Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Serotonin Withdrawals

Saturday, I ran out of depression medication.  Supposedly, I never told Mark to pick up the new prescription while he was a the store (I swear I told him and that he just forgot!!!).  Sunday, after the post-church-craziness settled down, I ran up to the store to grab my prescription.  Apparently the pharmacy closes at 4pm on Sunday...which I didn't know since I don't normally go on Sundays.  I got there at 4:04.  :\

When I finally made it over to the pharmacy on Tuesday, (You read that right.  I didn't leave my house or even put on real clothes on Monday.) I decided I better ask the pharmacist if I should hurry and take a bunch of the pills or double up or anything like that.  She asked me if I was sick to my stomach or cognitively foggy.  "No... should I be?" (I assume she meant more 'foggy' than I generally feel as a mother.)  Apparently, going off depression medication can cause serotonin withdrawals and therefore withdrawal symptoms like fogginess and a sick stomach.  WHAT?!?! Who knew?!?! It turns out that I am a serotonin junkie!! LOL!  I knew the happiness I've been feeling lately was all drug induced. ;)

For all of our information, I just Wiki'ed it and found out that serotonin withdrawal is totally a real thing and can cause a bunch of symptoms.  "Common responses to dose reduction or cessation include dizziness, electric shock-like sensations, sweating, nausea, insomnia, tremor, confusion, nightmares, and vertigo."  Note for future reference...not something I want to go through.  I guess I'll just have to stay hopped up on serotonin for the rest of my life!! :)  Here's to a drug induced euphoria, Cheers!!

I should totally be a hand model!!

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What do you think? Share your thoughts on Serotonin Withdrawal below.


Monday, November 18, 2013

Hair Rinsing Horror

Today my sister and I were talking about that horrible stage (if for any of you it is more than a stage, I'm so sorry!!!) when kids won't let their parents rinse their shampooed hair.  All through babyhood there is no problem rinsing their hair until one day, it all changes.

First, you might try to pour water on their hair.  They will usually start screaming,crying and flailing at this point.  Next, you might try to get them to lay back in the water to rinse their hair that way.  Not happening!  Since they have already been throwing a huge fit, they are completely past reason and think you are trying to drown them as you try to lean them back.  This, will cause a complete hysterical reaction from the child.  You may now try to splash a little water on their hair to get the shampoo off gently, which, for this child who has pretty much completely lost it, triggers 'fight or flight.'  You are now stuck with a kid who is not only splashing you, but is also trying their best to get out of the tub and run out of the bathroom...with the shampoo still in their hair.  At this point, parents, we all loose it (I'm assuming it's not just me :\ ).  We start screaming, swearing, spanking, and then end up just grabbing the kid and shoving their head under the bath faucet.  It's not like we are going to kill them (unless they keep kicking us...), it's just a little water!  After 30 minutes of fighting with your kid to get their hair rinsed, you are probably soaking wet, exhausted, and could use a warm bath of your own.

Not looking forward to this stage to come again.


Have you gone through this with your kids?

Recipe: Coconut No Bake Cookies


These are yum.  Simple ingredients and easy to make.  Also, they are semi healthy!!


I like to double the recipe when I make these.  I use 1/3 cup butter and 1/3 cup coconut oil.  

I use peanut butter and boy is it good!  Someday, when I have money to spare, I will try Almond butter...but until then...poor man's peanut it is!!

Mixing in the deliciousness.  I like the mixture of 1 cup oatmeal and 3 cups oatmeal.  (My Smith's only sells the sweetened coconut so that's what I use.)

Oh, yes!

 Ingredients:
(I always double the recipe)
1/3 cup honey (you can probably reduce the amount of honey even more)
1 1/2 Tbsp. cocoa
1/3 cup coconut oil or butter
1/3 cup almond butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups dried, unsweetened coconut

To see the directions, click Here to go to The Unrefined Kitchen's page.


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Friday, November 15, 2013

Unedited

I hate my depression so much. I hate being a bad mom. I just ate chocolate chips for lunch. I can't bring myself to do house work. 

My depression shows it's self as anger a lot if the time. I hate when I get past the anger phase to weepy. I don't know how to handle weepy depression. I at least have ways to deal with angry depression.

I have no desire to read. None. 

I want to just lie down on the floor and not get up. I have thoughts of slitting my own throat. 

I started on medication not too long ago. It helps a lot. I feel happy more often than not. It was a complete revelation to me in fact. 'Are people really this happy all the of the time?' I'm still not sure if people really are that happy or if it is my meds giving me some false sense of euphoria.

I still get depressed. I still hate it. Maybe more now than before. I hate being a bad mom and a bad wife.

I don't dare read back through this post because I think I will delete things. Sorry that this is unedited. 

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Fair Catch: Author Interview & Giveaway


You may remember my review of 'Fair Catch' that I posted about a week ago, well here is the interview that the author, Cindy, was awesome enough to grant me!!

Questions from Me:
What inspired you to write this book? I was a huge fan of a professional football player who was single and seemed to earnestly be seeking to find a wife. I noticed the guy dated all kinds of celebrity type girls and I wondered what it would be like if he were to pick someone who was ordinary like a divorced single mother.

Were any of the characters modeled after real people? All of my characters have a little bit of someone I’m acquainted with.

Did anything help with your writing process? Reading is the number one aide to a good writer. Attending writing workshops and conferences is a huge help. I’m also a member of critique group which is very beneficial to a writer.

What inspired you to start writing generally? I have always loved reading. One day, I had this idea for a story and I thought, “Hey, I’d like to write a book.” Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop.

What is your favorite book of all time? Hmm, limiting it to one is a tough question. I guess the one book I’ve read a few times and could easily sit down and read again is Love Starts with Elle by Rachel Hauck.

What should we expect next from you? I have several works in progress, including Discovering Sophie which is due to be released right before the Thanksgiving holiday.

What is your dream job or life? A successful author :)

Questions from Becky:
1. I appreciated your approach to religion in your book.  You managed to include it as a natural part of your characters lives without it feeling overbearing and you also never mentioned a specific religion thus allowing people of differing religious backgrounds to fill in the details themselves. Was that intentional?  How did you envision the role of religion in your novel as you began the writing process? I love romance, but found it was hard to find “clean” romance until I discovered the Christian market. It opened up a whole new world of fantastic stories. I especially like the books where the characters’ faith is a part of who they are and what makes them do the things they do. Naturally, when I started writing, I wanted my characters to have morals and those morals backed by their faith.

2. Sometimes the romance between characters can seem too cheesy and unrealistic  or too forced and unbelievable.  How did you try to strike the right balance between the two? It’s important to know what genre you like to read and to write. I like happy endings, and a romance will always have a happy ending. If you pick up a romance, the two main characters are going to be attracted to each other.  So knowing these rules up front, the reader is expecting there to be chemistry between the two main characters. I like to infuse humor in all my stories and I believe that makes the relationship much more fun to see unfold. 

3.  What was the most challenging part of writing this book?  What was the easiest? For me the biggest challenge is getting the ending right. I want the reader to feel satisfied with the outcome. I always include an epilogue which allows the reader a little glimpse into the lives of the main characters. The easiest part: Hmm, I guess I know my characters so well that it was fun to put them in different situations to see how they would handle each event. I love writing dialogue and can almost hear the conversations in my head. 

Giveaway!!!
  
a Rafflecopter giveaway
 Available only within the US.

 Fair Catch is available for purchase as an e-book and also as a paperback

Already read Fair Catch? Comment and let us know what you think of the book.
 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The One Year-ish Plan

Recently, my best friend wrote a blog post about how she disliked being asked about her "5 year plan."  As she she put it, "...so much can happen in 5 years."  So true!!  Five years ago I couldn't get pregnant and I now have two kids, I had recently started working at my last job and now I am a stay at home mom, we were living in a tiny one bedroom apartment and now we (but really mostly the bank) own a house, and Mark was working part time but is now working full time.  Those are only some of the bigger things that have changed in our lives.  I suppose it is good to have a general idea of where I would like to be in five years, but so hard to predict when so many things -big, life changing things- are completely unpredictable and sometimes even uncontrollable.

My friend, instead, lays out her "one year-ish plan."  I really like the idea of the "one year-ish plan" that she came up with and have been thinking about it since I read her post.  One year is long enough to be able to accomplish bigger tasks and goals and at the same time short enough to be able to expect to see real results without too much unpredictability.


My one year-ish plan:
  • Get back to pre-baby weight (or at least loose some weight!!)
  • Clean my whole house including closets, boxes, drawers, and the like
  • Learn how to make bone broth
  • Have Talon completely potty trained (Yes, I realize I have no control over this but I still want it to happen!!)
  • Sweep out my garage
  • Wash my house windows (I should do these last two way more often...but here we are ;)
  • Start taking classes towards my Accounting degree (Yep, I want to go into the accounting field and am super excited to go back to school for it!!!!)
  • Improve my blog (...hopefully sooner rather than later)
  • Take dance lessons again (this may be a stretch, but a girl can dream :)

What do you think about "5 year plans?"  What are some of the items on your "one year-ish plan?"

Check out my best friends blog, Life is Muffins and Jam!

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