… 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

Did I just say that things were stable? Big mistake … huge, even.

Things have returned to the upheaval and chaos that is all too frequent, and (again) is it related to Miss Artistic.

If you could please be patient as I await another calm in the storm and send some patient energy my way it would truly be a blessing.

Be well!

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama Kelly

I feel so very un-Witchy. Lately, my updates are focused on keeping you abreast of day-to-day life and little else. Of course, part of that is the continued lack of a laptop and the limited time I have to blog as a result. But, mostly this is because I am too busy simply putting one foot in front of the other to feel particularly inspired or spiritual. This too shall pass and hopefully at some point I will have a new baby to keep tethered to my lap in the evenings.

The snow is still here, and our snowman is still standing, but both will probably be gone soon as temperatures are hitting the high 30s during the day and rain is predicted by this time next week (though if another cold front moves in first we could get buried again … too soon to tell).

Saturday, Gamer Dude and I went out on an actual date for Valentine’s Day. Nothing extreme, just dinner out using a gift card Mr Grumpy gave us for Xmas (as well as a little extra he tossed us as we headed out the door). Our meals were wonderful (but then they generally are at this particular place) and our evening quite relaxing. As usual we brought our desserts home and ate them during our TV viewing.

Things are mostly stable. For that, I am most grateful!

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:family, life, valentines day

Its amazing how a little bit of snow, or more accurately a whole heck of a a lot of snow, can through such a monkey wrench into an ordinary week.

The snow started late Tuesday evening and I woke up Wednesday morning to a world covered with white and the news that work was closed (without pay of course) due to inclement weather. For a while all we were getting was that lousy wintry mix, which made me grumpy, but then the white stuff returned, and returned with a vengeance.

I spent much of the day crocheting and watching TV but did manage to get outside and help the family build a 7′ snowman in our front yard. He’s quite the looker … big blue eyes (brillo pads), a well formed nose (sculpted snow), and a wide smile (red stones from our yard). Unfortunately, with the strong sunshine the last couple of days he is not long for this world.

I got to work Thursday thanks to Gamer Dude and my father using both shovels and the snow-thrower late Wednesday (while it was still snowing and blowing outside) and my darlin’ hubby waking up to use the snow-thrower again to get me out of a plowed in driveway.

The kids had no school on either Wednesday or Thursday and a delayed opening on Friday and so we’re all a little off of our schedules.

We weathered the storm well, overall. The irony was that as the storm snowed its last upon us, just as the official blizzard warning was about to be over, we lost power. We were without electricity from 11:30 PM Wednesday night until 4 PM Thursday afternoon. The girls spent the day at a neighbors house (on another part of the grid and still had power) and Mr Grumpy and Gamer Dude suffered through the boredom of no TV and the lack of heat (gas heat but electric thermostat).

The weather forecast looks pretty clear for a while, a little flurry action here and there, and I’m glad to hear it. Because, while normally I’m a big fan of the white stuff, this year I’m itching for Spring.

Stay warm and stay well

Blessings

Mama kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:family, life, snow, weather, winter

If the predictions are right, it seems that we are due to be pounded again with another round of heavy snow accumulation. According to weather.com we should start to see wet stuff falling very shortly and white stuff falling sometime after 9 pm.  The snowfall is expected to continue unabated (though stronger at times than others) until at least midnight tomorrow (though at time there may be some freezing rain and sleet through in to break the monotony), with accumulations that can range from as little as 10 to as much as 20 inches before all is said and done.

My workplace has decided to hold the expectation that they will be open tomorrow, regardless of predicted road conditions and advisories that recommend that people only drive if absolutely necessary.  If they are closed tomorrow, or if I simply cannot get out of my driveway (or if Game Dude forcibly bars the door and forbids my departure), the plan is a day in front of the fireplace, crocheting in hand, and a marathon viewing of an old favorite, The 10th Kingdom, if I can get anyone to watch it with me.

We have more than enough food.  We have plenty of milk and bread (and ice cream).  I picked up bagels for the morning as a treat.  In other words I am as prepared as I can be for a good old fashioned blizzard.  I may even pull out my old dogeared copy of The Long Winter (Little House series) and read it just for the sake of nostalgia.

Stay well, stay warm.
Be Blessed

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:life, snow, storm, winter

We woke this morning to a world covered in white.  Since both Miss Artistic’s art class and Princess Nature’s flute lesson were canceled due to the inclement weather it was a lovely lazy morning.

After my period of becoming one with my couch and the TV remote, the bulk of my day was spent cooking and crocheting.  I made two large meatloaves (for later in the week) and a batch of chicken and dumplings.  The later was my first attempt at this dish and it was well received by all, even Mr Grumpy who rarely has a compliment to offer.  And, best of all (in my opinion) there is enough left of the chicken dish to be served another night (so long as I make another batch of dumplings and boil up more egg noodles).

Tomorrow will find me whipping up a batch of mashed potatoes (to go with the meatloaves of course) and a pot of vegetarian chili (with TVP in place of ground beef) and probably doing more crocheting in front of the fire.

There is so much that needs to be cleaned, tidied, or organized around the house.  There is so much work I could be doing in terms of working here on the blog or even the book project that I’ve been playing with for the past couple of years.  But, lately, both seem to be insurmountable tasks.

I can only hope that as my depression wanes and my health improves my energy and inspiration will return. In the meantime, I am off to do more crocheting (and the never ending task of weaving in those cursed ends).

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:cooking, crochet, family, life