On this day I spent the whole day "resting." Although it did not feel very restful. I went to bed early on Monday night. Dropped children off at school on Tuesday morning and then that was pretty much it for the day.
I'm not sure what exactly was going on. I had a very bad headache that didn't respond very much to anti inflammatory drugs. Or darkness. Or quiet. Or a warm sock full of dry rice on my shoulders. The television babysat my 3yo for the day, which did not make me feel like the world's best parent. She happily played one episode after another of something awful like Strawberry Shortcake. And ate peanut butter sandwiches. And did art. While I did not sleep. I dozed. I didn't want to fall completely asleep while I was the "responsible" adult. I felt better in the evening and totally fine by the next day. I am not sure if it was a 24-hour cold-type thing or a 24-hour mental-health-day kind of thing. My body just really enforced a non-optional time-out. It seems like a safety mechanism. I had been kind of (okay not just kind of) freaking out about finding the Missing Item. And my cleaning/destroying frenzy to discover said item had become rather feverish. Tuesday was a "free day" for me... meaning that i didn't have to go anywhere to teach and could have spent the entire day taking the house apart one brick at a time (if it were made of bricks, which it isn't.) So whoever is in charge of flipping my on/off switch decided that Tuesday needed to be an Off day. Which was probably a good thing. Grateful Crap: Miraculously finding the cap to the oil thing upside-down on some other thing under the hood of the car. Days after putting a quart of oil in said car. Equatorial Actions: rested rested rested took meds Last night at the dinner table we all went around and talked about things that helped calm us down. And there turned out to be an interesting link between the things that irritate the heck out of us and the things we find calming.
12yo pointed out that he was particularly sensitive to sights and sounds. Crowds and loud noises bothered him more than anything else. And when he needed to calm down, he would want to be in a dark place (limiting sight) and listening to music (sound). 8yo who is particularly sensitive to touch calms himself with super-soft blankets and pillows. "What helps you calm down, mom?" ... I don't know. What does help me calm down? Beading? "Knitting used to, when you knit." Ummm... my spouse. Being with your dad helps me calm down. "Because he is silent and looming?" Yes. Because he is silent and looming. This turned into a very giggly argument between the children on whether the creation of a giant, looming, silent monster would also be a calming influence on me. But I also realized that I needed a refresher in things (besides Spouse) that help me calm down. (The fact that Spouse was my go-to answer for calm makes a great deal of sense when I look back to my clingiest days when the bipolar hypomanic stuff was not really under control.) Things that help me calm down
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K. BuchananQuaker, teacher, parent, |