Weekly recap: 10/29/2018

Good Monday morning, friends!

What a weird week. (There's been a lot of those lately.) It's one of those off weeks where it seems a lot of my activities have taken place out of the house, so it feels like nothing of value got accomplished, but that's not entirely true, it's just that not as many home projects got taken care of. Some weeks are like that, though, right? Plenty of good things happened this week, too, so I'm happy to share those.

So let's get started!


MONDAY

This was the day.

THE day.

The day I tackled my daughter's room.

She's four, the first girl on my mom's side of the family since I was born, and her father's only biological child, so she's a wee bit spoiled when it comes to toys and her room shows it. She's also a hoarder who refuses to let anything go (including things she brings in from the great outdoors, like sticks, and old stickers that have lost their stick, and old shopping lists that she uses for pretend but has like 23748972943 of them, sooooooo...), and she hasn't quite mastered the delicate art of putting toys away when she's done with them, or listening to me, and boy, was her room showing it.

Like, you couldn't see the carpet. At all.

It was bad.

(No before picture in this case. It was that embarrassingly bad.)

It didn't use to look like that, but I got tired of spending 30-40 minutes three times a week cleaning it up, only to have it completely trashed again three hours later. Why should I waste my time like that? And so I stopped, and so the mess grew and grew and grew. But Christmas is coming and more toys will be on the way, and thus a room overhaul was necessary.

We started at 8:30 in the morning. Slowly, methodically, I went through every item in her room (not the closet, we'll get to weeding that out on another day), putting things away, asking her if she wanted to keep them, tossing out garbage and laundry (like the underwear in the toy box, sigh), vacuuming up the dust and dirt left behind, rearranging ALL THE THINGS.

We took a 30 minute break for lunch, made three trips to the trash can, tossed out four sticks, I almost fell down the stairs once, and three items fell and hit me in the head, but by 2:30 pm, the room was DONE (and my back hurt).

Phew!

The best part is that I finally convinced her to give away a huge amount of stuff that she didn't play with, that was damaged (squashed play food boxes, toy food that we'd gotten from someone else that had dog bite marks- we don't have a dog, etc), that was just junk taking up space in her room. That white toy box in the lower left-hand corner had been full to overflowing, and now it's half empty. I'm pretty proud of that!

We finished just in time to throw some lentils in the Instant Pot and leave to pick my son up from his a capella group rehearsal. When we got back, I doctored up some frozen roasted tomato sauce with onion, garlic, and green pepper, and then I stirred the lentils in. I boiled some noodles, ran the dishwasher, scrubbed out the sink, swept and tidied the living room, then left to pick up my husband. Just before we left, though, I checked my phone and found that Nature Cat's official Instagram shared my costume!

Currently up to 95 likes :D

This...felt pretty surreal, and totally awesome. Like I said, it's not my best work, but being a homemaker, I get so little outside recognition (or any recognition, really) for anything I do, at all, ever, so this felt really, really good. :)

After a spaghetti dinner, I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, put away the dinner leftovers, and tried out my PT exercises (if you recall, we'd tried some new stuff the previous Thursday at physical therapy that sent me into a full-on flare). Some of them didn't feel good, so I backed off of those and did the ones I could. My husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before bed.

TUESDAY

I bathed my daughter, loaded the dishwasher, and, since I had physical therapy in a bit, I brought in the 50 lb bag of flour that had been in my trunk since I'd bought it the week before- if I'm going to make things worse, might as well do it right before getting treatment, right? I dropped my daughter off at school, then met my husband in the parking lot of my PT place- he'd also had a doctor's appointment that day and needed the car I was driving (which has the car seat) to pick our daughter up from school. It was a slow, quiet day in PT on account of my flare, and after I went home and changed, we took my daughter out for her lunch of choice (on account of being so good about cleaning her room out the day before), which meant McDonald's- ick. I read a Kindle book while she played in the Playplace and drank a diet Coke- not much for me to eat there, so I ate lunch when we got home and then read and dozed on the couch with the cat. 

Sometimes he likes to sleep under the matching blanket. :)

After I got up, I ran to the library to return books. My husband and daughter were out at the park, and I was an anxious mess. The next day was my first appointment with a pain doctor and I was utterly terrified that he'd blow me off or assume I was a drug seeker, something along those lines. I ended up eating ice cream for dinner- so healthy, I know, but my anxiety was absolutely through the roof, to the point of being in tears. It really wasn't a great night.

Before bed, my husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural. 

WEDNESDAY

And here I was on Wednesday, an anxious mess about my appointment. I did my basement chores of scooping the litterbox and refilling our Air Washer, brought in the garbage can, took the recycling out to the can outside, loaded up and ran the dishwasher, then dropped my daughter off at school. And after that, it was off to Aldi and then racing home to put the groceries away since my daughter's school time was shortened. I picked her up and we drove to a second grocery store, where I bought two cauliflowers and three eggplants (which were on sale for ninety-nine cents total!). I didn't even try to eat a normal lunch; I ended up drinking a banana-strawberry-kiwi-mango-almond milk smoothie (made from fruits I chopped and froze myself, of course), and then it was off to the pain doctor.

I sat with the assistant and answered questions for a bit, and then the doctor came in. SUPER nice guy. He made me feel comfortable immediately and was extremely friendly. We went over everything I'd told the assistant, he asked about my history and symptoms, and then he did the physical examination. He made a few noises that reassured me, like, "Oh wow," and "Yup, there it is," and having heard noises like that from my physical therapist, I knew that was a good sign for me.

When it comes to chronic pain, I think a lot of us get the outside message that "It's not that bad, you must be exaggerating, are you sure you're not just making it up?" from various people and sometimes even medical people, so there's always this fear when you establish a new relationship with a medical professional, that they're just going to dismiss your complaints (it's happened to me more than once). But after he completed the exam, the doctor said (and I'm paraphrasing), "So your other office wanted me to look into giving you a cortisone injection, but I don't think that would help, because I don't think your pain is coming from your lumbar area."

He paused and looked at me. "I think it's sacroiliac joint dysfunction."

The purple bits are the sacroiliac or SI joints.

And as soon as he said that, all the words of three different physical therapists came flooding back into my brain, and I sat back and went, "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh. That makes COMPLETE sense."

If you're interested in learning more about the condition, this website has a great rundown of it. Basically, my sacrum is tilted weirdly, my right hip is hypermobile (moves WAY more than it should) and my left hip is hypomobile (barely moves at all)- the different between the two, as he bent me into a pretzel position, was absolutely crazy. He also thinks I have some arthritis in the area, so that definitely doesn't help. Coming home and reading all about this, my mind was just blown- this is definitely the correct diagnosis. It's me all over it; I have almost every single symptom, right down to the tight hamstrings and quads and urinary frequency mentioned on the Wikipedia article (my bladder has been a running family joke for years).

There's a real, physical cause for my pain, you guys, something concrete. I had the diagnosis of degenerative disc disease, but my MRI reading made it sound like the findings on there were no big deal, and I was so, so scared that the pain doctor would be like, "Yeah, I don't know, sorry." But it's real. What I'm feeling is real and has a cause, and the relief I feel just knowing that is immense.

Treatment wise, it's physical therapy (which I've been doing since August) and injections right into the SI joint. On November 8th, I'll go in, they'll knock me out, and they'll use x-ray to guide the needle into the affected areas and flood me with anti-inflammatories. It's not a permanent solution, but it'll hopefully offer me some pain relief, so I'm nervously looking forward to it. :)

After coming home from the doctor, I did two yoga videos (he agreed with my doing yoga): a yin yoga video, and one meant to strengthen your core. I got a lot of 'help' during these from my daughter and the cats, all of whom were on my mat with me at one point! (I use a thick foam mat that Aldi sold a while back; I can't recommend this style enough. We have hardwood floors and I can't handle the traditional-style yoga mat, it's nowhere near padded enough for me.) For dinner, I tossed Monday's leftover spaghetti into a casserole dish, topped it with cheese, and baked it in the oven, and served it with store-bought garlic bread and a frozen veggie mix from Aldi.

My daughter had a cough that night, so we didn't watch anything as we wanted to keep a close ear on her, so I read my Kindle book before bed.

THURSDAY

I cleaned the kitchen, took my daughter to school, then ran back to the house to meet my mom. She and I chatted about my new diagnosis; she couldn't believe how spot-on it was and how many of the symptoms I had. To be honest, I'm still in shock! And then it was off to PT, where my physical therapist also agreed with the diagnosis. We'll have a few more sessions and then I'll be discharged with a list of stuff to do at home, as we've done just about everything we can. I'll miss seeing everyone at the office, but it'll be nice to have my days back to myself!

That afternoon, I did two yoga videos: one for strength and flexibility (I had to modify some of the poses and will probably wait a bit to try this one again) and one that was a bit more chill. Afterwards, I read my Kindle book for a bit, then dozed off on the couch. I picked my husband up, dropped him and my daughter off at home, and drove to our local community college, where I watched a screening of the documentary Keep Talking, about the struggle to save the critically endangered Kodiak Alutiiq language. It was beautiful and hopeful and tragic and fascinating all at the same time, and if you get the chance to see it, I highly recommend it. At home, I showered, read my Kindle book, and went to bed.

FRIDAY

My daughter still had the cough, so she slept in late, but once she was up, we were off to Kohl's. My mom had given me her Kohl's cash, which she wasn't going to have time to use, so I dug through the racks and, with only a little bit of overage (I used a gift card), found two dresses:

Cute, huh?

The blue one is a t-shirt dress; I ended up wearing it on Saturday with leggings, boots, and a cardigan sweater. :)

After Kohl's, we went to another grocery store, which weirdly had nothing from my list, but I found dried apricots in the markdown section, got my daughter some cottage cheese, and bought a loaf of French bread to go with dinner, since I wouldn't have time to make my own.

During naptime, I made a batch of black bean soup in the Instant Pot, then did a yoga video and finished my Kindle book. I emptied the dishwasher, then tried running it with just vinegar in it (no dishes) to see if that would clean it up, since it's already filthy again, but that didn't do anything at all. SO GROSS. I did half my PT exercises, then picked my husband, dropped my son and his friend off at the high school football game, did the rest of my PT exercises, then farted around on the computer until it was time to pick my son and his friend up again. And then bedtime. :)

SATURDAY

I cleaned the kitchen and ran the dishwasher, and then it was off to my daughter's gymnastics class, where I was extremely shaken by the news of the mass shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh. I have friends in that area, Jewish friends, and I spent a few frantic minutes scrolling through their social media feeds, trying to see if that was their congregation. It was not, but I am very aware that there are others who did the same thing and came away with a very different outcome. My heart is absolutely broken for those people and for the Jewish community as a whole.

At home, I unloaded the dishwasher, and then my son and I ran to the Dollar Store to get a few things for a makeshift Halloween costume for a party that night. We came home, and I made a double batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookie dough, then put it in the fridge to chill and cleaned up the kitchen. When it was time, I baked the cookies, I watched the second half of the first Shrek movie with my husband and daughter, and they left to go to a Halloween party with my sister-in-law (my daughter won the costume contest for her age group!). I stayed behind to drop my son and his friend off at their own Halloween party, and then I came home and did my PT exercises. Husband and I watched the movie Deadpool 2 before going to bed (not my regular type of movie, but he likes superhero flicks, so I try to be accommodating!).

SUNDAY

I woke up in a lot of pain this day and really struggled both physically and emotionally throughout the day. :(

After starting a load of laundry, I did my basement chores of scooping the litterbox and changing the water in the Air Washer, then I took out the garbage and recycling and cleaned the whole kitchen. OW.

I tidied a few random things around the kitchen and living room, taking things to the laundry room, the dishwasher, the recycling, the trash, and my daughter's room and dress-up corner. After that, I sat down to ice my back for a bit and then switched the laundry. The whole family took a trip to the store Five Below, where I got a set of ankle weights to help with my PT exercises. And when we got home, my daughter went down for a nap and so did I. Sometimes chronic pain just gets the better of me.

In the afternoon, we took my daughter to a local pumpkin patch, where we met up with my husband's family and my daughter and nephew went on some rides. It wasn't terribly comfortable for me, but the kids had fun. I took my son for driving practice when we got home, even though all I wanted to do was relax! I ran the dishwasher and skipped my exercises because I was just too worn out, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before going to bed. 

And that was my week! My pain doctor wants me to be on my anti-inflammatory meds for a bit, so hopefully this will help keep my pain levels in check for a while and allow me to have a better week. I've got- ugh- dentist (*cue scary music*) and physical therapy today, so it's already shaping up to be a busy one around here.


How did your week go?

Friday thoughts: 10/26/2018

Phew! Late to the game on this one; it's been a busy week here- unfortunately, that means run-around-to-different-places busy, not necessarily getting-things-done-around-the-house busy! But hey, some weeks are like that, you know? :)

The extra good news is that I had a fantastic appointment with a pain doctor on Wednesday. I'll leave the full recap for Monday's post, but he listened, he took me seriously, and he sent me home with a new diagnosis that makes SO MUCH SENSE and an appointment for a procedure in November that will at least provide me with some relief (it's not a permanent solution, but I'll take what I can get!). I felt SO much better after I left; just knowing that there's a reason for my pain was enough to almost make me cry!

So here are a few things that caught my eye this week, around all my constant running here and there!



* Mom Dies After Being Forced to Wait Seven Hours To Be Operated On For Post-Childbirth Complications*

This?

Scares me.

Maternal health in the US is a big, big problem. We spend more money and have worse outcomes than practically any other developed nation. (I personally have two friends who have family members who died fairly immediately after childbirth in the past four years.) There are a lot of reasons for this, but the end result is the same- women are dying. Children are growing up without their mothers.

And it's worse for women of color. If you remember, Serena Williams, the tennis player, very nearly had a tragic outcome after giving birth recently, when the medical staff refused to listen to her concerns. Almost every one of my female friends (and we've discussed this before) has a story of her concerns being blown off at doctors' appointments (I personally was told to go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and get a back massager as treatment for my pain. I switched doctors after that, and my new one immediately sent me for an MRI, where my herniated disc was discovered and they referred me to physical therapy and a neurologist. Another time, I was sick for a long, terrible week after a doctor wasn't sure if I had strep or mono; when I was finally able to see a different doctor, she took one look down my throat, gasped, and said, "That is the WORST case of tonsillitis I've ever seen!" And then, with my permission, she paraded her students through my room so they could also gasp after looking down my throat, haha! I was happy to be a teaching tool. And after giving birth, at my 6 week follow-up appointment, not a single person in the office asked me about symptoms of post-partum depression. This absolutely shocked me). I have friends who have suffered with debilitating conditions for years until finally stumbling upon doctors who listen. This shouldn't be happening. It definitely shouldn't be happening at higher rates to women of color.

It's tragic all around, and it scares me that my daughter will face these kinds of risks as she grows older and possibly becomes a parent herself. Somehow we have to do better.



*42 Percent of New Cancer Patients Lose Their Life Savings*

I guess October is the time for scary articles, huh?

Another one that really, really bothers me. Medical bills are the last thing you want to think of when you're fighting for your life, or watching someone you love fight for theirs, but it's a reality in this country. I've refused treatment for certain things due to the cost; I've waited until things were too bad to ignore because going without treatment would save us money (and obviously, everyone knows that preventative medicine is the best road, but if you can't afford it, you can't afford it, you know? I saw a physical therapist two years ago who actually made my back worse and I paid over $500 for that privilege, which is why I put off going again for so long, because it was just so much money and despite the fact that I knew it would help with a different therapist, I couldn't justify spending more money on my back. So instead I suffered).

It angers me that this has become such a politicized topic, because it shouldn't be. Healthcare should be accessible and affordable for everyone, and when you're taking your three year old in for weekly chemo treatments and planning for his/her brain surgery, you shouldn't also be wondering where you're going to live after you lose your house to pay for this, nor should you have to contemplate divorcing your spouse so that he/she can go on Medicaid for cancer treatment because otherwise, you'll be broke and homeless (both scenarios I've watched friends face). That's absolutely criminal, but it's a daily reality for far too many, and it breaks my heart.


*How to Clean Your Dryer Duct in Five Steps*

This is where I admit that I've never actually done this.

That's probably not good, huh?

It's now on my list of things to do. I know the danger of lint blockage, and...it's just something that's always escaped my to-do list in the past. I'm sure we'll be over at Menards soon and I'll look into getting a kit to help me do this. Getting to the back of the dryer is going to be interesting, and I may have to wait until this particular flare I'm going through has calmed down a bit more, but I'm definitely going to figure out how to do this, and then add it to my schedule. Another link says your vent should be cleaned at least once a year and possibly more if you have a bigger household or do a lot of laundry, so maybe I'll schedule it twice a year (remember when I cleaned my dishwasher? It already needs to be recleaned. SO GROSS). I'll let you all know when I get this done! :)



And that's it for the week. I'm still in some pain but have gotten back to yoga, so that makes me happy. I might put up a post in the future about that, since I'm really enjoying it. We've got a busy weekend scheduled; I miss when weekends were for relaxing! Ah well, maybe in a few years...or lifetimes...

Have a great weekend, everyone!!!

Weekly recap: 10/22/2018

Oof.

(That's not a good way to start a post, is it?)

This has been a week of ups and downs here, ending with the downs, for reasons I'll get to in a bit. Hopefully your week has been a little less painful than mine!

Let's get started in recapping the week, shall we? :)


MONDAY

I started the day with my basement chores (dumping out/refilling the Air Washer and scooping the litterbox. Always a fun time). I started a load of dishes and a load of laundry (which my mother generously folded for me while I was gone later on!), took the garbage out, and put a batch of white beans in the Instant Pot. I cleaned the kitchen, made a batch of guacamole from last Wednesday's on-sale avocados, and threw my daughter in the tub. While she splashed and soaked, I swept the upstairs hallway and wiped down the bathroom sink and mirror (my husband most often bathes her at night, but when I do it on non-school days during the morning, it's always a really convenient time to get cleaning done!).

Thanks, Mom!

After she was all bathed, I swept and mopped the living room floor, then did a brief piano practice before it was off to physical therapy.

Where I got yelled at for doing too much.

Oops.

What do I do, though? With the exception of direct care of my daughter (like bathing), no one else is going to do all the rest of this stuff for me. I promised I'd try to take it a little easier (even though I knew that that wouldn't happen until at least the next day), then went home and made an Instant Pot full of vegetable soup for dinner (sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, onion, garlic, tomatoes, white beans, spinach, noodles. My daughter's second favorite soup!). 

Halloween decorations on my way home. My physical therapist would definitely approve of the zombies planking!

After my daughter woke up from her nap, we did her reading lesson, I read a little of a book from my Goodreads Want to Read list, then we picked my husband up. 

And after dinner, I almost fell in the shower.

*sigh* This is not the first time this has happened, but it was the worst. I came dangerously close to a bad, bad fall. I managed to catch myself (tweaking some muscles on my right side, and possibly more, as you'll see later on, in the process), but it really shook me up and I cried. I asked my husband to order a non-skid mat for the tub immediately after, which he did.

Despite that, I still took the garbage to the curb, then spent the rest of the evening icing my back while we watched two episodes of Supernatural.



TUESDAY

I was pretty sore waking up; that near-fall in the shower did me absolutely no favors. I cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, then took my daughter to school. From there, I drove to GFS (a bulk food store, if you're not familiar), where I purchased a 50lb sack of bread flour (oof), a large jar of peanut butter (for baking), and a huge bottle of imitation vanilla- the real stuff is so expensive right now due to crop failure that I'm just going with the fake. Then I stopped by Mariano's (our local Kroger affiliate) to pick up what I'd downloaded a coupon for for free on Friday, a packet of Uncle Ben's pre-cooked, pre-seasoned rice (not something we normally eat, but it was free) and some frozen pizza for dinner, in an attempt to actually take it a little easier on this day. I had about twenty minutes to kill before picking my daughter up, so I ended up just reading my Goodreads book in the parking lot before getting her from school. 

At home, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, then did a lovely, slow yoga video. I really enjoyed this one, despite my being as flexible as a cement post. Afterwards, I read a bit from my Goodreads book, then napped a little on the couch until my son got home.

My son needed a ride back to school for a French club field trip, so my daughter and I dropped him off, then waited for my husband at the library, where she played, and I read my book and had a lovely conversation about it with a dad who was there with his daughter. After dinner, I did my PT exercises, read more of my book, and watched an episode of Supernatural with my husband.

My PT assistant. He thinks exercises time is Free Petting Time.

 And then it was time to pick my son up, but of course, the second I pulled into the parking lot, I got the message that they wouldn't be back for another half an hour! Good thing I had my book with me. It was after 11 pm when they finally got back, so we all went to bed as soon as we got home.

That was kind of busy for a supposed-to-be-taking-it-easy day, huh?


WEDNESDAY

First thing, I browsed the ads and made out a grocery list, then did my basement chores. My daughter and I got through most of her reading lesson- she's supposed to read through the story twice, but we didn't get through the second run due to time. I dropped her off at school, then drove to Aldi to pick up what I needed there. After that, it was home to put the groceries away (and I usually do a quick clean-out of the fridge as I'm doing this as well, getting rid of anything that isn't good to eat anymore. Fortunately, most of what we eat is compostable, so in the event that leftovers get away from us, they'll eventually be feeding our garden, so yay for that). That left me with just a few minutes to spare, so then it was off to pick my daughter up again, and from there, we ran to a second grocery store. I was thrilled to find three packages of Field Roast meatless hot dogs for $1.19 each in their refrigerated markdown section. I snatched those up right away (and tossed them in the freezer to enjoy at a later date); they're not cheap, so it's awesome to find them at a great price!

At home, I put the groceries away and put a batch of black beans in the Instant Pot and started the dishwasher. While the beans cooked, I sauteed some mushrooms and garlic, and then when the beans were ready, I used all those items to prepare a batch of black bean burgers (I didn't have any bread crumbs, so I subbed ground up dry oatmeal, which worked just fine). After dinner was cooked, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, did the same yoga video I did the day before, then dozed off in my chair for a bit!

My daughter and I picked my husband up, and after dinner, I mowed the front half of the lawn. It was pretty dark by the time I finished. I did my PT exercises and watched a bit of Supernatural with my husband before bed.


THURSDAY

Oof. 

This was the day things started going wrong.

I dropped my daughter off at school, then drove home and did a bit of piano practice before my mom arrived, and then I was off to physical therapy.

Since I was doing a lot better, we started changing things up this day, working a little more on different kinds of strengthening so that I can do things like more comfortably lift 50 pound bags of flour and 35 pound boxes of cat litter (which I'd done- not comfortably at all- earlier in the week). Unfortunately, my back did NOT like switching things up.

AT ALL.

I was okay driving home, but as the day went on, it became more and more obvious that this was Really. Not. Good.

I iced my back as much as I could, but it wasn't doing anything. Wasn't even touching it. And I was starting to have trouble walking. If you've ever seen a slow, shuffling elderly person creeping along, walking with a cane- that's what I look like when I'm in this kind of pain. I move at a sloth-like pace, and every step hurts. 

That doesn't mean I get out of doing stuff though, especially since my son's girlfriend was coming over for dinner on this night, so I threw together a veggie-filled breakfast casserole (she's a lovely girl, just not an adventurous eater, and I was worried this was even pushing it, but she ate it!), with frozen shredded potatoes, onion, orange pepper, sliced portabella mushrooms, broccoli, spinach, and eggs and cheese. It turned out really good, for something I just kind of winged because it was easy and guest-acceptable! Afterwards, I cleaned the kitchen and ran the dishwasher.

When my son and his girlfriend arrived home, I helped her with her French homework (one of the purposes of her visit, and I'm ALWAYS happy to help!!!), then hung out with them and my daughter until it was time to go pick up my husband. I was in too much pain to do my exercises that night. :(


FRIDAY

Oof.

Again.

Not any better today. I slowly did my basement chores (is it comfortable doing these when I'm in that much pain? No, no it is not), and then my daughter and I ran a ton of errands. We first went to Joann's so I could buy fabric and materials for her Halloween costume, and then we swung by the Dollar Tree for toothpaste for her. On our way there, I got a phone call from my medical group, whom I'd called the day before about getting some records for a new doctor I'm supposed to go to. They're pretty backed up right now and suggested it would just be easier if I could come by and pick the records up myself. Cool, two more errands to run, so we did medical record pick up and drop off, too. My daughter was NOT happy about any of these and let me know it. Oy.

At home, after a very quick lunch, I got started on the costume. She wanted to be Nature Cat, from the PBS Kids cartoon (a fantastic show; if you have little kids, I highly recommend it. It's both funny and educational and provides us with some great conversation topics here). He wears a kind of Robin Hood-style tunic and hat, and I wanted the tunic to be able to fit over my daughter's coat, so I grabbed a shirt of hers that's still a little too big (my son used to wear this; now she wears it as pajamas) and used that as a pattern (since I had no other pattern!).

Here goes nothing...

I have no formal sewing training, so this was all winging it and hoping that it worked out. More than a bit nerve wracking! (And all the bending over and chalking and pinning and constant ups and downs did my back zero favors, either.) But after about an hour and fifteen minutes, I had most of it cut and pinned.

It's a start! Those collar pieces were THE WORST.

What took me the longest was winding bobbins and threading the machine (and picking up the bobbin thread). I'm SO terrible at those things; something always seems to go wrong. But I finally got everything set up...

Here goes nothing...

This?

Took all afternoon. It's not a hugely involved costume, but there were quite a few pieces of it, and they needed to go on in a specific order, and again, I have no clue what I'm doing.

But it all seemed to work out in the end.

Tada!

By far, not my best work- there's a LOT I'm not happy with, but I was pressed for time and I had no pattern, so it was all guesswork. It'll do, though, and she's happy with it, so that's all that matters. :)

We picked my husband up from the train (which was late), ran home, scarfed down some leftovers for dinner, then ran back to the library for the Halloween balloon show for kids. After my daughter went to bed, my husband and I watched a few episodes of Supernatural (no PT exercises, I was in too much pain and was worried about making things worse).

SATURDAY

My husband took my daughter to gymnastics; I stayed home sewing her a tail (which we safety-pinned onto the costume, in case she ever wants to NOT have a tail for this, or we give it to someone else when she outgrows it and they don't want a tail), sewing the brown cuffs onto the sleeves, and making a few other minor improvements. When I finished, I cleaned the kitchen, and after lunch, it was time for our town's annual trick-or-treating at the downtown businesses (and now you see why I was pressed for time!).

Action shot! :)

Not long after we got home, it actually SNOWED where I'm at! So early for snow this year. It's going to be a long winter if it's starting this early!

And okay, I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty jazzed that whoever runs the Nature Cat Twitter account retweeted my costume-photo-tweet. Doesn't take a whole lot to make me happy. ;)

During my daughter's naptime, I finished a book from my Goodreads Want to Read list, then did some research and notetaking for my writing. When my daughter woke up, her choice of activity for the rest of the day was...to go to Ikea?

Totally normal thing for a four year old, right?

So we went (I went very slowly) and we had a delicious dinner in their cafe. 

I had the veggie ball plate. SO SO SO good!!!

I was still in a lot of pain that night, like hard-to-switch-positions-on-the-couch kind of pain. My husband and I watched several episodes of Supernatural before going to bed (where I didn't sleep very well thanks to my stupid back).


SUNDAY

So, I woke up on this day feeling *marginally* better. Still not great, but the slicing pain in my SI joint and the feeling that my pelvis was entirely made of lead had diminished, so that was my cue to get stuff done- otherwise, the entire house was going to descend into madness, because there were so many things that I needed to do (and honestly, I would've done them today even if I'd been in terrible pain, because they just needed to get done). So don't think I felt great doing any of this- I was still very slow, and absolutely none of this felt good whatsoever.

Ready?

I started off doing my basement chores. I ran the dishwasher, started a load of my laundry, then finally put away that load of laundry my mother had so nicely folded for me. I unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded it, switched the laundry, refilled my giant flour container, then made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies for my son's lunches and family snacks (I used canned pumpkin instead of applesauce; if I don't throw the pumpkin in something else this week, I'll freeze it for later use) and put the dough in the fridge to cool. And then I gathered up all the bread ends that I'd been saving (mostly in the freezer, some in my bread holder on my kitchen island) and made a huge batch of breadcrumbs.

Only part of what I made.

I'd needed to make these for a while, but just hadn't had the time. In between toasting batches of bread in the oven and grinding up what came out, I swept and tidied the living room and stairs, and flipped a shelf from the bookshelf- it was so warped that the brackets couldn't quite keep it up anymore. It's holding fine now, but I'm going to be on the lookout for an entire new-to-us shelf, I think. After that, I baked tray after tray of chocolate chip cookies.

Yum! Not pictured: the cookies I took out to freeze for my son's lunches.

In between baking the cookies, I took the garbage out, then took everything out of the tiny, windowless storage room in the basement where we keep the litterbox (including the three, very full almost 5 gallon containers of driveway sealant left here by the previous inhabitant. Were they extremely heavy? YES. Should I have been lifting them? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Ow), swept the room out, then sprayed it with Rocco & Roxie enzyme spray (affiliate link. The cats are perfectly fine about using the box, but it occasionally needs a deep cleaning, because cats). The spray smells oddly like whatever they used to clean the locker rooms at my hometown's public pool when I was a kid, so that brought back memories. 

I restarted the dryer, then wiped down the litterbox room and moved everything back (ow), tidied up the kitchen, put the cooled breadcrumbs and lunch cookies in the freezer, started a load of my son's laundry, then folded my laundry and put it away. 

I then deep-cleaned the entire bathroom, taking everything out and scrubbing it down hardcore. My husband started some work on the shower in July and just finished it last week (at least I think he's finished. He, uh, doesn't quite feel my urgency in getting things done around the house; his tools are still lingering in the hallway, where they've been sitting since July; there's been at least one bandage-necessary tripping incident involving them), and there were a lot of dried grout bits and dust in all the corners of the bathroom (which I hadn't wanted to deep clean until he was finished, because why bother if he was just going to dump stuff all over it again? I've done little cleans- scrubbing out the tub and toilet, wiping the sink, etc., but not a take-everything-out-of-the-room-and-go-to-town like this). After that, I switched my son's laundry and started another load, then unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher (AGAIN). I wiped down our stairway railing (which gets grimy and gross with disgusting regularity), then sat down to start work on this post. ;)

After my daughter woke up, I took my son's laundry out of the dryer, emptied my steeping orange peel vinegar cleaner into the appropriate containers (vinegar into the vinegar cleaner container- I now have an entire gallon of the stuff- and orange peels into the compost), then deep cleaned the kitchen, getting into all the nooks and crannies and scrubbing off the stovetop. And then, everyone's favorite: Mowing the Lawn, Part 2. Should I have been mowing the lawn? Probably not. Would the lawn otherwise peek out at least three inches over the deepest winter snow and wave embarrassingly in the wind at knee length all season long if I didn't? If the past three years are anything to go on, absolutely. So onward I mowed.

After I finished with that, my son and I went out for dinner at Noodles & Company, and then I came home, showered, and folded more laundry. And then I checked out the disc the medical people sent home with me on Friday.

When I stopped by the office to drop it off, despite asking for MRI images, they only wanted the paper report, so I kept the CD. My MRI images are weirdly not as clear as the ones I had in 2012, but the x-rays they took in the office show the narrowed disc space in my lower back. (My apologies; it's a picture of the picture on my computer screen.)

Ow.

The report says that's mild disc space narrowing and disc dessication; I'd hate to feel what anything more than mild would feel like, because this really stinks.

After putting my daughter to bed, my husband and I watched an episode of Supernatural, and that was it for the week. :)

The weird thing is, I'm actually feeling pretty good this morning. Super strange, considering I was finding it difficult to get around at all on Friday and Saturday. I don't understand my back; it makes no sense whatsoever.

It's a busy week coming up- I visit a new pain doctor on Wednesday, I have physical therapy twice, a possible school thing with my son tonight, and who knows what else. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak a nap in there somewhere. ;) And I hope you have a great week, too!


How did you do this week?

Friday thoughts 10/19/2018

Good morning! I did *something* to my back yesterday- I think conditions were right for it to flare up to a really nasty point, and with us trying some new stuff in PT, that was enough to tweak it and make it very, very angry. I'm going to try to take it easy for the next few days, but unfortunately, I have a LOT that absolutely needs to get done, so we'll see how well that works out. The good thing is, I have an appointment with a pain specialist next week, so I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully you're doing better than I am today!

Let's get start on the things I found interesting this week, shall we?



*The Story Behind Steel Magnolias, 30 Years Later*

One of my childhood best friends loved this movie, and I only ever watched it because of her. If you're not familiar with it, Steel Magnolias tells the story of a group of Southern women and how they love and support each other, especially through the early death of one of the members of their group. It was originally a stage play, written after the death of the playwright's sister from complications of diabetes (I've never seen it, but I'd love to). It's a serious tearjerker, but it's also chock-full of acerbic wit, humor, insight, and love.

I'd read about the playwright's sister before, but it's always nice to have a more in-depth look at anything you enjoy, isn't it? I was especially struck by when Robert Harling said, "But you know, my sister died and I wrote about it and people look at it and think it’s all limos and glamour and sitting next to Princess Di at the royal premiere. My sister had to die for all that to happen. So almost daily I think about what my life would be if she had lived." That got me thinking about how from terrible tragedies, great moments of joy can blossom. They don't take away from the tragedy or negate its effect...but we can grow as people because of them and create beauty from ashes. Steel Magnolias is one of those moments, I think.



*Time Well $pent*

A Chrome extension that converts online prices to the amount of time you would have to work to afford that item. Isn't THAT cool? 

When my ex-husband and I were first married, he was in the military and we were pretty poor. Some weeks, it was a struggle to afford groceries, and I was often aghast at how high food prices were. Because of this, I started mentally converting non-food prices into how many gallons of milk that item was worth. "A ten dollar t-shirt? We could buy three or four gallons of milk for that!" (I can't remember the exact price of what we paid for milk back then, but I do know it was more than what I paid this week, which was $1.96 at Aldi.) It's neat to see an app that does something similar and will maybe help people understand that when you're spending your money, you're giving away pieces of your life.


*Coupeville Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of Practical Magic*

Do you remember Practical Magic? It's the story of two sisters who come from a long line of witches, both of them learning to come to terms with their lineage and their powers. It's a fun, moving, lively film that was based on Alice Hoffman's novel of the same name (affiliate links!). I was in high school when the movie came out and I absolutely fell in love with it- I still remember the scene where Sandra Bullock blows a candle ON and wishing so much that I could do that! (It would save money on matches and those long clicky lighter things, wouldn't it?) I worked in a video store at the time, and I learned that the movie was based on a novel after scrutinizing the box one day, and so I headed over to the library (conveniently located right across the street from the store where I worked!) and checked the book out. I've since read and re-read it several times.

The movie and the book have some serious differences, but it's one of those rare cases in which they're both fantastic in their own right. So often, the book is fabulous but the movie just ruins it, and that's not the case here. I still love them both. I had no idea that the movie was filmed out in Washington State; it was a surprise to me when a friend who lives there posted this article. The crew did such a fabulous job turning that town into a New England wonderland that I had just assumed it was filmed somewhere out east. How wrong I was! :) 


*Oops- Ignore That Email Invitation To A Cookie Monster Cat Party, US Embassy Says*

At this point, I think we've all sent an email or a text message to the wrong person. Sometimes it's no big deal (sending a job link to your father-in-law instead of your husband, for example); other times, it's a little bit of a bigger deal, like when an American embassy sends out invitations to a cat pajama-jam.

I mean, don't get me wrong, this is something I'd absolutely show up for! The cats may not be as enthusiastic, though.



*What to Say to Little Kids Instead of 'Say Sorry'*

This is something I really like. I've long thought that forced apologies were meaningless. Daniel Tiger, which my daughter enjoys, points this out in one of their episodes, with a catchy little jingle to go with it: "Saying 'I'm sorry' is the first step, then 'How can I help?" Actions absolutely speak louder than words, and it's important that kids understand that when they hurt someone or do something wrong, they need to help make it better. It's something I work on with my daughter. She's 4.5, so it's not quite sticking all the way yet, but we're laying the groundwork. :)



And that's all for today! Hopefully my back improves over the weekend, but we'll see. I was really hoping it would get better overnight, but no dice. Such is life with chronic pain, you know?

I hope you have a fantastic weekend! What did you see online this week that intrigued you?

Weekly recap 10/15/2018

Fall is definitely here! We've had some really cool days, and I can't say I hate it. The trees around town are starting to burst into flame, and the chilly winds are scattering all the various colors of leaves across the roads. This is such a gorgeous time of year.

I don't know if it's the change in weather or what, but I've had a hard time getting going lately. I've been so, so tired that all I want to do is snuggle under a blanket and take a nap. Even a mug of afternoon coffee hasn't been helping, so I'll be glad when whatever this is moves on. How about you? Are you feeling a little sluggish lately?

Let's recap the week!


MONDAY

This was my busy day. What with physical therapy breaking up my days, along with my daughter's school schedule, any day I have large chunks of uninterrupted time means I need to be on the go all day long, even on days when I have a headache the entire day, like this one.

After doing my basement chores and cleaning the kitchen (which really needed it after the weekend!), I made guacamole, swept and mopped the living room floor, and finally took care of those five butternut squash that had been sitting on my kitchen table for a few weeks. Once I got them roasting whole in the oven, my daughter and I sat down for her Reading lesson, and then I tossed her bedding in the wash. I put a load of laundry away, and then my daughter and I made a pan of chocolate banana brownies.

These are a HUGE hit around here. Super fudgy and moist.

I ran the dishwasher, switched the laundry, and ding! The squash were done.

All nicely roasted!

Once I learned you can just roast these things whole, there was no going back for me. I let them cool, then bagged them and tossed them in the freezer in the garage. We'll enjoy these over the winter, mostly in Tomato Butternut Squash Soup. 

I hand-washed the squash roasting pans, then got started on what I'd be preparing for dinner: Roasted Cauliflower Lasagna. Now, I love roasted cauliflower, but...I just didn't think it would go well in here. It can go from not-cooked-enough-yet to charred-beyond-recognition in seconds, and I was worried about that, so I decided to steam the cauliflower instead, and I added two or three carrots in there as well. I steamed them in two batches in my Instant Pot while I prepared the sauce and boiled the noodles, and when the cauliflower was done, I prepared the ricotta mixture in the food processor. This doesn't sound like a lot, but by the time I put the lasagna together, it had taken over three hours! There's a reason why these things come frozen. Somewhere in there, I managed to write a tiny bit...

Done!

With the lasagna in the oven, I folded and put away several loads of laundry, and my daughter read I Can Be A Gymnast (Barbie, Step Into Reading. This is an affiliate link!) to me. We picked my husband up, I cleaned up the kitchen and unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, put the bedding back on my daughter's bed, tidied the living room, put dinner away, and did my PT exercises before collapsing in an exhausted heap. Phew! 

TUESDAY

You would think with as busy as I was the day before, I would've gone to bed and slept like the dead, but no dice. I got up in the morning exhausted, having slept like crap. My daughter slept in, however, so we got a late start to our day. She had no school, so we visited the library in the next town over, where she played and I read a book on my Kindle.

Children's section! The light in this library is incredible.

We left from there and went to pick up my son and his girlfriend and drop them off elsewhere, then went home for lunch. I rested during naptime and read my Kindle book, and I did more reading when my daughter woke up and we visited the library in our town (I had books to return, and my husband gets off the train right behind there, so we hang out there a lot while we're waiting for him to arrive). My daughter was kind of a pill when we were there, so as soon as we got home, I changed my clothes and shoes and went for a walk.

Walking is my favorite form of exercise. There's something very mentally calming about listening to music and moving my body in a gentle, controlled fashion for long periods of time. It never hurts that the people around my neighborhood are often taking their dogs out for walks and let me pet them. Any day I get to pet someone else's dog is a good one. :) I also like to use my walking time to work out issues with whatever it is I'm writing, and I often come back with new ideas, eager to get to work.

Giant inflatable light-up Halloween dragon I spotted on my walk!

I ended up walking 3.5 miles. This is my shorter route; as you can tell from the picture, it was too dark to take my longer route. I walk in residential areas, so I never feel unsafe. Back at home, I cleaned the kitchen and did my PT exercises, then sat down to write and pounded out 529 words, which brought my two day word count total to 757 words. Before I had my daughter, I used to aim for 500 words a day, and it's not often when I can meet that now, but I've come to realize that doing less is okay too- slow motion is still motion.

WEDNESDAY

I made out a grocery list, then did the basement chores and swept the living room. After dropping my daughter off at school, I ran to Aldi ($39 for a cart full of groceries), then came home, put the groceries away, and practiced the piano until it was time to pick her up again. During naptime, I prepared Easy Chickpea Spinach Curry and rice, cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, and did a yoga video. I unloaded the dishwasher, did some writing research, and read my Kindle book before we picked my husband up. After dropping him off at home, I walked another 3.5 miles. Man, that feels SO good to do, especially now that I'm feeling a lot less pain. 

That evening, I did my PT exercises, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural (which I'd never seen before this and I'm REALLY enjoying, much to my surprise! I'm not usually a fan of paranormal/sci-fi stuff- not for any particular reason, just not my cup of tea- but this reminds me of all the ghost stories I used to read as a kid, and it's funny and well-written. I've been looking forward to watching it at night with my husband).

THURSDAY

I managed a little bit of writing before cleaning the kitchen and driving my daughter to school. I then had to speed home to drop the keys off for my mom and then raced off to physical therapy. This week, my physical therapist wanted to try dry needling, which is basically shoving very fine needles into the muscles that are causing me pain. It doesn't hurt any more than a tiny bee sting-like pain at the initial prick, and the amount of relief I got from this was almost SPOOKY. To tell the truth, I was skeptical about it and wasn't expecting much, but it actually helped a LOT, and the next day was even wilder...

At home, I rested and finished my Kindle book during naptime, then started a book from my Goodreads list. I threw some potatoes and carrots into the Instant Pot to make a vegan nacho cheese dip, then cleaned up and started the dishwasher. It was cold in the house, and when my daughter woke up, we snuggled under a blanket for a bit and had a really nice talk about all the things she could do or be when she grew up, one of those times that she might not remember when she gets bigger but that are always really special for us as parents. After we picked my husband up, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, prepared the vegan nacho cheese dip (I always add a can of tomatoes with green chilies, and I added an extra can of green chilies in there tonight; we like it spicy!), and cleaned up again. Husband and I enjoyed our cheese dip with a side of two episodes of Supernatural.

FRIDAY

Oy.

It was COLD in the house- 57 degrees when I woke up in the morning, and I woke up in a considerable amount of pain, which I immediately attributed to the cats having pinned me down in bed so they could share what little warmth I had. I couldn't blame them- it really was cold in there- but sleeping in such an odd position was NOT good for my back. I still drove my husband to work, did my basement chores, swept and tidied the living room, and ran the dishwasher before heading off to physical therapy.

We started off with a few exercises that targeted the muscle on my right side that was hurting, so that was good, and then we moved into the dry needling again. The muscles around my right side hip went from all bunched up to feeling much more relaxed, and then my physical therapist moved to my left side.

EGADS.

One of the muscles there was so badly spasmed that she had a hard time getting the needle in at all, but once she did... With dry needling, once the needle is inserted, you get this kind of achy feeling, somewhat similar to a muscle cramp, and afterwards the muscle relaxes. Well, when my PT finally got the needle in, there was this sudden enormous muscle cramp, kind of like the worst charley horse I've ever felt (and this is normal; that's exactly what's supposed to happen), but in one of the muscles in my rear end/side of my leg/around my hip. Just massive, enough to make me go, "Whoa!" And afterwards, the pain I woke up with? GONE. The difference in what I felt before I got on the table and afterwards was MASSIVE. My muscles weren't bunched up and spasmed around my pelvis anymore, I could bend forward with ZERO pain, I could swing my hips around like I was doing a hula hoop, and even to the touch, my glut muscles felt normal and not tough and spasmy. It was seriously one of the wildest things I've ever, ever experienced. I walked out of physical therapy feeling normal, after having woken up feeling creaky and pained. I don't know that everyone has this experience with dry needling, but for me, it was pretty close to miraculous. 

At home, I rested and read more of my Goodreads book, then made some green beans and a batch of Velvety Vegan Alfredo Sauce to serve over pierogies (not traditional, I know, but it keeps my family interested!), but then my husband wanted to go out to a local falafel restaurant, and I'm ALWAYS down with that, so we had a lovely meal together there. That evening, I skipped my PT exercises (my arms are STILL sore from some of the exercises we did!), and my husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural.


SATURDAY

I woke up this morning with no pain, so my suspicions of my Friday pain having been caused by my having slept funny were confirmed. I read my Goodreads book at my daughter's gymnastics class, and then my husband and daughter and I all went for haircuts (nothing fancy for daughter and me, just a trim!). I did some writing at home, but my brain felt like sludge, and I tried to nap and failed at that as well! Finally, I gave up on everything and just went for a walk, only to have my left earbud die about a mile into the walk. HONESTLY!!! I ended up walking a lovely 4.1 miles; I had a few muscle spasms along the way but nothing severe. Back at home, I managed to get some writing done- walking does help!- and brought my word count total for the past two days up to 1390, which is pretty amazing for me lately. That night, I did my PT exercises, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural.


SUNDAY

Sunday morning, I ran the dishwasher, and then we went to a local park that has a museum dedicated to the 1st Division Infantry. It's small but extremely well done. My son was with us and he enjoys history, so I enjoyed getting to see it with him (as he wasn't there the last time we went through).

Part of the WWI exhibit.

The exhibits are, at times, almost jarringly lifelike, and the soundtrack of battle sounds and dim lighting add to the heaviness one feels walking through.

Part of the WWII exhibit.

I'm not going to sugarcoat this: the World War II part of the exhibit was difficult to walk through. The Nazi flags and military uniforms straight up turned my stomach. And then there was this:

Click on it to read it in full if you need to. Please.

I stood there and watched the video and cried. All those people, all those entire worlds erased, all those families devastated, while the townspeople denied that it happened- which is, in essence, denying that those people ever existed. I'm having a hard time typing this out right now. It was difficult to watch, but I felt like I needed to, to honor the people who died even if I didn't know their names or their individual stories. They existed, they mattered, they were murdered by people who, for whatever reason, turned into monsters, while the townspeople turned away. How people can care so little about their fellow human beings is something I will never, ever understand. 

There was a newer section of the museum dedicated to modern warfare. It's smaller and doesn't have the realistic, lifelike exhibits, but features a lot of video testimony of members of the military who served in the Middle East and places like Kosovo and Bosnia. The museum also features a slab of the Berlin Wall, which fascinated me. 

I found this especially interesting thanks to reading A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen this summer. Fascinating book; if you haven't read it, check it out. 

After we let our daughter climb around the tanks in the park, we went home for lunch, and then I went out to run some errands. I picked up an envelope to ship out a book to a friend this week, and then I had to stop by another store to replace my earbuds that had died on me during my walk! Back at home, my husband had told my daughter we'd take her to play at the library in the next town over, so we headed over there.

She brought me a heart block while I was reading the new biography of Fred Rogers. So perfect. <3

We stopped by another store so my husband could pick up a few things, then came home, where I unloaded the dishwasher, refilled it, and then made a batch of bananadoodles (the dough went into the fridge to chill for an hour) and reheated the dinner we hadn't eaten on Friday. After showering, I baked the cookies and did my PT exercises, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before going to bed.

And that's it! Not as productive of a week as I would've liked, but like I said, I've been exhausted lately. Hopefully that'll be done soon and I'll be able to pick up the pace. What about you? How was your week?


Goodreads Want to Read list: 144 books

Weekly word count: 2147 words