Relax and Cope - as we pause for a brief commercial...

Surly Teenager is all about coping skills these days.  It is one of the main focuses of her outpatient therapy; relax and cope. 

So she is coming up with things to do to help her relax.  

Art is one of her big ones.  She enjoys being creative.  Last Thanksgiving we bought an art table at a great Black Friday sale at Michael's.  After we got it home she decided she didn't want it, so it was set up in Lazy Teenager's old room.  Where it promptly became buried under a mountain of stuff.  It has now been given new life, in Surly Teenagers room, and is currently fulfilling its true destiny as an art table.  It can be seen in the entry before this, to the left of her desk.  She loves it and uses it often.

She also finds soft rain, and ocean waves relaxing.  So to help her fall asleep at night:

This is HoMedics Spa Relaxation Sound Machine.  It has 6 different sounds:  ocean, summer night, rain, rain forest, waterfall and heartbeat.  It runs on batteries or can be plugged in.  You can just turn it on and let it run all night, or you can set it to run for 15, 30 or 60 minutes.  It was around $20 and I have seen them at Walmart, Kohls, and Target, so they are easy to find.

Aside from thinking the heartbeat setting is kind of creepy, it's a big hit.  I think she has listened to it every night since we got it.  Two big thumbs up from us.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.....