Still working on the insurance paperwork, but I'm about 75% done with it at this point. Yay! I will hopefully be completely finished by Monday, so we can turn it in.
Having hubby home today helped keep the interruptions from our middle daughter to a minimum. We explained that it's very important that I get this done, so she needed to ask her daddy, if she had any questions. She responded with, "Test? Quiet?" I thought that summed it up quite well! She knows that in school she has to be really quiet when someone's taking a test, so we went with that.
And it all went fine for the most part. However, occasionally when I was deep in thought and concentration, I'd about jump out of my skin when she'd yell, "TEST! QUIET!" It's her way of reminding herself that she needs to be quiet, but she struggles with realizing that a person must actually be quiet even when saying we should be quiet. She makes us giggle. :)
I'm thinking about taking a break for the night, watching a movie with my husband and going to bed. I'll do much better working on this after some sleep than trying to stumble my way through things tonight. Besides, rest will hopefully help me get over this latest cold/fever/sore throat a little quicker. Very thankful for prescription cold sore meds, too. I felt the tingle tonight, so I immediately got it started. Hopefully, it won't turn into much of anything.
I hear the blessed sound of the tea kettle whistle.
Hope I can find the honey...
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Groovin.
The other day on the Hoarders board, Dr. Deibler suggested I read a book called Buried In Treasures Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving and Hoarding by David F. Tolin, Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee. It came in today's mail. I've been working on the insurance claim (and actually making progress), so I haven't really check the book out too much. It's sort of a workbook with self-assessment tests in it to help people in my situation try to find their way out of the abyss.
I am very much looking forward to reading it in its entirety and using the suggestions in it to help make decisions on what to keep and what to toss. I hurriedly did the first self-assessment test, and it showed I have mild hoarding tendencies with a but more of a problem with knowing how to let go of things. However, I think I may have rushed through things a bit or wasn't totally honest with myself, because when I look around I think it's more of a problem than the initial test result shows. I'll be asking both my husband and our oldest daughter to take the same assessment test and see what numbers they come up with as well. I think that will give me a better idea. I think it can just be really easy not to see things in ourselves sometimes.
I'm really looking forward to finishing up the insurance claims. I'm in a groove now and have finally figured out how I'm doing things. Part of the difficulty I've had is that there are several hundred pictures of damages that I've got to sort through. Then I have to describe each item that was damaged and remember what I've gotten done and not forget to do it all. I've gotten to the point of being on a roll. As I'm finished with putting the item on the claim form, have labeled each picture accordingly and have accounted for everything, I move the pictures associated with the item in a documents folder on the computer.
I've gotten some of the more frustrating items out of the way, so I'm hoping the rest goes a little more quickly. I am looking forward to getting this monkey off my back, so I can work on dehoarding again. It's weighed so heavily on my mind the last several weeks I've felt almost paralyzed. I'll be glad when I'm done with it.
I'm really looking forward to getting to that book and back to dehoarding!
I am very much looking forward to reading it in its entirety and using the suggestions in it to help make decisions on what to keep and what to toss. I hurriedly did the first self-assessment test, and it showed I have mild hoarding tendencies with a but more of a problem with knowing how to let go of things. However, I think I may have rushed through things a bit or wasn't totally honest with myself, because when I look around I think it's more of a problem than the initial test result shows. I'll be asking both my husband and our oldest daughter to take the same assessment test and see what numbers they come up with as well. I think that will give me a better idea. I think it can just be really easy not to see things in ourselves sometimes.
I'm really looking forward to finishing up the insurance claims. I'm in a groove now and have finally figured out how I'm doing things. Part of the difficulty I've had is that there are several hundred pictures of damages that I've got to sort through. Then I have to describe each item that was damaged and remember what I've gotten done and not forget to do it all. I've gotten to the point of being on a roll. As I'm finished with putting the item on the claim form, have labeled each picture accordingly and have accounted for everything, I move the pictures associated with the item in a documents folder on the computer.
I've gotten some of the more frustrating items out of the way, so I'm hoping the rest goes a little more quickly. I am looking forward to getting this monkey off my back, so I can work on dehoarding again. It's weighed so heavily on my mind the last several weeks I've felt almost paralyzed. I'll be glad when I'm done with it.
I'm really looking forward to getting to that book and back to dehoarding!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Mom. Mom. Mom? Mom! MOM? MOM!!
I've been trying to work on the insurance claim paperwork today. It's daunting, let me tell you! Not only do I have to try to remember where we bought each item, but how much we paid for it, and if we paid by cash, credit card, or check. And when I'm fairly certain of those things, I have to try to find how much it would cost to replace each item. I have to list each item separately and not lump them together. So I can't have one category that says 'toys'. I have to list individual toys.
Which I suppose would be okay, if I could concentrate. I woke up this morning with a knot in the back of my throat. If the girls weren't sick and had gone to school, I'd have probably gone back to bed and slept the day away. I am beat. I did try to doze in the recliner for a few minutes, but my 19 year old snooze alarm was working overtime. I'd get to doze for maybe 3.5 minutes before hearing, "Mom?" "Mom." "Mom?" "Mom!"
Unfortunately, once I was totally awake after my failed attempt at a nap, I heard the same "Mom." ("Huh?") "Mom!" ("What?") "Mom?" ("Yes?") "Mom." ("Hmmm?") "MOM!" ("What? What do you want?") every 2.3 minutes while trying to work on the insurance paperwork.
It's not her fault. It's like her brain has a skip in it like an old LP. Like it hiccups when trying to remember what she wants to say, and nothing that I say can help her get out of the hiccup. I think it's a combination of a few different speech issues. She has a combination of echolalia, (She often repeats the last word or two that someone says, and she adds a question mark. This happens quite often, if she hears her dad say a cuss word. It both frustrates and tickles him that of course those are the particular words she picks up), apraxia (I think of this as dyslexia of the speech. She turns words inside out. I did this when I was little with one word in particular. I couldn't say "shampoo" to save my life. I said, "Hampshoo" instead), and I think that the "Mom. Mom. MOM? MOM!" is considered palilalia, but I'm not 100% sure. I do know that it's involuntary when it goes on and on, and she's not just asking me a question. It gets worse when she's PMSing, sick or tired.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about her. Knowing what's going on doesn't change how we feel about her. It just helps us understand a little bit better and hopefully be more patient. And while I'm a little frustrated at not being able to get much of anything done today, it isn't her fault. It's my fault for having procrastinated for so long. I will get it done and submitted before the deadline. We need the money. And I would SO miss the Mom! Mom? Mom. MOM!'s if they weren't here!
I'm merely explaining how today went. :)
Which I suppose would be okay, if I could concentrate. I woke up this morning with a knot in the back of my throat. If the girls weren't sick and had gone to school, I'd have probably gone back to bed and slept the day away. I am beat. I did try to doze in the recliner for a few minutes, but my 19 year old snooze alarm was working overtime. I'd get to doze for maybe 3.5 minutes before hearing, "Mom?" "Mom." "Mom?" "Mom!"
Unfortunately, once I was totally awake after my failed attempt at a nap, I heard the same "Mom." ("Huh?") "Mom!" ("What?") "Mom?" ("Yes?") "Mom." ("Hmmm?") "MOM!" ("What? What do you want?") every 2.3 minutes while trying to work on the insurance paperwork.
It's not her fault. It's like her brain has a skip in it like an old LP. Like it hiccups when trying to remember what she wants to say, and nothing that I say can help her get out of the hiccup. I think it's a combination of a few different speech issues. She has a combination of echolalia, (She often repeats the last word or two that someone says, and she adds a question mark. This happens quite often, if she hears her dad say a cuss word. It both frustrates and tickles him that of course those are the particular words she picks up), apraxia (I think of this as dyslexia of the speech. She turns words inside out. I did this when I was little with one word in particular. I couldn't say "shampoo" to save my life. I said, "Hampshoo" instead), and I think that the "Mom. Mom. MOM? MOM!" is considered palilalia, but I'm not 100% sure. I do know that it's involuntary when it goes on and on, and she's not just asking me a question. It gets worse when she's PMSing, sick or tired.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about her. Knowing what's going on doesn't change how we feel about her. It just helps us understand a little bit better and hopefully be more patient. And while I'm a little frustrated at not being able to get much of anything done today, it isn't her fault. It's my fault for having procrastinated for so long. I will get it done and submitted before the deadline. We need the money. And I would SO miss the Mom! Mom? Mom. MOM!'s if they weren't here!
I'm merely explaining how today went. :)
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