Category Archives: Personal Issues

7 Quick Takes: Musings While Watching the Sun Bowl

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7 Quick Takes

I’m sitting here composing these in EditPad while watching the Sun Bowl. I’m in Washington at my grandmother’s house without Internet (which is why I’ve been quieter than usual) and I’ll get these posted (and backdated to the correct time) on Sunday when I get home.

— 1 —

Stupid commercials. I’m already grumpy that they’re not showing the Washington State Marching Band’s tuba section. The only reason I’m actually watching it (I hate football and the Washington State Cougars are the archenemy of my beloved Washington Huskies) is my youngest cousin Sarah is a tuba player and the president of the band. Instead of actually showing something I *WANT* to see, they’re showing Chik-Fil-A commercials. I find Chik-Fil-A to be a reprehensible company for various reasons but the fact that I’m being forced to watch their lame commercials instead of seeing Sarah is making me stabby. Boo you stupid company! I want to see Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!

**UPDATE** I did get to see the Washington State tubas briefly and I caught a glimpse of Sarah. We’re so proud of you, sweetie!

— 2 —

Stupid announcers. Enough whining about the weather! You’re in a heated announcer booth. The players, fans, and the band are down in the snow. Get down on the field and report from there! (The sideline announcers are fine — I’m mostly grumping at the idiots in the booth.)

— 3 —

Legit weather complaints. My aunt and her boyfriend are there watching Sarah and they’re texting my mom to complain about the cold. To be fair to them, the snow has turned into a blizzard (4th quarter now) so they’ve got a right to complain. I’m hoping they get back to Washington safely tomorrow. Sitting up in northwestern Washington right now, it’s cloudy and near freezing but I don’t think we’re getting any moisture. If Washington does, I hope it holds off until we fly out and my aunt gets back tomorrow.

— 4 —

Favorite Christmas memory. Answering the question posed by Laura of Coptic Dad and Mom, my favorite Christmas memory would have to be from 1996 when we got snowed in up here and my parents actually made the local news when Sea-Tac (Seattle-Tacoma International Airport) shut down and they were seen walking across the screen. We ended up having to borrow my grandparents’ van to drive back home to San Jose. It was pretty fun for a California kid to be able to play in the snow. I also remember Midnight Mass at my grandparents’ Episcopal church that year being particularly pretty.

— 5 —

Daniel’s Christmas. When we got to my grandmother’s house, Daniel started saying, “Dollhouse!” and my mom assumed he meant the one downstairs. (My grandparents kept outgrown toys for the grandkids and great-grandkids that were visiting.) It turns out that he saw part of my grandmother’s birdhouse collection. Oops! We went to Fred Meyer and found him a dollhouse set up the next day. In addition, Jon’s aunt and uncle sent me an Amazon.Com gift card to get Daniel something from them so I ordered some Legos. Kiddo was quite happy to find them under the tree.

— 6 —

Doh! The Miami Hurricanes just scored with 5 minutes to go! Oh good… penalty thrown and a 10 yard penalty given to Miami so the touchdown is undone. Hopefully Washington doesn’t Coug it! (“Coug” refers to the Washington State Cougars just *barely* missing the win as they did in their game against Stanford.) Thankfully, my University of Washington Huskies are kicking some Southern Mississippi butt in the Heart of Dallas bowl! GO DAWGS!

**UPDATE** Washington State wins 20-14! Against my better judgement, GO COUGS!!!

— 7 —

Tiny terrorist. Daniel played with his Legos all day yesterday and didn’t eat. While this meant that I got a much-needed nap, it also meant that the little monster didn’t go to sleep last night and decided to wake me up at 1:30 a.m. demanding milk. My response: “No. Go back to bed.” He responded by turning on both the overhead light and the reading lamp. I reluctantly got up, stuffed some milk and cheese into him, and went back to bed. He woke me up a few minutes later demanding more cheese. I realized at that point that I had several bags of goldfish crackers in the room and handed him a bag before pulling the covers back over my head. He finished that bag and eventually went to sleep on top of me around 2 a.m. I woke up with leg cramps at 5:00 a.m. because of the position I was in with Daniel on my (twin) bed so I carried him over to his bed and tucked him in. Thankfully, the little beastling let me sleep in until 10:00 a.m. When my mom woke me up because the precious sweetling had come upstairs, I told her I wouldn’t get up unless there was an iced venti vanilla latté with whole milk in it for me. She told me that $tarbux wasn’t open on December 26th. I may or may not have growled at her. (I got my latté.) Daniel’s new nickname is the “tiny terrorist”.

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

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: December 21, 2015

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY December 21, 2015

Outside my window… drizzly and in the 50’s. I’m loving it.

I am thinking… about what I need to do in the next few days.

I am thankful… for a warm and sheltered place to be during the rain. Dad made a fire in the fireplace last night and Daniel fell asleep snuggled up against me watching it.

In the kitchen… probably a frozen dinner of some nature. It’s about time for me to figure all of that out for today.

I am wearing… charcoal shirt from Old Navy and jeans from Kohl’s. I’m fairly simple in terms of my fashion tastes.

I am going… to the post office either tomorrow or Wednesday to drop Christmas cards into the mail.

I am wondering… how easily Daniel will go to bed tonight. I’m hoping he’s not too much of a live wire. I’m exhausted from sleeping badly last night.

I am reading… nothing but my read the Bible in a year program at the moment. I read and finished A Place Called Hope by Phillip Gulley last week. It felt a little too close to home but it was still pretty good.

I am hoping… my Shutterfly cards arrive today. *shakes an achy fist at UPS for sending my package to Kalispell and back by way of Helena, Salt Lake City, and San Pablo*

I am looking forward to… seeing my extended family.

I am hearing… a Celtic Christmas CD that Daniel likes. He is currently curled up in my mom’s lap listening.

A Daniel story for today… when I got home on Wednesday from Daniel’s 30-Day IEP meeting, Daniel was sitting on the love seat listening to the Celtic Christmas CD. He then pulled Mom and I onto the love seat with him and just wanted to be cuddled and have his hair stroked. We’re wondering if it was related to it being the first time that I hadn’t met his bus here. (Mom met his bus because I was at the meeting.)

Around the house… the kitchen is almost done being redone. All we need is the tile which will arrive tomorrow.

A favorite quote for today… “In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!” — Dave Barry

One of my favorite things… S’mores ice cream.

A few plans for the rest of the week: getting out of the house tomorrow for the time when the contractor is putting up the tile, doing some last minute shopping at Target,

A peek into my day… A flashback to 6 years ago!

Grandma with Daniel at Christmas 2009.

Post Script… There is an app on Facebook called Cross-Stitch World where you can complete cross-stitch patterns with your mouse. It sounds like a weird thing but I find it very soothing. Go check it out!

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: More Islamophobia, UPS Screws Up, and Autism Studies

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Really? Apparently, schools in Augusta County, Virginia will be closed tomorrow over the “tone and content” of messages received about a high school lesson in which students were presented with an example of Arabic calligraphy and told to try and copy it to help them understand the artistry involved. It was a World Geography class so it wasn’t like the assignment wasn’t topical. The problem: it was the shahada or statement of belief in Islam and I guess some people erroneously interpreted it as the teacher trying to convert the students even though students were not asked to translate it, recite it or otherwise adopt or pronounce it as a personal belief.

I’m sitting here scratching my head because we did this thing ALL THE TIME in my elementary and middle school classes when we studied Islam as part of world history. As far as I know, nobody ever felt the need or pressure to convert and we understood that the calligraphy was a form of art, kind of like having a lesson in which we were copying Chinese characters.

*starts making tin foil hats for all the people flipping out in Virginia*

— 2 —

More Islamophobia. Last week, a nasty woman made derogatory comments to some Muslims praying at Lake Chabot Regional Park, hit one of them with an umbrella, and threw coffee at them. Today, she was charged. Props to the Alameda County District Attorney for bringing charges! The woman is entitled to believe whatever the heck she wants about Islam but assaulting people over it is crossing a number of lines.

— 3 —

Brain chemical linked to autism. Scientists have discovered that the breakdown of the signaling pathway used by the neurotransmitter GABA is linked to autistic behavior. Wow. I guess it had been shown to be the case in animal models but this is the first time it’s been linked to it in humans.

Maybe research will eventually lead to a medication that can help avoid the breakdown of that particular pathway?

— 4 —

Prerequisite weather take. We’re supposed to be getting rain this weekend. I am positively giddy! Rain can be a migraine trigger for me but I still love it.

— 5 —

Self-promotion. I wrote a blog post about how I put together my Christmas cards every year. Go read it!

— 6 —

UPS is on my naughty list. My Shutterfly cards were supposed to arrive today and were even in San Jose. I logged on to the UPS site to see if they were out for delivery and got the following message:

We’ve incorrectly sorted the package at our facility. This may cause at least one business day delay.

Guess where the package is? Kalispell, Montana! That’s NOT in California, much less probably 10 miles from where I live (or wherever UPS has their sorting facility here). I’m thinking it will be at least Saturday before I can get my cards assembled… and Daniel’s last day of school is tomorrow! (In other words, I’m losing a free morning.) *shakes fist at my former employer*

— 7 —

One more autism study. This one links autism with moms taking anti-depressants during pregnancy. Oops! In my case, I didn’t really have a choice as taking me off of my Effexor XR caused severe nausea, panic attacks, vertigo, and other problems that led to a late night ER run and me being hospitalized to get fluids into me while they tried to get me stabilized. My high-risk doctor instructed them to PUT ME BACK ON MY MEDS WITH ALL POSSIBLE SPEED. Lucky for me, the benefit to the mom outweighs the risk for the baby so I got my Effexor XR back and they dropped me to the lowest possible dose that was still therapeutically beneficial.

As for it being the cause of Daniel’s autism, his genetic testing showed that his autism is the result of some additions and deletions on different genes so I’m off the hook for this one.

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

How I Do My Christmas Cards Every Year

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I was having an email conversation with Laura of Coptic Dad and Mom about various things and we got on the subject of Christmas cards. She was saying that she’d love to have a card tradition and while I was telling her about how I do mine, I realized that this might be a good blog post. I’m not quite as amazing at writing these posts as Kathryn of Team Whitaker is, but I’ll give it a try. 🙂

The Cards: My hand gets crampy when I do a lot of writing (*shakes aching fist at fibromyalgia*) so I mainly stick to photo cards. I normally use Shutterfly because I’ve gotten great deals from them and I can get a chunk of my cards free because of Pampers Rewards points. If I don’t use those points, Shutterfly usually gives codes for sales and stuff that actually knock my purchase price down a bit. They also tend to fill orders pretty quickly. Another good alternative is the Costco Photo Center which has very reasonable prices. Had I not had the Pampers Rewards points, I probably would have gone with them because of the price. With both Costco Photo Center and Shutterfly, you can pick a template, insert photos, and customize your message. This part saves my aching hands from having to sign cards and write all the messages as well as providing the photo that shows your kiddos or your cats off to your family and friends.

If you love to write cards, Moo might be a good option for you. You can personalize the insides to say whatever you want them to say.

Address Labels: I have a BIG Excel file with all my addresses in it which I store on my cloud. It’s useful other times of the year as well when I need an address for a card or a baby shower present or whatever. Avery makes templates that you can download to create your address labels and I generally do that, sticking as close as I can to the design of my card. (Shutterfly offers matching address labels but they’re too pricey for the amount I need.) In order to make the labels, I go into Word and do a mail merge which is not all that hard to do if you know where everything is supposed to go. Thankfully, there’s a wizard that talks you through all of it. Once labels are made, I print them

Postage: It’s a necessary evil. Some post offices have kiosks where you can buy stamps from a machine or make shipping labels for a package. Take full advantage of those as they are usually not busy and the line to get to the counter moves at a glacial pace.

Assembling: Once I have the stamps, the cards, and the labels, I put it together assembly-line style. I aim to do this when Daniel is at school or otherwise occupied. If I have any choice in the matter, I take the whole thing to $tarbux and put on YouTube videos or a movie from Netflix that I have always wanted to see to have something to watch while I work. One indispensable product is an envelope moistener for sealing the envelopes. I got one at Staples two years ago and it was the best $1.25 I have ever spent. Once the envelopes are stuffed, labels attached, and everything has postage, I walk around the corner to the post office and dump them in the bin.

So that’s how I do it. If you want to get cards out and are stuck, email me — I’d be happy to help. I’m jen (at) grace-filled (dot) net.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: December 13, 2015

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY December 13, 2015

Outside my window… dark. It was in the mid-50’s with rain today. I found it positively delightful. Next weekend is supposed to be rainy as well. El Niño is more than welcome in my humble opinion.

I am thinking… about what I need to get accomplished this week.

I am thankful… for the chance to sleep in until 9 a.m. yesterday. I sorely needed it.

In the kitchen… Dad made steak, potatoes, and salad tonight. He also got Cherry Garcia for dessert. Yum!

I am wearing… my VBS shirt from this year and black capri sweats.

I am going… to be working on Daniel’s SSI overpayment appeal this week.

I am wondering… if we’ll have the kitchen back to normal this week. *crosses fingers*

I am reading… some Jessica Beck murder mysteries and Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber.

I am hoping… the counters arrive this week so the sink and stove can be installed and I can cook again.

I am looking forward to… seeing family at Christmas.

I am hearing… The Bells of Dublin by the Chieftains. It’s my favorite Christmas album and what we used to put on while decorating the tree.

A Daniel story for today… Mr. Boy curls up on the heating vents in the morning so I curled up with him on the one in the living room this morning and wrapped a blanket around us to keep the heat in. He is a wonderful cuddlebug.

Around the house… people sleeping. I think I’m the only one awake.

A favorite quote for today… “How can God stoop lower than to come and dwell with a poor humble soul? Which is more than if he had said, such a one should dwell with him; for a beggar to live at court is not so much as the king to dwell with him in his cottage.” — William Gurnall

One of my favorite things… Coca-Cola. I know how bad it is for me but it’s irresistible at times.

A few plans for the rest of the week: organize my Christmas card list, work on Daniel’s appeal, knitting group on Tuesday, Daniel’s 30-Day IEP meeting on Wednesday, Bible study on Thursday morning, choir on Thursday night, and whatever else comes up.

A peek into my day… Our anthem from this morning:

Post Script…

My friend Carrie also blogged about gluten-free life for 31 Days of Writing and she compiled all her recipes into a new cookbook. She offered me a copy and after reading it, I am excited about cooking!

I should warn people that it isn’t grain-free in the event that people are following the advice of renowned quack William Davis of Wheat Belly. (I’m not linking to his blog because I don’t want to give him any more hits than necessary.)

Anyway, go check it out!

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: Islamophobia, Snark, and Gifts That Keep On Giving

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Positively sickened by this. So, people are smashing the windows of a Muslim family in Plano, Texas every night starting 6 weeks after they moved into their house. I am so sickened by the actions of the people doing this. I mean, what the [insert expletive of choice] is wrong with you idiots?!?!?!?!? Apparently, we’ve learned nothing from history at all.

I wish I lived in Plano so I could go help clean up the broken glass, start a GoFundMe campaign to replace the windows, and maybe even stand outside the house with other people to guard the family.

— 2 —

True faith. While Trump and his minions have been spewing dissension and hatred, Muslims in San Bernardino and across the country banded together to raise $100,000 for the victims of the shooting. It’s not surprising that they would do this — charity is one of the tenets of their faith. When I was taking my Islam class 14 years ago, we had dinner with the young adult group of a mosque in Detroit who was raising money and collecting toys for Toys for Tots. Christmas isn’t their holiday but they were helping out anyway.

Having spent time with various Muslim communities in Detroit and knowing the Muslims with whom I grew up, I would rather hang out with them any day of the week over some of the Christians I know and definitely over the people at the church where we worshiped in Detroit on that Sunday morning. Every mosque we visited was warm and welcoming to us, plying us with Turkish coffee and pastries even though they were in the middle of Ramadan and fasting. They asked us with interest about what we were doing and told us stories about their lives in the lands from which some of them came and about their lives as Muslims. The church we attended were very cold to us and talked openly about how they don’t want to engage in conversations with their Muslim neighbors.

— 3 —

For those who come here for the snark… The 2015 Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog is out. To be fair, the peppermint candy looks fabulous (one of my weaknesses is mint and chocolate) and I’d love the cookie cutters or the cookie press but… the rest of it caters to pretentiously rich people who have no understanding of what things actually cost in the real world and who have the money to throw away on this stuff.

— 4 —

Fibromyalgia memes. I saw this list of 44 memes that nail what it’s like to have fibromyalgia. My favorites are #7, #10, #13, #14, #19, #23, #25, #28 (OMG… THIS ONE!!!!), #36, #37 (I need this on a t-shirt), #38, #41, and #43. They also need one that says something along the lines of “No, I can’t just take some Tylenol. This is nerve pain.”

— 5 —

The Onion for Catholics. If you haven’t heard of Eye of the Tiber, it’s a satirical site like the Onion except that it’s about the Catholic Church. Example: Vatican To Project Microsoft Bubbles Screensaver Onto St. Peter’s Whenever Basilica Not In Use which pokes fun at the nature slideshow that was projected onto St. Peter’s Basilica a few nights ago. There’s a fabulous interview with the person behind it that I recommend reading.

— 6 —

Gift that keeps on giving. If you’re looking for the perfect gift for someone in your life who is into finance, social justice, and for whom it is hard to find a good present, consider a gift card for a a Kiva loan. You read through a bunch of profiles and pick one that speaks to you. That person is loaned $25 for their small business/personal improvement and they pay it back over time. Once it is paid back, you have the option of Kiva cutting you a check for the $25 or the option to re-loan it. I think I’ve made close to 20 Kiva loans and most of them are re-loans of the original $25. My day is seriously made every time I get an email saying that I have $25 in Kiva credit because that means I get to make another loan.

— 7 —

Another gift that keeps on giving. Kelly mentioned Heifer International in her post on gift giving that matters and Connected in Hope (which also inspired the above Quick Take). I highly recommend them as well. You buy an animal or shares of an animal and it gets donated to someone in the Third World along with the training for that animal/plant/livestock. The animal provides milk/fleece/eggs/whatever and the money from that pays for school fees or medicine or whatever the family needs in terms of living expenses. When they reproduce, the offspring is given to someone else to pass on the gift and to change the original recipients into donors, a change that gives them some pride and self-worth. In the last few years, they’ve also given people the option of contributing to basic needs in the way of things like water, nutrition, and stoves. I love them because they’re all about empowering people to get out of poverty. Their gift catalog is here.

For more Quick Takes, visit Anabelle, our guest hostess with the mostest, at Written By the Finger of God.

{five favorites}: Miscellanea (LV)

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{five favorites}

One

Year of Mercy. Kerry Weber has a fabulous article on this in the Washington Post.

Two

Marie. Girlfriend posted her birth story in two installements here and here. I have seen pics of the kiddo on Facebook and she is a cutie pie!

Three

Geek Squad. I took my old laptop in on Monday to get the data off the hard drive and they had it back to me today (Tuesday). Additionally, they had me book an appointment so they could chat with me for 15 minutes about my wishes, how I wanted to handle things, and were just fabulous in terms of customer service. Go here for details on them. If you get anything through Best Buy, you need to work with them. Seriously, I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Four

This Christmas carol. Someone recommended checking out this carol in the comments on this post:

Five

This version of “I Saw Three Ships”. I’m seriously loving Blackmore’s Night and their “Winter Carols” album right now:

Go love up Ashley.