The High-Five Corner

[billd]

Ott lights have been out for many many years – we sold them in our quilt store – in fact, that may be one of the first commercial uses – for quilters and sewers.

You have been able to get full-spectrum bulbs for incandescent and fluouresent lights for years as well………… I replaced all the 4′ tubes in the store fixtures in the first few months after buying the store as it showed the colors of the fabrics so much more accurately, we actually sold more fabric as they looked so much more colorful and richer.

My wife has 3 different Ott lights – a floor model by her chair in the living room, one on her sewing table, and one she keeps in a rolling cart she takes to quilting retreats and get-togethers.

I think we started selling them in our store in about 1999. You can even get the floor standing models in designer type models so they appear to fit into the home more readily.

I also replaced the tubes in the fixtures in our basement (which is fully finished) with full-spectrum bulbs so she could have better light over the quilting machine and her sewing area.

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[quizzical]

High fives for all the sewing projects! I can’t sew worth a darn (*groan*), so you would laugh if you saw me a month ago trying to teach myself to sew with instructional videos on YouTube! It was a ludicrous and incredible struggle and it was painfully obvious that there was some perseverance/hyperfocus involved, since there was a list of about twenty tasks that were far more important than attempting to thread a needle with my clumsy hands, bad eyesight, and lack of a needle threader!

I’ve not been in the forums for a while mostly because of the holiday busyness, but I also was taking a break to give myself a perspective re-set: I don’t know if this makes any sense, but I couldn’t really figure out if and how the meds were helping me until I stopped focusing on my ADD. Once I stepped back and started seeing myself as the old me, that’s when I could see that I was functioning a lot better than the old me.

The holiday season was the perfect example of what’s changed for me; there were lots of personal high-five moments. For instance, I sent out all our holiday cards at least ten days before Christmas, and I mean ALL – there aren’t any stragglers waiting for me to figure out how much postage for air-mail, or to double-check an address. And when one card came back return to sender, I sent it out again with the correct address within two days, instead of tossing it in a ‘to-do” pile and feeling bad about it day after day.

Buying gifts was a lot easier this year, since I didn’t agonize over every decision, nor did I insist on seeing every example of the items I wanted before purchasing them. No more hoofing all over the mall just to make sure I had THE BEST suitcase possible. At times I caught myself lapsing into that sort of thing, but knowing what it was helped me to move on.

I got over my pride and bought things that were truly useful, like the gift-wrap carrying case. Last year I would have told you those things were silly and unnecessary, but I discovered that it made the gift-wrap process so much easier to already have tape, scissors, pen, and name tags all in the same bag, and to have rolls of wrapping paper that weren’t made useless by being hastily jammed in the spare trash can that served as their previous home.

Having decluttered my spare room, I had a reasonable number of empty boxes to choose from to put gifts in, instead of a wall of cardboard bricks collapsing on me whenever I attempted to pull one out.

Even where I slipped up and had crisis moments, they were a little less dire this year: I realized at the last minute that my son needed a white shirt for his holiday concert. But the “last minute” came the day before the concert, not the day of the concert, so I was able to go buy him one instead of raiding our closets and drawers for something that might suffice (“This one’s not TOO girly…”)

No, it wasn’t perfect. I didn’t bake all the cookies I wanted, or watch all the old holiday movies I wanted to see. And there were a few things entirely out of my control that put a damper on things this year.

But this is the first Christmas where I wasn’t constantly apologizing for Late this and Incomplete that, and that was simply HUGE.

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[Carrie]

Hello and happy new year all!

Woohoo!! Congrats Annie!! A new job how exciting!! I LOVE the excitment of a new job! New routines, new people! Ahhhh. Just LOVE it!

KrazyKat! I am sooooooooooooooo in love with sewing!! I have made my messenger bag, a backpack for my sister, am working on a purse inspired by a cedar waxwing, and am currently sewing a little hand bag that looks like a scarab beetle with real leather! I keep saying I need to take pics but never get around to it hahahaha My mother in law let me choose any fabric I wanted. She has a whole little house full of it! She taught me how to properly measure and sew a bag since I was just making it up as I went really hahaha I used all her proper tools… She has an amazing iron, fabric cutters, rulers, and of course sewing machine! She lent me her 3rd favorite one which has all these fancy gadgets that made life so easy since the first machine I was using only had a straight line stitch. I made that bag with her in only 4 hours (only took that long cause she has severe ADD and was glued to the TV. Sheesh, I felt rude constantly saying HELLO!! HELLO!!! Can we just turn the TV off??? hahaha) I never thought I would like it. But I LOVE it!

Ott lights! That was my exact problem yesterday while sorting through fabric. I couldnt tell what some of the colours were. I will have to look into those!

Congrats Quizzical! I only dream of what you’ve done (being on time etc). I didnt have any decorations, I never send any cards when I always get some… bleh. Makes me feel like crap! I was still apologizing this year! But I never want to go through that again so I took all my gift card money and bought a bunch of Christmas decorations for next year (and of course they were all on clearance) I was very proud of myself for that! I vowed to myself to buy one person a gift each month before christmas so I am set. I also am now making a conscious effort to take notice in what people like and if I see soemthing that reminds me of them buy it. I already have something for my sister and a co-worker. Problem is I get so excited about what I got them I normally cant control myself and give it to them right away or just tell them what it is. My Grandma in law told me as soon as she buys someone a gift she wraps it, and puts their name on it. I thought that was a great idea!

I took 10 days off from work. 2012 is bringing BIG changes for me and my family. We have decided to move to the city. Its 6 hours from here. Ive grown up in a little town of about 1000people. This is going to be scary! During my days off my mom came over and we cleaned my entire house. I dont think its been this clean and organized since I moved in! Took us 3 days. Cleaning walls everything! Sorted through EVERYTHING boxed up things I didnt need right away, and lots of boxes for a moving sale. My husband is going ahead of me since I have full time work and he isnt working. Was laid off right before Christmas. Then I hope to head up in March and then my kids will be joining us in June. Im only stressed out about finding renters for our home. But I will be putting it on the market as Rent-to-Own, or Lease. There are close to 30 homes in my town for sale right now, and not much is moving. That worries me. But we will see what happens! This experience so far has been a big high five. I have been keeping everything organized and just been going, going, going, not stopping to think. Except at night. I have not been able to sleep because there are too many things going through my head. Thank goodness for sleeping pills eh? hahaha

Oh oh oh!! I am also proud of myself because I havent been glued to the PC anymore! Wooohooo!! Actually I have been falling behind with emails, and facebook, and youtube! I couldnt believe myself. I am actually sick of the PC hahaha My in laws bought me the PC game Ive been wanting since it came out, Skyrim, tried to play it but my PC is too crappy. Need to get a new one, but things are too crazy right now. I prefer to sew anyways

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[nellie]

Well Happy New Year to all of you, have been wondering where some of you were hiding

Glad to hear your endeavours left you something to high-five about!

Carrie that sounds like quite a step that move of yours – I wish you all the best. Also sounds like you’ve found a great outlet for your creativity.

Quizzical I know what you mean, I can’t decide If I’m moving forward or stagnating either sometimes, but I think it’s the little things that indicate things are improving. I guess it can’t all be big stuff all the time!

And CrazyKat and Carrie, reading about your sewing makes me want to get back to it, but one of my post holiday mini-projects ( well if you call 4 full days mini) was to re-organize my craft room/slash office yet again. That meant reconfiguring again and deciding more stuff had to go. Since sewing was the thing I did least over the last few years I decided I had to get rid of more stuff so I’m down to 3 machines and one stack of drawers to keep my sewing stuff in. I used to have a large table where I could sew or do other stuff on but decided that had to go as well. Now I just have one huge work desk for my computer and paper work. i figure that if I want to sew I can set up a large folding table I have.

One of the best things I’ve noticed is that I have been using my agenda religiously since last sprig – something that became apparent to me the other day as I was flipping through the old 2011. Fom when I started using it every week was filled in – a huge improvement. i used to keep ( well maybe hoard is more accurate) all my old ones. During my most recent purge I tossed a whole bunch of them. Of course I had to look through them all and thus noticed most of the pages were usually blank!!

December was a kind of nutty due to a renovation project. It all got don in the end but I was far more frazzled than I should have been In hindsight I shouldn’t have done the renovation so close to Christmas but yet I couldn’t stand it the way it was anymore and it would have all gone off without a hitch if the contractor hadn’t b;own the deadline I gave him. However, the date I gave him was a week ahead of what would put me into a last minute panic. So I guess in effect my contingency plan was what I had to deal with. Insofar that everything happened in terms of holiday parties and CHristmas that was supposed to, I guess to my credit plan B worked. I just would have preferred if it had gone according to plan A!

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[trashman]

hi everyone I’m so glad, I am having an opportunity to participate in an easier level. At this time I am speaking into my Dragon program, and trying to train it to do my typing for me. As you all know I have found it very difficult to participate. This will be a time for me to learn a new operating program for my computer that I received for Christmas. New paragraph

I think this program once it learns how I should be and how I think than, will be one of the biggest assets I have two my disposal.

I think that my wife has really opened up doors for me buying me this laptop, and this program for me to have bigger access to the World Wide Web. In advance if I am boring you with my dictation please forgive me I just, wanted to let you know how I was making out with this program.

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[quizzical]

Way cool, Trashman! That sounds like a great gift! Have fun training your computer! Looks good so far!

Nellie, I know what you mean about bad timing for renovation projects, because one thing I realize I forgot to mention is that in the midst of all the Christmas crazy I painted a bathroom! Not nearly as major as your renovation project, I’m sure, but I was standing there with the roller in my hand and Christmas tunes playing in the background saying to myself “HOW did I end up doing this TWO DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS?” Procrastination, sure, until the looming deadline forced my hand; we had visitors due to arrive on December 26th, and since the project had been stalled at a no-going-back stage (all the mirrors, towel bars, etc taken down, walls cleaned and sanded) I had no choice but to swap the smell of freshly-baked cookies for the smell of freshly-applied latex paint. Sigh. But it got done on time, and it looks great!

Wow, Carrie, huge life change with your upcoming move! Wishing you all kinds of good luck in the months ahead!

HIGH FIVES!!!!

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[Robbo]

Great thread! I wish I had more time to read more. Thanks no_dopamine for posting the link to that high five hand. I liked it cuz it was left handed!

I finally got to a stable dosage I can be happy with yesterday at least with the pain and spasm meds. I also solved a severe stomach problem making it possible to avoid more lab work and cancel an appointment with the gastrointerologist. Any time I can get less doctor appointments that’s awesome!.

Thanks for sharing all the great progress you guys. I’ll now go do two load of laundry and have zero dirty clothes in my apartment! That’s a real victory for me.

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[Tiddler]

Love this thread.

I got a blinding headache doing it but I think I may be getting on top of my uni work for the first time in months. Deadline is approaching and something interesting is beginning to happen to my drive to get it done… lol

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[sdwa]

Not often that I finish anything, because even the finished things have to be re-done.

What I wish is that I had someone to touch base with while I’m working – a weekly check-in and a nightly check-in.

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[quizzical]

I got my outdoor Christmas lights down yesterday!

It helped that the forecast for yesterday was warm and sunny, while today’s is cold and windy.

Now it’s on to putting away the inside decorations!

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[nellie]

Well I got my tree down today as well as the mantle decorations which is a good thing but it took me all day to do it!

It feels like my medication isn’ t working today. I had thought the tree thing would only take about an hour but by the time the deorations all got put back into the basement it was nearly 4 PM. In essence it was a job a robot could have done since all the boxes are labeled and really organized. I got up early and everything to get rolling by 9 ish and I did get some other stuff done in-between too, like laundry and a few household things , but it really seemed like I had the motivation of a slug ( no insult to slugs, for all I know they are really very motivated creatures!) and I hope tomorrow things are back to feeling a bit more normal. It’s not so much that I didn’t get tons more done that bothers me, just the fact that I had to force myself so much to get through it. I usually feel like this before the meds kick in. The really annoying part was I made sure to get to bed early last night and woke up reasonably rested.

I guess the high-five part is really that I stayed off the computer all day and kept at it anyway.

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[nellie]

Well today is much better, no brain fog. Yesterday evening I went to take out the trash and realized I hadn’t been outside all day and the day before I had been in an office for a good part of the day. So basically no physical movement. I decided to clean the snow off my car, shovelled the walkway and felt much better! I really need to get out and do something physical. THis morning although very cold is nice and sunny so made sure to walk the dog first thing as well as have breakfast. Yes a much better day all around so far!

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[Anonymous]

I cleaned up and decluttered at work, reorganizing two important areas but resisting the urge to keep going and reorganize everything. I tossed out a lot of stuff that I just set aside at the time (because I didn’t have a place to put it) but really didn’t need to hang on to. Now if I could only do that at home!

Reading Ari Tuckman’s “Success Strategies for Adults with ADHD” and realizing that I am now doing a lot of what he suggests, so that’s heartening. I was able to borrow it from the library.

sdwa – about checking in – my husband and I plan my day the night before. And since we both have to take a medication around 11:30 am, we call each other and check in. I either do specific tasks or leave at a specific time from work these days, and I always check in with him – if I didn’t get done what should have gotten done, I might get permission to stay to do just that.

The cleaning, decluttering and re-organization today was unplanned, but it was long overdue and I’m glad I did it. But what I was supposed to do didn’t get started until after lunch, so I stayed longer than I planned.

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[nellie]

Nearly got all the indoor Christmas stuff put away. Organized a couple of dish storage cabinets after all the holiday disarray that happens. Cleaned out my clothes closet the other day too and have about 3 bags to give away. SHould be done by tomorrow and hopefully the house will be ready for surprise visitors should they happen to appear Well more or less…as long as no one goes into the garage or basement All hell seems to have broken lose in there again despite my previous efforts at bringing order to these spots !

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[Robbo]

Better self restraint and impulse control!!

I wrote a big long scattered post that talked about at least a dozen other subjects besides the one at the top of the thread. Decided to wait a while, get away from the computer and relax. Came back, Deleted most of it, then completely re-wrote it. It was much shorter n better, and I felt like it was on caliber with so much of the great writing I’ve been reading all over this site. I think I was helping more than complaining/asking for help. This place rocks! You guys are rock stars.

It’s a wonderful thing to just suffer less from this awful, complicated, and mixed up can of worms that is adhd.

Praying and meditating are a very huge part of why I’m doing/feeling better. I’m grateful to have faith in the loving God that created me.

I wonder how many other people are getting spiritual help, praying and feeling like that really makes a difference? I can’t imagine recovering from anything without God.

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[Author]

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