My, my, it's been a while hasn't it?

Ur-spo recently asked for another post from me. I've been meaning to write stuff here for a while, but since it's been so long, it's hard to know where to start, what to pick up, what to leave off.

So I'll tell you what's on my mind right now. Well, some of what's on my mind. As has been demonstrated many times before (see the whole damned archives for my rambling nonsense) there are lots of things that crowd my mind all at once. I'll tell you some of the wisdom I have gathered in the last few months.

I seem to be getting my shit together somewhat. It all stems, I propose, from flossing my teeth regularly. Have I mentioned this yet? My New Year's Resolution for 2012 was to floss my teeth regularly. Of course I've made many a lofty resolution in years past and never fulfilled squat. A couple of weeks into the new year I had my semi-annual teeth cleaning, and at that point decided that I could floss my teeth regularly. It's a small thing, very small, and something I can probably keep doing. And I have. All this year I've almost never failed to floss before I brush my teeth at bedtime.

This has led to other changes in my personal lifestyle (or I credit the flossing since I don't know what else it could be). Sometime (I think) late in the summer (though I can't recall exactly) it slowly dawned on me that I don't really need all that food I've been eating. For many years (my entire adult life) I have been something of a compulsive overeater. If one cookie is good, twelve are better. If I want it, I eat it, and not in small quantity either. My size, my weight, attest to this fact. As I've said for years, I'm twice the woman I should be. But now, if I lost half my current weight I'd be a bit too small. Yes, I have lost weight! Over 30 lbs! I'm eating healthier and eating less. I don't need all that extra food to make me happy (or whatever my silly brain has been trying to compensate for).

The next step (one of them) is more stepping. The "trick" to weight loss is to eat less and move more. I have yet to psych myself up to exercise, but I'm thinking about it. Actually, I am moving a bit more. Weighing less has given me more energy. I can walk more easily. I occasionally park farther out in parking lots to walk extra. Oh, I'll tell you a tiny story. Last week I made a major grocery excursion; bought $300 worth of fairly cheap stuff at Wal-Mart. Took two carts to haul it all out to the truck. C was home to help me carry it all in from the truck, but I could have done it if I'd had to. And I put it all away. A few months ago I didn't have the stamina to stay in the store that long, much less haul stuff to the car, unload it, and put it away. Now I'll tell you, I was bushed afterward. Rested a while. Then I got up and did more stuff.

Thanksgiving I cooked almost the entire dinner (lots of stuff) by myself. Superman and Light have cooked most of Thanksgiving dinner in recent years. Light is now in Pennsylvania and hasn't been here for Thanksgiving for two years. Superman tore the medial gastrocnemius in his right calf the day before Thanksgiving and was practically no help with cooking. He chopped some veggies. Diva helped with a couple of things, but that was work for me, too, because I gave guidance. Dinner turned out great. That felt good!

I decided a month or two ago to do a lot more cooking. For one thing, I've cut out most meat. Still do poultry sometimes though I'm trying to cut that out, too. Still do seafood and have no qualms about that. We've had a lot of vegetarian meals over the past few weeks. I searched through some of my recipe collections for stuff that either is or can be meat free. I've been planning weekly meals!!  This is unheard of. Haven't been this gung-ho domestic since our early marriage. Tonight we had awesome mac-n-cheese with mushrooms, onions, and carrots chopped up fine in it. Four kinds of cheese, small shell pasta (my favorite). Awesome.

I've had a turkey in the freezer for probably over a year, and didn't use it at Thanksgiving, so Sproing convinced me to pull it out and cook it. That's dinner for tomorrow. It won't be the full T'giving spread, but I'll have a lot of the same stuff. No dressing, no green bean casserole this time. Sweet potatoes, definitely. Found a low fat recipe for sweet potato casserole that is, if anything, better than the rich delicious one my mother-in-law taught me.

Part of the impetus for all this domesticity is financial concerns. Our expenses are rising and income isn't. I'm sort of supposed to be getting a job now, you know, to pay off my student loans and shit. That was the agreement when I went back to school. Except I keep needing to be at home to take care of stuff. For example, Superman can't drive at all until after he sees the orthopedist in January, if then. He's got a big boot (walking boot they call it) that he might be able to stop using in 6 weeks. So I'm his chauffeur. The kids always need to be taken to various psycho-medical appointments. Diva got herself suspended for two days (tomorrow (Tues) and Wednesday) and I need to be here to manage her time. We do not want her to enjoy being suspended! Even if tomorrow is her birthday. But she is a whole other blog post I don't want to write right now. The point is that I am trying to do stuff at home that saves us money.

OH, and speaking of, I started making bread again. I used to make all our bread many years ago (before Twitch was born, I think. He's 21, almost 22). I use a starter called Herman. (I don't know why "Herman"). Here is the bread recipe. Have made it twice so far. The first time Sproing ate almost a whole loaf by himself. Yesterday I divided the starter into two containers so I can make a couple of loaves every two or three days. With all the hungry people in this house we need at least that much. I really like making bread. I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. And now I have the energy to do it!

That's about all I can think to share tonight. I endeavor to get back here before too long to ramble on about other things, like Diva and Sproing and their shenanigans. And Twitch graduates with a bachelor's degree in Graphic Design in less than two weeks. What's he gonna do next? So far he has no job lined up. My Mama just got out of the hospital today after suffering with a nasty urinary tract infection that had her fever up to 103+ for days. My dad goes in to the hospital for a heart valve replacement in less than two weeks. He told me he's getting a valve from an Arkansas Razorback Hog.
 
He's been a Florida Gator fan most of his life, and I told him he's gonna be compelled to root for Arkansas now. He's a trip.

Is there any past drama that you'd like me to update? Any questions I've left hanging that you'd like answers to? Just ask. I'll do my best to provide answers in a follow-up blog post. Soon, even!

You are what you eat

... or so they say.

I am trying to develop better eating habits. I have a thing for sweets, especially baked goods. These things are not very good for me. For the last month or so I've eliminated red meat from my diet, concentrating on fish and poultry instead. Actually, for the past year or two (or maybe longer) I have cut back on how much meat I eat. I'm eating even less meat now.

And I'm trying to add more vegetables to my diet. The problem is that I don't like vegetables. It's really hard to be a vegetarian if you don't like vegetables. Sometimes I'll have a 12 oz. can of V-8. That's two servings of veggies! If it's nice and cold I can swig it down so fast I almost don't taste it. If my taste buds are used to lots of sweets, like they have been, then veggies are a hard sell. I know that if I cut out the sugar, then other stuff will taste good. Haven't been totally successful with that yet.

This morning I went to the local farmer's market, opened on Wednesdays and Saturdays near our neighborhood. I bought three tomatoes, a small yellow squash, small zucchini squash, string beans, and a pint of blueberries. Then I went to the grocery for bagged lettuces, strawberries, carrots, and dairy products. Here's my plan: cut the squash into small pieces and saute them with onion and mushrooms. Add that to a can of spaghetti sauce and any other left-over red sauce we happen to have in the 'fridge, and it's the sauce for lasagna. I got ricotta, mozzarella, and "Italian blend" cheeses at the grocery, and some large pasta shells as well. So I might do stuffed shells, or if we have lasagna noodles (and I think we do) I'll slap together a lasagna. My kids are particularly fond of lasagna, and if I hide the squash in it, they probably won't notice. We'll have salad also, and both of these young'uns kinda like salad. 


Superman is out of town for a few days. He's gone up to visit Light in Pennsylvania. He's driving back on July 4th. I hope that, being the actual holiday, the traffic won't be too bad on the 4th. He'll be home for a couple of days before I leave him again. I'm taking Sproing to Florida to visit my family for a week, then we're driving up to Pennsylvania to see Light. The darling Light has volunteered to keep Sproing for a couple of weeks. So I'll leave him there and come back home. Superman will drive back up there at the end of July to help Light move into new digs, and to bring Sproing back to SC. It's a travel-heavy month, July. I'm glad gas prices are down, and hope they stay low. 


And yes it is hot here, but no hotter than most of the rest of this half of the U.S. I got out early this morning to do my shopping before it got too terrible. It was about 80 deg. when I went to the farmer's market. They're predicting 106 or 107, depending on the source of predictions, for today. Yesterday's high was 106. I'm staying inside as much as possible. One good thing, though; the humidity isn't terribly high. So it's hot, but it's sort of a dryer heat, at least for these parts. Of course I don't like it and want to move north to avoid this foolishness. I'm going to try not to complain too much about the heat this summer. Wish me luck. Oh, I'll hate it just as much, but I'm trying not to dwell on it in print (here and on Facebork). 

Random snips of insanity

~First off, the weather. What the f**k is going on? It's weird. I'm afraid my Bradford pear tree is going to burst into bloom any minute now. It was 75F degrees this afternoon. According to my sources, which are inconsistently reliable, we should have unseasonably warm weather through the weekend. This feels a whole lot more like Florida than upstate South Carolina. 

~Our utility bill came today. As I may have mentioned, I saw the meter reader come through the yard on the day C and S moved out. This month's bill reflects power and water usage with the boys in the house. We aren't running the air conditioner (duh) or the central heat, though we have electric space heaters in some of the bedrooms. The bill is $332.11. Remind me to compare this to next month's bill. 

~Today was the final day of school for the kids until January 5th. Diva and Sproing have been unpleasant company this afternoon. Sadly, I can't say I'm thrilled about school being out. Perhaps we can work to cheer things up tomorrow and the rest of the holiday. Today I'm too tired.

~And speaking of tired, I'm very tired again today. I can't remember when I went to sleep last night, and I woke up at 6:00 this morning to take the kids to school. Later in the morning I had to take a nap, I could not stay awake. I'm tired again now at 5:30. 

~Because of some medication I was taking 18 months ago my blood pressure became elevated. The doctor took me off that medication and put me on Avapro to control the blood pressure. It has performed exactly as advertized. The doc wanted to see me for a recheck on this blood pressure thing. I went yesterday. Everything is copacetic with the BP and he wants me to stay on it for maintenance because I have "other risk factors." Translated, that means I'm way overweight and too sedentary and my eating habits are unhealthy. All of this is true, so I told him I'd continue taking the Avapro. 

I also mentioned that I am very tired all the time, and I want him to check my iron levels. Well, he jumped all over that and told me he wants a complete blood workup. Fasting. So I skipped breakfast this morning and went to the office after I dropped Twitch off at school this morning. The cute little asian nurse sucked my blood from my arm. Since Christmas is only a week away I suspect the test results will be a bit slower coming back. I should get the results next week or the week after. 

We also discussed my CPAP. I think the pressure needs to be increased. I've had the machine for 7 or 8 years and it's never been serviced. I'm older and a bit heavier than I was when I got the machine. I have an appointment early next week to see somebody, I don't know who, in some office in that new medical park on the south side of town. She called me, all chipper, and I had no idea who she was. She had to explain that she works for that company/organization which does all this CPAP stuff. I'm supposed to take my machine and all its trappings to her office on Monday. I have no idea what she plans to do, but perhaps my CPAP will work better when she's done. 

~I still feel all Bah Humbug about the holidays. 

Update on Superman's heart

Things are looking up. As I mentioned in the previous post, his heart rate was still irregular when I checked it at 4:30 this morning. But when he woke up around 7:00 it was very regular. He's had a regular heart rate all day! Light took him to the hospital this morning for an echocardiogram. The hospital sent the results to our family doc this afternoon, and he called Superman this evening. The echo was normal. And all the blood tests and x-rays he had last night were normal. There is no physical evidence of anything wrong with his heart. Yippeeeee! *sigh of relief* And Superman reports he's felt fine all day.
Our doc told him to rest, and if he feels OK he can go to work on Monday. I told the silly husband today that he CAN NOT take the truck and collect fire wood from the deadfall in the woods around here, as he was planning to do this weekend. He really wants to. That rest thing is going to be the challenge for him. He feels fine now. There is a lot he wants to do that honestly needs to be done. But he'd better not do too much or else he'll have to answer to ME! Grrrrrrr. (do I sound scary enough?)