Survival Skills for the Working Nerd

As a Nerd Mom, I try and find balance with my work life and my home life.  I work 12hr nightshifts at a local hospital, so that presents it's own challenges.  How to get enough sleep without walking around looking like an Orc extra for the Lord of the Rings, how to keep up with my Kiddos, how to keep myself healthy.  When you work in healthcare, keeping yourself healthy is a gigantic challenge.  One of my friends is a master at this!  She always has the latest vitamin supplements, protein powders and a plan for keeping herself germ free.  The past week at work was an emotional and physical challenge, how to survive it without stressing to the point of illness stressed me out!  I applied multiple layers of a zinc chapstick to keep from getting an ugly cold sore, my body's reaction to stress.  My friend whipped out an Emergency C with 1000mg of vitmain c and zinc, dropped it in some water and handed it to me, then zipped back to work.  We all have different ways of coping with emotional and physical stress, I realized then I need to up my game.  In the past, before the year of the 13 smashed me down, I was good at this.  Scouring magazines and health sites online, I tried all of the latest herbs, drank the newest energy drinks, always trying to be better, smarter.  Okay, that was leading into a Bionic Woman pun, I admit it.   But you see my point?  My backpack is called "The Bag of Life" by my Hubby and myself.  You could drop me in Uganda and I could survive on the contents of this bag alone for a week, I used to say.  I wouldn't last 10 minutes now!  A few chocolate covered acai berries and mouthwash wouldn't get me far.  Planning was something I did as naturally as breathing, something  I've realized   has also slipped.  So I'm breaking out my lists and getting my brain back on track.  That's the other thing I've had to swat it the last few days.  Chronic migraines have plagued me since I was sixteen years old.  So many holidays, birthdays and regular days have screeched to a grinding halt by me grabbing my head in pain.  My Hubby and fantastic Kiddos know the drill.  I even reach up towards my face and they all freeze.  They run and turn off lights, close curtains, mute sounds while my Hubby dashes for meds and starts whipping up herbal teas.  The last 4 days were a blur of headaches, vitamins and herbs all drunk down by this Nerd Mom, as my family pitched in to keep me going during a very trying work week.  Once again I realize how lucky I am, how fantastic my family and friends are.  My daughter had coffee waiting and was standing by with a pan to fry up some eggs.  The Hubby filled up my vitamin and herb daily plastic thingy with b12 and multiple herbs for me to ingest.  My friend rolled into work the other night with a Panera Bread soup, a Starbucks Mocha via and more vitamins.  Yes, it takes a village to get a Nerd Mom through work sometimes!


Stress, what is it good for?  Absolutely Nothing!


Everyone has read that healthcare workers have a high rate of drug addiction, alcholism, etc.
Honestly after working in this field for over 17 years, most of my fellow scrub wearers are addicted to food.  That's right, I said it! We are addicted to food.  A bad night?  Let's order out!  A big fat stromboli with 5 cheeses and an order of fried oreos are a phone call away.   We just all returned from a grueling round of work?  How about we run downstairs to the Cafe and get dinner?  We deserve it!    I dutifully drug in my Lean Cuisine's, yogurt and 100 calorie snack packs.  A few bottles of water, some Green Machine.  Trying so hard to start healthy patterns again.  It worked 3 out of the 4 nights.  The last night, as my co-worker and I stood in the hallway, not looking at each other, both of us wiping tears from our eyes, I fell right back into the old pattern.  Still not looking at her, I suggested we run down to the Cafe and get some dinner.  Didn't we deserve it?  We grabbed our credit cards and headed down for the grease and salt that would preserve our souls til 7am.  Did we really need it?  No.  Was it actually going to help?  Kind of.  The calm of carb consumption does negate some of the negative emotions.  But as I've said before, I have to get stop these old patterns.  So I wolf down a cheeseburger and onion rings with diet dew and gobbled up 2 no bake cookies, knowing that if this keep me sane, there's a new workout video just waiting for me at home!

The Tracy Anderson Method is currently sitting on the table beside my recliner.  It looks like an awesome workout!  After my leg injury, I need something to get rid of the weight I've packed on during my months of turtle slow movement.  So I'm hitting that bad boy today, hoping it will jumpstart my workouts.  If I can become flexible anytime soon, yoga is the way to go for me.  I loved how I felt when I used to do a pilates/yoga combo 3 times a week.  It made me feel lean, tall and strong.  Right now I'm still a tad plumpy and stiff, so that's something that needs to change.  I face the world differently when I'm zen, my emotional turmoil is minimal, my focus is unbreakable.  Right now you could swing a yo-yo past my face and distract me for the rest of the day, another goal to strive towards!


Tall People and Small Beds, a Combo of Madness


On the homefront this week, I decided we need to upgrade my oldest son's room.  We live in an old Dutch Colonial, built in 1940.  Older houses have a quirky charm that this Nerd Mom loves!  We might eventually move to a modern house after 14 years of battling an old one, but for right now this 5 bedroom dinosaur is what we need.  My sons have the 2 original bedrooms in the house, which are quite small.  As they've gotten older, it's been a challenge to keep their rooms in balance with their ever growing size.  I'm 6'1", my boys are tall as well.  My oldest is 6'3" and still has a twin bed.  As he's grown, we agonized over his size vs the size available in his room.  A full size will fit, but shrink his space in the room down to micro size.
He works nightshift too, so we usually emerge from our darkened caves about the same time.  I woke up first the other day and when he came downstairs he looked awful.  He'd flipped out of bed, tossing and turning , and was just miserable.  I decided then a full would have to work, we'd just have to figure it out.  I'm sorry, as my Hubby pointed out, he will figure it out. He laughed when I kept saying "we" could make it work it.  I generally come up with a thousand ideas, present them to my guru Hubby who then proceeds to make it a reality.  Once again, this is why this man is my Hero!  So my best friend has family who's giving us a full size sleigh bed and chest, she's donating the mattress and a friend of a friend is throwing in the box springs.  Serendipity!  They needed this stuff gone and we needed upgraded furniture for my son, I love it when the universe sends you exactly what you need! We went to pick it all up today, drove out to my Pa's house to borrow his truck and then...rain.  Lots of rain.  Wouldn't stop pouring.  I called my best friend and we changed the pick up day, allowing us to hang out with my grandpa.  My Pa is 84 years old and is still a mover and a shaker.  My sister and I were on the phone a few week ago on a friday night.  I was in my pj's catching up on my DVR, she was in her pj's eating soup.  It was 10pm.  Both of us talked about how tired we were, how it was nice to just stay in and relax.  Then we laughed, because our Pa is out dancing every friday night. He's 84 and puts us all to shame! We all need to embrace life like my Pa does.


Serenity Now! Serenity Now!


To keep my sanity in check and not devour the contents of the vending machine, I stopped and planned our Spring Break.  The Polar Vortex has eaten up 2 days of my kiddos break, but that's fine.  We'll still have 13 day to relax and play.  So I planned out our vacation, filled out the request form for time off and felt a million times better just dropping into my bosses mailbox.  We'll head down to the lake for 2 weeks and live it up!  Yep, it's the last week of March , first week of April.  Too cold to swim, too cold to play in the water.  The great thing is it's an hour or two from lots of cool places.  We can hit some caves and go eat BBQ.  Play board games and Uno til the sun comes up.  No, it's not Florida or the beaches, but right now some time away at our favorite spot it just what we all need.  And the best part is the geese.  You heard me, the Geese!  The Yorkie Bully, Miss Scarlett, loves being down at the lake.  She runs around the deck like a big dog, snapping at raindrops, chasing ice cubes and on the constant lookout for her foes, the geese.  My parents house is on the water and there is a huge flock of geese that descend several time a day in search of bread and crackers. Last year we counted over 24 geese and their babies that came up the hill looking for food.  The Yorkie Bully feels like she must protect me from all the evils in the world and the geese brazenly walk up the hill right towards me, honking loudly the entire time!  She's never happier than running up and down the edge of the deck, chasing the geese back 2 or 3 steps.  They don't leave, they just back up from the ultrasonic bark omitted from my tiny teacup and fight over the stale honey wheat bread we've tossed down to them.  Miss Scarlett's little tail wagging as she jumps in my lap assuring me that all is safe in the world because she's made sure of it!

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

As I said earlier, I've tried some things this week to limp through my work schedule.  Here's a few things I've tried and the reviews of them.

Panera Bread Soup-Wow!  The refrigerated version of these soups can be found at Sam's or at Target.  I tried the Baked Potato Soup and it buckled my knees, it was that good.  The Lobster Bisque was fabulous as well.  Their a tad pricey, but so worth it.  Go and pick up some up, you'll see!

Starbucks Mocha Via-If you need a kick and can't get to a Starbucks, or in my case, they're all closed, try this out!  I put mine in a 16oz coffee cup with a lid, mixed it with hot water and a splash of milk.  Awesome!  No, it's not as good as a barista brewing up a Venti White Mocha at the shop, but it's miles above what you can grab at a Circle K. They sell individual packets for $1 at your local Starbucks so you can check it out without buying an entire box.  Try one!

Brookside Chocolate Covered Acai Berries-Nope it's not diet food.  But it's a way to get your fruit and chocolate on at the same time, which is great.  I picked them up at Sam's and was surprised by how good they are.  I loved them, my Hubby likes them and the girls didn't really like them at all.  There's blueberries mixed in too, so if chocolate covered is the only way you get your fruit sometimes,as I am guilty of, then check them out.

Buxom Lip Plumper-Aw, I was expecting so much and didn't get hardly any results!  When I'm tired my lips look thin and drawn.  My Sis gave me one of these from her Birchbox and it gave me good color, but not much else.  I've used Too-Faced Lip Venom for years and love it.  The Buxom didn't have any kick to it at all.  So if you're facing thin lip syndrome like me, stick with Too-Faced Lip Venom and forget the Buxom.

5 Hour Energy Pink- This will keep you awake, kind of.  I drank two of these this past week.  I drank one before work and it did give me a kick for a few hours.  Trying it at 3am, nothing.  

I'm going to pick up some Alegria shoes which are supposed to be great for knee injures, I'll let you know how they workout.  Also, I'm going to try some compression socks to see if that helps with my right swelling while I'm at work.


It's been a long week so far and it's only tuesday.  Ah, the way Nerd Mom's tell time!  The rain slowed us down on the declutter, so we'll be tackling that tommorow.  I'm going to get up some book reviews this week as well.  So come on back and check me out later this week, as the Nerd Mom continues her quest for health and sanity!  And if you get bored, the Yorkie Bully suggests stopping by and playing a few rounds of Throw the Cow with her, you'll feel at peace with the universe when you're done!