My brain is part of my body!

Recently, when talking to my kids I mentioned that I haven't been feeling very well lately and that I need to make an appointment with my doctor.  Izzy immediately asked, "Is it a physical problem or a mental problem, Mom?"

I responded, "Izzy, my brain is part of my physical body."

As open as I try to be with my kids, I realize I may have missed the mark with mental illness.  I have struggled with ADHD since I was a kid and anxiety and depression for most of my adult life as well.  Only recently have I begun to speak about these issues unashamedly.

There have been more conversations and positive strides in how we view mental illness in recent years but the conversation must continue.

Modest clothing rant

Putting someone else's needs ahead of your own is a good and kind thing to do. It is also a good idea to think about the actions we take, however small they seem to us, and consider how they effect the human beings around us. For example, ordering a beer when you are out to dinner with a friend who just got back from an AA meeting would be frowned upon for good reason.

That said, there is an unhealthy train of thought held by certain groups of people that says girls and women are responsible for the thoughts of boys and men based on what they wear. This is ridiculous.

First of all, in the evangelical world, this is just another thing that makes Christians look like evil jerks. It is exactly what rape culture tells girls and women.

It embarrasses them.

Secondly, it tells men that they are nothing but animals who can't control their own impulses so they don't need to try.

Lastly, it's completely arbitrary.

You want to tell me that women wearing leggings make men have overwhelming sexual urges, but it’s okay for the very same women to wear a typical one piece swimsuit on the beach? 

Nope. I’m not convinced.

A light in the darkness...

New Years Day has typically been a day that I don't love, which is strange given my LOVE of Christmastime and New Years Eve and all of December in general. It's the long winters that get to me, the end of the holidays, that missing feeling of having a big day to look forward to... 

Yet as I begin the year of 2021 and think back over the previous year, I'm having an unusual amount of hope rise up inside of me. A theme that has been popping up quite often in my times I spend with Jesus is the great amount of light He brings. 

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5) 

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light." (Isaiah 9:2)  

"Arise, shine, for your light has come." (Isaiah 60)

Make no mistake about it. The darkness has been thick this year. But something about THE Light of the World shining in the darkness, has infused His Light into my very spirit. The days are growing longer. The sun has been peeking out from behind the clouds this New Years Day, and the Son is shining light into the hearts of His people. 

ADHD brain

We're almost a year deep into this crazy thing called Covid-19. This will definitely be a year to remember. I personally am still trying to figure out how to make my brain actually make a plan for the day. Now that I'm working from home and/or the church only about 20 hours a week, I have a ton of time to get my house in the order. You know, the one that I swore to myself that if I just could have a week at home, I could figure this out and get it clean and organized? Well, we are going on 10 months of being at home and I still don't have it together. 

It's my ADHD brain that is my problem. And yet, deep down I also know that my weird brain can be one of my greatest strengths. When I really get into a project, it turns out amazing, as long as it's something that can be finished within a fairly short amount of time. The question is, "How do I wield my brain of power for good?" 

Somehow I need to make my house my newest project. Then I will break it down into smaller projects and go from there. It needs to be fun. It needs to be a challenge. And I need to actually FINISH IT! (Because I have this tendency to do 90% of a project and then quit.) This year (2021) might be just what I need to get somewhere with it because we are planning to have a Jorgenson family reunion at my house this summer.

Jesus, help me. 

Treehouse!

I tried to build a treehouse when I was in about 3rd grade. It didn't turn out the way I imagined, but hey, I could sit in a tree, right? Our yard in western North Dakota had nothing but super tall cottonwood trees with no decent branches.

Since then, I have always wanted to build a decent treehouse. Even though I have lived in a few different places with trees and a decent sized yard, I have never had a really good tree to build a treehouse in. Until now! Here is my beautiful sugar maple tree:

Here's the downside, the one decent treehouse tree in our farmhouse yard is in the front yard, right smack dab in front of my very stately house. I needed to build a treehouse and I needed it to be unobtrusive. I spent some time in the summer reading treehouse books and googling. This was my first major building  project as an adult. 

I climbed up in the tree, took some measurements and pictures and then used this picture to help me draw up some basic plans.

I then cut green treated 2x6s to size and drilled holes in them to fit large lag screws. You want to attach to the tree in as few of places as possible. It is a living organism and it is best to leave the tree as much room to grow as possible. You can purchase specialty treehouse lag bolts for this purpose, but they are expensive. Instead, I drilled 2 holes an inch apart in the area that I wanted to be moveable and then connected them with a jigsaw. 

Basically, I used some boards and a level to measure how long the base boards were going to need to be. (Cut them long, you can always shorten them later.)

I used green treated 2x6s, cut to my measurements, to create a triangular base. 

One of the boards was not quite going to be able to attach where I needed it to so I added a 90 degree 2x6 to attach to the tree and attached the support beam to it.  I then added 3 joists across the base to create more support.

I used an old tarp to create a template for the floor. It wasn't very scientific. I just used a scissor and cut around the tree. 

I traced it onto a 4'x8' 1/2 inch green treated plywood. I ended up having to cut the tarp into 2 pieces to cover the whole platform.  I rough cut these pieces with a jigsaw and then trimmed them up more once they were attached to the platform. I then sanded it all down.

I created this simple ladder out of some scrap 2x4s in the garage and some little logs on the log pile that were about 3 inches in diameter. I attached them with some washer head power head screws.

The ladder wasn't quite long enough so I added these turning steps into the tree with some left over pieces of the 2x6 boards and shims as needed.

And there I had it. A platform in a tree, not very safe!

I was wanting to keep costs down and also have the treehouse not look tacky in front of my house. I decided to use large branches from the tree itself to make the side rails. 

  

Once they were in place, I bought some basic rope and wrapped it to make a web.

Voila! The finished project!

Entryway remodel

One of the things that inadvertently happened when our refrigerator leaked and flooded the kitchen, entryway and basement is that I was able to clean up and even revamp some areas. Here are a few before and after pictures of my entryway turned mudroom. This entire project cost me less than $100 because I had most of the stuff on hand. Originally, there were folding doors the same color as the cabinets on this closet but I didn't think to get a picture until they were already taken off.

Before

After

Alright, alright. I’ll tell you how I did it. 😂

The first thing I did was measure from one side of the wall inside the closet to the other side.

Then, I went looking for boards that were long enough for a bench and an upper shelf. My initial plan was to paint them white. I found a couple of long "ugly" boards out in our shop. The house was built in 1885 so there are all sort of treasures to be found on the property. I forgot to get a picture of either of them before I cut them to the size that I needed but this is the end of one of the boards I used. I think it had been used as shelving in an old barn.

After I cleaned the dirt off the first one, I wondered what kind of wood they were. They were heavy boards! I sanded it down and low and behold...

It was oak! I decided I would stain the boards instead.

I had tried to find a corbel (a fancy bracket) that was going to look good for this project but they are all pretty spendy. I decided to make some out of some left over pieces of 2x8 pine boards. You can get some remnants at many home improvement stores and lumber yards. 

I designed an extremely simple corbel on a piece of paper and traced it onto the boards which I cut it out with a jigsaw. 

My plan was to use corbels for the top shelf and to make a box to screw into the the wall for the bench to sit. I used 1x2 for this project but if I were to do it again, I would probably use 2x2 to be a little sturdier.

I spray painted everything an off white Then I drilled pilot and clearance holes in the corbels to countersink the screws.

The screws in the middle of the corbels had to be sunk pretty deep so that the screw would be able to reach the wall. I like to use screws that are pre-drilling but for as deep as they have to go, you still need to predrill a hole big enough for the screw head to drop down into.  I didn't do any pre-drilling on the frame that goes under the bench. 

Of course I used a level to install both the bench and the shelf and then finished the project off by adding a leg under the front of the bench for extra support. 

I stained the bench and shelf a dark color to kind of match the rest of the entryway. Here's how it looks before I added a few final touches. 

Here it is with coat hangers, a little extra trim, and some cheap cube-shaped baskets for the kids to put their extra junk in. My husband has broad shoulders and requested that there be a place for hangers for his large coat and sweatshirt as well (on the right side).

  

Is summer here yet?

Yes, it's Easter Sunday and I just had the last week off.

Yes, I just went on an amazing vacation with my family to somewhere warm.

Yes, I understand that most people have to work through the summer.

I know all of these things are true but my cabin fever gets a little crazy once sunny spring days appear in Minnesota. I long to get out in my garden and put in my plants that will inevitably be attacked by some crazy form of Creeping Jenny, insects, and/or fungus. I will spend hours upon hours working to save the plants only to have a small to moderate amount of produce live through the ordeal. I dream of selling my produce at the farmers market but I will end up with enough to feed my family and give to friends and have nothing to sell anyway.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR IT!

Why? Because even though I love my job as a school nurse I don't really like getting up early. Even though I feel extremely useful after helping a student with a deadly diabetic low or broken arm, I am exhausted from stress of quick thinking and being the one with answers.

Everyone needs time to rest and rejuvenate. My kids need it after doing the work of school, extracurriculars, and busy weekends, and my husband needs it too (although he seems to need it less often than me) after weeks and weeks of clinical trials and combing through data.

There is a mentality in the working world that we need to be martyrs. That we are better or harder workers if we go in to work when we aren't feeling well. (Please don't do this. You are actually compounding the problem by bringing your illness to work with you.) That we shouldn't take time off for appointments our kids need for mental health, or even more often, appointments that we need for ourselves.

Let's be honest. None of us are better off making a few more bucks to spend on junk, spending less time at home with our families, or juggling the insanely busy schedules that we allow to capture us so that we aren't our best at any of the things we are doing. Time suckers or life suckers can be at home or church or out in the community.  They are anywhere else that we allow circumstances and work to take up our time and mental energy.

Can gardening do this too? Maybe for you but not for me. Each of us is different. Figure out what is sucking the life out of you, how to take a vacation from it, and do it without any guilt. You might even be more productive for it, but productivity isn't what life is about. It's about living.