Three Wishes, Revisited

Posted on by Astrid

Hi all. Last Tuesday, I saw the Writer’s Workshop prompts for this week. Several of them spoke to me but I somehow didn’t give myself the time to actually write on them. Today, I’m finally back on the blog and I’m choosing the prompt in which you’re granted three wishes. I did a post on this topic already in 2020. Let’s see how things have changed over the years. What would I wish for now?

1. Unlimited door-to-door transportation. I listed ParaTransit access as a wish in 2020, but now that I’m actually using it for things other than getting to my wife, I realize that it’s not that having unlimited kilometers would solve my problems getting to places. I’d also need the driver to actually drop me off at the place I want to go to. Transportation, after all, is one of the reasons I don’t go to cerebral palsy meetings as often as I’d like, because they’re often organized at restaurants, which taxis can’t reach.

2. My ideal room/apartment within a care facility. In 2020, I wanted to be closer to my wife, but if I have my transportation desires covered anyway, that’s no longer a necessity. My ideal place wouldn’t be much larger than my current room, but it would have a private bathroom and its own kitchen, in which I could prepare my own food with assistance. It would also not be as close to communal areas as my current room is, because well one of my main problems right now is overload from all the sounds coming from the living room.

Looking back, I can’t believe I didn’t list more care hours as a wish in 2020, being that I didn’t have my one-on-one at the time. I do now and of course I wish for it to stay the same.

3. Improved physical and mental health. Don’t we all wish for optimal health? I listed it in 2020 too, as my first wish in fact. Since then, my physical health has improved in some ways and declined in others. For example, I’ve lost significant amounts of weight that I indeed needed to lose and as a result, no longer have high blood pressure. I can also walk for longer. On the other hand, my tremors have gotten significantly worse and I believe my cognitive functioning has declined a bit too.

My mental health, I think, is better than it was in early 2020. I hope it improves more though.

Now that I compare my wishes to the ones I listed in 2020, I see an interesting trend, in that despite better quality of life, my wishes are still largely the same. No, that’s not entirely true: they’re bolder, in fact. I wonder what this means.

Meaningful Activities #WotW

Posted on by Astrid

Hi all! No Weekend Coffee Share (at least, Natalie isn’t hosting) this week again. I love Anne’s Word of the Week linky for summarizing my week too. Maybe when Natalie hosts her coffee share again, I’ll do a combination of the two. That is, if I can figure out a word or phrase to sum up my week. This week’s phrase is “meaningful activities”.

This week was truly a good one overall. I’ll start with my spontaneous baking activity on Saturday. My staff and I had gone on a walk, but we didn’t want to stare at the wall for the rest of my long activity time slot, so she proposed we do a baking activity. I proposed to make caramel blondies, for which I’d bought the ingredients a few weeks ago already to use with another staff, who however wouldn’t say when we could make them. The blondies were extremely filling but good. Next time, I’m going to cut down on sugar a bit and add some white chocolate on top. I served the blondies to my fellow residents in the evening. One of them asked for days after that, when she learned that I had some left over, for more “Astrid cookies”.


On Monday, my staff and I went to the institution townhouse for coffee. We didn’t have our wallets with us, so we couldn’t buy any of the treats they offered (the coffee is free). However, one of the people behind the counter offered us a brownie that wasn’t good enough to be sold to share. My staff had only a small piece and I had most of it. It was delicious! I had planned to eat the last of the blondies that day, but had two and besides, I was completely stuffed already. I decided to offer them to the two fellow residents who aren’t at the day center during the day either.

On Tuesday, the same staff was supporting me in the afternoon again and, of course, we reasoned we had to go back to the townhouse with our wallets to buy something this time. We didn’t fancy another brownie, but we did have a look at some of the handmade items on sale. My staff bought some tea and I bought a bag of rocky road chocolates. No photo in the townhouse, but I did take an interesting photo of the bag on my nightstand.

Then on Wednesday, like I shared that day already, I crafted a polymer clay dice for a staff who was leaving. Today, I also have been claying, because one of the staff who’s been here forever but with whom I’ve never done a clay project, wanted to learn. It felt good being able to do this activity even though it was in the morning and I was a little cranky.

On Thursday, the staff and I rode the side-by-side bike to Twello to buy some things. I bought raisins, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and corn waffles. We also needed a new mixing bowl, since I’d found out earlier that the one we used to have had a large tear in it. The staff offered to pay for it with the home’s debit card, which sounded reasonable, since it was the home’s bowl that tore. Not that I have a mixing bowl, but well.

Yesterday saw another trip to Twello to go to the market. When we were at the townhouse on Tuesday, one of the institution managers was telling us that he’s going to campaign for the upcoming local election at the market on Friday. I didn’t see him at the market, but I did get to talk to two other parties’ campaigners, both of who gave me some seeds to plant. I’m having to think on where to plant them, as my little yard has no flowerbeds.

Overall, this week was truly filled with meaningful activities. Since my new day schedule will (hopefully) take effect on April 1 and I’ll then be having two weekly cooking or baking activities, I’ve been looking at things to make then too. My wife inspired me to look into vegetarian dinners. Not that I’m a vegetarian or ever plan to be, given that meal delivery service meals suck even more without the meat than they do when it’s included. However, when I prepare the meals myself, I’d love to look at ways of adding flavor without meat or poultry. The idea is that usually I won’t have to cook for the entire home, so I can experiment without considering my fellow residents’ preferences.

A Good Mood

Posted on by Astrid

Hi all on this rainy Wednesday. I just found Esther’s writing prompt for this week, which is “mood”. Since I’m in a pretty good mood right now, it feels appropriate to write about it.

Yesterday, I had a meeting with my support coordinator and the behavior specialist who’s filling in while my home’s regular one is on maternity leave. As regular readers of my blog might know, we’re in the process of designing a new, activity-based day schedule for me. Initially, the draft didn’t appeal to me, because for one thing I’d wanted it to include time for me to have a cup of tea in the living room later in the evening. As those who’ve followed me for a long while will know, I introduced this cup of tea last summer and it helped me through a dark period. Of course, I’ve mentioned more than once that if a cup of tea is the only thing to lift my mood during a day or even week, that’s not really all that good. I mean, yes, it signifies that I’m not majorly depressed, but it isn’t particularly a sign of good quality of life.

My support coordinator yesterday told the behavior specialist about my daily positives and negatives, which I’ve been sending out to her and my assigned staff on a weekly basis. She mentioned that my positives usually include activities that have meaning for me, such as crafting, cooking, baking or the like. My negatives usually involve situations in which the staff don’t adequately support me based on my needs of that moment, such as when they place too much responsibility on me.

Yesterday, I for the first time in a while had a day in which I didn’t see any negatives. When I wrote in the Gratitude app in the evening, I even rated my mood as “good”. Not “great”, but I don’t expect to feel great. I usually rate my daily moods as “okay” at best.

I listed several positives yesterday too. One was my having made another batch of homemade granola. This takes only about half an hour total, but it significantly lifts my mood to make it.

Similarly, on Monday, we had twenty minutes left of my long activity time slot in the afternoon after having gone on a walk and having had coffee at the institution townhouse. My staff initially proposed we play a dice game, but I suggested we try making a simple bracelet. My staff questioned whether we’d have enough time to finish this, but I challenged her by saying we could at least try. Usually, I’m the one suffering from inertia because I fear we cannot finish an activity within my allocated time slot. That’s one reason I proposed doing a more activity-based day schedule, of course including approximate times for the activities. Anyway, guess what? We finished the bracelet on time!

Today, if nothing major happens to diminish my mood, I’ll also have a day with no negatives. This morning, I started off by feeling a bit stuck by fear of there not being time for an activity. Thankfully, I pulled myself through it and guess what? I made not just the one thing out of polymer clay I’d wanted to make, a rolling dice for a staff who’s leaving and with whom I used to play dice all the time. I also started on a project for a staff who’s just become a father. Of course, since the dice had to be painted, I didn’t finish it right then, but I did in the afternoon, just on time for the staff’s goodbye.

My support coordinator is definitely right that meaningful activities are what help me get in a good mood. Isn’t that normal though?

#WeekendCoffeeShare (March 6, 2026)

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. I’m joining #WeekendCoffeeShare again. It’s 7:30PM as I start typing this, so I’ve had my last cup of coffee for the day and will take a break from writing this post at around 8PM to have my evening fizzy drink. Actually, Dubbelfrisss, which I generally have, isn’t very fizzy, being that it is only slightly carbonated. That’s a good thing, since I can’t stand actual fizzy drinks. Anyway, let’s have a drink and let’s catch up.

If we were having coffee, first I’d talk about the weather. It’s been incredibly warm all week with daytime highs above 15°C each day. Today we even had a daytime high of 18°C. It’s been sunny for most of the week too. I know, climate change and all and we’re probably getting summertime temps above 30°C, but for now I love this weather.

If we were having coffee, I’d also proudly announce that I broke my exercise record on my Apple Watch again. Yesterday, I got in 190 exercise minutes, both by walking and by biking to Deventer.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I rode the side-by-side bike to Deventer twice this week, both times looking for new clothes. On Tuesday, I bought a few jeans and a blouse. Yesterday, I initially wanted to buy a blouse and a shirt, but didn’t end up buying those when I found out they were rather light-colored. So is one of the jeans I bought on Tuesday, so now I’m afraid I’ve stained it beyond cleaning already. This once happened with a pair of off white pants I bought with a staff several years ago and my wife said wise staff won’t let me wear light-colored clothes because of the risk of me spilling coffee over them. I told the staff I went clothes shopping this yesterday and she said I could put a napkin on my lap to prevent this. The thing is, I only need to forget this once for clothes to be ruined by coffee stains. I’m now unsure as to whether I was wise even having gone clothes shopping with her.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve been playing around with AI a bit. Last Saturday, when I shared the Warmies unicorn soft toy on here, I tried to take several more pictures, but none were better than the one I’d posted. Then I decided to ask CoPilot to edit the image to make the unicorn stand out more. I don’t know whether the original picture was recognizable as a unicorn, but I loved how CoPilot recreated it.

For reference, here’s the original photo I took.

If we were having coffee, lastly I’d share that I finally saw my new, activity-based day schedule, to be taking effect on April 1. To be honest, it’s a bit disappointing, in that my assigned staff just added the activities I’d proposed to it and that’s it. How this could take months of “thinking” to take effect, I don’t know. On top of that, the new schedule will take effect on the same day the home will start having a new staffing schedule too. My support coordinator told me there’s no shortening of hours, but at an important time for me, there is. You see, when I proposed my activity-based day schedule, I’d added my daily cup of tea at around 9PM into it, both to make the schedule more aligned with reality and because that cup of tea truly helps me make it through the night without support. Unfortunately, it’s not in my new day schedule and staffing will be cut at 9PM too. I for clarity’s sake don’t need one-on-one attention then, but it does help when staff keep an eye on me. My support coordinator, who told me about the staffing changes and new day schedule, said I can’t expect everyone else to be in bed by 8:30PM because I want my cup of tea and there’s not enough staff to keep in touch with me and help the others to bed at the same time. No, I can’t, but it’s not me who cut those hours. Several staff have told me I’ll have to wait and see how things go and no-one is prohibiting me from having a cup of tea, but then why can’t it be in my day schedule?

Thankful Thursday (February 19, 2026): I Still Have Hope…

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. Today is Thursday, so I thought I’d try to create a post focusing on thankfulness. It’s been a rough week with me having a zillion ideas of things to do but no way to put them into action. I’m still struggling with the lack of structure in my day schedule, which means I have no way of planning any activities.

That being said, I keep having hope. Sometimes I feel that hope is my enemy, in the sense that it’s the only thing keeping me alive and what if it’s idle hope? What if the powers-that-be are unwilling to help me create a more meaningful life and they’re just keeping me in the dark about it because they know things might take a turn for the worse if they tell me?

Let’s focus on gratitude though. Today, I cut up the bell peppers me and my fellow residents had as a side with our lunch. I also went shopping for groceries with a staff. I bought some ingredients for making smoothies and breakfasts, as well as a poke bowl I had for dinner today. That was good.

This staff used to work here until last summer and was one of my favorites. She occasionally still subs here. I feel a little guilty having been so vulnerable with her today as to show her that, in all honesty, I don’t feel my life is meaningful at this point. Thankfully, she did have her regular coworkers write down how much I’m struggling.

I also wrote an E-mail to my assigned staff and support coordinator this evening. My assigned staff is on sick leave again, but she said she’d check her E-mail regularly. I explained the thing I’m struggling with most again, ie. the fact that I experience a lack of meaningful day activities despite sufficient one-on-one hours. The most frustrating part is the fact that it’s not about budget or staffing, so that I honestly don’t see why I wouldn’t have gotten a more structured day schedule months ago.

My support coordinator said a few days ago that she’d get back to me about the issue on Sunday. I doubt anything significant is going to become of it, but the sliver of hope that things might improve, is keeping me going.

For now, what is also keeping me going, is actually thinking up ideas of things to do when the staff are more willing and able to help me create more meaningful activities. Here, I said “when”, not “if”. Does that mean something?

Don’t Get Me Started… #SoCS

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. Today’s prompt for #SoCS is “Don’t get me started”. Oh my, don’t get me started… or I’ll rant forever.

I have this habit of ranting about my care to whoever will listen. Not even about my current care, but about my care at the intensive support home. This afternoon, I was telling a staff who’s just quit smoking that, now that institution grounds are officially a non-smoking area, I no longer permit staff cigarette breaks during my activities.

I say that grounds are “officially” a non-smoking area because, in reality, no-one listens and even the higher-ups smoke on grounds.

I am a non-smoker and yet I understand the fact that clients want to smoke in the yard. Who are the higher-ups, whether they abide by the rules or not, to prohibit smoking in our own home? Well, outside of it, of course, because yes the non-smokers have a right to a smoke-free home.

Staff, however, are usually the ones who smoke the most and I don’t fully understand that. I mean, yes, it’s an addiction, but it’s also a habit. And, besides it being just plain yuck, staff are taking extra breaks in order to meet their “needs”.

Back to my not permitting staff to take cigarette breaks anymore. Every staff here understands, even the hardcore smokers, but back at the intensive support home, not so. I told this staff about a staff doing my morning activity time slot. At the start of it, she said that it’s long, right? It’s ninety minutes. “Can I have a cigarette?” I told her to stand on my balcony and discard her cig safely. Half an hour later, I was doing a clay project. “You’re now busy with the clay anyway. Can I smoke again?” I reluctantly let her use my balcony again. Half an hour later still, an hour into my activity, she was like “I’m going to need to discuss something with a coworker”. And off she was. When she came back ten minutes later, I told her I didn’t like her essentially taking three breaks during a ninety-minute support moment. “But you don’t have one-on-one,” she ranted, saying that with my “just having extra care” this means she could leave me alone whenever she needed to. And besides, she didn’t need to offer up an explanation to the client for her decisions. Well guess what? Yes, staff do need to justify their decisions to me when these affect my care.

And don’t get me started on the difference or lack thereof between one-on-one and extra care. They’re both just sums of money the institution receives for a client. Yes, some clients have more one-on-one hours or extra care hours or whatever than I do, some even having 24-hour one-on-one. However, these sums of money are based on average amounts of care a client needs. If a client has 24/7 one-on-one (which none of the clients at that home had), it means they on average need one staff with them all the time, but sometimes two and sometimes briefly none. I at the time had seven hours of extra care/one-on-one support a day and my support coordinator claimed that my day schedule at the time spanned nine hours. There are various reasons why firstly this wasn’t true and secondly it doesn’t mean I had two hours of support that wasn’t being paid for, but don’t get me started on that…

Trying to Celebrate Small Wins #JusJoJan

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. I have been struggling with mixed feelings about my day schedule and the things I accomplish or don’t accomplish during the day. Sometimes, I feel like there’s been quite a lot I’ve done, but on other days, I focus on the hours I’ve spent staring at the wall.

The difference isn’t just dependent on how much I actually did in terms of crafting, cooking, walking, reading, etc. It’s sometimes also a matter of perspective. I mean, I spent most of my allowed activity time slots just chatting with staff today. I could focus on that and on the fact that, with some help, I could’ve turned them so much more productive. Then again, I could also focus on the things I did achieve. Today, for example, I crafted a polymer clay snake.

It frustrates me to no end that my day activity goal is so vague that it’ll be achieved regardless of what I do or don’t accomplish during the day. I had worded the main goal myself, saying I’d like to do at least one meaningful activity each day. To this, however, my then assigned staff added examples, including dice games, and a caveat that if it looks like I’m in distress or tired, the staff can suggest doing smalltalk or extra moments to lie in bed, saying everyone needs rest. By this logic, each day is meaningful even if I’d spent it entirely in bed.

And that’s not entirely untrue. What makes it untrue is the part where staff decide for me which activities give me meaning and when it’s appropriate for me not to engage in them. In other words, it’s worded as an excuse for staff not to help me find and engage in meaningful activities. If I chose to lie in bed all day, like I did last September when sick with probable COVID, it’s quite different from all the times staff have suggested I lie down. If I chose to be lazy, it’d be on me, but if the staff choose to be lazy and twist it to mean they’re meeting my needs, we’re having quite a different situation.

I do try to celebrate the small wins though. Like today’s snake. That doesn’t mean I can’t wish for improvement, particularly because a lot could be improved without me getting more support hours. Would it be harder on the staff? Possibly, but not necessarily. I mean, listening to me moan about my quality of life, is no doubt exhausting to some staff too. And besides, it isn’t my task to make staff’s work day meaningful.

However, it does help me personally to focus on the things I do achieve rather than the things I don’t. I’m genuinely happy about the snake I crafted. Yesterday, I even did two crafty activities and met my movement goal on my Apple Watch by walking. I try to celebrate that. Celebrating my small wins gives me joy.

This post was written in response to today’s prompt for #JusJoJan, which is “celebrate”.

#WeekendCoffeeShare (January 3, 2026)

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. It’s nearly 9:30PM as I start typing my #WeekendCoffeeShare post, so no more coffee for me. I just had a cup of orange-flavored green tea. Feel free to grab a cup of your favorite beverage and let’s chat.

If we were having coffee, first I’d talk about the weather. It’s cold, windy and snowy thanks to weather phenomenon Anna in Scandinavia. I can deal with the cold, but the wind and snow are rather annoying.

If we were having coffee, then I’d share that I haven’t really been moving much lately. I signed up for the free trial of Apple Fitness+ a few weeks ago, but canceled it on Thursday because it kept getting in my way when I tried to change my workout type on my Apple Watch. Not that I’ve done much other than walking, but I did try to dance once and somehow my watch kept messing up.

If we were having coffee, next I’d say that I’ve been struggling quite badly over the past few days. My day schedule is still a never-ending battle, I still haven’t heard from the Center for Consultation and Expertise consultant and on top of that the behavior specialist responsible for my home will be going on maternity leave soon. Yesterday, I also found out that I won’t be getting a new assigned staff now that my assigned staff is going to be my support coordinator. It wouldn’t have been a problem, had she had enough time in her work week to be both support coordinator for ten clients and my assigned staff, but she doesn’t. Staff keep saying I can go to any staff with my concerns, but this is actually not going to work for me with everyone having different opinions and no-one ever taking responsibility for so-called team decisions.

I had a meltdown over this whole thing yesterday. Staff kept arguing with me that I am too needy of my assigned staff and I have the capacity to understand the staffing situation so I don’t need an assigned staff. That last comment was made when I said the other clients often cling to their assigned staff people too. I’m honestly fed up with all the claims that I’m fundamentally different from every other client.

If we were having coffee, I would share that I quit Morning Pages already. I started on January 1, but last night hardly slept at all, so I decided I was lying down after breakfast again. Besides, the app I used won’t let me browse entries with VoiceOver, so I can never read what I wrote. Not that you’re supposed to for a while when you’re truly doing The Artist’s Way, but eventually I wish I could check back.

If we were having coffee, I’d finally share something positive: I’ve been crafting again this past week. On Tuesday, I made yet another polymer clay cheer up frog and, on Thursday, I made a unicorn with seed beads for its eyes. The frog, I once again made in record time: just over twenty minutes. And it’s awesome.

Yesterday, I was talking to my assigned staff / support coordinator about possibly making the unicorns and cheer up frogs to be sold at the care agency gift shop in the next town. The reason I went into it wasn’t altogether positive, namely the fact that another resident now has to pay for support to accompany him to his football and I’m scared that, eventually, the higher-ups will decide polymer clay isn’t “work” so I’ll have to pay for one-on-one support with that too. However, I do like the idea.

#WeekendCoffeeShare (December 20, 2025)

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. I’m joining #WeekendCoffeeShare once again. It’s 7:30PM, so no more coffee for me today. If you’d like to grab a cup of your favorite beverage though, feel free to. Let’s have a drink and let’s catch up.

If we were having coffee, first I’d talk about the weather. It’s still been warm for this time of year. Today, the daytime high was 7°C and that’s the lowest daytime temp we’ve had all week but it’s still considered above normal. We had some rain, but not too much and none is in the forecast for the next ten days.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’m still meeting my movement goal each day, but I’m not nearly as physically active as I was over the summer. Not that I care. My cardio fitness level according to my Apple Watch is back in the below-average rather than low range. I doubt that’s correct. My sleep scores are also amazing most days. That makes me wonder why I wake up tired almost everyday.

If we were having coffee, then I’d share that I’ve had quite a productive week this past week. On Tuesday, I decided to put up a little Christmas decoration in my room after all. These are all my own polymer clay creations, though only the gingerbread figure is new.

Today, I finally created another cheer up frog. In case you don’t know, when several staff were on sick leave last spring, I created polymer clay frogs to cheer them up, the frog being a pun on the Dutch word for “cheer up” (“opkikker”), which has the word for frog (“kikker”) in it. One of the staff who’d gotten one last spring, asked for another one last September, but then we had an argument causing her to withdraw from my care. This staff is retiring in a few weeks, so when we had talked things over, I told her she’d get her “opkikker” after all.

However, by that time I was out of the right color of green polymer clay. I finally ordered new clay three weeks ago, but it took the store two weeks to get it delivered to me. By this time, I’d just ordered from another store. Now I have three packages of tropical green Fimo. This is alright, since I’ve since promised several more staff an “opkikker”.

If we were having coffee, I’d share that I also did quite a bit of cooking and baking over the past week. I cooked another chicken curry last Tuesday and baked a custard cake on Wednesday.

Yesterday, the same staff who went to the market with me last week, worked my afternoon activity. He had said last week that he didn’t particularly like the market, so I hadn’t asked him to go with me again, but he came up with it himself yesterday. This time, I bought olives again, but also peppersweets. I had no idea what these are and they tasted quite different than I’d expected, but they were delicious. I also bought fried chicken and mixed salad greens. Later in the afternoon, I prepared a salad using the olives, peppersweets, salad greens and also some onion and bell pepper I’d grabbed out of the care home fridge. It was absolutely delish.

If we were having coffee, I’d share that, yesterday, I attended the town’s annual Christmas lights walk. Two years ago, the staff were being difficult about me attending because it doesn’t end until 7:45PM and my activity time slot ends at 7:15. I made it very clear that I’m willing to think of ways I can cope without one-on-one, but my day schedule shouldn’t be an excuse not to include me. On Thursday, when the staff asked me whether I wanted to attend, i once again made sure they understood this. It was quite an enjoyable walk, though it’d been more enjoyable in previous years.

If we were having coffee, lastly I’d ask for positive thoughts regarding the changes to staffing that will take effect next month. My assigned staff (who is also in training to become a support coordinator), today did reassure me that my day schedule isn’t at risk. I hope she’s right.

#WeekendCoffeeShare (December 13, 2025)

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. I’m joining #WeekendCoffeeShare again. I’m starting this post at 5:35PM as my iPhone is upgrading to iOS 26. I’ll probably finish this post after my evening coffee at 7PM. By the look of it, the iPhone update might not even have been completed by then, as my Internet is incredibly slow. Anyway, let’s have a drink and let’s catch up.

If we were having coffee, first I’d talk about the weather. Early in the week, the daytime highs were like 14°C and we had a little rain. No more rain today or yesterday and the temps have dropped to 10°C. That’s still warm for this time of year.

If we were having coffee, then I’d share that I’m still going strong meeting my movement goals on my Apple Watch and it’s now finally decided to actually add days to my streak. I broke my streak record a few days ago. The previous record was 309 days and it was set in June of 2023. However, of course I cheated with this one, as I paused my rings while sick last September.

If we were having coffee, then I’d tell you this week is a mixed bag. Early in the week, I found out that, as of next month, all self-employed temp workers will be let go. That’s understandable, as a self-employed person actually doing the same things as regular employees, is considered tax evasion on the part of the employer (in this case the care agency). The Tax Service had originally planned on handing out fines for this starting this year, but due to the problems in care and other sectors, it postponed this a year. I had known that this was going to happen for years, but due to the care agency’s careless attitude, hadn’t been sure that the care agency was actually going to follow through this time.

On Monday, one of the regular staff here, who is responsible for planning, said it’s indeed true and that this will likely lead to more staffing issues and possible cuts to our care. Other staff have been reassuring that my one-on-one hours have already been approved until late 2026 and I need not worry about cuts to my one-on-one. All this makes me quite worried regardless, as I’m just now learning to actually fill my one-on-one with enjoyable or meaningful activities.

If we were having coffee, then I’d talk about these meaningful activities. On Monday, I finished the Christmas decorations I crafted last week. No photo of the individual pieces, sorry, as my staff hung them on the branch that we use to decorate for the seasons before I remembered to snap a picture. I do, however, have a few pictures of the entire scene.


As a side note, my staff also borrowed some of my clay cutters for creating more decorations. These, I believe she is now finishing and will be putting up soon.

If we were having coffee, next I’d tell you that, yesterday, I visited the next town’s market again. I love going to this market, which is quiet enough that I don’t get overloaded yet there are enough stalls to buy all of the things I’d like to buy. I had fried shrimp at the fish stand. Well, one of two fish stands, actually. It turned out I usually go to the other one and like that one better, but I was with a staff who’d never been to this market. I also bought olives, mixed nuts and candy.

If we were having coffee, lastly I’d share that I finally got my mother-in-law’s access to my records at the care agency revoked. I had originally asked that she’d be given access because, for some stupid reason, the powers-that-be wouldn’t give me access. Their reasoning was that it’d lead to too much distress, something I now realize isn’t grounds enough for denying a patient access to their own records. However, due to this decision, for many years, nobody had access to my records, so the staff could basically write down whatever they liked. That’s why eventually I asked my mother-in-law be given access. Not that she ever reads my records or that I trust her to respond appropriately if she does. Now nobody has access again, but I’m soon going to persuade the behavior specialist and manager to give me access after all.