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Meeting Information Page: Dates, times and guest speakers.

Links:
General sources of information for several topics, illnesses, organizations and government agencies. Sign our guestbook!

Chat Room/Email Support Directions: CFIDS/FMS Rockland chat room/email support list directions: Use this link for directions for Yahoo! groups, the site that hosts our chat room/email support list. (This is a private chat room. You must attend one of our local support group meetings to participate.)

Disability:
Sites with Social Security Disability and Long Term Disability information.

NYSN:
The CFIDS/FMS Support Group of Rockland County is part of New York Support Network, Inc. (NYSN). Visit NYSN's web page, (http://nysn.org).

Every year our support group's November meeting topic is sharing of tips that have helped each of us through the holiday season in the past. Debbie, who ran the support group until she passed it on to me, had this topic back in 1997. I thought it was so great that I've stuck with it for the past several years. 27 tips and counting--Have tips you'd like to share? Send them to us at: k.murphy@nysn.org.

1. Set the table several days before the holiday party if it is at your house.

2. Have all your guests bring their favorite dish--be sure it will already be prepared when they arrive at your house! (I've heard tell of lettuce and a tomato being brought in the bag from the store by someone who was supposed to bring a salad!) The less food preparation and clean up, the better.

3. If your guests will be bringing food, make a list of all the dishes they will be bringing so you don't end up missing an important part of the meal or end up with six apple pies. (But who would really object to too much pie?)

4. Your brain fog is bad and you need to prepare a dish from a recipe? Try placing all the ingredients you'll need together on the counter at the start. Put the ingredients away one by one as you use them. When the counter is clear of ingredients you'll know that you didn't leave anything out of the cooking process, nor put the same ingredient in twice...

5. Have reasonable self-expectations--even the healthy wear thin this time of year!

6. To get through the winter when it hurts so much to go out: stash up by November on bulk items like toilet paper, paper towels, pet food, dish washer powder, napkins, ---- like a squirrel.

7. Carry a pen and paper or a small tape recorder with you so you can note the items you don't want to forget at the store, or the perfect gift you thought of for your mother and you just know brain fog will soon cloud your memory...

8. If your house is in decent shape, don't bother doing a big cleaning it before the company comes. There will be plenty of cleaning to be done once they leave, and it is the holiday season--let's hope they'll understand.

8. Try to clean before the day you'll be entertaining, so you won't be too tired to enjoy the guests, (about three days ahead of time), and purchase some prepared food for the guests.

10. Use a kitchen timer that you can keep with you while the meal is in the oven and you are resting from the preparations. Set it to go off 5 or 10 minutes before the oven timer. When the portable timer goes off, you can turn the timer off immediately and take a few minutes to get moving toward the kitchen. This way you will have time to take a slow walk back to the kitchen before the buzzer goes off, and it won't be making that horrible noise the whole time.

11. Set the kitchen timer for purposes other than cooking, like being sure you haven't lost track of time when you have an appointment scheduled.

12. Shop early if possible.

13. Catalog shopping from home can save you the trouble of going from store to store, standing on lines to check out, and carrying packages to and from the car. If you don't want an influx of catalogs from other companies be sure to tell the person taking your order that you don't want them to "rent" your contact information to other companies.

14. Forget when you last changed your toothbrush? Change your toothbrush with the seasons--the next season change is in December.

15. Ask for help when you need it. Most stores will help you out to your car with heavy packages; sometimes shopping with a friend is the trick.

16. Take time to rest. Take breaks during long or difficult tasks. Try to accept your limits, (very hard to do), but it can help ease some of the stress if you can let go of the guilt of not living up to your previous activity level.

17. Also save some holiday time for quiet personal relaxation and enjoyment. It's sure to further your holiday spirit in the long run.

18. Reach out to others. Join in social activities, give a call or email someone, or send out a message to an email chat list. (If your support group doesn't have social activities maybe you could organize one-nothing fancy, just plan to meet for coffee or lunch with other group members.)

19. Treat yourself to a cordless phone that you can use with a headset, (or ask for it as a gift). It saves you the energy of having to hold the phone up with your hand, or cramping your neck and shoulders, and you won't have to get up to answer the phone!

20. Stay away from your relatives. (Of course not everybody's relatives are a source of stress.)

21. Get invited somewhere instead of hosting the family gathering.

22. Go away. Take a trip away from home for the holidays.

24. Change the dates of occasions to give yourself more time to recover and enjoy celebrating! Example: Move a late-December birthday to a different time of year-celebrate your half birthday in late June instead.

25. Flexibility. Be willing to let things go instead of trying to stick to a rigid plan. We never know how we will feel on any given day…

26. Find a local grocery store that delivers a complete, cooked meal. Your "task" will only be to set the table and clean up, which others will hopefully volunteer for!!

27. A.) Christmas cards/letters: Type (or have one of your family members do the typing) your annual letter and make copies of it. Type up a master set of mailing labels list; run the labels plus an extra paper copy, and have your husband or children put the labels on the return envelopes along with your return address and postage stamp. When you get a return card/letter, check their address against the extra copy of labels list you ran off earlier for any corrections or moves. Note the changes on your master labels list so corrections can be made in January or whenever you feel up to it.

B.) In your letter, ask folks for their email address. Then start a special distribution address book list for Christmas. Type or have typed your letter on floppy disk. Highlight and copy it from your floppy; go to an empty email screen to write a note; paste it in, and send it to your Christmas distribution list. This saved me sending out 40 letters by US mail plus the extra postage expense.