My tagline says an ADD mother of 4. What can I say? Creative people tend to have ADD. So I have that going for me. But it can also wreak havoc on daily life. Keys. I make fun of people who lose their keys all the time, but lately I've nearly had breakdowns over the whereabouts of my keys. Here's the thing... I put my keys on a hook by the door. At least I think I do. Funny thing is... they're rarely there. But today they WERE there. I told the kids to get in the car for school and I grabbed them with the intention of heading out the door. But then Asher needed socks and I had to run upstairs to get my earrings, and then I forgot my coffee. So somewhere in that 5 minutes, I lost my keys. Now, it wouldn't be that big of a deal if it didn't take us 40 minutes to get to school, and if my kids didn't already have 3 tardies in 3 weeks. Last year, we rarely had tardies until the Head of the School said, "Lynn, it's really impressive that you're never late and you live so far away. " Curses, I say. I was doomed. Now, three weeks into school and we're averaging one a week. I prayed, "Jesus, PLLLEEEEEAAASE help me find the keys," as I always do. I'm sure He's saying something like, "I will help you if you please stop whining at me." But he has mercy on my poor little ADD brain. There they were hiding under the fireplace tools. What? I know it's strange, but it makes perfect sense really. Our socks are in a clothes basket that I took downstairs a couple days ago to fold while I watch T.V. Yet, I never really watch T.V. so they got moved to the fireplace stoop where we search for matching socks every morning. So while getting a couple pairs today, I had to put the keys down and because they're black, they blend in with those dang fireplace tools. Thankfully, we weren't late! Okay, so the other thing people with ADD struggle with is impulsivity. Someday I'm sure I'll write something on here and press publish and later think, "That was a bit embarrassing, maybe I gave TMI (too much info)," and I'll stress for a couple hours until I can come home and delete it. Well, last night I was at a bookstore with my friend Heidi. We planned on finding some books and sipping our coffee (cider for her) together in silence. But, you see my dear friend has been single parenting her three boys this week and is really quite loopy from it all. So she talked and talked and I'm mean loud. You know it, Heidi. And we laughed. She even got up a few times to act out some stories she was telling. We had some good hard laughter. When we realized we had to get going, we rushed around to find the books we had both come for. She had this great little book by Lauren Winner but decided to look for it at the library first. I had a book on hold, as well as one I found on a clearance table, but I also really wanted that Lauren Winner book, of which there was only one copy. So when Heidi told me she was going to check it out at the library, I grabbed it. So, here I had two books and another one on hold. And I was thinking about the books I still need to read at home. The piles next to my nightstand that I'm working through. What comes next was monumental. I walked out of Barnes and Noble without one book. Nada. It was an out of body experience. I hadn't let my impulsivity win. Wow. Growth in baby steps.
Now if I can just stop getting so many late fines at the library (and I mean FINES!), I could start checking out books instead of buying them. But quite frankly, it's a little cheaper for me to buy the book than to check it out, if that gives you any idea of what I mean by FINE!
As you can tell, there are several downfalls to the ADD mind, but there's a lot of fun, crazy, spontanteity that comes from this same mind. Stay tuned.