It's Monday; Here We Go Again!

I just spent two hours working from home because my son has a doctor's appt this afternoon and I will be going in late.  I can't tell you good it felt to be making some inroads on the pile of stuff needing to be done.  Most of my work time right now is being spent on a new project that has me completely lost and feeling worthless, but after having a total meltdown at work on Friday, I decided to switch my focus until I can get my equilibrium back and hopefully get the direction I need from the powers that be.

I have been feeling lately like I just want off the treadmill, that there must be some way to make my life not be so stressful all the time.  But I know that really the feelings of stress come from within me.  Sometimes I feel energized by everything I need to do, and excited about diving into new or difficult challenges, and other times I get teary-eyed just thinking about having to start a hard project that's on my list.

Case in point, we have an upcoming IEP meeting.  The team of people at my son's elementary school is very supportive of him and willing to listen to what I have to say, and I pretty much know what I want to happen, but just getting it all together in one clear, concise list is proving very difficult for me.  A friend and I sat down and went through my notes, and she even studied them herself and emailed me her thoughts (a huge help!), but lately when I start thinking about the future, I get a little panicky about all the things that could go wrong.

My biggest issue with school is my frustration with the inconsistent follow-through across settings, largely caused by the (I don't want to say lack, because they do try) need for more support and education of the various teachers.  I have lots of ideas to be proactive and do what I can do to help, but all the other pressures of life keep squeezing in and then I am up against the gun and not ready.

It's the same thing with blogging; I get lots of ideas but then if I don't get them down on paper right away, I have trouble recreating them later.  Maybe I need to get one of those mini recorders, although I tend to ramble (have you noticed?) and it would take forever to listen to everything I thought was important and insightful at the time.

Things aren't all bad, by any means.  On Saturday, I had the privilege of attending a women's luncheon for autism moms at a local church.  It was a wonderful event, and the speaker was a fellow blogger, which was pretty cool.  Her name is Ginger Taylor, and she blogs at Adventures in Autism.  She really shared her heart with us, and it gave me a lot of food for thought.  I wish we had taped it so I could hear it again; there were so many things I'm sure I didn't completely get the first time.

The whole afternoon was such a blessing and was made even better by the fact that my husband had taken my son away for the weekend, giving me some much needed quiet time.  What a great guy!

How many more days left in April???

I can hardly believe how long it's been since I posted - April has been a whirlwind of a month.  It's that time of year when I am trying to work on summer plans (childcare, summer programs, possibly vacation), right in the middle of getting ready for a new IEP. 

Plus there have been several autism-related events that I am involved with to some degree. In fact, I am writing this as I print out table tents for the mothers' luncheon taking place this Saturday.  Wouldn't you know it, right when I started to work on these the other night, we ran out of ink in the printer, so I had to make a trip to the office supply store for that, which I did this morning while picking up the supplies we were missing for our ASD HOPE workshop tonight!  Luckily, I had the foresight to ask for the day off, especially since we are taking our two speakers to an early dinner at 4:15.

I am so relieved about the meeting tonight because we are bringing in the speakers from out of state and didn't have very many RSVPs at this time last week.  But now we are up to over 40, plus we are going to be able to record the presentation and have DVDs made of it.  So the investment will pay off as we have the DVD to share with new families interested in learning more about biomed stuff.

Work has been a bit stressful as well, with a new responsibility that is actually taking up 75% of my time.  It is a new area and I am learning by trial and error (mostly error), plus my other work hasn't seem to have gotten the message that it is supposed to shrink down to an hour a day. To add to the fun, we recently received a 5% pay cut, which may turn into 10% after another month.

Next week I get to go in for another endoscopy.  I have a small esophagus, and the last time I had it dilated was in 2006.  So I am definitely due for one, and I just started noticing food getting stuck a few weeks ago.  Much better to schedule it right away than wait for something to get lodged in and have to go to the emergency room and have them push it down, especially since they won't dilate it there and I would have to go to the endoscopy center anyway.

In the middle of all this, God is certainly providing for us, though.  Not an hour after learning about my pay cut, I received a call about a possible side job that I could do in the mornings or evenings.  It's a temporary position, which works for me, so we'll see how that pans out.  I was also worried about finding someone to watch Michael and take him to school when I go in for the endoscopy, but then I got a note home that it's their class field trip, and all kindergartners have to go all day!

A Long, But Productive Day

Wow, I'm tired!  This has been a very long, but productive day.  Productive in that I finally started making some progress on my new project at work.  Objectively, it's a tiny amount of progress - approximately 6 tasks out of over 5000, but for me, getting started was a huge mountain to overcome.  I still feel like I don't really know what I am doing, but I only feel that way about 90% now instead of the 99-100% I have been feeling.

Michael has been off school the last two days and has Monday off as well, which means Daddy came home at lunchtime so I could go to work.  They were planning to go to Hersheypark today (they are open just for the weekend), but Michael hurt his foot/ankle this morning dancing around like a crazy person.  I don't think it's really hurt very badly - no swelling or bruising, but we put ice on it and he says it still hurts a little so he doesn't want to walk around that much.

I'm hoping we can still get him out there this weekend; maybe now we can all go as a family.  (Or maybe I'll call a friend and sneak out there by myself!  Hmmm, just thought of that, not sure how it would go over right now, but I'll keep it in mind for the regular season.)

I have been able to do more with blogging this week, which makes me happy.  I am following along with Problogger's 31 Days to Building a Better Blog and trying to do each of the tasks over at Another Piece of the Puzzle.  So far, I have finished the first 3.  Today is day 5, but I'm hoping to catch up over the weekend.  I also need to write an article for Root & Sprout's May edition, so that's the first priority.

May you all have a blessed Easter weekend, as we celebrate the resurrection and new life!

Expanding on My Routines

I know I sound like an organized person on the surface, but there's a difference between being able to list and categorize things and actually getting them accomplished.  Somehow, though, putting it all in front of other people via my blogs has been the motivation I needed.

For my weekly to-do lists, I have started writing just Morning Routine, Evening Routine and Blogging Routine instead of listing each task.  Otherwise, the list would be too stinkin' long and I would hate having to check that many things off.

However, I do need to have them written down somewhere or I could end up forgetting things that are supposed to be getting done, like cleaning the cat box so the cat doesn't decide to just go on the basement floor or something like that (not like that's ever happened or anything!).

Morning Routine

• Make beds
• Pick up bedrooms & den
• Wipe down bathroom
• Clean cat box
• Do recycling
• Wash dishes
• Do one other household chore (so far this has been a load of laundry, vacuuming, or something like cleaning off the vent fan above the stove - yuck!)
  

Evening Routine

• Make dinner
• Unpack Michael's backpack
• Add communication form notes to spreadsheet
• Update checkbook
• Check & respond to emails
  

Blogging Routine

• Respond to blog comments
• Work on at least one blog post
• Clean out Google Reader (read, share & comment)
  
• Check in at Twitter and Facebook
  

My schedule will probably be changing once summer starts, and I won't have so much time in the morning anymore.  So I will have to move things around a bit, and that makes me really nervous about falling off the wagon.  I'm hoping to still be able to do at least the first five things on my morning routine, and just move the dishes and other chores to the afternoon, since I won't be working as late either.

I will also have to turn in a bit earlier, so my time online will have to be a bit more focused.  Maybe I'll go back to writing things longhand while I'm sitting in waiting rooms and such.  I think that's where my more creative and reflective posts came from, anyway.

Where or when do you write the best?  How do you fit it all in??  Sometimes I feel like I am shortchanging my family and should just quit altogether, but then I can't imagine my life without the connections I have made online and the joy I get from sharing my thoughts in this way.

A Fun Week

Well, the morning routine has definitely paid off.  We got a call earlier this week that my husband's parents were coming up to the area on Thursday and wanted to have dinner with us and give Michael his birthday present.  All I had to do Thursday morning was add a quick vacuum and take out the trash, and the house was ready!

Michael got three new Webkinz (one from Grandma & Grandpa, and two from Bob's brother's family).  He was totally excited, and even more thrilled when Grandma took him out Friday morning and bought some clothes for his new friends.  We had a very nice, although short, visit.

Last night there was a volunteer appreciation reception at our church.  In the past, they have had a sit-down dinner at a hotel, but that is a big expense, I know.  It was so great that they found a way to do it that was affordable but still very fun.  The best part is the entertainment, which is provided by the church staff - this year was a 50s theme and they did an awesome job!  (Actually, the best part is that our local respite program has been reinstated and we were able to have someone watch Michael last night while we went out.)

Hope everyone has a fun weekend!  I had to work four hours today, but now I am done and the only other things on the schedule are church and soccer.  I am hoping to do some writing, so we'll see how that goes.  I'm sure Michael will want to go on the Webkinz site with him.