Thursday, October 24, 2013

Women Don't Always Follow Directions Either

I am, once again, going to sing my praises of this book:



I have used it to deal with all kinds of different pains over the years. (If I used it perhaps more consistently, I wouldn't have to be dealing with so many pains!)

Recently, I started having neck pain. Not my usual neck pain: with this, I could not lift my head past a certain level. Try drinking from the bottom of a glass when you can't lift your head backwards! The pain got so bad earlier this week, I woke up in almost agony in the middle of the night just trying to shift positions, managed to get myself out of bed and find my Pain Free book. Found the section on necks and did the sequence. The pain was not completely gone, but it was so much better.

BUT he clearly says multiple times in the book that you do the sequence daily until your pain is gone, then follow it with the daily maintenance program at the end of the book. Did I follow instructions? No! I felt so much better the next morning, I just let it go. But I ended up being in some serious pain again last night. Did the sequence while we watched a movie (okay, I listened to the movie while doing this sequence) and much better. Woke up this morning with it barely noticeable. Did I follow instructions and do the program today as I'm supposed to since the pain is still somewhat there? No! But I hope I can remember to make myself later when I have some time. I don't want to start a vicious cycle!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Diary of Life Without an Upstairs Fridge

Day 1

Our fridge died today. Or rather, we discovered that the fridge had died within the past couple of days since everything in the freezer was completely thawed. In retrospect, we should have clued in earlier and have checked the temperature--the fridge had been making funny clicking sounds for a few days and I had noticed some things didn't seem as frozen hard as they usually are.

Most of the stuff from the freezer had to be thrown out. :( A creamsicle had melted and a hole in the wrapper let the melted liquid get onto various things. Thankfully we have a second fridge and a deep freezer in the basement. The fridge is older and smaller and we had to remove some things (like pop, juice cans...) from it to fit in what could be salvaged from the fridge upstairs. Unfortunately, we don't have time to go fridge shopping today.

Note to self: Clean out the fridge more often. Whatever that thing was in the little ziploc baggie was gross.

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Day 2

Because we don't have time to go shopping yet, we've been looking online at possibilities. Man oh man are new fridges expensive!!! :( Hubby is really wanting a French door-style with a freezer on the bottom; I'm fine with a single door and the freezer on the bottom. Our current (dead) fridge is a side-by-side. I don't like it.

Going downstairs for fridge items is a real pain in the neck. I hope we don't have to wait too long before we have our upstairs replacement, but I guess you can say we are getting more exercise because of it.

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Day 3

I'm really starting to be annoyed by having to go downstairs for so much. We still have the old fridge in its spot and all of us at some point have gone over, opened the doors and remembered, oh, yeah, there's no food in here.

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We went fridge shopping this evening. So many models with some great prices won't fit our space! Grrr. I hope we can hit the scratch-and-dent/refurbished places on the weekend; maybe we can get a fridge that fits for a better price than brand new and unscratched.

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Day 4

Ugh. How much more do we have to keep going downstairs for something???

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Day 5

Surprisingly, I'm not minding so much going down to the basement today for fridge items. Maybe it's becoming a habit.

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Day 6

I've really adjusted to the fridge being downstairs. I make sure I have everything together that needs to go back downstairs instead of making multiple unnecessary trips and have even started bringing my cereal bowl downstairs with me to fill with (almond) milk rather than going downstairs, bringing the milk upstairs, then heading back downstairs. I could live like this, I think.

Hubby has mentioned that he could go for a single door on top. That helps open up our options.

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Day 7

Hubby has complained about having to go downstairs for things. He's not home as much as we are so he's not as habituated. I've realized we aren't eating as many fruits as vegetables as we normally do. We (the kids and I) may be getting used to the fridge being downstairs, but I think in part it's because we are skimping on things. I've stopped using margarine on bread/toast, I know that. And the honey, which is kept upstairs, is almost gone because I didn't want to be bothered to go downstairs for the jam in the fridge.

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Hubby and I are out shopping. We have gone to so many places fridge shopping today without success, I feel like giving up.

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We found a fridge! Still expensive, but a clearance price, so at least we're saving money. Sort of. And from Sears, so we know that if we ever have an issue, we're well covered. I really like this fridge. We saw the same model at the 3rd place we visited this morning, a scratch-and-dent place. The Sears clearance price is barely more expensive than their price. One drawback: Because we want the white, and it's a discontinued model, it has to come in from another city (last one in the province!). We'll have to wait 7-9 days. I've been handling the downstairs fridge travels not too badly; it should be okay.

Day 8

I'm starting to resent, again, having to go downstairs for fridge items. I guess knowing that we do have a fridge, it's just not here yet, has changed my perspective.

Day 9

Really not liking having to go downstairs for fridge items. Waiting another 5-7 days for our new fridge feels like an eternity.

Day 10

*sigh* How long until we get the new fridge?

Day 11

I remembered about a plug-in cooler we have in our crawl space, which really is a crawl space. I ended up scraping my back--and mostly ripping off a mole on my back--trying to get it out. Got it upstairs, found a spot to put it in and... discovered that the plug is only for in a vehicle (where cigarette lighters used to go). After getting my daughter to put a band-aid on my back, I went to the basement, again, to put the cooler back.

Our new fridge can't come soon enough...

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Care to Help?

I have two local fundraising situations I would like to share with you today:

The first, and the time is running out on this one, is an inner-city mom here died of AIDS recently, and her kids--a mix of adult and school-aged kids--are trying to provide a nice funeral. And I don't mean a ridiculously overpriced funeral. They have had some things donated and the person helping them out is only lookin for $1500. VERY reasonable. In any case, the kids are less than $300 away from the money they need for the funeral. And there are only 3 days left. If everyone reading could donate even just $10, it would mean so much!

Full details: http://igg.me/p/a-beautiful-goodbye/x/4965009


The other fundraising opportunity I want to tell you about is a little girl named Teagan. She suffered a severe seizure a couple of years ago that damaged her brain. There is a therapy available that can help her, but it is expensive and our Canadian healthcare does not cover it. You can read all about it and see their donations page here:

http://www.treatment4teagan.org/

If you are in Canada, I will be doing a fundraiser for them through Stampin' Up! and you can help out that way, too! I will post more information at a later date.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Back on the 100-Day Challenge "Wagon"

Oy, where is the time going??? This week ended up being a bit of a write-off due to physical/health issues Tuesday through yesterday. Part of it was messed-up sleep affecting my ability to concentrate and even make decisions. Now that I'm coming out of it, I'm feeling less guilty about not focusing on my goals because I can see just how affected I was!

But at the end of this second week, that leaves me with fewer days to accomplish some big goals I have for the rest of this year, which include:

*walk/run 5 km (I had gotten up to 1.3 miles/just over 2 km on the treadmill, but I haven't done anything on the treadmill in a week, I think)
*get the rough draft of my teen novel done
*get my dairy-free ebook done
*100 blog/website posts!

I had not connected with my goals really at all this week. My energy levels and mental stamina were poor enough that they didn't matter to me a bit. And yet, first thing this morning, my mind is back on the goals and I really want to accomplish them.

One of my smaller goals is to work toward having one to two weeks' worth of gluten-free (and naturally, dairy-free, since I can't have dairy) lunch and supper menus that have been tried and enjoyed. My daughter and I both really like the stuffed peppers recipe from Raw Food: A Complete Guide for Every Meal of the Day but I don't know it's the kind of thing my husband and son will like, so we make it now and then for lunch. I made some yesterday. It's a super quick recipe. (I do have to modify it slightly since the recipe calls for hazelnuts--hazelnuts make my mouth itch!)

I've had a new gluten-free book for a little bit and had not yet tried anything from it. Part of it is that I can not for the life of me find the sorghum flour used in their flour blend. There's probably one store in particular I need to go to (Planet Organic), but I just haven't made my way there yet. In any case, the book is


They are conscious that many people eating gluten-free also have dairy issues, so many of the recipes specifically mention substituting a non-dairy product. I made the pizza for us yesterday, but just used the flour blend I had left over from a different book and used a reduced amount of soy parmesan (wasn't sure what it would do compared to regular parmesan) in the crust. It still worked out very well! And I had a happy teen when I picked her up from dance class and had a piece of pizza all ready in the vehicle for her to eat. She ate nearly the rest of her half (we split one pizza; I forgot to take a picture of the whole thing, but her side had "regular" cheese and mine had the Daiya) and had no feeling of unwellness afterward. She really wants to try the doughnuts; I will have to either find sorghum flour or make a new batch of the blend I use and try the recipe with that.

Before I head off to the treadmill, I may not have a picture of our whole pizza, but I do have a picture of some of my pieces:

A mix of mozza and cheddar Daiya, gluten- and dairy-free meat slices (no, didn't go veggie this time), gluten- and dairy-free crust. Italian seasoning sprinkled on top. Photo taken on a BlackBerry Torch; forgive me. ;)


Tuesday, October 1, 2013

92 Days Left in 2013!

I feel I am still going strong with my goals for the end of the year. My one goal of getting the rought draft of the teen novel I'm writing has had some progress made on it (although, I adimt it, I would love for it to be more). I'm getting more exercise in, challenging myself, eating better, and more. Having all of these different goals to work on, to strive to achieve, believing I can achieve them if I can keep going is actually working!

One thing is (almost) daily, I am checking in with the major and minor goals list, writing down what I've already accomplished (yes, I'm using the word accomplished when I write it down; sounds so much more motivating to me than done) and thinking of specific things I can do that day to work toward those goals. It's going pretty well!


Part of my staying motivated is reading from a motivational book. My choice at the moment is:




I have read this book before and liked it so much, I have decided to read it again. It's funny how the second time through a book, different things can hit you in a different way! I suppose it's a lot like watching a movie a second time and picking up on things you hadn't noticed the first time.

My little trick at the moment is to always have a book (either that one or another one) by my side when I'm doing things on my laptop. Why? Because when a website is slow to load or the computer's just being plain slow--or Microsoft Word is opening painfully slow--instead of just sitting there impatiently waiting, I open up my book and read. Sometimes, just opening the book up seems to make the computer behave; other times, I manage to fit in half or even a whole page. It's been great, especially on days where, by the time I actually have time to sit and read something I'm so tired I fall asleep, I don't get any reading in. It actually works better, I think, for some books because then I get a small amount read and have time for my brain to process it, thinking about it instead of just racing through a book, enjoying it but not really remembering and digesting it.