Positive Thinking - February 2016

The original purpose of my Positive Thinking posts were to remind me of all the good going on in our lives and to draw the focus away from the difficulties of life with Amber's illnesses. I got away from these posts, but tried to keep a mental tally of the positive in our lives. Now with additional items cropping up with Amber, I've started to lose my perspective again.

Which means in order to keep myself accountable, I'm back to these posts and my list of grateful items:

Effective, positive, compassionate, and understanding medical team for Amber - We really have it so easy compared to most children like Amber in respect to her doctors, diagnostic process, and treatment.

Healthy cats who bring us joy daily - After months of dealing with Biscotti's UTI and other problems, he's been stable for a while now and even plays again.  The other cats have remained healthy too.

Less restrictive diet for both Amber and me - It took several years, but Amber's intestines healed enough for her to tolerate more foods. A surgery helped me. We are not the totally odd people at restaurants anymore.

Friends to spend time with at homeschool co-op & church- Amber has a great group of friends at co-op (and our church as well). I've found people to identify with too. It feels like we finally found the right places.

Family who is always there when we need them and whom we enjoy spending time with - We are lucky to have my mom within a short drive from our house and to have her around when we are in need of an Amber-helper. Most of our family lives within a few hour drive too.

Cars that work without concern - I often take it for granted that we have cars that work without concern on a daily basis. Most problems are the usual maintenance issues (battery served it's full life and is now done, tires made it past their mileage, etc).

A winter low on snowfall - Even though I love snow and Amber used to love snow, it is hard on both Fred's and Amber's bodies. While it has been somewhat of an odd winter here temperature-wise, they have been spared deep snows.

Homeschooling - It sounds trite, but I am so thankful we homeschool. It has made a world of difference in Amber's happiness, her ability to handle stress, our flexibility to deal with her illness, and even lowered stress on Fred and me since we aren't dealing with a school or driving Amber to school daily.

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Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm & Meg @ Adventures with Jude 

Positive Thinking: Learning from Drama

This weekend was long and eventful with Amber's homeschool co-op drama class presenting their end of year play.  I was reminded several times over the weekend why we are part of this group. It can be easy to become frustrated with people when working on a deadline, but strangely I wasn't really stressed and Amber was more excited than anything.

For this week, some of my thoughts may not seem all that positive, instead more like a life lesson learned. These lessons actually kept me in a positive frame of mind when I started to worry. 

My Positive Thoughts for the week:

• You can only prepare so much. Just make the best of every situation and life (or a play) will go much smoother.
• Most people will be willing to help when given the opportunity. Those that aren't willing, you probably don't need anyway.
• Relax and enjoy the activities you're participating in. That's why you signed up. 

Positive Thinking: Exhaustion

It's been very rough going here for Amber lately.  She's been quite a little trooper; rarely complaining about the exhaustion, pain, or nausea. We even drove the 100 miles to my sister's this past weekend for a quick afternoon birthday celebration, yet Amber didn't tell us how sick she was until we finally arrived home.  This has definitely been a week of keeping our thoughts positive to survive.

Positive Items:

• We are able to spend time together and not worry about school on the rough days.
  
• iPads.  How did we live without them before?
  
• Close parking spaces when Amber needs them.  They always materialize.
  
• A yeasted bread recipe that worked out the first try. 

Positive Thinking: Spring is Here

It's been an up and down week, where daily life alone could easily bring us down further.  We have such a good life, but when frustration is high it isn't always easy to remember.

These are my positives for this week: 

• Shopping with a teenager can be lots of fun. 
• We have workout equipment in our house so that we need not waste time driving to the gym and can workout whenever it fits the schedule. 
• This is another co-op break week just when I needed it again.  
• Warmer weather has arrived when Amber needed to get out. I may prefer Winter, but honestly would go bonkers if I lived where it was only one season.  The warm weather does me good too. 

Positive Thinking: After the Snow

We had a nice relaxing weekend where I was able to make progress on Amber's Narnia dress, have fun in the snow as a family and read.  Our visit with the pediatrician on Friday went well, but he'd like us to pursue the Mayo Clinic route.  This means there is a very uncomfortable conversation with Amber's neurologist in my future (at next week's appointment).  Right now though I'm concentrating on these positive items instead of worrying about that conversation. 

My positive items for the week:

Orange Juice - My body actually likes it, and my body likes very little at this point. It's good for me.  I've been drinking a glass each morning and it makes the day go so much better.

Lemishine - This is an additive or detergent replacement for the dishwasher.  It actually makes me giddy every time I run the dishwasher.  After quite a while of dull, filmy dishes coming out of the dishwasher, everything is now shiny again and I didn't need a new dishwasher after all. 

Jamberry nail wraps - I like pretty nails. My nails don't stay pretty with all I do around here.  At least these last longer than a few hours and have pretty patterns.  I'm also not that great at painting nails.

Snow:  It upsets schedules, makes a mess on the roads, but looks so pretty and peaceful. It also forces us to stay home and be more relaxed. It's also probably over for the season too.

Positive Thinking: Single Parent Week

Things are not quite as stressful around here as last week, thankfully, and the positive thinking definitely helped keep me sane.  However, with Fred out of town for the week I have a lot more on my plate, plus I don't have him to talk to when I need to get out some of my frustration.

 

This week I'm focusing on these positive items:

We live in a city with a major symphony and have the ability to regularly take in a performance.  It's so nice to have nothing else to do but sit there and listen.  No phones, no school work or other concerns.  Just the music.

Amazon.  While shopping there can be addictive, it is also such a useful tool.  It's often hard for me to get out to the store more than once a week.  Amazon has the many items I need at competitive prices with free shipping (we are Prime members).  Some days I just need the convenience of Amazon.  (I'm not an Amazon affiliate, just a huge Amazon fan).

Friendly and kind servers at our favorite restaurants.  We have limited restaurants where Amber can eat, and most of them know us now.  It's great to walk in and have them bring our drinks without ordering.  And we don't even have to order our food at some of them; the servers know Amber's special orders.  Not to mention they are friendly and talk with us if they have time. It's easy to take these people for granted, but they always brighten our day.

Road construction is complete. Technically the new highway in our area opened in November, but I'm just so happy that our snow, ice and other winter weather held off until all the construction detours, signage, equipment removal, and lane closures were done.  I'm still giddy every time I use this highway.  There has been years of road construction in our county and eventually it moved quite close to where we live.  But the new highway is now another connector to the neighboring county (over a river).  It provides quicker access within our own county too, which includes to our church.  And it's direct route to my mom's house as we both live roughly 2 miles off the new highway.

Positive Thinking

I've been a bit overwhelmed lately with things going on in various aspects of our lives. It's enough to really weigh down my mind. I've been pretty much doing only the absolute bare necessities in cooking, cleaning, lesson plans, etc.  I decided finally that I was spending too much time focusing on the negative, even though some of it does need attention. 

Instead of thinking on the negatives, each week I'm going to find a few positives to dwell on during the difficult moments. I may not always post about them, but they will be in my thoughts. 

These are my positive items for this week:

Amber's steadfast friends - who have remained loyal and caring friends despite Amber's limitations and crazy parents who won't let her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

My mother - She's just the best, kindest person I know. She offers to help in any way whenever needed. (She might be traveling to the Mayo Clinic with Amber and me just so I have another adult. It will be long and boring for her.)

Our church - I finally feel like I'm home. It took a couple of churches, but this feels like the right place and it reminds me of the church where I grew up. 

Our house (even though I get irritated with some features) - It provides us shelter, is in good repair, in a good neighborhood, and comfortably warm especially in the negative temperatures tonight. 

Doctors - The many who have tried to diagnose Amber and work diligently to increase her quality of life. Also we are so lucky to have local doctors that understand dysautonomia. 

A spot on the Review Crew - It has been perfect timing for some education needs we had, but that I was having trouble filling. 

Pets that bring us joy every day -  They are not a burden but a treasure that makes us smile with their antics and bring happiness with their purrs, head bonks, kitty games and snuggles.