God bless the child

God,
Thank you for my children.
That they are strong and healthy
That they have a good sense of humor
That they are ( mostly) polite and well mannered.
Thank you that they love their siblings, their parents and their aunts and uncles enough to spend Thanksgiving day together.
Thank you that they understand how important Grandma is to all of us, and that she comes first.
Thank you that the boys are not afraid to turn big pieces of wood into small ones by brute strength, so that two houses can have affordable heat. Thank you that Hannah ate a piece of ham and found it did not cause her to Oink.
Thank you that its a better season with all of us together and cheering one another up and cheering one another on.
Go team! 

Snow

its just a dusting,
but it will have all the kids excited
a taste of winter
all the rooflines are highlighted

its not enough to hold me from working
or driving to the other side of town
nor should I let it
get me down

Go with the flow,my sensible self says
it is nature and the seasons you love
not a problem, anymore
just a snowdrift at your door.

sesame street

Today's post is brought to you by the letter M
for Mayonaise
on my turkey sandwich
and the letter C for carve
I do love to carve the big bird
just like my dad did, when he was with us.

so much I have picked up from him
and from his love of learning by reading and
ultimately
by DOING!

yay Dad, you showed us how!
Your skillful hands have been recreated at the ends of my arms
Thankful for a family that values its heritage and invests in its future.

Thanks to the aunts and uncles that make my kids life more exciting and more fun.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am happy to have my children, my mom, my brothers and sisters.
To have a day to celebrate the goodness of life and the wonder of love! (wink)
( and to eat too much and complain about it later)
Now I have potatoes to mash!

Please read all the way down

From a reader, who blessed me with this testimoy:

David--

I am writing about my very positive experience as of late with finally accepting what multiple psychiatrists and counselors have told me. I feel compelled to encourage others, but am fearful to write it on my blog, since family and friends who I am not ready to tell about this read it.

Do you know of any good sites I could share this on? Maybe even yours? I was wondering, as I don't know much about ADHD related sites on the web yet.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Here's what I have started:
AS A CHILD

When I was a kid I was loved by my teachers. I was a 'good kid.' I sat in class and never acted up, never spoke up and never caused any problems. So, of course, teachers loved me.

What was I doing? Was I learning? Was I taking it all in? Was I too focused to act out?

Nope. I was daydreaming. My thoughts were a million miles away. I wasn't engaged in any way whatsoever. I wasn't learning and I wasn't bothering anyone. I was just there, so my teachers loved me.

There is a story my step mother likes to tell. She was about 10 feet behind me as I sat on the edge of the patio staring at the sky. "Matt," she said, trying to get my attention, "It's time for dinner."

There was no response.

"Matt?"

Nothing.

"Matt, can you hear me? Matt? Matt!"

I didn't hear her, and yet my hearing was fine. My mind was somewhere else, hyper-focused on some sort of daydream. Because of this I was very often accused of being shy (and I was) or 'quirky' (and I was and still am).

ADHD was never thought of. We don't think of it this way. ADHD is what the bad kids have… It's something that those really hyper kids are diagnosed with. It's not for the shy and inattentive kid at the back of the room who isn't causing any problems.

That's the myth.

People thought of me as artistic (and I was this as well). It was easy to think this. One simply needed to look at my notes to see where my mind was: Doodling. I doodled on everything, all day long. My notes were filled with drawings interspersed with the occasional note text. It's not just that my hands were doodling: My mind was too. My mind was somewhere else. It's always felt this way. I've always felt a little 'disconnected,' as if viewing life through a TV screen rather than being there.

Is that ADHD or laziness? That's the million dollar question, isn't it?

How did I get through school then? How did I pass and get decent grades and go to college and graduate with a B.S. in Computer Science?

How did I graduate? How did I get good enough grades? I know how, and I've always known. You see, I've never felt like I've lived up to my potential. I've always known in the back of my mind that I was somehow capable of more. And yet I've always been unable to do it.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
I got through school and 6 years in the work force for two reasons:


1. I'm smart (this statement lacks humility, I know, but it's true. I have a high IQ, and this helped me through what would otherwise be crippling in many ways.)
2. I'm not lazy (this isn't to say I'm very motivated, but I'm certainly not lazy).

QUIRKY

I'm not dumb and I'm not lazy, but I am 'quirky.' I'm not sure exactly how to put this, but it's particularly observable in me that my mind is often engaged in something outside of where everyone else's mind is.

This has always been a little 'cute,' I suppose. Quirkiness, I think, is a good attribute, and, as the cliché goes, normal is boring. I agree.

Here's when quirkiness isn't cute:
* When you seem unable to maintain your home.
* When you get angry and agitated with friends and family because they are interrupting your daydream.
* When you blow up at people because you have a desperately low frustration tolerance.
* When you scream and yell and kick things because you are frustrated by assembling something, like a Christmas tree, and you remain unwilling to read the manual.
* When your wife asks you to do something, and although you look at her and nod, you didn't hear a word she said. You love her dearly, but your mind has some strange difficulty.
* When your kids are begging for your attention but you can only seem to give it in short bursts. You want to give your attention, you really do, but some kind of driving force seems to pit your attention against itself.
* When you don't work. You go to work and stare at the monitor for many minutes, entirely zoned out.
* When you surf the web all day at work, rushing to get tasks done, and doing them sloppily, so that you can return to your mindlessness.
* When you change hobbies every month or so, spending a significant amount of time hyper-focused on your new love, and ignoring those who need you.
* When one day you decide you're going to move, so you give your two-weeks notice, sell your home, quit your job and move, only to realize that you made a life-changing decision on a whim. Talk about hurting your family! (Thank God for His grace on this one, which put our family back where it was and saved us from what would have been a very bad situation).

missing: two gopher traps

this is my ADD moment from two weeks ago that tells more about God
and His divine plan than "telling on" me.

I was only there to see the ambulance drive by because of luck, or was it?
(Impulse control for ADD 'enjoyers' is a really trick thing, or we have none.)

I was at the corner, sitting in my car, as I often do, waiting. I am never too sure what I am waiting for, sometimes I am waiting for the clock to run out, so I can go home. I like my home. I like my own space. I like it quiet. The humming of my computer right now is just about right. The kettle is on downstairs - I must go make coffee and finish this in a few minutes. It is 5:20 am I have been awake for hours.
*slurp* mmmmm

I was at the corner, because I was frustrated at not finding the two gopher traps that I KNEW were in the back of my car/truck ( brand name withheld). I had looked and found a tunnel where I could set one of the traps. I was not supposed to be setting traps, I was supposed to be doing a carpentry job, but the gopher holes bothered me, a lot, and had for some time, so I was going to snag them, and pull them out and show them who was smarter.
I could not find the traps I knew were there. I decided to have a beer for lunch, and maybe a burrito, certainly a sweet snack to wash it all down with. The beer was to compensate for my lack of gopher catching equipment and to make the carpentry go better. One beer would be fine. I made it to the store just around 2 pm on a Monday, with very little done yet that I could call "work".
I heard the sirens, and when I heard them, I began to pray for the person in need of assistance. This is my usual response, and easy to do. When the paramedic truck/ambulance went by, I knew I had to follow it to be sure it was not going to my mom's house. It went four blocks and turned left.
I was relieved. I went four blocks and turned left.
The ambulance was in front of Gary's house!

This is how it goes some days, and you know what? I am glad that I do not have a 'normal life'.
I probably never will, but God uses me still to minister to the needs of some people, despite the fact that I am disorganized and inconsistent. I think He may be able to get through to me, often BECAUSE I am so disconnected from the noise of the modern world. I would not wish this condition on you, or anyone, but it would be gift, if I could let you walk a day in my shoes.

Walk a day in my shoes, and you may end up spending parts of the next three days hovering near your friend and his lovely wife, in a hospital room, acting like no one else in the whole building, because you are not like anyone else in the whole building, and you KNOW IT!

-------- update ------ this story will be continued - and yes Gary is doing well, Thank all of you for your prayers! I am well, unless you ask someone REALLY close to me.

which is RIGHT for me?

This blog post is Brought to you by Dinkel Acker, Premium German Beer for those of you not on anti-depressants. When you are done with a hard day of splitting wood, nothing washes down the sawdust like a Dinkle Acker!

For those who self medicate, Dr, Stihl recommends NOT using Dinkle Acker and your chainsaw at the same time!
-----------------------------

What is on my woodstove:
a new feature of a book I am reading.

Introducing
Back by popular demand after Almost winning the state of florida in 2000
your candidate to save the country from all its ills including George Bush..... PAtrick J. Buchanan

and his superb offering...
Where the Right Went Wrong!

Buy it
Read it
Love it

Good history lessons and what we should learn from the failed foreign policies of previous empires, and previous administrations..
He has good points ( and no, not all on the top of his head)
I read it in the tub last night, and it was quite relaxing!
GO PAT GO 2008