Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Sanity Secrets

Every wonder how I can keep sane with so much going on? As I slowly get more and more white hairs rooting through, I have been cashing in my sanity activities more and more as of late. One of my sanity secrets is getting the kids in bed by 8pm. This allows Steve and I to sit on the couch and go through our weekly PVR list of: Greys Anatomy (ok this is my show, not his), Desperate Housewives (he watches it too, but will deny if asked), Undercover Boss (Canada and US - not sure how we got addicted to this show - maybe cause its gives us a glimpse into other people's hardships and makes us feel less alone), Parenthood (my all time favourite show!), Dragons' Den (we keep dreaming that we're going to come up with the next big idea), and some reality talent show like X Factor, American Idol or Canada's Got Talent. Of course, there always HGTV and the home reno shows (for me) and hockey, golf and baseball (for him). We'll sit down once or twice a week and veg for a few hours like this!

My other secret to a sanity is shopping for clothes for the girls. In my head, I think I have reasoned that if I dress Lauren in cute outfits than perhaps I'll be less worried about her or she'll appear more "normal".  Illogical, makes absolutely no sense, but for some reason I have convinced myself that this can be done. So I shop and shop for Lauren although she has tons of hand me downs from Kayla. I love buying Lauren shoes, partly because I'm still over the moon that she is walking (although its been almost a year), and because I think toddler shoes are so cute and you can never have enough.

Another sanity check of mine is doing late night runs to Walmart and Loblaws. Open till 11pm, I love shopping there late at night, walking aimless up and down every aisle looking at the most random crap. No nagging of your own kids asking how much more longer you are going to be, no running into other people's kids, and no husband looking bored stiff or playing with the blackberry. Its my time to look at whatever I want and feel guilt free as the kids are sleeping and the husband is at home enjoying the game with a beer in hand. I hum to the music in the store, try on some Joe clothes, look through every inch of the home decor aisle at Loblaws and the makeup aisle at Walmart (although i don't wear makeup), flip through a few magazines, and then grab a fun snack and go home.

Of course another sanity saver is writing this blog. Since I can't remember who "knows" and who doesn't (I have the worst memory), I always feel odd when someone innocently asks me "How's Lauren?" and I'm scrambling to try and recall if they know and how much they know so I can give an appropriate response. With blogging, I can write the answer to "How's Lauren" freely. Writing helps me to makes sense of thing and is good way to just drop the stress and worry of a situation in the writer's airspace. I hope that in writing I am putting another reader at ease, that they can relate to the situation and feel less alone. I follow a few special needs blogs and while their children have very different diagnosis than Lauren, it nice to know we all have moments of triumph, moments of tears and moments of fear.

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