Tag: week in review

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Week in Review: July 26, 2026

I met with my psychiatrist this week, and we decided I would come off the new med I have been trying out. We are going to give it a few weeks with just the two I was already taking and see how I feel. I am hopeful that things will be okay; it would be nice not to have to try any other meds. I am also very hopeful that I will be less tired soon.

Work is going well. I went into the office on Tuesday to train two new employees. They are not in customer service, so they just needed the basics to be able to use the computer system in their area. I was pretty tired by the end from talking so much, but we had a really productive day.

I got some sad news this week that my library will no longer be offering Hoopla, which is an app that allows you to borrow ebooks and audiobooks as well as movies. I have a bunch of books on my to read list that were only available through that method (as opposed to Libby or as a physical book), and I really wish they had given us more notice so I could have prioritized reading those titles. I picked the one I most wanted to read and am working on reading that before access is cut off at the end of this month.

I found out later that they are offering a new app called Cloud Library. I downloaded it and looked for a bunch of titles from my list, but didn’t find many. I don’t know if that means they haven’t added many titles yet or if they don’t have the types of books I like on that app. The new app does not offer movies, either. Most of the books I want to read are available on Libby, so I am really hoping nothing happens to that avenue for borrowing ebooks.

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Week in Review: July 19, 2026

Last week was pretty quiet for me. It was also a short work week because I took Friday off. It was so nice to have an extra day to relax. I did some reading and watched a couple of shows I have been wanting to see. I also caught up on taking pictures of my finished puzzles and getting them put away.

Today I decluttered and organized one of my hall closets. I made enough room to move three boxes of Michael’s old Lego pieces/sets from one of my bedroom closets and pile them in one corner of the hall closet. This gave me room in my bedroom closet to get two new storage boxes for puzzles. I probably keep too many puzzles, but I like to hold onto any that I think I might like to do again.

I am so thankful for the amount of storage in this apartment. I have more storage here than in either house I have previously owned! I ran out of steam before I filled the new storage boxes, but I’m still happy with the progress I made.

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Week in Review: July 12, 2026

This is going up a day late because I did not feel like getting on the computer yesterday. I had a pretty quiet week, but I did have a quick dinner with Suzanne on Friday and lunch/movie with Kim on Saturday.

My psychiatrist and I are still trying to figure out the new med I am on. I was taking a small dose twice during the day and a bit larger dose at bedtime. I was experiencing a lot of tiredness during the day, to the point where I was falling asleep at my desk. After reducing the daytime dose a bit didn’t help, we switched to me only taking the nighttime dose.

I thought it was getting better, but this morning I fell asleep at my desk again. I am going to give it a few more days and then contact her again to see what we can do. If this doesn’t change, I would like to get off the medication altogether. I already struggle with sleepiness due to diabetes and staying up too late sometimes; I don’t want to compound it with meds.

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Week in Review: July 5, 2026

Yay for a long weekend! Although due to a severe storm in our area, many people lost power, including me. I was taking a nap on Saturday afternoon and woke up in the early evening to find a serious storm taking place outside and the power out. I was on my sectional with the recliner fully reclined and, since it is electric, was unable to put it down. I didn’t want to break it by climbing over the end, so I had to crawl out sideways!

My phone was at pretty low power and our power banks were not charged, but luckily a friend who I texted recommended charging my phone in my car. So I went out and sat in my car for a couple of hours to charge my phone as well as one of the power banks. By 10 pm, I had gotten up to 40%, so I went inside. Thankfully, my power came back on at 2:30 am.

This morning, I went to Brunch Church, which is an annual combined service at our church where we sit around tables and eat brunch during the service. I really enjoyed it, although it got a bit loud and I was a little worn out mentally by the end of it because of all the noise. I had been planning to go the puzzling group at a local library this afternoon, but a large tree came down near them and I don’t know if they have power or not, but they did close for today.

I hope everyone else has had a good holiday weekend and that anyone who lost power will get it back very soon.

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Week in Review: June 28, 2026

This week I started taking the new medication my psychiatrist prescribed for my anxiety, and it has been a struggle. It can be quite sedating for the first couple of weeks, and I am definitely experiencing that. It got to the point on Friday that I couldn’t keep my eyes open at my desk and I had to log off work to lie down. I really hope this effect goes away soon!

On Tuesday, I had a meeting with my son’s new therapist so that he could get some background information before starting therapy with him. I really liked him. I felt like we covered all the important topics and that he seemed to understand a lot about autism. Michael will start meeting with him this coming week, and I’m hopeful that it will go well.

In other news, I won a $50 gift card to Puzzledly from an Instagram giveaway! I was able to order two regular puzzles and one mini puzzle. It was so exciting! I’ll post the puzzles when I get them; they are new releases so they won’t be shipping for a couple of weeks.

I have still been puzzling a lot more than reading. I am only on my fifth book this month. I am currently reading Christmas Island by Natalie Normann.

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Week in Review: June 21, 2026

This was a busy week. Last Sunday Michael and I had lunch with our friends Mike and Sherry. It was nice to see them as it had been a while since we got together. I also needed to get their house key since I had agreed to feed their cats while they went on a trip. Mike also asked if I could tape the back of a puzzle he had done because he wanted to frame it, so I did that on Saturday.

Here is the puzzle he did and what it looks like with puzzle glue sheets on it.

On Wednesday, my friend Suzanne came over. We ordered pizza and she helped me finish a puzzle I was working on that had gotten to the challenging spots. I was very glad for her help and her company. Then on Friday, my friend Renee came up and we went together to see Shakespeare in the Park. This theater group has been doing free plays every summer for thirty-three years! Renee and I have gone the last three years, and we really enjoy it. The play this year was As You Like It, and it was a lot of fun.

I had orthodontist and eye doctor appointments this week, and both went well. I also helped Michael fill out paperwork for a new therapist and coached him on how to tell his current therapist he wanted to stop seeing him. Michael felt like the conversation went well, and I am so proud of him.

I still get overwhelmed when I am busy or things are very loud, but I’m glad to be better able to handle social things better than I had been.

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Week in Review: June 14, 2026

I had a pretty good week. My boss was on vacation and things were pretty quiet at work, so I got a lot of new products entered. I mostly puzzled in the evenings, other than taking Michael to his social skills group on Tuesday.

Last Sunday, we celebrated Pride Sunday at my church. I took a couple of photos, one of the artwork done during worship and another of the rainbow cupcakes we enjoyed after the service. It was a lovely service.

I had planned to go to Shakespeare in the Park with a friend, but I found out the performances are only held Wednesday-Saturday, so we weren’t able to do that on Sunday. We are hoping to make it before the run ends on the 20th.

My friend Kim came over for lunch and a movie on Saturday. Here’s a pic of her little dog Darcy curled up on my lap during the movie. So cute!

Today is my work anniversary, marking 31 years at my company! I can hardly believe it has been so long!

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Week in Review: June 6, 2026

This week has been pretty eventful. I am still in the process of switching the meds that the psychiatrist changed for me. The new one was delayed by insurance. It normally comes in a capsule, but I have trouble swallowing those, so she prescribed a tablet. They wouldn’t approve it, but they said if I have swallowing issues I could get the liquid. That seems kind of stupid to me, but I’m just hoping it doesn’t taste terrible. I have been feeling better just with the lowered dose of the original med, so that’s progress at least.

My friend Renee and her boyfriend Chris (pictured above) came over on Friday to hang out, and we had a really good time. I overdid it on the carbs and afterwards I was feeling a bit off. It felt different from when I have high blood sugar, so I checked my sugar and it was only 75! I looked it up and it sounds like it was reactive hypoglycemia, which is when your body keeps making insulin longer than is needed after a high amount of carbs. I ate some candy and checked again in 15 minutes and it was up to 130. Later on it started getting low again, so I had some more candy.

The whole incident was pretty scary, but the really interesting thing was that my cat was climbing all over me and nudging me until I woke up fully and got up to check my blood sugar. I had heard about dogs that can smell low blood sugar, but I didn’t realize that cats sometimes do that too. I am so thankful that he was persistent!

I have been puzzling a lot. My follower count on Instagram has been slowly growing, and I just hit 2000 followers, which I am happy about. I took a screenshot to commemorate it:

On Saturday, I went to the puzzling group at a local library – the one I tried out last month. There were about 7 of us there, so we split into 2 groups. Our group did two 500 piece puzzles in the time we were there.

Here are the puzzles we did at the library:

Musical Mermaids by Bonnie White, Bits and Pieces, 500 pieces
Niagara Falls by Eric Dowdle, Dowdle, 500 pieces

Sunday I am planning to go to church and then in the evening Renee is coming again so we can go to Shakespeare in the Park. This year they are doing As You Like It. I am looking forward to both outings, which is a big improvement for me. Hopefully, I will enjoy them both and not be overstimulated.

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Week in Review: May 31, 2026

As Mental Health Awareness month comes to a close, I wanted to share an update on my own mental health. For those who do not know, I have Bipolar 2 and I am also autistic.

I have been going through a difficult time the last few months. I started to feel easily overstimulated by social events and to feel restless when working or even sometimes relaxing. It got to the point where it took all of my energy to get through my workday, and I had to force myself to keep appointments for myself and my son. I stopped doing anything outside of what was absolutely required, even switching to watching church online.

After some research, it seemed I might have been experiencing autistic burnout, which is usually the result of spending years masking to fit in with neurotypical people. Not everything fit this explanation, but a lot of it did. After allowing myself a lot of time to rest, I started feeling like I wanted to be involved in social activities again, but I still had the sense that it would be too much for me.

Earlier this week, I met with my psychiatrist and I shared with her what I have been dealing with. She asked a lot of questions that didn’t make sense to me at first, but then she shared her suspicion that my symptoms might be related to a medication I was taking. We talked about some options and decided to gradually switch over to a different one and see how that helps.

I am still tapering off the first med, but I do feel a glimmer of hope that things could get better. I am thankful for a mental health professional that understands autism as well as mental health issues and can help figure out what is going on and offer a path forward.

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Week in Review: May 24, 2026

I have been feeling pretty stressed this week. Between Michael and myself, we had several appointments so we both had to take time off work and run around for those. He also had a meltdown near the end of his work shift on Wednesday when something upsetting happened.

On another day, he might have been able to shake it off, but he was dealing with a cold and also feeling hot, which is a trigger for him by itself. I get so nervous for him when things like this happen because I worry not only about this job but about his future when I am not here to be a safety net. He does not have all the skills or resources to take care of himself.

Hopefully this week will be better for both of us.