#WeekendCoffeeShare (July 4, 2026)

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. I’m joining #WeekendCoffeeShare again. It’s nearly 10PM as I start typing this post and I’ll soon need to brush my teeth, but I’ll finish this post before going off to bed. I just had my cup of green tea. If you’d like something to drink either hot or cold, feel free to and let’s chat.

If we were having coffee, first I’d talk about the weather. The heatwave has thankfully ended and we now usually have daytime highs of about 24°C, sometimes even cooler. It’s been quite windy and occasionally rainy too, so I’ve actually even been wearing my jeans again.

If we were having coffee, then I’d tell you that, obviously, I didn’t meet my June monthly challenge goal on my Apple Watch and I didn’t get the perfect month award. So far in July, I’m still meeting my movement goal each day, but I’m not expecting to make it to a perfect month this time either.

I did ride the side-by-side bike to the next town’s market again yesterday. It had been months since I visited the market, but the guy behind the olive stall did recognize me.

If we were having coffee, then I’d tell you all that I celebrated my birthday at the care home on Wednesday. It was a bit difficult. I’d had big plans for baking two cheesecakes and making a pasta bake for the entire home (20 residents). The cheesecakes were a success, but during the pasta bake preparation process, there were some bumps in the road. However, in the end both were delicious! Yes, even the fellow resident who always complains about food being too spicy, loved my pasta arrabbiata bake. I’d made it once before but had then deseeded the peppers. Not this time.

Caramel cheesecake
Pasta bake

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’ve also been quite crafty recently, particularly early in the week. I crafted two small butterflies out of polymer clay (using a mold), to be turned into earrings later. When my one-on-one for the moment saw my other molds, she wanted to use a bigger butterfly mold that I hadn’t used in years. She proposed to use multiple colors in a marbling technique and chose eight all very different colors, including both yellow and purple. I know a little about color theory and said yellow mixed with purple becomes a horrible brownish color. My staff said that, if the butterfly turned brownish, she’d take it home and display it on her fridge. I ended up giving it to her regardless, but it didn’t turn ugly! I do take the credit for being careful not to overmix the colors, though in hindsight I might’ve undermixed them for the effect she wanted.

Polymer clay butterfly

If we were having coffee, I’d share that this crafty endeavor made me decide to order several other small earring molds. My sister had gifted me a voucher for one of my favorite clay supplies shops and I spent it on molds, cutters and also two new colors of acrylic paint. One of the paints was named sorbet and I had absolutely no idea what color that’s supposed to be. I now realize I could’ve had AI describe the image on the website, but I ordered the color and only discovered that it’s a kind of pink once it arrived.

If we were having coffee, I’d finally share that specialized client support contacted the behavior specialist and they’re now going to get back to me. When I found out they wanted to talk to the behavior specialist, I feared my care agency was going to hijack the entire process. I’m still not convinced that they aren’t, particularly since finding out yesterday that the team leader had informed the staff that I’m leaving before I’d even gotten a clear idea of the consequences of the meeting with the substitute behavior specialist in which she’d posed the question whether I’m in the right place here. It doesn’t help that staff are making all kinds of assumptions about what kind of place would be better suited to me and what I find most important. The truth is, my main requirement is that a future placement’s team, including higher-ups, truly wants to understand and accommodate my needs. I don’t want to have to move again in two or three years.

Crafting Lately: A Unicorn and Another “Cheer Up Frog”

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. It’s nearly 11PM as I type this and I originally didn’t intend on writing a blog post today. Then, however, I learned that WordPress is intending on phasing out the classic editor (thanks Di for the heads-up) I almost exclusively use the classic editor, so I’m, well, quite a bit upset. Now I’m having to learn not only to write blog posts without using my Braille display, but also in the dreaded block editor. I could turn this into a challenge though and see what I can still do. For this reason, I’m writing a post in the block editor. And to make it extra challenging, I’m writing a crafty post, so that I’ll have to include images.

In truth, I haven’t been all that crafty lately. However, last week, a new staff was being oriented to me. The regular staff accompanying her is a great crafter, so I made use of this fact and decided to do polymer clay again. I started out making a unicorn. It’s the same style I usually use, but I did get compliments on the color combination, which I chose. The body is done using Fimo Soft in the color pastel vanilla and the horn, mane and tail are done using Fimo soft in the color pastel peach. The unicorn has a decorative flower on its side in the color pastel light pink, but I don’t think the picture captures it.

This unicorn, I did mostly with help from the regular staff while the new one was watching. Then, I made another little sculpture together with the new staff. I wasn’t too inspired, so chose the “cheer up frog”. For those who don’t know, I make frog figures for people who need a little cheering because they’re on sick leave or for another reason could use a little reminder of the good things in life. The Dutch word for “cheer up” is derived from the Dutch word for “frog”.

I added a decorative clover figure to its belly, but in hindsight could’ve gone with a larger size. My best friend also commented that the standard tropical green gets a little boring. One thing I did to challenge myself is to add seed beads to the eyes rather than my standard black dots.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with polymer clay. However, now that I’m sharing these on the blog, I’m struggling to put the blocks in the right order. Ugh, this is definitely a learning curve! And now it’s past midnight, so I’ll have to figure out whether I want to publish this post on Monday or change the publication date. And by the way, it looks like the images are somehow hidden behind my text. This definitely sucks!

March 2026 In Review

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. It’s the last day of the month and that means I’m joining Natalie for her monthly wrap-up. March was a tough month. As I say this, I hear a little voice in my head saying I’ll never be happy anyway as I’m so negative. One of my staff on Sunday said I have nothing to complain about because I get regular support workers and my day schedule is followed. I still wonder how much of my dissatisfaction is indeed due to circumstances that can be changed, such as my day schedule, how much is due to the inherent nature of my being multiply-disabled and living in long-term care and how much is my attitude.

In any case, early in the month I heard that my activity-based day schedule would be taking effect on April 1. That’s tomorrow. Unfortunately, on the same day, the staff’s hours are going to change and this, even though the literal hours they are in the home won’t be cut, means my support will be cut a little. We’ll see how that goes.

I tried to adapt to the new support hours already and this was incredibly hard. I also tried to myself follow a schedule with more meaningful activities. This was partly successful, especially with staff who are already able to help me get more meaningful activities done. For example, last week, one of the staff helped me create a unicorn-themed card for a former fellow resident from the intensive support home, who had her birthday that day.

Thankfully, one staff, with whom until then I’d only been doing dice games and going for walks, herself took the initiative to ask a colleague to orient her to the polymer clay activity.

I have been cooking and baking more than I used to. For example, I baked so-called “healthy” brownies that I fully intended on handing out at the monthly local brain injury meet-up. They weren’t all that good though.

Later, I found out I had a Trojan on my computer that came with the recipe manager app I used to download random recipes off Facebook into, including this “healthy” brownie recipe.

Before I found out I had malware on my computer, I had been obsessing over the idea of cooking vegetarian curries. Most of the recipes, I got off English-language food websites like BBC Good Food, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to use them. After all, though my English is quite good, my staff’s might not be.

Last Saturday, I cooked a delicious cauliflower, tomato and chickpea curry. This recipe was in Dutch, by the way.

Now that I look over this post, I wonder what made the month so tough, given that I once again did more meaningful activities than I used to. I do believe part of the problem is the fact that I’m still not adequately supported when I’m struggling. I mean, highs and lows are to be expected even when you’re having the proverbial time of your life. When people expect me to have a positive outlook because “I have nothing to complain about”, that is horribly invalidating. Life in the care system isn’t great and it isn’t meant to be. I don’t expect to ever rate my days higher than a seven out of ten, but when staff do have this expectation of me, it’s incredibly frustrating. I’m hoping something can be done about this.

Of course, this was also the month I finally realized I’ll never have an okay relationship with my parents. It’s tough realizing I never experienced a proper bond with my parents and even tougher to know that no-one can replace it. However, I do think I’m more capable than I used to believe. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

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 (February 6, 2026)

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. I’m joining #WeekendCoffeeShare again. No more coffee for me today, as it’s nearly 8PM. Please grab yourself a cup of your favorite beverage though and let’s chat.

If we were having coffee, first I’d talk about the weather. It’s been all over the place. We’ve had rain, sunshine, temperatures around 9°C and freezing nights. In the province of Groningen, there was a code red weather warning for ice.

If we were having coffee, then I’d share that I haven’t been very physically active again this past week. That is, I did go for walks almost each day, but I didn’t do any other exercise.

If we were having coffee, I would share that I however was quite crafty over the week. I made a bracelet and tried making another one. I also tried to work with a texture mat on polymer clay for the first time today. The result was interesting.

If we were having coffee, then I’d tell you that the homemade granola I baked last week was a great success. I made another batch on Wednesday, this time adding instant coffee. This one didn’t turn out as awesome as the previous one and I’m not sure whether it’s the nuts maybe having gotten slightly burned or it’s the coffee flavor not matching well with the other flavors. I gave some to a fellow resident who likes trying homemade food, but he didn’t like it.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I finally heard from the Center for Consultation and Expertise (CCE) consultant. I received a short note describing recommendations she’d make to my care team. She’s going to provide continuing education to the care team on these things.

I don’t know how to feel about the whole thing. On the one hand, I’d like to see her saying she’s going to educate the team as a sign that I don’t need to change but the team’s approach to me does. On the other hand, it still stings that she hardly spoke to me and not at all without the staff being present. I still have quite a lot of questions, but her work with me has ended with this letter.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that the occupational therapist came by here this week to shed some light on ways to help me cope with my hand tremors. She hoped a weighted wristband would help. I was initially quite optimistic, but on the first try when my hand was trembling, I noticed it not only made no difference in that respect, but the thing was in the way when I tried to operate my iPhone.

I from noticing that got rather frustrated once again about the doctor not being clear about what causes these tremors. She claims it’s aging, stress and maybe medication, yet refuses to taper my meds more quickly. I’m kind of worried that, like the CCE consultant and practically everyone involved in my care, she’s not giving me the full story. I know I have a right to information regarding my medical care, but there are exceptions to this when the clinician believes this information would significantly harm the patient. If this is the reason I keep getting only vague comments about my medical situation, I want to tell my physician I’ve already envisioned the worst and the uncertainty is more harmful to me than it would be knowing I have, like, a neurodegenerative disease.

If we were having coffee, lastly I’d share that my ears are blocked and I hardly hear a thing out of my right ear. I will get them syringed on Sunday.

January 2026 in Review

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone on this last day of the month. I’m joining Natalie for her monthly wrap-up. I started the month with optimism, but as I write this post at nearly 10PM on the 31st, I’m struggling to remain hopeful that anything will ever get better. And is it is, life is a battle.

I fully intended to experience more in the creative and culinary departments in 2026. This was not a total failure in January, but I didn’t start off the year with the bang I’d secretly hoped for.

I did create a few things out of polymer clay this past month. I also crafted a few new bracelets and a necklace. My last crafty project, however, was over a week ago. I created a crocodile out of polymer clay. No picture, as I haven’t even baked it yet. I did make plans with one of my staff to finally create the standing unicorn sculpture I have been meaning to create forever. Let’s hope it doesn’t just remain a plan.

I also didn’t cook a main dish even once. That’s sad, but on the other hand, I did manage to bake a few things. Most recently, yesterday, I baked granola. I ate it this morning with my quark and it was delicious!

In the blogging and general writing departments, the beginning of the month was also a lot more successful than the last couple of weeks. I once again gave up on #JusJoJan pretty early on and only managed to do my Morning Pages for a few days. I do however still have a streak going on in Day One, my preferred journaling app. Granted, I only write some snippets in response to a daily template, but oh well. I still like the Gratitude app, but don’t use it as faithfully as I’d intended. Then again, I realize that pressuring myself to write everyday, isn’t helping my joy.

In other news, none of my staff nor me have heard from the Center for Consultation and Expertise (CCE) yet. On top of that, the behavior specialist went on maternity leave a few weeks ago. She has someone subbing for her, but I doubt this has been communicated clearly to the CCE. Even if it has been, I sort of believe the consultant gave up on me when she got the impression my quality of life is okay.

I realize my support coordinator and assigned staff are well-meaning and really want to help me improve, but I get the impression part of the team doesn’t believe that I deserve or need anything to change. I’m still haunted by the words of my intensive support home assigned staff. She believed that, because of my attitude, there was no way I would ever be happy anywhere. This might be partly true, though it’s not because of my attitude but because living in a neurotypical world as an autistic person is hard. However, just because I’ll never be perfectly happy, doesn’t mean no-one should try to improve my situation. Then again, maybe I’m just one giant nagger of a person.

#WeekendCoffeeShare (January 10, 2026)

Posted on by Astrid

Hi all on this freezing cold January Saturday! I’m joining #WeekendCoffeeShare again. It’s past 10:30PM, so no more coffee or any other beverage for me. This evening, I thankfully did have my favorite soft drink, an apple and peach-flavored, slightly carbonated soda called Dubbelfrisss, again. Yesterday the staff offered me the raspberry and cranberry-flavored one, which I don’t like, and I thought the apple and peach one was out of stock at the online grocery store we use. Thankfully not. Oh my, I’ve already started to ramble.

If we were having coffee, first I’d talk about the weather. It’s freakin’ cold! The entire week except for yesterday, it was snowy. Yesterday, we had rain. The daytime high was 4°C yesterday and that was the least cold it’s gotten. Tonight, we’re supposed to get temps as low as -9°C. Next week though is supposed to be rainy with daytime highs of 8°C.

If we were having coffee, then I’d share a few photos I took in my yard on Tuesday. I don’t care for making snowmen, though now I wish I’d taken pictures of the ones my fellow clients had been making. After all, I do like photographing.


If we were having coffee, next I’d tell you that my assigned staff finally plans to discuss a new day schedule with my support coordinator (the one who’s now my support coordinator anyway, as my assigned staff will be taking over from her eventually) next week. I’ll discuss my ideas with her tomorrow.

If we were having coffee, I’d share that, like i mentioned yesterday, I’ve been quite crafty again. This week, I made a necklace, a bracelet and several polymer clay things. I also photographed the unicorn I’d made last week. Did I mention that? I can’t remember. Anyway, I used seed beads for its eyes.

If we were having coffee, I’d also share that the idea of a possible new day schedule has me looking into cooking more again. I really hope that will be part of the schedule too. I’ve been obsessing over buying some new gadgets, such as a food processor.

Today, I planned on making flatbread again. I badly want to make it for all my fellow residents, not just the ones who stay at the home during day activities. Unfortunately, I was too tired and the living room was too overwhelming.

If we were having coffee, lastly I’d share that I’m sort of frustrated with my blog. I mean, the AI training robots seem to have left the building, but now I’m getting tons of E-mails through the contact form that look to be spam. I’m also struggling to comprehend the numbers of likes and comments on my posts. On some, I get tons of likes and a decent number of comments, but on others, hardly any. I tell myself this is a thing each January as people adjust to the new year and new ways of doing link-ups such as this one.

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.