Got a problem? Fix it.

I'm turning 50 in a few months. For the past several years, I have suspected that I have adult ADD. Over the past several months, I've become pretty well convinced. I talked to the doc just a bit about it a good while back, but she felt that, because I'd had a heart attack a couple of years ago, prescription meds just weren't the best idea. At the time, I was ok with that.

Since then, my ability to think has degraded considerably. It is probably directly connected to no longer punching a time clock. As frustrating as it was sometimes, that enforced structure in life provided needed deadlines to work against. It’s been two years since I had that sort of enforced structure, and my ability to focus has not only devolved, but the problem seems to be accelerating.

A few months ago, a discussion with my niece, who is thirty-ish and has been taking ADD meds for a couple of years, cemented the fact that I really, REALLY want to try them. I have become so increasingly frustrated with the inability to produce even basics like getting to church on time, that it is seriously messing up my life. When you’re 50, you start getting real serious about that bucket list. When you spent a lot of energy and can’t even get dressed by 9:30 am, the bucket list sure enough impossible.

Yesterday at the THRIVE retreat another sister recommended an herbal remedy that I am definitely ready to try. Today’s BIG GOAL is to get to the store and buy some of that stuff. While the risk/benefit ratio of prescription meds has been dramatically changing in favor of prescriptions, if a safer and more natural alternative will do the trick, I’m there.

Here’s hoping that I can eventually get past the first challenge – getting out of my jammies.

I have taken Effexor for years and know that I can NOT miss out, and yet I overlooked putting the med packet that I had so carefully put together in the luggage for the retreat. I actually saw the packet laying on the bed when I went back after something else I’d forgotten, but by the time I gathered up the thing I’d forgotten I forgot to reach over and pick up the packet.


I’m tired of having life roll by while I’m caught in a whirlpool Creative ideas, solutions that would resolve an issue, and opportunities to get out and bless others go by from one day to the next, while I continue to battle the same chaos and begin each day at re-inventing the wheel.

The snowball effect has me where I am this morning – sitting here discouraged about missing church when I’d rather be there than anywhere. I just couldn’t pull the basics together to get ready in time. I took an Effexor first thing this morning and it will kick in soon. It does help some when I take it, and the withdrawal side effects from missing a day exacerbate fuzzy thinking, so missing yesterday’s dose was a double whammy. Here’s hoping that when it kicks in I will be able to get to the health food store and lay a foundation for some victory in this situation.

Getting ready for the Retreat

Last year's Thrive (womens' ministry) retreat was a real highlight in my life.  The most interesting thing about that statement is that it was lovely, just sweet and lovely.  No fireworks...Despite that there were some good lessons and the woman who made the videos we watched was both entertaining and anointed, I can't say I brought away any particular amazing spiritual epiphany.  But the amount of work and thoughtfulness that went into the planning and execution touched my heart in a way far more important even than those very important qualities.  That another woman would love me enough to put that amount of sacrifice into something *just because I would benefit* is astonishing.

That is exactly what happened, though.  The ladies on the Retreat team made arrival gifts and a new "favor" for each session of the retreat.  They made our cute-as-a-button name tags, which I still have and will post a picture of when I find it again.  Those were so darling that I am lusting after a Cricut.  They decorated our tables and shopped for door prizes, making sure that every single one of us "won" a prize.  I'm still enjoying some of the things in my little basket.

Most importantly of all, they prayed for each and every one of us.  They did it fervently and frequently.  And, as proof that God makes "the foolish things of the world to confound the wise," I have carried this time as a very special memory for the past year.  Since I often have to stop an think what I am supposed to write on the signature portion of a check, remembering anything for that long is HUGE.

Tomorrow morning I meet friends to hitch a ride to the other side of the Boston mountains, and we're going to do it all again.  I can hardly wait.

Where The Thoughts Trail

This is the list of the places my brain wants to go. It reflects the direction from which most of the posts will flow. Just a thought for those who might want to decide whether or not to follow this blog.

Inspiration
Character
Thriftiness
Homekeeping
cooking
decorating
gardening
Crafts
Green Living/sustainable/earth friendly

Beginning the randomness

Personal log, stardate 24-34....oops. Wrong place.

Ok here it is, the day after Valentine's day 2010, and I am ready to start a blog. Not particularly ready to go public, but ready to start anyway. The writing muse has been infrequent for too long, and I think there was something there to start with.

I like to write because I like to craft a well-thought statement. OK, the truth: I like to persuade other people to think like I do. But I also really like to share cool ideas and inspirations and there are just a ton of them out there. Since joining Facebook, unfortunately, I have begun to think other people might be interested in my random thoughts as well. Guess we'll have to see.

So, what is going to be here? Perhaps not so much about the minutae of our lives, but this and that that reflects my interests with the hope of finding some kindred spirits out there.

For today, it probably means something to explain the name of this blog. For those of you to young to know, it's a quote from Roseanne Roseannadanna, a character created on Saturday Night Live in the 1970's by the brilliant comedienne Gilda Radner. Roseanne's scary trains of thought are eerily close to what goes on in my mind; the spirit of the statement reflects my life perfectly. It better go on my tombstone.