Jenerally Speaking

So, here is how I spent my day.

Breakfast: My current usual – black bean omelette.  It’s easy to make and with the added protein, it’s a good way to start the day.
Lunch: Not proud of this lunch.  I was just soooo busy and I didn’t have time to eat something decent.  I’ll have to work on that next week.
Dinner: Good dinner – a salad with baby clams, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, and onions.  For the main dish, I had my artichoke hearts/chicken/sun-dried tomato mix.
Weather: It was sunny today.  It started off icy, but ended up being a nice day.  A little windy, though.
Weight: Still seem to be hovering over the same few pounds.  No worries, though.  That happens from time to time.
TV: Still catching up on all the shows I recorded on the DVR during the holidays.  Tonight was more Parks and Recreation.
Random Pic: So, I bought this nail kit from Rite-Aid today.  The color is supposed to dry quickly and be “ding-free.”   The truth is….I am horrid when it comes to painting my own nails.  I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I hate when I see ridges and bumps on the newly painted nail (oh the horror!)  However, I am quite pleased with my first attempt tonight.  For those who are interested, I’ll provide a more thorough update when I finish all of my nails tomorrow.
Reading: “Molly Fyde and the Persona Rescue by Hugh Howey” Confession…I am a tiny bit smitten with Hugh Howey.  :D  He has written some amazing stories in a few different genres, but his “Wool” series has become my one of my favorite dystopian fiction reads.

I’ve been using this Droid App called 9Diary for the past few days and posting my updates to my Blogger account. (I have 2 other blogs besides this one which focus on two specific topics: Creativity and Health/Nutrition/Weight Loss.) Anyway, I decided that I actually want to cross-post these updates here on this blog. I kind of see this blog as my personal, catch-all blog. I talk about my day, my daughter, school, work, friends, etc.

So, here is what this app is about. Basically you are given nine squares. You can decide the title for each square and then you fill it in with whatever you want. Currently, I am using it to catalog my meals, my mood, my weight loss and some of the activities I did throughout the day.
Occasionally, I will add an explanation in the post, describing each square. Below you can see today’s summary.

(Note: According to the app, we are supposed to choose from 9 different images that come with the program to represent my mood, but I use them to represent the weather instead.)

Reading: Just started The Fifth Agreement: A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery (A Toltec Wisdom Book). I am switching among the following genrse these days: nutrition, dystopian fiction and inspirational.

Okay, I know this is very un-American of me, but I am secretly rooting for the Canadian hockey team today.  I saw this short video clip yesterday about how important this game is to them and how their entire world would collapse around them if they don’t win…or something like that.  So, here I am cheering for our neighbors to the north.  Go Canada! 

I am not much of a sports fan usually.  In fact, I think the only sport I have ever followed was hockey.  My best friend Christine and I were huge NY Rangers fans when we were in high school.  Teen girls watch sports a little differently than guys do, I think.  We pick our favorite guys and learn everything about them and talk about how cute they are, etc.  Mike Gartner was “my guy” and Mike Richter was “her guy.”  For anyone who followed the Rangers, you will know that Mike Gartner was traded a month or two before the Rangers finally broke their 54 year long curse & won the Stanley Cup.  That was a quite a sad occasion.  (Not the winning of the Stanley Cup…the trading of Mike Gartner.)  After college, I kind of stopped watching and now I don’t even know anyone who plays anymore.  I’m not in contact with Christine and it kind of takes the fun out of it when I don’t have anyone with watch with.  The rest of my family aren’t sports watchers either – except mom.  She is a Yankees fan.  Unfortunately, I just can’t sit down and watch baseball with her…it’s a little too slow for me.

I was actually kind of surprised to find out that today was the last day of the Olympics.  Where the heck have I been?  I think I only watched a day or two.  I’m kind of bummed that I missed most of the events – especially the ice skating.  I have to make a point of paying closer attention to the summer Olympic schedule in a few years.

Well, I better get back to watching and rooting for the “other guys.”  LOL  I hope the Americans won’t hold it against me.  I’m just a sucker for a good sob story and that video clip yesterday had me convinced that the Canadians just HAVE TO win today.

So, guess what kind of weather we’re having right now?
Yep…it’s the snowy kind.  According to Accuweather.com, we’re supposed be getting about 20 inches by Friday.  My daughter already found out that she has off tomorrow and this isn’t even the worst part of the storm yet – we’re supposed to get almost a foot of snow on just Thursday alone.  I have a feeling that no one will be going anywhere until the weekend.  That’s fine by me.  As long as I know my family is home safe and sound, I have no problem with snowstorms.  They give me a chance to snuggle with my blankets and pillows and tea and books and laptop and watch the snow fall outside the two large windows in my room.  I love that. 

So, things have been good here.  I’ve been going to physical therapy for the past few weeks to take care of the neck and back pain I have. Wish I knew how it all started – I still want to blame the mono I had last year.  I feel like I never really recovered completely from the mono.  In any case, the PT is helping a little…I’m definitely not getting any of those tension headaches anymore.  Thank goodness.

Sadly, I have bit of a new problem now.  I have been trying to get back into some kind of exercise routine again – good for stress, good for the heart, etc.  Well, I think I went a little too crazy with the stomach crunches the other night and I ended up pulling some kind of muscle in my abdomen.  At least, I think that is what happened.  All I know is that I started feeling some kind of weird pain slightly below my ribs and toward the center of my stomach area.  Over the next few days, the weird pain began to feel more like a ripping, burning, OUCH kind of pain.  Sometimes when I bend over, it actually feels like something it hitting up against my lower rib.  I think it’s strained or swollen or both.

Either that or it’s that tumor I’ve always been afraid of getting.  "It’s not a tumor," said Arnold.

In any case, I now have to put ice packs on my stomach for the abdominal muscle swelling and heating pads on my back for the back pain I have.  LOL  Seriously.  I am a little broken.  I’m heading to the doctor on Monday just to make sure it’s only a sprain.  This sure puts a damper on my exercise plans.   Oh well!  The exercise machines will be waiting for me until I get better.  In the meantime, I’ll just stick with some yoga and my strength training.  I always liked arm and shoulder exercises better than those darned crunches anyway.  It stinks a little when we start getting old. (Psst…this is where someone posts a comment to assure me that 30-ish isn’t old.)    I sure don’t feel old most of the time, but when my body starts falling apart after a few stomach crunches, I definitely start to wonder!

Well, I was pretty pleased with myself tonight. I made a turkey/chicken soup for Meghan that was totally Candida friendly and it was sooooo tasty! We had some leftover turkey and I found some unseasoned frozen chicken in the freezer so I decided to throw them in a pot and try my hand at homemade soup. The “unseasoned” part of the chicken was important since so many of those frozen Purdue chickens have some kind of ingredient that Meghan can’t eat on her diet. I found one with vinegar in it, which is a big No-No when it comes to fighting Candida.
So, the rest of the soup had carrots, celery, and onion. I had some bottled chicken stock on hand, just in case, but I really didn’t need it. The soup flavored itself quite nicely (with a bit of salt, pepper, parsley and celery salt.) She had some Wasa rye crisps on the side and a few peach slices, too. (I am known for trying to hit all the food groups at every meal.)

I’m just glad I found a recipe that I can give her and not feel like I’m forcing her to eat it because she has no choice.

This week is going to be a busy one for me. I have Physical Therapy for my back on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Tomorrow is Meg’s dentist appointment. Tuesday is a doctor’s appointment for me and Thursday is parent/teacher conferences.

The best news of all, though, is that I start my temp job next Tuesday for the Census Bureau. The money I make from that will be enough to pay for one of my college courses.
After that, I’ll be on the lookout for a job in one of the area medical/health offices. I don’t care if I’m filing paperwork – I just want to work in some kind of job environment that relates to the health profession in some way. I only need to do it for a few months in order to get the money to complete the final classes for my degree.
I’m getting there…