Labeling en Vogue for ADHD'ers!

Hello! I have decided to start writing again! Some of you found my writing inspiring, funny, helpful, maybe even entertaining at times...and that gives me the hope that you will, again, find some purpose for reading my writing. I'm excited to get back into a hobby that brought me so much joy in the past.

I do, however, pay attention to the number of "followers" I have...it lets me know that someone looks forward to reading a post...thereby giving me the incentive I need to keep going. (Wasn't that a clever way to bribe you to read my blog more?)

Let's get right down to business...

I'm thinking of sending this photo to CHADD, an organization dedicated to educating and helping adults and children with ADD, in hopes that I win some multimillion dollar prize and pay off all of my debt! Wouldn't that be wonderful??

I know, it's not THAT good of a photo...but it is a glimpse into the life of a child with ADHD: when my 9 year old daughter, Jolee, remembers that there are baby birds living in our birdhouse she will NOT be able to resist the temptation to reach in and hold them...again.

We had friends over to celebrate Memorial Day in our traditional fashion...mellow afternoon, kids playing, adults socializing. Normal stuff.

All of a sudden I overhear a friend's daughter explain that she had just held a baby bird "so small that it didn't have any feathers and it's eyes weren't open!"

JOLEE! (said in the same tone Jerry Seinfeld used when he said "NEWMAN!"

I had purposely kept the birds secret. I had TRIED to keep it secret, anyway. But on that fateful Memorial Day I knew that my efforts had been thwarted. Jolee had discovered the birds all on her own and had been in there picking them up and putting them back in! I feared the tale was true, that the momma chickadee wouldn't come back to her babies once she smelled the scent of humans.

Luckily that legend does not pertain to THIS family of chickadees!

Momma AND Pappa were back in no time checking in on their babies.

Now, most people would say that I'm irresponsible leaving a nesting box within kid's reach. I was starting to believe that myself.

But then I remembered a piece of advice suggesting that labeling things makes it easier for children (and adults for that matter) to remember where things go and what activities to do. ie. I have all of my older daughter's drawers labeled to help her remember that things DO fit in the dresser...you just need to put things in their places. The bonus is that she feels like she has more clothes because she can see everything clearly.

So I labeled the birdhouse. 

Now, hopefully, when Jolee is tempted to reach in and see how the chicks are doing (which she most likely will some moment very soon) she will see the "stop" sign and remember.

And this is a photo of some doodling I did based on what I decided to do with my afternoon...
that's right! Have fun.

and I hope you've had a least a little bit of fun reading this post! Thanks for taking the time to read my musings.