Category Archives: Family

#5Faves: Miscellanea (XLIX)

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#5Faves

One

la harpe de melodie. This is the YouTube channel of a woman who is a fabulous harpist and vocalist. From what I can tell of her channel, she does Celtic music and early/medieval/renaissance music which are two of my favorite genres. Here are two songs I am liking after discovering her only 15 minutes ago.

Two

My mom. She made sure I got some down time to watch NCIS and crochet this weekend as well as backing me up with Daniel when needed.

Three

This piece on the Rosary. This piece in America magazine resonates with me though I am more introverted when I pray. I have a full Catholic rosary in my purse from Sara, a chaplet from Rebecca that I use on my walks when I pray, and a couple Anglican rosaries from my priest and from a class I took at church during Lent. I find that the beads help me to focus and pray when I need to not be distracted. I am using the Jesus Prayer more often than the Rosary these days but both provide me with words for prayer when I have none.

Four

Sara Groves. I first heard of her on Valentine’s Day 2008 when I was driving to work and listening to Your Network of Praise. It seems like every time I find a new song that seems to describe my life, she is singing it. She has also teamed up with International Justice Mission, one of my favorite charities for advocacy purposes. Her website is here.

Five

Words with Friends. It’s brainless enough to let me think through things while I play and I enjoy trying to put together fabulous moves.

Go love up Jenna and the others.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: October 12, 2015

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY October 12, 2015

Outside my window… dark. I have no idea what temperatures were here because I was gone from Friday morning until tonight but I heard something about triple digits. Yuck!

I am thinking… about whether I would have stood up and proclaimed my Christian faith had I been in the room with the Umpqua Community College shooter. I probably would have done so… which I’m pretty sure would scare the pants off my non-believer parents.

I am thankful… for Promise FM. I’m in the midst of making some hard decisions and it was really helpful to have songs outlining God’s promises for my life while I was driving through central California today!

In the kitchen… didn’t cook today but probably some gluten-free mac n’ cheese tomorrow.

I am wearing… green shirt and capri sweats.

I am going… to be playing “catch up” tomorrow after being gone for four days.

I am wondering… about a lot of things right now.

I am reading… Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson.

I am hoping… school goes well for Daniel tomorrow.

I am looking forward to… Bible study on Wednesday!

I am hearing… nothing.

A Daniel story for today… Mr. Boy usually comes and crawls onto my bed around 11 pm or midnight and he even tucked himself in tonight.

Around the house… silence — everyone but me is asleep.

A favorite quote for today… “Do one thing every day that scares you.” — Eleanor Roosevelt. I chose this one because my mom quotes it to me frequently. (Dealing with social service agencies is not for the faint-hearted!)

One of my favorite things… discovering new artists or lesser known works by established artists of the musical variety.

A few plans for the rest of the week: catching up on errands and paperwork tomorrow, Bible study and probably a quiet service on Wednesday, soccer practice on Thursday, and Matt’s Run on Saturday before Daniel’s soccer game.

A peek into my day… Some of the new songs I heard this weekend:

“This Little Light of Mine” by Addison Road

“Painting Pictures of Egypt” by Sara Groves

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: Only 5 This Week

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Greater Church of Lucifer opening. A friend put this on her wall and commented on the nature of them calling themselves a “church”. I’m truthfully more amused by the $25 catered luncheon. Apparently, Satanists now have the sensibilities of Episcopal church women or something. I would have expected alcohol and debauchery for them, not a catered affair.

— 2 —

Travel. Daniel has a long weekend so he and I are road-tripping to San Jose from Friday to Monday. I’d love prayers for good traveling mercies on our way if you are so inclined.

— 3 —

Update on Kim Davis/Pope Francis. I think I called it. It’s a pity when people play stupid games like this.

— 4 —

Speaking of stupid… I actually had someone cite this study to me. The scary thing: I could have refuted the SafeMinds people as a sophomore taking high school chemistry.

Neil Degrasse Tyson on science.

— 5 —

In case you missed it… At the neurology appointment on Monday, we found out that Daniel’s autism is genetic (he has some duplications in genes on a couple of chromosomes and a deletion in a gene on another one) which means that I can actually tell people that his autism is *NOT* due to us immunizing him for MMR and that their argument is invalid.

That’s it for this week — I’m a bit distracted and have also run out of things to say!

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

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.

#5Faves: Miscellanea (XLVIII)

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#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.

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

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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.