Kym. Kym and I met via Livejournal more than 10 years ago. We comiserate about faith things, cat herding, life, and just… everything. She baked muffins and cookies for the NICU staff at Daniel’s hospital, sent me baby clothes and baby cookbooks when he was born, and has kept me as sane as she can in the midst of everything. She was recently diagnosed with stage 1 uterine cancer and it’s looking more and more like a hysterectomy is going to be necessary to wipe out the cancer. She’s self-employed and without insurance so she needs to raise $60,000 for the surgery, anethetists, hospital stay, etc. If you can help at all, hop on over to Kym’s Hysterical (Not) Hysterectomy and toss a few bucks her way. If you happen to know of any grant program that can help her out, please also let us know.
Trader Joe’s Coffee Latté and Cream Bars. These are beyond awesome. Granted, they’re tiny (about 1/2 the size of a popsicle) but they’re low-calorie (90 calories per bar) and low-carb (9g of carb per bar) so they’re a good indulgence, especially when I’ve had to give up my iced vanilla lattés. I’d post a picture but Trader Joe’s doesn’t have one on their site.
These two memories. When we lived in Minnesota, I had two wonderful women who were supportive of me. There were two times when we had visitors in the congregation and one or the other of them introduced me by saying, “This is Jen. She’s our pastor’s wife but she’s also a wonderful person in her own right. She’s also a talented musician and knows her Bible!” I’m bringing them up not to toot my own horn but because I really liked being told that I had worthwhile gifts that were separate from my husband. I’m still in contact with one of them and she is a serious source of encouragement for me.
Postcrossing. I’ve been postcrossing for 3 years now and have Beth Anne addicted now. It’s fun to receive the postcards from all over the world and find out what other people find important. Tonight, I got one from Russia from a man who has a set of vintage Russian alphabet ones and he has a project going to send them all over the world. I got “A” for “Angel” (although the word “angel” is written in the Cyrillic alphabet).
My body. I’ve had body images all my life because I’ve always been the fat kid or the short kid for whom major retailers don’t make clothes. This meant no Gap khakis in high school and having to roll up the legs of my jeans. Lands’ End used to be really good for this because they would hem pants to my inseam for free. (Their selection now is craptastic at best — thankfully, my postpartum fat jeans are still going strong 4 years later.) I’m also built stocky with no chest (thanks PCOS!) so shopping is a pain and since having Daniel (and gaining 40ish pounds since gallbladder surgery despite eating well and exercising), I feel like a whale. Doing the whole charting what I eat is helping because it’s keeping the bad stuff out of my diet (or mostly out) and it’s showing me where my weak spots are. Jon is also really reiterating how much he thinks I’m beautiful as is and how much all the flaws I see on me are invisible to him. For the first time in years, I’m actually starting to be OK with myself.
Go love up Hallie and the others.