Brains.

Read some interesting reasearch on the brain recently. Did you know there are 7 or 8 different types of depression and anxiety ? Let's take a quiz and find out which type you are.
Okay, maybe later, but neuroscientist and psychiatrist Daniel Amen has moved the field of psychiatry and brain research ahead several notches by noticing that psychiatry is the only field of medicine where so little is known about the organ being treated. He has really thrown himself into looking at the physical brain with some new imaging, called SPECT imaging ( Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography ). I had forgotten that the brain is approximately a soft custard /tofu consistancy inside a hard unbendable shell. Dr. Amen says he finds head injuries to be so common ... when he interviews patients with depression and/or anxiety, he ends up asking about head injuries several different ways during the course of the interview before people remember that they had one earlier in life. ( note : I was hit by a car at age 3 and broke my collarbone ... I can surmise that my head took impact as well. ).
Anyway, he can see on all the imaging the differences in depressed brains, anxious brains, grouchy brains, sociopath brains, addicted brains, brains who have let their laundry pile up to Pike's Peak etc ... and makes some good treatment recommendations for the various types. His book is called Healing Depression and Anxiety and provides an quick assessment to determine what "type" of anxiety or depression you might have. There is a good deal of information on his website as well.
So, for those of us still fighting off thoughts that Depression is a character flaw, perhaps to be addressed by more time with God and in the Word, as any good Christian should, ... check out what Dr. Amen has great things to say about the ACTUAL structural changes in a brain. And how to help.
Are you walking to the bathroom after you are done reading this ? Strap on your helmet.

Another one for the list of don'ts.

Don't put Splenda in your coffee in front of an oscillating fan, okay?

Something happened and now I'm different.

Something happened at the playground last week. We spent a great hour of lunch and playing and when we left, my son told me that the boy he had been playing with ( 12 years old ) had asked him to do something very wrong for a child.
I won't post it here for all the world to see, but suffice to say my son thought about it and told the boy no and did not do it. This all happened right in front of where I was sitting, but just out of my line of sight. I was focused on the kids and I did not have my nose buried in a book or ear on the phone. How could this happen with me right there ?
My heart was pounding in my ears as I reported the scene to the man who was walking around supervising a small group of kids of which this child was one. I praised my son for saying no and for telling me about it. I reinforced that he had done the right thing. I stayed calm, but after everyone was safely in bed that night I fell apart. I wanted to camp out across the threshold of the front door for the night and to be sure everyone stayed safe all night. I shook and felt sick for the next day as well, waves of thankfulness and fear and anger sweeping over me.
A strange piece of the story is that during the time the kids were playing and this incident happened, while I was sitting there watching and enjoying an incredibly beautiful day, a thought came to my mind : "There is a presence of sexual violation here".
" Janet, you whacko," I thought. " What an inappropriate thought to have here at a playground," and I did my best to brush it aside. Now I think I realize that the Spirit was showing me something that I needed to know.
Mothers out there, listen to your gut. A distinct shift has happened in our world. Referring back to our childhood for how to parent is no longer reliable ... too many things are different.
I feel different inside now.

The Fascinating World of Laundry, Dishes and Diapers.

Ok, Juliebelle. I'll restart this thing. What I was trying to write about on my last post was that famous verse from the Bible, " I can do anything for fifteen minutes through Christ who strengthens me. " This has become my mantra in the midst of piles of laundry that need their own zoning laws, dishes multiplying faster than rabbits, and, of course, a constant supply of dirty diapers. If A isn't making one, Maple the Dog takes over in the back yard. I am just on poop detail and that is that. Thank goodness I have that verse to meditate on.

It is rare that I find a website of information that I recommend, but I have come across one that has made an actual difference in my day to day life. No, it is not The Bible Rewritten By Deranged Mothers.com . It is www.flylady.net . Have you heard of the Fly Lady ? She is Marla Cilley from Brevard, North Carolina who has set up a website of organizing your household for people ( like myself ) who are not born organized. If you are one of the organizationally anointed people ( cough, Ang ), this information does not apply to you and would be like reading the instruction manual on, say, breathing. But, if you are a creative contemplative ( aka artistic weirdo ) like me and are peering over the laundry to see the computer screen*, then the information is insight into the secret club of the Organized. ( So that's how organized people do it ! They think ahead. Must try this sometime ... ) . I have read several books on organization before ... they all have helped to some degree, but Fly Lady lays it out in a way that really clicks for me. And I love that her goal is not for people to have perfectly clean houses, but for their homes and families to run smoothly so they can do more of what they love.

If you happen to look at the website and are thinking about signing up for her mailings, please think twice, because all the information ( and there is a LOT ) is on the website. If you sign up for mailings, they send you LOTS of emails each day, which I found very distracting. I can barely read my other email, not to mention all the Fly Mail. I unsubscribed to the mailings and just enjoy reading the site and listening to her World Talk Radio Program ( also archived on her site ). Still addicted to Talk Radio after all these years.
*( since I started reading Fly Lady, I now have my laundry down to a very easy system and it no longer stresses me out or blocks my view of anything. This is truly remarkable. )
Thinking ahead thought : deep sleep.