Meredith Carson... Across the Pond and Back Again...

We are now in the depths of winter.  I am maintaining my position perched well above Depression Valley with occasional visits to the Island of Aggravation and the Coasts of Over-stimulation.  'Tis the season. Christmas vacation always reminds me of how fragile my grip on psychological wellness is.  My circadian rhythms are thrown completely out of whack during the holidays. My senses are bombarded with flickering lights, unusual aromas, noisy chatter, and a clutter of new stuff. I also feel overwhelmed by the emotional needs of my ever present family.  To be clear most of them have not asked me to fully take on the burden their emotional needs, but I just cannot seem to help myself. I have felt particularly overstimulated and aggravated this week.  When my Monday morning exercise class (my last chance for group exercise before Friday) was canceled, I felt an emotion that reached far beyond frustration.   I f...

Things got pretty wild at our house as we rang in the new year.  As usual Emma couldn't hold her drink, and Lili wound up dancing naked on the kitchen table.  Or perhaps we just put Lili to bed and watched Pirates of the Caribbean followed by Downton Abbey until 1am. George has been, unfortunately, rather ill for the last few days.  He is finally feeling better today, so we toasted the new year with some of Meijer's best sparkling white grape juice and skipped our usual hoppin' john in favor of some turkey chili and tortilla chips. "Cheers Me, Sophia!" I'm so happy, it's a little bit scary. “Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of success is in turning that diary into the best story you possibly can.” ~Douglas Pagels I wish you a very happy new year full of wonderful pages in the ongoing story of you. Love, Meredith

It's that time of year again, isn't it?  I didn't leave my Seasonal Affective Disorder across the pond in Wales unfortunately.  All week I have seriously struggled to drag my sorry behind up out of bed in the morning.  The fact that New Year's Eve brought us a balmy, rainy day that washed all of the sparkling white snow away hasn't helped my depressive moods, BUT it's new day and a new year, and I am choosing to fight my seasonal lethargy tooth and nail...as long as it's after 9 am. As has been the case for the past few years, we do our New Year's celebrating on New Year's Day rather that the night before.  This gives us a chance to celebrate with our traditional New Year's meal, toast with sparkling beverages and make wishes for the upcoming twelve months, and there isn't even a small part of me that misses the late night celebrating.  As Danny Glover's Sergeant Murtaugh would say, "I'm too old for that $#!*." I took ...

I really don't want this thing called the Christmas holidays to end. I am not eager to get back into the routine. I am actually quite enjoying our lack of routine, but they tell me it has to end. George went back to work today, and the big girls go back to school tomorrow. Yesterday we decided to savour our last vacation day properly. We finally made those gingerbread biscuits, and I proudly acknowledge the fact that they were almost entirely kid-made. Sophie and Emma, measured, kneaded, cut out the houses and men, and finally decorated each cookie with flair. I only helped roll out the dough, which is, of course, the trickiest part. We also had hot chocolate with whipped cream and candy canes, a gorgeous roast chicken dinner and apple crumble, and we got all of the ornaments taken off the tree and put away. The girls' favorite part of the day was exploring up in the attic while the Christmas boxes were being packed away. That was some serious fun. Dad was required ...