A few things.
I have a bunch of things to talk about because I didn't update yesterday.
Caffeine
So first of all, on Monday I drank a Venti Earl Grey at Starbucks and then I was anxious all day. I drank the thing at around 10.00 a.m. (it lasted me until 11.00 a.m.) and the anxiety didn't start to dissipate until I ate some cheese bread sticks (from Safeway) at about 5.30 p.m. And yes, I had lunch and I'd eaten breakfast, so I wasn't drinking the tea on an empty stomach or anything like that.
Today I made myself a coffee - 1.5 tsp instant coffee, 1 packet hot chocolate mix, 1/4 cup unsweetened plain almond milk, 1.75 cups boiling water. No anxiety. So I don't know what was up with Monday, but I will try a smaller Earl Grey next time I'm at Starbucks and figure out what's the what. Because I can't take stimulants while we're trying to get pregnant since I can't take them while I'm actually pregnant, and the herbal stuff I was taking has the same warning on it. Caffeine is it for self-medicating right now, and I really need to have a way to drink it without freaking myself out.
Diet
I did the analysis and last year I lost 10 lbs the first month I cut sugar. As I cut other things for the candida diet, the loss continued, but I lost a total of 30 lbs in five or so months, stayed steady for one month, and then when I started drinking soy chai tea lattes at Starbucks I started to gain slowly, and when I added sugar in for real after Easter, I regained a total of 20 lbs pretty damn quickly. I'm hovering around 235 lbs right now and I was all the way down to 212 lbs in January. This is unacceptable, so I am cutting sugar completely, or as completely as I can while still eating somewhat normally. If I have to I'll go totally strict again, but I'd rather not. We'll see what happens.
My Tooth
Second molar from the back, top right. It tried to kill me at the end of January. It got properly infected last week and so I got in to see the dentist and he could see the infection finally so they believe me that the tooth is dead and now I need a root canal. Not really a big deal as this will be my third, but of course the roots have to be complicated and twisty, so I have been referred to an endodontist. My appointment is currently on June 30, but I was told it may cost up to $1,500 and they don't direct-bill the insurance company so I have to pay that up front (Visa, MasterCard, debit, I think cash - I need to double-check that) and then get reimbursed. Suffice to say, this is a stretch. I might have to call and ask if we can postpone it until the end of July instead, just so there's actual time to save up for it. Juniper gets paid about $1,500 every two weeks. We sort of have that in savings, but we won't have anything left. So, yeah. *sigh*
Babysitting
I posted about this on Friday, but here are a few things I didn't include:
I showed the 7yo a Loonie (that's a Canadian $1 coin).
7yo: Can I take it and show my friends at home in New York?
Me: Um, no, I'm not giving you my money.
7yo: I'll give it back to you.
Me: How are you going to give it back to me? I will probably never see you again. I'm not giving you a dollar. Ask your parents for one to show your friends.
7yo: No, we'll come back. I'll see you again.
She was SO SURE.
I still didn't give her a Loonie.
And this one:
It was also a bit funny because she kept saying things like “I’m from America,” and “In America, we…”
My favourite though was “I don’t know how they do it in Canada, but in America the oldest is always in charge when the adult isn’t there.”
That was because whenever I had to leave them alone briefly to go to the bathroom or get something in the Tim Hortons we went to, she would ask if she could be in charge while I was gone.
One, even if I was in the bathroom at the house I was close enough to deal if something happened (which it really wasn’t going to) and in the Timmy’s I was literally five feet away.
Two, I am an oldest. I have three younger brothers. I know what happens when you give an oldest sibling that kind of power.
The State of My House
On days when I'm at home, I am going to leave the computer off until dinner time because I really desperately need to focus on getting house stuff done because this place is a disaster and it’s overwhelming and distressing and unless I get some paid work to do I should probably just focus on house stuff.
Not sure how long that’s going to last, probably a while. I need to get the kitchen finished sorted out and I need to deal with my sewing room and get the guinea pigs moved in there and all that and I need to organize the study and our bedroom is a disaster and then there’s stuff to be done in the basement but I think once the main floor is dealt with I will be able to come back in the afternoons.
I strongly suspect I’ll be mostly offline for like at least a month.
At least.
See, I really actually just need some help. But all the people who I could ask who I would be okay with actually seeing what this house is like? They either don’t live around here or they’re allergic to the animals. And I mean, I could ask my parents to help but when would they be able to do that? Maybe when Dad comes down to help my husband with some of the maintenance on the house, Mom can help me with some of the cleaning and organizing indoors.
I keep hoping we’ll win the lottery because then we can hire people and a professional organizer and get it all sorted out and cleaned up and painted nice and replace the floors and fix the things that are wrong with the house and build a new house and everything will be perfect.
Until then, no more internet during the day if I’m at home, unless I have paid work to do.
I did this today and it worked out really well.
Today
Got out of bed at around 8.00 a.m. (alarm went off at 7.00 a.m., I dozed and then played with my iPod).
Did my usual stuff: fed the guinea pigs, fed the cat, made the humans breakfast, packed Juniper’s lunch, gathered the stuff I needed for my day in the city.
Got into the car a bit after 9.00 a.m., as usual for a day in the city. We headed off.
And then the car died. It just stopped working.
Luckily one of our neighbours saw us and took my husband to get some gas, but that wasn’t the problem. So she called her husband and he came after a while with his truck and towed our car to the mechanic’s in town, since we were still on the gravel road and about two minutes from town (still half an hour away from the city) when it died. Then he drove us home and his little boy (about two years old) held Oscar the toy guinea pig for the whole drive. (He is adorable.)
It was 11.00 a.m. by the time we got home.
At that point, Juniper took the truck into the garage because the wipers weren’t working and it was raining all day today. I called and canceled my shift tonight because I hate driving the truck and the person I take out doesn’t like it either. At some point I went out and helped Juniper get the wiper motor off the truck and then he drove over to the neighbour’s because he’d said he had a bunch of bits and pieces and might have a motor. So that did get done, but then Juniper had a migraine so he just stayed home, since by the time that was all dealt with it was like 2.30 p.m. anyway.
While Juniper was dealing with the truck, I started some laundry and sifted the litter box. Then I did the dishes. Then it was noon, so I had lunch and read a book and then I moved the laundry around. At 1.41 p.m. I put fresh sheets on the bed. Then I cleaned the guinea pig cages starting at 2.03 p.m., switching the fleece and towels out for shavings because executive dysfunction is a thing and cleaning properly hasn’t been happening with the fabric bedding. Shavings are easier.
I figured I would also move Bubble’s cage so we could find where the smell was coming from since we knew it was probably the dead ground squirrel from last month (remember, the one that went in behind the cages and then disappeared). So before doing fresh bedding (after I took out the soiled stuff) I cut the zip ties on the outer cubes for his cage and loosened them, and then I lifted up the cage base.
If you heard a blood-curdling shriek at about 2.30 p.m. (Saskatchewan time), that was me.
I found the ground squirrel.
Apparently the reason we couldn’t find it before was that it had crawled under Bubble’s cage. And then it died.
Juniper cleaned it up (he had to use a scraper on the bottom of the cage) and then I put baking soda on the rug and sprayed down the bottom of the cage with vinegar and water and wiped it with a paper towel after it had soaked a bit and dude I washed my hands with antibacterial soap after that.
I also sprayed Febreez in there because holy wow it reeked.
I finished with the big cage and brought up a store cage for Bubble because I need to change the C&C base a bit for the new location. I also washed their food and veggie bowls and got everything all nice for them. Then I terrorized them with nail clippers and scissors. Well, the scissors were just for Bubble and Squeak, but still. Squeak had a big mat over his grease gland but I cut it out. Poor dude will probably be way more comfy now. Next week I’m going to see if I can clean their grease glands properly. I’ve never tried it before, but I’m sure I can find some instructions online. (Like at GuineaLynx.)
So all of the guinea pig stuff took two hours. Then I moved more laundry around. Then I spent 20 minutes unfucking my kitchen, which looks way better now even though I don’t feel like I did very much. I just cleared off the table, bagged a bunch of the empty water bottles, and removed a bunch of plastic bags. Oh, and reorganized (a little bit) the small book case that’s by the door downstairs, which I use for canned goods that don’t fit in the cupboard.
At 5.10 p.m. I started dinner (leftover pork chop, salad, and freshly made mashed potatoes) and then I did my writing prompt since that’s by hand. When my dinner was ready, I turned on my laptop and here I am. I ate a bit after 6.00 p.m. and I restocked the queue for the ADHD blog while I was at it. Trying to stay on top of things while also respecting the fact that I need no computer in order to get stuff done around the house.
This entry was originally posted at http://karalianne.dreamwidth.org/777719.html. You can comment there using OpenID, or you can just comment here; I'm good with whatever.
Caffeine
So first of all, on Monday I drank a Venti Earl Grey at Starbucks and then I was anxious all day. I drank the thing at around 10.00 a.m. (it lasted me until 11.00 a.m.) and the anxiety didn't start to dissipate until I ate some cheese bread sticks (from Safeway) at about 5.30 p.m. And yes, I had lunch and I'd eaten breakfast, so I wasn't drinking the tea on an empty stomach or anything like that.
Today I made myself a coffee - 1.5 tsp instant coffee, 1 packet hot chocolate mix, 1/4 cup unsweetened plain almond milk, 1.75 cups boiling water. No anxiety. So I don't know what was up with Monday, but I will try a smaller Earl Grey next time I'm at Starbucks and figure out what's the what. Because I can't take stimulants while we're trying to get pregnant since I can't take them while I'm actually pregnant, and the herbal stuff I was taking has the same warning on it. Caffeine is it for self-medicating right now, and I really need to have a way to drink it without freaking myself out.
Diet
I did the analysis and last year I lost 10 lbs the first month I cut sugar. As I cut other things for the candida diet, the loss continued, but I lost a total of 30 lbs in five or so months, stayed steady for one month, and then when I started drinking soy chai tea lattes at Starbucks I started to gain slowly, and when I added sugar in for real after Easter, I regained a total of 20 lbs pretty damn quickly. I'm hovering around 235 lbs right now and I was all the way down to 212 lbs in January. This is unacceptable, so I am cutting sugar completely, or as completely as I can while still eating somewhat normally. If I have to I'll go totally strict again, but I'd rather not. We'll see what happens.
My Tooth
Second molar from the back, top right. It tried to kill me at the end of January. It got properly infected last week and so I got in to see the dentist and he could see the infection finally so they believe me that the tooth is dead and now I need a root canal. Not really a big deal as this will be my third, but of course the roots have to be complicated and twisty, so I have been referred to an endodontist. My appointment is currently on June 30, but I was told it may cost up to $1,500 and they don't direct-bill the insurance company so I have to pay that up front (Visa, MasterCard, debit, I think cash - I need to double-check that) and then get reimbursed. Suffice to say, this is a stretch. I might have to call and ask if we can postpone it until the end of July instead, just so there's actual time to save up for it. Juniper gets paid about $1,500 every two weeks. We sort of have that in savings, but we won't have anything left. So, yeah. *sigh*
Babysitting
I posted about this on Friday, but here are a few things I didn't include:
I showed the 7yo a Loonie (that's a Canadian $1 coin).
7yo: Can I take it and show my friends at home in New York?
Me: Um, no, I'm not giving you my money.
7yo: I'll give it back to you.
Me: How are you going to give it back to me? I will probably never see you again. I'm not giving you a dollar. Ask your parents for one to show your friends.
7yo: No, we'll come back. I'll see you again.
She was SO SURE.
I still didn't give her a Loonie.
And this one:
It was also a bit funny because she kept saying things like “I’m from America,” and “In America, we…”
My favourite though was “I don’t know how they do it in Canada, but in America the oldest is always in charge when the adult isn’t there.”
That was because whenever I had to leave them alone briefly to go to the bathroom or get something in the Tim Hortons we went to, she would ask if she could be in charge while I was gone.
One, even if I was in the bathroom at the house I was close enough to deal if something happened (which it really wasn’t going to) and in the Timmy’s I was literally five feet away.
Two, I am an oldest. I have three younger brothers. I know what happens when you give an oldest sibling that kind of power.
The State of My House
On days when I'm at home, I am going to leave the computer off until dinner time because I really desperately need to focus on getting house stuff done because this place is a disaster and it’s overwhelming and distressing and unless I get some paid work to do I should probably just focus on house stuff.
Not sure how long that’s going to last, probably a while. I need to get the kitchen finished sorted out and I need to deal with my sewing room and get the guinea pigs moved in there and all that and I need to organize the study and our bedroom is a disaster and then there’s stuff to be done in the basement but I think once the main floor is dealt with I will be able to come back in the afternoons.
I strongly suspect I’ll be mostly offline for like at least a month.
At least.
See, I really actually just need some help. But all the people who I could ask who I would be okay with actually seeing what this house is like? They either don’t live around here or they’re allergic to the animals. And I mean, I could ask my parents to help but when would they be able to do that? Maybe when Dad comes down to help my husband with some of the maintenance on the house, Mom can help me with some of the cleaning and organizing indoors.
I keep hoping we’ll win the lottery because then we can hire people and a professional organizer and get it all sorted out and cleaned up and painted nice and replace the floors and fix the things that are wrong with the house and build a new house and everything will be perfect.
Until then, no more internet during the day if I’m at home, unless I have paid work to do.
I did this today and it worked out really well.
Today
Got out of bed at around 8.00 a.m. (alarm went off at 7.00 a.m., I dozed and then played with my iPod).
Did my usual stuff: fed the guinea pigs, fed the cat, made the humans breakfast, packed Juniper’s lunch, gathered the stuff I needed for my day in the city.
Got into the car a bit after 9.00 a.m., as usual for a day in the city. We headed off.
And then the car died. It just stopped working.
Luckily one of our neighbours saw us and took my husband to get some gas, but that wasn’t the problem. So she called her husband and he came after a while with his truck and towed our car to the mechanic’s in town, since we were still on the gravel road and about two minutes from town (still half an hour away from the city) when it died. Then he drove us home and his little boy (about two years old) held Oscar the toy guinea pig for the whole drive. (He is adorable.)
It was 11.00 a.m. by the time we got home.
At that point, Juniper took the truck into the garage because the wipers weren’t working and it was raining all day today. I called and canceled my shift tonight because I hate driving the truck and the person I take out doesn’t like it either. At some point I went out and helped Juniper get the wiper motor off the truck and then he drove over to the neighbour’s because he’d said he had a bunch of bits and pieces and might have a motor. So that did get done, but then Juniper had a migraine so he just stayed home, since by the time that was all dealt with it was like 2.30 p.m. anyway.
While Juniper was dealing with the truck, I started some laundry and sifted the litter box. Then I did the dishes. Then it was noon, so I had lunch and read a book and then I moved the laundry around. At 1.41 p.m. I put fresh sheets on the bed. Then I cleaned the guinea pig cages starting at 2.03 p.m., switching the fleece and towels out for shavings because executive dysfunction is a thing and cleaning properly hasn’t been happening with the fabric bedding. Shavings are easier.
I figured I would also move Bubble’s cage so we could find where the smell was coming from since we knew it was probably the dead ground squirrel from last month (remember, the one that went in behind the cages and then disappeared). So before doing fresh bedding (after I took out the soiled stuff) I cut the zip ties on the outer cubes for his cage and loosened them, and then I lifted up the cage base.
If you heard a blood-curdling shriek at about 2.30 p.m. (Saskatchewan time), that was me.
I found the ground squirrel.
Apparently the reason we couldn’t find it before was that it had crawled under Bubble’s cage. And then it died.
Juniper cleaned it up (he had to use a scraper on the bottom of the cage) and then I put baking soda on the rug and sprayed down the bottom of the cage with vinegar and water and wiped it with a paper towel after it had soaked a bit and dude I washed my hands with antibacterial soap after that.
I also sprayed Febreez in there because holy wow it reeked.
I finished with the big cage and brought up a store cage for Bubble because I need to change the C&C base a bit for the new location. I also washed their food and veggie bowls and got everything all nice for them. Then I terrorized them with nail clippers and scissors. Well, the scissors were just for Bubble and Squeak, but still. Squeak had a big mat over his grease gland but I cut it out. Poor dude will probably be way more comfy now. Next week I’m going to see if I can clean their grease glands properly. I’ve never tried it before, but I’m sure I can find some instructions online. (Like at GuineaLynx.)
So all of the guinea pig stuff took two hours. Then I moved more laundry around. Then I spent 20 minutes unfucking my kitchen, which looks way better now even though I don’t feel like I did very much. I just cleared off the table, bagged a bunch of the empty water bottles, and removed a bunch of plastic bags. Oh, and reorganized (a little bit) the small book case that’s by the door downstairs, which I use for canned goods that don’t fit in the cupboard.
At 5.10 p.m. I started dinner (leftover pork chop, salad, and freshly made mashed potatoes) and then I did my writing prompt since that’s by hand. When my dinner was ready, I turned on my laptop and here I am. I ate a bit after 6.00 p.m. and I restocked the queue for the ADHD blog while I was at it. Trying to stay on top of things while also respecting the fact that I need no computer in order to get stuff done around the house.
This entry was originally posted at http://karalianne.dreamwidth.org/777719.html. You can comment there using OpenID, or you can just comment here; I'm good with whatever.