Over the rainbow you can dream

We are all on the other side of someones rainbow.  As promised I have complete the over the rainbow inspiration.  All of these prints will be going up in our "teen" room.  I want it to be fun and colorful for the kids.  If someday they get to be to big I will just move them to our living room wall to share with everyone.  Looking at them makes me happy and we all need a happy place to sit once in a while.

It has also been a full week and it is only Wednesday.  My FIL had to go to the Cath Lab for another stint.  That makes 8 I believe, and no the first 7 did not change a thing about his habits I doubt if this one will.  It also cancels our plans for an out of town trip this weekend, my DH was torn because he wanted one last trip to Buttercup before the outage at work starts but put the health of his father first.

Courtney

Inspire Me

It has been a crazy week and I wanted to take some time for myslef to just veg out a bit.  I as per my new usual fun thing to do went on Pintrest.  I found lots of amazing ideas, as usually and began pinning away.  Then I found some prints of my favorite songs as  kid and had to have them.  Too bad for me they were not for sale or just the wrong look for our home.  Enter my SBC from Creative Memories.

The Vontrap family is calling my name..

I always wanted one of these for my son.  Now I have one that was made by me!

Up next I am going to work on Some Where Over the Rainbow!  More pics to come.

Hope you are having an uplifting day.

Courtney

Chore Charts

We have been struggling every morning to get out of our house on time.  My oldest have 17 tardies at school and this is not okay with any of us.   To help us out in the AM and before bed I am making both of my children chore charts.  

Thank you to Just Sweet and Simple for the inspiration

And to Tip Junkie for the amazing list of chores by age starting at 3.  She also has some other chore charts to look at and  print.  

I have not figured out how to make these a PDF for you to down load but I will work on that ASAP.

Courtney

Living better through chemisty

Today I want to share a story about how I came to be diagnosed with ADD.  It was about 18 months ago and I was angry and yelling all the time.  No one could do anything right.  This was especially hard on my kids because my son is so shy and sensitive.  He is a pleaser and he genuinely wants everyone to be friends and be happy.  I was the poster child for unhappy.  My weight was up and my attitude sucked.  In a moment of utter despair I did two things that changed my outlook on my life.  First I told my kids I quit, I could not take being a mom or wife anymore.  This crushed them and I felt so guilty afterwards I didn't know what to do.  My daughter asked me for days (weeks) if I was going to come home and if I was going to leave her forever.  The second was in a fit of rage I picked her up and tossed her on her bed.  I knew what I was doing.  I knew where the bed was and made sure she would land there.  But what could make a person so upset they needed to toss a kid.  These 2 things were a turning point for me, unfortunately i turned downhill for a while and got really sad and thought about the world with out me in it.  I was a mess.  I talked with my husband and decided to talk to a counselor.

She was wonderful.  I began going weekly and she and I worked on exercises to control my temper.  We talked about my circle thinking brain and strategies to deal with stress.  Getting a routine was top of the list, unfortunately is it the worst item for me.
About 6 months in to our sessions she asked me about my week.  I told her I was so proud about getting the dishes in the sink before I left, having mine and my son's lunch ready on time.  Then when I got home the milk was out on the counter.  She asked me a curious question.  "Does that happen to you often?  Do you not complete tasks or think you are finished and your not?"  Well sure, isn't that every one's life?

Well it turns out I was wrong.  Not everyone lives with forgetting what they are doing when the walk out of the room.  Yes, it happens sometime or another to everyone.  It happened to me multiple times a day. So she asked about ADD and ADHD in my family history, well my brother was on medications all though school and my mom still has problems.  She almost laughed (not in a mean way) at my nativity.  So I went to see my PCP.  We talked about highs and lows, my life, did I get super excited, loose sleep, have problems when I was concentrating on something new and exciting....The answer was yes and they decided I could be bi-polar and would not give me any medication and referred me to the psychologist.  Have you tried to see a psychologist as a new patient when you are not currently thinking of suicide or homicide?  It is not an easy task, months and months.  That is how long it was going to take.  This was not okay with me. 

I was an emotional roller coaster.  Highs - I could get help, it was chemical, I was not crazy.  Lows - Bi-polar was scary, there was something wrong with me, I would be medicated for life, I needed help now!.  I made many phone calls and got on lots of waiting lists.  Finally I found a Dr who would see me.  Her office was 40 miles away and my wonderful boss let me set up appointments on my work days because that was only 1/2 way to her office. 

We talked and she felt it was unlikely I was bi-polar and thought an anti-depressant could help.  She wrote me a 30 day scrip and I was off.  She said it could take a few weeks to build up and to call if things got worse.  Also my husband had to watch for signs of anger.  Well it sucked the life out of me, I did not care one little bit about anything.  When I went back she was upset I had not called, but I was really just giving it a couple of weeks to kick in.  She offered to change it but I just keep thinking if I could just finish my tasks I would not be depressed.  If I could just be more orgainzed I could be happier.  She agreed to try so we tried Aderol 10 mg a day Extended Release pills.  They worked almost the first day.  PS - Do not start taking a stimualnt and sudafed at the same time; it makes your heart crazy.

I felt free, happy, relaxed.  My husband know when I miss a dose and so do the kids. I am even getting better at recognizing my "crazy brain" over reactions reactions vs. when the kids are just being really bad. 
My journy does not end here but this post is long enough.  In closing get help, ask a friend, a doctor, not everyone's life is a crazy chaotic mess.  It does get better and quickly too if you get the right help.

Courtney

Family Wall Art

I have spent a lot of time on Pintrest.  I think that it has a lot to do with the fact it changes every second.  There is nothing static about it so I don't get bored as easily.  With my husband away at PIR for the NASCAR race with my son and my dear daughter sleeping still I decided it was time to stop pinning and make at least one new thing.

In our new home I would like to have a photo wall, and at then end of the hallway, right outside the master bedroom is a perfect spot.  Not sure if I want just frames or frames on shelves I can keep changing as I need to.  Yes it is a NEED to change things around.

I am sure many of you are like me.  I don't always have a good way to get my vision on paper but I can sure tweak someone else's projects to fit my needs.  So with out further ado.....

I used my Creative Memories Storybook Creator 4.0 (SBC) to make a custom 8x10 item.  I added 1 text box for the dates, made it work for fonts and alignment, then I copied and pasted it 4 time.  I did the same with the caption for each date.  Lastly I added one additional text box for the title.  I like things to line up but I am also not as picky as I should be becuase I want things to be finished.  There are some great alingment tools in SBC for people like me.
I am sure you could also use Word.  I used 1/2 inch margins on the top and bottom, and 1.3 (about 6 marks down on the ruler) for each dated section.  This is great if you have 2 parents, a ceremony date, and 2 kids.

The fonts I used were
Dates - Algerian - 48 pt
Captions - Angelina - 20 pt
Red Title @ bottom - AR DECODE - 22 pt

All of these fonts came with my computer or the program.  There are tons of Free Fonts on dafont. 
Try the theme section, eroded for the dates.

I will be sending mine to Costco to print because I would like it on thicker shiny paper.
Happy Crafting

Courtney

Calendar, where are you calendar

Today will be one of those days in my over active life.  I have too many things I want to do and already made promises to others for my time today.

I have to get better about using my calendar before I say yes to anything.  I forgot about taking the kids to Castles and Coasters for a picnic with their Grandma for her office.  I really wanted to head to the community garage sales in Verrado, guess I will keep looking at Craigslist.  First we have to get the house super clean in case anyone wanted to show it.  Our current house just went up for sale this week.  Luck you did not have to see all the packing, storage, donations, and other work that went in to getting the house staged. You can accumulate a lot of stuff in 9 years and 2 kids later.

I also have to take my grandmother (G.G.) to see the spec home for the new house we are building.  They just sold it so this is our last weekend to pop by and show a completed house to any family members. 

I also have to take my son to PIR to watch the NASCAR race with his dad, grandpa and great uncle after our morning as Castles and Coasters. 

For those of you who are like me and over commit...
1. First and foremost it is okay to say no to a birthday party, lunch, or anything else.  You can not let yourself get sick, grumpy with your family, or just worn down to keep everyone else happy.  With a family as large as ours I use to spend all weekend running with no down time.  I never really enjoyed the quality time I was getting because I was always so rushed.

2. Get a calendar.  I once had a boss point out that my brain does not think like most peoples.  I think in circles, and tend to blurt out something when I think of it.  I also make crazy connections that have people look at me with the WTH? look.  How in the world did that happen, I did try I few times to explain it to people but that was even more confusing for them.  Off track again I see.   So if your brain thinks straight, crooked, or in circles you need a calendar with all of your commitments on it.  I like the google calendar because I can color code it, load it on my android phone, and see if from any computer.  There are others if you have a favorite let me know I am willing to try many things.

3.  Look at the calendar before you say yes, and when you do put it on the calender at that moment.  Do not be the friend that stands people up.  Oprah taught me one life lesson about 10 years ago, when you are late it means you feel that your time is more important than the person who you made a commitment to.  Now I understand that life happens, just don't let it happen all the time.  You friend should not take a picture of you because, for the first time ever, you are on time.  It does not feel good to be the one they tell the party starts 30 minutes before it really does.

So later I will have a post about volunteering and the help I need to be successful, my quest to get organized before our move, my distressed bedroom furniture, kids...

Courtney

Welcome to my blog

I have spent a few months thinking about starting a blog.  Will I have anything to write about, will anyone care what I have to say?  Should I write about my projects (Lots of DIY) or my struggles with ADD and family life?

Today I decided I would go with how I was feeling, while I am typing.

So here is my nutshell story...
I married my high school sweetheart, no not right out of school silly :)  We have been married for 10 years now.We have 2 beautiful kids.  A logical boy who is older by 22 months and a vibrant daughter.  I married in to a large family (23 first cousins+aunts, uncles, and all the kids) and my own family while not quite as large is close.

I hope you will enjoy seeing my good, bad, and ugly life.  It will be a roller coaster of thrills and chills.  I also hope it is a place for other women who struggle with ADD to come and get some insperation.

Courtney