Category Archives: Cats

Things That Are Saving My Life Right Now

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Colleen of Martin Family Moments posted her list of things that are saving her sanity so I’ve decided to join her and the others who are doing the link-up with Anne at Modern Mrs. Darcy.

[+] My temperature afghan. I’m still behind but it has given me something to do with my hands while I process other things happening in my life. It also helps me to focus at Bible study.

[+] Lent Madness. I am seriously looking forward to Lent Madness and the silliness that usually ensues as saints and holy people are pitted against each other to determine who wins the Golden Halo.

[+] Emergency Kittens. I’m not sure that people who hate this Twitter account actually have souls. Watching cute kitten videos and seeing wonderful cat pictures is the whole point of the Internet, right? It certainly cheers ME up! #crazycatlady

[+] Walks. When it isn’t raining and I’m not spending mornings at the federal courthouse curating Daniel’s SSI file, I love being able to go for walks and have some quiet prayer time. It also keeps the fibromyalgia at bay.

[+] Iced vanilla lattés. Because coffee needs to taste like ice cream.

[+] My NOOK. I love that I now have a portable library that fits in my purse. Currently on my NOOK: Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber.

[+] Cross-Stitch World. Cross-Stitch World is the weirdest idea for a game/app ever but it works for me. It does for me what coloring does for other people apparently.

7 Quick Takes: The News From Here

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Temperature afghan progress. I’m slowly but surely catching up and if I could drag myself away from Cross-Stitch World, I’d probably be making it more quickly. Maybe if I get home from choir in time, I can do some more work on it…

Progress as of today.

— 2 —

Concerning Donald Trump. I read two interesting articles concerning Donald Trump in the last few days. The first one was Matt Walsh: The Primer for Trump by Leticia Adams. The second was Donald Trump and a Tale of Two Gospels by Rachel Held Evans. I recommend both of them, not because I hate Matt Walsh and adore Rachel, but because I found them to be well-written and compelling.

— 3 —

Simcha! Simcha Fisher knocks it out of the park again with why she decided to stop homeschooling and finally got rid of all her homeschooling stuff. I’m not anti-homeschooling by any stretch of the imagination but she talks about keeping the stuff out of fear that she was making the wrong decision and that public schooling would ruin her kids. Fear isn’t a valid reason to make decisions and her kiddos are doing fine in their public and charter schools.

— 4 —

Oh thank heavens! After having to fight to get Daniel’s ADHD meds for the last three months, I finally have an intake appointment and psychiatrist appointment with a group that will do medication management for him. The difference between him medicated and him unmedicated is like night and day, so this was definitely a worthwhile fight for me.

— 5 —

Daniel story. My parents’ cat Jethro was in a fight last week and developed an abscess that wasn’t draining so he was at the vet on Monday and Tuesday where they eventually had to put him under anesthesia, open the abscess and drain it, and put stitches in. He has a lovely cone of shame to wear and my mom and I are having to clean the area and medicate him. Yesterday, Daniel wanted to look at pictures on my mom’s phone and my mom told him he needed to wait, using the words “first cat then phone.” (“First ____ then _______” statements are an ABA thing.) Daniel’s response: “Cat bye!” (Translation: “Take a flying leap, cat! It’s my turn.”)

— 6 —

Prerequisite weather take. I was hoping to go for a long walk tomorrow morning but it is looking like we might have rain. Oh well… I can work on entering receipts for taxes instead, I guess.

— 7 —

New Year’s resolution progress. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to get my prayer life back to normal. I’ve had some long drives this week for various things and it has definitely given me an opportunity to pray! Now if only I could get that integrated into my normal day…

— Bonus —

Pick Jen’s Lenten discipline. The raffle ends next Friday so come on over and enter! All that you have to do in order to enter is leave me a comment with what you would choose for me. Previous winners are allowed to enter again. *coughcoughcoughKellycoughcoughcoughBethAnnecoughcoughcough*

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

{five favorites}: Miscellanea (LVIII)

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#5Faves

One

Nights when Daniel goes down to sleep easily. Kiddo came over to me in the living room and cuddled up just about the time my laptop registered the battery being low. I suggested we head for bed and after climbing into bed, he tucked himself in and was asleep within maybe five minutes. I wish it were always this easy!

Two

Club soda. I’m a Coca-Cola junkie but the effect of Coke on my blood sugar is no bueno so I drink club soda most of the time. (There’s also the fact that my parents don’t let Coke into the house and I live with them…)

Three

These awards. Anyone else resonate with the 19 Small Awards Anyone With Anxiety Deserves To Receive? It’s all about #7, #10, #13, and #14 for me.

Four

These crochet patterns. Amigurumi cat patterns are a legit need, right? Just wondering. *plots new crochet projects*

Five

Thursday morning Bible study. I am seriously looking forward to going and drinking coffee and looking at the Gospel for the week with my church ladies tomorrow!

Go love up Ashley and the others.

7 Quick Takes: Reflections on Things I Read This Week

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Thank you notes. I had to laugh when I saw how this kid wrote thank-you notes for his graduation presents. It’s the polite thing to do when someone gives you a present but they’re pretty tedious to write.

— 2 —

Interesting Podcasts. I resonated with this list of 17 podcasts for people who are spiritually curious and I’m glad that On Being (formerly “Speaking of Faith”) is #2 on the list. If it were me, I would also add the ones from SQPN to the list .

— 3 —

Prerequisite cat video. If you’re on Facebook with me, you know that I’m kind of a cat person. Well… I saw this video and just had to share the link!

— 4 —

Wow. I didn’t know these still existed. A Texan man is one of 10 people in the world to live in an iron lung. He contracted it during one of the last polio epidemics to sweep the USA. We thankfully have a vaccine for this so for the most part, we never see this in the United States… which means that all the people who aren’t vaccinating their kids against it are raising the chances that we might see it again. Seriously folks, I have family members who were affected by it. It’s not pretty. VACCINATE YOUR KIDS!!!

— 5 —

More $tarbux cup commentary. Someone sent me a link to this interview in which the moron who put the video up on the Internet about $tarbux refusing to acknowledge Christmas with their new Christmas cups gets pwned. (By the way, our country was not founded on Judeo-Christian principles — we were founded on Enlightenment principles and the Founding Fathers were Deists.)

I actually have asked my barista about if people are actually putting their name as “Merry Christmas” and she said there have been lots of them and that there is nothing that prevents her and her fellow baristas from saying “Merry Christmas”… except that it’s not even Advent yet!

— 6 —

#FirstWorldProblems. Here are some fairly comical #FirstWorldProblems. I can honestly say that I’ve never had any of them.

— 7 —

Reminder. The Nativity Fast starts on November 15th. Here is how many Byzantine Catholics celebrate this time. (HT: priest’s wife)

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

#5Faves: Miscellanea (LI)

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#5Faves

Before I get into my “faves” for the week, I wanted to announce that Daniel and I just moved in with my parents in northern California. Don’t worry — Jon and I are not divorcing. At the present time, my parents can give me better support with Daniel than our living situation in southern California could and I’m grateful to my in-laws for giving us a home for 16 months.

One

My parents’ cat Homer. When Daniel and I arrived on Monday, Daniel was chattering to my dad using the word “cat” in which he pronounced all three letters instead of it sounding like “cah” or “tah”. He then started repeating the syllable “gree” with “cat”. We put together today that he was talking about Homer and was saying “gris cat”. (We call Homer “gris-gris” because he is a gray cat.) Homer has been Daniel’s buddy — tolerating him, hanging out with him, and even was asleep on my bed when I came in to start putting Daniel to bed last night.

Two

The Trader Joe’s in Claremont, California. I love Trader Joe’s anyway but the store in Claremont has gone above and beyond in how they’ve loved on Daniel for the last 16 months. Almost every crew member in the store knows his name and greeted him by it when we walk in. Their assistant store manager let him ring their bell and one of the crew members who is a psych major would find new and interesting ways to communicate with him. If you are anywhere nearby, please consider patronizing them — they could seriously give lessons to churches and businesses on how to interact with customers who have special needs.

Three

Rain. It was cloudy last night and we got enough to wet down the patio a bit. I am ecstatic. Bring it on, El Niño!

Four

My friend Jenn. Girlfriend had an article on NFP that was picked up by Cosmo, Redbook, and Good Housekeeping. Eschet chayil!

Five

“Open Your Ears, O Faithful People”. I had been listening to a hymn mix that included this hymn on Saturday night and we sang it on Sunday morning. It’s one of my favorites as well!

Go love up Jenna and the others.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: October 6, 2015

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY October 6, 2015

Outside my window… sunny and brisk. We had two days of rain and it seems like fall-ish weather might be here. I’m giddy to not have temps in the 90’s in October.

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

I am thankful… for the neurology appointment yesterday where the neurologist handed me a prescription for Adderall for Daniel. I’d been hedging on medicating him to calm him down but he doesn’t have an off-switch and he’s getting a little too big to be bouncing off walls and out of control. Now to figure out how to get him to take it…

In the kitchen… making pesto quinoa again tonight.

I am wearing… burgundy long-sleeved shirt and jeans.

I am going… to San Jose for the weekend with Daniel. He has a long weekend and I thought it might be nice to go see my parents and have a coffee/church date with Rebecca, Daniel’s godmother.

I am wondering… what I’ll do with Daniel for the next two afternoons. Wednesday is a compact day as usual (he gets out at 12:25) but Thursday is also one which means I have to keep him occupied for an entire afternoon. IKEA may be involved.

I am reading… Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson. If you deal with depression, anxiety, or self-injury in any form, you need to read the book. The off-the-wall stuff she does during her lucid moments is funny but she also writes some pretty accurate stuff on her normal life.

I am hoping… to get to work out in some form every day this week even if it’s just a walk with Daniel or kicking soccer balls at the park.

I am looking forward to… seeing my parents.

I am hearing… the washer, dryer, and various tools outside.

A Daniel story for today… Little boy was so tired when he climbed onto my bed at 11 p.m. on Saturday that he had forgotten his blankie. (This kid is Linus when it comes to blankies.) I went to his room, retrieved his mommy blankie and his Dodgers fleece (my mother-in-law’s creation — he also has a Giants fleece from me) and made him a little boy nest on Jon’s side of the bed because Jon wasn’t going to be home until super late and I figured Jon would probably do better in Daniel’s bed.

Around the house… machines doing, mother-in-law cooking, cat on the table. (My in-laws’ cats have very bad table manners.)

A favorite quote for today… “When depression sufferers fight, recover, and go into remission we seldom even know, simply because so many suffer in the dark … ashamed to admit something they see as a personal weakness … afraid that people will worry, and more afraid that they won’t. We find ourselves unable to do anything but cling to the couch and force ourselves to breathe.” — Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy

One of my favorite things… sleep. I’m not getting enough right now.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Bible study tomorrow, date night and choir tomorrow, soccer practice with my kiddo on Thursday, and driving up to San Jose on Friday.

A peek into my day… A meme I sometimes feel like posting…

Apology to the tree.

Post Script…

We took Daniel to a pediatric neurologist yesterday to talk about ADHD meds for him. I think within 30 seconds of being in the room with him, the neurologist had made up his mind to prescribe them. 🙂 Anyway, I was handing him all of the neurology notes that were present in Daniel’s Medical Binder of Fun and he stopped in the middle of reading the genetic testing report from 4 1/2 years ago and looked at me. Apparently, there was one paragraph in there that contained information about genetic mutations on several chromosomes that are frequently found in kids with autism and developmental delays. In other words, kiddo was born this way and this is not the result of the MMR vaccine or aliens messing with his brain waves, or any of the other crackpot theories out there. So please, for the love of God, STOP BELIEVING MORONS LIKE JENNY McCARTHY WHO HAVE NO SCIENTIFIC BACKGROUND OR OTHER PSEUDOSCIENTISTS!!!!

I would be willing to wager serious money that if you did genetic testing on all of the kids who “suddenly” had autism around the time of their first MMR vaccine, you would find similar results.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: 31 Days of Writing, the Pope Meeting with Kim Davis, and Cat Piles

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

31 Days of Writing. Because I obviously have nothing better to do with my life, I’m taking part in 31 Days of Writing. I happened to see the button on Bobbi’s blog and spontaneously decided to go for it. My topic: a month of gluten-free life. Keep checking the sticky post at the top of this blog every day this month for my ruminations on my experiment of giving up gluten.

— 2 —

It’s about freaking time! Fibromyalgia is now recognized as a legit diagnosis in ICD-10 codes for healthcare billing. It’s so nice that the medical community finally realizes that I’m not making all of this up and have a legit reason for how crappy I feel much of the time.

— 3 —

Why I do not stand with Planned Parenthood. 10 years ago, I would have been horrified that people were trying to defund Planned Parenthood. Now, I say, “do it.” Why is this? I wholeheartedly believe that if government funding was cut, Planned Parenthood could survive. All those services they claim to do that aren’t abortions are ones the community health clinics provide… for free. No Planned Parenthood site owns a mammogram machine so the claim that they do breast cancer screenings is pretty much shot there.

The largest reason that I fail to stand with Planned Parenthood is that I believe abortion is murder, pure and simple. I have friends who have had them and every one of them (and I’m talking a very diverse group of women that covers multiple ethnic groups and religions) regrets it. I’ve had people tell me that they believe in abortion in the event that the mother’s life is at risk and as someone who was in that situation 6 1/2 years ago, I want to smack those people upside the head. If the mother’s life is at risk, they do an emergency c-section to deliver the baby but they don’t intentionally kill it in the process. If it’s below 24 weeks gestation, it will probably live for only a few minutes but they still give the kid a chance at life.

One thing that causes me chills is the fact that when blood tests came back elevated for Down Syndrome, everyone jumped into action to get me a 3-D ultrasound as fast as possible so that they could do amnio and abort because, OMG, why should I be saddled with a kid with Down Syndrome? I made it very clear that I was in favor of the ultrasound but that I’d be keeping Daniel regardless of what they saw. Obviously, he doesn’t have Down Syndrome but he’s got a bunch of other things and I know there are people out there who would comment on how it’s too bad that I couldn’t abort him. Those people simultaneously enrage me and make me sad. It is insanely hard to have a kid with special needs like Daniel and yes, it has meant the death of some of the plans I’ve had for my life. Guess what? Those plans needed to die because my life is a far better place with Daniel in it.

— 4 —

Pope Francis and Kim Davis. The Vatican is not denying that the Pope met with Kim Davis while he was in the States last week and I’m thinking that someone brought her to DC, Washington, or Philly because he sure as heck did not go to some podunk place in Kentucky. I highly doubt he knew who she was and while he told her to keep on keeping on, I’m pretty sure it was because he was told on the spot about her “conscientious objecting” and it being a matter of “religious freedom”. (Both claims are loads of bull feces but none of it surprises me.) I find this piece from America Magazine as a good source for interpreting this alleged event.

And for the morons who are making this into the Pope supporting Kim Davis and going off about how this legitimizes her case, I have this to say to you:

Just stop talking.

— 5 —

More on Kim Davis. Someone told me that the Family Research Council gave her an award. Here’s the story. My thoughts on the matter: people do realize that this is the group that employed child molester and adulterer Josh Duggar as their spokesperson, right? I kind of doubt their qualifications to make decent judgements.

— 6 —

Why has nobody bought this for me?!?!?!?!? This game is like Jenga but has you stacking wooden cats instead of blocks. I think I seriously need this.

— 7 —

Because Simcha. Here’s another fabulous piece from Simcha Fisher on how your family is not your brand. Perfect people with perfect families are utterly boring. In fact, people documenting their perfect family meals and perfect family celebrations kind of make me suspect that the blogger is hiding something. I understand the need to put one’s best self forward (and there are a number of punches I pull on this blog) but people who try to make themselves look like “mother of the year” are people whose blogs I’m liable to skip over in the small amount of time I have to read blogs every day.

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