Ritalin

So my 11-year-old son started Ritalin yesterday… just one day after he officially received his diagnosis of ADD (without hyperactivity). We have three more weeks of school and I want to see if this makes a difference before  summer comes and the expectations are less demanding. I’m still struggling with trying to figure out how I feel about this whole “meds” thing. A part of me is relieved that we finally maybe can “solve” the issues in school that have concerned me for the past five years. A part of me is still in denial that *my son* needs medication. Another part of me blames myself for not being able to “fix” him like I used to “fix” my patients (without medication). Overall, I think the strongest emotion I’m currently feeling is guilt. If it works, I’ll feel guilty for not agreeing to meds earlier. If it doesn’t work, I’ll feel guilty that we’re back to square one. If he feels any side effects, I’ll feel guilty that I couldn’t help him without meds. If it either works or doesn’t work, I’ll feel guilty that my job has always come first and that had I dedicated more time to him or had more patience with him, we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in now. The rational side of my brain says that the worse thing we could do is to do nothing at all and that ADD is not the end of the world. I know these things, but the guilt’s got me in an irrational funk that’s hard to ignore. So here’s hoping for whatever Ritalin is meant to do for my son…

overwhelmed… too many tabs open…

I do BOTH (too many things in succession too fast AND one thing too exclusively) and feel like this is what contributes to my current state of feeling completely and utterly overwhelmed (or mad). This, in conjunction with my OCD personality and high expectations, makes life feel like it’s spiraling out of control… and a brain that feels like it’s going to explode…

2/27 – 3/6: mochi, sushi, girls’ day, and calligraphy

The past nine days have been busy! I worked seven out of the nine days and only had last Sunday and today off. However, “off” means only off from work, as Sundays are football game days, which means I’m at the field for about five hours, leaving me just a few waking hours to have fun (aka time to myself) between or after having to be a responsible adult/Mom. I try to practice my lettering at the field, but the position of my hand and the size of my book on my lap makes it quite frustrating to get quality practice in.

So here’s some pics from this past week, starting with the best mochi from Two Ladies Kitchen in Hilo. My husband had to go to Hilo for the day last Saturday to deal with some tenant issues so he brought back the yummiest of treats for us… mochi stuffed with grapes, mandarin oranges, strawberries, and pears!

On Monday night, I took the managers out for a dual birthday celebration (two of the managers had February birthdays). We went to Doraku in Kaka’ako, which is one of my favorite restaurants to go to! Here’s a sample of some of the food and drink we enjoyed:

From the upper left corner going clockwise: Rising Sun cocktail (sake, plum wine, juices and rimmed with li hing mui powder) and a shot of Ozeki nigori sake, Spicy Crunchy Trio with only spicy tuna (my new FAVORITE!!!!!), Honey Toast, Ozeki nigori sake, Brownie Tempura, Tofu Poke, Bread Pudding (we got two of these huge bread pudding desserts for free since we were celebrating two birthdays), and East Meets West rolls. Along with all this yumminess, we also ordered Chicken Karaage, Tuna Tataki, Beef Tataki, Edamame, Garlic Steak, and various sushi rolls. Oh, and I really liked what was written on the hashi (chopsticks) wrapper: “Doraku in Japanese means ‘the road to happiness.’ DO means road or path and RAKU means happiness or pleasure. We are committed to live up to our name and hope you find happiness here as well!”

On Wednesday, I received a package of goodies from a calligrapher I met on Periscope. I sent him a predetermined payment and trusted him to put together an arsenal of calligraphy “toys” good for a beginner. Boy did he please! I received a couple of oblique pens, a handful of straight pens (including one that I believe I’m supposed to fill with ink… kind of like a fountain pen?), tons of various style nibs – broad point, French, modern, etc., and a package of walnut crystals to make walnut ink with. What I love the most is the hand written letter he calligraphed for me live on Periscope (although I’m so bummed I missed it) and included with the package. I will do a post on this later when I have a chance.

Thursday was Girls’ Day, or Hinamatsuri, and I had a blast (insert sarcastic emoji) going to SIX stores trying to buy traditional pink and white mochi for the residents at the Assisted Living Facility that I work at. I easily could’ve pre-ordered the mochi from this one place (Nisshodo) in town, but I did not want to drive all.the.way. to town from the Westside just to have to drive back to Central Oahu for work. But after my adventurous morning, I decided that next year, it actually may be easier and less time consuming to drive all.the.way. to town and back.

Photo courtesy of Yelp

We bought our girls some pineapple coconut balls and colored sweet rice treats for Girls’ Day and they received packages from both sets of Grandparents full of treats from Maui (strawberry mochi, pink arare, puffed colored rice, etc.) and the cutest shirts and pins ever from Hilo!

The Life is Wabi-Sabi pins came with an explanation about Wabi-Sabi: “Wabi-Sabi is the Japanese view of life that finds beauty in things that are imperfect, humble and simple, ordinary and unrefined. It is a way of living that peacefully accepts the natural cycle of life. Everything ages, nothing lasts forever, and sometimes things don’t work out as planned. Embrace the Wabi-Sabi concept and discover that life is “Purr-fectly Imperfect.”

That night, I had a chance sacrificed sleep to play with my new calligraphy goodies. I tried out the wooden oblique holder and two nibs: John Heaths Telephone Pen 0278F nib and a French Baignol and Farjon No. 803 nib. Here’s a pic of my drill attempts (note: it was VERY late at night and I was practically falling asleep while writing, but I just HAD to try out my new goodies):

After a long day of work on Friday and a barbecue with some friends for dinner, I retreated up to my room to write a little. That night, I didn’t feel like doing drills, so I just let my hand go and do what it wanted. I had to wake up early the next morning to go to work, so I had to cut it short, but here’s what my pen did when I just wrote without thinking too much:

Notice how I couldn’t even come up with what to write, so I just wrote the obvious… name, “I just wanna write!”, alphabet, date, and the materials I was using at that moment in time. Talk about lack of creativity! Oh, and I thought I’d take a shot of my working area as I thought it looked kind of like a beautiful mess.

I usually don’t work Saturdays, so after work yesterday, I was just too tired to do anything other than absorb inspiration from Periscope and Instagram.

So there you have it. The last nine days of my life in short. After writing this, I’m thinking that maybe it is easier to post more frequently than to try and compose one long post like this??? Well, we’ll see…

 

spilt ink and a second scope

Remember how I was so stoked that I did my first scope yesterday at the park? Well, I must’ve left my ink a tad bit open, because today when I went to retrieve it from my bag before going to work, this is the mess I found! At least it was all contained in this Ziploc bag. Still, bummers…

On a high note, I completed my second scope! This time, I scoped the Hawaii Lion Dance Association dancing and blessing the residents at my workplace. The little lion was performed by a 6 year-old boy who was super adorable (seen here “eating” the money from my kids)!

beautiful flower from my beautiful daughter

A beautiful flower weed hand picked from the school parking lot and given to me as a present from my beautiful Baby A. She always notices the small things and always does such sweet things. Love her! ❤

baby a hit baby b’s tooth out

Dear Tooth Fairy, 2 of my teeth came out already. 1 of my teeth came out today. My sister hit me with her arm at school.
Baby B  5-19-14

well played, my son

Well played, my son. Well played.

Maybe next time Mommy won’t buy you the toy spider you really wanted with the tickets she won for you using tokens she bought with the money she earned working long hours at a stressful job just so you can “accidentally” “forget” it in her car in a place that will cause her anxiety to look at for months (maybe even years) without thinking about this humongous spider that almost leaped out onto her face and ate her alive.

Thank you, my son. Thank you.

mother’s day 2014

Baby A’s gifts

Baby B’s gifts

C’s gifts

 

baby b’s 1st tooth fairy visit

Yesterday at school, Baby B’s (5 years 8 months) first tooth fell out. It’s been shaking for a while now. Son C (8 years 9 months) wanted to shoot it out with his Nerf gun the night before but I nixed that idea.

She was stoked but twin sister (Baby A) was sooo upset and jealous that her tooth’s not even shaking yet. Oh well, even if they’re identical twins, not everything is gonna be the same (or equal) all the time. She wrote her letter and the tooth fairy left her some cool erasers and $1.

This is my tooth. I already putted my tooth in a Ziploc bag. Are you a boy or girl? My tooth came out today.

“a window (peace sign), a rocket (lava lamp), a flower, and a owl erasers”

 

kiderisms

5/1/14: Real words from the mouths of my three kids –

• Baby A, 5 years old (sorting through her school folder): “This paper can go in scrap.” (Interpretation: This paper can go in the scratch paper container (we reuse paper if it has a clean side)).

• Baby B, 5 years old (looking at the calendar): “Today is May Fool’s Day! April 1 was April Fool’s Day so May 1 is May Fool’s Day.”

• C, 8 years old (reviewing his status sheet from school – weekly report re: behavior where checkmarks are preferable to “OK’s” – commenting on 2 OK’s he got): “At least OK is a thousand times better than better.”