Stress-Eliminator Birthday Plan

My birthday is nearing (just 2 more days), and I hope to have a plan in place that I can stick to, a plan to get me to the healthiest I’ve been before I turn 40 in a couple years.

I ran across some pictures taken AFTER I had my son just a few years ago, and I looked better then than I do now. And I know why: I had zero stress in my life and was only concerned about playing and being with my son. Neither my job nor my day-to-day living caused me any stress.

Then I learned today that stress REALLY is a killer, just read this article about stress and the connection to cancer.

Does anyone have any good stress-eliminator advice? What do you do to keep it at bay? (Trying to go the script-free route folks.) Do you know someone in your life that is suffering due to stress? Interested in starting a stress-free support group? (I am sure there is one out there already.)

I need a coach. Is there an app for that? In the meantime, I’ll refer to my handy-dandy flow chart below:

Taken from www.wolfescape.com/Humour/WorkStress.htm

Resolution Redux

Here we go again! (Or should I speak for myself and just say, “Here I go again?”) Another year and another resolution. It’s always the same, year after year: go to the gym more. Does it ever happen? Nope. My resolution allows breaks and shatters before my birthday, which is at the end of January. Pathetic!

So, I think I will look at this whole idea of having a resolution differently this year. I always look at it from the perspective of changing myself for the better. (Kind of selfish, huh?) Instead, I would like to concentrate on helping others succeed with their goals.

Why? Well, by doing things for others, I have found that it has a reciprocal effect on me and my mood and my motivation to go to the gym or to crack open a book or to take a class just-because-I-feel-like-it.

My resolution…to volunteer a few hours each month with the National Center for Families and Children. They fund and administer a program called Future Bound and have asked me to volunteer with teenagers in need of help with the Science and Math sections of the GED, something I enjoyed doing when I worked for Community Educational Outreach in Denver a few years ago.

What’s your resolution? Do you think you can keep it going beyond January? Do you think I can?

I L-O-V-E Skype

Skype

I am guilty of being a procrastinator at times. Now is one of those times: I should be packing for my move on the 30th. Instead, I have been messing around with Skype.

Why? Well, my son received a Dell Mini for Christmas, and his dad added a Skype account and icon to his desktop. He called me this morning and showed me some gifts Santa brought. My favorite are his Spiderman slippers. He saw me; I saw him. It was too cool, as he says.

Did I mention that Skype is free!?!?

The Worst Letter From Santa EVER!

Trying to remember what he wants for Christmas

My mother paid Western Maryland Scenic Railroad nearly $90 last weekend to treat me and Armando to a ride on the North Pole Express train that traveled between Cumberland and Frostburg Sunday evening.

Part of the package included a letter from Santa to Armando sent through email. How cute, I thought, until I received the letter. How many grammatical, structural, and language use errors can YOU find?:

Dear  Armando,

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!  Christmas is just around the corner, Ive been making my list and checking it twice.  Ive noticed you slipped up a little a few times but thats okay, nobody is perfect, and Im still very proud of you!   I like bringing toys to little children who listen to their parents, are nice, polite to other people, and try to do their best in school.

Mrs. Claus and I enjoyed visiting with you at the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad’s North Pole Express.  I remember the special gift you asked for and the elves and I are doing our best to bring it to you or something that you will really like.

Mrs. Claus has been baking cookies for all the elves so they will have plenty of energy to build lots of toys and games.  Rudolph and all the reindeer have been practicing their flying so we will all be ready when the day gets here to visit you in Cumberland.

Dont forget to go to bed early on Christmas Eve.  If there are any of those great cookies left over Christmas Eve, just leave a couple for me, but you dont have to, we go to bunches of houses and all of those cookies make me filled up, ho, ho, ho!   Some leftover veggies would be nice for the reindeer; they dont like cookies too much, ho, ho, ho!!

Santa

Keeping still…

I remember growing up and being told to “keep still” or “stay still” or some variation. Whether I was at church, the dinner table, sitting on the sofa watching TV, or in the car, I heard it from my mother and never understood why she demanded such a thing from me…until now.

I have a four-year-old son. He loves to listen to music, watch cartoons, play electronic games, trace letters and numbers, act like a bird, dance, sing…you get the idea. In the evenings, we eat together and hang out in the living room. Nearly every 5 minutes, he is asking me to “read me this” or “find the start button” or “watch this” or “I need help.” And 9 times out of 10, when he makes one of his requests, I am ALMOST in a relaxed state. (Can’t you just find a game you like and keep still?)

Later, after filling the tub for his bath, I call him in. He loves taking baths and is always anxious to get his clothes off so he can jump into the “really hot” water. He can normally get his pants off without my help but his socks give him a heck of a time. He normally just shakes his foot in my face asking for help. (Well, it would be a whole lot easier for me to take off your socks if you just stood still!)

Then there’s the time AFTER his bath when I carry him to the bed wrapped in a towel and ask him to dry himself off while I go drain the tub. When I return to the bedroom, he’s either bouncing on the bed or rolling around on the floor looking for a book to read later. I hand him his bedclothes but he always asks me to help him get dressed even though I am sure he can do it himself. I agree to help, but he doesn’t stop moving. (Please just stop moving!)

Then it’s time for bed, and we always read a story. If it’s the first time reading a particular story, he calmly sits there (wonderful). If it’s not the first time, he’s trying to turn pages, pressing his little finger on pictures and explaining to me what I am looking at (thanks, I didn’t know that) and pretending to read. (OK, I guess it’s the end of the story if you don’t plan on keeping still!)

Oh, and then there are the times I want to take a picture of him with a new toy or a new favorite shirt so we can share with family and friends who don’t get to see him every day. My iPhone camera was not meant for this because he won’t stop moving, swinging his arms, dancing, posing, doing his moves…

Yes, I seem to be complaining. In the moment, it is frustrating but later I laugh. Soon, I hope to be able to laugh in the moment, too.

Moving so much his hand disappeared...

Thankful Thoughts

Battling stress, unfortunately, is an everyday struggle for me. From work to family matters, not a day goes by when I don’t feel a bit nauseous and anxious about stuff.

It hasn’t always been this way. I remember thinking, “Stress? What’s stress?” Well, not anymore. Could it be what happens after having a baby and the word ‘responsibility’ takes on a whole new meaning?

So, I am hoping to relieve some of my stress by starting a list and updating it daily with things I am thankful for. I hope that by focusing daily on things that make me happy, I may be able to conquer the evil stress mess cluttering my mind and get back to being me.

My Thankful List

November 12 – I am thankful for my son’s smile.

November 13 – I am thankful for my pen pal.

November 14 – I am thankful for yogurt.

November 15 – I am thankful for coffee.

November 16 – I am thankful for my job.

November 17 – I am thankful for the sunshine today.

November 18, 2009 – I am thankful for tasty ripe avocados.

November 19, 2009 -

Pen Pal Letter Writing

I received and read my first pen pal letter yesterday afternoon. It came from a woman I  met online during the summer of 2007: I read her blog, liked it, and left comments often.  Now we are “friends” on FaceBook. I have NEVER met her face to face and have only shared emails and status updates with her. Now, it seems, a true epistolatory adventure has begun. (BTW, she initiated the exchange; I take no credit.)

It has been years since I have engaged in writing, sending, and receiving true snail mail between friends.  With the death of my dear friend James B., my passion to write and mail letters also died. He was a photographer who took pictures of life and shared life by creating post cards from his images. All of his musings were personal and just for me; he couldn’t have written what he wrote to me and send it to any one else; he addressed me and what he knew of me. His messages juxtaposed with his photographs were sent with the receiver in mind, not with his ego. That is true art. (I have even framed some.)

I hope I can regain what I lost in 2003: simple sharing between good friends who are separated by miles but remain connected by thoughts.

My Pen Pal Letter #1 will be sent today.

To Scan Or Not To Scan

I remember growing up in the 70’s when the family camera emerged sparingly on special occasions, like birthdays and vacations, from its nesting place in a desk drawer. Recently, my mom produced a box filled with the loose prints of my childhood and teen years. The edges are browning and yellow. Some are Polaroid shots; some have rounded corners; some are glossy; some are well-faded from age; all have a strange smell that takes me somewhere else in my mind.

Can't you just smell the memories?

They all need to be placed in an album, but I have no idea where to start or how to organize them. I have considered using a basic chronology and have even thought about organizing them by theme like all Christmas pictures together or all baby pictures together, the first requiring only a single label for each group and the second option requiring EACH picture to be clearly captioned. Either way, it’s going to be a tedious job, and one that will surely consume me.

I think about scanning them into my MacBook and iPhoto application that has the power to organize them by person (through face recognition), by place, by date, and by tags that I designate. Fun for me, but the tangible is lost.

So, I wonder, how emotionally charged will my son be in twenty years when he stumbles upon a Web gallery he can click through quickly as apposed to stumbling upon a dusty album he must hold and “move” through? Is there value in the smells and the look of pictures that have aged as he has aged? Does it matter?

Share This?

Share. What does that really mean? I tell my son that it is good to share his toys with his friends. But that it’s not good to share his food or his drink or anything else that might make him or someone else sick with GERMS, as he understands. Then there’s the seemingly safe but gross stuff he wants to share but shouldn’t like his farts and boogers.

So, it seems, there are many levels and nuances of sharing for kids AND for adults. My favorite AND least favorite online feature is the “Share This” option you see on EVERY site you visit these days. I rarely get a personal “share” from a friend. Most are from friends who post them to their status for ALL of their so-called friends to read. There is nothing personal about these “shares, ” so I rarely read them. But I expect EVERYONE to read the links I share. (Hypocrite!)

Do you ever do it? Do you ever share? And when you share, do you add a comment about why you are sharing it? Do you have a certain person you always share stuff with? Are there people you wouldn’t share with? Are you a habitual bulk sharer? (Eeeww!)

Hmmmm?

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