Category Archives: Personal Issues

31 Days of Gluten-Free Life: Smoothie Queen

Posted on by

31 Days of Gluten-Free Life

So I actually started this whole experiment a few days early so I could ease into it and have some very basic meal planning done before I started everything in full today. I checked out some foods that I knew would probably be OK and I’ve also been looking at the guide I got on the subject from Prevention Magazine. One of the things that I’ve worked on leading up to today is breakfast. I’m allergic to eggs so a Denver omelet is out, not to mention all the peppers would irritate my stomach more than it already is. Then I realized that there was an easy choice: a smoothie.

Last week, I got some frozen smoothie mix from Target that had strawberries, bananas, and a dried yogurt packet in it. I was pretty happy with those results so I started experimenting on my own. After a few trials and errors as well as my mother-in-law pointing out that the blender has a smoothie setting, I found something that works for the most part. I use:

1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup coconut-flavored Greek yogurt (I used Chobani.)
a handful of spinach
a handful or two of frozen fruit.

Layer it in the blender with the milk at the bottom, then the Greek yogurt, then the spinach, then the fruit. Blend until all is liquid. It makes a little more than a glass but I have no problem drinking the excess as well!

Kendra of Catholic All Year has a universal smoothie recipe that works, especially when making them for a family.

#5Faves: Miscellanea (XLVIII)

Posted on by

#5Faves

One

Bartok’s “Bagpipe Sonatina”. The first movement of this sonatina (the first 1 minute 30 seconds) was one of my two senior recital pieces for piano.

Two

“To A Wild Rose” by Edward MacDowell. This was the other senior recital piece for piano. It was also my grandfather’s favorite classical pieces and I learned to play it because of discussions with him on how deceptively simple it sounds.

Three

Kiva.Org This goes along with Jenna’s post on non-material gifts. Kiva.Org is a microlending site where you can make $25 loans or even gift someone with a $25 loan to support the entrepreneur of their choice. It empowers people to expand their businesses, get an education, fix their homes, and is aimed toward helping people to find ways of supporting themselves. I tend to lend to women in the Middle East and Central Asia as that is where my heart tends to be these days though I’ve also made loans to people in the Philipines, Africa, and Bolivia. Of the 19 loans I have made, only one has ended in a loss and the $7 of the loss is hardly a loss for me. I’ve invested maybe $225 of gifted loans and my own money and have been paid back twice over. I honestly cannot recommend them enough.

Four

“There’s A Sweet Sweet Spirit in This Place” This hymn was played during Communion in the last month or so and it’s stuck in my head. We ended up singing it through a couple of times and our music director is from an Adventist background so we also got the amazing piano accompaniment that you would find if you sang this in an African-American congregation. (It’s definitely not piano music I hear frequently in the Episcopal Church!)

Five

Old Navy fitted tees. They’re long enough to cover my torso (a challenge because I have a long torso with really short legs) and they’re cut in a flattering way. I find that I can wear them on a daily basis with jeans/shorts/capris as well as with my pretty clothes on Sunday.

Go love up Jenna and the others.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: September 27, 2015

Posted on by

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY September 27, 2015

Outside my window… dusk. It was in the 90’s today. I’m looking forward to seeing the blood moon tonight.

I am thinking… about what needs to happen this week.

I am thankful… that the first time I’ve lectored in 5+ years went well. (The ELCA church I attended in West Covina didn’t put me on their rotation in 2010 and Jon’s last parish also never did, probably because of it involving Daniel running loose or the ushers having to deal with him.) I got a lot of compliments on it, which is totally *NOT* the point of doing it but still was nice.

In the kitchen… gluten-free mac n’ cheese for me and a smoothie as dessert. I need to pick up some more spinach tomorrow for them as I have a feeling I’ll be having a lot of them in October.

I am wearing… dark blue-green shirt (yay Old Navy fitted tees!) and black capris.

I am going… to be reading the transcript of the Pope’s speech at the World Meeting of Families when I’m done with this. I’ve been reading transcripts of all the Pope’s addresses this week because I don’t have a TV and I can’t be online most of the time that Daniel is home.

I am wondering… about what the *REAL* reason is for John Boehner resigning. I’ve heard everything from the Pope’s address of Congress being a Nunc Dimittus call for him to him trying to end on a high note because his position as Speaker of the House is in jeopardy. Maybe a combination of both?

I am reading… Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson. I finished Post Traumatic Church Syndrome by Reba Riley and really enjoyed it. It ended up being the deciding factor in me spending October gluten-free.

I am hoping… to get a call back about my biopsy results from the endoscopy/colonoscopy this week.

I am looking forward to… the weather cooling down. I hate heat and am so completely *OVER* temps in the 90’s. It’s freaking autumn already!

I am hearing… whatever my father-in-law is watching through our two bedroom doors.

A Daniel story for today… the little monster kept stealing my sun hat and trying to wear it with his soccer uniform yesterday.

Around the house… my mother-in-law is cleaning the kitchen and making biscuits while I put Daniel to bed.

A favorite quote for today… “When I went on my first antidepressant it had the side effect of making me fixated on suicide (which is sort of the opposite of what you want). It’s a rare side effect so I switched to something else that did work. Lots of concerned friends and family felt that the first medication failure was a clear sign that drugs were not the answer; if they were I would have been fixed. Clearly I wasn’t as sick as I said I was if the medication didn’t work for me. And that sort of makes sense, because when you have cancer the doctor gives you the best medicine and if it doesn’t shrink the tumor immediately then it’s a pretty clear sign that you were just faking it for attention. I mean, cancer is a serious, often fatal disease we’ve spent billions of dollars studying and treating so obviously a patient would never have to try multiple drugs, surgeries, treatments, etc., to find what will work specifically for them. And once the cancer sufferer is in remission they’re set for life because once they’ve learned how not to have cancer they should be good. And if they let themselves get cancer again they can just do whatever they did last time. Once you find the right cancer medication you’re pretty much immune from that disease forever. And if you get it again it’s probably just a reaction to too much gluten or not praying correctly. Right?” — Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy

I love this particular quote so much because it *VERY* accurately illustrates the crappy logic people like me get from people who think that we can just magically snap out of our depression by focusing on the happy things in our lives. (For those new to this blog, I live with both depression and an anxiety disorder. I’m also a recovering self-injurer.) As Jenny has blogged many times, “depression lies” and no number of thoughts of happy things in our lives can move us past the sheer gloom and pain we feel. The cancer analogy is pretty close to home for me because I live with my father-in-law who is fighting cancer.

One of my favorite things… air-conditioning. I couldn’t survive down here without it.

A few plans for the rest of the week: walks, core work, probably some weights to make me LBD-ready for the fall fundraiser at church, Bible study on Wednesday, PT on Thursday, soccer practice for Daniel on Thursday, date night at some point, and Daniel’s soccer game on Saturday.

A peek into my day… The kiddo and I on Saturday.

Daniel and I at half-time on Saturday.

Post Script…

To the morons obsessing over various iotas of the Pope’s visit:

You do realize that flipping out over him not outright mentioning abortion in various speeches or having conniptions over Mo Rocca lectoring at Madison Square Gardens or any of the other crises I’m hearing about makes you look like fruitcakes, right? Nobody in my world believes that the Pope failing to mention the word “abortion” means that the prohibition against it has been dropped from Catholic social teaching. As for the Mo Rocca thing, you’re in a pretty select group of people if you know what I’m even talking about and can cite chapter and verse of Scrpture and the Catechism as to why this is a BFD.

If you want to evangelize the world, try being people who who show love instead of people who make me want to run screaming away from the banks of the Tiber where I’m sitting.

Snuggles,
Jen

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: Gluten-Free, Soccer Moms, and Morons Taking Selfies

Posted on by

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Soccer mom. Daniel had his first VIP soccer practice with AYSO tonight. We only made it through about 35 minutes until he melted down and wanted to be “all done” but hey… it’s a start. Since I’m now officially a soccer mom, I’ll be starting a GoFundMe to pay off my current car and buy a minivan. Any recommendations? [/sarcasm]

— 2 —

Gluten-free take #1. My doctor hasn’t gotten back to me with my biopsy results yet from last week but I’m planning to go completely gluten-free in October to see if it helps me at all. A complicating factor is that I’m allergic to eggs and that limits what I can eat even more, which is the reason I haven’t tried going gluten-free before now. (There’s also the “my-bloodwork-did-not-show-celiac-disease-and-I-do-not-do-fad-diets” thing but that would be snarky.) If you are gluten-free and have any recipe suggestions or possible substitutions, leave them to me in the comments.

— 3 —

Gluten-free take #2. I grabbed some “rice pasta and cheese” from Trader Joe’s to see if it was any good… and it was fabulous! It tastes like the cheap $1 mac n’ cheese from Kraft that contains all the yellow dyes banned outside the USA but without the evil dyes or the gluten. Yay!

— 4 —

Fibro flare. I’ve been dealing with a fibro flare since Sunday and this has meant that I’ve been spending mornings sleeping because I’m fighting insomnia at night. It’s impeding my ability to get things done so I’d appreciate prayers that it goes the duck away. Please and thank you!

— 5 —

Because we *TOTALLY* need more cat memes! This is one of the better Kim Davis memes I’ve seen recently:

Schrodinger's cat meets Kim Davis

— 6 —

I shouldn’t laugh but… I read an article today which claims that more people have died from selfies this year than from shark attacks. I am totally unsurprised that there are people stupid enough to take selfies while running with the bulls and doing other dangerous things that require one’s full attention. This one, however, takes the cake. (I’m guessing he’s probably at Loma Linda University Medical Center given where he’s from and the fact that “Venom ER” doctor Sean Bush is there.)

— 7 —

Prerequisite baseball take. Jon had the time of his life at the Dodgers game last week while my experience was kind of “meh”. We were pretty high up so the players on the field were like little action figures and I felt pretty disconnected from everything that was going on. (The other downside: the Dodgers won.) The bus ride to and from the church was an experience in claustrophobia for me and that probably didn’t help.

Anyway, it’s pretty likely that the Dodgers are going to take the division unless the Giants can pull a serious miracle. (The magic number is “4” so the Dodgers have to win 4 or the Giants lose 4 and it’s close to the end of the season.)

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

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: September 20, 2015

Posted on by

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY September 20, 2015

Outside my window… dark and down to 87F right now from a high of 102F earlier. I hate southern California heat!

I am thinking… about my plans to go gluten-free for a month once I can get some meal plans together. I’ve been resisting it because all of my bloodwork has come back showing that I do not have celiac disease and that I am not gluten-intolerant; but it’s the one thing I haven’t cut out of my diet so I’m willing to try it. (I’m also not one to jump on the fad diet train so I have very intentionally not pursued it until now.)

I am thankful… that Daniel heads back to school tomorrow. 100F temperatures mean we’re stuck inside and he was acting out because he was booooooooooored!

In the kitchen… ramen and roast beef. A throw-together thing.

I am wearing… charcoal v-neck and navy/white striped pj bottoms.

I am going… to do some Core tomorrow morning. Everything last week has thrown me off of my routine.

I am wondering… how to explain my position regarding Planned Parenthood to my friends on both sides of the issue because OMG TEH DRAMA!!!!!!

I am reading… I finished The Alpine Xanadu by Mary Daheim and have shelved The Complete Father Brown Mysteries by Chesterton in favor of Post Traumatic Church Syndrome by Reba Riley which was loaned to me by a woman in my Bible Study who has emotional scars from her Conservative Baptist upbringing.

I am hoping… the weather cools down significantly soon and that we get all of the forcasted rain — California needs it BADLY!

I am looking forward to… Bible study on Wednesday morning and choir practice on Wednesday night.

I am hearing… the A/C.

A Daniel story for today… he went to church this morning wearing his “Grandpa Jim” hat which is a copy of a hat that he tried to “appropriate” from my dad when we were in San Jose last month.

Daniel with his Grandpa Jim hat

Around the house… quiet. Loving it.

A favorite quote for today… This is a long one:

As I heard Bernie Sanders crying out to the religious leaders at Liberty University, in his hoarse voice, with his wild hair – this Jew – and he proclaimed justice over us, he called us to account, for being complicit with those who are wealthy and those who are powerful, and for abandoning the poor, the least of these, who Jesus said he had come to bring good news to. And in that moment something occurred to me. As I saw Bernie Sanders up there, as I watched him, I realized Bernie Sanders for president is good news for the poor. Bernie Sanders for president is Good News for the poor. Bernie Sanders is gospel for the poor. And Jesus said “I have come to bring gospel” – good news – “to the poor.”

And lightning hit my heart at that moment. And I realized that we are evangelical Christians. We believe the Bible. We believe in Jesus. We absolutely shun those who would attempt to find nuance and twisted and tortured interpretations of scripture that they would use to master all other broader interpretations, to find some kind of big message that they want to flout. We absolutely scorn such things, and yet somehow we commit to the mental gymnastics necessary that allows us to abandon the least of these, to abandon the poor, to abandon the immigrants, to abandon those who are in prison.

I listened to Bernie Sanders as he said he wanted to welcome the immigrants and give them dignity, as he said he wanted to care for the sick children and mothers and fathers who do not have health care, as he said he wanted to decrease the amount of human beings who are corralled like cattle in the prisons, as he said he wanted to do justice for those who have nothing and live homeless. And I remembered the words of Jesus who warned his disciples that there will be judgement, and on that day he will look to his friends, and he will say “Blessed are you for you cared for me, for I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you cared for me, I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was in prison and you came to visit me, I was homeless and you gave me shelter.” And his disciples said, “When did we do any of those things for you?” And he said, “If you have done it for the least of these, you have done it for me.”

Those words echoed in my heart as I listened to that crazy, hoarse-voiced, wild-haired Jew standing in front of the religous leaders of the Evangelical Movement, calling us to account, as a Jew once did before, telling us that he intends to care for the least of these, to clothe the naked, to shelter the homeless, to care for the sick, to set the prisoners free.
— An evangelical pastor responding to Bernie Sanders’ speech at Liberty University

One of my favorite things… praying Compline at night.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Bible study on Wednesday, helping to count money for the Pride Stride at Daniel’s school on Thursday morning, and maybe helping to fold bulletins on Friday.

A peek into my day… André Rieu conducting the Johann Strauss Orchestra playing “I Will Follow Him”. I love watching him play and conduct because his face is so expressive and you can tell that he loves what he is doing.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: Church Secretaries, Books, and Going Gluten-Free

Posted on by

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Church office fun. I’m subbing for the church secretary this week and having fun doing it. Wednesday involved getting to be present for Bible study before immersing myself in Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Word. Today was more Microsoft Publisher fun, Microsoft Word, and whatever my priest needed to be done. Tomorrow, I get to do bulletins. I am so excited!

— 2 —

The County Fair. Daniel’s class is heading to the LA County Fair next Friday. We had a note come home asking if we wanted to volunteer to go too. My answer: “no.”. (It will be hot and I hate heat. Yes, I live in a desert; but I didn’t get a say in that.) Jon’s answer: “yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” You gotta love a non-traditional family where the dad is the field trip chaperone. 🙂 I think they’ll have a fabulous time.

— 3 —

Holy Mirth. Fr. James Martin, S.J. posted something for Joke with the Pope which has people donating their favorite jokes in the name of charity. I’m thinking of all my favorite religious ones (that aren’t in Fr. Jim’s book, Between Heaven and Mirth) and the cause for which it will go.

— 4 —

Take me out to the ballgame. Jon and I are headed to a Dodgers game tomorrow for Episcopal Dodgers night. It will be the first professional sporting event that I have ever attended so I’m excited. I wish it was the Giants or Mariners or the Cards (or pretty much any other team besides the Dodgers or the Yankees) instead; but hey, at least I will be able to say that I’ve been to an MLB game. I’ll probably root for the Pirates since it is against my sports allegiances to root for the Dodgers. (For those not in the know, the Dodgers are the mortal enemies of my Giants.)

On my to-do list today: acquire some Giants socks so I can represent my boys at the game. (According to Jon and my priest, I am not allowed to wear any Giants shirts.)

— 5 —

A book launch party for introverts. The latest book from The Bloggess is coming out next week and she’s having a book launch party via Google Plus. The launch party and the book are very likely both going to be NSFW but any fan of The Bloggess already knows that. 🙂

— 6 —

G.K Chesterton. Someone donated a book of Father Brown mysteries to my mother-in-law’s Little Free Library and she set it aside for me. I’ve only read a handful so far but they’ve kept my attention. This might be a book that I can pick up and put down every so often while I wait for my favorite authors to come out with their latest works.

— 7 —

Mmmmm… gluten-free. My bloodwork did not come back positive for celiac disease so it’s fairly likely that I don’t have it. Even if the biopsies from the endoscopy/colonoscopy don’t come back positive for it, I am considering going gluten-free for a month to see if it makes any difference with my stomach issues.

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

#5Faves: Miscellanea (XLVII)

Posted on by

#5Faves

One

Tree Top Fresh Pressed 3 Apple Blend. I already loved Tree Top juices because it’s 100% juice and they are from apples grown in the USA. (I’m leery of food products from China.) When I was having to be on clear liquids over the last two days, this particular blend helped me to get the foul colon-cleansing solution down and also helped to keep my blood sugar up.

Two

“No Longer Slaves” by Bethel Music. I shared this on my Simple Woman’s Daybook post for this week but I’m sharing it again because the song brings tears to me in a good way. I also don’t worship as effusively as the people in the video even when I’m helping to lead contemporary music at church.

Three

Chobani Greek yogurt. I am a fan of Chobani Blended Greek yogurt, especially their Coconut, Key Lime, and Lemon flavors. I’m trying to cut gluten from my diet to see if it helps with my stomach issues and these are gluten-free, making them a good midnight snack.

Four

This video on southern Californians and rain. I live here so I can laugh at this. I will say, however, that people were driving relatively sanely on the 10 this morning when we were heading to my procedure.

Five

Propofol This was my anesthesia during my endoscopy/colonoscopy this morning. I have no memory of the procedure and got a lovely nap out of the deal so I’m jazzed. (Good news: everything looks fabulous. Bad news: everything looks fabulous so we don’t have an answer to why I’m having trouble eating, having pain, and feeling nauseated.)

Go love up Jenna and the others.