Trying this...

Not feeling like writing... In the meantime, take a look at the new green veggie I'm going to try thanks to my Happy, Healthy Friend....

Escarole

This is a salad green all of us walk right by in the grocery store--completely ignoring. At least I do. It's been shown to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, thanks to its particular combination of phytochemicals, fiber, and vitamins. It has all of the good--none of the bad. I wasn't able to find a reference to this particular research, but I previously posted about the nutritive anti-cancer properties of greens in the chicory family--which includes escarole. Click here to read more: "Straight from the Experts at Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University, & Canyon Ranch: Three "New-to-Me" Super Foods: Black Raspberries, Broccoli Sprouts, & Chicory-Family Leafy Greens"



According to Canyon Ranch's Christine Sardo, in 1 cup of cooked greens in the chicory family you'll get over 600% of your daily vitamin K, over 150% of your daily vitamin A, and 65% of your daily vitamin C--plus a host of anti-oxidants that are essential for cancer prevention. Plus their high folate content protects against colorectal polyps and colorectal cancer.

At least the weather is nice

And twoK doesn't have chicken pox. There are a million other things for which I'm grateful, too, but having a sick kitty makes it hard to focus on the positive. I had a sick kitty with Beloved Kitty, and I didn't want another sick kitty for a LONG time. We just got twoK's boy and he's sick already. It is NO fun.

Right now, the little kitty is sitting in a chair beside me in the kitchen while the girls play and run around. I've decided he needs to be let out to enjoy life and not be in "his room." oNe's cat keeps attacking him so I've been keeping them separate. I'm going to keep oNe's cat in his room.

Mostly this sucks.

twoK asked if her kitty was going to die. I told if he had what the vet thinks he might have, then he will. She's sad. I'm sad that she's sad. We both cried last night. oNe and I cried, too. Three-a hasn't really said much. Right now, twoK and oNe are taking anything, like him eating or walking around, as a positive sign that he doesn't have the "bad" disease. Unfortunately, I'm noticing other signs, like his gums being very pale, and knowing that he's a very sick boy.

The good news is he is out and hanging with the family and eating. When either or both of those stop a decision will be closer. I don't want him to suffer.

A crazy day

Yesterday, in the midst of all the insanity with twoK's kitty, we discovered twoK had a rash/bug bites on her stomach. I was worried it could be chicken pox. This morning, they were still there but it didn't look like there were more. She went to school. I was there volunteering and I asked her teacher what she thought and she didn't think they looked like pox, but then we showed other teachers at school, and discussed it with them and most of them said, "It kind of looks like chicken pox."

I have never had chicken pox so I wouldn't know. I have never had chicken pox so I am susceptible, too. After a flurry of calls, I got an appointment for twoK to be seen by the doctor and also lined up getting the vaccination for oNe, Three-a, and me if twoK was confirmed to have chicken pox.


[Sidebar: The vaccination can be administered to those who have no immunity to chicken pox after exposure and will help modify or prevent the disease. From the CDC website (scroll way down).

Or, here's the information pasted:

If a person who has never had chickenpox or the vaccine comes into close contact with someone with chickenpox, could receiving the vaccine now prevent this person from getting chickenpox?
For healthy adolescents and adults (persons aged 13 years and older) without evidence of immunity, varicella vaccination within 3-5 days of exposure to rash is beneficial in preventing or modifying chickenpox. Studies have shown that vaccination administered within 3 days of exposure to rash is greater than or equal to 90% effective in preventing varicella while vaccination within 5 days of exposure to rash is approximately 70% effective in preventing varicella and 100% effective in modifying severe disease. Anyone who comes into close contact with a person with chickenpox and has not had chickenpox or the vaccine, should contact their health-care provider for vaccination.]

At approximately 3:45 pm, after the doctor examined twoK, the doctor declared that twoK most likely is pox-free! Wooooo! She said, she can't say for sure, but she didn't think they were chicken pox. Thank goodness for one positive thing. I didn't get vaccinations for the girls (oNe and Three-a), but I still have my appointment for one at 8:15. I'll cancel in the morning if twoK does't have new red marks. (The adult vaccination place said I could cancel up until the last minute.)

I'm still very stressed and sad about twoK's kitty. He is a sick boy. It is so unfair.

Pouring

A couple weeks ago, I started a post about twoK's new kitty, but I never got it finished because of all the other craziness in our house. twoK's little kitty came to our house at the end of January. He's the sweetest cat. However, since the very beginning he's had some kitty health issues. First, from day one, he had kind of "soft" poo. It started getting softer and messier at the beginning of this month and then it turned full fledged "runny". (Sorry, TMI.) Second, he had major gingivitis (gum disease). Considering he was such a young cat, I was SHOCKED. Third, he had slightly "gooky" eyes for a few days when we first got him and his third eyelids were showing. Fourth, his fur was kind of dry and thin--not full and shiny. I figured he needed some good loving and lots of food.

We took him to the vet when we first got him. She wasn't worried about the soft poo, and neither was I, but as it continued and then worsened, getting really bad around the first of April, we took him back to the vet. Finding the root cause of gastrointestinal problems in kitties can be difficult. We started by trying to rule out things like worms, a bacterial infection, and food issues. We brought a couple of samples in and they looked at it under the microscope and saw nothing unusual, but we de-wormed, switched to a less stressful (on the tummy) food, and tried antibiotics. He'd get a little better, but then he'd get worse again.

If you're noting, it had been almost a month of treatment but no real improvement. I figured we were still in for a few more weeks of trying to figure it out, and get him better. We had a vet appointment, last night. My plan was to ask for more tests so we could start getting him better. I wanted more aggressive investigation. I was getting tired of having him sick. He was starting to get sicker, and I wanted him well--poor little guy!

He'd been not feeling well all day, yesterday, and when I took him he had a fever and really looked sick. I felt like a horrible kitty mom. The vet was going to admit him to the hospital, and I was a little relieved. Then she decided she wanted to do one more test, an ultrasound. She saw fluid in his abdominal cavity. She decided to needle aspirate it to look at it. She was worried. I was worried as well. She got some fluid and then went and did something with it and looked at it under the microscope. She came back with the worst diagnosis possible. He has FIP. You can go read about it or I can just tell you there's no treatment and it's fatal. There are some "potential" experimental treatments, but they don't seem to work.

I am so sad. I haven't told twoK yet because I want to make sure of the diagnosis and hear from the vet. I'm also sad because he's so young and we've barely gotten to know him. He is such a sweet boy.

Since we last spoke...

I got all three girls home from our trip, alone, with no MWH. I was thrilled that we managed to catch the plane, not lose any keys (hotel or rental car), and get home with all of our stuff--or if we lost something, we haven't missed it yet.

MWH was with us on the trip until Tuesday and then he went home to go back to work. His plans didn't go quite accordingly, though. He caught norovirus on his plane ride home. My poor boy! He was very sick Thursday. He rallied and drove to pick us up at the airport on Friday, but then I put him back in quarantine and bleached the kitchen.

He's in our bedroom and I'm in the guest bedroom.* It's very weird and I miss him very much. I don't know if I'm going to end up sick, or not, but I sure hope I can avoid this (again). It's so weird that he got this on the plane. I fear it's still lurking in our house. If it is from the plane, I sure hope the girls don't get it. If it's still in the house, hopefully they still have immunity. They've been sick ENOUGH! Oh, on top of norovirus, MWH caught a cold, too. Poor guy!

Today is Easter and all was going well until twoK became too exhausted to be a rational human being. I could write about it, but it wasn't pretty. Sigh. Just give me the world's worst Mom award, please. I deserve it. Hopefully she's taking a nap, now. The girls went to bed very late and got up really early because they were excited about what the Easter Bunny brought.

Besides candy, the easter bunny brought one hula hoop, two things similar to the Lemon Twist (see photo below) , and one ball and bat. He also wrote a note telling the girls to share all the toys. I am thankful the easter bunny knew the girls would have energy to burn off after eating the candy. Considering how tired twoK was, they did a great job sharing the toys, too.



Later today, when twoK wakes up or gets up, we'll dye easter eggs. I hope I can finish the post I started on our trip and get the posted later today... I also would love a nap, but we'll see if I can manage that.



*It sucks to come home from vacation and have to wash sheets before you can go to bed. I changed the girls' sheets and the guest bedroom sheets. I've done a lot of laundry in the last couple of days and there's still more to go.

Exploring

I should work less. I should be able to take a short vacation and not need to check in constantly. I should be able to read the books oNe reads and then sit around and discuss them with her and not feel guilty about it. I should be able to curl up with MWH for a morning nap. I'm blogging this from our trip to see my family so I'll remember when I return home. I am a little worried that I'm not working enough at work as my projects are ending. It's OKAY though. I want to work less. Once again, if I say it enough, I might believe it. I honestly want to spend more time with them and enjoying life, and I think the only way to do that is to work less so therefore, I must want to work less, right? It's only logical. And, A__ is a frog. (A special line just for KJ.)

My downfall...

Otherwise known as my current favorite chocolate. It's Fair Trade, vegan, gluten free, soy free, GMO free, and no emulsifiers....

What's not to love about it? I try to limit myself to 4 little squares a day (1 serving is 10 little squares). I always keep myself under 10 squares, but sometimes I can't stop after 4. I keep it in my office, for afternoon pick-me-ups. On days I work at work, I probably eat the most because I'll have 4-5 little pieces in the afternoon at work and then a few (3-5) at home after dinner. When I'm not at work, I tend not to eat it in the afternoon.

When I was younger, early twenties, I tried to go vegan, but I couldn't because I couldn't give up milk chocolate. I didn't like dark chocolate back then. How sad is that? The girls all like dark chocolate, but they tend to prefer the slightly less 72% dark, and they eat milk. MWH likes the 72% kind and a dark chocolate with dairy in it. There you go, more information about our chocolate consumption than you'd ever imagined you'd sit and read, eh? If you ever see this chocolate, buy it.... err, I mean don't buy it. More for me!

Kale, again

This time with salmon. I love to make "warm" salmon salads. I use canned salmon...*



and I put it in sauteed spinach or kale. I add a little dijon mustard and a little balsamic vinegar and stir. I put this "warm salad" on a tortilla and ate this one as a wrap.

I also take this can into work and add it to the (cold and fresh) salad I get there. However, I've been really into having tofu from the salad bar on my salad at work; I haven't done this much, lately.





*Yea, I don't like cans that much, but they are a fact of life when you're too busy. This salmon is really tasty, though. It's called Henry and Lisa's. It's pretty expensive, but it's worth it, in my opinion. (Image of the box the can comes in from Amazon)

germs....AGAIN

As soon as everyone had recovered from the stomach flu, oNe brought home a bark-y cough. She missed a day of school. A week later, twoK missed a day of school. Today, Three-a missed a day of school. Three-a's not bark-y coughing, she's got a goopy cold in her eyes... UGH. I sure hope it's the same thing as what oNe and twoK had but manifesting differently. I really want my children to stay well. Pretty please? To whom do I need to speak to arrange this?


Also, the kitties both went to the vet yesterday because they are still having kitty-runs... BOTH of them. Hopefully, we'll get everyone healthy.

What oNe and I made, today!

Everyone needs a little treat every now and then! These are so yummy. I've made them for a few different people and no one can believe how good they taste when they hear the ingredients. It's amazing what you can do with dates, walnuts, cocoa, and chia. They taste like a really rich brownie with little crunchies (the chia) inside. All 3 of the girls love them--even super picky twoK!

The brownies have fat and sugar in them, but if you're gonna eat something sweet, these are probably less bad for you than anything else. The sugar comes from the dates, and it's used in this recipe the way nature intended, as the whole fruit. The fat comes from the walnuts and they have a better ratio of Omega-3s than most nuts.


I'm copying and pasting the recipe from the above site (my happy, healthy friend's site) in case her site ever goes away. I doubt it, but it's my policy to copy and paste recipes here. I give full credit to where I found the recipe. I also recommend going to her site to get the nutrition facts and see her picture (link above).


Makes 10 bars

Prep time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups pitted dates (Warning: pinch each date carefully to be sure the pit has been removed! An errant pit will stop your food processor cold!)
1/3 cup raw usweetened (& undutched) cocoa powder
1/3 cup whole chia seeds
3/4 tsp vanilla extract, optional
1 cup raw walnut pieces
Cocoa for dusting

Preparation
1. Place dates in bowl of food processor; puree until thick paste forms.
2. Add cocoa powder, chia seeds, and vanilla, if using. Pulse until all ingredients are combined.
3. Add walnuts; pulse until nuts are finely chopped and well distributed through date mixture.
4. Spread large sheet of wax paper on work surface, and dust with oat flour, if using
5. Transfer date mixture to wax paper, and press mixture into 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Wrap tightly with the waxed paper, and then with foil. Chill overnight.
6. Unwrap block, and cut into 10 bars. Dust edges and sides with cocoa VERY lightly, if desired, to prevent sticking. Wrap each bar in waxed paper & store in the refrigerator.

---

Note, my picture shows our chocolate, walnut, chia bars in a pan. I don't recommend putting them into a pan. Though you get nice edges, it's hard to get the piece out of the pan in one piece. It works better to mash them together and leave them on wax paper. I also failed to let them refrigerate long enough. The bars fall apart too easily the first day! I just couldn't manage waiting any longer, and crumbly or not, they are super yum.

As we move to talking more about food

I feel I should share some background on my thoughts on food.

1) I believe food is the most powerful medicine we have. It has the potential to either nourish your body, do nothing, or weaken it. If you get all the right stuff, you'll nourish, if you put junk in, you'll weaken it. It's that simple. It also controls the gene expression in your body (epigenetics--we'll talk more about this in the future). It can heal your body (we'll talk a a lot more about endothelial cells in your blood vessels, but not tonight).

2) I believe we haven't figured out EVERYTHING that is good for us and bad for us. I also believe that as we understand our own genetic make up better we'll understand what we should and shouldn't eat specifically (there are folks trying to figure this out, now). I believe we're a long way from there and I do believe certain unequivocal truths about food for everyone...

Greens are wonderful for the body
Fiber is just as important as greens and it's best when you can get it from the whole food, not as a supplement
Sugar is bad (probably less bad for some people, but it's still in the not good category)
Sugar is less bad when you eat it in the form nature packaged it (once again, whole food)
And two "rules" to carry with you:
You should be able to pronounce all the ingredients in a food you eat!
Eat when you are hungry, not just because the clock say it's time, or for comfort.

I'm not sure where I fall in regards to classifying fat. Obviously, a little is necessary for health, but what is the right amount? And, given how many changes the body goes through in life (like pregnancy, or being a growing kid with a crazy-fast developing brain), what is the right amount of fat for a given person at a particular point in time? I tend to eat quite a bit of fat, but I also work out like crazy. Am I eating too much fat? I'll be thinking more about this as I blog. A lot of people I really respect think the amount of fat consumed should be around 10-15% of daily calories. I easily eat double or triple that amount.

Some other questions I have are at the intersection of exercise and food. Food is the fuel, and exercise keeps your body moving well, so how do they relate? Does exercise change your food requirements? Can exercise mitigate some of the effects of bad food? For example, if you run a marathon can you eat more sugar/carbs around the time you're running a lot without the bad effects? Should you? What about exercise and fat intake? And, of course, a lot of people, including myself, want to understand how exercise affects how much protein you need.

So many questions and so little in the way of answers!

So what do I eat? I eat mostly plants, and mostly green ones; I try for 2-3 servings of green veggies 4-6 times a day. I ALWAYS eat 2-3 servings 2 times a day, and usually it's 3 times a day; working towards eating greens 4-6 times a day is tough! For meat, I eat salmon and eggs. That's it. I don't take in any dairy. I'll talk more about my decisions and why in the future. In the past, I posted a little about eating plant based + salmon and eggs, but I will be revisiting my decision and continuing to think about what will make me feel and be the most healthy and in balance.

I'm going to make it a goal to post at least once a week on food, but we'll see. I do all of this to be as healthy as possible for my family. I watched my Dad suffer from the effects of Type 2 Diabetes and I am currently watching my Mom take a lot of medicines to keep her going (cholesterol medicine, blood pressure medicine, medicine for either bone cancer or osteoporosis) while also watching osteoporosis make her shorter and shorter. I feel she's not dying, but rather, shrinking away; it's very sad. While I realize that death is inevitable--life is fatal--I hope that I can live a vibrant life by eating right and exercising. I hope I'm still doing Zumba at 99.

I leave you with a post on another blog; take a look at and think about what you could never do for you and your family.
ttp://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/inspiration-i-could-never-do-that.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiseaseProof+%28Disease+Proof%29

It's okay...

For me to work a little less... Really, it is... If I keep saying it, I'll believe it, one day.

I have super fun days with the girls so I should work less. However, I get a little sad when I think about not working as much, though. There's a lot I want to do RIGHT NOW but there will still be a lot of fun stuff to do where I work in 5 years or even 10. always worry that I won't have the opportunity in the future, but I'm guessing I will. The goal for me is to work really hard when I'm at work and to keep people informed about my plans for working more in the future. My goal should be to work on 1-2 projects and not overextend myself.

I'm pretty sure I've written this post, previously. I'm pretty sure you recognize this as a theme I keep revisiting, eh?

Shhhh....there's kale in there (edited)

Yes, I lie to my children. I don't straight out lie, but I lie by omission*. Not one of them has ever asked if there is kale in the smoothies I give them. It's all good.

I'm glad I lie because, if I didn't, twoK wouldn't drink my smoothies. I learned this today when we went to Whole Foods, and they were giving out samples of smoothies and advertising putting spinach in smoothies. (The smoothies were dairy-free, but they'd added apple juice, blueberries, and spinach. It was a little sweet for my taste because I never add juice, but other than that they were pretty good.) Anyway, twoK saw the spinach bag and then adamantly refused to taste the smoothie. Sigh. I'll never tell about the Kale, though. (Unless they ask and I'm hoping they will never, ever ask.)

I'm editing to add the "recipe" for this particular smoothie, pictured above. I usually don't measure, but on Sunday, when I took this picture, I mostly measured.

Yogurt or Kefir ~1 cup
Kale ~1 1/2 cups
1 small bag of strawberries (10 oz)
Rice milk or soy milk ~1 1/2 cups
1 Banana
1 scoop of whey protein (could be soy)

I put in some water, but I didn't measure. I just put enough in to make the texture right so it could blend well. This was about 4 servings (3 girls plus MWH).



*Except for when oNe had to get stitches and if I hadn't lied we would have ended up at the hospital. I do not feel bad about this lie.

Spring Cleaning

Warning, very boring post ahead.

We have a cleaning crew who come and clean our house every two weeks. Yes, I loved them at first, but the honeymoon is over. I tried to break up with them, but the owner, R, pretends not to get my messages when I try and he calls to ask me what I want. Anyway, I haven't had them come clean for the last month because of the virus. With how easily it spreads, I didn't want to risk them contaminating the house with the virus if they didn't do "proper" cleaning (see sidebar for definition of proper cleaning).

[Sidebar: I'm pretty darn green and prefer to clean with things like vinegar and hydrogen peroxide see previous post. However, with stomach flu, you don't mess around. You head straight to the bleach and clean with at least a 2% solution. You spray it on, you let it set for 30 seconds to 10 minutes and then wipe it down. I do it at least 3 times before I feel like the virus may be gone. That is "proper" cleaning.

We still have a week before I grant MWH and I didn't get this round of the illness, but with each day that passes, I feel our chances of getting it decrease. We're 2 weeks past the WORST of it. Woo! Hopefully, I didn't stir up any virions (a single infective virus particle) in my cleaning yesterday.]

Anyway, the cleaning crew, what do I do about them? They do an okay job of cleaning, but they do it on a regular basis. I do a spectacular job of cleaning, but I don't do it very often. Some options:

-We keep them but we 1) ask them to use our rags and cleaning supplies instead of the ones they bring and 2) I do a deep clean every couple of months and maybe ask them to skip a cleaning the week I do the cleaning, or maybe they come and clean and then I do my deep cleaning on top of their shallow cleaning.

-We don't keep them and MWH and I make a schedule and have certain rooms we clean every couple of days.

After a full day of cleaning yesterday, I'm leaning towards option 1.

I still need to organize my desk, go through the playroom, and deal with all school stuff the girls have brought home this year. I am hopeful that I can get some time this week to do that as I am short on project work at work and will need to take some vacation time. I'd rather spend my spare time thinking about the classes I may get to teach at OLU this fall and spring (still need to talk to the professor and confirm), but I need to get things organized, especially if I'm planning to teach.

The playroom will probably mostly be tackled when we are moving stuff out for the hardwood installation. Speaking of, I need to go try and call some potential installers. (Did I tell you that I found out that the person we used the last time is no longer in business?)

Sunday

I love Sundays! MWH gets up and makes the girls chocolate chip pancakes and I either eat my breakfast with them or stay in the bedroom and play on the computer. This morning, I ate breakfast with them. I don't eat pancakes because 1) I don't like pancakes, and 2) he puts whey in them. I'd like to like pancakes, but I don't. I've read about tofu pancakes, and am intrigued...

Here's one recipe from Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes (I love the name of her site so much!) (am pasting the recipe in case it goes away, but click the link as she has a beautiful photo of the pancakes).

Wholegrain Tofu Pancakes

Ingredients:

Whisk together in one bowl:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

In another bowl, mix together:

1 cup silken tofu
1/3 cup almond or soy milk
4 tbsp lemon or lime juice
2 tsp lemon or lime zest (optional)
2 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together in as few strokes as possible until just mixed. The batter should be lumpy, not smooth.

Pour 1/4 cup of the batter on a hot non-stick or cast-iron griddle coated with oil. This is a very thick, almost cakey batter, so you might have to give it a nudge with your ladle to help it spread.

Cook until bubbles appear on the top of the pancake and the bottom is golden-brown. Flip over and cook until golden on the other side.

Serve hot with maple syrup or any other topping of your choice.


I'm not a big maple syrup fan--I don't like sweet really--but I'm sure these would be tasty with savory toppings. I may try them someday.

Right now, I have a big batch of steel cut oats soaking. I've heard great things about them, and I've always loved oatmeal. I'm going to do a separate post on oatmeal as this one with the recipe is kind of long.

random stuff

We've decided to put hardwood floor on the "girls' level" of the house. The girls' level has the playroom, their bedroom, a family room and a guest room. I AM SO FREAKIN' EXCITED! We have hardwood floor upstairs and they are so easy to clean. Our carpet downstairs is disgusting with a capital D. I'm going to start calling people for estimates, soon, maybe even tomorrow! (Who knows if they'll answer since it's Saturday.)

We know exactly what kind of wood we want (Sidney Blue), so we'll see how long it takes to get it ordered and in. I'm hopeful we can have the new floor done before summer (ideal to have it done while the girls are still in school), but we'll see. We'll have to move everyone upstairs for a couple of weeks. This is my chance to clean out the playroom, too. After two weeks of being away from their toys, they won't remember what they had and didn't have. I just had a crazy idea about re-doing the girls' bedroom and getting new beds, but then I looked at beds and got overwhelmed and decided that could wait.

I am so excited about the wood floor. When we were talking about new carpet, I was happy, but now I am beside myself with joy!

Okay, I should get ready for bed.

this latest groove

Who would have thought it would take illness to get me back into blogging?

I made 23 posts in March.

Wow, I'm back to 2009 posting levels. Can I maintain it, though? That is the question. I'm going to try to keep up with the blog and I'm going to try to focus more on food and what we're eating. You are what you eat! Onward.