuck it in the fridge.  Done for today.  Tomorrow morning, I'll melt the candy coating and dip them, then decorate them in the late afternoon.  How I managed to plan this out, I don't know when the rest of my planning is a mess! 
Maybe the trick is to take all aspects of the holidays the same way.  Small steps that come together into something really special.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

ADD connection

I was asked an interesting question today.  Is there a connection between a parent having Fibromyalgia and a child having ADD?  I don't know the answer to that.  But I am curious.  I'm setting up a poll, and what I want to know is; if you have Fibro, do you have a child with ADD or an ADD-like issue?  I'm going to leave this up for a while as I know traffic is low, but I'll post the results in the future...

Friday, February 25, 2011

Outnumbered and Overpowered

That's how I'm feeling these days.  After all, I do have two kids and there's only one of me, so that's not so unreasonable.  The problem isn't the 'outnumbered' so much as it is the 'overpowered'.  Lately the kids' idea of a good time is to distract me into playing with them in a roughhousing sort of way.  I remember doing that with my parents growing up, and I find it kind of nostalgic. 
The problem is that it's killing me.  First, part of why they do it is to put off doing schoolwork.  Second, I forget that I can't do certain things, and next thing I know, I have sore hips, sore knees, and odd pains in my arms.  Doesn't leave much that isn't hurting! 
While I don't let the kids go so far as to miss their schoolwork, I do play with them almost every day.  I'm sometimes tempted to tell them I just can't play that way.  Maybe that's what I should do, but I just can't get past the nostalgia aspect.  After all, how long can this phase of their growing up last?  They're already 10, and going to hit their teens pretty soon!  And, if the doctors are right, fibro won't get any worse, right?  So, if I have some hip pain, so what?  So I gimp when I get up and look like I just got off a horse when I walk.  The next generation must have its memories!  Right?  Sigh...ow...

Friday, January 21, 2011

Doling out the responsibilities, or How do I do all this?

The holidays play havoc with my plans.  What generally ends up happening is that instead of assigning tasks and doing what I'm supposed to do (that is, accepting the job done as long as it's truly attempted), I end up just doing everything myself.

Now that we are past the holidays, it's time to readjust the schedule of who does what.  What I did was pick out one of the jobs that seems to take up a lot of my time, and doled it out.  Luke puts away the dishes and Emily does the dirty ones.  When they turn ten, we're going to try the laundry route as well.  This isn't because I'm a mean mom, it's because we've changed around some of the resposibilities in the house to make it work for us.

Part of that revolves around the fact that the kids are unwilling, as most are, to clean their rooms.  Most parents have them do it anyway, and recently I heard how one parent does get her kids to do so by taking whatever is left on the floor at the end of the day.  Seems like it would work, so I may try that in the future, but for now, once their rooms are out of control, it's my job to fix it.  So, I barter.  They not only do dishes, but fold laundry, vacuum and sweep, and dust as well. 

By taking a non-traditional route, I circumvent a recurring argument about the room cleaning, and peace reigns.  Not only that, but other work gets done that I would otherwise have to do.  I know that they will eventually have to clean their rooms themselves.  I don't think I'm setting them up for disaster, however, since they aren't getting 'off the hook', so to speak, but gaining different sets of responsibilities.  These are responsibilities that they know they've chosen over one they don't prefer, so often they are done more cheerfully.  And if I can make it go smoother, I can save the arguing for math lessons.