For people who suffer from mental health disorders, goal-setting, prioritizing, and all the tasks related to life planning and high functioning, can seem overwhelming. If you look too closely at the big picture, you may feel that your goals are unattainable. I have noticed that many parents, not just parents with depression et al., struggle with five main areas of functioning: Framework, Fitness, Focus, Finances, and Fun.

I head out to the only store open before the sun is up, which is the friendly neighborhood QuikCheck. I pay $10 for a small box of Cheerios and head back home. Enter: Perspective.

No matter that I am tired, bitter about the cost of cereal and having to run a bath at an unholy hour. As I hit the rotary near my house, and I am waiting for some cars to pass, I am hit with a wave of shame. I woke up to two healthy, happy children this morning. I woke to a husband who promised to take the next shift when I returned from the store and I awoke to sleepy, wagging tails.

I did not awaken to the need to dial 9-1-1. My prayers go out to the family following the Advanced Paramedic Life Support unit this morning. I am content with my slice of humble pie this beautiful Sunday morning.

I developed asthma in my last trimester and, like with my last pregnancy, I developed gestational diabetes as well. At my last appointment the baby was breech though it appears that this week he has turned.

There were too many strikes against me for anyone to really promote a VBAC, so the c-section stands. If I go into labor beforehand, and the baby doesn't turn again, they will let me try to deliver naturally. Otherwise, on May 2nd, the bun is coming out of the oven.

I've had a lot of grief this whole pregnancy, from the severe, depleting morning sickness, to insurance changes, to changing obstetricians at almost 30 weeks, to the asthma, and now diabetes. I'm tired, I'm worn out, and frankly, I'm looking well-worn around the edge and kind of haggard. Noticing this, my doctor has placed me on almost immediate disability. They almost set it up so I couldn't return to work tomorrow, but relented and set the date for Monday instead; Friday will be my last day until I return to work in July.

I am so glad that disability programs exist. I am seriously perilously close to having a meltdown from sheer mental and emotional exhaustion, not to mention physical exhaustion and discomfort and pain, so the disability is really coming in the nick of time.

I hope to be around some during my leave but obviously, a new baby is a big deal, so I may be brief. Or I may ramble, who knows?

Wish us luck!

I am an impatient, know-it-all, Type A, control-freak who often has to deal with people who are also control-freaks. The problem that I have is that those people often know that they are asking me to do something that goes against policy, procedure, process, or best practices but because that's what they want, I have to deliver.

I often find this difficult to swallow. I am not so much a perfectionist as I am extremely protective of my values and work ethic, and of the best practices that are tried and true because they make sense, are cost-effective, and save time. I am not an office-politics player and frankly, I don't really play nice with other children that well either. I work best independently or in a position of authority where my experience is respected.

I think that accountability is important, professionally and personally, and anything that blurs the line between who is accountable is, to me, a bad idea. Not because I like to point fingers and lay blame, but because no one grows by not owning their mistakes or by owning someone else's mistakes.

Unfortunately, my personality often causes me to come off as aggressive, intimidating, or occasionally even hostile and uncooperative. Usually, by the time it gets to that point, it's been identified that I am dealing with a difficult person or situation. Unfortunately, fighting fire with fire is not always the best course of action.

The problem is that I don't really see a good way to put out the fire. It is not in my nature to simply roll over and give in to every flight of fancy someone else gets in their head. I don't like to say no, but usually requests are reasonable and when they are not, usually the requestor is reasonable and understands why the request shouldn't be accommodated. I am in a unique situation these days where the request is unreasonable and the requestor is unreasonable and I am stuck having to disagree and commit far more often than I like.

My strategy for this, at present, is actually to do one thing: I signed up for a class that is required for my major anyway. It's called Conflict Resolution and Team Dynamics and I think that it should be useful both personally and professionally. I have some high hopes for it and will be sharing what I learn as I learn it.

I can't say that I feel particularly motivated to learn how to deal with difficult people since my true feeling is that they should just ask for reasonable things, ha ha, but given that this is not going to be a theme that goes away, and will be relevant my whole life, personally and through the course of my career, I think it's as good a time as any to look into better ways to handle these kinds of situations.

I am a procrastinator. As a bipolar parent and someone who struggles to be high-functioning without medication, it's really important to me that I learn better coping mechanisms for procrastination and related avoidance behaviors. The above quote was a statement that stood out for me in an online academic skills article I read recently about procrastination.

I grew up a child of chaos. There was little constancy in my life for certain kinds of things and I was in charge of myself very young. As a result, I never really developed the good habits that help people get through the day and keep on top of things in their life that must be done...even simple things, like brushing my teeth every night before bedtime.

As capable a person as I am, I have always suffered from feeling easily overwhelmed by situations, which was exacerbated by being put in situations over my head very often as a child. I learned to fend for myself early, but am only learning now as an adult how to be truly independent. I am easily mentally fatigued and my favorite way of dealing with a problem or chore is avoidance; often as a child I developed headaches or stomach aches from the stress of worrying about the problem or chore, so managed to avoid it by making myself sick.

"Dr. Martin Seligman is Chairman of the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center and founder of Positive Psychology, a new branch of psychology which focuses on the empirical study of such things as positive emotions, strengths-based character, and healthy institutions. His research has demonstrated that it is possible to be happier — to feel more satisfied, to be more engaged with life, find more meaning, have higher hopes, and probably even laugh and smile more, regardless of one’s circumstances. Positive psychology interventions can also lastingly decrease depression symptoms. The research underlying these rigorously tested interventions is presented in the July/August edition of the American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychology Association."

Now, my interest in this site sparked because of the questionnaires it offers, but the idea behind the site is interesting and theoretically, I am on board but I must warn that I have not extensively studied the site and cannot therefore endorse it, per se. But feel free to email me what you think at lunasmom at luna-fish dot com.

Well, I was getting a little concerned now, since I didn't actually SEE anything, so I stood up and walked around behind him to try to see from his perspective. That's when I figured out what "it" was.

I laughed as I turned to him and exclaimed "It's a sunbeam!" It was, in fact, three sunbeams with about a million motes of dust dancing in its light. They traveled the long distance from the small, high windows in our front door, angling in across the length of the living room and coming to rest out of his line of sight, on his pant leg and the floor behind him. He could see the dust, and to him it must have seemed ghostly, but he couldn't disperse it which he found slightly distressing.

His response? He looked at the ghostly light again. His gaze traveled its length to his pant leg, where he could see the bright beam come to rest. A mischievous grin spread across his little face and he said "OH! It IS a sunbeam. ... I LOVE sunbeams!" and then he proceeded to jump in and out of the sunbeams until he remembered his game and ran laughing and screaming from the room.

My lesson learned?

1) Stop to see things from your child's perspective and you will see things you couldn't see before.

2) Take the time to experience new things and explore the world with your children.

3) Don't be afraid of a few sunbeams.

He typically awakens before anyone in the house does. He usually gets up and plays with his trains or his monster trucks at the kitchen table or on the couch. We get up shortly after, make him breakfast ,and get him ready for school.

Today I was awakened not by his usual morning noise; sometimes he comes to wake me to tell me he's hungry, usually I hear him commentating a monster truck rally in the kitchen. Today was different, however. Today he was singing a song.