Happy faces this morning

Early this morning we picked up cousin number one and drove the man to the airport. Today is going to be adventure day. I did come somewhat prepared. Each girl has a blank book and we have a pack of crayons. Current activity is watching the ducks, seagulls and small fish along our downtown.



We have made many people smile as they walk along today.



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Location:N Harbor Dr,San Diego,United States

Long way around to heart achingly pure joy.

I keep having this little sayings and songs go through my head for the last week or so. Mostly in the middle of the night. (More on that later.)

Ding dong the meds are gone, the mental meds are gone. (think Dorothy for the tune on this one)
or
The meds have left the body. (think Elvis)

I did it. I weaned myself off my anti-depressant medications. And so far so good. Actually really good. I truly believe there can be better living through chemistry. And that is what I needed for a few years. But then I realized I was pretty numb. Which was okay for the bad stuff. But not so great for the good stuff.

I've been seeing and reacting to comments, stories, sayings, lately that talk about having to really live through things. To feel the feelings, all of them. Even when it is hard. That maybe medicating things away won't really fix them. And I have always believed this. But sometimes you do need a break. And I guess my mental break is over. It is now my time.

I was on an antidepressent about 15 years ago or so. For a year. And I called it my mental vacation. Seriously. Not only did all the yicky voices, messages, nagging worries take a break. So did my mental functioning. It was odd but I accepted a much more relaxed processing speed, limited vocabulary, delayed reaction times and other things along those lines. At the time I would have called it reduced band width. Now a days people would recognize it as Mommy Brain. Most of my friends with kids acknowledge Mommy Brain for about the first year or so. I think a lot of that is sleep deprivation combined with this new little being needing so much. You don't have much left over. Same kind of thing for me on the meds. Last time I just knew it was time for my vacation to be over so I stopped taking the meds and all was well. This time, not so much.

I had to step down my dosing for a month and then just I went cold turkey. And it was bad, but only for a few days. Can you say emotional roller coaster? Combined with major dizziness and naseau. And I felt like I had a fever. Now I have to admit I have been fighting the cold of all colds at the same time. Maybe not the best timing, but hey, when is.  But now I am through it. And I feel good. The one odd thing is that I am having trouble sleeping. This could be the steroids for my cold, or the cold meds. Or maybe I just have to get used to this new adventure. I could get to be pretty productive in the middle of the night. Oooh, maybe some hand sewing projects. Yes!

And here is the upside. I am here, in the present. I feel things now. Although admittedly not always good things. But I am feeling.

The other night the hard rain woke up the bug and she wanted to snuggle. I crawled into bed with her and experienced pure joy. Heart achingly pure joy. And that is what makes all this worth it.

Lemonade on demand

A few weeks ago we were overwhelmed with citrus from the 'orchard'. I love saying that even though it is just a few trees - lemon, lime, tangerine, two orange, apricot. Pretty cool to have an 'orchard'. But not so cool to have too many lemons to know what to do with them. So we scrounged up a juicer and created about a gallon of lemon juice. All by hand mind you. My hand. And it just so happens that a regular muffin tin is about 1/2 cup. So a few batches in the freezer and now we have fresh from the garden lemon juice at all times.

The lemonade has been going down like it is going out of style. We do two frozen hunks which is about 1 cup of lemon juice. 1 cup of simple syrup. (We make that with 2 cups hot water and 2 cups sugar dissolved in it.) And maybe 3 or 4 cups of water. Turns out pretty good.


Yum Yum

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Happy Valentines Day

From the San Diego Botanic garden. With a gaggle of girls today. (4 littles and 3 not so littles)






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A fishy Valentine's craft

I am spending the evening creating Valentine's for the Bug's preschool class. All was going swimmingly 😉 until I realized I didn't have the snack size bags, or any good ones actually. So I am trying to work out how to not have the big white stripe with the bag name showing. Aargh.

Yes, in a perfect world I could just run to the store but the man is working tonight and Bug is not cooperative... And I am trying to make do with what we have. It's actually been fun trying to figure it out.

So here is what I came up with.








I think it will work. Even for the discerning 4 year old.

Happy Valentine's Day!


Oh, I forgot to mention that I got the idea from so may different places on line. I tried using some of the free printables out there but they weren't quite right so I made my own. In Word. Not that easy but a fun challenge.

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