Rites of Passage: My First Mammogram

Apparently I've reached a new milestone in my life - the age of the baseline mammogram.

I have to admit I hadn't put much thought into the need for a mammogram, that's for "older" women. Imagine my shock and surprise when my doctor recommended one for me during an appointment this summer.

After 6 months of putting off making the call for an appointment, I started thinking about why I was stalling. I had stacks of stories about why this was going to be a horrid and scary and bad thing.  Using my mommy skills, I asked myself what I needed to shift my stories.

Easy answer - a buddy.  So I wouldn't have to face my growing age, probably physical discomfort and eventual mortality alone. Enter my lovely friend Thea.  A few years ahead of me on the journey, she is always a kind and wise mentor.    She enthusiastically agreed to join me, and I quickly set up an appointment at the women's imaging center.

The day of my appointment, she came and picked me up at my house.  We chatted and caught up all the way to the hospital.  She gave me a sense of what to expect in the mammogram and shared some pointers on how to make things go quickly and easily.  She peppered me with questions in the waiting room while I filled out paperwork. The nice people at the office let her come to the inner waiting room with me, where we whispered away like school girls.

The mammogram itself was quick and not terribly uncomfortable (this coming from a woman who is used to having 60 pound children dig their elbows into my breast as leverage for standing up).  The doctor reviewed my images and proclaimed my breasts healthy.  After a short hour, we were free to go.

From the hospital, we drove straight to Queen Mary's Tea House and marked my coming of age with high tea.  My time with my friend was precious, I felt celebrated and the staff presented me with a tiara!  "The only time you can really get away with wearing a tiara is your first prom and your first mammogram."

Here's what I learned and my advice to us all.  Life is always moving forward and changing.  We can met that change with fear and resistance and make ourselves miserable.  Or we can ask a friend for help and joyfully celebrate the moments of life together. So, grab a friend, connect and find comfort in life!

Anyone Know this Dude?

We've looked through our bug identification guide and perused the internet, but can't find this beetle's name.  Anyone know anything about it?

Sad Doggie Day

We put Maggie down Tuesday.  


She'd been a little under the weather and our vet had been keeping an eye on her. We figured she'd gotten into some bad food or water.  Then Tuesday morning her health changed drastically.  It turns out she had a huge cancer in her stomach that probably took over part of her liver.  It had grown so large and she lost so much blood there wasn't really anything we could do for her. 


We spent a while in the afternoon sun with her and then said goodbye to our funny, frumpy, patient dog. 

Savin' My Bacon

Currently I am experiencing something close to lunch ecstasy.

How, I'm sure you must be asking yourself, is someone who serves 5 meals a day most days enjoying her lunch experience?

Well, let me tell you!

First of all, the normal lunch whine around here goes something like: I don't know what to fix, the kids are sick of the same old meals again and again, they want trash and I'm aiming for nutritious and delicious, I couldn't think of any good ideas while I was at the grocery store so really now we're scrapping the bottom of the fridge.

Enter my impulse purchase at the Whole Foods magazine rack two weeks ago: America's Test Kitchen 30 Minute Suppers, 96 tear out cards.  Standing there I thought, wait!  this works.  I easily spend 30 minutes moping around the kitchen trying to figure out what to make and cobbling some lame thing together.  So why not be prepared to spend those 30 minutes cooking?

Because the magazine is produced by Cooks Illustrated and their test kitchen, I knew the food was going to be good.

And the magazine is brilliant.  First of all the format works - each page has four 4x5 tear out recipe cards.  The front of each card sports a tantalizing picture of the meal in question, grouped by protein source: chicken, beef, pork, soy, veggie. The back covers the usual recipe basics: ingredients and directions.   Did you catch that there are 95 recipes?  This means even if my family only likes 1/3 of the recipes, I have an entire month's worth of novel, delightful lunches.

Now on Sunday night I pick 5 meals, tear the cards out, flip them over and enter the ingredients list directly into amazonfresh.com.  Then I post the cards on our bulletin board.  Viola, lunch is planned for the week.

What I most love about the recipes, besides the fact that they really do only take 30 minutes to prepare and they taste wonderful, is that 90% of the ingredients use whole foods.  Other quick recipes that I've used call for all sorts of processed foods to create the illusion of a nutritious meal. Speed at the cost of quality is not my thing.

A definite advantage I've discovered to this new system is that when we're out on a homeschool adventure and I know there is a 30 minute delicious, nutritious meal planned, it is so easy to say no to the kids' begging to go out for lunch. Honestly, aside from fast food, rarely does a restaurant seat and serves us food all of us will eat in less than 30 minutes.  Since we're easily out several times a week, we're talking measurably enhanced nutrition and money saved.

And did I mention the food is great?  Today we enjoyed muffuletta panini.  The other day there was a chicken parmesan so good I'm still geeking out about it.  Later this week I'm anxiously awaiting the Thai chicken curry with sweet potato and green beans.

Magazines usually only last a month at the stands - so run quick and grab one of these so you can join me in lunch nirvana.


 

Van Gogh Larger than Life

Yesterday the kids and I headed out the Pacific Science Center to catch the IMAX Van Gogh movie.

I loved it. I thought the images were great. Since I adore the texture and thickness of the oils in Van Gogh's work, the HUGE images of close-ups of the paintings were thrilling. I really enjoyed that the film makers went to places Van Gogh painted and showed us the locations and then the paintings. The narration was okay - actually the writing was good but the narrator had a thick accent which made it difficult for me to understand and at time impossible for my kids. I had some concerns about how they would treat the ear cutting incident and his death, but they were very non-chalant and non-graphic about the whole thing. Overall truly enjoyable.

Theo was really impressed by the movie. First off, he's super sensitive and claims to *hate* movies. Because the music was pretty soothing and the Van Gogh torment was played down, Theo had no problems with the emotional content of the film. After dinner he started several drawings in the Van Gogh short-stroke style and suggested it would be fun to make a Van Gogh lap book. This is high praise from my son!

Rosie spent most of her time observing the projector system and figuring out how it works (I think the narrator's accent threw her for a loop). Right at the end, she perked up when she caught that Van Gogh shot himself in the chest in the middle of a wheat field. Titillated by that fact, she too has been talking non-stop about him since the movie ended. We all get what we want from any experience....

All in all I highly recommend the film. Here's the trailer to whet your appetite.

Idea: Homeschool Prep for the Week

One of the challenges I have with homeschooling the kids is that they are so full of energy it is often hard for them to just hold still and focus.

Today I think I happened upon a great solution: a 4 hour hike!  The kids and I walked to the top of Tiger Mountain, a 6.2 mile hike with a 2000 foot elevation gain.  We enjoyed the trees, the streams, each and every lovely stick, plus the view at the top.

Last I checked, Theo was lying on the floor upstairs humming to himself and Rosie was sitting in the library staring at pictures. I think tomorrow might go very smoothly.

Happy New Year!

New year and so many fun thing to post from our busy December.

Today I'm making lotion and hair oil in preparation for our annual trip to Sleeping Lady. As of this morning, they have a full foot of snow, and we and our homeschool buddies are the only families registered.  This promises to be a fantastic 4 days.

And, with Theo sneaking outside past me with an armful of towels, I do believe it is time to get off the computer and go check on the "packing" kids.

Hope your new year is filled with peace, love and laughter!