Sometimes -- Crazy Works

I don't know if I've mentioned my bi polar specifically on the this blog, but I have it. And anxiety, but that's a whole different story.

From Wikipedia:

Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated mood clinically referred to as mania or, if milder, hypomania. Individuals who experience manic episodes also commonly experience depressive episodes or symptoms, or mixed episodes in which features of both mania and depression are present at the same time. These episodes are usually separated by periods of "normal" mood, but in some individuals, depression and mania may rapidly alternate, known as rapid cycling. Extreme manic episodes can sometimes lead to psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. The disorder has been subdivided into bipolar I, bipolar II, cyclothymia, and other types, based on the nature and severity of mood episodes experienced; the range is often described as the bipolar spectrum.

That sounds fun, doesn't it?

Anyway, I have highs and lows. In the last 6-8 months those highs and lows have significantly decreased and I've leveled out a ton. Biggest factor contributing to that -- lower stress levels. But, I still have it and I still deal with symptoms of it, most notably periods of depression or being a sort of down kind of funk.

Sometimes, it's really hard to get through a day. Sometimes, it's not so hard. It really just depends. With two children, some days are definitely better than others. But, if I have one good thing to say about bi polar disorder, it's that manic highs are productive and useful.

Take this morning for example. I got up around 8. At 10:30 I made a list of things I wanted accomplished today. Caleb and Lorelei had the simple task of cleaning their rooms. I also made a list of tasks for both George and I to complete; though George missed out because he stayed blissfully asleep on the couch.

In three hours I cleaned the following:

1. Entire Kitchen.
2. Entire Dining Room.
3. Entire Living Room & Entry Way.
4. Downstairs Bathroom.
5. Upstairs Hallway.
6. Master Bedroom. (my room)
7. Upstairs Bath.

By cleaning, I mean that I swept or vacuumed every floor in the house. I also mopped the dining room from the dinosaur extraction mess. I folded every piece of clean laundry and put it away. I cleaned toilets, and wiped down counter tops. I put away dishes. The only thing I didn't do? Dust and start more laundry. For three straight hours from bottom to top I went through and cleaned the ENTIRE house. I think I took one or two short breaks in between.

And this house? It's not big. 1270 square feet at best. So maybe I should have been done sooner? But, I certainly feel accomplished.

So, all the cleaning that I hate doing and put off and procrastinate on? It's done. Everything is nice and clean to start off the new week. And now, I'm a tad worried about crashing from the high. But, here's to hoping -- that I don't.

I love being able to stash and hide...

This is one of many Ikea cabinets George purchased back in August. We use them as a custom entertainment center, plus we have a few extras.

Upon realizing we had extras, I quickly worked to formulate the best way to use them. This particular cabinet is sitting in our front "entry". Which really is not an entry by any means, but it is where the front door is located and you don't immediately run into the couch -- so I suppose it's an entry in it's own right.

In order to better manage all the various games and puzzles the kids have -- I commissioned this cabinet to house them. But I've found, that even though the games and coloring books and puzzles are in there -- that it's a great location to stash other random things the kids bring downstairs from their bedrooms.

As I do quick little clean-ups around the house I'll find at least a few little kid tidbits that I'm too lazy to run upstairs and properly put away. And so I'll stash them in this cabinet by the front door.

Which means that instead of the well organized game cabinet I'd intended, it actually looks like this:


And in fact, actually doesn't look nearly as bad as it did before the kids took things out earlier this morning to play with. Like Lorelei's stuffed kitten that daddy got her from Vegas. Or her little Barbie toy. Or Caleb's DS that I tossed in their last night.

I have to say though, it is a handy little cabinet. And some day, when I become Martha Stewart's evil twin, it won't look like this.

Really -- I'm Not Trying to Burn the House Down

So, Caleb and Lorelei both came running downstairs to tell me that the light in the bathroom had turned black and that there were sparks.

What?

I headed upstairs to see what all the commotion was about. And lo and behold, it appears I am trying to start the house on fire.

I hung a necklace on our nightlight in the bathroom. And yes, the nightlight was plugged into the outlet. When Lorelei turned on the light in the bathroom, it moved the necklace chain, which touched the metal prongs of the nightlight. This, of course, produced an electrical charge, which blew the nightlight, produced sparks, melted said Lia Sophia necklace and uh, probably killed the wall plug. Which is now black.

Really though, I was NOT trying to start the house on fire. It's very cold outside right now. I don't want to live in my car.

George will take a look at it tomorrow. For now, I'm on high alert and have asked the kids not to use the light switch in the bathroom. For fear that something else will trigger an electrical fire upstairs.

Lazy Weekend

The kids and I have spent a lazy weekend bumming around the house.

We got snow Friday night and most of the day Saturday, so I wasn't keen on venturing out. Today I can definitely tell we've been in the house a tad too long. I'm regretting not bundling us all up and heading over to the mall playland like I had intended, or to the Burger King playland for dinner. But large piles of laundry beckoned to me. As did the idea of actually having some clean clothes to wear.

Now the laundry is finally done and it's already 7 at night. Too late for us to venture out. Caleb is working on the teeny bit of homework he has and then I'll be sticking him in the shower.

Lorelei took her shower earlier today after getting a wad of gum stuck in her hair. In case you were wondering -- styling mousse -- is absolutely wonderful for getting gum out of hair. Rub in, comb out. In about 3 minutes she was positively gum free. I was just happy I didn't have to butcher her hair or resort to a peanut butter mess.

Speaking of Lorelei -- boy is her mouth getting sassy! The constant shriek of, "Mommy" and the tiring "do this for me NOW" thing --it's just not working for me.

And yesterday, upon seeing that Max had chewed up one of her Barbie magnets she said the following, "Did the dog chew this up?" And I replied affirmative. To which she replied, "Damn dog!". Mommy needs some soap.

George will finally be home sometime tomorrow from his conference in Vegas. I'm looking forward to having another couple of hands around the house. The last few days have been very tiring for me. The kids will be glad to have him home as well.

Oh, and in a few weeks we'll be registering Lorelei to start cheerleading again. She's very excited!

Bye-Bye Baby Stuff

Some of the last remnants of Caleb and Lorelei's baby days are headed out the door to GoodWill this week. It's sad, but boy will I be glad to have the space they took up back!

I did hold on to a few key little outfits that I just couldn't bear to part from.

Pajama Party & Weekend Plans

Lorelei and I are attending a mother/daughter pajama party tonight at the school. It's only from 6-8PM, but it should be a good time. Games, food, girly stuff.

Caleb was a bit disappointed that he couldn't come too, but George told him they could have a guys movie night instead with popcorn and that totally perked him up. I think the plan is to geek out with some Star Wars.

I'm going to take Lorelei over to Target or something after school and we'll find some cute pajamas to wear and get her a pair of slippers for the evening. I don't have anything pajama-ish that I'd actually wear out in public and I think it would be cute if we matched. Not sure we'll find anything matching, but I still think it would be cute.
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We don't have much planned for the weekend. George is going to play disc golf on Saturday morning with the boys and then he's promised his devoted attention to getting projects done around the house.

Top of my list is to get the master bedroom walk-in cleared out and useable, the hall closet the same and then maybe get a few boxes out of the garage and unpacked. I'd also *maybe* like to work on the paint jobs in the kids rooms. I thought of a cute idea for Caleb's room that won't require completely repainting it and I might do something similar in Lorelei's room if she'll settle for mostly yellow walls.

Regardless, I'm glad it's Friday. This week has just been strange because of the kids having Monday and Tuesday off for conferences.

Notes for a Thursday

-- It was picture day today! After scrambling to find the order form, realizing I only had one and getting an envelope ready for the other...I was wishing it wasn't picture day. I didn't dress the kids up even a little bit. I'm only ordering a class picture just like I did from M--------------- (which I'm still wondering if they'll send them to me or not??). I'm much more interested in getting some more candid shots, or even some real professional shots of them. I do want that memory for them though, so class pictures it was. George had to take the kids to school because by the time I had everything ready for the kids to leave, I was still in my pajamas. I was not dropping them off in pajamas!

-- We got a U-Haul's worth of junk out of the garage this afternoon. We probably have another U-Haul's worth still in the garage, but we're getting there. A ton of the leftovers are the mounds of garbage that have piled up in the last three weeks. Between George and I we haven't even managed to get the garbage out once since I moved down here. Talk about planning! The funny side of it all was that some woman drove by and asked us if we were having a garage sale? I was confused since other than the bikes we had out in front of the garage everything else was literally bags of garbage and empty cardboard boxes. I wonder what type of garage sales she frequents???

-- We realized that our furnace wasn't working today. I was suspicious a few days ago, but George not so much. He finally got what I was talking about when he got out of bed this morning and it was absolutely frigid in the house. Still in the high 60's, but with no hot air, that's like having AC on when it's 40 degrees outside! We're thankful for an energy efficient house. The heat from the past few sunny days has kept us in the 70's even without heat.

-- The new blinds for the house came via FedEx this afternoon. George is working on putting them up as I type this. We got them from JustBlinds. We got the honeycomb style and they are able to open from both the top and bottom of the window. Super nice in the summer when you want the late sun, but not the curious stares from the neighbors! I'm hoping Duke doesn't break any of them trying to look out and bark at everyone that goes by!

-- Our Affy Tapple order came in today from the school. The kids each called one of the Halloween sprinkled ones for dessert tonight. George and I get the plain ones. Go figure! They've been quiet for about the last ten minutes, so I'm assuming they taste pretty darn good.

-- This weekend we'll just be working more on the house. We're going to try and finish cleaning up the garage, install any blinds that don't get up tonight, and work on getting through the boxes we didn't send to storage because they were useful now.

--We're also going to take a break from all this work over the weekend and get some pumpkins to carve with Caleb and Lorelei. They've been begging for pumpkins for about three weeks now and I've held out so they weren't rotted mush by the time Halloween actually rolled around.

Children with Opinions

I think I preferred babies.

Last night we let the kids know that we'd be building their bunk bed. This would remove the mattresses from their current position on the floor and give them more space in Caleb's room for toys until we get Lorelei's room prepared for habitation.

Our original plan was that Caleb would keep the bunk beds in his room just because they seem more "boy" and Lorelei would get a new bed frame/headboard set up. We were seriously considering getting her some kind of cute trundle bed so that down the road both kids would be set for having friends sleep over.

Well, once Caleb heard trundle bed, he was having none of the bunk bed stuff. He wants a new bed, and he wants to pick it out.

So, this afternoon we're going to take them over to Ikea and hopefully find something for each of them. A few of the beds have a trundle-ish option, but I think we're just going to go with standard twin frames for each; maybe a day bed for Lorelei. We'll invest in an air mattress for sleepovers.

Our House

This is our little 'house' in the suburbs. It's a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath encompassing about 1200 square feet of living space. While technically it's a stand alone condo, it suits us well for now. George and I started building it in 2002 after finding out we were expecting Lorelei and moved in sometime in May 2003; just a month before she was born. Despite the divorce it remained in our possession and is now home once again to our little family of four.

We Are Moved!

Well, we made it! This whole weekend has been long and tiring, but the traveling part is at least finished. George and I are working on getting the garage cleaned out, the U-Haul unpacked and of course laundry, cleaning and unpacking things as they come to our attention. The kids are enjoying being home. Of course, they are 100% comfortable being here at the house again, so it hasn't been much of a change for them. We had to spend a couple of hours in the car again today, but I suppose now we won't have to take any road trips for awhile.

Despite the mess and the utter chaos of the house at the moment, I'm really looking forward to us all being settled. I'm coming up with ideas for decorating the kids rooms. Lorelei would like her walls repainted pink (yellow at the moment) and I think Caleb would like to keep his room blue. Lorelei needs bedroom furniture, so I'll get to go shopping for that once we have it cleaned out. For now they are sharing Caleb's room. It's a bit crowded in there and I don't even think the toys will fit in it's current state, but it will work for the time being.

Tomorrow is their first day at their new school. I have to go out tonight and pick up some supplies that are different from what they had before. Thankfully, the lists are much shorter than before so I won't have to spend a fortune. Hopefully, I don't get lost trying to find the store in the dark!