Ice for Anxiety

Isaak still has anxiety issues. I have yet to find a Therapist. The one the Pediatrician gave us has daytime hours. There's no way I'm taking Isaak out of school to see someone. That's like adding stress to stress.

I do plan on sending Boys Town a long message about Isaak this weekend. They have people that will give feedback, for free. It's a non profit. Doesn't hurt to get more opinions.

If you missed it he started crying during homework time last year, which was a bad year for Isaak. This year he likes his teachers, but starting middle school is hard! It doesn't help that Mica hardly has homework, and Isaak always does. I remember myself being socially unable to talk to all these groups of people that already seemed to know each other. I was like a deer in headlights. Moving to each class, but unable to talk.

As soon as we got in the car, after his school's Open House happened, anxiety happened as well. He said some kids call him annoying. I never know where some of this comes from. Maybe he's annoying. He's charming, funny, and sometimes shy too. We all can be annoying. No matter what I said, it didn't seem to make a difference. He knew he had homework to do, and two tests the next day. It was already dark out, so he was feeling the pressure. I never understand why teachers give kids homework on days when there's an Open House at school. It is what it is.

Travis was telling him to calm down when we got home. No one calms down when they are told to. I've been guilty of telling him the same thing. Isaak called Travis, "A Jerk" many times. I tried to apply techniques I got from a video on anxiety.

I got out an icepack, and applied it to Isaak's face. Soon after he kept applying to his own face.

I didn't think the icepack trick would work. In my mind I thought it was rubbish. It worked amazingly well. 

I said, "Isaak I'm not going to do your homework, but I am going to sit her with you. I can read things to you, if that helps you process things better." I found out that he did the Science reading, and answered the questions. He only answered what he could remember, and didn't think to go back to the reading for other answers. He finished his homework with minimal tears. When he was done I said, "You might want to check with Dad on this one. He's better with Science than I am. Before you do that please apologize about calling him a jerk. He's not really a jerk." It took some coaxing, but he did apologize. 

I think that was a winner of a night. Even with a break down. 

Are We Happy?

In Men's Health Magazine, they rated the happiest and unhappiest places to live. They judged this by unemployment, suicide and households on anxiety meds. 

The tops place to live was Honolulu, Hawaii. My boys love this place! We've never been there. They have a Melissa and Doug puzzle that says the state and capitol. "Hawaii, Honolulu" gets taken out and put in the most; just so they can giggle over the word, "Honolulu." :) To them it's a funny word. I'm not sure why it's so happy there? Could it be the sun? Maybe because it's so stinking beautiful!

Other happy places include:

• Manchester, New Hampshire
• Fargo, North Dakota
• Omaha, Nebraska
• Boston, Massachusetts
• St. Paul, Minnesota

Where I live: Omaha, Nebraska ranks number 4. We have no mountains and no beaches. We're smack dab in the middle of the United States.

Counting Crows wrote a song about Omaha and the band never came here prior to writing it. This song was written in 2003, but I like it!




Most people I went to college and grad school with would say, "Omaha, Nebraska? Do you live with cows? What is there to do there?" While it is true that much of Nebraska is filled with corn fields, Omaha is a city. We had a Staycation here this summer and we had more things to do here than we had time for. You can read and view pictures about our Staycation here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Told you there's stuff to do here! We didn't even go to some of our main attractions: Henry Doorly Zoo, Western Heritage Museum, Omaha's Children Museum, Gene Leahy Mall (which is more like a beautiful park with giant metal slides), Old Market, Village Point, CoCo Key Water Park, CenturyLink Center, Rose Theater, Orpheum Theater, Omaha Play House and more.

Maybe we don't need beaches and mountains to make us happy. *Although it would be nice! :)  From Omaha, Kansas City is only 2 and a half hours away. They have a variety of more stuff to do there! We have 4 seasons here. When I get blue from the cold and dark of winter, the sunshine and warm weather is around the corner.

Are we happy? There's a lot that has been going on in our small family unit that has made Daddy and I sort of blue this year. I'd say in general, I'm pretty happy!

The places in the United States that got an F for happiness are:

• Detroit Michigan
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Tampa, Florida
• Louisville, Kentucky
• St. Petersburg, Florida (ranked the worst for happiness!)

Crazy that the warm, pretty places like St. Petersburg, Florida ranked high in unhappy individuals! Except for Honolulu, Hawaii, it was at the top for happiness!