The High-Five Corner

[Carrie]

Quizzical – You are so awesome! I am in awe of you!! Great job!! ^5!!

KRRRAAAAAAAZy kAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!! I was just thinking about you yesterday wondering where you went!! congrats with the referral! My husband and I have been putting his referral off… I know 100% he has ADD I guess im just scared that our little family of four is one all of ADD and that everyone will roll their eyes and sigh not believing it.

Nellie – ^5!! I LOOOOOOOOVE to cook but only in a clean organized kitchen! hahah good for you!

I finally finished putting away all the garbage and things I took out of kids room to reorganize. Yay!! My husband is very impressed that I have been keeping the house up to par, taking out the garbage and have the kids so organized! woot!

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[Anonymous]

Nellie, congrats on the kitchen. I love a tidy, clean, organised kitchen, but I still don’t like to cook lol.

Quizzical, well done and high five to you!! You’re doing a great job

Carrie, you are so lucky to be keeping your house “up to par”. Ours has descended into chaos again and I am struggling to find the time to sort it out. Where does time go?!! I am sure I waste a lot of it in aimless wandering/pacing!

I have a really busy weekend, followed by a pretty busy week, and am looking forward to it being over. Just to top it all off, my monthlies arrived yesterday, so I am going to spend my busy weekend in either a fog of pain or a fog of painkillers It doesn’t help my focus, distractability, thought processing speed either. I really hate being female at times!! Grrrr!!!!

Oh well, I had better go and wake my daughter up so we can get moving. She is racing in a pedal prix race (in pedal cars) as part of the school team. She races at lunch time today, then at around midnight tonight. I am going to take my laptop with me, so I can catch up with the forums, as I am sure to have some “sit around being bored” time on my hands while out. We have to come back for rehearsals during the evening, as well as all day tomorrow. Now THEY will be full on, so no sitting around for me there The hour or more drive to the race circuit and back will top it all off….I had better make sure we have some good music in the car!!

Gee, I am rambling too much. Sorry!

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[Anonymous]

My son, 32 and I 57, both ADD, just found this site. We have had some of the best conversations of our life, discussing how we react to situations differently and coaching each other. Rather than beat myself up for not being able to help him more when he was in school, I am using this to draw us closer together and encourage each other. Just taking a negative and turning it around…. that is a high five any day.

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[quizzical]

High five, Gertie Lou! Way to go!

Good luck with your crazy week, KrazyKat!

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[quizzical]

I’m having a rough day, motivation-wise, so I really have to celebrate the small victories today.

Just called for a hair appointment, and also made a doctor’s appointment.

Finished my daily task for the day – decluttering five minutes per room.

Got myself a sunrise clock; it arrived yesterday and I set it up that same evening and programmed it myself! Too bad I woke up an hour before it came on this morning, so I don’t know how well it wakes me up yet! But at least it lit up at the correct time.

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[quizzical]

One more…

Just sent an apologetic e-mail to a friend for forgetting to meet her IN JUNE.

Worst part is I didn’t realize I’d forgotten the appointment until something like late August. The shame kept me from writing that note until now, but I did it today!

I wonder how many people I’ve forgotten without ever realizing it later on?

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[Anonymous]

I’m giving my husband a high five for organizing our kitchen with new wire racks on wheels (a Solutions store just opened in our city – danger zone for our wallets), and he did it by himself! We also bought some more wire racks from Costco for my warehouse storage. It’s getting stuff up off the floor, organizing things in their rightful place, and giving us some motivation because it looks like we are making a little progress.

High fives all!

I once forgot that my best friend had invited us for dinner (several hours away), I discovered I had misunderstood what date it was when she called at around 4:30 pm, wondering where we were. I said “we’re in Toronto”, completely oblivious to the fact that she’d invited us for that day (and overnight), had cooked an expensive multi-course meal, and then had to invite her neighbours over to share it on short notice. I guess we could have dropped everything and driven up there, but it didn’t occur to me at the time. Very embarassing!!!!!

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[quizzical]

Hi Five to your hubby, No_Dopamine! I wish my husband would get inspired to organize some things around here! Enjoy your spiffed-up kitchen!

I’m betting there’s a whole new topic we could start: “What’s the worst appointment you ever missed?” Scary how many jump to mind right off the bat…

Spent the morning going through some of the must-do papers and phone calls. BLEACHHHH! Hated it, but got a lot done. I made myself quit at lunchtime after scheduling one more appointment: An appointment with myself, to check the must-do file every week from now on. I even put it on my calendar!

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[Anonymous]

I found a great new website (through the David Seah website) for making to-do lists online (or download as an app). I’ve used a few before, but this one is great, free, and they send you an email reminder of stuff to do! It’s called Wunderlist and here’s the link http://www.wunderlist.com

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[Carrie]

Krazy – How did your week turn out?

Gertie – I think thats awesome!! I agree! Thats a huge high five!

Quizzical – What is a sunrise clock? Sounds interesting.

No_Dopamine – Thanks for the link! That looks great!! I cant wait to try it out.

Well my high fives have been good I think. Just havent been getting onto the PC as much anymore, kind of lost interest. Probably for the best anyways. I finally filled out my paper work for work to get benefits and say that I accept this full time position… however I got the papers on August 5th and didnt fully read the letters (as always) and didnt know there was a deadline… The one I had to have back within 5 days… the other within 30 days… Its been about 2 months so I sent them emails begging for forgivness that I may still get the benefits because that will be a lot of cash saved each month for medical and dental. I REALLY REALLY hope they will accept it. If not I will ask my employer if she can pull some strings for me. Shes great in trying to help me out.

How do you all deal with paper work? I think that is one of my biggest downfalls. I am terrible with forms. Thank goodness I can pay my bills online or that wouldnt get done either.

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[quizzical]

Carrie,

Sunrise clock is an alarm clock with a light that gradually brightens so you can wake up gently. I’d never heard of them until Pete Puma mentioned them here under another topic. There are several different models out there, but I ultimately went with this one, which is the same one he linked to:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00196LFIU

Expensive, but worth it, and I think it will be all the more so as the days get shorter! Too early to tell if it’s helping me wake up; I’m still kind of experimenting with how fast to have it come on and so forth, but so far I’m happy with it.

I wish I had good paperwork advice! I’m horrible at it and experimenting with some new things, too, Right now my time-tested method is to let my husband deal with it.

Here’s something I’m feeling good about: Yesterday I devoted an afternoon to decluttering all the corners of my bedroom, and also spent some time in a room that currently is nothing more than a dumping ground. The bedroom looks a lot better, and I can now at least walk a little further into the dumping ground room.

In the process I found a missing Japanese wall scroll – still in the box – that was given to us in early summer; a nice pair of Polartec thermals, still in the package, that was given to me TWO Christmases ago, and a hundred and twenty dollars in cash! Not a bad haul for an afternoon’s work!

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[Anonymous]

new post for carrie about paperwork organization http://totallyadd.com/forum/topic.php?id=1858&replies=1#post-15909

You are all getting so organized, are your meds working or what????? congrats.

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[Anonymous]

Hmmm…don’t feel particularly organised this week no_dopamine! I got through my busy week okay, but the house looks like a bomb has hit it now, and I am tired enough that my brain fog is hindering me worse than usual. Today I helped with a school rehearsal for a performance the kids are in later this week, and I was all over the place trying to find things I needed (which then turned up under my nose!!) and was rather impulsive with things I said in front of the kids. Ooops! Part of me is happy that my quiet week has begun to fill up, as I have THE appointment on Friday, and I am very nervous about it, so the busier I am, the less time I have to stress about it, but on the other hand, I would have liked some time to relax and recover from last week, as well as tidy up the house.

Quizzical, I love the idea of the sunrise clock. I wonder if it would help my son. He is shocking with alarms. He never wakes up in the morning when he has to. I am tempted to open his outside blind so that his room gets light in the morning as the sun rises. But then I would have to get curtains, as he has nothing but the outside blind to stop people looking in (and we have a double storey house looking into that part of our yard).

I love finding nice surprises when tidying up. But I rarely do! Typical. So a big high five for you Quizzical…what a great reward for your effort!!

Paperwork, Carrie, is a difficult thing. I have a pin up board where really important things go, but it gets taken over as things accumulate and then I lose sight of the most important stuff. Sometimes I write things on the calendar (like “hand in consent form for swimming”) to remind me, other times I put the forms through the straps of my backpack so I see them before I leave to go out, but I really struggle with paperwork in general. Hubby does a lot of it, which really helps, but I still haven’t found a way to deal with the school paperwork and other stuff that’s my responsibility. I know that the best plan of attack is to do any paperwork as soon as I get it, but it’s not always possible, and I also find it really hard to motivate myself to do so.

Yawn….I am so tired but I have so much I should be doing right now. I guess I had better move my butt and get dinner cooked, at the very least.

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[Carrie]

That clock sounds amazing! Seems like just what I need! I can get up in the morning no problem when the sun is shining. If its not… good luck. Im not such a happy camper hahaha Im like your son Krazy Kat. My mom would start an hour before I was suppose to get up yelling at me to get out of bed. It would start out so nice “Carrie, time to wake up” then progress to anger “CARRIE GET OUT OF BED NOW! YOUR GOING TO BE LATE! RIGHT NOW!!” Then I would crawl out of bed with my eyes hardly open walk over to my mom and slump onto her. hahahaha

Thanks for the paperwork advice! I was talking about it with the ADD coach too and she gave some good suggestions. I WISH my husband could do it! Well he comprehends it but his spelling isnt good so for government crap it doesnt work so well. I really like your idea with writing it on the calendar. Now thats something I pay attention to. Without it im very lost. My problem is, I tend not even to open the envelope to see if its important or not until its way passed due. Bleh, guess I just need to pull up my socks!

I also hear ya about the up side down house again… Interesting fact I just learned today while talking with my ADD coach… My kids have been so organized and this morning was the first time since school started that their rooms were upside down but I liked it… I was getting very bored by the organization. I couldnt stand it! Ive been like that my whole life… its like once I have things in order I want to mess them up just for something to do. Some excitement and another problem to solve. But thats not very productive but the need for stimulation of course is still there. My coach explained that yes it may be boring that the house is running so smooth, but with that bit of life under control will allow me to feed my need for stimulation with other more fulfilling things like hobbies, dreams etc. I thought that was pretty cool. Shes exactly right. I think part of the clutter im leaving on my dresser is also my excuse to hide from the bigger things in life I want to do. I dont know where to start with my “dreams” and “goals” and am scared to follow them, and as an excuse hide behind petty things that need doing “first”. Ah well, theres my “Ah ha” moment of the day hahaha

As for a ^5 ordeal… I dont have any today. Im too tired after night shifts. I am planning on having a few drinks and watching a movie! Kudos to you KrazyKat! Im not even going to make dinner! hahaha

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[Anonymous]

Carrie, I can understand the suggestion of not knowing where to start with dreams and goals. I spend so much time wanting to do things and being too busy to do them, but when push comes to shove and I actually have the time, I never do the things I want to because I don’t know where to begin!

I don’t know what it is about alarms, but I always fly out of bed with my heart going a mile a minute as soon as an alarm goes off. I HATE HATE HATE alarms!! If I don’t have an alarm set, then I am really sluggish and slow to get moving. Even with an alarm, I have to ease my way into the day, despite getting up immediately. I have to allow at least an hour to get myself ready and out of the house, or else I feel really disjointed and end up leaving something behind or forgetting to do something.

I have recently given up on my “save the world” mentality and stopped going for the green housekeeping alternatives. I have bought quick and easy cleaning products to help me with the cleaning, as well as encourage the kids to clean more. I still try to be environmentally friendly when I can, but I have to acknowledge that I cannot deal with things the way I would like to and I have to make some concessions in order to get things done.

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[Author]

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