Category Archives: Daily Life

7 Quick Takes: Thoughts While Trying to Get My Kiddo to Sleep…

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Dealing with SSA is an occasion of sin for me. Every so often, the Social Security Administration makes people receiving SSI prove that they qualify medically (what… you thought “SSA” was “same-sex attraction?) so I spent the better part of two evenings filling out a ton of paperwork and copying about 50-100 pages of documentation to send in to their office in Pomona. The 50-100 pages of documentation are the assessments and IEP from March because it’s a triennial IEP. (Every three years, they do a whole new battery of tests to see if an IEP is really necessary. In Daniel’s case, that would be a resounding “YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”) I couldn’t fit the documentation in the envelope they sent so off to the post office for a Priority Mail envelope I went! The good thing about using them: I can track it to make sure the SSA office received it as I’m completely convinced from past experience that their mailbox is connected to a paper shredder with all the paperwork they lose! (Currently, it is sitting at the sorting center in City of Industry.)

— 2 —

I resonate with this. A friend sent me this article on how doctors take women’s pain less seriously. I’ve had several ovarian cysts and on a scale of 1-10, the pain is an 11. It is seriously the worst pain I have ever had and required Demerol to even remotely touch it. (Waking up after abdominal surgery is a 7.) Anyway, I agree — doctors do not take our pain seriously and I say this having a fairly high pain tolerance. This might also be why many doctors think fibro pain is imaginary.

— 3 —

Prayer request. My dear friend Mandi is in the home stretch of her pregnancy and I would like to ask if you’d please pray her through. Thanks!

— 4 —

Srsly?!?!?!?!? I’ve had a couple of friends whose younger sisters have gone through this. I get the need for modesty but subjecting young women to a hem test like this one is just wrong. Equally if not more wrong were some of the adult comments.

— 5 —

What are the odds??? All three radio stations I listen to on a regular basis (Air1, NPR, and a classical station) are having their pledge drives right now. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I could afford to give to all three, I would totally do it just to make the madness stop!!!

— 6 —

Prerequisite baseball take. So… THE METS KNOCKED THE DODGERS OUT OF THE PENNANT RACE LAST WEEK!!!!! The Mets also just took the National League pennant. (I feel that any news about Dodger losses trumps any other baseball news unless it’s the Giants winning.) I haven’t even looked to see who the Mets will play!

— 7 —

I’ve been saying this for a while… Yet another person talking about the movement of my peer group to more ancient forms of worship. Not all of us want rock n’ roll!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

#5Faves: Miscellanea (L)

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#5Faves

One

Canticle of the Turning. It’s on of my favorite newer hymns and it probably doesn’t hurt that I like the folk song from which its tune comes.

Two

Concerts with my father-in-law. I’ve been blessed to be able to attend a lot of different classical concerts in the area because of escorting my father-in-law. It has ranged from the select choirs at the Claremont colleges to lunchtime harp recitals to Claremont Symphony Orchestra concerts such as the one we attended last Sunday. These are definitely not concerts I would have attended on my own, so I am incredibly grateful to my father-in-law Ray for helping me expand my taste in classical music.

Three

Early music with harps. Another pretty one by la harpe de melodie. This one is “O Viridissima Virga” by St. Hildegard of Bingen.

Four

Jenny Lawson. I am so incredibly thankful for Jenny Lawson, a.k.a. The Bloggess because she is giving mental illness a face and her latest book is educating people about what it looks like. As one dealing with depression and an anxiety disorder, I appreciate this more than most.

Five

The hymn tune “THAXTED”. It comes from Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite “The Planets” and is the tune for “Jupiter”. I think I’ve only sung it once in church but you tend to hear it a lot in British choral music.

Go love up Jenna and the others.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: October 19, 2015

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY October 19, 2015

Outside my window… gray. It’s been sprinkling on and off which is making me happy. I’m hoping for a serious El Niño this year!

I am thinking… about the changes coming up this next week and what I have to do this week to prepare.

I am thankful… for the rain and the cooler weather.

In the kitchen… veggie chips and pub cheese from Trader Joe’s.

I am wearing… blue-green shirt (the color of my eyes) and jeans. As usual, I have bare feet.

I am going… to have a lot of errands tomorrow morning.

I am wondering… about some things going on in my life.

I am reading… still Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson.

I am hoping… for a smooth week this week.

I am looking forward to… the Fall Fundraiser for church on Saturday night.

I am hearing… Daniel bouncing on my bed.

A Daniel story for today… his doctor prescribed Clonidine for him to help calm him down at night and it’s such a small pill that I tried putting it in a little bit of peanut butter to see if he could swallow it that way without me having to grind it into powder. Mission accomplished. 🙂

Around the house… windows open and fans on. It’s gray outside but it’s still humid and warm.

A favorite quote for today… “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” — Robert Frost

One of my favorite things… carrots and garlic hummus.

A few plans for the rest of the week: errands and packing tomorrow, Bible study and packing on Wednesday, packing on and possibly soccer practice on Thursday, errands and packing on Friday, and possibly soccer and Fall Fundraiser on Saturday.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

31 Days of Gluten-Free Life: Tetelestai

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31 Days of Gluten-Free Life

The title is Koine Greek for “it is finished” and is one of the Seven Last Words of Christ. I’m using it today because I’m having to stop my 31 Days of Writing series due to some things in my personal life that will be occupying a lot of my time in the next week or so. This was a fun project to take on but I didn’t realize at the time I chose to do so that I would be dealing with what is going on right now.

I’m still going to be eating gluten-free for the rest of the month most likely — just not blogging about it daily.

31 Days of Gluten-Free Life: Reflecting (and Whining) At the Halfway Point

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31 Days of Gluten-Free Life

I’m over the halfway point of my experiment of avoiding gluten for a month and I’m running out of subject matter, at least on days like today when I’m sleep-deprived due to my wee bairn having sleep issues as a result of tweaking his ADHD meds. Anyway…

I’m starting to get some empathy for people who deal with food issues all the time because it is seriously hard to avoid gluten without having to cook from scratch or buy some fairly expensive foods that don’t taste “right”. It’s requiring more creativity on my part than I can exercise at this time of sleep deprivation and some pretty radical changes being made in my life.

However, I’m noticing changes in my mental clarity — I’m not as “foggy” as I usually am and I think I’m probably eating a lot better as a result. I’m definitely eating more protein and I’m actually thinking about how to balance every meal. I’ve also come up with snacks where I can sit and eat at the table with Daniel and that’s definitely a plus.

I’m sorry to admit that I’m planning out my first meal WITH gluten: a Jr. Roast Beef sandwich and fries from Arby’s. (I would have to stop somewhere else to get the Coke.)

7 Quick Takes: Mining My Links Collection and a Post-Season Baseball Take

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Very interesting. My priest’s husband shared this article on Facebook and I thought it was worth sharing. If Oklahoma City can lose a million pounds, what is stopping other cities with at-risk health populations from doing the same?

— 2 —

#MedicatedAndMighty Because there is no shame in me taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds to keep myself healthy and I am not alone.

Me and my meds.

— 3 —

Impressed. I don’t know who shared the Fat Girl Running blog with me; but dang it, y’all need to go read it and give Mirna some love. She is freaking amazing!

— 4 —

Holy frivolous lawsuits, Batman! Did you hear about the woman who sued her 12 year old nephew for $127,000 because he was overly effusive in greeting her when he was 8 and accidentally knocked her down and broke her wrist? I mean, he injured her so badly that this “severely disrupted her life in Manhattan” and she was at a party the week before where couldn’t hold her hors d’ouevres plate. Yeah… I’m thinking she’s childless because HE WAS 8 YEARS OLD!!!!!

— 5 —

Prerequisite baseball take. The Mets play the Dodgers tonight in LA to determine who gets to go on and face the Cubs. Go Mets! #BeatLA (Bummed that the Cards were knocked out by the Cubs but I’ll live.)

— 6 —

Calvinism humor. Jessica posted this link to a page about the warning signs of adult onset Calvinism. This is totally tongue-in-cheek and scarily reminds me of some people I knew in college!

— 7 —

IKEA contest. I saw this IKEA contest in my email and wanted to share. I’m probably going to enter a recipe my dad made for my mom when they were dating. (They’ve been married for 43 years.)

— Bonus —

Link-toberfest: Week 3. Kelly’s bonus question this week is: “Who is your favorite blogger that you discovered through Quick Takes?” She shared me as hers and she is definitely mine — as she said, we’ve bonded over the struggles of special needs parenting, I love her off-the-wall sense of humor, and the fact that she doesn’t gloss over the good and bad in her life. She is very truly the definition of “authentic”. I also am pretty sure that there isn’t a place that can contain all the AWESOME if the two of us get a chance to meet. 🙂

Some others who make my favorites list are… Kathleen (another mama who I defer to when it comes to parenting a kiddo with special needs), Jeanne, Angie, Thomas (not blogging these days as being the dad of twins occupies his spare time), Emily, Kate, Jessica (a fellow CofE person and southern Californian), Beth Anne, Mandi, Bonnie, Jennifer (I prayed Joshua home), Marie, Bobbi, and so many others. My Bloglovin overflows on Friday because of Quick Takes! 🙂

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

31 Days of Gluten-Free Life: Interesting Find

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31 Days of Gluten-Free Life

When I was trolling the 31 Days website yesterday, I saw a banner advertising Thrive Market, which seems to be a mail-order company where you can order specialty foods catering to certain diets, allergy restrictions, or sensitivities. I thought their gluten-free selection looked interesting so I thought I’d pass on this information today! (Well… that and I have pretty serious writer’s block.)

Also, the 31 Days people are hosting a giveaway for a $500 Dayspring shopping spree. Go here for details.