Paper

Monday of this week was the day that every kid in the nation started back to school.  I guess not exactly every kid, but from the pictures on my Facebook it appeared to be every last kid.  Of course my kids were in that group and started school on Monday as well.  (I was lazy and did not post their picture on Facebook so I will include a picture of what they looked like on Monday right here.)

With school comes paperwork.  Mounds and mounds of paperwork.  An ADD mom, with 2 ADD kids in school and a mountain of paperwork equals a mess, frustration, and an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy.

Luckily for me the usual paperwork sent home on the first day which includes health information and the need for you to write your name address and phone number 16 times is done online at our school district.  I still have to type my name at least 16 times per child, but it's so much better than the actual papers coming home.


My daughter is starting 4th grade and has a wonderful teacher who seems to believe in only sending home one piece of paper at a time for me to sign.  We can do that.  She is organized enough to bring home one piece of paper that the teacher asked her to put in her binder, I can sign it and it makes it back to school.  (He did send us home with a packet of papers to sign at meet the teacher night which I promptly lost and finally found in time for her to bring them in the second day of school.)

My son is starting high school.  They are not so understanding.  He has 8 different teachers who all want something signed.  No one is asking him to put the piece of paper neatly in a binder.  So this is how last night went.

Finally he dumped out his backpack (which still had stuff from a class he took over the summer in it) and found the piece of paper I had to sign.  But it was actually around 10 pieces of paper and he had them all nicely shoved into the front pocket of his backpack.  And in the process found a paper that outlined a project due tomorrow.

And then the papers start coming home from school.  All the drawings, test grades, handwriting samples and on and on.  And my children want everything kept.  I have to sneak while they are asleep to throw any schoolwork away, so it sits and get marinated on my counter for weeks.

Paper stresses me out.  Completely.  I constantly have a bunch of receipts in my purse.  Can't they just start emailing me that info.  Do I really need that piece of paper that says I bought something.  Can't someone make an app for all my receipts so I never have to actually touch the paper one?

Mail is another problem.  I get about 3 pieces of mail per week that I actually care about.  The rest goes straight to the trash.  But first it too must sit on my counter and marinate for a few days.  Then it is worthy of the trash can.

I'm drowning in paper and information overload.   And I know my kids are too.  I think I'll go find some chocolate.  I'm sure it will make everything all better.

Now what...

So the Olympics are all finished and I am all graduated.

Now I have lots of time to catch up on things like posting to my blog.  So on my agenda for yesterday was write a new post, make my Distractibility Facebook page look presentable so I can ask people to like it.  Work on my bio for my new job.  Get my ideas together for a website for my new job.  Work out.  Do some laundry.  Clean up the house.  And spend some time with the kids.

What I actually did yesterday was spend the entire day figuring out how to backup my massive amount of photos to my new laptop I got for work.

I seriously sat down to try and move the photos for a minute, and then several hours later I realized I was downloading some software that I had no idea what it did or why I needed to download it.  I just had been following links and trying to make things work.

At that point I did pop out of my trance and make my daughter some lunch.  But the break was short lived.  I was determined to figure this out.

Did those photos need to be backed up yesterday?  No they did not, but once I started I couldn't seem to let it go.  There had to be a way to copy 100 gigs of photos with all the technology available in this house.  And after I finally got them all moved over I decided I needed to organize them so the files looked pretty on my new laptop.  This project started at 9:30 pm.  Luckily I got tired and gave that project up for the night.  But I'm itching to work on it more today.

But first I'm posting this blog update.  And if you would be so kind, please like my Facebook page.  Even though it's not anything special yet.  I promise to work on it soon...really I will :-)

Focused Friday: Graduation

Today is a huge day for me.  It's my graduation day!!!   I am graduating from college today with my masters degree. 

And it isn't just any masters degree.  It's the one I have always wanted to get, but I thought I wasn't capable.  I am now officially a counselor.  Or at least I will be in a few hours.  Technically I won't have my license for a few weeks even, but you know what I mean :-)


And I am the first one in my family to get a master's degree.  (If you don't count my incredibly smart sister-in-law who has her MD and PHD.)  But I'm just counting my family of origin.

This is the most focused I have ever been.  I stayed focused for 2 1/2 years in order to get to this goal.  How does someone with ADHD do that?  I think for me it goes back to when I was a little kid.  My mom made us kids eat our vegetables every night for dinner.  And there was no getting out of it.  I don't remember how she made us do this (I certainly have not been able to pass this onto my own kids), but the vegetables were to be eaten.  I did not care for vegetables.  So I came up with a strategy.  It was really complicated, here goes....I ate them first.

How is that a strategy and why does it pertain to graduation?  I'm glad you asked.  It's a strategy because I figured if I had to eat them anyhow I would rather get it over with and end my meal with something I liked such as mashed potatoes, rather than dreading the veggies the whole meal and having to end my meal with them.


How this pertains to graduation is how I got through school.  I knew I had to do the homework and the studying, I wasn't getting out of it if I wanted a good grade in the class.  So I always jumped in and worked as hard as I could during the week so I could have fun and play on the weekend.  As soon as something was assigned I tackled it.  I figured I was going to have to do it anyway, so I could put it off and stress it for a few weeks, or I could get it done.

The other factor that helped me get through school is I was getting a degree in something I really liked.  I enjoyed most (not all, a few were terribly boring) of my classes.  And I knew if I could get school out of the way as quickly as possible I would be able to do what I enjoyed which is being a counselor.


So now my vegetables are eaten and it's time for me to get to the mashed potatoes.  But first I must wear the incredibly flattering cap and gown and wait for my name to be called to be handed a piece of paper that isn't really my diploma. 

And being a master's graduate I also get to wear this cool cape. 

Perhaps I get super powers with that fake diploma piece of paper thingy.  Hmmm...what super power would I like to have?  I wonder if I get to choose.

Jumpers and Runners and Swimmers Oh My!

Maybe you have noticed, (or maybe you have not because you have been distracted like I have been), but I have not posted in over a week.  I have been distracted by this little thing on TV called the Olympics. 

We never watch TV, but my wonderful husband figured out how to adjust the antenna just right so I could watch the summer Olympics.  Santa Claus brought us this awesome TV last Christmas, but we have never watched TV on it, only movies so we had to figure all that out.  For a little bit I thought my husband was going to have to stand holding the antenna for me for the the next two weeks. 

But lucky for him he figured out a way for me to be able to see the Olympics and and he could sit beside me.

I was wondering why I loved the Olympics so much.  I hate watching sports.  Any sport.  But I love seeing people win and cheering for the Americans or anyone else I feel like cheering for at the moment.  And the Olympics provides me with that in nice short segments so I don't get too bored.  In fact I get frustrated when they show the entire water polo match.  Just give me the highlights please.

I think my favorite is track and field.  I love it because there are so many short contests.  I can watch a race that takes 10 seconds.  I love that.  And then it switches to hurdles or jumping or throwing.  They are always doing something different. 

I really want to see more events though.  Because I do not pay for my TV programming, all I get is the actual NBC station.  So I get to see swimming, track and field, gymnastics, water polo, and volleyball.  Every once in a while if I'm lucky I get to see a snippet of kayaking or something else.  But I'll take it and be happy with it.  Although if the truth be told I am sick of swimming :-)  Unless it were to be synchronized swimming, I would like to see that.

The other day they were showing a segment on some gymnast (sorry I don't remember who) and stating he had crawled up to the ceiling in a department store when he was little (Too bad youtube wasn't around then...I would love to see that video)  so his mom put him in gymnastics.  I started to wonder, how many athletes in the Olympics have ADHD?  I know Michael Phelps does.  And I was guessing that gymnast might as well.  I got to thinking, kids with ADHD tend to have a lot of energy so their parents might be more likely to put them into sports at a young age.  Exercise is great for people with ADHD so that might contribute as well.  And if a person with ADHD loves something they are able to hyper-focus on it.  I'm thinking the Olympics might be the perfect storm for ADHDness. 

I really want to attend the Olympics in Rio.  How about I be a counselor to the athletes.  If they are ADHD they might really need my specialized counseling.  Right?



We were trying to come up with new Olympic sports the other day.  Like why don't we see who can hold their breath under the water the longest? 

Or speed tree climbing. 

How about an event I could participate in like crochet racing. 

I want to hear your ideas for Olympic games they should include next time around.  But I just heard pole vaulting might be coming up next so I gotta run!!