Food, Glorious Food!

Yesterday Joe brought home dinner from Pei Wei. I always get brown rice with tofu & veggies. It was quite delicious and, per usual, I had enough left over for at least one more meal.

Today Joe brought home lunch from a Vietnamese place. He got me tofu and veggies with noodles, and a lovely spring roll.  It was really, really good, and, per usual, I have enough left over for at least one more meal.  So tonight I guess we’ll heat everything up and serve it family style. Except he hates tofu, so I get it all! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!

The Girl Scout cookies have been at home for more than 24 hours. I have had 2 of the lemon cookies (seriously good), and am planning to dip into the thin mints this afternoon.  I know they’re not vegan, but right now I’m not following a strict vegan diet. Vegetarian is having to work, since Joe is the one feeding me.  He slipped me some cow’s milk into my cereal yesterday morning, and was a little taken aback, I think, that I could tell the diference since he mixed it with the soy milk. But soy milk doesn’t make my throat gloppy like cow’s milk does.

I did my exercises this morning–it’s been an owieful day–and am now waiting for my physical therapist to arrive. She’s brutal. (Okay, not really, but she’ll shove my knee a little further than I’m willing to shove it, and it hurts). And then I’ll see if I can get some sleep.  Takes a lot of sleep to be able to eat all this fantastic food Joe’s providing. Mmmmm.

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Randomness Monday edition

It’s been a not really that pleasant day. On the plus side, I slept in the bed last night and managed to sleep all night through until 5:30. On the minus side, the laptop from work isn’t working for me, and the guys in our IT (outsourced, naturally) opened up a ticket that apparently still hasn’t been worked.  My knee exercises made me cry today, but I’m on the emotional side right now anyway.

It doesn’t seem to matter how well prepared you are for a procedure like this. The shock of the pain afterward can still be startling. And every time I get up from a seated position, it takes a moment to gear up for the momentary pain that will pass after I’ve taken a few steps.  Our house is really small, so once an hour I cruise around our miniscule living room and down the hall, where I turn around and repeat. I can now do that without getting breathless, and can even go to the bathroom and back without getting breathless, which is nice.

Joe still hasn’t been given an assignment, so he’s even more stir-crazy than I am. The house is a disaster zone.  I’d love it if someone would come over and clean my house and wash a couple of loads of laundry, and then sit down and play stupid games with me. I’m so damned lonely right now. And as I type that the tears well up again. This pity party needs to end.

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This Weekend’s Memorable Moments

• Nearly passing out Saturday night when I got up at what I thought was Scout’s request to go outside.
• Joe jerry-rigging a way to shampoo my hair. The mechanics were a little convoluted, but since I’m not yet steady enough on my feet to get into the shower, it was well worth all the trouble.  I’ve been giving myself sponge baths, but hadn’t yet figured out how to wash my hair. My saying it was well worth the trouble probably sounds like I think it’s all about me. Joe would agree, and since he’s the one who did all the hard work, far be it from me to argue with him.
• Izzybella bringing me a spinach  quesadilla (made with Daiya cheese) from Spiral Diner.  If you’re in DFW, you want to go before the end of the month and make sure you get one. Better yet, ask them to add it to their regular menu!
• Joe leaving to go get ice and taking Molly with him. I was holding Scout by the collar, but as soon as Joe picked up the leash, Scout did this amazing squiggle and got to the front door before Molly finished her pre-ride stretch.  Fortunately, Liz was home and helped hold Scout while Joe and Molly escaped.  Scout stood on the arm of the loveseat by the front door and tiled his head from one side to another, and then came running over to tell me that it wasn’t fair! Life’s not fair! Molly always gets what she wants and he never does!  This little guy can emote like nobody’s business.
• The green powdered protein drink that Joe gives me once a day. Disgusting stuff, although I think it might be more palatable in smoothies.
• I’ve made a lot of progress with my leg, which makes me happy. 
• How can anyone watch more than half an hour of Switch Blade?  I actually think I made it about 45 minutes. But I knew where it was going, and I HATED the voice Billy Bob Thornton gave his character.
•  The fart bars.  Those high fibre bars tend to have a lot of chicory.  Chicory makes us both fart. Joe and I have both been eating about one bar a day, and the volume in our house would astound anyone. 
• The Unbearable Cuteness of Being Scout. He’s my constant companion right now, and is utterly adorable.
• Lolo and her fiance came by on Friday afternoon with the laptop from work. Yay! That means my days will start moving along more quickly because I’ll be working from home while I’m recuperating.
• When I’m about to stand up, or give myself a shot, or do my exercises, it’s so hard to get started. Not because I think I can’t do it; I can. It’s that moment of fear, because I know it’s going to hurt, and why do you want to do something that hurts?  You do it, obviously, because you have to push through the pain so you can get better, but that’s why it’s hard to take that first step, or jab that needle into your gut, or pick up your foot and see how high you can lift it not one time, but 15 times.

Joe has been taking the most amazing care of me. He’s patient, thorough, careful, and so loving. He read through the booklet left by the physical therapist so that he knows what I’m to do and not to do. He read through the diet recommendations, and has adapted them for a vegetarian diet. He brings my meals to me on a tray, and makes sure I get plenty of protein and vitamins while I heal. He helps me with the exercises. He can’t look while I’m giving myself the twice-daily injections of blood thinner because he hates it when I hurt.  He helps me figure out how to state things that I’m having trouble putting into words.

I know that I’m tremendously blessed to have him in my life and as my husband.  Like any married couple, we have good times and bad times. We have fighting down to a fine art. We just push the buttons and skip the preliminaries.  But we love each other, a lot, and I’m so thankful for him.

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Vitameatavega-what?

The always lovely Katie is hosting a giveaway for a Vitamix.  While I can do without the meata part of the vitameatavegamin, I would definitely love to win a new Vitamix. I know you would, as well.  So if you’ll go visit Katie, you’ll find out how you, too, could get an entry for this fabulous prize!

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Thank you

Thank you to my lovely guest bloggers, and please keep guest blogging any time you want, at least through the end of February. I anticipate my posts will be more sporadic than I like, and I love seeing what you all have to say.

Thank you to my lovely readers.  I’ll try to make sure to get something up at least a couple of times a week.  And if any of you are interested in being guest bloggers, please leave a comment with your e-mail address, and we’ll work something out!

Thanks to my lovely dog Scout, who makes sure that my left thigh is always warm and my left hand is always occupied with scratching his tummy, his head, his neck, his back. He is a much better physical therapist than the one who comes to visit me at home. Not that she’s bad but her physical therapy involves discomfort if not downright pain.

Thanks to my lovely hubby Joe, who makes sure I eat all kinds of good food whether I want to or not, and keeps my knee iced up whether I want to or not, and helps me get off the sofa when I need a helping hand, and in general makes sure that I’m well taken care of.

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You say resolutions, I say goals

Hello! I’m Jehara and Faith’s one of my nearest and dearest.  She asked me to guest post on her little blog so here goes.

New Year’s Resolutions.

It’s January and it’s on everyone’s mind.  I’ve been seeing a lot of articles lately expounding why they are good and others that completely naysay the whole thing.  Some people say, why make resolutions? And for that matter, why even make a big deal about the new year? Time is arbitrary and it’s just a turn of the calendar page and remembering a new ending to the year number.

I, myself, am not a big celebrator of New Year’s Eve in the sense that I don’t go out to parties, preferring to stay at home and be cozy and warm in my own home leaving the navigation of roads strewn with drunk drivers for the less faint of heart.  I save the hard partying for other times of the year.  However, this is not to say that I don’t celebrate New Year’s at all.  I do!

First, I get all excited about the blank slate of pages and dates ahead of me.  I start to meditate on what would I like to focus on this year.   What do I want to accomplish? What does the year hold for me?

Then, I get excited about finding a calendar, which inevitably I procrastinate on and wait until they are half-price and fully picked over. 

I have a letter writing tradition with myself that I have been doing for eleven years now and is the most satisfying  of my New Year’s observations.  I like to get introspective and reflective.  So after getting excited and ruminating  for a bit, I pull out the previous year’s letter and read.  And think. And make mental notes. I may or may not start writing a new letter right away. 

In the new letter I like to sum up the previous year, the highlights, the lowlights, lessons learned, any insights gleaned and any other random tidbit I might want to remember that perhaps will elicit a smile during the next year’s reading. Then I recap the goals set from the previous year and depending on that mood’s year I will either check them off or expound on each one.  And some years I may even skip that part and go straight to making some new ones.  That’s the fun part!

Fun part you say?

And this brings me to the whole crux of the whole new year’s thing that involves resolutions.

Resolutions.  It sounds so heavy and imposing and you know if you set one it is just begging to be ignored and stomped over.  Say it aloud. Or just think it. I resolve to do x, y or z.  That doesn’t sound fun or happy or positive or like anything I remotely want to do.  Do you?

The word has like twelve definitions or something, according to dictionary.reference.com but the ones I’m interested in are-to come to a definite or earnest decision about; determine, to settle, and my personal favorite-to deal with. That definitely does not sound like fun or something I want to do. 

I think the intentions behind New Year’s resolutions are well-meaning, but I think we are looking at it in the wrong way.  We should be thinking about goals, things we want to accomplish, things we WANT to do, whether it’s making a silly list of finite things you’d like to try or just making a life list in general, whether you decide you’re going to try a new dish the next time you eat at your favorite restaurant instead of the same tried-and-true or finally sit down and apply for that master’s program you have been wanting to undertake but haven’t had the courage to pursue. 

Goals are important to furthering our lives, getting us to where we want to be and teaching us to take it one step at a time.  Setting goals and accomplishing them also give us a sense of accomplishment and boosts our self-esteem.  And more importantly, thinking about goals, pondering what it is our heart truly desires gives us insight into who we are, where we are going and where we would like to be.  We may discover a disconnect.  Where we are headed isn’t where we want to end up.  Or we may be pleasantly surprised to discover, hey! Wow! I am on the right track!

So while there may be people out there who have a beef with the taking stock thing that occurs just because it’s a new year, I say okay, do it on your birthday or on halloween or any other time of the year that feels right to you.  You don’t have to reflect and ponder and strive to be a better you just because the year has turned over , although there is a reason so many people do so.  It just feels so fresh! A bright, blank new calendar and a brand new number! What else screams new beginnings more than that?

So go grab that pen and pad.  Sit down with a mug of tea or a cup of coffee or a diet soda if that’s your thing, and devote some time to yourself. 

And just. .  . ponder.  Dream.  Wonder.  Think of the possibilities that lie before you.  And then set some goals for yourself.

I dare you.

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Skout Is Heer!

Deer Dirree,

I dont know ezaktly whut a dirree iz, but Momma haz a kool new promoshun and I no she likes to rite about stuff here, so maybe diz iz her dirree.

Last week she went to get a noonee. I dont know ezaktly what a noonee iz eether, but I guess she got one anyway, and maybe a noonee iz a promoshun. You know hoccums I knoz promoshun? Becuz she haz de koolest job ebber!!!!!  All she duz iz lie down onna couch all day and rub my tummee.  Sometimez she makes me gibs kissees, and I make her beg before I gibs dem, but den shes good for annudder for or fiv hours of rubbin  my tummee! I like Momma’s new promoshun and her noonee.

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