Idiosyncrasies and other things to fight about

If you looked around your house, you would likely notice that whomever you live with has some habits that can be frustrating. I know that the girls and I are known to leave shoes all over the house, which makes Kelly crazy. We are also forever misplacing things, to which he always reminds us, "If you put it in the same place every time..."

I live with three people who know how to clean the drain screen in the bathtub. Those same three people also seem to not know that what comes out of the screen belongs in the trash. Instead, the little wad of hair, soap slivers, etc. gets deposited on the edge of the tub and magically somehow ends up in the trash (i.e. I throw them away.) Also, after much hounding, they have learned that the cardboard tube that comes out of the toilet paper roll is recyclable. However, this seems to mean that this tube is placed on the counter to be magically taken to the recycle bin by someone else. Lest you think I am just being picky, or that they would "get around to it," the last time it got up to five tubes sitting on the counter before I couldn't take it anymore. At last count, my elder daughter had 14 bottles of shampoo/conditioner/body wash/lid scrub in the shower. When a bottle gets mostly empty, it gets turned upside down so that the dregs can be used. That never seems to happen. A new bottle it brought in and so the shower is filled with upside down bottles with one or two uses worth of product in them.

These are the things I ponder while I'm in the shower. Not like I'm spending a lot of time washing my hair...

Actually I was spending time in the shower trying to wash off the glue-like gunk and feel somewhat more human. Cranky cranky muscles today are all locked down and making me fairly miserable. It is the usual catch-22: moving around would make me feel better but I hurt too much/am too tired to move around. The less I move around the less I am able to move around. The less active I am the worse the swelling gets, but the more active I am the more issues I have with my neck. I knew this wasn't going to be a walk in the park.

Besides showering I haven't been too productive. I've eaten and had water. I got dressed. Yay me. We did go to the farm and get a few things. I'll come back to that in a bit. At the farm, though, I was trying to tell Karissa something. She is not very patient. Instead of letting me spell  out what I am trying to say, she takes the first letter and guesses every word she can think of that starts with that letter and completely ignores what ever else I sign. This strategies often works for Kelly and Karina as they are much better at using context clues. After the fourth time I have spelled something and Karissa continues to say "Huh?" I want to beat my head against the wall. I know it would be easier if we actually knew ASL beyond the alphabet. Hopefully. I'm a little worried about asking her to learn another language. She has Hebrew at Tamud Torah and French terms for ballet. She also struggles enough with spelling/grammar in English. But I guess the ability to communicate with your mother is pretty important.

As I said, we went to the farm and got fruits and veggies. We make this sojourn fairly often. We are not as good at actually USING the stuff we get in a timely manner. While it is not a complete waste as our chickens will eat most of it past its prime, it is still aggravating. It is so exciting to bag up produce that just came in from the field, but then we turn around and let it languish for a week in the fridge and then feed it to chickens. It makes no sense.

I've never been very organized about meal planning. Sometimes I was a few days ahead, but too often it was, "Oh, it is five o'clock.  What should I make for dinner?" Therefore, it would be ridiculous for me to complain about Kelly doing the same thing. I should be cooking more. Both Joel and Serafina cook for their families and they both use formula. I actually eat the food, in a roundabout way, so I should be a better sport about making it. Hopefully I will get there.

Today I also read a post on Facebook from someone making the argument that head and neck cancers should get more funding. You'll get no disagreement from me, but I have a vested interest so to speak. But research dollars are finite. Her point was that people who survive head and neck cancers have more long term effects that impact working, etc. Theoretically, if I had a mastectomy, or even a colostomy bag, I could still work, but if I can't talk, or swallow my saliva, or am facially disfigured I may not be able to work anymore.

This is not to imply that I think, or she thinks, for that matter, that one cancer is a better deal than another. Looking through our families and friends, we've known people with all different cancers. Some lost their lives to whatever type of cancer they had. Those that lived, though, were able to resume their lives. Yes, they have scars. Yes, they have body parts that are gone, or don't work as well as they used to, but they are able to function in what most people would consider "normal" ways.

In many ways this is similar to the argument about how education dollars should be spent. Should we spend the most on the severely disabled as they have the greatest need? Should we spend the most on the gifted as they have the highest potential? Should we just give an equal amount to each student and call that fair?

I do know that head and neck cancer needs better PR. Everyone knows about wearing pink for breast cancer, but burgundy not so much.

We are trying a higher dose of muscle relaxer in hopes of getting some release/relief in my neck. Kelly is going to get some time at work, thank goodness, which will hopefully reduce his stress level a bit. Karina had her first day at work today. Ten hours the first day-- she isn't home yet to report how it went. Karissa has been busy playing all day with her friends and is now resistant to showering, working on flash cards, or anything "not fun." Otherwise, just a typical Sunday evening.

Until tomorrow...

Kiara