Let's see

Boy, I'm really not blogging much, eh?

This week's excuse is that the girls were off from school all week. I got to hang with them a little more than usual--super nice. Lunch with them and MWH on Monday at his work, and lunch with them and a friend of mine yesterday. They talked my friend's ear off.

This week, I have pretty successfully ignored the thing that was stressing me so much last week. Since Tuesday, I've barely let it invade my dreams or anything. (Monday, I was a crying disaster!) I need to make a decision about a doctor's appointment soon, whether to keep it or not, so as I do that, I'll be a stressed wreck.

The good news from this week is I did 6 workouts and my knees held up. At the beginning of the year, they still hurt quite a bit. I could tell they were still slowly getting stronger (and I continue to work them to try to build up more muscle in my quads and hamstrings and glutes!) The progress for improving was so slow, but now, they seem ALMOST back! I injured my right knee in July... More than 6 months of healing--Wowza. Mostly, I am so thrilled that the tendonitis is barely noticeable today after 6 workouts this week!

What else....

1. I've been spending a lot of time reading and trying to figure out raw food recipes. It's pretty simple, you don't cook, but you have to do a lot of other stuff. Raw food requires special tools, see this for example and things like juicers and dehydrators. I have my Vitamix, and my food processor and they help a lot, but I have to figure what else I want/need/how much raw I and the family will eat.

I have made that broccoli salad so many times now. We love it and it is yum. I've made another broccoli salad, and it was good--it had tomatoes and olives and a "regular" kind of Italian dressing on it--good, but not as good as the other one. I need to expand my horizons. Raw broccoli, Chia seeds, and Kale are the foods I've adopted in the last month. I've made one smoothie with mango and one with blackberries so those are potentials....

2. oNe now has her first email account. It's super fun, and a little guilt-inducing, when I get emails from her. She tells me things like "I love you and I miss you," but it's super fun signing my emails to her "Love, Mommy." Awwww! She loves her email account!

3. Today, MWH and I are taking the girls to a famous landmark that is nearby (1 hour or so) that they've never seen. They don't know yet. It should be a fun day.

And now to end this VERY BORING update! Happy Saturday to you!

oh... hi...

I didn't forget about you, I've been busy... and stressed. No matter what I do, I can't stop thinking about those test results. It happens that I wake up in the middle of the night and start thinking and can't stop...and then I'm a bleary-eyed mess the next day. That's what happened last night/today.

So, for the last month, I've had this weird feeling in my throat. It could be 1) stress, 2) the bad thing that I have antibodies for 3) a regular sore throat 4) allergies, or 5) something else bad. Can you have a sore throat for a month? I imagine you can. Once oNe coughed for 4 weeks... I coughed for over 3 weeks.... For some reason I think twoK coughed for 6 weeks, but I can't find a link to it.

My throat is weird.... It doesn't really hurt, just a little; swallowing doesn't hurt, but it feels funny. Sometimes swallowing hurts and sometimes it feels like something is stuck in my throat when I swallow just water. I have my normal amount of energy (but is somewhat lower than usual because I am overwhelmed by those results (see above)). My glands feel a little swollen.

Since we've had illness in the house since the throat started I haven't been that worried about it, but I'm ready for it to be gone now.

Ugh. I'll probably get my self into a doctor at some point in the next week if I don't feel better.

95

I finally picked up the kindergarten registration packet for Three-a. Registration opened on Monday. We got packet 95. There are 99 spots. We're in, but wow, who knew????? Our school is a very popular one in a popular district. We get "priority" because we actually live in the area the school serves. I don't know what that means, but the secretary told me Three-a would be accepted in the school. I had a momentary flash of having two of the girls at one school and Three-a at another school and almost cried! That'd be WAY too crazy.

I should have picked up the packet earlier this week, but this week's been a little crazy--when isn't it though? twoK got sick on Monday and stayed home from school M-Th. Then oNe got it on Thursday and stayed home yesterday and today. We'll see if Three-a gets it or not. What twoK and oNe had/have is the world's "coughiest" cold. They are a little stuffy, but mostly they cough. My throat feels a little funny, but I'm not coughing. Fingers crossed! I've already had two colds this year, and I'd like to be done with illness.

Since I'm on the subject of germs, I should report that oNe had a cold two weeks ago. Three-a had it last week, but that cold wasn't that bad.

What else? Oh, yea, my birthday was this week. The girls made me breakfast--so sweet! They made me a frozen flax waffle (one of the few foods I buy prepared), put peanut butter on it (my favorite way to eat it) and made me a cup of tea. Impressive! They also made me a lot of wonderful pictures (painting mostly)! MWH had them make me coffee mugs too. He took some of their digital art and with the help of Zazzle, made me one of a kind coffee mugs! I love them. The girls love to see me drinking tea from their cup.

Tomorrow, MWH and I will go see Avatar (FINALLY--I think we're the last people on the planet to go see it). I'm so excited to have a date afternoon with MWH!

*One of my "little goals" for the future is to get a waffle maker so we can make our own waffles and freeze them. Heh, that means MWH will make the waffles... He loves to make pancakes and he wants a waffle maker. Hrm... I wonder if that'd be a good birthday gift for him....

Ch-ch-ch-chia!

I just got chia seeds, no, not to grow a pet, but to eat.

They are a nutritional super-food, and folks all over the blogosphere are raving about them. I made "banana pudding" with them the other day. (Go read what I linked to above and google Chia Seeds to learn more. They are anti-inflammatory, high in Omega-3s, high in antioxidants, high in calcium, a complete protein, and high in fiber.)

I soaked 2 tablespoons of them for a couple of hours (probably 3/4s of a cup of water). When you soak them, they expand and turn into a gel. Then I took a couple of bananas and blended it all together. Super yum. I split this with MWH. I want the girls to eat some chia, but in the "pudding" you can see the seeds and it looks like there are little black balls in it. twoK wouldn't eat it based on looks alone. Three-a tried a bite, but the look kind of put her off. You can easily soak the chia seeds and stick them in the blender and make fruit smoothies with them. I tried this too, but I had the seeds soak for overnight first. I only put a few in twoK's shake and she didn't notice. I'll add more next time.

(Soaking them overnight is good because they get softer and then their texture is harder to detect. Remember, twoK has a thing about odd textures.)