Hats, Boots, & Chocolate

    I had an epiphany today: I have a disability. Two, in fact.     I'll get to why that's an epiphany in a minute. First, life updates: I'm a YouTuber now! And a Twitch streamer! Mostly a Twitch streamer, but I put the VODs on YouTube. If you want to watch, my YouTube channel is here and my Twitch channel is here .     Okay, back to the epiphany.     Recently (as in, the last day of LTUE this year), I made a goal to write a 70,000 word novel (or 70,000 words of  a novel) by April 15th. I did really well at first, and made a lot of progress very quickly. Currently, I'm sitting at about 18.7K words 19 days into the challenge; I should be at about 20K words according to the tracking website I'm using, because my writing speed has dropped off recently.     However, due to the epiphany I had today, I've decided that, no matter the outcome, whatever word count I reach by April 15th, I'm not going to beat myself up if I haven't hit that 7...

The following is something I wrote for one of my classes this semester:     " I painted this art piece shortly before I broke up with my then-fiancé earlier this year; when I saw the details for this activity square, I knew this art piece would fit as-is. Looking back, I've realized that this piece portrayed my deeper, hidden feelings about the relationship, which at the time I was mostly unaware of; according to the textbook for one of my classes, this would have been the dyadic breakdown phase, because I knew something was wrong but couldn't pin down what (Welch, 2022).     " While I didn't go through a divorce per se, I was a mere month away from the wedding date we'd set when I initiated the break-up, and I'm glad I did it then because going through a divorce would have been much harder. Looking at this piece now, with everything I've learned about divorce since then, I think this piece represents divorce well because ending a relationship is painf...

    Happy U.S. Thanksgiving, everybody! After a long semester of working with adorable preschoolers and learning all kinds of wonderful things in the field of Family Science, it's that time of year again--time to break out the old hot chocolate recipe , settle down at the computer in my favorite plaid ruana cloak  (yes, I have a new ruana) with some vibey music , and get down to telling stories. True, the hot chocolate comes in an insulated tumbler now instead of a ceramic mug, but the fact remains that sometimes when Winter is on her way, you just have to lean into the cozy vibes.     To be honest, this is mostly a post to assure you all that I am still alive; after all, I haven't posted anything whatsoever since August, before my college classes kicked up again. It's been a bit of a wild semester, with many adventures (some that wouldn't be wise for me to discuss online, since they would reveal too much about where I work--and that's bad for keeping kids' iden...

    I've always hated Hallmark movies.  Not all of them, to be fair; there are a few legitimately good stories among the lot. But 99% of the time, Hallmark movies are a collection of the same four or five plots, retold in about a thousand barely-different ways. Their one redeeming quality is that, for people like my mom who can't handle much suspense in a movie, they are excellent because once you've watched one, you've basically watched them all, so you know exactly how it ends.      Add to that the fact that, over the years, I've seen far too many Hallmark movies for my own good as a result of my parents' movie-watching preferences (which, due to the reason stated above, are usually dictated by my mom), and so can walk into the room in the middle of any Hallmark movie, watch for approximately 30 seconds, and tell you who each character is and the role they fill in the story, and it's little wonder that I hate them. After all, I have ADHD, and I need some ...

Read Part One here , Part Two here , and Part Three here!     Before I get started, please keep in mind that all the tips and tricks I share here are things that have worked for my brain. They may or may not work for yours, and I'm not claiming to have found some kind of Universal Truth for working with neurodivergent brains. I'm also very well aware that some of these tips and tricks may be imperfect methods, and I plan to continue exploring and experimenting with my brain to find more effective ways to work with my neurotype. This advice is specific to my brain; feel free to adapt it how you need. Part One: The ADHD     At the moment, my top tip for working with the ADHD part of my brain is this: Weaponize Distraction.     Recently, my parents alerted me to the fact that they'd like to see me helping out around the house more. The fact that I tend to hang out in my room doing nothing productive has apparently been growing rather wearing on them. So, I sta...

You can read Part One here and Part Two here!     The diagnosis is in hand--well, saved onto my computer, but you get my meaning. As of a week ago, I have been diagnosed with Level One autism (no intellectual or language impairments, yay me!), moderate ADHD, and high intelligence--and yes, I count the high intelligence as a diagnosis, because it comes with benefits and problems of its own. We'll get there. :)     I guess by this point, it might be reasonable to wonder why I would share all this rather personal information about the last year of my life. Why does all this matter?     Honestly, I have dreamed for a really long time about having the ability to help people. I've spent the last almost-nineteen years of my life living and functioning with undiagnosed ADHD and autism, and while I think I've received a lot of gifts and advantages because of this experience, it is really hard to be different from all the people around you and not know why. I have o...