Shrewd Shopper or Hopeless Hoarder?

So here's an example of the difference between me and my husband. We were out shopping and I spotted these cute silicone kitchen sets.  They're the kind that can handle high heat.

Then I saw the price.

.49¢...They were only .49¢!  There were four sets left on the rack and I took great pleasure in buying all of them.

Chris did not understand why I would buy all 4. At that price I probably would have bought 10 sets!

I'm using one, I'll give a set to my son John David for his apartment, keep one in reserve and give the last one to my mom or neighbor.

Would you have bought 4 or more of these because of the extreme mark down or would you have just been 1 and done?
 

Just Springtime in Michigan

I was so excited to see my little daffodils pop their head up on Monday.

Then I woke up in the middle of the night with the power out. We had gotten about 2 inches of snow. Poor daffodils.

And poor me! Our power didn't come on until about 2 yesterday afternoon.

Chloe woke me up to let me know she did not appreciate the cold house.  It got down to 53 degrees in here!

I found a cool 1980's throwback to keep me warm. Please excuse my derp face!

Thank you Merino sheep for giving me this lovely snug sack to keep warm in.

Finally I have to show you the area of our power outage as diagrammed by DTE Energy.

My house is located near the tip end, lol.
 

A Major Life Accomplishment

For the first time in my 46 years I have finished a lip balm before I lost it.

I figure why not celebrate life's little victories!

Suicide Watch: My Story

I never got to see John David in this costume. It was for a first grade play he was in. My mom made it for him and took this picture. I was in the hospital. I had tried to commit suicide.

Do you see the sadness in my son's eyes? He didn't know what I had done, he just knew that his life had been turned upside down and everyone he loved was letting him down. Terrifying him.

My ex-husband, his father, and I were in the midst of our divorce. His father was having an affair and left us. I had an undiagnosed mental illness and I was an active alcoholic.

John David saw a lot of screaming, sobbing, so much anger. John David once called 911 because he thought I was going to hurt his father. The things he saw, you can see reflected in his eyes.  John was 7, Jack only 3 1/2. Luckily Jack's memory of this time is much more fuzzy, but of course he bears his own scars.

In my mind, I thought my boys would be better off without me. I was so absorbed in my own pain, I didn't realize how my death would make things so very much worse for the boys I was trying to protect.

Obviously my suicide attempt didn't work. I am SO unbelievably lucky.

I have spent every day since that day trying to make up for that look in my son's eyes. Trying to make his pain go away. Trying to fix the sins of the past.  But it doesn't work like that.  I can't fix it for him.

But I can share my story. I can tell you that even though it was awful, we made it. I am incredibly close to my two young men.  I have worked like hell to make them know that there would be one constant in their life.  That no matter what, I will be there for them.  And I am.

There are too many families who are not as lucky as we are. Mental illness is insidious, it can be black, painful, overwhelming. For one moment, it even eclipsed my love of my boys.

But I'm still here. My boys are adults now who know about all of the secrets of my past. I want them to be aware that both mental illness and alcoholism can have a hereditary component.

I want you to all know that mental illness is real. I'm sure you know someone who lives with it and suffers from it.  One reason I'm writing this is because someone very close to me "doesn't buy" this whole mental illness thing. They think it's just an excuse for being weak.

Mental illness has not made me weak, it has made me strong. I don't have everything all figured out yet, not by a long shot. But I do know that I will never willingly leave my sons and my husband. It's the kind of strength that has been forged by fire. We all have our scars, but I refuse to try to hide mine.

I'm hoping that by shining a spotlight on this part of my life I can start to let it go. To stop punishing myself for my actions. And maybe in doing so, just one person will hold on a little longer. Maybe one person will change the way they view mental illness.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. Feel free to share it. I'm not looking to get a bunch of clicks, to up page views, I'm just hoping maybe someone in your life will read it too.

Do You Have A Superpower?

Pearls Before Swine

I think we all have superpowers and I'll be talking about that more here on Screaming Mimi. Some superpowers are useful and some are useless.

One of my most useless superpowers is the ability to grow a perfect set of nails. Colors have been inspiring me a lot lately, so I've been taking the time to paint my nails fun colors. Sometimes I look down at my pretty little nails and think 'eh, at least it's something!

What's one of your useless superpowers?

Hello! Happy Spring

Hi, is anyone still out there in Mimiland?

Take a look around, I've given the blog a fresh spring makeover, I hope you like it.

I've spent the past several years focusing on my pet blogs and now I feel like it may be time to devote some time to Screaming Mimi.

I'm at a turning point in my life right now. You could call it a mid-life crisis, but I'm trying to look at it as the beginning of my next chapter.

John, me, Jack

I say 'trying' because I'm still dealing with the changes that got me here.  My boys are young men. 

John and Ed

John is 22 and living with his boyfriend Ed about 45 minutes away. He's been gone a little over a year but I'm still not used to it and I still miss him every day.

Jack

Jack spends 50% of his time at his dad's house. Add to that the fact that he's 18, a Senior year in high school with a job and an adorable girlfriend and that doesn't leave much time for dear old mom no matter how you slice it.

Jack and Rachel

They're busy, they don't need their mumma like they used to. *wah wah*

Chris and me

Since I don't have a job I have way too much time on my hands. I have to find new projects to focus on.  Hopefully the first one will be beginning my personal makeover.

Compared to most of my peers I had my kids young. At 46 I have the opportunity to figure out who I am. I can to focus on getting myself healthy mentally and physically, determine what I want to do next and spend time with Chris focusing on our relationship.

Hopefully 2014 will be the year I finally get a life!

*I'm waiting for my signature to be added to my new design

Hugs & Love,
Mimi

Literally Doesn't Mean Literally Any More, Literally.

*BOOSH*

While you listen to the sound of my head exploding, check out this fantastic post by KQED.org

Great writing and of course Calvin and Hobbes make everything better!

I'm still doing great and taking positive steps forward, so thanks for all of your support.