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While looking for website design I searched “best author websites.” There are some beautiful sites out there. Lesley M. M. Blume‘s won for style. Simple, fairly easy to read (maybe a simpler font however). She also has a great blog, not personal, not about writing and not about her latest release (many author blogs are only updated when the author has a release).

Read the rest at: http://wp.me/p2ZoLX-XN

It started with Yahoo Answers and it escalated to several Facebook groups.

People post something like

“My 18 month old is biting. Spanking and time outs aren’t working.”

And then I get annoyed, because spanking and time outs aren’t teaching tools. And I get anxiety about this person getting MY RIGHT answer and taking my advice.

I am making myself insane.

Also, I’ve taken to really being annoyed about the lack of tolerance shown by so many people in my personal non-writer Facebook. “God wants you to say Merry Christmas” and “Saying Happy Holidays is turning your back on Jesus.”

Tis the season for intolerance.

So, here is my plan. Block Yahoo Answers. Leave these crazy mom communities which seem so often to thrive on drama and infighting and the whole “mommy wars” thing and regain the energy I’m losing toward worrying about things that are not in my control. I will give up my good fight to someone else who has more energy and time than me.

What things are you losing energy to? Could you let go of some of those things and regain that energy?

2. Move your body. For me this is the key, since getting outside with a toddler when it’s -30 C just isn’t feasible. If I do a bit of movement every other day, this keeps me saner.

3. Supplements. There are a number of supplements, vitamins and minerals you can take to help. Of course, check with a health care
professional before you start anything. This is just what works for me and some others.

• Vitamin D. This is the vitamin we get from the sun, so when you aren’t getting sun, you aren’t getting this important vitamin. I take a couple thousand some days, usually not even that much. the RDI is 400 IU for children and 600 IU for adults. Upper limits for Vitamin D are 1000 for children and 4,000 IU for adults. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/vitamin/vita-d-eng.php
• Magnesium. This is often taken in conjunction with calcium and vitamin D, as you need all three for teeth and bones (and possible vitamin k). But you can take it on it’s own. Some claim that it’s necessary to take it on it’s own and that a lot of common ailments are a lack of magnesium. I haven’t tried it yet, but it’s on my radar. Miracle of Magnesium.
• Omega-3’s. Fatty acids are important for the brain, because your brain is made up of fat. The best way to get your Omega-3s is to eat fish. I take a supplement. Asrai no likey fish.
• 5-HTP. This is a funny one for me. It’s a precursor to serotonin  5-HTP is made from tryptophan, which is the part of turkey that makes people sleepy, in the body. But a bad batch of tryptophan in 1989 got it banned by the FDA in the US, and 5-HTP took it’s place. Reference: http://www.wellnessletter.com/ucberkeley/dietary-supplements/5-htp/ The supplement is supposed to help with sleep. I take it and I’m wired, up to all hours. I take mine in the morning to combat this.
• L-Phenylalanine. An amnion acid, it helps your body make L-Tyrosine which in turn makes dopamine and norepinephrine. I take this in the morning as well, and sometimes during the day on a empty stomach for an extra boost. You don’t want to take it too close to bedtime.
• L-Tryosine. This works the same as L-Phenylalanine but faster. I get a pretty quick boost in energy when I take it. The bottle I have says for short term use in physically stressful situations, so I save it for days I know I’m tired or if I have a lot to do.
• B-complex. B vitamins are a good energy booster as well, so you have to make sure you don’t take it too close to bedtime. As well, an excess is eliminated in your urine, so your pee will be super yellow.
• GABA is another amino acid for anxiety. I’m finding my moods are managed under 5-HTP and L-phen, so I haven’t taken any GABA myself. But it’s also on my radar.

4. Consider an anti-depressant. I learned about these supplements in the book “The Female Brain Gone Insane” which was an interesting read. The author, Mia Lundin, is a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner,  says that anti-depressants don’t help your body make new serotonin they just recycle what’s there.

Last anti-depressant I took, I was literally vibrating at the lowest dose and a very short time taking them. My husband told me I had to
stop.

5. If you are on hormonal birth control, consider making a switch. This is personal, the Pill and the shot, make me depressed. I was on
the shot for a couple years before it started affecting me. But after that even two weeks on The Pill would affect me. This is no
longer a consideration since I got a tubal litigation.

6. Tan. My sister in law says tanning helps her mood. I don’t have the time, money or desire to tan (hello skin cancer). If I had that kind of money, I’d buy the SAD lamp.

7. Get a SAD lamp. Sometimes if your doctor gives you a prescription, your insurance will pay for some or all.

I know this. I try to plan with exercise and getting outside and things.

I failed this year.

My dear sweet little boy, I call him Sunshine Boy, hates going outside when it’s mildly cold. He HATES, loathes with a passion, wearing hats and mitts. Within minutes of being outside they are on the ground and he’s screaming “my hat fell off, my mitts fell off” and I run over and put them back on again and again until I lose all patience and start screaming back to the get into the house. (okay this only happened once). Then I calmly take him back into the house.

I also used to walk Princess Girl to school. But since I’m watching twins in her grade, they all walk together and I don’t have to wrestle Sunshine into clothing and listen to him whine.

Added to that it’s been -15 to -36 C with windchill. (That’s 0 F to -32 F), we haven’t gotten outside nearly enough.

So what about exercise?

yeah I”m a slacker. Sunshine is a toddler. He is a demanding toddler. When my daughter, my sweet easy going daughter was a toddler, we struggled as parents. It’s much harder now.

So, I have things happening in my head that won’t happen on paper or on the computer until sometime in the new year after I get a handle on this.

The plan for dealing with SAD (and currently PMS backache and cramps) is daily exercise. Getting outside at couple times a week, if only for 10 minutes. Just a quick walk. Strap Sunshine boy on my back if I need to. Morning pages, if I start sleeping earlier at night. I’ll try to stick some free writing in during the day.

If I don’t take care of myself, there will be no Mom to take care of anyone else. I know this. I KNOW THIS. I once again thought that it wouldn’t happen. Sunrise is 8:30 AM and sunset is like 3:30 PM. Seriously we had to turn lights on today at 3:30, the kids weren’t even home from school.

I’m looking into SAD light therapy. They are pretty expensive. 10,000 lux, which is what is recommended, 10,000 lux for a half hour is more feasible than 2,500 lux for 2 hours. If we weren’t in the middle of paying for Sunshine Boy’s teeth removal, might be different. This will be a must have for next year.

Also my DH isn’t working a lot of hours with his new company, so that will entail another company switch soon, likely back to the first trucking company he worked for. But anyway  I don’t want to stress him out by saying I need to spend $200, when if I just went outside for 15 minutes I’d get the same result. Again, going to try backpacking Sunshine and see how it all goes.

Also did I mention the Princess brought home lice. Again. Holy fucking hell. We don’t get lice very often in this house, but when we do, my sister in law is over and we share between us. (sometimes she gives it to us or we give it to her).

So I was filling out the questionnaire.  And here are the ways I would have liked to fill out some of the questions.

Birth date: Old enough to know better, young enough to try again if the first time was fun.

Previous or current conditions: slight moments of sanity while I try to keep the kids happy and fed, the house chaos to a minimum and find time to fulfill my goals in life. Also, stress.

Do you drink alcohol? See above.

How much? Not as much as I’d like to, I try to keep it to special occasions. Weekends are special occasions right?

How often do you exercise? I have a two year old, who needs to exercise, just follow him around keeping him from harming himself and cleaning up his mess. Also sometimes I walk the dog, but it’s really freaking cold out.

Hobbies and activities? (Left it blank because I assume they meant physical ones). I thought about saying “I spend my spare time getting older daughter to her activities, cleaning house and preparing nutritious yet appetizing meals for my family. What do you do in your spare time? sometimes I crochet, had to stop knitting, kids kept trying to poke each other with the needles”.

Family history:

Heart attack: Grandfather? Maybe.

Diabetes: Cousins.

Cancer: Grandmother

Mental illness:  Where should I start? My family is dysfunctional, but I think it’s pretty average unbalanced issues. Nothing requiring medication or hospitalization.

Previous Surgery: they took out the optional pieces: tonsils as  child, appendix as a young adult, closed up my uterine access to my fallopian tubes.

well next week I’ll have a fun story to tell you all about how my son had to have four teeth removed at age 2.

The show just really went a few seasons too long. But no matter how annoying Ted’s search for love or Marshall and Lily doing anything gets for viewers. We always have

Barney Stinson. Played by Dr. Doogie Howser, child M.D.  Neil Patrick Harris, who just seems like a genuinely nice guy.

Anyway, Barney’s job is shrouded in mystery. When asked what he does at work he replies “please” and whenever people show him at work, he isn’t actually doing anything work related.

See right there. Please.

Anyway, I was reading 50 Shades of Grey recap. And they mentioned something about Christian Grey’s business.

And I was all like “What business?” because he rarely does any work.  He texts and emails Ana a lot. He says he’s in meetings. But he rarely does anything? I mean don’t most multibillionaire, international business owners and CEOs travel pretty frequently? Instead in the three books he takes a few business calls and makes business decisions (buying companies) based on where his girlfriend works so he can further control her life.

Anyway, I’d rather marry Barney Stinson. We’d make it work Barney, I swear!

Which you cant’ really see anything at since I don’t really have pictures worth sharing. Light boxes appear to be private.

Anyway, a group I belong to ended up discussing, among other things, being addicted to covers and /or stockphotography. Some people even said they would find pictures they loved and try to write a story for the cover.

Not sure I could do that. Though I did find this picture: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1094532 who made me think of Zack who may or may not be my new hero. I’m working out some kinks with Zack’s plot line. (Which reminds me, if you see me on Twitter ask me if I have been doing my morning pages).

Where was I? Got distracted by the pretty.

I just think up random words to search: passion, love, kiss, rain, hockey, paper. Whatever strikes my fancy. And then I save pictures to my lightbox and then later I look through them and wonder why I saved some of the things I did, then I delete them.

What pictures do you like? What words would you search?

<3 Asrai

ps. happy birthday to my high school crush. yes I remember things like that!

Roll your head around a few times (skip looking up to the ceiling if you are worried about that issue). If you can stand up and touch your goes, so a bit of movement and stretching.

Take a few minutes to wake up your body, stretching, get a drink of water. Look out a window, connect with someone. Enjoy the rest of your day.