What Mothers Never Talk To Their Daughters About

That time in your life when you lose control over life.

Menopause!

Some breeze through it, some do not. I'm one of those latter women.

Many women start perimenopause in their 30's and don't know it. I didn't know it. I thought I was just over worked and tired with raising four boys, being both mother and father when my husband was off doing military things. As the 40's hit, I saw changes in what we claimed was PMS. As I hit the late 40's and nearing 50, I was a case for either the mental ward or something was seriously wrong with. By the time I was 50, I could barely function. I couldn't work, couldn't do much of anything. I was literally sick three weeks of the month. I finally got into a doctor who had opened to new patients and was reccomended to me. I didn't have to finish telling her what was going when she me I was menopausal. Everything that was wrong with me was caused by an imbalance of hormones. The headaches, the sinus issues, nausea - she put me on birth control pills. Fixed me right up. I was able to return to work and resume a normal life.

I wish I could say that's it.

The past few months, I've been extremely forgetful, distracted, incapable of concentrating, flitting from one activity to another and never finishing most things. Or I simply sit here in a funk. Most of the time, I don't even know what day it is. I have to rely on others to help me with these things, or look at my phone if I can remember where I put it. We joke about it, laugh it off, but inside I'm scared and worried. Alzhiemer does run in my family. Some days I wonder if I've had a stroke, other days, I wonder if I'm going senial. The worst things that I've done is over flow the bathtub and kitchen sink, and burned dinner a few times.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful talk with a beautiful woman of 75. Well, she really talked to me and we cried, laughed and wished for all this knowledge before it hit me, before it hit her when she went through it.

When she left, I looked up concentration related to menopause, because I was most concerned with how when I'm in the middle of writing, I simply get up and go do something else and I don't know why. I have commitments to finish, I can't be doing this. I found several sites that said the same thing she did. I need to eat different now, get more exercise, more sleep and slow down. I should no longer, stick with one thing at a time. I've never done that before. Oh, the sleep factor. I'm not used to sleeping more than five hours, but my body has taken control of that. I've been going to bed and sleeping 8-10 hours.

I have to prepare for a different stage in my life. Wow! I never wanted to get old, but I'm told I have to accept the things I can't control and only worry about the things I can. My doctor says she'll take the pill away from me next Feb. and see how I do. As long as I don't get sick again, I'm all good with it.

My point in sharing this is to tell you all you moms with daughters, don't let them go through all this alone and unprepared. Talk to them about it.

Here's one of the links I read and said basically what I was told. Maybe it will be for you as well.

http://www.perimenopausesymptoms.org/symptoms/menopause-memory-loss-concentration


Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net/

Kudos For the Right Reason

I received an email today - Breakfast at McDonald's and quite frankly I found what the lady said to the homeless man unfriendly and insulting. "I did not do this for you.. God is here working through me to give you hope." The story goes on and she's not a church goer, just a believer, but basically she was only following through on an assignment for a college class, sort of. Everyone, even her husband, thought she was heroic in this so-called good deed. I find it selfish.

Where is the simple act of caring and having compassion for another human being? You know, people do things for the right reason all the time, but it's those people who are like this woman who gets the reconigtion for the wrong reasons.

KUDOS to those who do good deeds for the right reasons, because you honestly care about the human being.

I have a friend like this person. She did something wrong in the eyes of her husband. And now she is doing penance by doing this and that for other people as well as the church. She's doing these things for all the wrong reasons. And she boasts about them saying she's doing God's work. And no, they're not Catholic, but they do go to church and he's an elder. And no, she did nothing wrong.

I'm not against church or the people going, I'm against religion as man wants people to believe.

My peeve for the day. I haven't had a peeve day in a while.

Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net/

Came Out Unscathed

This pic above is the path junction between the path from our back door, to our neighbors front door and down our drive between the cars. The path across our front yard hadn't been dug out yet - it's really for the mail carrier.

This was our fun spot during the storm. It's our doggie door which the snow kept drifting over and when the dogs tried to go out the snow fell in. It was really halarious when Jesse's pup tried it. He's a Yorkipoo. He did love playing in the snow. The platform under it is for the dogs to step out onto. It's a foot off the ground, so you can see there's at least another foot of snow over it.

Our back yard is a mix of level snow and drifts. In the bench area, you can see the snow is up onto the grate area of the fireplace. I figure it makes it ten inches deep in that area while the winds kept it from piling on the tables or roofs.

This is our front yard. It's hard to tell, but behind the mailbox, the snow left a dip in the yard as the snow drifted around it. I found it interesting. The bush sticking out of the snow is my dwarf lilac and it's about four feet tall.

We faired the storm well. No power outage which wouldn't have bothered us - we have a gas stove, gas water heater, gas fireplace and oil lamps. All but our outdoor faucet and it's pipe is in the center of our house above the floor. We've been through real blizzards before - the kind where you can't see the tip of your nose much less the hand in front of your face and when it ended, the snow was roof high all over.

The largest drifts we had were the three footers my husband dug through for the path from the back door and the driveway. Our youngest and the neighbor to the south helped him dig out the vehicles.

I think our entire area handled the storm pretty well. My brother lives about an hour south of us and they were hit worse. He said vehicles were buried. My dad was able to get in and dig him and my step-brother out and he lives a bit south of of where they are. North of us got a bit more snow than we did as well. We're in a valley and most storms skirt around us, so what we got is about all we ever get out of a large snowstorm.

Stats say our area got 13-20inches of snow with the higher amounts at a town about forty-five minutes west of us - they are out in the boonies. The stats are a bit low from what people are saying about their own areas.

All in all -- I'm proud of everyone in the area, from the road crews to the National Guard who helped rescue stranded motorists to the police and fire who all banded together and was prepared.

The other day one weather man said winter's not over and if the groundhog says we're having an early spring, get a new groundhog. I'd rather believe the groundhog, or maybe I want the groundhog to be right and spring will come early.

Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net/