Chickafinty ~ A Life in the Laundry

Trying not to get too excited

There are signs that Mister Bear might be getting better, if only a little.  Yesterday he woke up feeling not too bad, but the feeling went away quite quickly.

This morning he again awoke feeling a little better, but this time he felt well enough to get breakfast - for all of us - then did his usual 2 hour stint at the computer.  He had a shower...standing up!** and whilst he felt fatigued, was not wasted.  He rested for a couple of hours and then did the remaining 2 hour stint on the computer.

Tonight he is tired and achy, but not exhausted.  Not wasted.  Not shaky.

We're trying not to get too excited, but this might just be the beginning of his getting well again.

The BIG DEAL that never came

"Slow and steady steps will be my pace,

Slow and steady steps will win this race,

It will take some time,

But the vict'ry will be mine

Slow and steady, I'm going to learn to fly"

© Amy Lacey from the FLY! CD

I've been a Flybaby now for about 6 years...slightly less time than Chickabid has been around...and only now is the message getting through to my addled brain.  Marla has always been on about baby steps, baby steps, baby steps and I never really got it.  To me, having a clean (and relatively tidy) house was something that would happen with a big bang, a fanfare of trumpets or something of that ilk.

Then today, after having house guests overnight (very welcome house guests), I came out this morning to a tidy kitchen, a tidy family room, a tidy lounge room and a big, but manageable laundry pile.  Ok, it wasn't perfect - the dishwasher and the cat's litter tray being prime examples -

will have to get back to this later - feeling quite unwell

The cave is warm and cozy

I am sitting in the cave today.  Haven't been anywhere near the cave for a long, long time, but from the moment I woke up this morning, I knew it was a cave day.

Didn't run yesterday as Mum and Dad were here and there simply wasn't time.  My iPod arrived yesterday but <shamefaced confession> I couldn't undertsand how to work it.  I burned the Week 2 podcast onto a cd instead and went trundling up the street at the crack of dawn only to discover that it didn't burn properly and 3/4 of the workout just wasn't there.

I came home and started breakfast, but discovered that I hadn't set the dishwasher last night and it was still full of dirty, stinky dishes.

The cat decided that the top of the kitty litter was the best place for his morning contribution so that had to be cleared up before I did anything else.

I set Mister Bear's porridge to cook on the stove and promptly forgot about it until Mum got out of the shower and found it merrily burning away on the stove top.

At that point, I gave up.  Today is not a good day.  The omens are so bad that I am not coming out to play.

There is a glimmer of good news and hope though.  Mister Bear's LFTs came back with an improvement, not a decline.  He *might* be beginning to road to recovery.  He's in downtime right now - the three hour break between work periods - and when I have finished this, we're going to sit in the lounge room and play Trivial Pursuit.  This is another good sign.  He's restless and can't settle to anything passive like reading, but too fatigued to do anything that requires effort.  I know it doesn't sound like it, but this is a POSITIVE SIGN.  He might, just might, be getting better.  For his sake, I hope so.  Life is totally sucky for him right now.

A Lightbulb Moment

We were sitting up in bed this morning - all four of us - watching Cars and as usual my mind was wandering all over the place thinking about all kinds of stuff.  Right now, the thing that I think most about is going back to work cos it is looming closer and closer.  Unlike PVFS, it is *not* going to go away and I am going to be stuck with it for life.  I tend to think a lot about what I can do to make life easier for everyone, about what I can do in order to do my job properly and still have time over for the family.  In 2005, at least for the first 6 months, our lives ground to a halt.  We just about lived on a solid diet of take away and every minute was spent working on school stuff.

I am determined that that will not happen this time.  It wasn't fair on Mister Bear, it wasn't fair on the kids and it wasn't fair on me.  I can't allow it to happen again.  I was thinking about this and pondering on the things that cause the greatest grief.  Top of that particular train of thought was homework.  The only people who hate homework more than the kids who have to do it are the teachers who have to set it.  And mark it.  Homework is a right royal pain.  Remembering on the weekend to write up the wretched thing.  Remembering to put it in for photocopying on Monday.  Remembering to hand it out on Monday afternoon.  Remembering to remind the kids to bring it back and then the biggest one - remembering to mark it.  Sheesh.  I was so bad to remembering to take it to school in 1998, that I started faxing my homework to the school on Sunday night so that it would be waiting in the in tray on Monday morning and I couldn't forget it.

Going back on class means dealing with homework yet again.  But then I had this lightbulb moment.  You see, I go up to Chickabid's class every Friday afternoon and I mark his class' homework for his teacher.  I know what a pain it is and there's no skin off my nose to do it...all she wants is a tick and flick with a bit of a sticker.  I leave home at 2.30pm and walk the five minutes up to the school.  I am finished marking all the books, including pasting in next week's homework sheet, by the time the bell goes at 3pm.  It only takes 20 minutes to mark the books.  20 minutes.  Ka-ching...the lightbulb switches on.  If I take 20 minutes to mark those babies on Friday afternoon in my classroom then by 3.20 the homework is marked and I still have 40 minutes in which to tidy the classroom and gather up my stuff and I am still gone by 4pm.

Don't ask me why it has taken 15 years to work that one out, but better later than not at all.  I think it has something to do with what I am working on with Messies Anonymous at the moment, which is, if it takes 30 seconds or less, do it now.  I am really starting to realise how little time it actually takes to accomplish some tasks that I procrastinate on.  It actually takes longer to procrastinate than it does to do it now.

It's my motto for this week and my mantra for going back to work.  30 seconds or less?  Then do it now.

Nothing quite like achieving a goal!

Four days ago:

Today:

Declutter Goal #1 - Day 3

It's not the third day in a row that I have decluttered this room, but it *is* the third day.

After 60 minutes' work it looks like this:

Happy 30th Anniversary, Star Wars

Don't you find it scary when something has a 30th anniversary and the event happened within your living memory??

What do you make of this

Mister Bear woke up this morning and his eye looked like this:

It still looks like that.  It's very impressive and also a little scary.

Not getting caught up in the hype

Yes, I have been taking Goji Juice.

No, I am not getting caught up in the hype.  We bought the first bottle from our next door neighbours who are distributors.  Mister Bear has been taking it for almost a week and he is ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly improving.

I have been taking it for two days and my energy levels have just about doubled.  I kid you not.

We bought the second bottle from the health food store ($45 as opposed to $52) and we're both going to keep taking it.

I had a very healthy skepticism about it to start with, but it *is* making a difference.

I am also participating in Couch to 5K.  It's a 13 week programme, but I fully expect it to take 20 weeks or longer.  It is also making me feel a lot better.  Get those endorphins going!!

Declutter Goal #1 - Day 2

After a total of 45 minutes spread over three days the toy room looks like this:

It is getting there, slowly.