I went to group yesterday and we made a collaborative collage as a mindfulness activity. I felt okay when I went there, but as I was driving home I started to feel grumpy and upset...I thought about having my treatment Fri. and I obsessed over snapping at my girls before school. I was hungry too so I stopped at Walmart to get something to eat at Dunkin Donuts (multigrain bagel with lowfat cream cheese) and I felt a little better.

It's hard to be mindful when we've run out of water in our house (5 days so far) and it's almost 100 degrees. We are supposed to go camping this weekend and I have a treatment on Friday. Where is the JOY? We've been learning about distress tolerance in group and using certain skills to distract us from our stress. We had to use at least one skill a day for a week. It did help a bit to refocus my mind onto something like TV or reading or to hold some ice (a shock to the senses). The trick is to get yourself to do it. You have to ask yourself-- how important is it to feel better? I need to keep asking myself that.

It always makes me feel better to find/talk about something that I'm interested in. I heard about this great book on the TODAY show that is about a woman who loses her job and spends about a year at home addicted to reality TV shows. It sounds awesome, especially since I am enthralled with two particular reality shows-- WIFE SWAP and TRADING SPOUSES. If you haven't watched these shows, they are about women who change places with each other and find out how it is to be the wife/mother in a new family. It is so interesting to see these people living in a family that is basically the opposite of her own. So, anyway, I plan to read this new book:

Maybe you should read it too and tell me what you think...