But if instead we mentally visualize and affirm and reaffirm our assets and keep our thoughts focused the good things in our lives, emphasizing them to the fullest extent, we will rise out of our sense of depression any difficulty no matter how difficult it may seem.
There are small miracles even in the most dismal existence. A smile from a child, the warmth of the sun on your body, a kind word from a stranger, a hug from a friend, a hot fudge sundae, and the beauty of a flower even if it is in your neighbors garden can be a source of joy Learn to identify them, experience them, focus on them, and live in that moment to lift your mood from depression to joy. Moments of small miracles may be brief, periods of chaos and pain longer, but we can remember and relive the times of small miracles at will. Train your mind to block the chaos and remember the good. When your thought turn to unsolvable problems be like Scarlet Ohara and say, "I can't think of that now or I'll go mad. I'll think about it tomorrow."
Dream. Dreams are the start of plans we will fulfill if that is our destiny. When you dream think of the things you need to do to make them come true. Then do them. Create your own miracles no matter the size.
Smile. Laugh Even when you don't feel like smiling. Look in the mirror and practice smiling. It's hard to feel sad when you see someone smiling at you even if it is your reflection. If nothing else you will feel silly enough doing it to actually laugh. Remember that Laughter is arobics for the soul.
It's time to sit back, take a piece of paper and make a list, not of your troubles, but of those things that are in your favor. Post this list in a place where it will remind you that life is really not as dismal as it may seem at the moment. Train your mind to reject sadness. If it is in your power to fix a problem do it. If it is not let it go. Worry is usually born of fear. Be not afraid because most things we worry about never come to pass.
Joy is inside you even when life looks dim. Dig deep. Find it. Your inner powers will reassert themselves and, with the help of God, lift you from defeat to victory.
Authors note: Depression that lasts for more than
two weeks can be a serious medical condition. There may be a chemical imbalance
causing your sadness. Clinical depression is nothing to be ashamed
of. It can effect anyone but it is very common in women past menopause.
Depression effects 1 out of 4 women over 50. Talk to your doctor as soon
as possible. Your doctor can prescribe medication and other therapy that
can help. You owe it to yourself and your family to be the best you
can be.
I know its kind of early in the year to be thinking of the winter holidays for most people, but here at GrandsPlace we need to start now in order to provide a christmas gift under the tree of every child that needs on but who's grandparents cannot afford to provide extras like gifts.
Each year when the holiday come around we tell our children tales of Santa and reindeer that fly all over the world bringing toys to the good little girls and boys. We hit the stores on the look out for the perfect gift that will wow the children on Christmas morning.
But in some homes the advent of the winter holidays just brings stress and tears. Over 20% of grandparents that are parenting their grandchildren are living below the federal poverty level. They have enough trouble just paying the rent and putting food on the table let alone buying holiday gifts. Often a grandparent has to tell a child that Santa will not be coming to their house this year. The Child is left wondering what he did wrong that got him on Santa's naughty list this year.
GrandsPlace has teamed up with Santa to help these families but we need your help. Each year we collect money for Christmas and Hanukah gifts for needy GrandFamilies. Then On December first we divide the amount of money collected by the number of children on our Christmas List and send a check to the grandparents so she can buy gifts for her children. Its never very much. Usually about $20 per child but a small gift is better than no gift and the knowledge that Santa did not pass the children by.
To donate to the GrandsPlace Christmas Fund by
credit card on PayPal log on to,
https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=weaver4@cox.net&item_name=GrandsPlace&item_number=CHRISTMAS
This link will lead you to a web safe and secure site we use for online donations.
OR send a check or money order made out to “GrandsPlace” to
GrandsPlace,
154 Cottage Rd,
Enfield CT 06082
If you are a grandparent or other Kinship caregiver that cannot provide a gift for your child please contact me before December 1st. I encourage you to apply for other programs like Toys For Tots and The Salvation Army in your communities but if your child does not qualify for those please do not let him or her go without. send an e-mail to kathy@grandsplace.org giving the child's name, age and your name and mailing address so that I can send a gift. All requests are confidential. No one but me sees these requests and I don't gossip about the haves and the have nots. I cannot promise much. Funds are very limited but I will see that each child on our Christmas List gets a gift.
Any Questions? Call Kathy at 1- 860-763-5789
Together we can make a difference in the life of a child.
What Its Like To Live With an ADHD Brain
by Kathy Reynolds
Many of us have children with ADHD.Do you sometimes get puzzled or angry at the child's reactions and behavior? Learning disabilities are hard to deal with because they are invisable. We understand why the child in a wheel chair cannot walk but we have a harder time with a child that loks perfectly formed yet cannot sit still. A Child with ADHD looks so normal and can often act so abnormal. Do you sometimes wonder what goes on in their heads? I know the secret because not only do I deal with it with my grandchild but I too have ADHD. I can tell you how it affects our kids.
When you have ADHD your mind keeps spinning inside your head. You think lots of thoughts but you lack the filters that non ADHD people have to block stimuli and slow down the thought long enough to organize and act of only the ones you want to act on.
If a word enters your brain it falls out of your mouth before you have a chance to think about it. If an idea forms you jump up and start to follow through without thinking of the consequences. Then another idea enters the brain and you forget about the last thing you started. This is why children with ADHD are often getting in trouble in school and say inappropriate things. This is also why many ADHD children and adults have trouble finishing what they start. On or off meds children with ADHD need more training in self control than others. But it can be controlled with time and training. I do not take medication and can control myself most of the time.
One of the coping skills people with ADHD have is getting addicted to something that controls our brains and blocks new thoughts from intruding. This is why a boy with ADHD cannot concentrate on his studies because studying by its very design introduces new thoughts. But that same child can sit for hours in front of a video game and ignore everything else around him. The concentrating needed to play video games blocks out the new thoughts flying through the brain. Often a child with ADHD will become angry when you pull the plug on the game because you have taken away a coping device. (Please don't get me wrong I am not saying you should not pull the plug, just explaining the anger issue.)
It is a common misconception that children with ADHD have trouble paying attention. In reality the child is paying attention to everything around him and he cannot focus on just one thing. While theteacher is talking, the boy in the back is sneezing, a buzzer is going off in the science lab down the hall, a cat is meowing outside the window and three girls are giggling on the way to the girls room. Most people can block out the rest and concentrate on what the teacher is saying. The ADHD child cannot. The constant barrage of stimuli to the brain makes him fidgety. He starts tapping his pencil to cope. The teacher asks him to stop and he does but the next thing he knows is that darm pencil is dancing on the desk again. Fidgeting is a response to the overload of the brain. The teacher gives him a warning, the other children laugh at him,he gets angry and throws the offending pencil.
There are several good medications that can help stop the ADHD Brain from Spinning long enough for the child to think and act rather than react to the world around him or her. Some believe that meds are just for school because ADHD is a learning disability. They forget that learning does not just take place in a classroom. The child's brain does not stop spining just because the three o clock bell rang. It still spins on weekends and knows no season. Your child's doctor is the best one to talk to about which medication is right for yopur child and how often to give it.
We give Danni her meds all year round. They are not for school they are to help her slow the brain long enough to keep her thoughts from spinning out of control. Once the brain is slowed down enough for her to examine her thoughts she has the ability to learn coping mechanisms to learn self control Once she learns coping skills she will not need the meds any longer.
Back when I was a child there were no meds for ADHD. There was no help at all. My teachers told my mother that she better find me a good husband because I was too stupid to amount to anything on my own. Most people never heard of it. Some like myself learned on their own ways to cope and control our spinning brains. Others did not. People with ADHD either grow up to be great successes or accomplished criminals.
ADHD can be a blessing in disguise. People often look at my life and say "How do you do all you do." my answer is that I have ADHD. I do things because my brain does not allow me time to think I can't possibly do it." I live through trying times because my ADHD brain lets me forget the bad things quicker than most. I do not have the capacity to dwell on things that hurt. If you insult me this week I will have forgotten about it by next week and still be your friend. Forgiveness is easy for me and I do not waste my time feeling badly about things.
The GrandsPlace Virtual Quilt
To have your child's name on our quilt send an e-mail to kathy@grandsplace.org
Chats are held nightly at 9 pm easter standard time. Join us by logging on to http://grandsplace.org/gp2/chat.html or http://grandsplace.org/gp2/chat.html. Both sites will take you to the same chat room. For people like me that are time zone challenged it's:
9pm Eastern time
8pm Central time
7pm Mountain time
6pm Pacific time
Recipe Of The Month
Thai Grilled Steak Salad with Rice Noodles
| Ingredients
Marinade:
Sauce:
Salad
Makes 4 servings Nutrition Information
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Directions
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Household Hints - Cooking Tips
- If you like the firmer skin of an oven-baked potato, shorten the baking time by piercing the potato with a fork and microwaving them for 10 minutes before finishing them off in the oven.
- If you're baking a whole chicken, shorten the baking time by asking your butcher to butterfly the chicken for you.
- Turkey will roast more quickly if it's not stuffed. Bake the stuffing alongside in a casserole during the last hour, adding a little more low-fat, low-sodium stock or broth to keep the stuffing moist.
- If wanting browned onions or other root vegetables, don't add any salt until after they are nicely browned and caramelized. Salt slows down the caramelization process.
- Buy legumes such as beans, lentils, chickpeas, and split peas when you know that you'll be needing them soon - the longer the storage time, the longer the cooking time.
- If you like to bake pizza at home, invest in a pizza stone and preheat it in the oven before you start the pizza baking. It takes less time to bake on a hot stone.
- Like to make soup? Buy frozen stocks from your supermarket or professional-quality stock made from concentrated pastes that are diabetic-friendly - very low-sodium or low-sodium -- from our diabetic supply store. Heat up the stock, adding small pieces of meat, poultry, vegetables, grains, pasta, etc. Add fresh or dried herbs and you have soup in minutes instead of hours.
- Freeze any leftover soup in individual microwavable plastic containers. Pop into the microwave to reheat.
- Always bring meat or poultry to room temperature before cooking (please, don't leave it on the counter for hours - it only takes a few minutes). It'll bake, grill, or cook on the stove top quicker and more evenly.
- When making mashed potatoes or turnips, the smaller the pieces, the quicker they'll cook.
- Like hash browns with your Saturday or Sunday morning egg substitute or egg white omelet? Buy frozen hash browns at the supermarket or microwave a baking potato (following your oven's instructions) and dice. Cook the hash browns in a hot cast iron skillet that has been lightly spritzed with refrigerated butter-flavored cooking spray. You'll have delicious fat-free hash browns in minutes.
- When removing fat from hot stock, soup, or sauce, pop it into the freezer if there's time, or lay a piece of paper towel on the surface. When you remove the paper towel, much of the fat will be gone. Repeat as needed.
- Make use of your microwave to quick cook vegetables, reheat foods, make sauces, and poach chicken and fish. Read the guide to your microwave so you have the times and instructions for its use firmly in your mind.
- Beans and grains cook more quickly in a microwave and keep their distinctive characteristics and proper consistency (not all mushy). Consult your oven pamphlet for exact times for your microwave oven.
- To quickly toast nuts and seeds without your constant attention, place 1/4 cup of nuts or seeds in a microwave dish and add 1 teaspoon of margarine. Microwave on HIGH for about 5 minutes, stirring once after 2 minutes. While the nuts or seeds are toasting, you can be doing something else.
- Bake meat loafs, casseroles, soufflés, etc. in individual dishes to cut down on the baking time.
- If baking a low-sugar or sugar-free cake, bake the batter in muffin cups instead of a cake pan to cut down on the baking time.
- When sautéing mushrooms, don't crowd the skillet. They need room so the liquid they give off will evaporate quickly so they can brown.
- When making a dish, double or triple the recipe, freezing the extra batches in one or two microwavable plastic containers. Your next meal(s) will be ready in minutes.
- Make use of the defrost feature of your microwave oven to quickly thaw chicken or meat before you start cooking.
- Do you own a pressure cooker - a three-pound pot roast will cook in under an hour in a pressure cooker.
- Bonnie makes use of her bamboo steamers to prepare an entire meal in minutes. Layer the ingredients according to their cooking time, the foods that take more time at the bottom of the stack and the ones that take the least time on the top.
- When steaming vegetables, a wet kitchen towel between the pot and the lid will keep the steam in the pot, reducing the cooking time.
- Use a large skillet when reducing liquids before making a sauce. The larger the surface area, the quicker the time it takes for the liquid to evaporate.
- Finally, read through the recipe and make sure you have all of the ingredients pre-prepped and assembled BEFORE you start cooking. A lot of precious time can be wasted hunting through the pantry, cupboard, or fridge for missing ingredients.
Great
Sites To Visit
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http://www.berenstainbears.com/ http://www.pbs.org/kratts/ |
http://kidshealth.org/kid/
http://www.kidscooking.freewebsitehosting .com/kidsrecipes.htm
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custody/guide.php A Parenting Evaluation, also called a Custody Evaluation may be requested by you or your attorney. It is a non binding resource to show which party is more sutibale to parent the child. http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/ |
To all that read this newsletter I wish the gift of joy. May the small miracles I experience each day that give me joy be transferred to you with this wish. As I think of you I smile because you are deserving of my smile. You have earned my smile by virtue of the road you chose to travel making a life for a child in need. Plese find joy in my smile.
I wish you the gift of joy
Copyright © 1996,1997,1998,1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 all rights reserved. All materials in this web site and newsletters are the exclusive property of GrandsPlace and nothing contained herein may be used without the express permission of the owners. For permission to reprint please contact kathy@grandsplace.org