Josh, Anna, M'Kids 21: This Thread Can Drink Now

[CTRLZero]

2 hours ago, SassyPants said:

I’m retired, and the no sleeping thing really pisses me off. Finally when I can sleep in, I no longer have the ability to even sleep through the night.

Isn't that the pits?  I'm retired, and every time I have a late night out (rare) I tell myself, "Well, I can sleep in!"  Then I wake up at the crack of dawn anyway.  I do crossword puzzles or listen to audio books, which does help get me to sleep in the first place, but I haven't slept in for ages.

[viii]

I don't remember the last time I had a good's night rest. I just can't sleep anymore. I don't fall asleep until after midnight on work days, and then on the weekends when I think I'll be able to "catch up", I'm wiiiiide awake before 7 am. It's so frustrating. 

I think I'm going to start to implement a no screen time half an hour before bed and see if that helps with falling asleep. My issue is I think I can't sleep, so I go on YouTube, and then I'm sucked down a YouTube hole until midnight. 

[Peaches-n-Beans]

12 hours ago, Gobbles said:

I had huge problems with falling asleep. Like it took hours for me. I couldn't get my brain to stop thinking. Since I found my new technique it takes me less than 10 minutes. I listen to a audio book (nothing to exciting, something I know in and out, currently fairy tales) and the thing is that you have to turn the volume really low, so that you are barely able to hear and that you need to concentrate on it to understand. That gives my brain something to do, problem solved.

I love this trick! I use it all the time. Only ever one audiobook though, Jurassic park

[Zebedee]

" I pity any girl who was named after the Greek goddess Isis as well. "[messed up quote]

Ha, my boyfriend has just come back from visiting his goddaughter Isis this weekend. She's 7, and we all lived in Oxford (by the river Isis) so we have quite a different association with that name Namely, lots of cheering on of our friends in the boats, while we either shuddered in the cold and mud or sunbathed in glorious weather, with plenty of Pimm's to keep us going.

In all fairness, with a local river being the Isis, and an Egyptologist parent, her name was almost a foregone conclusion. And Isis was a badass. (Also helps that Isis were most frequently referred to here as Daesh or ISIL).

Personally, though I now live in Germany, where they do actually have naming laws,I've met as many people with "outre" names here as in the UK (just not weird names for people, like Apple, or Peaches - which, TBF, are fairly OK). OTOH, in between naming my pets Zebedee, Wieland, Freddie and Wolfgang (i.e. "people" names) I also have Feather, Pliny, Brie, Butters(cotch), Parsnip etc. The sound of the name, how it fits the character, with surname, and its meaning/inspiration is the important thing (even though I realise my pet naming etiquette is not exactly equivalent to person naming - but I think I'd do the same with human kids too). 

In the UK, we have no laws about names - 99.99999% a good thing. But, like in Germany, Finland etc, there is always an idiot who thinks calling their kid "Adolf Stalin" or "Depends Pampers" or "LittleShit Twat" is a great idea. I'm glad some countries have laws against that.

Using unusual, non-offensive words, like Freedom (as mentioned above, can't remember who by now) as names is perfectly acceptable even with most naming laws. But if you want to call yourkid something that literally translates into "Massive Orange Turd" in your local language, you might want to know bout it before you make it official (and consider a slightly different name). I guess we'll see, in 20 years' time, when a load of young Donalds make their political shoots...

[scoutsadie]

11 hours ago, viii said:

I don't remember the last time I had a good's night rest. I just can't sleep anymore. I don't fall asleep until after midnight on work days, and then on the weekends when I think I'll be able to "catch up", I'm wiiiiide awake before 7 am. It's so frustrating. 

I think I'm going to start to implement a no screen time half an hour before bed and see if that helps with falling asleep. My issue is I think I can't sleep, so I go on YouTube, and then I'm sucked down a YouTube hole until midnight. 

I hope that works for you!

I have another trick that is more physical than mental, so it might help. It is a series of slow breaths in the 4-5-7 pattern, which is supposed to tell your body to prepare for sleep.

First, take a slow breath in for four seconds. Then hold is for five seconfs, and then let it out slowly for seven seconds. Repeat.

[Giraffe]

Wow! I’m going to try listening to Harry Potter really low & the deep breathing tonight and see if it helps. I’m a horrible sleeper!

[kiwi]

Honestly a 10 min bedtime beginners yoga is working wonders for me at the moment. “SarahBethYoga” on youtube has heaps. Working my way up to 20 minutes before bed and 10-20mins in the morning if I have time.

[Ivycoveredtower]

On 11/28/2019 at 12:08 PM, Cora Persephona said:

I'm curious to see how they pronounce it. I've heard Mariella pronounced mah-ree-EH-lah, and it seems nice to me. I'm not a big fan if it's pronounced exactly like you would expect Mary Ella to be pronounced, but it's not my kid. I agree that they will call her Ella.

As for Ella being too similar to Bella, I don't think I'd change a name I liked at the last minute just because an in law named her kid something similar.  I wouldn't name my second child Ella if I already had a Bella, but for cousins I don't see this being as much of a problem. In any case, if they keep reproducing at this rate Josie will not have a decent name left by the time she starts naming kids.

On tonight's episode of counting on Si and lauren did there gender reveal and announced the name this would have been before josh and Anna even knew they were having a girl and before grandma died so Josh and Anna knew what they were doing when they went with the Ella name 

 

I honestly don't care that they are similar just pointing out that Josh and Anna did know Si and Lauren's choice before picking Maryella's name

Edited December 4, 2019 by Ivycoveredtower

[Irishy]

I knew a girl at school named Isis. She had an Egyptian parent. But her name was/is pronounced Izz-ees so presumably she doesn’t have too many problems with association. 

[Cora Persephona]

10 hours ago, Ivycoveredtower said:

On tonight's episode of counting on Si and lauren did there gender reveal and announced the name this would have been before josh and Anna even knew they were having a girl and before grandma died so Josh and Anna knew what they were doing when they went with the Ella name 

 

I honestly don't care that they are similar just pointing out that Josh and Anna did know Si and Lauren's choice before picking Maryella's name

OK, fair point, not sure why I assumed this was a last minute thing. They might have decided on Maryella before Siren announced and even if they decided afterwards they might not even have put 2 and 2 together, who knows? In any case, I think we will keep seeing similar names in the future at the rate they are having kids, and if it's just cousins I don't see a problem.

Now if Siren keep having girls and name them Cella, Della and Ella I will snark on them.

 

[Ivycoveredtower]

18 minutes ago, Cora Persephona said:

OK, fair point, not sure why I assumed this was a last minute thing. They might have decided on Maryella before Siren announced and even if they decided afterwards they might not even have put 2 and 2 together, who knows? In any case, I think we will keep seeing similar names in the future at the rate they are having kids, and if it's just cousins I don't see a problem.

Now if Siren keep having girls and name them Cella, Della and Ella I will snark on them.

 

I think they just liked Maryella and just did not care. Anna laid out the whole naming process in a recent post. She said they had it narrowed down to three names and then grandma died and they wanted to honor her but not just use Mary  because basically that would be hard to live up tooso they kept throwing a bunch of name combos around and both she and josh liked Maryella

[just_ordinary]

14 hours ago, kiwi said:

Honestly a 10 min bedtime beginners yoga is working wonders for me at the moment. “SarahBethYoga” on youtube has heaps. Working my way up to 20 minutes before bed and 10-20mins in the morning if I have time.

You might want to try out the 20minute bedtime yoga by yogawithadrienne. I do it on the bed so I can go to sleep straight away.

I definitely should try to do it again. I (and my sleep) miss it.

[nausicaa]

13 hours ago, Giraffe said:

Wow! I’m going to try listening to Harry Potter really low & the deep breathing tonight and see if it helps. I’m a horrible sleeper!

I've been struggling with sleep as well (stupid ADD medication...) and the following have helped a bit:

1. Invest in a really good pillow ("Good" being relative to your typical sleeping position.)

2. No screen time before bed. (And I'm working on being consistent with a wind down routine involving reading, stretching, and skincare to alert my body to get ready to sleep.)

3. Keep your room a bit colder than is typically comfortable. 

4. Taking a bath right before bed helps me a lot too. 

[missaudrey]

21 hours ago, Giraffe said:

Wow! I’m going to try listening to Harry Potter really low & the deep breathing tonight and see if it helps. I’m a horrible sleeper!

I’ve been listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks before bed for the last 15 years! It’s the only thing guaranteed to send me to sleep. Before starting this routine I used to take at least 2 hours to fall asleep, now it’s less than half an hour.

[mollysmom]

Probably a dumb question but I honestly don't know the answer. How do you guys listen to audiobooks? I would love to do that. Is that something I can do on my phone or laptop? (apparently I'm 42 going on 97 lol) 

[Audrey2]

10 minutes ago, mollysmom said:

Probably a dumb question but I honestly don't know the answer. How do you guys listen to audiobooks? I would love to do that. Is that something I can do on my phone or laptop? (apparently I'm 42 going on 97 lol) 

Do you have a library card? if so, you can put the Libby app on your phone and use it to check out e-books, that is if your library does them, and I think most do. You can also check out library books on CD and play those. I listen to them constantly in my car. Libraries are a great resource to get help like that.

basically, what you do is put the Libby app on your phone and then find your library system and put your library card number in. It's my experience that each library system has slightly different rules on downloads. after your library number is in, then you get the magnifying glass at the top to search books and look for the ones that have the little headphones which are the audio books. Tap on one that looks interesting and then hit download. the library system that I tend to get most of my downloads from allow you to keep items for 3 weeks and then they disappear from your phone or tablet or computer. Another system I've been involved in has a default setting of two weeks for materials that you were on hold for but if there were no holds typically you can get something for 3 weeks.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Audrey2

[mollysmom]

Wow! Thank you so much @Audrey2! I had no idea! I'm going to check that out right now!

Hmm...I don't think the libraries in my county have that (?) I just looked to see if I could find an app for any of them in my county but I don't see anything!

[KeepingChrysanthemum]

4 minutes ago, mollysmom said:

Wow! Thank you so much @Audrey2! I had no idea! I'm going to check that out right now!

You can also listen via Hoopla and your library card. It's also an app and has a different selection than Libby. I use both Hoopla and Libby frequently. 

[Kelsey]

@mollysmom I put audiobook in the YouTube search function and then select something.

[QuiverFullofBooks]

You can buy audiobooks from Amazon and listen to them through the Audible app.

[mollysmom]

Wow! Thank you guys! I had no idea! I feel like a whole new world just opened up to me. I need to check this out right now! Thank you!

[church_of_dog]

15 minutes ago, mollysmom said:

Wow! Thank you guys! I had no idea! I feel like a whole new world just opened up to me. I need to check this out right now! Thank you!

I use an app called Overdrive instead of Libby.  I think they are really similar.  Go to your library's website and look for Libby or Overdrive.  Or call/go in to ask in person.

Most people use these apps on a phone or ipad, but you can also use it on a laptop if that's what works best for you.

When it's quiet, as it hopefully is when you're trying to sleep, you might not need headphones or earbuds to listen on your device.  But if you want to listen during the day as you walk around or knit or whatever, you will probably want to invest in earbuds, either wired or wireless depending on your needs.

You are correct, a whole new world HAS opened up!  May you become as hooked on audiobooks as I have! 

 

ETA forgot to add that Audible is fine but Libby/Overdrive or actual discs from your library is free!

Edited December 5, 2019 by church_of_dog

[Peaches-n-Beans]

I love audible so much, I was a dog walker for a long time and that's when I really got into audiobooks, I listened to so many, and still do when I walk my dogs or am out and about.

[ifosterkittens]

My library uses Overdrive for ebooks and CloudLibrary for ebooks and audiobooks. I love downloading a few audiobooks for a road trip, and being able to listen to them whenever. I would google your library usually the name of your county (i.e. Baker) library audiobooks, and it should guide you. If you are unsure you can always go to your local library and ask for help. My local library has the best librarians, and they are so helpful. The services they provide are incredible, and free. 

Sorry this is redundant @church_of_dog covered it much more throughly. 

Edited December 6, 2019 by HA88
Added more

[mollysmom]

30 minutes ago, HA88 said:

My library uses Overdrive for ebooks and CloudLibrary for ebooks and audiobooks. I love downloading a few audiobooks for a road trip, and being able to listen to them whenever. I would google your library usually the name of your county (i.e. Baker) library audiobooks, and it should guide you. If you are unsure you can always go to your local library and ask for help. My local library has the best librarians, and they are so helpful. The services they provide are incredible, and free. 

Sorry this is redundant @church_of_dog covered it much more throughly. 

No! Please don't be sorry! I appreciate your answer! I appreciate everyone's input. This is brand new to me & I'm excited about it!