What's Been Going On: Thursday, 30 June - Sunday, 3 July, 2022

Back to Monday! It’s a holiday in the US, so if you’re here, it might not feel too much like a regular Monday. I’m still trying to get laundry done, so that’s on the docket for today, along with some cooking and cleaning and volunteer work (that often gets pushed to starting on Tuesday when we have long weekends, but I’m going to try to get the first half of it knocked off today). Potential for some thunderstorms today as well, so who knows what our plans for tonight will look like, but we’ll see.

Here's what I was up to the second half of last week!

 

Thursday, 30 June, 2022

I filled and ran the dishwasher, then I had coffee and breakfast. I wrote and posted Thursday’s post, got dressed, and did some work on my monthly book blog update post. My daughter and I tackled a math lesson, and then it was off to Walmart. Holy cow, when did five-subject notebooks get so expensive??? Walmart’s selection of them was almost non-existent (not a pandemic thing; the Walmarts around here have always been poorly stocked. The number of times I’ve gone there to pick something up and came home empty-handed is…a lot).

At home, I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, then we had lunch. I wrote out a ton of book reviews, prepared a batch of Easy Indian Lentil Curry in the Instant Pot and got the rice in the rice cooker, took out the recycling, and then my daughter and I read out on the porch most of the rest of the afternoon.

I microwaved the store-bought naan we’d gotten on sale, and then we had dinner. I did my Duolingo, but was really tired, so I decided to skip walking this night. I read on the porch and then upstairs, finishing Worn Out by Alyssa Hardy, read all of White Bird by R.J. Palacio, then started The Way I Say It by Nancy Tandon. My husband and I watched one episode of Stranger Things before bed.

 

Friday, 1 July, 2022

I filled and ran the dishwasher, had coffee, then wrote and posted Friday’s post. I got dressed and ready, then edited and posted the monthly recap on my book blog. My daughter and I did a level of math, and we followed that up with an early lunch, because we had a noon appointment with her counselor. She’s making good progress and gaining some good tools to help her handle her frustration a little better. I’m really glad I made the decision to take her to this.

At home, we started her vocabulary notebook (with the word ‘obstinate’!), then I read and finished The Way I Say It. I hung out on the computer for a few minutes, lay down for a bit, then read out on the porch, starting Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes. We had an early dinner and I did my Duolingo, then I showered and knit while watching YouTube. I logged into virtual Shabbat services when it was time (lay-led; the rabbis usually have July off from leading services), then continued reading afterwards. My husband and I watched one episode of Stranger Things before bed.

 

Saturday, 2 July, 2022

I’d just settled down on the couch with my coffee and book, when BAM: huge splotch right in the middle of my vision. MIGRAINE. Ugh. Extra bad since we were supposed to be meeting my mom this day. I immediately ran upstairs and downed a dose of migraine medication, then texted my mom to let her know and that I’d keep her updated. I finished my coffee to get that caffeine in me, then went back to bed until the meds kicked in, because it’s *really* hard to see with a large smeary splotch in the middle of your line of sight.

If I get to the migraine that fast, it usually keeps it at least somewhat controlled (at least the head pain), so after about an hour and forty-five minutes, the splotch was gone and the roaring head pain had never started. I took a second dose of a different kind of migraine rescue med (on the advice of my neurologist), and I was able to head off to Walmart to get the sunscreen and bug spray that we needed. I also grabbed sandwiches for my husband and son, then drove to Trader Joe’s for meatless lunches for my daughter and me. My stomach still wasn’t feeling great, but it wasn’t the full-blown nausea I get with worse migraines, so that was at least tolerable. I was so, so grateful that the migraine had started when I was awake and could get to it so quickly. (The ones that start in my sleep are the WORST.)

I returned home, and then we had like a half-hour before we had to leave, so I kind of just relaxed and took it easy. We met my mom for a picnic at a local forest preserve (my husband really wasn’t feeling an indoor get-together, since my mom’s husband isn’t vaccinated, and with my husband’s mom recently getting over COVID a second time, he’s on edge. Entirely understandable). After we ate, we rented kayaks and paddled around the lake for an hour, which is always a good time, except my daughter was a little dehydrated and got overheated (it was HOT out there, plus we had life jackets on), and she ended up throwing up afterwards. Poor kiddo.

At home, I showered her off, then settled her down on the bed with a bunch of water (she’d already drank a bottle of Gatorade in the car), and she played on her kindle while I read and dozed a little (even well-controlled, migraines are still pretty exhausting). I finished Unmasked, then started Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American by Wajahat Ali. Somewhere in there, I *think* I ate dinner, but to be honest, I’m not entirely sure. My stomach has been all sorts of wonky since Saturday.

I did do my Duolingo, however, and I showered. I put my daughter to bed and continued reading, and my husband and I watched one episode of Stranger Things before bed.

 

Sunday, 3 July, 2022

I had coffee and wrote and posted my monthly update post, then I emptied and refilled the dishwasher. I got dressed and ready, tidied the living room, and browsed NetGalley while my son got ready. My husband and daughter had gone to meet friends at the park, so my son and I went out geocaching. We took a Sears home tour of a nearby town, then hit up a few caches on the way back to our town. We stopped in at Five Below and the Dollar Tree, and at home, I relaxed on the computer for a little bit. I couldn’t bring myself to eat lunch, my stomach still feeling off, but I drank plenty of water as I read out on the porch most of the rest of the afternoon.

I got the fries in the oven, and my husband cooked up a batch of veggie burgers for dinner. We ate, I did my Duolingo, and my son and I went on a four-mile walk. By my daughter’s old school, a squirrel ran in front of us, frightened by a nearby firework going off. It ran into a tree with a low branch, then flattened itself down and we could actually hear it crying. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard. I hate fireworks. : (

At home, I showered and put my daughter to bed, then read my book. My husband and I watched an episode of Stranger Things, then I finished reading Go Back to Where You Came From before going to bed.

 

And that’s it! We’re supposed to go have a picnic with my sister-in-law, nephew, and mother-in-law tonight and then see the fireworks (sigh) afterwards. We’ve got chances of thunderstorms, though, so we’ll see how this all pans out. I don’t have anything on the calendar for this week, but I do need to keep up with my homeschool planning, so that’s going to be a big focus this week. I just checked; the first day of actual school is August 24^th this year, which is about ten days later than I was expecting, so I have a little more freedom than I thought. Who knows, though; we may get started on our normal schedule earlier than that. All depends on how ready my daughter feels. I have no problem waiting until the 24^th, either; I just want to feel ready and have everything squared away before then.

Stay safe out there, friends! Let’s all go into Tuesday with all our various appendages still attached to our bodies…

What's Been Going On: Monday, 30 May - Wednesday, 1 June, 2022

I’m alive! Still kind of dizzy as a side effect from both the medication and the migraines, but they haven’t killed me off yet!

Yeesh. Migraines are some rotten business, let me tell you. This past weekend was one of the least fun of my life. Even when the icepick-jammed-in-the-brain feeling went away (thank you, meds!), the rest of the full-body migraine experience is left behind, and that kind of feels like all the worst parts of the flu (including the vomiting and other unpleasant aspects of it). I didn’t feel achy this time, though I have in the past, so, you know, yay for that?

I’m still not quite 100% back to normal – I should say, I’m not feeling 100% back to normal. I’m pretty much running as normal, with a few extra breaks here and there. Focusing on the computer is still a little tough for me, but I’m managing okay for the most part.

Here’s what I’ve been up to so far this week!

 

Monday, 30 May, 2022

Not much to report this day. It started off okay, and we were actually on our way to my mother-in-law’s house when suddenly, SPLAT, in the middle of my vision, one of those awful visual disturbances that signifies a migraine is on its way. My husband had to turn around and drop me off at home. This made for Migraine Day 3. I was SO upset.

I took the meds early enough that the whopper of a headache stayed pretty tame and I was just left feeling awful otherwise. I managed to clean the kitchen on this day, and I picked up some clothing for my daughter from Freecycle on the end of my street (don’t worry, the visual disturbance had long since cleared and I could see just fine!) and cleaned the kitchen. Other than that, I rested and read in a not-too-bright room. I also scheduled my follow-up visit for my neurologist the next day!

 

Tuesday, 31 May, 2022

I woke up feeling exhausted but without any head pain, so I tiptoed into the day and had some coffee. I got dressed and scooped the litterbox, then managed an hour of volunteer work (screens are still making me feel a little dizzy and disoriented, so this wasn’t super easy). I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, got some chickpeas into the Instant Pot, put my daughter’s car seat back into the car, then relaxed until it was time to leave for the doctor.

My son accompanied me (and my daughter, too!) to the neurologist, because I was worried I’d end up with a migraine like the day before, complete with visual disturbances, and not be safe to drive home (it took an hour for the meds to clear the SPLAT in the middle of my field of vision up on Monday), so he and my daughter hung out on their various tech devices while I chatted with Dr. S., who is super nice and also super younger than I am, haha! He’s sending me for an MRI next week, just to make sure nothing new is going on, and he also gave me some Zofran (an anti-nausea med. He’s wondering whether part of my problem isn’t that I’m not keeping enough of the migraine medication down for it to be as effective as necessary. I’d also like to point out that this is the first time in my adult life that my insurance actually covered Zofran. They wouldn’t even cover it to keep me out of the hospital when I was pregnant, NOT THAT I’M STILL BITTER ABOUT THAT TWENTY YEARS LATER OR ANYTHING *ahem*).

At home, we all had lunch, and I emptied and refilled the dishwasher. I prepared the bottom part of dinner, this Chickpea Pot Pie, with random veggies I had in the freezer (this ended up being really good, but weirdly, I think it was even better the next day!), then I worked on Wednesday’s post a little before heading to the library with my daughter to pick up a few books. She’s been a reading machine lately!

At home, I made up the biscuit mix part of dinner, then read while the bottom half baked. I added the biscuit top and baked that, and when it was done, dinner was served! I did my Duolingo, and my son and I went for a 3-ish mile walk. I put dinner away and showered, ran the dishwasher, and put my daughter to bed (we finished reading Frindle by Andrew Clements). I read my book for a while, and my husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Wednesday, 1 June, 2022

Happy June!

After breakfast and coffee, I edited and posted my monthly recap post over at my book blog, then edited and posted my monthly goals update here. I did an hour of volunteer work (still not so easy! I always forget how long it takes for me to get back to normal after a migraine), then made out my grocery lists and tidied the living room.

I went over a bunch of things on Pinterest with my son. He’s gained a lot of weight the last two years and wants to take it off, so we’re working on some meal prep-type ideas so he can have lunches pre-portioned and ready to go. He was also talking about joining one of the local gyms with my husband, so I feel like he has a good handle on what he needs to do in order to get healthier. We found quite a few ideas to make for him, and I’m glad. : )

I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, and we had lunch. I looked through my Pinterest and hung out with the kids, and when my husband got home, my son and I picked up a library book that had come in and hit up four grocery stores (one is right across the street from the other, so nothing out of the way!). We ended up with a marked-down fruit collection, a bag of jalapenos I’ll toss in the freezer, and a massive tray of discount bananas, which I chopped and froze as soon as we got home. I also cooked the pizza and took the peels out to the compost.

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, and my son and I went on a FOUR-mile walk, stopping to drop three books off at a Little Free Library on the way. I showered and got to work on this post, then my son and I took a few of those marked-down bananas and turned them into a batch of muffins.

I farted around on the computer for the few minutes I had left before my husband came upstairs, and then he and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

And that’s it! Now, if my head behaves *crosses fingers* I should have something interesting coming up on Saturday with my mom. Other than that, though, not much else going on! I’m going to get started planning for the next school year today, I think, at least a little. I’ll grab my notepad and my stack of homeschool books and go relax on my swing while I plan. Definitely going to enjoy the process. : )

I hope you’re all having a wonderful week so far!

What's Been Going On: Thursday, 26 May - Sunday, 29 May, 2022

 You know what they say about the best-laid plans…

I had such great plans for this weekend, and then….THHHHHHHHHBBBBBBBBBBBTTTT, nothing.

I hate when that happens, but this very much wasn’t my fault, and you’ll see what I mean in a few, since this update will look a little different than normal. Oh well. I suppose there’s always hope for next weekend?

 

Here’s what I was up to – and, uh, not up to – the second half of last week…

 

Thursday, 26 May, 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I wrote and edited my Thursday post. I got dressed, filled and ran the dishwasher, cleaned off the stovetop, took out the recycling and compost, then chopped and froze a bag of red peppers.

I chopped some onions and potatoes, took out more compost, then brought in a jalapeno from the garage freezer. I rested for a bit on the computer, then made a batch of curry burgers out of last week’s Indian dal (added some flax and breadcrumbs, and they turned out great!), which we had for lunch.

After lunch, I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, and I made a batch of samosa wrap filling – and then two more trips to the compost! I cleaned the kitchen and filled and ran the dishwasher again, and then it was time for some reading in my chair.

I finished And Now I Spill the Family Secrets by Margaret Kimball, followed by all of Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast. I ate dinner and did my Duolingo, then took a quick library trip to pick up a few extra books for the holiday weekend (driving, not walking this time, because there was no way my back could’ve handled the walk).

At home, I put dinner away and showered, did my Duolingo, and started reading The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan. I knit and watched some YouTube afterwards, before going to bed.

 

Friday, 27 May, 2022

After coffee, I wrote and posted Friday’s post, then got dressed, I emptied and refilled the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen, then I tidied the living room. I spent some time on the computer, and after a brief early lunch, my daughter and I were off to her counselor.

At home, I helped my son with the creation of his skillet dinner and supervised his first use of our air fryer (he’d used a different style and wasn’t sure how to run ours at first). Afterwards, I dozed on the chair, then messed around on the computer for a few before cooking the eggs that went with the skillet. We had dinner, I knit and watched some YouTube videos, then showered and did my Duolingo. I knit a little more and connected to my synagogue’s weekly Shabbat services when it was time. When that was done, I looked for some new books on NetGalley (and found some!). My husband and I watched an episode of Under the Banner of Heaven before bed.

 

Saturday, 28 May – Sunday, 29 May, 2022

And it started from the moment I woke up.:

MIGRAINE.

All day.

That’s it.

That’s literally all I did all day was deal with effects of the migraine.

But it wasn’t just Saturday. Check the dates up there.

I woke up in the middle of the Sunday AM hours with the migraine roaring just as fiercely, sending me running down the bathroom hall TWICE to throw up (in addition to the time Saturday morning it had made me throw up).

The headache pain does die down for me after a while. It takes a really long time, along with powerful prescription drugs (that insurance doesn’t want to pay for, of course. Anyone know any BCBS executives so I can go throw up on them? Because they don’t seem to think that’s a big deal at all for me, so it shouldn’t be a big deal for them either, right???), but I do get some relief from the being-stabbed-in-the-head-with-an-icepick-every-time-I-inhale feeling, but what doesn’t leave me all day long is the nausea, the exhaustion, the stomach problems, the dizziness. That’s an all day, sometimes multiple-day thing (what with the ‘migraine hangover’ that’s so fond of sticking around). I did manage to get some reading done over the weekend, even out on my swing, but it was while feeling the constant full-body effects of this migraine from hell. And of course, I still cooked and cleaned the kitchen, because apparently while I was off vomiting and feeling like my head would explode, my entire family broke their arms and legs, rendering every single one of them entirely incapable of preparing a single meal or cleaning up after themselves more than one would expect, say, a zoo animal!

 

So that’s it! I had a huge list of things I was planning on getting done this weekend, and instead I threw up and lay in bed with my eyes closed. NOT exactly what I had planned on.

Crossing all the things that all of you had a more pleasant weekend!

What's Been Going On: Monday, 21 March - Wednesday, 23 March, 2022

 

Almost to the weekend, which means almost to Spring Break for us! We’re not doing anything or going anywhere (I have big plans to clean out my fridge, if that counts…), but we’re taking the week off except for some fun reading, and a change in schedule is always nice!

It’s been a *week* around here so far. Not at all what I expected at the beginning, but that’s life, huh? This weekend is supposed to be rainy, so it’s going to be books and knitting and naps all the way down, because I could use all of it!

Here’s what I’ve been up to so far this week.

 

Monday, 21 March, 2022

You may remember this was the day we had planned for my mom to come up.

I had coffee and edited and posted my Monday post, then posted my review for How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith on my book blog. I got dressed, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, set up the stovetop to soak in a mixture of baking soda and vinegar, swept the upstairs and downstairs, and restarted the dryer from the night before.

My daughter and I started school with On This Day in History and geography (Liberia), and then we got going with math. We had *just* about finished with math, when I looked down at my white board, then glanced back up at the screen to find all of my right peripheral vision smeared. OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. It took a few glances back and forth and one glance at my daughter’s face (the left half was missing!) to confirm: I was getting a migraine.

I immediately took a dose of migraine meds, texted my mom to *not* come up, and told my daughter school was done for the day (can’t teach if you can’t see…). She played while I lay down on her bed – my head had started pounding by this time. My brain gets *really* weird during a migraine, too; I have a hard time finding words and sometimes really struggle to speak. At one point, the word ‘house’ appeared in my brain, but I couldn’t figure out how it was pronounced or what sounds any of the letters made. In the past, my husband has asked me during a migraine how my head felt, and all I could come up with was, “…fiiiiiiiiiiiine?”, when I was very obviously not fine, but “My head feels like it’s been shot by a cannon and my stomach feels like it’s been put through a blender, and if I could decapitate myself without adding more pain to my already-painful state, I’d highly consider it at this moment” was a little out of my reach at the time. Migraines are wild.

About two hours later, my head still hurt, so as per the label on my meds, I took a second dose, and my daughter announced, “Hey look, Grandma’s here!”

Turns out her phone never got my text (this is not the first time this has happened with texts that I’ve sent; I’m going to have to watch that they say ‘delivered’). Fortunately, my head had settled down to a dull roar and the visual disturbances were gone. I had caught it early enough that there was no chance of vomiting, though my stomach definitely wasn’t happy (migraines are *so* fun), and while my head still had a pretty fierce headache, I was able to rally, especially with the help of a bottle of Diet Coke. (And my mom had offered to leave or for me to go lie down, but nah. I wasn’t about to miss out on her visit.)

This was our holiday celebration, since we hadn’t seen each other since early December, so I was able to give her my grandmother’s cross-stitch, which she loved. We spent the afternoon together, my daughter playing with the toys Grandma had brought up. Somewhere in here, I wiped down the stovetop. When my husband got home, my mom and I ran over to a local grocery store, where we bought some ready-made pasta dishes for dinner. I had planned on cooking for my mom, but that wasn’t about to happen with my head still hurting (again, it was only about a 5 at its worst on the scale of 0-10, so not the worst. It really helps if I catch them super early). I also grabbed a bag of tomatoes off the discount produce rack (a huge bag of tomatoes for a buck? Heck yes!).

At home, we baked the pasta and ate, and then it was SO nice out (like in the 70’s!) that I refused to let the whole day go to waste inside and we went for a nice slow three-mile walk. I was feeling mostly normal-ish by this point, so it was a good time.

We hung out with my mom for a bit longer. I took out the garbage and recycling and hauled the cans to the curb, switched the laundry, and said goodbye to my mom. I put my daughter to bed, and my husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women before bed.

Phew! Stupid migraines. I think this is the third I’ve had so far this year? Glad I see that new neurologist next week…

 

Tuesday, 22 March, 2022

Migraines are never just a one-day affair for me; the next-day migraine hangover is awful in its own way (and my stomach is *still* unhappy about it!), but life goes on and my daughter needed some educating. After breakfast and coffee, I took the new clothes my mom had given me upstairs, wrote a book review, and posted my review for Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang on my book blog.

We started school with On This Day in History and geography (Libya), then it was back to math. We read our book about slow processes in nature, another section from our book about the earth, a little bit from a book about the different aspects of math, and half of a book about Egyptian mythology. My daughter ate lunch right away; I curled up in my chair and dozed for a bit. Migraines are exhausting.

After our lunch break, we did spelling and Language Arts, began reading a book about Milton Hershey, read two chapters of our history book, and did our thirty minutes of Read Harder/silent reading (I’m reading Everything You Need to Know About Asian-American History; my daughter is reading Matilda), and then school was done for the day.

I did an hour of volunteer work, then lay down for a few minutes, not to sleep, but just to give my brain a rest and some quiet. I spent a little time on the computer while the leftovers heated in the oven, and then we had dinner. I did my Duolingo and showered, then crawled into bed to finish reading Garbology by Edward Humes. My husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Wednesday, 23 March, 2022

I had breakfast and coffee, then posted my review for Attainable Sustainable: The Lost Art of Self-Reliant Living by Kris Bordessa on my book blog. I got dressed and filled and ran the dishwasher.

We started our day with On This Day in History and geography (Liechtenstein), then moved on to math (I’m so tired of drawing bar graphs!). We read more about slow processes in nature, and I had picked up our earth book, when my daughter threw a tantrum about my not letting her play with toys during schooltime. As I am not an endless font of patience, I cut it off right then and there and instead headed to the kitchen, where I prepared the tomatoes I bought on Monday for roasting. My daughter and I both needed the time to cool down.

I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and then we were ready to talk for a bit about why education is so important. We had lunch, and I blended the tomatoes to make sauce. (Below is one tray; there were two, but I had already dumped the first one into the food processor before I remembered to take a picture!) The sauce went into the fridge afterwards.

 

We did spelling and Language Arts, read more about Milton Hershey, and read two chapters of our history book. We did our 30 minutes of Read Harder/silent reading, and finished our book on Egyptian mythology.

My mother had given me her Kohl’s cash on Monday, so I ran over there and used it and a little bit of a gift card to buy a pair of capris that I very much needed (I don’t really love wearing shorts anymore, and I don’t have a ton of summer bottoms that aren’t my son’s old basketball shorts, soooo…) and a necklace. I ran to Aldi to pick up a few staples, then came home, put the groceries away, and began boiling noodles and warming the sauce. We had a lovely dinner of fake-chicken parmigiana, with the sauce I’d made earlier in the day.

 

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, biked 30 minutes while reading Outsmart Waste: The Modern Idea of Garbage and How to Think Our Way Out of It by Tom Szaky, then showered and put dinner away. I put my daughter to bed and continued reading, and my husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

That’s it so far this week. I’m worn out already; migraines are no fun, and while I’m not necessarily worried about the uptick I’ve had in them – I used to get one a year, or every other year, and lately it’s more like once a month or so – I am irritated and frustrated at the far more frequent pain and days-long stomach issues and often having to cancel my life for days at a time because of these things. Crossing my fingers that the neurologist has some ideas next week, or at least a better preventative, because obviously the one I’m taking now isn’t much helping!

I hope your week got off to a bit of an easier start than mine! :)