A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

I’ve never really been much of a coffee person until recently. But when I decided to make myself start getting up earlier and going to bed earlier, it sort of became a necessity. I don’t drink it every day, because if I do it makes certain health problems flare up. But I do drink a couple of cups on mornings when I need to resist the urge to go back to bed after Pumpkin leaves for school.

But I’m beginning to realize that coffee doesn’t like me any more than I like it. It hurts my stomach if I don’t eat something before I drink it, and today it’s given me a terrible case of the runs. It’s kind of like I took half a bottle of the diet pills that rush stuff through your system before it can turn into fat. (Sorry if that’s too much information!)

Anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need an alternative to coffee. I’ve tried 5-hour energy, and it does absolutely nothing for me. I can’t drink energy drinks because they are loaded with caffeine as well, plus I’d probably break out from the artificial colors and flavorings. And I’m not supposed to drink soda at all because of the artificial stuff in it.

So what’s a girl to do to get a boost in the morning? Hook herself up to a set of jumper cables? I’m going to have to figure something out.

Pumpkin’s birthday is a little over a month away. And I have no earthly idea what to get her this year.

She’s getting too old for toys, but she’s not quite old enough to really appreciate gifts you’d buy for teenagers. I guess that’s part of the reason they call them the tween years, huh?

I was looking at some Casio cameras digital (not film like the one her aunt got her a couple of years ago and she’s never used). She has a super-cheap digital camera that works with those password journals, but she has said she wants one with a screen. It’s been a while since she talked about it, though, so I’m not sure if she’s still interested or not.

The only thing I’ve been able to come up with is clothes. And maybe a good pair of earrings if I can find some that are affordable. The Simply Whispers ones I got her last year are starting to bother her ears, so I guess I need to go with 14 karat gold.

I’m hoping I can think of something to get her from Amazon. I’ve been earning as many points as possible from Swagbucks and ordering Amazon gift cards with them. So far I’ve racked up $15 worth in the past week, plus I’ve already got a $20 balance in my account. If I keep going maybe I can get her something nice.

If you have any other tween gift ideas, I’d love to hear them!

I’m on medication for anxiety. I don’t take it every day, just as needed. Lately I haven’t needed it very much, which is good, because it makes me feel run down and/or sleepy. But there was a time when I had to take it frequently. I was anxious a goodly portion of the time, and I was having panic attacks.

If you’ve never had one, panic attacks suck. People experience them in different ways, but for me they were signified by trouble breathing, my heart pounding and sometimes nearly passing out. Not fun.

Thankfully I haven’t had one of those in a long time. But just today I came to the realization that Hubby has probably been having them for years.

Back when he was working at the tire shop, he came home one day and declared that he was going to quit smoking. I asked what led him to that decision, and he said that he had lit a cigarette when he was at work and had a pain in his chest that took his breath. I said that it sounded like quitting would be a good idea, and he did.

But a few evenings later, he had a similar pain in his chest. It was bad enough that he decided to go to the emergency room, because he thought it could be his heart. They ran tests – drew blood, did an ECG, the whole nine yards – and everything came back normal. Since it didn’t appear to be any other sort of emergency, they sent him home.

He kept having pains, and he eventually found out he needed to have his gall bladder removed. He did, and things were better in a lot of ways. He didn’t have any of those types of pains for a long time. But eventually he did again.

Since they were less frequent, and the symptoms didn’t last too long at a time, he didn’t talk to the doctor about it any more. But today he came home from a friend’s house and said he had had such an episode again. I asked him what happened, and he said he had to help put out a fire that would have burned the house down if he and some other guys hadn’t acted quickly. He was still pretty shaken up about it.

And that’s when it hit me. Many of the other times when he’s had those pains, it has been when he suddenly got upset about something. Since his muscles are pretty much constantly pulled due to his back problems, I’m guessing that his anxiety causes them to tighten up suddenly, causing intense pain.

Sounds like a panic attack in my (nonprofessional) opinion. Maybe I’ll be able to talk him into discussing it with the doctor next time he goes in.

Since I wrote my last post, I’ve gotten absolutely nothing accomplished. Well, that’s not completely true. I did eat lunch.

I’ve gotta break out of this motivational funk that I’m in. I’m ahead on my work, and I’d like to keep it that way. And I also need to get my scheduled work out of the way so I can do more of the stuff that I can work on at my own pace. Money is tight, as usual, and it would be nice to have some extra coming in.

As far as the lifestyle changes I mentioned earlier go, I need to get cracking on those. I’ve been telling myself that I would start exercising when the weather cooled down enough. Well, it’s slightly cooler than has been the norm this summer right now, so I need to start getting out and walking or something. I know when I was younger and exercised regularly it gave me more energy and motivation, and I’m hoping that it will still have that effect. Of course, with my ridiculously low energy levels of late, it could just wear me down further, but I’ll never know until I try, will I?

Hubby keeps telling me that I should get a bicycle. I’m not too keen on that idea, because although I can ride one, it never was something I was particularly good at. And I’d be afraid to ride one on the curvy roads around here, so I’d have to load it up and go somewhere else. I wouldn’t have to spring for a fancy Thule bike rack, though. I could just throw it on the back of the truck.

Besides exercise, eating healthier is on my list of changes I need to make. I know it won’t help with energy or motivation on its own, because I’ve tried that before. But maybe in combination with the exercise it will make a difference.

I’ve also thought about trying some new agey stuff like visualization. I’m a bit skeptical, but I don’t suppose it could hurt. If I do, of course, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Long time no blog, huh?

Don’t worry, I haven’t slipped into another deep depression, and nobody has collected a whole life insurance policy on me (obviously). I just haven’t gotten around to blogging much. I’ve had a lot on my plate, and it just kind of fell by the wayside. You know how it goes.

I promised an update on my laptop, so here goes: I like it. It’s not as fast as my desktop, but it gets the job done. And I’ve had no serious issues with it. I think it was a good deal for the money. My only concern is that I recently found out that the screen often goes out prematurely on the model I purchased. But if it goes out within a year it will be covered by the warranty, and I hope to be able to buy a brand spanking new one soon after that. So maybe it won’t be an issue.

I should be writing some articles right now, but I can’t seem to get motivated today. I’m not pushing a deadline, so I guess that’s why. I still need to work on staying motivated when I’m not under pressure. But I can’t complain too much – this time last year I couldn’t even stay motivated when I was under pressure. I guess the medication is doing its thing to a certain degree. I’m not interested in upping my dose or adding more meds, so I’m hoping some lifestyle changes will get me where I need to be. More on that later.