Topsy Turvy Brain...Thanks, ADD

Some days my ADD decides to play nasty, launching my poor unsuspecting brain like a top. 

It wobbles, it bounces off stuff, but the poor sap just keeps on spinnin'.

My aspirations for today were high -- I set myself up for success with a great hot yoga session, but when I got home the swirl of things to do (in the limited time before school pick up) engulfed me.
So instead of flaying about, I'm gonna hit the "publish" on this post, head to Panera for a leisurely lunch & some reading, grab a jumbo iced latte, pick up the boys, and make the Barefoot Contessa's Apple Tarts to bring to a friend's for dessert tonight.

That's it, that's the plan.  

To heck with productivity! The lists will be waiting for me tomorrow.

Take that ADD!

Update

After a relaxing solo lunch (I even read a magazine, a real, paper, not electronic, magazine!), one would think the spinning brain would slow down, but NO!

I managed to get home from school pick up with the two children I was supposed to return with, but had to make not one, but TWO trips back to school to retrieve backpacks!

Then, when I needed to defrost a stick of unsalted butter for the apple tarts, I set the microwave to 15 minutes, not 15 SECONDS, and didn't realize my mistake until said stick of butter was a yellow pool covering the surface of the revolving glass platter.

Yikes! I probably should get out of the kitchen. Heck, I should probably just slip into bed, pull the covers over my head and wait for tomorrow.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Leaves Falling Like Rain

"Lovely fall foliage, Lollie, but what about the office?" you ask.

Office reclamation status . . .

The pile on my desk has been purged and organized, but the rest is till collecting dust.

I have made progress in other areas -- and not just re-establishing the weekly menu -- I swear!

OK, I admit it, MOM on ADD has been willingly distracted, happy to do just about anything besides shift through yellowing papers.

I will run out of distractions soon, and I'll be forced to confront the mess and get this job done. SOON!

Weeksworld Weekly Menu #1

This past week this MOM on ADD has been busy purging papers, pruning lists and links, and re-instituting routines that help keep me riding the ADD tides, instead of flaying and floundering in them.

The past few weeks an unsettling nightly ritual has developed -- it's 5:30 and Mom is doing loops around the kitchen, mumbling "what's for supper" as I open and close cabinets, fridge and freeze hoping in vain for the kitchen fairy godmother to appear and wave her wand. 

There have been too many dinners of frozen Trader Joe's burritos, drive thru and take out in Weeksworld lately.

It was time to re-institute the Weeksworld Weekly Menu Plan (WWMP)! 

In the heat of the summer, supper is easy -- after a day at the beach, just throw some meat, chicken or fish and vegetables on the grill, a bit of rice, couscous, grits or polenta on the side, quick & simple -- but now that there is a chill in the air we all crave those comfy cozy suppers -- braises, stews, soups, chilies and casseroles. 
And jam-packed schedules -- school, sports, play dates, boy scouts, birthday parties, homework and endless Mom errands -- demand a plan with plenty of 30-minute or less and slow cooker (ready to eat when you walk back in the door) suppers!

So I got back to my ol' Sunday routine - crack open my recipe binders, peruse a cookbook or two, make the plan & make the list.

So here's this week's plan . . .

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday recipes are from America's Test Kitchen's Slow Cooker Revolution
  -- my favorite slow cooker cookbook. 
• Wednesday's supper is from the November 2012 issue of Everyday Food. 
• Sunday's pizza party is courtesy of Springboard Conference sponsor, Rustic Crust. (We enjoyed two of their pizza crusts the Sunday after the conference, and I froze the remaining two.)

While sitting thru swim practice yesterday afternoon, a mom glanced over at my lists in progress and asked "Will your kids eat those dinners?"

I was happy and proud, to say "Yes. Yes, they will."

Sure there have been, and will continue to be, the occasional accommodation for palate maturity and personal preferences, but ever since the Baron of Boredom took his first spoonfuls of homemade applesauce, I have been determined to raise adventuresome eaters.

The way I see it, every restaurant's kids' menu has chicken tenders & fries, and my kids order 'em just like everyone else's do. And I know too many kids that will go on a hunger strike if there isn't a box of mac & cheese in the house.

Ok, I admit, we haven't introduced sushi just yet, and I admire & envy those moms that have sushi-eating tikes, but one day soon...

Friday Funny: ADD, Life in Shuffle Mode

Source: itattoo.com via Fortuitous on Pinterest

Another must-get sticker for my Mom-mobile --

'cause an ADDer's life is always in shuffle mode.

Friday Funny: Watterson Wit

Could the key to immortality be the never-ending "to do" list?

No vampires required, just keep adding to the list?

I first spotted this quoted, unattributed, in a friend's Facebook status. A quick Google search & I found the source -- Mr. Bill Watterson, creator of one of my favorite comic strips, Calvin and Hobbes.

Almost Wordless: Office Reclamation & ADD Rehabilitation

My diminutive desk, the very desk my mother had in her childhood bedroom, is so covered in cluttered there's barely room to work.

The filing cabinet drawers are stuffed so full of crap no longer needed I can barely pull them open.

And precarious piles of papers await filing in those jammed packed drawers. 

Heck, one pile fell to the floor behind the door so many times, I finally gave up and left it there.
One thing I've learned about my ADD is I need quiet. Audio, visual & spatial. To maintain some modicum of productivity, I need to keep the "noise", the distractions, to a minimum. In it's current state, my office is no longer a refuge from the noise that fills my world.

A few weeks ago I started an office purge (while the men of Weeksworld were off fishing on the high seas) -- I spent several sunny Sunday hours sorting & sifting, filling the recycling bin with no longer needed yellowing pages. But I didn't get very far in the overall project, and as we ADDers are know to do, I traipsed off to attend to anything but what now felt like a never-ending project.

So I here by promise to finish this purge-interruptous by next Wednesday! (And I'll share the post-purge photos next Wednesday to prove I kept this promise.)

In the meantime, I'll keep this vision of office loveliness from my Oh So Pinteresting! pal in mind.

As well as this super cool star I'm gonna reward myself with and hang in my newly reclaimed office.

Source: save-on-crafts.com via Fortuitous on Pinterest

A Downy Thank You

My love of Downy started early -- my grandmother always added it to her rinse cycle, and I continued the practice to this day.

It just ain't the same when you wrap a non-Downy towel around yourself after a hot shower.

And who needs a stinky sachet in their lingerie drawer when you can have April freshness.

But Downy met it's match when I started doing hot yoga this spring.

After profusely sweating (I don't glow or glisten) for an hour+ my yoga clothes were cursed with a unique, and what I feared might be permanent, stench. Nothing in my usual laundering arsenal was doing the trick.
Then a few weeks ago I received a surprise box from Downy.

In the midst of my BlogHer adventures, I had totally forgotten that, while strolling thru the booths at Getting Gorgeous, I had dropped a business card in the bowl at the Downy booth.

I had recently restocked my laundry supplies, so I didn't immediately crack open the new Downy bottles. Then one day, while making a post-yoga dash thru the grocery store I caught a whiff of myself -- gasp, gag! Then I remembered my recent package.

I raced home and gathered my entire yoga wardrobe -- it was time to do something about this stinky situation!

I am happy to report my hot yoga "perfume" was no match for Downy's Unstopable beads! Just one wash & the stink was gone!

Thanks to Unstopables, my yoga togs (and delicates) are no longer unmentionable!

Grandma would be pleased, and I'm sure my yoga compatriots will appreciate the freshness.

Calming the ADD Whirlwind: First Steps

Phew! Writing that last post felt like running a marathon (something I guarantee you I will never do) or climbing Mount Everest (trekking to base camp I might do, but I'm pretty confident I'll never reach the top of the world).

I was incapable of turning my attention to any of the multitude of other pressing matters clamoring for my attention. I had to cross the finish line, ascend the peak, hit publish. 

Hyper-focusing - the ironic flip side of my ADD coin.

When I finally hit "publish" I felt like I had really accomplished something, a weight had been lifted.

So what's next? 

How do I climb back on top of my life and rein in the ADD, put it in its place?

First, I locked away my type-A side. I have to slow things down, be more realistic about what I can get accomplished in the few non-Momming minutes or hours I have in my day, and be kinder to myself when I don't get it all done.  

Second, I committed myself to myself - take a little time to read a few pages of a book, go to the gym, take a power nap.

Then I gathered up the piles scattered about Weeksworld - kitchen counter, office, dining room table. I sifted, sorted & filled the recycling bin. My only goal for the day - one list.

At the end of the day, I wasn't drained or defeated. The list is still long, but it's not about getting it ALL done, it's about getting done what I can -- the rest of it ain't going anywhere, it'll be there waiting for me tomorrow. 

Along the way, I had an "ah-ha" moment -- 

I can't start my day with organizing and prioritizing, I get lost in the maze and I never settle in to getting the "stuff" done. 

I work better when I wake to a list, an action plan for the day ahead.

Now I'm off to bed now, hopeful for a solid 7-8, with no interruptions from the hamster racing around in the wheel in my head.

Springboard Forward, Then Hit the ADD Reset

Last Saturday was a postcard perfect New England fall day, but the Housewife wasn't hiking or biking or picking apples. Nah, lil' ol' me ditched my guys yet again to attend yet another bloggers' conference.

This time it was the first-ever Springboard Conference, right here in Boston -- and boy was it worth the day indoors!

The conference was intimate and relaxed -- a refreshing change after the masses of humanity and the unexpected encounter with a 12" long, double-ended "toy" that was my first Blogher experience.
More workshop than conference -- the chairs were filled with talented, passionate and generous social media, marketing and PR professionals and bloggers sharing insights, knowledge and advice in a wonderful, free-flowing exchange.

The pages of my trusty spiral notebook quickly filled. (Yes, that's right, I still love the feel of pen to paper!).

New bloggy friends were made, laughs were shared and my head was abuzz with information and inspiration. I was so ready to get back to my quiet little cubbyhole of an office and get to work.

I gave the Housewife the day off last Sunday to decompress, reconnect (with my guys) and rejuvenate (ok, I admit it -- nap). The list making, follow up emails and post writing could wait. I would get back to being productive come Monday morning, I told myself.

So what happened to the Housewife last week? Why so long getting that post-conference blog post published?

There was some fun stuff last week -- my first-ever aerial yoga class (courtesy of TD Bank and South Boston Yoga) . . .

and a day of climbing with the mini-men and a pack of pals (courtesy of the Yom Kippur school holiday and Rock Spot) . . .

-- but focus and productivity were elusive.

The lists had gotten too long, the piles too high, the chores and errands too numerous. Everywhere I looked was something I hadn't accomplished yet.

The static in my head was deafening. I literally knew not where to begin. My blood pressure raced as I half-heartedly searched for the entry point into the maze.

A good long hot yoga sweat helped, but only briefly.

I sat down to write, which normally helps slow my mind, but the cliches ricocheted around in my head and tumbled out, filling screens and pages, ultimately creating nothing worth sharing. (You have no idea how many words, sentences and paragraphs I have typed and deleted for this post!)

My mind was spinning. I felt like Dorothy trapped in an ADD tornado.

I had reached my ADD tipping point, and the brain overload systems had launched safety shut down protocols.

I told myself it was going to be OK. The whirlwind would slow down. I would eventually find the reboot button on this system.

So I took a ragged deep breath, stepped back from the ledge, put on my invisible blinders and focused on enjoying a bike ride with the Baron & Master, a walk with my dog, catching up on DVRed Daily Shows, making a nice supper for my men folk and getting caught up on Mama chores.

Then I read Frugal Mama's post "Why I'm Dropping the Business Side of Blogging".  (Thanks for posting the link, umommy!)

Frugal Mama's heartfelt and candid post was the reset I'd been seeking.

I realized that the mental static storm wasn't the result of one busy week. This storm had been brewing for months. My ADD had gotten the better of me once again.

You see, for me, the only way to stay ahead of my ADD is to keep my life and surroundings as organized, uncluttered and simple as possible. (Yeah, right, good luck with that one, lady!) I must continually and consciously remind myself what my priorities are -- family and friends, and writing -- turning my back on things that don't add value to or distracts me from my triad.

I was getting all wrapped up in posting and pinning, widgets and analytics, networking and monetizing. I enthusiastically applaud my friends and colleagues' triumphs, but secretly their successes seemed to also highlight my lack of progress.

Every waking hour was being consumed by what I needed to get done, what wasn't getting done, and what I wanted to do was getting buried. Family, friends, fun and relaxation had become pesky distractions.

My poor bike longed to cover some serious miles. I hadn't finished a book in months. (Too many blogs to keep up with!) My knitting basket was overflowing with unfinished projects, collecting dust in a corner. And I was regularly skipping workouts and yoga classes -- I would get caught up today and sweat tomorrow, but that wasn't happening.

For me, ADD draws a very fine line between productivity and lethargy, success and struggle.

I cannot keep cutting my pie into ever-smaller slices -- those slivers will only crumble and fail to nourish.

I love this blogging adventure I embarked on almost two years ago, but I cannot attempt to follow someone else's path. When I started this trek, I did not know where it might take me, and I will not pin a plan to it now. I will stop trying to conquer it all, and will instead focus on the words and my goals and priorities. I will stay true to myself -- the daughter, friend, wife, mother, seeker and writer.

Maybe that's the point of this blogging odessey I'm on -- to learn the art of staying my course, staying true to me.

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