Thanks C#, interesting info!

I remember a mention from a TV documentary on making sugar (Modern Marvels, perhaps?) that sugar beets are not entirely safe for consumption as-is.

Y'all have given me a lot to think about.  After reading what's here, I think what I'll do is grow regular beets, eat/juice them, and with the extras see if I can make some (pink?) sugar just to see if I can, even if it's a small amount.  I don't even have sugar in the house except during the summer to feed hummingbirds (isn't that awful of me?  I won't give it to the kids, but I'll feed it to the birds).  So even if boiling down a pot of beets gives me one cup of sugar, well....it's not a great loss because I don't use sugar anyway.  It's more an experiment.  

Quoted from Ribbit

If I'm distracted and my time is filled up making things, teaching children, putting food in the freezer and pulling weeds, I don't have to think about how bad off I really am.

I understand both sides of this "argument" since I have lived with it...  The problem I had with continuing to push is that I was continuously pushing right to the edge of exhaustive collapse...  Once I accepted that I needed to stop pushing to the edge, I realized how completely I was suppressing the body's complaints...  Unfortunately, when the body is always pushed to the edge, it doesn't have enough energy to heal.  It seems that the longer the body lives right at the edge, the more completely the exhaustion becomes, so the longer the healing process will ultimately be once you allow yourself to slow down...

I'm not going to try to tell you what is more important, just some of the things I've noticed through the process.

Quoted from ABJoe

The problem I had with continuing to push is that I was continuously pushing right to the edge of exhaustive collapse...  Once I accepted that I needed to stop pushing to the edge, I realized how completely I was suppressing the body's complaints...  Unfortunately, when the body is always pushed to the edge, it doesn't have enough energy to heal.  It seems that the longer the body lives right at the edge, the more completely the exhaustion becomes, so the longer the healing process will ultimately be once you allow yourself to slow down...

Agreed.  It's good to be productive here and now, but we need a bit left over for tomorrow, too, and if we're sick, we need more than "a bit".

Yes, I understand this.  I'll be better tomorrow.  No, actually, I'll have to start doing better Tuesday because tomorrow I have a lot I "have" to do.

That's what weekends are for, right?

What, doing stuff?  Well, here's the thing.  At the community garden I started (because I had the energy), one of the volunteers (retired engineer) rigged up an elaborate watering system.  I turned it on Saturday night and forgot to turn it off when I left.  I remembered it late this morning.  I worried the whole field would be flooded, but when I drove over there this afternoon, nary a drop was to be seen and all the plants are nigh unto dying.  So tomorrow morning I have to first call and cancel the trip to the chiropractor, then go to the garden and see what I can do about the soaker hoses (while trying to keep track of the children), and then Rebecca (our newbie here on the forums, "benandbecca") is coming tomorrow afternoon.  And sometime tomorrow I have to clean up the kids' room so they can all play in there tomorrow evening.

Why can't the kids clean their own room? Or play in it un-tidied? Why is that specific task on your to-do list?

Because they can't walk across it without getting hurt.  And they can't clean it up without supervision because they have ADD.  I have hesitated to admit that.  I do not believe it's just "regular kid attitude".  If I tell Ethan (6) to pick up the toys, he draws a complete blank and has no idea what to do.  My husband says, "He's a boy.  YOu have to tell him something specific.  Not a general instruction."  So I have to say, "Pick up all the cars.  Yeah, those too.  Now pick up the books.  Now pick up the Legos.  Now pick up the rest of the cars you missed earlier."  It's the only way it can get done.  I have tried and tried to say, "Clean up the floor.  Whatever's left in half an hour is going in a bag and I will give it away."  It doesn't work.  I have even followed through with it.  But I cannot blame them because I was the same way when I was little.  I could not see what was directly in front of me, even with the threat of a spanking.  My mom would say, "Pick that up, or I will spank you."  So even with the knowledge that I was about to be punished for "not seeing something", it didn't help me see it because I was NOT ABLE TO---because of sensory overload.  To this day I cannot see if my ears are engaged.  I cannot hear if my hands are engaged.  I cannot work with my hands if my ears are engaged.  Did I have trouble taking notes in school? You betcha.  Some of us cannot multitask.  It's called ADD.  In my case it probably goes beyond ADD.  So when presented with a room full of a dozen different types of items to sort and put away, my middle two children cannot do it.  They can't think that way.  I have to literally sit down with them and tell them one thing at a time to pick up, or they get very overwhelmed.  And when there's tears, I get overwhelmed.  And when Mommy's overwhelmed, she just needs to stop and forget the toys.

OK, gotcha.

I do want to point out, however, that for a 6yo, it's perfectly appropriate to have to say "pick up all the cars" and then "pick up all the dolls" and then "pick up that lone lego and put it in the lego box" rather than "clear the floor." It's not necessarily a sign of ADD for a child that young to need specific directions. In fact, I'd go as far to say that it's normal for 6 and 7 year olds to need those kinds of specific instructions and supervision, but the occasional child is able to do so alone.

Okay, that makes me feel better.   Thanks.

Ribbit-True having kids with ADHD/ADD and then having it yourself is hard. I know Case in point-Me and my husband have it and so do 3 of our kids. BUT in the same instance HE and I can multitask very well. to a point. Three things at once is fine until it is time for me to do the bills and it takes all of the mental power I can muster. My kids know when I am doing the bills, Mom is a bit irritable and not very nice. They leave me alone. But otherwise like you, I give specific tasks and break the larger into smaller even for the younger teens agers. I give them steps to complete. No more than 1-2 tasks at a time. Then a small reward. What you are having trouble with is executive function and it takes a very well worn path to get it down and lots of structure. I hate structure. But for my kids I have to have it.

I totally sympathize... Give the kids a chance in their 'piece' of the garden or their pot and they will learn.