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Kidlit

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Posts posted by Kidlit

    How to change your outlook

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    4 hours ago, Selkie said:

    These are the things that have worked for me (YMMV):

    Full disclosure: I have a brain wired for anxiety and OCD and do not take any medications.

    Excellent nutrition has been key for my physical and mental wellbeing. When I started focusing on high nutrient density whole plant foods, it changed my brain. I began feeling waves of happiness that I hadn't experienced before. I recently read about studies that show these foods cause beneficial changes in the gut microbiome that specifically affect happiness, so I guess that explains it. Plus, the physical changes - being much lighter now, having tons of energy, and no more aches and pains - makes me happy all day long.

    Another key for me is doing physical work outside, all year round, no matter what's happening with the weather. I'm up early every morning caring for my horses, and then do a few more rounds of chores throughout the day. Being outside in the early morning is blissful for me, even in the dead of winter. I think humans are meant to spend a lot of time outside moving their bodies.

    And lastly, over the past several months I have focused on finding people (both online and IRL) with a positive, uplifting vibe. There's way too much negativity and complaining in the world and it really drags me down. Surrounding myself with people who have a positive outlook and are working hard to improve themselves and do great things for the world has added lots of enjoyment to my life.  

    I've always been so amazed by your diet, @Selkie!  Like @Jaybee, I'm interested to hear about your basic plan.  Even more, I'm interested to know how you SOURCE all those delicious veggies!

    • Like 2

    How to change your outlook

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Carol in Cal. said:

    Forcing myself to write down 5 things I am thankful for every single day.

    It’s weird that this works.  Just thinking of them doesn’t.   But thinking of them and writing them down does.

    I'm going to try this--not just THINK, DO. 

    • Like 2

    How to change your outlook

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, Teaching3bears said:

    Cognitive Behavioral therapy is intended to do just that.

    ‘Also, spend time in nature, exercise, eat healthy, do what makes you laugh, whether spending time with friends or watching something funny.

    Thanks!  I've had a grand total something like 5 different counselors over the years (maybe more!), and because I'm well-versed in mental health *talk* (& I'm very verbal), I think they have all more or less assumed I have it covered.  It's not the KNOWING, it's the DOING that I need help with. 😩

    • Like 3

    How to change your outlook

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Scarlett said:

    Along the lines of Rosie’s suggestion….maybe don’t sweat the small stuff and most of it is small stuff.  
     

    I remember years ago when I worked for a furniture manufacturer some of my accounts had god complexes.  I mean, seriously they would flip their lids if a truck was delayed.  I remember one of my superiors telling me, ‘It is furniture.  Nobody died, it is just furniture’.

    And then my boss at the auto body repair shop. My floorboards were full of water and I cried for 4 hours straight before I was able to get my boss to look at it the next morning.  When I told him I cried for 4 hours he looked at me shocked and said, ‘Scarlett!  It is a hunk of metal! Not worth tears!’

    Years later  he was rarely there and had turned it over to a manager.  This manager did not handle the stress of running a business very well.  One day when he was particularly stressed I told him, ‘well, you know what owner says, they are just hunks of metal. “. That was on a Friday and he told me Monday morning that really helped him put things in to perspective. 

    So true.  This reminds me of Julie Bogart's "There's no such thing as an educational emergency."

    • Like 2

    How to change your outlook

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Katy said:

    Exercise, preferably a morning walk along water & trees close to sunrise & without sunglasses. 

    Exercise, short high intensity for a burst of good hormones. It could be something as easy as 10 frog jumps. 

    Avoid things designed to cause unnecessary fear & stress like TV news. 

    Eat enough carbs to make enough serotonin. Bonus points for resistant starches or complex fibers that feed good bacteria in your gut. This can be simple like baking & cooling potatoes and eating them reheated later in the week. Or complex like green smoothies with green leafy vegetables, berries, and using pitted dates for sweetening. 

    Do things that shock your body’s hot or cold senses. This could be a sauna or hot bath, a cold shower or a cold plunge. Basically anything that shocks your body into sucking your breath in & holding it. This releases heat & cold shock proteins that lower inflammation and increase happiness. 

    Anything anti-inflammatory will help. Berries, high-antioxidant varieties of apples (Ambrosia, Honeycrisp, Red delicious), curries or any other recipe containing large amounts of turmeric, ginger, and garlic or supplements of those 3. Omega 3 foods or supplements especially ground flax or ground chia seeds. 

    THANK YOU!  I love a list!  I'm going to screenshot this. 
     

    I have been working out (weights, mostly) with a personal trainer two days a week (not enough, but all the budget allows).  I can often push through and make myself also take a 2 mi walk with an audiobook, but so far this week I haven't been able to do that.   I ALWAYS feel better after my weight training, though. 

    • Like 4

    How to change your outlook

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Thanks, @Rosie_0801. I do find this suggestion helpful!  Sometimes I get so in my head that I find it hard to read (& reading is one of the few constants in my life!  I mean, I'm a librarian! 🤣). This is a great reminder that making the effort is worthwhile!  And I DO need to give Pratchett a try!  Which novel do you recommend as a good first experience?

    • Like 3

    How to change your outlook

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Just now, Amoret said:

    If you are interested in trying things like meditation, living in the present moment, and increasing your awareness of the beauty of the world around you, you might check out some of the work by Thich Nhat Hanh. He was a Buddhist monk from Vietnam who was exiled during the war and spent most of his later life in France. His books are very accessible and even reading them is meditative.

    Thank you.  I actually read a quote by him yesterday.  I will look into this. 

    Gravestones, Funerals, Death, etc....

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    On 12/31/2021 at 1:43 PM, Faith-manor said:

    Also, really just what others said, this is about the living. When fil died, it was after a long, long battle with cancer that left mil utterly, physically spent. Of course her church expected an immediate funeral, but she was just not mentally or physically capable, and none of her children, in laws, or grandkids could come because we all lived out of state and had spent vacation time to visit him while he was alive. So she told the pastor NO and why. He was wonderful, and so respectful. He told everyone on a mass email and call list that they were not to visit her for two weeks, and it would be he and his wife only doing well checks on her so she could rest. The first day after fil died, she slept for 14 hrs, got up and had a sandwich and large glass of water, and went back to sleep for another 8 hrs. She spent two weeks caring for herself. Then the pastor simply had Sunday service in which the obituary and eulogy were read, and she lit a candle for him. The church provided a flower arrangement. No luncheon, but she was showered with groceries, casseroles, and restaurant gift cards. When she told them she was coming to visit us, families donated enough money to buy her plane ticket and then some. It was PERFECT! I cannot emphasize enough that people should do what is best for them and their immediate family. Be creative. Traditions do you no good if they are not helpful personally.

    This is beautiful.   Seriously.   What a gift.  

    • Like 1

    How to change your outlook

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Life has been very heavy for me lately. I recognize I have a very depressed/negative outlook.  Besides medication (which I have no problem with, as needed), what have you done to see the world and your life more positively?  I'd like to hit this from all sides. 

    • Like 3

    Who watched The Great Homeschool Awakening?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I'd have said we largely fit the stereotype, but in retrospect I should've pulled the plug and sent our eldest to school several years before she went.  From the outside, no one would probably have seen the angst, but it was there.  I think our relationship suffered because we left it at status quo for too long.   All that to say--Not all that glitters is golden. 

    • Like 7
    • Thanks 1

    I hung up on a parent yesterday

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    This is probably a case of **fools rush in**, BUT--having recently taught at a school where I'd say AT LEAST half of the parent contacts I attempted resulted in radio silence (& there were more than a few attempts made!), a well check would not be completely out of line if even the counselor got no response.   We had plenty of children whose living situations changed frequently, so even an "up to date" address wasn't necessarily up to date, much less a phone number. Well checks were in order for the child's well-being occasionally because all other attempts at contact resulted in nothing. 

    • Like 4

    April 2023: What are you reading?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    1 hour ago, marbel said:

    I couldn't finish The Midnight Library. I don't remember exactly what made me stop though. It does seem the more hyped a book is, the better the chance I'm going to dislike it; I don't know why that is, I do not have such discerning taste. Maybe the hype makes me expect more than is being offered? ETA: I haven't read Lessons in Chemistry yet. 

    But I also abandon books with, well, abandon. I just don't have time to read books I'm not enjoying. 

    I DNF'd both Midnight Library and Lessons in Chemistry.  I also don't have a hard time abandoning books!

    • Like 3

    April 2023: What are you reading?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    23 hours ago, historically accurate said:

     

    Currently listening to Hang the Moon by Jeanette Walls, I really like the story, do not like the author reading the book. She can't do a man's voice to save her life. Reading Anne of Avonlea, but I have to set Anne aside for a week or so and read West with Giraffes for book club.

     

     

    I DNF'd the Walls book, mostly because it was an unprocessed large print copy from the library where I work and I needed to get it back so someone could actually read it instead of using it as part of the book-stack/decor on the bedside table. 🤣. I think it was a little disappointing to me because Walls' memoirs are SO good and compelling, but her fiction seems under-developed style-wise.  I did enjoy the plot but just didn't feel compelled to pick it up. 
     

    Anne of Avonlea.  Swoon. 

    • Like 4

    I hung up on a parent yesterday

    in The Chat Board

    Posted · Edited by Kidlit

    One of my last memorable experiences as a teacher (I quit in December to be a full time children's librarian, which is what my masters is in) was being yelled at over the phone by an irate parent who was mad at me because her son had cheated and gotten a zero on an assignment.  She wanted to blame me for it, thought it 1.) wasn't the first time he had cheated that school year (which I had "given him grace" for) and 2.) wasn't the second time he had ever cheated (he did it the year before, too). I had entered a note in the online gradebook detailing why he had gotten the grade, and she was MAD (& hadn't actually read the note when I entered it 🤷🏻‍♀️).  Thankfully, this was a private school and my admin intervened when the irate parent came to the school so that I didn't talk to her face to face.  I was shaking when I got off the phone with her.  
     

    ETA:  I finally more or less hung up on the parent after I told her that there was nothing more the phone call could accomplish.  I was NOT going to give in and take the crap because her son was a liar and she didn't check her email!

    • Sad 8

    Teenager hurting your feelings

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I will say that the challenges abound even as they get older (I have a college freshman and a high school senior right now, in addition to younger children). I am a very relationship-oriented person, and I still have to remind myself (sometimes daily!) that it's not about me.   Julie Bogart of Bravewriter has helped me immensely with this part of parenting. 

    Teenager hurting your feelings

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    11 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

    Was the prom picture issue a concern about who the date was--that you had not met him, or who she was riding in a car with?  Or, was it simply that it was important to you for you to have a picture of her?  If it is the latter, I would suggest trying to reframe these situations.  It might be sad and unfortunate if you do not get a picture of her in her prom dress on prom day, but it isn't anything about safety or her doing something that is causing a problem or inconvenience for you.  It is she is not providing you with an experience you would like to have.  Being able to think of how the world is not centered around her and that fostering strong, positive relationships involved doing things for other people that may not be her first choice (such as letting you take a picture), comes with maturity.   Framing the situation as "I am working toward a long-term adult relationship which involves mutual respect" may help in dealing with the sadness of missing an event now in favor of a long-term relationship based on mutual respect.  

     

    This is wisdom.  

    • Like 2

    Would you eat this - canned pineapple

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    43 minutes ago, Karen A said:

    Ok--I will be the dissenter. I think the can is normal for pineapple.  I've googled around, and Quora and Reddit agree with me 🙂

     

    (I know this doesn't help for now, but in the future you don't need to throw away)

    This was actually my thought when I saw it earlier--I'm pretty sure I've eaten canned pineapple like this before.  Then I began to worry about my own decision making process. 

    • Haha 1
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