As of this writing my only celebration is my continued journey on reclaiming my health.

GamerDude and I had our follow up appointment today with our GP.  This is the summary.

• We have to go in on May 21 for repeat blood-work and then a week later to review results.
• GamerDude has until our next appointment to get his cholesterol and blood sugar down or he is joining me on the medication bandwagon.
• My blood pressure remains high, although taking a few deep breaths allows him to get a reading in the safe range.
• My hormonal blood work shows that I am still not in menopause despite the removal of my ovaries 5 years ago – proving the presence of an ovarian remnant – and explaining why my pain is creeping back up to pre-hysterectomy levels.
• The scale moved a couple of pounds in the right direction since we were last there 6 weeks ago.
• My Prozac dose was increased.
• I have a script for some kind of steroidal medication to deal with some scalp eczema I’ve been self-treating unsuccessfully for the last year and a half.
• Our dietary changes were all approved with the exception of flax seed.

My goal is to try and lose 15 pounds before we go back, stick to all of my healthy eating changes, and maybe even get in to see my gynecologist.

On the way home I ran in to the health food store and bought more fat free yogurt (I am starting to live on the stuff) and picked up an unflavored and unsweetened soy-based protein powder to use with our shakes.  Not only will this trim a bit more cholesterol from our diets, but it will trim a bit more sugar from GamerDude’s as well.

Other than that, its just another day in Mama Kelly Land.  I am keeping my fingers occupied with my super secret side project (to be revealed, hopefully, on June 1) and my brain busy trying to convince myself that my health is worth the extra money at the grocery store, the extra effort, and the loss of potato chips and bacon-horseradish dip.

I plan on spending the rest of the weekend doing my usual cooking, some additional cleaning and de-cluttering, watching TV with my girls, and probably drop the car off for repairs.

Happy Ostara one and all!! May the budding earth and returning warmth brighten your hearts and lighten your spirits.  May you each be truly blessed.

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:diet, health, life, Ostara

One of the changes I’ve made in my eating habits is to start having a smoothie for breakfast.  I was inspired by, of all things, an episode of Good Eats in which the host, Alton Brown, talks about the eating habits he changed in order to lose weight.

Now, I am not following his smoothie recipe to the letter.  Mainly because I can’t afford to use nearly a pound (!) of fruit every morning.  But, what I’m doing is in the same spirit.

• 1/2 unsweetened fruit juice (preferably red or purple)
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 4 large frozen strawberries
• heaping 1/2 cup frozen blueberries (or cherries or mango chunks)
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 scoop protein powder (vanilla flavor)
• honey to taste (optional)

Then I just push buttons on my one-day-to-be-upgraded blender until I get the desired consistency.

It only takes a few minutes.  The result is really yummy and very filling and satisfying.

Enjoy!

Blessings

Mama Kelly

note:

The protein powder I purchased is a whey-based product.  The flavor and texture are great, but it has 55 mg of cholesterol per serving.  As a result, I am going to switch to a cholesterol free product when we have to buy more even if I lose a few grams of protein in the process.

Written by Mama KellyTags:fruit, recipe, smoothie

I know three posts in as many days …. it’s almost like the old days.  This is what happens when I sit down and write my posts ahead like a good little blogging Witch.

Anyway, as I’ve been writing, I am determined to simplify our lives and live healthier.  What I have yet to share is that Princess Nature is bound and determined to go vegetarian.

I was vegetarian for about three years back in my early twenties.  I went back to eating meat while pregnant with Miss artistic and never really looked back.  Over the years Gamer Dude and I have talked about the merits of decreasing the amount of flesh foods in our diet, but I’ve never really had the gumption to act on it.

Having promised Princess Nature that she can follow her conscience come summer, and with the knowledge that we can all stand to eat healthier (especially me with my lousy high cholesterol), I am gradually adding vegetarian fare to our weekly meals.

Two of our meals this week will be meat based.  I roasted two chickens from the freezer, which will be served with homemade gravy and vegetable sides.

The rest of the week however will be meat free.

I made a batch of Kosheri.  Its a mix of lentils, rice, and pasta served topped with a tangy spicy tomato sauce and caramelized onions.  I’ve made this before, and for the most part it was enjoyed by all.  This time I added some drained canned corn to add some crisp texture and some bright color.  I made what I thought was enough for two meals and it might last more like four!

I also made a batch of Bainghan Bartha,  Indian curried eggplant.  I used 4 large eggplants and 8 tomatoes, but it made less than I was anticipating, but as it is meant to be served over rice (and odds are Mr Grumpy won’t even taste it) I can manage two dinners out of it.  This was my first attempt at this dish and I found that had to add more spices than the recipe called for (and toss in some peas) to approximate the taste of when we’ve had it “out.”

I have no clue what I’ll make next week.  Its time to dust off my vegetarian cookbooks and experiment I guess.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:cooking, family, food, meals, meat-free, vegetarian

As I mentioned yesterday, a power outage threw a monkey wrench in my weekend plans.  Not only did it delay my once a week cooking, but it also interfered with some of my “get ready for Ostara” cleaning plans.

My original plan was to tackle the pantry and do a thorough reorganization in preparation for not only the change in my shopping and eating habits, but in order to make room for a dehydrator.  This did not get done, or even started.  Instead, my cleaning time yesterday found me and the girls tackling the hall (i.e. kid) closet.

We sorted through a huge bin of Barbie stuff, tossed the most worn of them out, and organized everything else to be gifted to a neighbor (if the mother wants them).  We sorted through all the board games, throwing out the ones with missing pieces, piling up a few that have been outgrown for the neighbor children, and putting the rest back neatly.

We also sorted the shoes and coats and found a few more things to add to a donate pile being picked up later this week.  Last weekend Gamer Dude, Princess Nature and I sorted through a bunch of clothes taking up room in the attic and filled four …. yes FOUR …. large lawn and leaf sized bags.  Over 300 individual items of apparel are being given to the Red Cross.

So between this weekend, last weekend, and another recent weekend I have gotten rid of 9 lawn and leaf sized bags of “stuff” and also given away (or set aside to give away) enough to fill another.

There is so much more clutter to tackle, more “stuff” to rearrange and sort in the attic, more drawers to go through, more papers to file, and whatnot.  But, slowly we are making progress toward the eventual goal of getting Miss Artistic into her own room, and moving toward the kind of life that Gamer Dude and I want to live.

It feels good.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:cleaning, clutter, organization, simplifying

… or even Witches so often go awry.

Friday was a run-around day.  I worked my usual half-day and went food shopping.  Just like my trip to the health food store I was shocked by how quickly my budget winds up increasing just because I’m cooking and eating healthier.  And then there were a number of errands to run, including one of Miss Artistic’s doctor appointments.

The plan Saturday was to do my once-a-week cooking once the kids were home from art class and flute lessons.  It was a miserable day outside, so it seemed like a perfect day to be in front of a hot stove, unfortunately right in the middle of my cooking the power went out … and stayed out.

We decided after a couple of hours to go out to eat, since we had no way to heat up anything.  We drove to one restaurant, 20 minutes away, to find that they had lost power, lost a backup generator, and running water and weren’t taking customers.  We drove to a second restaurant, found out the wait was 45 minutes, and kept driving.  We drove around, all told, for over an hour and a half.  Every place we tried was either closed due tot he black-out or way too busy.  In the end we made 8:30 reservations, came home for a bathroom break, and headed out to eat.

We got home after 10:00, sent the kids to bed with glow-sticks, and read by flashlight until we gave up and went to sleep ourselves.  The power came back up in the middle of the night and so luckily I was able to do my once-a-week cooking today instead.

The moods in the house are pretty lousy.  Pain levels are high with all of the rain, Miss Artistic is in the throes of PMS which only exacerbate her ongoing issues.  Tomorrow is another day though … right?

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:family, life

… but the health food store sure can!

Tonight, I dropped the girls off at Tae Kwon Do and dashed over to the neighboring shopping center where there is a health food store. I am determined, one way or another, to reclaim my health and as we are just about a week before Ostara (and more importantly a few days ahead of Gamer Dude’s monthly check) it seemed a fitting time to start making some major changes in what I’m putting in my mouth each day.

I bought a bunch of supplements. Green tea and chromium to boost my metabolism from its present slow as a slug rate. I plan to (hopefully) be able to have the caffeine in the green tea replace my morning coffee (and the fat and chemicals it contains). An omega 3-6-9 supplement for heart health. Nature’s Plus – Animal Parade Kid Greenz since with my digestive issues (no gall bladder and bowel adhesions) often cause any intake in greens to cause an increase in pain.  And I finally broke down and spent the money on supplements I can found in my research several months ago (Nature’s Plus – Source Of Life Green/Red Bilayer Tabs) because they contain all kinds of trace levels of whole foods.

I also bought some fat free strained Greek yogurt (love this stuff!), local honey (to help the allergies), an acai-pomegranate-cranberry juice blend, and some whey protein powder.  The latter two will be used to make smoothies for breakfast every morning along with frozen and fresh fruit I have to buy tomorrow at my supermarket.  I also picked up raw almonds (a few a day for “good fat”), Guiltless Gourmet Blue Corn Organic Baked Tortilla Chips, and some ingredients for some dishes I’m making this coming weekend.

In other news, GamerDude and I are talking again about a home business idea we came up with 5 years ago and, right now, this is looking like not only do I have to get off my tail and start blogging more regularly here again, but I am going to have a whole new blog/website to get up and running too.  Thus, my motivation for jumping on the bandwagon with both feet and trying to get myself on the path to wellness.  On the bright side, this probably means I’ll be getting a new laptop sooner as opposed to later.

Finally, my thanks to those who took the time to leave kind words on my last post, or who have held me and my family in your thoughts. Words alone cannot express how much it means to me.  The wonderful thing about the Internet (as was summed up in a recent episode of House) is that no one ever has to be alone again.  All of you …  every day … keep me from feeling alone …. and I love and bless you for it.

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:diet, health, life, supplements

As usual, when I am feeling soul-sick, my blog posts dwindle down to the level of little to nothing. For that, I apologize. This is exacerbated by, as Lady Rose mentioned, the lack of a laptop which lessens the time I have to actually sit down and blog. Hopefully, in another couple of months this will be resolved (if nothing else I hope to be able to do it for my birthday in June)

Unfortunately, there are a number of other things that take precedence. There are the family issues to still resolve, the monthly medical bills (a total of 9 prescriptions (and counting) for 3 people, doctor visits, and therapy sessions), getting the taxes done, and hopefully getting a resume together at some point so I can look for a better job.

We first need to do some costly repairs on the car, we need to finally break down and purchase a second vehicle (so that I CAN actually look for another job), and we need to take care of some other impending expenses such as registering Princess Nature for summer camp.

In addition, I am still in the midst of playing catch up with my health. In addition to starting Prozac, I am now also on a cholesterol lowering drug. I went in for my eye exam (and am now the proud owner of a script for bifocals) and will be getting my eyeglasses in mid-April. My sleep study is set for the end of the month and I am trying to make peace with the knowledge that I may just wind up needing a bedside buddy (I think I’ll name him Henry). My follow-up appointment with my primary is on the 19th, where we’ll go over all of my lab results, talk about other aspects of my symptomology, and probably wind up with orders to see other Drs (i.e. a cardiologist). The gynecologist is on the list as well (though I am waiting to see if my labs still show me as non-menopausal in spite of a total hysterectomy and ovary removal).

Additionally, the girls need to get to the dentist (technically so do Gamer Dude and I as we haven’t been in YEARS) for their check-up and cleaning. And, we have to start the process of getting Miss Artistic evaluated for a breast reduction. Which, right now, we are hoping to do right after school lets out in June.

Speaking of the girls. Both Princess Nature and Miss Artistic have some kind of bug. It “feels” viral to me. Sore throat with no obvious signs of infection (redness, swelling, pus pockets), malaise, nausea, and a cough. No fevers, but still I am considering a trip to the pediatrician as it is the time of year for strep. The bulk of the weekend (so long as my Netflix shipment cooperates) will be spent watching Glee with one or both of them (in-between my usual marathon style cooking) while they rest and I force fluids into them.

In other news, I attended a wake last night for a friend of the family. “A” was one of my older cousin’s oldest friends. Since they grew up together and remained friends into adulthood, “A” was often in attendance at family functions over the years and while I didn’t know him well, or consider him a friend of my own, I still knew him my entire life. So, it was incredibly sad to hear that his car was struck on his evening commute by someone who ran a red light.

Beyond that I keep hearing this nagging thought in my head that reminds me of my own mortality. The voice that whispers that none of us know when the proverbial lightening bolt will fall from the sky bringing us to the end of this life. The voice that with increasing volume speaks to me not only of my regrets but of the realization that I have now been living with my life on hold for almost a decade, waiting for our life circumstances to allow me to be the person I want to be in full sight of the world.

Which brings me back full circle to one of the factors of my having been, to one degree or another, soul sick for the past too many years. Too much stress, too much heartache, too much hardship, with too little in my life to fill me back up. Hopefully getting myself back on track with my health will play a role in not only my feeling better physically but also in helping me have the energy to do the things that need to be done in order for me to reclaim the life I want to lead.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:depression, family, health, life, stress

Laptop: My apologies one and all for not being able to post very much over the last several weeks, but my laptop problems continue – so with both my laptop and Mama Kelly’s laptop being out of commission things have gotten a bit quiet around here. 

It has been over four weeks now and about $500 spent so far to get my laptop repaired.  It started out being infected with a virus (due to logging into facebook – seems it is a very common thing to have happen).  After paying just over $200 to have it fixed and waiting for two weeks for them to get to it, they then informed me the laptop needed a new hard drive, which meant I had to order disks from Dell so all the original drivers and software could be reloaded – which meant another week of it being in the shop and brought the total up to almost $500.  Had I not already spent $200 fixing it from the virus, I would have just gotten a new laptop, which only would have cost me about $600.   So now I’m stuck with this one for another 4 or 5 years. we are planning to get Angelgirl a new one for her birthday this May. I had planned on getting myself a new one (with a webcam) at the same time, and passing this one along to hubby, but now that this one is “like” new I’ll just keep it for as long as I can to make the money spent on the repairs worthwhile.

Now that I have the laptop home, it only worked for two days and now it no longer connects to the internet.  The third day I woke up, turned it on, and now for no apparant reason msn (whatever that is) is the manager of my internet connection (no idea how that happened) so now windows diagnostic can’t help me, when I run “repair” it can’t “clear the dns cache,” whatever that means. When I try to get to the internet it just says I’m “offline,” even though the wireless router connection is strong.  I’ve tried everything I can possibly think of and so has my daughter, and at this point I think it is totally messed up. Since I have no idea what happened in the first place I’m sure whatever we’ve done trying to fix it (settings, etc.) has messed it up for good.  

So I am limited to snatching a few minutes here and there online since hubby and my daughter both need the desktop computer a lot in the evening for school work.

Surprises: On the bright side, last week I was totally surprised by having Thursday and Friday off because of the snow.  It was a huge surprise because my office hardly ever closes.  Thursday hubby (he’s a high school teacher) and Angelgirl had early school closing so to surprise them (since they didn’t even know I had the day off!) I bought lots of Chinese food and a few treats from the bakery for them to enjoy.  It was a big feast that they got to enjoy for both snow days and even into the weekend.

This month I am keeping busy planning a surprise birthday party for my youngest sister.  She is turning 40.  I’m planning to make her a huge brunch with stuffed french toast, spiral ham, a coffee and hot chocolate bar (with lots of toppings), smoothies (the smoothie maker will be her gift), hash browns, eggs (with a variety of toppings), cinnamon bun bread pudding, and few other things. I’m cooking almost everything at my house, but taking it all over to her house. My other sister and her family live across the street so they will be stopping over and I will ask her husband to invite the two neighbors she is friendly with too.

Qi Gong: Last week I had an appointment for a qi gong healing session with a couple who teach Qi Gong.   I found their website a couple of years ago and have wanted to take their classes and meet them ever since.   They are about an hour and 15 minutes away so it is driveable – though I may spend the night at a hotel when I take the classes so I’m not driving back and forth three days in a row.  I will be taking their healing qi gong class in July (Fri. evening to Sunday for two weekends).    I plan on taking the advanced class after that and whatever other classes that I can as they become available.   One of their instructors is also in New Jersey, and they recommended I take an introductory seminar with him on March 28 – I sent my registration in yesterday. 

I am thrilled to finally be beginning my journey to learn qi gong.  It is all about healing, working with energy, and to me any way, it is kicking my spiritual path into high gear.  Although different in philosopy and practice, it is similar in principle to wicca and takes the “work of a witch” to a whole new level beyond wicca 101 and I think even beyond advanced wicca. It is a moving meditation that is done daily to clear, balance and gather one’s chi energy. It is also system for promoting healing in others, as well as teaching them how to promote healing in themselves (which is one of things I like most about it, because it helps people to take care of themselves).

I will be posting more about qi gong as I take classes, read books, and learn more.

Bright blessings, Lady Rose

Written by Lady RoseTags:computer virus, family, qi gong, snow days

We are all still here, in spite of another dose of high-pitched drama. My nerves are frayed, in spite of my new pal Prozac, and sleep is as unrefreshing as always. In fact, after spending the entire morning at work nodding off in-between phone calls I left early, came home, and crawled into bed. My “cover story” with Mr Grumpy is that I had one of my bad headaches, took meds, and lay down for a bit. Not much of a stretch since later will probably find me taking said medications so that I can sleep in spite of my on-and-off nap.

Sad isn’t it? That at the age of 40 I am still accountable to my father for my work, sleep, and yes even my eating habits. Wait until he finds out that I need to go on cholesterol-lowering medication!!! But, I digress.

The home situation is at a stand-still and much of what is going on falls into the category of not fit for blog fodder. In fact, the bulk of it isn’t really discussed outside the home at all, unless we happen to be at the therapist’s office.

Work is the same, and while the official conversation has yet to occur I am well aware that my head is on the chopping block in terms of a pay cut. Granted, they could be “nice” and give me a warning and more time to get my stats up to their arbitrary levels, but my company is rarely nice, even more rarely fair, and is frankly most often dishonest and unrealistic.

But, again, I digress.

The weekend actually wound up being fairly productive.

Friday Gamer Dude and I had blood drawn at the Doctor’s office, went out for breakfast, and then had an hour long, fairly unproductive I.E.P. meeting at Miss Artistic’s school. I did the food shopping, ran Princess Nature over to Tae Kwon Do (where she participated in three classes in a row) and made a thoroughly unhealthy and in no way to be considered “from scratch” kind of meal.

I spent the bulk of Saturday (with Princess Nature’s help) tearing the girls’ room apart and putting it all back together. Translation …. every drawer, shelf, and piece of clothing was handled, sorted, and many many things where thrown away. And while I feel guilty about my additions to already overburdened landfills I am happy to have 3 huge lawn and leaf bags less clutter in my house.

When I wasn’t folding and hanging clothing or shaking my head at the things I found in drawers, and at the bottom of their closet I was cooking. This week we are alternating between two dishes (as opposed to my usual three). I made a monster-sized batch of my family’s recipe for Cream of Tomato Soup. I made so much that despite giving some away, and having for dinner a total of 3 times already I have no choice but to freeze a bunch of it. I also made a double batch of BBQ ribs and decided (yet again) that I need to find a really good (and cheap) recipe for BBQ sauce that doesn’t have any type of smoke flavor in it as I am tired of having to pay for the stuff.

Sunday, I took the girls out for a sharing of appetizers at the local Japanese restaurant and then to Walmart where I picked up some things we needed (itty bitty bras and underwear), some stuff so cheap I couldn’t pass up (4 Tshirts for $1 each by Miley Cyrus that are British themed and will be perfect as “disposable clothing” for summer camp) and the inevitable stuff I was either pestered or suckered into buying.

Tonight is belt testing at Tae Kwon Do and I am looking forward to going, watching, leaving, and then spending some quality time with my couch and my Hubby, though not necessarily in that order.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:family, kids, life

Last week, Keith Olbermann, on his news show Countdown, covered the devastation that one tribe has experienced this winter – two severe snow storms left them without heat, electricity and water.  Our government so far has done nothing.   He provided the links on website for  two funds that accept donations to help (the links are also below).  I sent my donation in this weekend to both organizations, and I hope to be able to donate a little each month.

Another way to help is to contact your Senators and Representavies, and even the President, to remind them of our national responsibility to live up to our promises to provide for the Native American tribes.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Disaster Relief Fund -  2 winter storms  have left the whole reservation without power or water. (Feb. 2010) – over 2,500 utility poles are currently on the ground in this remote, rural area. Power has been out in several communities and for thousands of residents for several days. Below zero temperatures and no electricity, heat, water or gasoline has created devastating results.

If you would like to make contributions of clothing and other non-cash gifts, please mail such items to: Wakpa Sica 709 Ft. Chouteau Road Ft. Pierre, SD 57532  (605-223-9099)

To learn more about the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and their recovery efforts please visit their website at CRST Disaster Relief.

Native American Heritage Association – donations help all Native Americans most in need.

On a side note – the reason I’ve been away from the blog so much is because my laptop is fried.  It got a really, really, really bad virus or trojan (or whatever!) that blocked all my security protections and all access to internet EXCEPT the fake site claiming to remove the virus.  I had to save up a bit and then took it into Geek Squad.  The cost is $200 to get everything removed (if they had come to the house it would have been $300) and will take 10 to 14 days to be done.   So my laptop won’t be home until some time next week.

Written by Lady RoseTags:disaster relief, Native Americans