tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60992118491775236132024-02-19T01:57:27.072-08:00Ramblings of a Homeschooling Family ManagerThanks for dropping by my corner of the internet; grab a chair and sit a spell. I have all sorts of things to share. Things I struggle with like fibromyalgia, my son’s learning disabilities and trying not to gain back lost weight. Things that make up my work like homeschooling, feeding my family and volunteering. Things I do for fun like biking, gardening and reading. Things I think about like politics and how to make the world a better place. All sorts of things that spark my desire to write.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger500125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-79479408010821180912018-07-21T20:30:00.000-07:002018-07-21T20:30:40.902-07:00This <a href="https://depts.washington.edu/chid/intersections_Spring_2012/Thomas_Coleman_Water_Conflicts_in_Latin_America_and_Water_Law.pdf">article about water rights</a> is a little dry, but it's interesting in a socialism vs capitalism kind of way. I'm still trying to figure out where I stand on this spectrum and I'm leaning toward the opinion that limited socialism (for the goods and services necessary for life, maintenance of society, and preservation of the planet: water, power, security, health care, education, infrastructure, national parks, etc.) should be at least somewhat socialized and run by the government, to what extent I'm not sure, but then we should layer WELL REGULATED capitalism on top of that for everything else. Going all the way to full blown communism, where the state owns everything, was never a good idea; it kills creativity and entrepreneurship which are vital to a thriving society. But then I also think everyone should have the basics it takes to survive- clean air, clean water, decent food, shelter, and healthcare, because we have the resources for that in the US. Then everyone goes from there. Some will take advantage, settle for the "basic package", and not contribute anything extra, content to just live off of their small share, and I'm OK with that; for some, the disabled, the elderly, the ill, it will make a difference between life and death, and that's vitally important because everyone has value. I think enough of us will work and contribute to make something like this successful, and now with automation there will be less need for all of us to work anyway.... <br />
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I need to do more research on this. I'm guessing there are countries where this is working, especially in Europe, so I'm curious to learn more. I know socialism isn't working for other countries, because they went too far. Venezuela comes to mind. The state grabbed ownership of everything, corruption set in, and everything descended into chaos. It's got to be a lot more complicated than that, but that's my surface understanding of the issue.<br />
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So some political ramblings for you. Just trying to figure things out.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-10111239441913152722018-04-21T12:17:00.001-07:002018-04-21T12:34:42.006-07:00First "Challenge": XylitolThings were going well with my low FODMaP eating plan, I was feeling good with my symptoms reduced, oh, 80% or so. Then I went back on my supplements. I take B12 (when you get older you don't absorb it as well from food so a supplement is beneficial), vitamin D (I had blood work that said I was deficient), and pro-biotics. After a few days I started feeling a heaviness in my lower belly area, which wasn't a good sign. The next day I was back to pre-diet pain levels and almost didn't go to an event I was looking forward to. (I went anyway and I got through it!! I was distracted with the great people I was able to talk to so I didn't focus on the pain as much, and I was very thankful I wasn't gassy.) Later that night I was trying to figure out what I could be doing wrong, what was I eating that I shouldn't? Light bulb- check the B12! It's a chewable so they put sweeteners in it, and sure enough, xylitol, which is a polyol, was on the label. (The "P" part of FODMaP.) <br />
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That counts as my first "challenge"! I didn't do it on purpose, but at least I figured it out. So I was eating cherries and honey AND taking the supplement with xylitol in it every morning. Good grief. Now I'm wondering about the cherries and honey though, were they really the problem? Maybe they were, but I'll have to challenge with them later to find out. Right now I have to wait and get the xylitol out of my system and get my symptoms back under control again. Sigh...<br />
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What this points out, though, is how difficult it is to tease out what's causing symptoms. I took the B12 for four or five days before it started to bother me, and my worst day was when I had a late breakfast one day then an early breakfast the next. I take my supplements with my breakfast, so it was less than 24 hours between doses. Some triggers are OK in small amounts, or when they are spaced out far enough. They cause symptoms only after building up in your system.<br />
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I've posted about IBS and this low FODMaP eating plan on Facebook a few times and now so many people are talking to me about also having IBS, or telling me their loved ones have IBS. Statistics as to how many people have IBS vary from 10 to 25% of the population, and since so many people are undiagnosed, or wait years before getting diagnosed, the 25% is probably more accurate. That's a quarter of the population!! Of course lots of people have it or know someone who has it!! We need to talk about these things more. Eating a low FODMaP diet will be so much easier if more people are talking about it and looking for low FODMaP food; there are organizations that will certify processed food as low FODMaP. Look at the gluten free craze and how many gluten free products there are now! The thing is- for people with IBS and not celiac disease or gluten allergies specifically, going gluten free helps them by cutting out not the gluten but the fructans that are in wheat. So they feel better, and they think it's because they are gluten free, but really it's due to cutting out a FODMaP. <br />
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My advice from everything I've researched- if you are having intestinal issues, stomach pain, not-normal bowel habits, gas, bloating, etc., go to your doctor. If your doctor rules out Crohn's, colitis, cancer, celiac disease, etc., and gives you a diagnosis of IBS, then try the low FODMaP eating plan. If the doctor gives you the same print out mine gave me, don't despair!! The "good" list and the "bad" list on that print out are very short. You can eat a lot more than it says, and there are lots of resources on-line to help you out. It helps to eat whole foods and cook for yourself, but you have to know which whole foods to eat and which to avoid. Eating out and processed foods will be difficult- I haven't faced that yet, but I'll learn as I go! (Eating out is something I'll have to talk to a dietitian about.) It's possible to get through this, and 80% of people with IBS feel better when they know what to eat and what to avoid. Sometimes it will be "damn the torpedoes", I'll eat what I want and suffer the consequences, but at least I'll know why I'm hurting and will keep it to a once in a while splurge when I can recuperate the next day. <br />
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PS: I mentioned that the doctor recommended daily Zantac in my last post. I only took it for a day or two then I was feeling so much better I stopped taking it!! :) I'm taking the pro-biotics she suggested every day.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-25270488714388296432018-04-14T23:38:00.001-07:002018-04-15T22:11:02.432-07:00Time to Fire Up the Blog Again!! Low FODMaP ReportsIt's been almost two years!! Hello again! A lot has happened in the intervening time, but what I want to write about now is my experience going on a low FODMaP elimination diet. I first heard about the low FODMaP diet on an episode of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDn_UX4PGAQ">"The Food Hospital"</a> several years ago. (Go to about 25:20 to get to the IBS part, the follow up is at about 36:30). I don't know why I didn't try it then, maybe my symptoms weren't too bad at that point? I was definitely diagnosed as having IBS by then. I forgot about it and went along with life, but then I've recently experienced some severe flare ups. I thought it must be something else, maybe I have an ulcer from taking an NSAID every day for arthritis and fibromyalgia, or gallstones, or whatever, since this was so much worse than flare ups in the past. I had a bout of food poisoning (??) back in late December and just never felt right in my stomach since then, so maybe it was from that. I had my suspicions, but no definite answers, and my stomach was hurting all the time. I went to my GP and she referred me to a gastro doctor (and getting in to see her was a whole different story for another time- it was quite an ordeal). While waiting months for that appointment I had such bad diarrhea (sorry, when talking about IBS these things come up) that I wound up at urgent care, then they sent me to the ER for a CT scan and IV fluids. Fortunately my gastro appointment was within a week and a half of all of that. When I went in to see her she immediately zeroed in on the IBS as a source of the pain, no mention of an ulcer or gallstones, and came up with a treatment plan. She told me to go on a low FODMaP diet, take Zantac twice a day, and take pro-biotics. She gave me a print out with a list of OK foods and a list of high FODMaP foods to avoid. A very short list. A very limited list. A very discouraging list. <br />
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Luckily we have the internet!!! I immediately started researching and found longer lists of things to eat, although there is some conflicting information out there, but whatever, I had a place to start. I ordered a couple of e-books, and found that the research for the low FODMaP diet originated at <a href="https://www.monashfodmap.com/">Monash University in Australia</a>. I've been watching You Tube videos as well, anything I can find on following the low FODMaP eating plan. Here's what I've learned, some of my experiences, and some things I'm eating!<br />
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1. FODMaP stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, And Polyols. These are foods that don't digest properly for a large number of people with IBS. These carbohydrate chains are supposed to break down in your small intestines but they don't, so they move into your large intestines where two things happen. Due to osmosis and your body trying to balance out the liquids in your bowels, excess water is drawn in to compensate for all of the extra molecules of these carbs floating around where they aren't supposed to be. In addition, the bacteria that live in your large intestine party on all of the extra food, and when they party they produce gas. Lots and lots of gas. The combination of the extra water and the extra gas cause bloating, diarrhea, distention, and, just for fun, lots of stinky farts. Oh, joy! <br />
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2. I recently switched up my morning breakfast. I typically eat the same breakfast every single day of the world, just because it's easy and I don't have to think about it. I mix things up once in a blue moon, and I recently switched from packets of oatmeal to quick oats. I would have two packets, one plain and one sweetened with maple syrup. When I switched to plain quick oats I started using honey as my sweetener. I also pile on fruit and a few months ago I changed from frozen strawberries to frozen cherries. (I like the frozen fruit because it keeps so much longer, plus it makes a nice contrast between the hot oatmeal and the cold fruit.) Now that I'm learning about FODMaPs, I realized I was hitting my tummy with a double whammy first thing in the morning. Both honey AND cherries are high in FODMaPs!! So all of that misery was self inflicted. I did try to switch things up- I was adding walnuts but I thought the nuts were too harsh so I stopped that, I thought maybe the supplements I was taking were the problem so I stopped those, I stopped my daily NSAID, I tried eating mild foods the rest of the day, (although the "mild" food I was eating was also high in FODMaPs), but my stomach still hurt. I kind of thought maybe the cherries, but I never suspected the honey until I got the list of high FODMaP food. Both cherries and honey!! Sheese. Also the mild foods I was trying? Yep, high FODMaPs. Pasta, toast, crackers, etc. I was doing it wrong. <br />
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3. When the doctor gave me the print out for the low FODMaP eating plan, it didn't come with much explanation. There is a list of food on the front, half low FODMaP allowed foods, half high FODMaP foods to avoid, and a couple of short paragraphs of explanation on the back. It just isn't enough information to radically change your eating habits, but it was a start. I googled other FODMaP lists and went to the grocery because I wanted to start right away. I'm sick and tired of being in pain all the time, and if this was going to help I wanted to go for it! It's been less than a week so far and I think I've done quite well, if I do say so myself. I have a few things going for me, though. I've taken coursework in nutrition and I'm certified to teach health so I have the background to implement this eating plan without consulting a nutritionist, at least not to start out with. (I may do that later because I think it's a good idea, I just don't need to rush it.) I also cook my own food most of the time, even in a family of 5. We all eat so differently! My oldest is vegan, my husband is vegetarian, my son is super picky, and my middle child has a completely different schedule than the rest of us. My kitchen is always a disaster with 5 people in there preparing meals every day, but it means I'm used to cooking for myself. I also have some food sensitivities that I've known about for a while (soy and sulfates) so I'm used to reading labels and working around common ingredients, and I hate most processed food. I can't stand microwave meals, for instance, so giving up that type of food is not an issue for me at all. I cook with whole foods as much as possible, so this eating plan just means switching up the high FODMaP whole foods for low FODMaP whole foods. Not a big deal. My breakfast, for instance- I went back to frozen strawberries instead of frozen cherries (I also throw on some fresh blueberries every day since they're in season now and they're low FODMaP) and use plain sugar (just a little bit) as my sweetener. I also throw on some raisins (the FODMaP lists say up to a tablespoon of raisins is OK) and I've added back my walnuts, but only 10, because any more might cause some FODMaP issues. (Portion size affects the FODMaP load too- there are some foods that are OK in small amounts.)<br />
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4. The low FODMaP eating plan (which is actually a more accurate description that "diet", because the goal isn't weight loss, the goal is to feel better) is a temporary elimination food plan. You go on it and let your body heal from the damage you've been doing with high FODMaP foods, then the goal is to slowly "challenge" with various categories of high FODMaP foods to determine which ones you are OK with and which ones are a problem for you. From my research, the elimination phase can last anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks, depending on how you react to it. I'm already feeling so much better (I think from just giving up the cherries and honey!!) so I may be able to start challenging pretty quickly. I'll write more about the challenge stage when I get there.<br />
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5. I've started eating tomatoes and salad again- hooray!! When my stomach started hurting all the time I gave up salads because maybe roughage was the problem? I can enjoy them again because tomatoes and lettuce are low FODMaP foods, which makes me very happy, because I was eating salads as a meal several times every week. I did have to rethink my salad dressing, but I found a <a href="https://www.fodmapformula.com/low-fodmap-salad-dressings/">recipe for a homemade version</a> that's OK. I had to give up avocados, which is a favorite food for me (but they are OK in very small quantities so I think I'll try that and see how I do), but other than that my salads are pretty much the same. I even found some fantastic <a href="http://shop.glutino.com/Original-Crackers/p/GLT-038505&c=Glutino@Crackers">gluten free crackers</a> that I can crumble up and use as croutons. (Gluten isn't the problem for IBS sufferers, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/05/22/314287321/sensitive-to-gluten-a-carb-in-wheat-may-be-the-real-culprit">it's the wheat itself which contains fructans, an oligosaccharide</a>, so gluten free products are sometimes accidentally low in FODMaPs, but you have to read the label. They could also be sweetened with honey, for instance, or contain other problem ingredients.)<br />
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What I've been eating:<br />
Breakfast:<br />
I follow package directions to cook half a cup of oatmeal in the microwave with a pinch of salt. Once that's cooked, I sprinkle on some cinnamon to taste and maybe a teaspoon of sugar, if that, and mix that in. I add a tablespoon of raisins, 10 walnut halves broken up, and about half a cup of berries. Lately it's been the frozen strawberries, some blueberries, and for the past few days I even included some raspberries since I found a nice package of them at the grocery. <br />
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Lunches and Dinners:<br />
I have to pair these up because lunch one day is dinner the next, or vice versa- dinner one day is lunch the next! *See note below regarding pairing up meals; not the best idea for the elimination phase!<br />
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I like to pre-prep chicken so I have a quick protein ready to go. I saute about a pound and a half of boneless skinless breast or tenders in a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil and season it with salt, pepper, sage, thyme, and marjoram. (I used to use poultry seasoning but that's a no-no because of onion and garlic powder.) I pair that with a carb of some sort. I made up a batch of quinoa (switching from high FODMaP pasta) and used that as my carb a couple of times, once with just the chicken and some glazed carrots, once on a salad. Literally. I had quinoa with chicken and a side of glazed carrots for dinner, then the next day I put the leftover chicken, quinoa, and carrots over lettuce with tomatoes, cucumbers, and orange bits for a salad. Delicious both ways. I found a <a href="https://www.betterthanbouillon.com/products/product-detail.aspx?productid=19">chicken stock base</a> that doesn't have any garlic or onion listed in the ingredients and used a bit of that to flavor the quinoa when it was cooking, and I almost forgot- I put in a glob when I was cooking the chicken then added water slowly while stirring it into the chicken stock base. I like to do this when the chicken is just about cooked through and let it finish up with some liquid in the pan, which makes it moist and yummy. <br />
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Another lunch/dinner combo from today:<br />
I made a baked potato and I wanted beef instead of chicken to top it with, just to mix things up a bit. I always use either 90% or 95% lean ground beef and saute it in a frying pan with olive oil. Today I seasoned it with salt and pepper to taste, then I was going for kind of a chili feel but I'm not big on heat in my food (heat always upsets my tummy) so I just threw in about a third of a can of diced tomatoes at the end of cooking time. The potato was giant so I halved it and added a little bit of cheddar (acceptably low FODMaP since it's a hard cheese) then topped it with half of the beef and tomato mixture. I did the same to the other half and put that away for dinner. It turned out just the way I wanted it! <br />
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Snacks:<br />
I absolutely love fruit and I'm pleased that oranges, grapes, and not-super-ripe bananas are low in FODMaPs, so I'm eating those. I have to watch portion sizes though- from what I've read about half a cup or one serving of any kind of fruit is the max that's advisable at any one time. You can have more during the day but it just needs to be spaced out by a few hours to give your body time to digest everything. Popcorn is also OK so that's been a good snack. Corn tortilla chips are OK. I found some <a href="https://enjoylifefoods.com/">allergy friendly cookies</a> that are pretty good too, and they come in individual packets so already portion controlled. I had a small piece of <a href="https://www.tazachocolate.com/">dark chocolate</a> today too- yum. Those gluten free crackers (linked above) are great as well. Today I even had bread! According to Monash University, sourdough bread is acceptable in small quantities, depending on the ingredients it's made with. Whole Foods had a great sourdough loaf in the bakery today with very few ingredients, including whole grain flour. Apparently the fermentation process sourdough goes through breaks down the problem carbs in wheat so it's low in FODMaPs- hooray!! <br />
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Shopping: <br />
I scoured the three grocery stores I shop at (Costco, Whole Foods, and Publix) for ingredients. I read a lot of labels, as is my habit anyway. I took a picture of the food lists I was using (from the doctor and one I found on-line) with my phone and referred to those often. Before I went shopping I combed through the lists and starred ingredients I like and crossed out things I don't like, and made sure I was familiar with the list of foods to avoid. I Googled a few items I was unsure of in the store. I am most likely going to get the Monash University app one of these days- it's $9.00 so that's reasonable, and it's apparently invaluable when shopping for low FODMap foods. <br />
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I have enough low FODMaP food for a good, varied diet for the next few days so I feel I've made a good start, and I'm only a few days in so I'd say so far, so good!! <br />
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*Today, of course, I ran across <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOb_h3ikrsU">a video</a> that says it's not good to eat the same thing for two meals in a row because you're getting the same FODMaPs without enough time in between. The suggestion is to wait 24 hours before eating leftovers for a second meal. <br />
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Pinterest link: I'm pinning lots of FODMaP info on my <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/kimsfammgr/food-low-fodmap-recipes-and-info/">Food: Low FODMaP Recipes and Info Board</a><br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-192881781107704532016-06-12T19:58:00.001-07:002016-06-12T19:58:32.995-07:00Progress!I'm slowly losing weight again, hooray! It goes on so easily but then takes forever to come off, but it is what it is, so I have to just keep going. I'm about 12 pounds down after 3 and a half months so that's progress!I'm still weighing and measuring my food and will probably have to continue with that for the rest of my life, because when I don't weigh and measure I gain. I haven't been to my exercise classes as consistently as I had hoped but I did go to Zumba twice last week. I was going to go to yoga today but I'm having a bit of a fibro day so I skipped it, plus I realized I don't like group classes when they get over crowded. Zumba classes at 7:00 are super crowded so I'm trying to go at 6:00 now, but the 6:00 classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and EVERY dang blasted evening activity I have to go to (meetings, kids' performances, etc.) seems to fall on a Tuesday lately. It's very frustrating. Yoga is super packed now too so everyone is squeezed in and I feel very uncomfortable with it; I'm a little claustrophobic I suppose. I love the studio I go to and the teacher is the most warm hearted, loving person you could ever hope to meet, but she's really outgrown her space. I'm happy for her that her classes are filling up and it's great that her business is thriving, but I miss the classes with only a few people in them. Sigh...<br />
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But other things are afoot these days! I am going back to school AGAIN to take coursework for certification to teach health. I've been considering a Master's degree in nutrition and that is the ultimate goal, but I was thinking about what I want to do with a Master's degree in nutrition, and one of the possibilities was to teach high school. (My fav grades to teach are 11th and 12th.) So, I looked up the requirements to teach health, and I can get that certification with 5 classes, one of which is a nutrition class, so I am taking that and human sexuality in the fall. The nutrition class will enable me to see if that really is something I want to pursue, so things kind of fell in to place. The pre-requisites for the Master's program start with chemistry and I was looking into the chem classes at the local college, but either the professors were horrible (thank you ratemyprofessors.com) or the classes were at a campus on the other side of the county or they started at the crack of dawn. (8:00 am classes? No, thank you!) Or they were on Tuesday nights- absolutely not!! I can try again in January, see what they offer for chemistry for that semester, or over the summer next year, and in the meantime, get that health certification. I'd love to teach high school health! It may kill me due to the fibro, but I would love it until it did. :) <br />
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Speaking of things killing me, I'm also going to take Zumba instructor training in July. It's an 8 hour, one day course, but if I take that and update my 1st Aid/CPR training (and I always try to keep that up to date) then I can teach Zumba! How crazy is that?! Me, teaching fitness classes! (If I'm in front of the class I don't have to worry about not being able to see the teacher through the crowds, either.) ;) That's something that will also help with teaching a health class; I need to set a good example, after all. Oh and hey, Zumba is really making a difference- there's a lot of squatting and it's making my legs a lot stronger, and, dare I say it, I think my flat white girl butt is getting a bit more rounded- woo hoo! It's not so great for my feet, but I'm tired of letting my horrible feet determine what I can and can't do. I want to dance so I'm going to dance, dad gummit. I've given up all sorts of dance classes due to my feet and not being able to find the proper dance shoes to fit my water skis, but you use sneakers for Zumba and I can put orthotics in them, so I'm dancing my heart out. Seriously, I've taken classes for ballet, jazz, and belly dancing and had to give up all of them due to the footwear. (Or lack of footwear for belly dancing- my bare feet on a hard surface? No, no no no no no, that did not work.) <br />
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So fun things are happening in my life! Losing weight, getting healthy, learning new things. It's all good, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to handle it due to the fibro, but I'm sure going to try. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-36038190212035084662016-04-15T21:40:00.000-07:002016-04-15T21:40:02.619-07:00Here We Go AgainAfter losing 40 pounds in 2007, I kept off most of it for a very long time. I crept up 20 pounds and held there for many years, but recently I regained the rest of it so now it's time to get serious again. To back up a bit, there are reasons why I regained. First of all, vacations. Vacations just did not help in the weight management department, especially when I would say to myself "well, I'll be walking enough to balance out any over-eating", only, yeah, no. Didn't quite work that way. I'd gain 3, 4, maybe 5 pounds (or in the case of a 3 week 2009 trip to Europe, 9 pounds) and then never quite manage to get it back off. The next issue was a two year stint as a vegetarian, and thinking "well, I won't be eating meat, so I can eat all of these starchy carbs to make up my proteins", only, yeah, no. If you are trying to manage your weight as a vegetarian then focus on vegetables and salads, not carbs, carbs, and more carbs. I finally had to go back to meat when I got sick with severe anemia, and then I turned out to be allergic to prescription iron supplements. (I'm actually allergic not to the iron but to the sulfa the iron is mixed with, and ALL of the prescription supplements have it.) Oh, and the anemia made it impossible to lose weight as well, of course. I lost about a year to the anemia and still have to fight not to slip back into it even now. Let me tell you, it's no fun; it sucks the life out of you. I had no energy to do anything; I don't know how I managed to function as much as I did. (The doctors were threatening to put me in the hospital and give me transfusions at one point- I was pretty darn bad off.) So that's my tale of woe with my weight, and the whole time I was watching it go up since I weigh myself every morning when I get up. Every. Morning. <br />
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And every morning I would say to myself "today's the day, I'm going to get it together and get back to my goal weight", and sometimes I would manage to lose a pound or two, but I always gained that back plus a little more. <br />
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Until now. I'm over the worst of it with the anemia (I hope) and I have a good framework in place for exercise, and I'm back to weighing, measuring, and logging my food, which is key. I've lost about 8 pounds so far and that's very encouraging. I didn't think I could do it many, many times during the past nine years since 2007, but now I am! I feel very resolved and focused, much more than I have in a long, long time.<br />
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As for exercise, I am trying to go to <a href="https://www.zumba.com/en-US">Zumba</a> classes (which I absolutely ADORE) twice a week, yoga once a week, (a deep stretch class), archery twice a week, and then walk the dogs most days. I also have some light exercises I try to remember to do daily, a good toe touch stretch, a few squats, some stretches for plantar fasciitis and shoulders to work out the kinks from arthritis, and some kegels. I often don't stick to the plan and do everything, but it's a goal to strive for! <br />
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For food, I try to make every bite count nutritionally and avoid "empty" calories. I'll have a small treat every few days but not daily. I've been eating a lot of salads (I <3 romaine lettuce) and making green smoothies. I'm also trying to meal prep a bit, but I have a teen boy in the house so anything I make often gets swiped before I can get it into the refrigerator!! (Although if I can get it in the refrigerator he'll leave it alone; he hates leftovers.) If I can keep some chicken on hand, or some type of lean protein, then I've got the basis for a meal. Hubby frequently makes salads and I can throw some chicken on that for a very satisfying lunch or dinner. We don't eat together as a family much anymore, which breaks my heart, but we're all running in different directions all the time with very different schedules, so we aren't usually all at home at meal time. Add our differing diets (one vegan, one vegetarian, one soy intolerant and sulfa allergic, one full on carnivore, and one who will eat anything, oh and 4 of us are lactose intolerant, just to make things interesting) and it's really getting impossible to plan meals for all of us anyway. We mostly all fend for ourselves now, which is getting very trying. Five people all cooking their own meals every day makes a lot of mess in the kitchen and is super inefficient, but what can you do? Almost forgot- we also cook a "top dressing" for the dogs too, so they get kibble with some type of cooked meat on top for two meals per dog per day. ARGHHHH!!! <br />
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So that's where things stand now. A constantly messy kitchen, but I'm losing weight again and I CAN do it! I'll check back with my progress every now and again, and maybe some of my recipes. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-27609359261581037852015-11-26T21:30:00.001-08:002015-11-29T00:35:42.453-08:00Our Vegan ThanksgivingAfter a couple of crazy busy weeks, with a lot of time away from home chaperoning field trips, I knew I would be too wiped out to handle Thanksgiving, so I handed it off to The Eldest. The Eldest is currently vegan and decided to do a vegan dinner for all of us; she was very excited and put a lot of effort and planning into the meal, and it turned out beautifully! And DELICIOUS!! I didn't miss the turkey at all. She started out with a "cheez" plate of really yummy nut based cheeses, along with fixins' like apple based "honey", fruit, crackers, and so forth. That was followed by butternut squash soup and the rest of the meal; I don't have the names for every recipe, but it was all very fancy and very tasty. Here are some pics:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9_nyNwa4fi3fvFrSCoEc_5EgWA_JcjkEU6s3-KVryxXnFxgIPcq12VrTGR_KQNkcryiC3weyrzqVUGF9VmlAgsRCtO1Mn44QZlZ5-L1DZQJwkHZSk4eC35VcNbJzkZcyl7mF-8KwJ50/s1600/IMG_4141.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9_nyNwa4fi3fvFrSCoEc_5EgWA_JcjkEU6s3-KVryxXnFxgIPcq12VrTGR_KQNkcryiC3weyrzqVUGF9VmlAgsRCtO1Mn44QZlZ5-L1DZQJwkHZSk4eC35VcNbJzkZcyl7mF-8KwJ50/s400/IMG_4141.JPG" /></a></div><br />
The "cheez" plate; many of these are from <a href="http://www.kite-hill.com/">Kite Hill</a>, which makes delicious nut based faux cheese. We also had a tart from Kite Hill which was also most yummy. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rArGgmxa2881VOCcWoSet6yI1GnxFHzjdtrLOxdcmLqeTVHDaakUR8IJdk-bbKYcJjAfhptojMuoPVNXH1mv9B3l2R88jH6MHa4Wq5zCdyOZt2GN0uk3VP9i6EDc4jU-fvIX3CcfS3E/s1600/IMG_4142.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rArGgmxa2881VOCcWoSet6yI1GnxFHzjdtrLOxdcmLqeTVHDaakUR8IJdk-bbKYcJjAfhptojMuoPVNXH1mv9B3l2R88jH6MHa4Wq5zCdyOZt2GN0uk3VP9i6EDc4jU-fvIX3CcfS3E/s400/IMG_4142.JPG" /></a></div><br />
She's got the presentation thing down! Apple slices and pomegranate seeds on a bed of spinach leaves, drizzled with <a href="http://beefreehonee.com/">vegan faux "honee"</a> that is just as good as honey from bees. There's no weird after taste like you get with agave, that other honey substitute. (I detest agave.)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX91jhpf0Q0HSxXKllgqjdxAxanml5f8f9yFSmqSaWWXPg_leEMF0dgaxVO9qjF10kKa-JzJs-yeOplKQAxbxs4YI0cK2NO1eRo_jKEDPLYps_K_diH0xELiaiWA3cATrV3W8_1vYMbRA/s1600/IMG_4143.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX91jhpf0Q0HSxXKllgqjdxAxanml5f8f9yFSmqSaWWXPg_leEMF0dgaxVO9qjF10kKa-JzJs-yeOplKQAxbxs4YI0cK2NO1eRo_jKEDPLYps_K_diH0xELiaiWA3cATrV3W8_1vYMbRA/s400/IMG_4143.JPG" /></a></div><br />
Stuffing; I don't have a link to this recipe.<br />
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Vegan mac and cheese in the back; vegan mashed potatoes in the front. I helped out with the 'taters and we just kind of made the recipe up as we went along. Martha Jr. started working on them and put in a little vanilla flavored almond milk (she was supposed to put in regular unflavored almond milk but grabbed the wrong stuff by mistake, but it worked!) and soy free Earth Balance. I added a LOT more Earth Balance, which I melted for a few seconds in the microwave, and veggie broth. (We use 365 brand from Whole Foods.) Salt and pepper to taste. I kept mushing it up with the potato masher and adding more stuff until I had the consistency I wanted and it tasted yummy! Another ingredient to include to make mashed potatoes delicious is mayo but I didn't put it in this time. We are using a new brand of mayo called <a href="https://www.hamptoncreek.com/just-mayo">Just Mayo</a> but I was too lazy to open up the new jar; it's really good and soy free, which is good for me because I try to avoid soy and good for The Eldest because it's vegan.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyc7T6ThWn51y8V7kYirIf_BkhLNFJWJis1ARwicymKbQFaUlpB0uRw6CUeI3OF-pVGkhMLhMSf6417K-1eE-4tlnOD3rItWGxUmsBrRfKJVdeK7MHdFJihzzwIMlIYRt4gn1dOQFrrl4/s1600/IMG_4145.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyc7T6ThWn51y8V7kYirIf_BkhLNFJWJis1ARwicymKbQFaUlpB0uRw6CUeI3OF-pVGkhMLhMSf6417K-1eE-4tlnOD3rItWGxUmsBrRfKJVdeK7MHdFJihzzwIMlIYRt4gn1dOQFrrl4/s400/IMG_4145.JPG" /></a></div><br />
Close up of the vegan mac and cheez. I'll try to add the link to the recipe later. It was OK; not as good as regular homemade mac and cheese, but better than the stuff out of the box. It was a little dry but flavorful. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlK-sZo80vKW9TmrPNsBLxTIJ6BY-jRoKix-qKOoIw4SOPOIOVOe4rXwIUzjwB5KgRguRAYvILbKvfm_LX9s7oxti-lb0dxHkp60eJT0Yx-cumti0v_bQCA2H6Vub1t19g8kYBcFwGvk/s1600/IMG_4147.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlK-sZo80vKW9TmrPNsBLxTIJ6BY-jRoKix-qKOoIw4SOPOIOVOe4rXwIUzjwB5KgRguRAYvILbKvfm_LX9s7oxti-lb0dxHkp60eJT0Yx-cumti0v_bQCA2H6Vub1t19g8kYBcFwGvk/s400/IMG_4147.JPG" /></a></div><br />
The whole table!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpuUGSmAt7GCc68ByBqjDvbrQZzbQmKV_8BZ1wtda42BQcw1JPlCjsjUZsVZqG3JN5hlg9TuV4oRLd_Cw15hIx-El9XwET3t2cY7yp83y_MrRZQajY1c6YubRkVvKdGICV3X0le0uZ8zQ/s1600/IMG_4149.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpuUGSmAt7GCc68ByBqjDvbrQZzbQmKV_8BZ1wtda42BQcw1JPlCjsjUZsVZqG3JN5hlg9TuV4oRLd_Cw15hIx-El9XwET3t2cY7yp83y_MrRZQajY1c6YubRkVvKdGICV3X0le0uZ8zQ/s400/IMG_4149.JPG" /></a></div><br />
The main dish, <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/11/vegetables-wellington-the-ultimate-plant-based-vegan-holiday-roast-recipe.html">Vegetables Wellington</a>! This was a delicious vegan take on Beef Wellington, all wrapped up in phyllo dough. (The Eldest swears she will never work with phyllo again; it was challenging, shall we say.) The dish was very elaborate, involving multiple steps and recipes-within-the-recipe, and she pulled it off like a champ. It wasn't wrapped up as tightly as the one in the picture that accompanies the recipe but that didn't affect the taste one bit, and it was quite impressive as the centerpiece on the table! (I wish I'd thought to suggest that she use a spray olive oil instead of trying to brush each piece with a pastry brush; I think that would have made things easier, but of course that light bulb went off well after the meal was done!!)<br />
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The Eldest did an incredible job on this meal, from planning all the way through execution. She was impressively organized too- she assigned jobs to her dad and Martha, Jr. and had the ingredients for their dishes in paper bags with the recipes stapled to the outside, then she lined up the bags on the kitchen table so everything was ready to go. She even shopped and paid for everything!! I am pleased as punch with her and so proud of all of the hard work and creativity that went in to this meal. This is one young adult who can do anything she sets her mind to, that's for sure. <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-44015332924074951882015-09-23T12:45:00.003-07:002015-09-23T12:45:47.549-07:00Common Core RantA friend of mine posted yet another anti-Common Core meme on Facebook today, and here's my rant in response:<br />
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This is so ironic to me. Everyone is all nuts about STEM this and STEM that, which includes the M for MATH, all because those are where the jobs are. School is supposed to prepare kids for jobs, right, and everyone wants their kids prepared to work in tech, right, because those jobs pay well and all? OK, so then the tech companies sit down with... whomever they sat down with, and come up with a MATH program that will prepare kids for TECH JOBS, by making them better at math, more able to see how numbers work instead of rote memorization, and they call it Common Core, and now it gets all politicized and seen as some horrible liberal agenda, when it isn't, it's just the TECH COMPANIES saying "hey, this is how you can prepare your kids to work in our field". And now it gets distorted and mis-represented and spun as something bad, when the entire goal is to prepare kids for STEM jobs! Just sayin'...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-14932807556537128062015-08-29T00:42:00.000-07:002015-08-29T00:42:31.706-07:00Why We Should Teach Kids Not to CurseCursing is everywhere these days! It seems like everyone is cursing all the time. On several occasions I've even heard parents cursing like sailors in front of young kids, and kids cursing in front of parents with no correction from them whatsoever. Now, don't get me wrong, I can curse with the best of them given the right set of circumstances, so I'm no puritan when it comes down to it, but I didn't curse in front of my kids until they were much older, and then only once or twice for the shock value of it. (Usually to make them so horrified they would laugh, more than anything.) I was always a stickler about it when they were young, and here's why. Cursing is not acceptable in many, many situations. It's not acceptable at school, in front of people you don't know well, in front of younger children, and, depending on the workplace, at work. By teaching my kids not to swear in front of me, I am teaching them how to filter their language appropriately so that when they are at school, or on the job, or in front of young kids, they'll automatically apply that filter that keeps them from cursing. It will just be second nature to them. If you don't believe in teaching kids not to curse you are hurting them in the long run. They'll get in trouble in school and on the job when they don't know how to apply that language filter and they'll offend people without even realizing it. <br />
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A story comes to mind from this- remember the book and movie "Julie and Julia", about the blogger who cooked her way through Julia Child's "Mastering The Art of French Cooking"? At one point <a href="http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/07/julia-child-considered-the-juliejulia-project-a-stunt/">Julie, the blogger, learns that Julia Child does not think well of her</a> and she laments that it's probably because of all the cursing on her blog. The cursing cost her! <br />
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One more story about my son. A couple of years ago when he was maybe 9 or 10 he was outside playing with some kids in the neighborhood. They didn't know I could hear them from the open window, but it was like they were in the same room. One of the older boys said "sh*t" for some reason or the other, so my son pipes up with "don't say sh*t, that's a bad word". That gave me such a chuckle because, by correcting the other boy this way, he had to say the word too! <br />
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So parents, teach your kids not to curse!! Make them clean up their language around you so they'll know how to clean up their language when you're not around; they'll thank you for it one day. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-82080853763600181582015-07-07T23:19:00.003-07:002015-09-06T18:52:14.882-07:00Chicken Soup with RiceI've been sniffling and sneezing all day so I decided to make a pot of chicken soup. Since DH is vegetarian I also made a pot of carroty rice to go with it, then I put the two together in my bowl to make chicken soup with rice. This is the second or third time I've tried to make the soup and rice like this, and this time I nailed it! Here's what I did:<br />
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Chicken Soup with Carroty Rice<br />
by Ramblingfamilymanager.blogspot.com<br />
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Ingredients<br />
<br />
For the soup:<br />
Whole chicken<br />
Water<br />
Salt<br />
Pepper<br />
Dill (fresh or dried; fresh is stronger)<br />
Olive Oil<br />
Vegetable Bouillon Cube, large<br />
Carrots<br />
Celery<br />
Vidalia Onion, 3/4 of a large onion<br />
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You'll notice I haven't given many amounts and that's because this is a "throw it together without measuring" kind of a recipe. I'll give you some ideas about amounts within the recipe directions.<br />
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For the rice:<br />
Water<br />
Salt<br />
Pepper<br />
Olive Oil<br />
Dill (fresh or dried; fresh is stonger)<br />
Vidalia Onion, 1/4 of a large onion<br />
Carrots<br />
(You can also add some celery but DH doesn't like it, so I left it out)<br />
Rice, 1 cup (use a rice that is on the sticky side, such as aborio or sushi rice, to get a risotto like consistency; I tried basmati once and it just isn't as good)<br />
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Soup Directions:<br />
Prep the chicken by removing the giblets and cutting of any big fat globs, then plop it into a really large soup pot and fill the pot with enough water to cover the chicken by an inch or two. Add in the salt and pepper to taste. (I use probably a couple of teaspoons of salt and a few grinds of pepper from a pepper mill. One of the kids is not a fan of pepper so I don't use a lot of it.) If you're using fresh dill, chop it up into little bits and throw, oh, say, a tablespoon in there if you like dill, less if you don't. Actually, if you don't like dill very much, you may want to use dried, then even if you use a lot it won't taste too dill-y. The fresh dill is really strong so a little goes a long way. Glug in a good amount of olive oil, to taste. I used a decent amount today, maybe a couple of tablespoons, and it was yummy. Toss in a bouillon cube. Don't leave it out- even though the chicken gives a lot of flavor, when I skipped the bouillon cube once everyone complained. Let all that start cooking on high heat at a fairly good rolling boil while you prep the veggies. Keep an eye on it, stir occasionally, and add water as needed to keep the chicken submerged. (You can also put a lid on it so you don't have to add as much water.) Turn the chicken a couple of times so it's good and cooked through on all sides. While the chicken is bubbling away, peel and chop up the carrots, celery, and onion. How much? To taste! I use a bunch of carrots because I like them, probably a pound (one small bag) and a half, a couple of good sized stalks of celery, and a large Vidalia onion. Reserve a handful or so of the carrots and about a 1/4 of the onion for the rice. Once you get it all prepped, go ahead and gently (so as not to splash yourself with boiling soup) place the veggies in with the chicken. <br />
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The chicken needs to boil for at least an hour. If the veggies are in the broth by about the last 20 to 30 minutes of cooking time they should be done with the chicken. You can test the chicken to see if it's done (and time will vary depending on the size of the chicken and the heat you use to cook it with) by CAREFULLY using a pair of tongs to see if it will pull apart. When it falls apart, it's done. I like to CAREFULLY lift the chicken out of the broth (piece by piece, because it's falling apart, right?) and into a separate bowl, let it cool until I can handle it, then pick the meat off the bone and throw it back into the soup. Before serving, test for salt. I tend to under salt in the beginning so I always need to add more at the end. <br />
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*Optional: if you are planning on leftovers, right after I throw the veggies in I'll also toss in a few frozen chicken tenders, the kind that are flash frozen so you can pull out only as many as you need. This is great for advanced meal prep- I can use that chicken for so many things! I love to eat the soup for a couple of days then use any additional chicken for a chicken salad. You don't have to defrost or anything- the tenders are small enough that they will cook quickly. <br />
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Rice Directions:<br />
I use a medium sized pot for the rice and prepped it right along with the chicken since it used many of the same ingredients. First put in a good amount of water, at least 4 cups or so. Season it up just like the broth for the chicken- throw in salt and pepper to taste, add some of the fresh dill, and a vegetable bouillon cube. Also glug in some olive oil. I accidentally poured in way more olive oil than I planned on tonight and it came out really, really good and buttery; DH loved it. I'd say it was at least a couple of tablespoons. Let that all come to a boil then add the carrots and onion reserved from the chicken prep along with a cup of rice. (Or adjust the amount of rice to how many servings you are looking for, but make sure there is way more water than rice- you aren't cooking regular rice, you're making a rice soup.) Boil it for one minute then slap a lid on it and turn it down to a simmer for another 20 minutes. (Don't forget to turn it down!!) I like to use a pot with a glass lid so I can check that it's simmering without lifting the lid and letting out all that steam. <br />
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If you don't want to make the rice separate from the chicken, you can just throw a cup of rice in with the chicken 40 minutes in to the cooking time, make sure it boils for a minute, then turn it down to a simmer for 20 minutes more. The problem with this is if you are planning on leftovers- the rice will continue to absorb liquid and get mushy. You also have to make sure that the chicken is all the way done, and with simmering instead of boiling it may take a little longer than an hour. You can also wait until you pull the chicken out of the broth; put the rice in at that point and let it cook for the 20 minutes while you let the chicken cool and pick the meat off the bone, then throw the meat back in when the rice is done and stir it all up. Oh, yeah, I like that idea! I think that would work really well if your family is going to eat the whole pot of soup at once. <br />
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You can also scale this up or down depending on the size of the chicken and the size of your family, and how much you like leftovers. I've been watching meal prep/batch cooking videos on You Tube lately and this is a great option for meal prep. It's also really delicious, and the perfect thing to cook if you are feeling not so great. It's comfort food that's really easy to throw together and only takes a little over an hour from start to finish. <br />
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Enjoy!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFO9ycaBhFSwgG4phqODorKxJko7ZevfYTiFJCAChncDGFdIMZZ5ZNlxldMA2LwEAwotMeRIxLaTvkM1Bn57yVcR_2elxAWxlhK9sMVPqTsu9Hiio54CbSdtDpZnAZJxm83NSvhw3Cwlk/s1600/IMG_3814.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFO9ycaBhFSwgG4phqODorKxJko7ZevfYTiFJCAChncDGFdIMZZ5ZNlxldMA2LwEAwotMeRIxLaTvkM1Bn57yVcR_2elxAWxlhK9sMVPqTsu9Hiio54CbSdtDpZnAZJxm83NSvhw3Cwlk/s400/IMG_3814.JPG" /></a></div>Lots of yummy deliciousness left over and ready to go in the refrigerator!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-70962836403284345912015-06-14T13:18:00.001-07:002015-06-14T13:18:10.159-07:00Hurricane Prep 2015It's been 10 years since we've been hit with a hurricane, and that one was Wilma in October of 2005. I still prepare, though, because it only takes one to turn your life upside down! So far this year I've been updating some of my food storage. DH and I invested retirement money in a second house a couple of hours away so I've stocked our storage room there with emergency food supplies. (We rent it out seasonally but we keep one room locked where we can keep personal items.) I inventoried what I have, removing things that are either expired or close to expiration, and made a list of everything that's up there. I keep a 10 meal box there as well as one at home with everything I need to make five recipes twice each, as well as other supplies like boxed macaroni and cheese, jars of pasta sauce, pasta, rice, oatmeal packets, seasonings, oil, and so forth. I listed every single item from cans of beans to a can of peanuts and their expiration dates, along with a list of items I'm now missing since I cleaned up my inventory. I spent extra time going through the 10 meal box; I need a bunch of items for that. From my lists, I now have a shopping list that I can take to the grocery with me, buying a little at a time until everything is up to date with fresh stock, then I'll take it back to the house the next time I'm able to get up there. <br />
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I feel very organized now! Everything is sorted and neatly packed away, the 10 meal box is ready to pull out and use, and anything bugs could get into is stored in air tight containers. Now I have to do the same thing at home! <br />
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Other things on my prep list to do at home:<br />
~ go through the bug out bags, especially since the kids are older; I'll need to trade out the clothing and entertainment items<br />
~ call the tree trimmer!! I used to get the trees trimmed yearly but I've neglected them for a couple of years now<br />
~ update my food inventory at home, which is a job with multiple parts:<br />
*go through the 10 meal box and rotate the stock<br />
*go through the pantry, donate any items we haven't used, refresh the things we do use<br />
*inventory the items in the freezer and make some meals to use up the frozen food; I don't want to loose a full freezer of food if we are without power for some time, so I try to keep it fairly empty during storm season (plus that way I have room for making more ice and freezing bread, which we can thaw out and use after a storm- you can't find bread in the stores when a hurricane is on the way!!)<br />
~ catch up and keep up with laundry (if you are without power for some time it's nice to have clean clothes!)<br />
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Purging and Organizing:<br />
This counts as emergency preparation because if you have less stuff, then there's less to deal with in the aftermath of a storm, plus you have the space you need to store prep items. I've cleaned out cabinets in our computer room but then I piled everything in boxes in my living room, which is a disaster. I was thinking about trying to sell some of it since there's so much (a lot of homeschooling/educational items, much of it not even used) but I'll never get around to it so I'm going to donate it all, most likely to a local non-profit after school program. Both of my daughters have given their rooms a good clean out so that's all piled in my living room too, and it's all going to go!! I can't wait. I actually am waiting right at the moment, however; The Eldest was planning on having a yard sale of some sort (we're not allowed to have them at our house due to city zoning) at a friend's house, or work, or on-line, to raise money for a volunteer trip she's going on, but it's not happening and she leaves in a week, so that's my deadline. Once she's gone, I'm loading up the car and getting that stuff OUT of my house!!! It will be so good to have my living room back to normal again. <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-15236756596268324482015-01-14T22:58:00.004-08:002015-01-14T22:58:31.421-08:00Pinterest!!I haven't been blogging, but I have been busy pinning! Yesterday I hit a milestone- 500 followers on Pinterest, and the 500th one was rather exciting. The New York Times!! They are following ME on Pinterest!! Woo hoo! I mean, I know they probably follow practically everyone, and a lot of my 500 followers are actually spammers, but I can ignore that for a minute and just bask in the glory. Shhh- don't burst my bubble, please. <br />
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I've pinned 14,339 pins, which seems kind of improbable, but there it is. I don't feel like I spend too much time on it, although I probably do, and it's taken a while to accumulate those numbers, but I've done it. I find pins all over and it's all stuff I'm interested in and want to go back to and look at... some day. I'm not really one to pin a lot of crafts, although I do have a crafts board, so it's mainly articles, informative videos, recipes, TED talks and NPR stories. I haven't read all of the articles or watched all of the videos I've pinned by a long shot, but I have given them all at least a once over to determine which board to pin them to, and I've read or watched a significant number. I find the information I pin endlessly fascinating. I love finding information and sharing it with others who may find it useful- I was probably a librarian in a past life. <br />
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Well, there you have it- I'm a Pinterest-a-holic. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-370679772109077612014-09-16T12:00:00.002-07:002014-09-16T12:00:23.271-07:00Another Scam... SighAm I the only one who's having this issue with liquids from the store lately? This is the second time I've purchased a bottle of laundry detergent from Target, only to start using it and realize it's been watered down. Sounds like a scam to me- people are buying detergent, pouring a portion of it into a container at home, refilling it with water and returning it. It's then placed back on the shelf by store employees who don't realize what's happened. So not happy. Both times this has happened at TARGET stores, although I did notice a bottle of conditioner at Publix that was missing about a fifth of the contents. (And of course it could happen at any store.) Even worse- the laundry detergent I just bought had a loose cap and a good portion of it leaked onto my laminate floor and ruined a sizable section of it. I realized it was watered down when I went to use what was left. Not happy. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-69650132204025963232014-03-28T21:45:00.001-07:002014-03-28T21:45:51.349-07:00It's Time to Garden!Actually, it's a little past time to start my garden, but whatever. My philosophy is throw it in the ground and see what happens, and that's just what I've done. I have 7 cherry tomato plants going (the only kind I have any luck with), 5 kale plants, 2 collard plants plus some collard seeds I planted just today, 2 green bean seedlings plus 2 different kinds of green beans I planted today as well, and a few onion sprouty things. And some marigolds to keep the tomatoes company. Pretty good for the little tiny plot I have in my little tiny backyard, I think! <br />
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So far I've lost one collard seedling, several of the onion sprouts, (I planted about 6 or 7), and a bunch of the green bean seeds when a critter dug them up. (Which is why I only have 2 green bean seedlings; there should have been more!!) The tomatoes, kale, and collards were all seedlings purchased from Home Depot. The onions weren't seedlings; they were in a dried bunch. I don't have much experience with bulbs, but I'm guessing that's what they were. I had about 6 to 8 each of the kale and collard seedlings but I took way too long to get them in the ground so I was lucky any of them survived! I didn't have room for all of them by a long shot, but of the ones I planted I am shocked I only lost one, and the survivors look great! We can harvest from them right now but only a few leaves so I'm leaving them alone for a bit longer. They are both such hardy plants, and tasty, too! They grow like crazy; we'll be over run with kale in a few more weeks. The 2 collard plants might not be enough; I'm hoping the seeds I put in the ground today will sprout for me. We'll see!<br />
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I love growing my own food; I wish we had a bigger back yard so I could get a larger garden going, but this one is a great learning experience. I've learned a few things over the past several years of gardening that have made my previously black thumb a little greenish, things like you can't plant tomatoes in the same spot 2 years in a row; the dead leaves falling off the trees in my neighborhood make a great mulch; I can't grow large tomatoes to save my life, or lettuce, or spinach; tomato hornworms and cabbage worms are all horrid little creatures; and most importantly, home grown food is the absolute best!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-42848390951900155892014-02-21T21:19:00.000-08:002014-02-21T21:19:52.038-08:00Why I'm a PrepperI belong to a prepper group for women on Facebook. Today a member asked for some encouragement and said prepping is a very stressful thing for her, especially when she hears about people going off grid and doing so much more than she's capable of doing at this point. I started typing in a long elaborate comment, but then thought why not post it here? So here it is, my advice to a stressed out prepper.<br />
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First of all, look at the likely disasters in your area. Where I live it's hurricanes and I've lived through a few of them. I rode out Hurricane Andrew at my grandmother's home in Dade County and spoke with my mom on the phone while the storm trashed her house south of us. Further south still the homes were flattened; I saw those a few months later when I went down into that area on an errand. I saw what people went through in the aftermath just trying to get back to some semblance of normal life again. <br />
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I know that should my home be flattened all of my preps could very well be flattened along with them so I try to be realistic, secondly. (I get really irritated when people in the prepper community can't show compassion for disaster victims. "They should have prepared so it's their own fault", they say. Yeah, well, maybe they did but the disaster wiped them out, including all of their preps!) The most likely scenario after a hurricane, however, is roof damage and losing power for an extended time, possibly as long as a couple of months, so that's what I prepare for. <br />
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Here's what I've learned to expect. In the immediate aftermath roads are impassable, both due to debris and damaged stop lights, phones (cell definitely, land lines if it's really severe) can stop working and you can lose water. (Although make sure you have a land line with a corded phone, which will work without power. Cordless phones need power and cell phones need intact cell towers, both in scarce supply after a hurricane blows through, but sometimes the land lines will still be OK.) <br />
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The question I ask myself is this- if that were to happen again, how can I survive and keep my family fed and clean and reasonably comfortable? That's where I come from when I think about prepping. I'm not an "end of the world" prepper, I'm a "temporary disruption of my world" prepper. My family got through Andrew (although my mom knew a child who was killed in the storm, so not everyone made it) and managed to get themselves settled, housed at my grandmother's home (which sustained minor damage), fed, and taken care of. It was absolutely horrific, but we got through. (Once she got her house fixed up my mom moved several states away so she'll never have to go through a hurricane ever again!!) A strong family network was invaluable; my husband and I went down (this was before our first child) and pitched in with the clean up at my mom's house. My brother and his wife were there, my grandmother helped as much as she was able, and we did what had to be done. No one talked about prepping at that time but my parents had storm shutters that probably saved their lives. They had non-perishable food they were able to salvage and take to my grandmother's. My grandmother lost power but she was from an era where that was a normal thing and she pulled out her kerosene hurricane lanterns and her sterno stove and kept right on going. <br />
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My grandmother was from a generation that knew how to function without our modern conveniences because they didn't have those conveniences growing up, especially country kids. She grew up on a farm in rural Alabama and knew how to do all of those things we are trying, as preppers, to re-learn in today's world. She had a garden (just a few tomato plants by the time I came along) and raised chickens and cows with my grandfather when my mom was a child. She told me all sorts of stories about her childhood, how her mom would make a huge lunch including homemade biscuits every day, wash their clothes by hand on wash day, butcher chickens, and thump misbehaving kids on the head with her sewing thimble, how her dad was a jack of all trades including a bus driver, an untrained yet very competent vet, a farmer, and in later years a builder, in order to take care of his family, and how they all had to go and pick cotton in the family fields when she was just a kid. They were "off grid" for the most part, but it was just the way they lived! <br />
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Now that I've walked down memory lane a bit I'll get back to the point I'm trying to make, which is preparing for disasters shouldn't get you stressed out. Take it one step at a time, beginning with defining what you are prepping for. Learn skills as you can. Volunteering with Girl Scouts provided me with excellent opportunities to learn new skills such as camping and first aid, for instance. Learn by doing, too. Say you aren't very good with plants, the only way you'll get better is if you try! If you throw some plants in the ground to start with you'll quickly learn what works and what doesn't, especially if you do your research as you go. I'm not good at researching in advance when it comes to gardening, it's too abstract, but give me a plant that's all wilty when I know I've watered it enough and I'll research the heck out of that little problem! <br />
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So that's how I've approached prepping. I plan for hurricanes so I've prepared my house as much as possible with storm shutters and roof straps and, as soon as we could afford them, impact windows, I've learned about other steps I need to take such as yearly pruning of the trees on my property, (and I had a few trees cut down that were too close to the house for comfort), and I've prepared for an extended time without electricity. I've planned for having to live in a tent if my house is damaged by learning to camp. (And now that my husband and I are older we've been able to purchase a second home with retirement savings so the bug out location isn't a tent anymore!) I've taken first aid classes. I can cook without electricity or gas. I can grow food, sort of. Not enough to go live off the grid, but I'm pretty sure I could get through the aftermath of a nasty storm or two. It's taken a bit to get here, I am 50 after all, but I just keep plugging away!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-60053012784190294642014-01-03T00:30:00.002-08:002014-01-03T00:38:17.913-08:00A Quote and ThanksgivingI'm not much of one for quotes but sometimes things stand out, like this one from <a href="http://deborahharkness.com/discovery-of-witches/">A Discovery of Witches</a> by Deborah Harkness:<br />
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"Marthe belonged to the sustenance school of crisis management", location 5379-5385, Kindle version.<br />
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I love that!! It stands out because I can relate. When a crisis comes along, if I'm not the primary sufferer then my job is to make sure everyone is fed. That doesn't mean I necessarily cook, sometimes I do, but sometimes I orchestrate things, like sending someone out for take out, or calling for the pizza. I also grocery shop; I'm really good at grocery shopping. Whatever it takes, I make sure there's food for everyone because if you're going through a stressful event you need to eat. (Just don't send me to pick up the take out; I HATE getting take out orders.)<br />
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Now here's a picture of a very special meal, our Thanksgiving dinner. It was delicious! I didn't cook all of it like my grandmother used to do, or even close to all of it, but I coordinated our efforts so no one person had to do too much yet we all contributed and had a fantastic meal. (And yes, those are my silly little white Corelle bowls, which I love, on the red stoneware. I never bought bowls to go with the plates so I had to make do! Well, at least the white and red look pretty together.)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT1nY7dDrNqTN09z0_eplwS_lb25pR_zuG9gLTFodBrMKrD-RJfJxTva28ln8YkBZY4nFHj26FCw1hDnPVrTWYx5oXm7CXB1JwDV-XOirLsjpUMK_3_VpRCazJqbXWWXq0U9EoNBgHlcw/s1600/IMG_2113-001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT1nY7dDrNqTN09z0_eplwS_lb25pR_zuG9gLTFodBrMKrD-RJfJxTva28ln8YkBZY4nFHj26FCw1hDnPVrTWYx5oXm7CXB1JwDV-XOirLsjpUMK_3_VpRCazJqbXWWXq0U9EoNBgHlcw/s320/IMG_2113-001.JPG" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-75066196883603774432013-12-01T23:04:00.000-08:002013-12-01T23:40:58.828-08:00It's Like Magic!!I've written a couple of posts about having anemia. What a pain in the neck it's been!! I don't know how long my iron levels were low, but when the blood work came back the doctor said she didn't know how I was able to keep going. (I was really, really anemic.) It got really bad in the few months before I was diagnosed. One of the many difficult aspects had to do with my weight. After losing 40 pounds in 2007, I very successfully kept the weight off for a long time. Recently, hmmm, corresponding to the anemia, perhaps, I found that I would gain weight at the drop of a hat, and then I could NOT lose it again. It was so frustrating!! I kept resolving to cut back, to weigh and measure, to keep a food journal, to go to a nutritionist, to work out more, and NOTHING seemed to work. I failed at everything, especially increasing my work outs, because my body was SCREAMING at me that I needed something I wasn't giving it. I had no energy for work outs. I couldn't get a handle on my portions because my body wanted me to eat more because it was in search of iron. And the scale just kept creeping up. I slowly regained 25 pounds. Seriously discouraging. <br />
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But then I went to the doctor. I told her I had no energy and I couldn't lose weight. She said these magic words... "let's do a little digging", and sent me for blood work. I got my diagnosis. After some trial and error (including a round of hives, the worst itch I've ever known in my life, caused by the sulfa in the iron tablets I started out with) I found iron supplements I could handle. <br />
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After a few months on the supplements I went back for more blood tests to see how I'm doing and my iron levels have just managed to squeak over the line to normal- hooray!!! Guess what else is happening. No really, guess. Guess, guess!! OK, I'll tell you. I'm losing weight again!!! I'm walking more often and with more vigor. My appetite is more in line with a normal human being's. I can portion control with some success again. I mean, it's still a challenge, don't get me wrong, but it's a challenge I can handle. My body isn't screaming at me anymore!!<br />
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It's amazing to me that such a seemingly small thing as how much iron is in my body can make such a huge difference in how I look and feel. And iron, of all things! I've always thought the stereotype of someone anemic was a thin, pale person. Not so much! I'm definitely not pale (I have rosacea, I'm always a little red, and sometimes a lot red depending on the circumstances) and the anemia was making me absolutely hefty. <br />
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It's a lesson learned. My mom, a retired nurse, is always fussing that weight is much more than a calories in, calories out kind of deal. She says there must be more to it, and in this case I found that to be oh, so true. While my calories in were definitely too high, and my calories out were too low since I didn't have the energy to exercise properly, (I could barely get through my days at the worst of it) there were driving factors behind it. I had a nutrient deficiency so my body was driving me to eat in order to make up what I was missing. I had cravings (although not for dirt or ice or clay or anything, which I understand is common with anemia) and I felt like I was starving all the time. (I kind of went nuts for peanuts, actually. They have some iron in them, go figure.) <br />
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I think that's why a balanced diet is the best diet of all. In the absence of any other medical issues, if you are giving your body what it needs, not in terms of calories but in terms of all of the vitamins and minerals it has to have to function properly, then you should be able to maintain a healthy weight. Michael Pollen sums it up the best for me: "Eat food, mostly plants, not too much". Then, of course, he goes on to define FOOD, which means real stuff, not processed food product that you find in the supermarkets nowadays. If you eat empty calories you will be hungry and you will crave more food due to your body's attempts to get those nutrients, and you will gain weight, which will make it harder to move and burn calories, and so forth. So if you are having trouble with your weight even though you are doing everything you can, have some blood work done and hope for a wonderful doctor who listens to you and says "let's do a little digging". Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-42428958961711076632013-10-03T22:23:00.000-07:002013-10-03T22:26:27.033-07:00New Recipe- Lentil, Carrot, and Kale SoupDH is on a low iodine diet for a couple of weeks so he can undergo some screening tests. The diet is kind of a good thing, even though he's having fits for cheese, in that it shakes us out of our food rut for a little while. I've had to find new recipes that are completely devoid of any processed food that might contain iodized salt, plus no dairy and no egg yolks. He's also vegetarian, so no meat. We've gone totally whole foods! <br />
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One of his favorite things to eat on the low iodine diet (this is his second round) is homemade salsa- yum. I found no salt organic corn chips for him and so he'll make huge batches of his salsa, then we all pig out on it. Salads, stir fries, and roasted veggie packets are also yummy.<br />
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Today we tried a new recipe from <a href="http://deliciouslyorganic.net/">Deliciously Organic</a> for <a href="http://deliciouslyorganic.net/lentil-carrot-and-kale-soup-with-creme-fraiche-and-dill/">Lentil, Carrot, and Kale Soup with Creme Fraiche and Dill</a>, only we altered it a bit. (DH and I made it together.) First of all DH halved it- it serves 8 to 10!! Even halving it made a lot of stew. (It was more stew-y than soup-y.) DH also made a batch of rice to serve with it, and we left out the creme fraiche and dill. (He can't have the creme fraiche since it's a dairy product. We would have liked the dill, we just forgot it.) We also used a vegetarian, no salt bouillon cube to make the broth instead of the chicken stock called for in the recipe, and substituted olive oil for the butter. We also left off the wine, and DH meant to put in a splash of a fancy vinegar instead, but we both forgot. We used an immersion blender instead of a regular blender, and some of the kale was blended up by mistake, but kale blends nicely so that was OK. (I started throwing the kale in the pot then remembered it was supposed to go in AFTER the blender step, drat it all.) Oh, and kosher salt instead of sea salt, since kosher salt doesn't have iodine in it and sea salt does.<br />
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The next time we'll make it with A LOT MORE CARROTS!!! My family LOVES carrots so we should've put more in the recipe today. DH also fussed about the lemon, but the rest of us liked it. (He doesn't generally like citrus in cooked foods- it's a thing with him.)<br />
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The consensus? 4 out of 5 of us want it added to our regular menu rotation. As for the 5th, he wouldn't even try it; he made a hamburger. (But that's typical- we don't let it bother us.) Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-43655787098242876222013-09-22T12:22:00.001-07:002013-09-22T14:47:11.628-07:00Advice to a Beginning CookSomeone asked for cooking advice on Facebook today. The person is a beginning cook and wanted help with finding recipes, cook book recommendations, etc. A few people recommended Alton Brown; here's what I had to say, and it was long enough that I decided to post it here:<br />
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I love Alton Brown too but I think he's probably too complicated for a beginner. (I bought one of his cookbooks but wound up donating it to the library- the recipes were way too hard/time consuming and I have decent cooking skills. I've learned a LOT from watching "Good Eats", though!) The old classics- Betty Crocker, for instance, would probably be better, or Taste of Home magazines, which I believe are fairly basic. You can also check out cook books from the library to see which ones you like without having to buy them right away. It's disheartening to spend money on a cook book then find out the recipes don't work for you for whatever reason. <br />
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Plus remember the old adage- practice, practice, practice. The more you cook, the better you'll get. <br />
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Also- when trying a recipe for the first time follow it to the letter. After that feel free to experiment and change things up, mix up the seasonings, make substitutions. Don't try that with baking, though- you have to be more precise with following the recipe when you bake, especially when it comes to proportions of one ingredient to another. Look for the websites where you can plug in the items you want to cook with, then it generates a list of recipes for you. There's also MyRecipes.com and AllRecipes.com. Cooking Light magazine and Southern Living both link to... myrecipes.com, I think, and their recipes are fantastic. <br />
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Cooking magazines are wonderful- I have a bit of an addiction to them! Finally- focus on the style of cooking you want to pursue- if you want healthy recipes, then Cooking Light or Eating Well would be fantastic, for instance. Vegetarian, then go for Vegetarian Times, etc. Then there's all the cooking shows out there- I actually prefer good old PBS for cooking shows. Julia Child re-runs and Martha Stewart's current show, along with America's Test Kitchen. Even if they are making things too complicated for where you are right now, you'll still learn techniques that will help you out in the long run. And don't forget about Pinterest!! There are about a bazillion recipes on there. Good luck!!! Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-58993525429833707202013-09-16T21:23:00.001-07:002013-09-16T21:31:03.432-07:00Summer SummaryI wrote about my summers not too long ago, how they all seem to take on themes. I like it best when the theme is TRAVEL, but not much of that happened this summer. What did happen was lots and lots of doctor visits to try and figure out why I'm so drained all the time, more than just the fibromyalgia can explain. My instincts, that there was something more going on, turned out to be accurate- I have anemia. The big question is figuring out why I'm anemic, and the big task is to get my iron levels back up, which has proven trickier than anticipated since I found out that I'm allergic to sulfa, which is what ALL of the prescription iron tablets are mixed with. It's been a lot of tests and a lot of appointments and a lot of phone calls to various medical offices and a lot of label reading to find OTC supplements without sulfa, but yet with enough mgs of iron to make a difference without taking 10 pills a day. There's still more to go, too- another test to check for internal bleeding, a few more tests to see if my iron levels are improving, and tests to follow up on the tests that revealed some minor issues that need to be watched. And a few weeks of physical therapy for my sore knee at the beginning of summer, which actually didn't help much. (Maybe if I did the follow up exercises...)<br />
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And then there's DH. He's also had some medical issues this summer, including physical therapy. We got to work out together for a couple of appointments; it was almost like a date!! Good times, good times.<br />
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So it's been a medically themed summer; that's my least favorite. :( But I'm perking along taking my over the counter iron supplements, and boosting the iron in my diet since the OTCs aren't quite strong enough. I gave up being vegetarian for now; if I can get my iron levels up to where they should be I'll cut back on meat again. I still don't eat meat every day, mind you, but I will buy a steak from Whole Foods, level 4 on their animal welfare rating program, once or twice a week. I'm also eating... gulp... chicken liver. Chicken liver is about the most iron rich food you can eat, so eat it I am. It's palatable, shall we say, when it's made up as chopped liver with lots of hard boiled egg and sauteed onion. I eat it on matzoh crackers with some tomato to top it off, and it's not too horrible. Oh, almost forgot, OJ on the side since citrus helps with iron absorption. <br />
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I bought a new cast iron skillet too, and I'm trying to cook in that as often as possible. Which actually isn't very often since DH usually cooks the meals that require a skillet and he doesn't like it, but I've cooked the chicken livers in it. <br />
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With all the iron I've felt a little better so I've gone out a few times to ride my bike to try to get more exercise. I love riding my bike- it always makes me feel like a kid again. That and a 15 minute daily walk for the dogs is the extent of my exercise program, but it's better than nothing. I still get so wiped out I can barely move, especially at the end of a busy day, and the day after a busy day. I cut back on most of the activities for the kids for the summer, but now that the school year has started again that's picking right up. <br />
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I hate giving in to it, but sometimes I have to. Back in May/June, when I first really started feeling poorly, I was blaming it on fibro flare ups but they were so much worse and much more frequent than usual. It really started affecting my friendships because I was always making excuses for why I couldn't do things, or why I was late, or unprepared, or whatever, since I was always too wiped out to do things properly. It's gotten to where I hate for friends to ask me how I am, because I don't know what to say. Do I lie and say I'm fine, when I'm really not? Does anyone actually want to hear it if I do tell them I feel like crap? Or do I brush it off with "I'm hanging in there", or something equally non-committal? Or just go ahead and go with the socially gracious option and lie, saying "I'm fine"? Or am I completely over thinking this? (Yeah, probably that last thing.) ;)<br />
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Blech- even I don't want to read this post, but it's how my summer went so I'm journaling about it for posterity. Here's hoping it's the last "medical summer" for a long, long time!!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-82767980558233622912013-08-23T18:20:00.000-07:002013-08-23T18:32:52.034-07:00Happy 50th- Here's Your Colonoscopy!Oh yeah, I'm going there. Because we have to talk about these things. I had my first colonoscopy (hopefully the last, at least for a while) yesterday, and since it's so important to have it when your doctor wants you to, I'm going to tell you all about it. First of all, it's not that bad. Even the prep, which I was dreading, wasn't horrible for the most part. When the gastroenterologist said she wanted to schedule me for one, she handed me some paperwork with directions for how to get ready. I gave them a glance then set them aside until a couple of days before, which was mistake number one. There are some medications that you have to stop taking a full week prior to the test! There are some others, like NSAIDS and iron pills, that you have to stop taking 5 days prior, but I was already only 2 days out and had taken an Aleve AND my iron pill the day before- ooops! I called, thinking WHEW, I can reschedule, but no such luck. They said it would be OK just make sure to tell the nurse and not to take anymore. <br />
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You also have to watch what you eat several days before the test- no roughage, things like nuts, salad, popcorn, and so forth. Then there's the medicine to really clean things out the day before- some pills and a powder (both over the counter) you have to mix with 64 ounces of liquid, either water, Gatorade, or Crystal Lite. 64 ounces!! That's the hard part. The powder had no discernible flavor whatsoever when I mixed it with Gatorade; as far as I could tell it dissolved completely. Mixing it with Gatorade, however, was my second mistake. See, 64 ounces is a LOT of liquid, and you have to drink it all within a two hour period. The first glass went down, no problem. Same for the second and third, but after that, not so much. Let me tell you, for someone who strictly drinks water, that Gatorade gets cloyingly sweet after that third glass. I couldn't do it! I just physically could not drink down the last quarter or so of that Gatorade. Trying to get it down was the worst part, because my body was reacting to the medicine and trying to get everything back OUT. Everything in me was saying "NO MORE INPUT, NO MORE INPUT"!!!!! I figured I would be able to drink more down as soon as at least a little was back out, but I just gave up, because once, umm, "output" commenced it was pretty obvious I didn't need any more of the medicine. Blech. I was sick to my stomach and going through the worst of the "output" for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half total, then I was fine. (As long as I stayed near the bathroom!) I couldn't take anything else sweet, though- all those popsicles and jello and Italian ice that I bought- the kids had a party because I wasn't going anywhere near it. <br />
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Luckily DH took pity on me and made me some broth by throwing a bunch of veggies (carrots, onions, and celery braised in olive oil) in a pot with half a bouillon cube and a bunch of water then cooking it to death. He didn't even add salt since he figured the Gatorade had me salted up enough, and he was right! I strained the broth, then, since I could see the olive oil floating on the surface, I put it through my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-4-Cup-Separator/dp/B0002YTGIQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377307418&sr=8-2&keywords=defatting+cup">de-fatting</a> cup. (The directions said clear liquids, so this helped make it as clear as possible.) That was really soothing, but just a little bit went a long way. <br />
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As for things I did right, I kept my schedule light and finished up really early the day before the procedure, then nothing on the calendar for afterwards. I was able to eat breakfast the day before so an early doctor's appointment (at an office close to home) was OK. After breakfast it was all liquids so I knew I would be really shaky and wouldn't have the energy to do much, and that's pretty much how it happened, but I wasn't as physically uncomfortable as I thought I would be. The clear liquids (especially that broth) kept me going just fine, especially since I didn't have anything much I was trying to get done. Having some movies and a good book on standby helped keep me distracted as well. <br />
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On to the actual procedure. It was absolutely no sweat; I breezed right through it. They gave me an IV in the prep area, then I had to wait just a bit to go back to where they were going to actually do the procedure. (I had an endoscopy too- they looked in both ends!) They had me turn onto my left side and strapped a weird mouth guard in to keep my mouth open for the endoscopy, and put the oxygen tube thing in my nose. (The kind everyone has in those TV hospital dramas- it tickles.) Right after that, the nurse said "OK, you're going to sleep now", and that was that. The next thing I was back in the prep area and roused up enough for the nurse to see I was awake. She brought me an apple juice then things got fuzzy again for a bit, then I was more alert and she told me I could get dressed, then DH came back and they sent me home. I didn't get sick from the sedation at all, which I was worried about since I've seen DH get sick after his surgeries- apparently they don't sedate you as heavily for this as they do for an actual surgery, so I felt fine coming out of it. I was still a little woozy the rest of the day; they don't let you drive or go back to work for the next 12 hours. <br />
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The best part- as soon as it was over I could eat!! I had crackers waiting for me in DH's back pack- another good idea. I also had some lollipops which helped my scratchy throat, but one was enough because, yeah, sugar; still not over the Gatorade. <br />
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So there you have it- my colonoscopy de-briefing. This is not meant as a substitute for medical advice by any means, and is specific to my experience, especially since hospitals may have different prep directions. But if anything is helpful for anyone else facing their first colonoscopy, then yeah! Feel free to ask questions- I told DH I should do an "AMA" (ask me anything) on Reddit but he said they can run like 6 hours long, so no. But you really can AMA about the procedure; if my experiences can help you get through your own colonoscopy then I'm a happy girl. <br />
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PS: And yes, I just turned 50. I had the procedure both because it's recommended when you turn 50 and because <a href="http://ramblingfamilymanager.blogspot.com/2013/07/figuring-things-out.html">I seem to be rather anemic these days</a>, and the doctors are trying to figure out why. The colonoscopy and endoscopy results were perfect, so they have to look elsewhere for the problem. I may get to swallow a camera!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-21123847001616095842013-08-12T20:25:00.001-07:002013-08-12T20:25:29.612-07:00Book Review: Skinny Dip by Carl HiaasenAckkk!!! One of my favorite bloggers (hi Kathy!) read my blog and left a comment, on probably one of the lamest posts ever!!! So now I have to redeem myself with something wonderous and witty and amusing to read.... and I got nothing. But I have been reading a lot of novels lately, and the book I just finished is "Skinny Dip" by Carl Hiaasen, one of my favorite authors, so I'll give you a review. Carl also brought us "Hoot", for the youngsters, that was made into a movie my kids watched about a bazillion times over on DVD. He's a Florida author and many (if not all, I haven't researched it) of his books are set here, so as a Florida native myself, (3 generations back on my daddy's side) it's fun to recognize the settings. <br />
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This one starts out on a cruise ship that docks at Port Everglades in Broward County, with a murder. Or at least an attempted one, so it's a mystery. I'm not usually a fan of mysteries but I make exceptions when they are also funny and/or quirky, like this one. It's very "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tell-Tale_Heart">Tell Tale Heart</a>" but with a lot of twists and turns, because it's a novel and not a short story, and well, not much remorse on the part of the murderer, except that he... oops, no spoilers! And the humor- Carl Hiaasen cracks me up! He amazes me with how he looks at things, and how he can take so many different threads and weave them all together, wrapping everything up at the end. <br />
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The characters are all interesting- the likable ones and even some of the initially not so likeable ones are all, well, likeable, and the bad guys are really slimy. Joey (the intended murder victim) and her husband Chaz are the main characters. Chaz is the bad guy who gets caught up in the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight_%281944_film%29">Gaslight</a>"-like scenario cooked up by Joey, who wants revenge and closure. There's a whole ensemble of additional characters to follow including a hermit, a corrupt farmer, a good cop who just wants to move back home to the frigid north, an estranged mistress, a New Zealand sheep farmer, and the bumbling bodyguard/hit man with the heart of gold. <br />
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I thoroughly enjoyed this one; if you're looking for a fun read, give it a go!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-64758619496278670532013-07-07T16:36:00.000-07:002013-07-07T16:36:07.259-07:00Figuring Things OutSo, yeah, I mentioned taking care of my own health care issues this summer. One of the things scheduled was to see my GP and get orders for blood work, since the last time I had it done was almost 10 years ago. Well, I had the blood drawn and the results were released to me today via e-mail, and as it turns out I am anemic as all get out! I knew my iron levels weren't great since I can never donate blood, but they would reassure me that my levels were OK for my health just not high enough to donate based on the quick tests at the blood mobile. More in depth tests revealed a very different answer! The doctor hasn't gone over the results with me yet but it's pretty darn obvious given the numbers. <br />
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It explains a lot, really. I've been so tired lately but I was writing it off as fibro flare ups that just seemed to be getting more frequent and severe. My daily walks have been extremely difficult to maintain, although I've tried, and I can't seem to get anything done around the house. Taking the kids to their various activities and running errands has been exhausting. <br />
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I'm looking forward to seeing the GP again in a week and half so I can get going with treatment. I've been fighting the energy drain for so long now; I'm almost in tears realizing that I'm going to feel better soon. In the meantime, more "Kalicious" smoothies from Whole Foods are definitely on tap!! (They are LOADED with iron.) I'm also thinking I'm just going to give in until my appointment and chilax for a while. I've been fighting this for so long, pushing myself when I was too tired for words, that giving in for a little bit sounds heavenly.<br />
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My take away from this is, if you have fibro and you're feeling lousy, don't just assume it's the fibro. Get yourself checked out for other issues that may be causing similar or worsening symptoms.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-86168716550956854812013-06-22T21:16:00.002-07:002013-06-22T22:04:57.592-07:00Summer RhythmsEven homeschooling families can find their lives quite a bit different once the traditional school year is over. Our summers always bring something new, sometimes good, sometimes bad. For the bad years, we lost loved ones in the summer of 2007 and 2008, and a very close family member was hospitalized for months after a serious medical emergency in July, 2010 so I spent a lot of that summer at his bedside. (The kids didn't miss me too much- we got our first dog the day after he was hospitalized and the second one about two months later.) <br />
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As for the good years, my daughter and I went to Europe in 2009, technically in the spring but close enough. The Wild Child was diagnosed with his reading disability in July, 2011, which was actually a good thing because then he started getting the help he needed. He finished with his reading tutor just a couple of weeks ago and he's turned into a bookworm! I know he's not technically at grade level yet but he's so close, and he loves books and reading so much that I consider it only a matter of time until he catches up then surpasses his reading level entirely. (He's always loved books- he used to grab encyclopedias off the shelf and drag them around the house when he was a toddler.) <br />
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Martha, Jr. and I went to Washington, DC last summer with a bus load of Girl Scouts and the pace of the guided tour just about killed me; I spent the rest of that summer in physical therapy for my back!! (Totally worth it, though- it was an amazing trip and WE SAW ALL THE THINGS.) <br />
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Going way back, two of my three children were born in summer. Their due dates were pretty close together but The Eldest was born a little early and The Wild Child was born a little late, so they're a couple of weeks apart. (Martha, Jr., aptly enough given her personality, was born EXACTLY on her due date in the fall.) And, well, I was born in the summer, come to think about it. (Now that really is waaaaaayyyy back!)<br />
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So as summer begins this year I'm wondering what it will bring. I have some projects lined up, one of them being my own health. I tend to put off doctor visits for little things during the school year- I'm too busy running around with the kids to schedule anything for myself, so if I can put it off until summer I do it. That means stacked appointments once the school year activities slow down- three doctors this past week. It looks like physical therapy again, this time for some tendinitis in my left knee, the result of a fall a year and a half ago. (NOT during the summer!) It's not too bad so hopefully I won't be in therapy for long, and the doctor said I shouldn't have any long term problems from it. <br />
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I went to another doctor for restless leg syndrome and she said, yes, I have it, and I can try a few over the counter supplements, and if they don't work she can prescribe something. After talking to her I realized it's probably my own darn fault about the RLS- I used to take a multi-vitamin then I stopped because the only ones I could find without soy (I have issues with soy) give me gas. (The stinky kind- not fun.) But the multi-vitamin had iron in it, and on top of that I was taking an iron supplement every other day. I continued the supplement every other day, but I didn't do anything to make up for the iron in the multi-vitamin. Since I have a history of low iron (not terribly low- in the range where the level is OK for my health but I usually can't donate blood) this probably wasn't the best idea, and it's probably why I developed RLS. Hopefully taking more iron again will alleviate the RLS symptoms, so that will be a problem easily solved- whew!<br />
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As for the third doctor, I went to her about my fibromyalgia symptoms. I was diagnosed about 13 years ago and haven't had much in the way of medical attention since then, at least in terms of the fibro. I don't want to take the prescription medications so I've tried to manage on my own. Well, I decided I should probably at least talk to a doctor about my symptoms and what's going on. What if the diagnosis wasn't accurate, (although I think it was based on everything I've learned about fibro) or there are some other underlying problems that could be addressed to make things better? Sleep apnea, for instance, or some sort of vitamin deficiency similar to the RLS problem- something that can be addressed without the meds. The doctor took my concerns very seriously and ordered all sorts of tests, including a sleep study, so it will be interesting to see what happens with all of that. I have to go sleep in a hotel for the sleep study; I don't know how much sleeping I'll actually be able to do, but I'll give it a try!<br />
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Alright, enough with the dreaded "wall of text"! Here's a picture of how we spent our day today; just because it's summer doesn't mean we can't still learn things, especially when the learning is fun!!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA9NnfwGDOnU89Q8swP-u-YZWCZBN28s16Q88PKkTAGJBIxxiqTIU9sTfL2s-Oa4lJbnh7unofFXEjnNfYkp0TAmuvFatALC-QyyLzHWCVJ07Mzdi1UGNpq3ttCVO-vmJLWh0NSW_Sb-Y/s1600/IMG_1692.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA9NnfwGDOnU89Q8swP-u-YZWCZBN28s16Q88PKkTAGJBIxxiqTIU9sTfL2s-Oa4lJbnh7unofFXEjnNfYkp0TAmuvFatALC-QyyLzHWCVJ07Mzdi1UGNpq3ttCVO-vmJLWh0NSW_Sb-Y/s320/IMG_1692.JPG" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-42825511925066736472013-05-22T17:59:00.002-07:002013-05-22T17:59:40.351-07:00HaikusMartha Jr. is struggling with writing a haiku. She gets this way sometimes- she is a very capable student, but sometimes she puts up a wall in her brain when she doesn't immediately get a concept. The rest of us were encouraging her by writing haikus of our own; they were too good (ahem) not too share!!! (Well, "good" may be stretching it...)<br />
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Here they are:<br />
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Me:<br />
Orange sunset bright<br />
Beautiful color hues<br />
My favorite time<br />
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DH:<br />
Orange blossoms fall<br />
Writing Florida haikus sucks<br />
But then maybe not<br />
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The Eldest:<br />
This is really hard<br />
Haikus are pretty silly<br />
Nature reference<br />
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Me:<br />
Cherry blossoms fall<br />
Streets of Washington shimmer<br />
Fabulous field trips<br />
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(DH said there was a haiku meme on the internet a while back where you had to start every haiku with "cherry blossoms fall". That reminded me of our field trip to Washington, DC where they were celebrating the cherry blossom trees that were gifted to the city from Japan 100 years before, thus my haiku.)<br />
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The Wild Child:<br />
Minecraft really rocks<br />
I am digging for diamonds<br />
Creepers explode BOOM<br />
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I'll post an update when Martha Jr. stops being her own worst enemy and writes one of her own!!<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6099211849177523613.post-83496024817562108112013-05-16T14:48:00.001-07:002013-05-16T14:50:51.962-07:00Frustrating LimitsFibro stinks. One of the reasons it stinks is because of the limitations it puts on my life. I'm handling it as well as can be expected, some people are completely disabled by fibromyalgia after all, but I am frustrated that I can't do everything I want to do. I love the various groups I've been involved with, Girl Scouts, 4H, political campaigns, a local non-profit for kids, and a greyhound rescue group to name a few, but I can't do as much for each of them as I'd like. I constantly find myself saying "NO" when I would so dearly love to say "YES", just because I don't have the energy reserves to take on the work. This week was one of those weeks. Monday and Tuesday were both busy, busy days, up early and running around with the kids for various activities, and by the end of the day on Tuesday it was catching up with me. I struggled through a trip to the grocery store, then about passed out after I got home. On Wednesday I was bed ridden. I had a full "to do" list but just getting up out of bed made me tired, so I mostly didn't. I feel terrible that I'm leaning on my husband so much- he picks up the slack when I have those "fibro days", but I just can't. It feels like when you have the flu and you're over the worst of it, but you still feel lousy and weak, so you know there's a few more days of recovery and bed rest left to go. That's the exact feeling I have when I get a bad flare up. I stand up and immediately feel like I need to lay down again. Sometimes I can push through it, but that's hard to do. Sometimes I need to just give in, cancel everything, and rest. Thanks to DH, when I have those days I usually can get the rest I need; I can't imagine having to work for a paycheck while dealing with this.<br />
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So when you ask me to help out with something, and I say no with some lame excuse, it's because I'm feeling a flare coming on, or I know I'm over-scheduled, or I've taken on too much already, and I just can't. I rarely say it's because of the fibro, I'm not sure why, but that's usually what it is. Maybe it's because I hate acknowledging it myself- if I admit that's why I can't do something, then I'm admitting I have a disability. Blech. I want to feel healthy and alive and in control of my life, not limited and weak, but it is what it is. I can't say I'd be a Type A personality if I didn't have fibro, but I would be a much more active go-getter if I could manage it. Sigh.<br />
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Oh, well; we all have to handle the cards we're dealt, so here's to life and making the best of it. :)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2