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05-11-2001 @ 1:14a.m.
Meltdown

Welcome Pat, Diane, Julia and sian! Delighted to have you aboard. There are exits in the rear and one over each wing. In the unlikely event of a water landing, your seat bottom can be used to bludgeon your annoying seat mate making more room for you in the life raft. Thanks for traveling the friendly skies.

How's this for irony--we went to see Joey's therapist today. This has been quite an excellent week and anxiety-wise, Joey has made a lot of progress. At our last session, we talked a lot about Joey's periodic meltdowns and what to do when they happen and how to try to recognize them coming and how to avert them, if possible. And most importantly, what not to do during an attack. Good info. So since Joey is doing so well we decided to go 2 weeks until our next appointment. And then tonight at bedtime, Joey starts out insisting that she needs to have dessert (we've tried to establish a rule that if she doesn't ask for dessert before bedtime she doesn't get it but it doesn't seem to be working) only she doesn't want anything we have. I *hate* dessert arguments. I'm getting ready to institute a moratorium on dessert in this house. Lord knows none of us needs it. (Well, it won't hurt Joey, but she won't die without it either.) I think the only way to get around the dessert issue is to serve it immediately after dinner and then close the kitchen after that. My mom used to do that when I was a kid. It was easier in those days when the kitchen was a completely separate room in the house. We finish dinner, do the dishes and turn off the light. That was that.

So anyway, she finally decided (after 5 minutes of discussion) that she wanted KoolAid for dessert. Then it was time to get ready for bed. Toothbrushing was fine but she wouldn't get in her jammies so we went right to family prayer but she freaked out because didn't have her jammies on. I knew we were headed for a meltdown from the time she demanded dessert but tried to avert it. Didn't happen. Somehow she gets her jammies on, gets into bed and Ed starts reading her a book but she starts demanding that he start over so she can hear the beginning again and he just stopped. Then the real meltdown starts. We wore her down, though and by 10:30 she was asleep. Mind you, this started at 9pm. I swear, that child is never seeing 9pm again until she's over 16. Ed and I were amazingly calm, though. It was like a Xanax factory here. It was infuriating to her, I'm sure, our not reacting to her behavior.

I'm now eating a bowl of frozen raspberries covered with milk and sugar. It's a very virtuous snack--sorta like ice cream but better. I only consumed about 1200 cals today prior to this so I was starting to get sorta weak and shaky. I really wanted something sweet but we don't have much in the sweet department. I'm trying to keep that stuff out of the house entirely so I'm not tempted to gorge on it at midnight. But the raspberry/milk/sugar concoction is one I've been eating for at least 20 years. And after writing my crib notes for the Nutrition test tomorrow (it's open notes), it just seemed like a good, tasty and nutritious snack. These are raspberries I froze myself last summer. I still have several gallons of frozen strawberries from last summer. I need to get eating them. They are so good. Can you make jam from frozen strawberries? I'd like to try.

Warning: the rest of this entry deals with my planting adventures today so if you're not the least bit interested in gardening, this would be a good time to go check out KitchenLogic or maybe Smartypants.

I went to my favorite garden center and got the most wonderful starts for my garden today. I have four tomato plants (lemon boy, celebrity, better boy and one I can't remember) plus a sweet 100 cherry tomato planted in a planter with a yellow pear. I also bought 6 giant basil starts and 2 lemon starts (I planted a package of basil seeds, too. I'm going for a full-on basil forest!) They look lovely and I'm anxious to start nipping it back for pesto. Yum! I planted 4 rows of sugar snap peas and 15 Walla Walla Onion starts. I planted a yellow bell pepper plant, too. I've never tried to grow a yellow one. Last year my green pepper did well. I planted 3 different types of marjoram along the back fence. They look very nice there.

I like to plant flowers in my vegetable garden, so in the big box where I have my tomatoes planted, I have them flanked by yellow and single orange/yellow marigolds, tiny dianthus and some new plant I've never seen that look like very small snapdragons. It looks very lovely and festive back there. They look good with the other flowers I planted yesterday.

Around and between everything, I sprinkled a thick layer of cocoa mulch. I *love* cocoa mulch. It looks really pretty--nice chocolatey brown color--and smells divine. My whole backyard smells like a warm chocolate bar. Is that heaven or what?? Oh--I almost forgot--I bought a chocolate mint plant, too. I need to pot it, though. I didn't get to that one. I need to do a bit more work back there--trim the rosemary, cut down some volunteer aspens (hate to do it but I have to) and plant that mint.

My wrists are sore. I haven't worked my right wrist so hard in a long time. I have tendonitis in both wrists caused by years of spending too many hours on a computer and using a mouse. It was really bad about 8 years ago and I got some treatment for it and it still flares up from time to time. Especially when the barometric pressure drops. I have my own internal barometer, it seems. I can predict rain much more accurately than the weather guys. Me and my trick wrists. Anyway, digging out the hard clay for the marjoram and lifting very heavy top soil bags was not good. I've got 4 ibuprofen on board and I'll need more tomorrow, I'm sure.

Joey just woke up and started asking for a book to be read to her again. I guess this argument isn't over yet. She's tired enough that I think it will go much faster this time.

I need to catch a few Zzzz now. Wish me luck on my Nutrition test. The teacher says no one has ever gotten an A on her midterm. I plan to be the first. I'll let you know how it goes.

Later...

--L

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