Have a tickle fight with Michael

Monday was the first full day I got with my son. We did a lot of things on my list, but I can only count one per day.

Have a tickle fight with Michael
He really enjoys being tickled, and I had a lot of fun too. He tried to tickle me, but he isn't so great at it yet, but I played along. I don't have any pictures, but his playgroup was also that day and I have a few pictures of that.

Go on a road trip

My challenge for Sunday was to go on a road trip!

Go on a road trip
I drove from Anderson, SC to Boston, MA over 2 days. We went up North Carolina, through Virginia. Everything was going well until we hit D.C. and my car started having issues. We were worried about it holding up all week. So we headed north and then west on our way to Boston, avoiding stop and go traffic like Philly and New York. It was much less stressful on Sunday and much prettier too. We stayed with my boyfriend's family. On the way back, we did the same thing, but we headed west around D.C. and saw some very pretty Virginia farmland. I was very excited about this because I've always wanted to take a road trip. It was fun, but after driving for 2 days twice, I'm glad to be home.

I did take some pictures on the way back! Mostly of mountains.

Go to a new restaurant

Since I was out of town on Saturday, April 5th (see road trip challenge) I decided this was a prime opportunity to try a new restaurant.

Go to a new restaurant
Family of my boyfriend's decided on this burger place called the Hamilton Tavern that they described as hipster. It actually was. I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I could have because I was tired after driving for 12 hours and we had to wait standing up for nearly an hour before we got to eat. It was also very late and we had to be up early for more driving the next day. But still was nice to experience something new.

Make a list of 10 things I am happy about in my life

So today is the day before I leave for a week. I will be gone Saturday through the next Sunday. Don't worry, I still plan to do my 365 things, but unfortunately I will not be able to update this blog until I get back. When I do, I will make a separate entry for each one so that it's easy to find each in the little index on the side.

But I can still update today! Also, it has been a week of me doing my 365 things! Off to a good start so far.

Make a list of 10 things I am happy about in my life
Today I will leave you with 10 things I am happy about in my life. Have some positivity!

1. I have a wonderful boy who is caring and loving and kind to others
2. I have help of my mother to keep my son in a stable, happy environment until I can give him the life he deserves
3. I have a great supportive, caring boyfriend
4. Despite being in a very low income bracket, we can afford the things we need to
5. We have the help of my boyfriends family to provide us with support, and give us an affordable place to live
6. I am relatively healthy and don't have any physical illnesses that would require constant medical attention
7. I lived through a situation of abuse and am now in a better place
8. Despite my mental illnesses, I can still function pretty well and stay motivated to do things like this blog
9. An overall well behaved cat
10. I have hobbies that are affordable and that I enjoy doing

Have a great week everyone! I will see you when I get back!

Pull an all-nighter

Last night, I tried to get to sleep at a reasonable hour. It didn't work. I was tossing and turning forever and so I made a decision.

Pull an all-nighter
I need to get on a different schedule than I am now. I will soon be going to visit my son, and he is up by 5 or 6 am. I go to bed a few hours before that. That will not do. It would be an incredibly long week if I tried to pull that off. So I pulled an all-nighter in the hopes that it will make me tired enough tonight to get to bed at a reasonable time.

I did take a short nap this morning. I still feel exhausted and groggy. Hoping this will translate to bedtime. I mostly surfed the Internet, played some Pokemon, and started reading a new book, A Canticle for Leibowitz. I thought this task would be easier, as I have tons of things I could do, but I had not energy and couldn't focus on very much. Overall it was a pretty boring night, and I feel awful.

Hoping it was worth it!

Learn about mental a disease or illness and what support and prevention there is

So today I decided to learn more about a mental illness. I decided on one that I struggle with as well, which is anxiety and panic disorder.

Learn about mental a disease or illness and what support and prevention there is
Anxiety disorders are a group of disorders that include generalized anxiety disorder, phobic disorder, and panic disorder. They are mental disorders that lead to anxiety and fear about future events and about present events. While the different anxiety disorders all have different symptoms, they all include symptoms of anxiety.

Generalized anxiety disorder is a disorder characterized by a long lasting anxiety that is not focused towards any one object or situation. Phobias are characterized by anxiety being triggered by one or more certain fears, such as heights or public speaking. Panic disorder is when someone suffers through intense moments of panic and anxiety, and will often shake, have difficulty breathing, or any other number of physical reaction.

You can find out about many more of these and learn more details on the wikipedia page and also on WebMD:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety_disorder
http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/default.htm?names-dropdown=

You can learn about some of the symptoms here:

http://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-symptoms.shtml

And you can also find some help and support here:

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/anxiety_self_help.htm

Anxiety affects 40 million Americans a year and many sufferers also suffer from Depression. There are a number of treatment options, ranging from things you can do it home, as well as medication and therapy.

This is a website which provides a good step by step detailed guide on some of the things you can try to help relieve some of the burden:

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/anxiety_self_help.htm

There are a number of causes of anxiety, and a number of symptoms that go with it. You may not fit in to the exact guide, but if you often feel anxious, worried, tense, if you experience physical symptoms such as lack of breath, and shaking, or any of the other symptoms of panic attacks, I urge you to seek out some information and educate yourself more on the subject. If you experience severe anxiety or panic attacks, you should consult with your doctor or therapist about what would be the best for you in terms of medication and treatment plans.

I'm glad I did this challenge, I learned a lot and I hope that some of the information provided can be of some help to someone. I didn't want to make a wall of text, so I mostly left it to links so people can follow up on what they would like to learn more about.

This is a link to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, a non-profit organization which can also hopefully provide some support. They also accept donations, if you have some extra money and want to give.

https://www.adaa.org/

And here is another charity specializing in anxiety:

http://www.anxietydisordersfoundation.org/

Thanks for learning about this with me and hopefully it is helpful to someone!

Come up with an art prompt

This is a task for one of the forums I am on. There is a thread called "Artination Prompts", which is used to help encourage and motivate members who enjoy drawing, or painting or what have you. Ever Tuesday, someone comes up with a prompt, and the people interested in participating do so and post up their work.

Come up with an art prompt
This week, I decided to come up with the prompt. I have been motivated recently by my "Draw Pokemon as humans" challenge that I will face another day. I had already drawn the Pokemon, Mareep, as a human, and I felt inspired to continue doing so.

The prompt I picked was:

Draw a Pokemon as a human

OR

Draw a Final Fantasy character as a Pokemon.

I decided to go with the former. Here are the results:

Overall I am pretty satisfied with it! I will still have more of these to come, as drawing Pokemon as humans is one of my other 365 things to do in 365 days challenge!