7 Quick Takes

--1--

Next Friday I'm having an endoscopy and colonoscopy. I have to get an endo about every two years for a chronic GI condition I have, but this is my first colonoscopy. I'm not worried about the procedure, but I am dreading the prep. I did a colonoscopy-type prep a few years ago before a minor surgery and it was Not.Fun.At.All. But I need to get to the bottom of the chronic stomachaches I have, and this is one of the ways to figure it out. (The gold standard for my sort of complaint is a stomach emptying study, which I've been trying to get done for about 2 years, but since it involves nuclear medicine, I need to be a) not pregnant, b) not nursing, and c) not picking up little children for up to 48 hours after the procedure. Since I've been pregnant or nursing the last two years, and I have little children that need picking up All.The.Time, that test ain't happenin' any time soon. le sigh.

--2--

I was going to write a whole rant about skinny jeans because until two days ago, I had yet to find a skinny jean that wasn't low- or mid-rise, and frankly, either of those rises is terrible on my figure. Can you say "instant muffin top?" Awful. Plus I'm pulling my pants up all the livelong day, which is terribly annoying. I got the Loft order I wrote about last week and everything was All. Wrong. The shirt was too tight in the arms, the sweater was too scratchy and frankly unflattering on me, and the jeans, well the rise was too low. (I returned everything to the store). I was ready to rant about the whole fashion industry's skewed sense of real women's proportions. And by real women, I mean women who are above age 17, not shaped like coat hangers, and have possibly had a few children with the hips to prove it. But then. I found myself returning something to Old Navy this week, and while I've generally sworn off Old Navy for a variety of reasons not worth going into here, after I returned what I needed to return, I found myself gazing at the jeans wall. And finding the Platonic ideal of a skinny jean. Enter the Sweetheart skinny in gray. They are possibly the most comfortable jeans evah. And for $25, not a huge investment. The fabric is insanely soft, waist lies flat in the front, the rise is high enough that the jeans aren't constantly falling down, and while they gap a bit in the back (all jeans do on me), I simply put my dapper snapper on the back and fixed that problem. So yay for great skinnies!

--3--

We are less than a week into the Nativity Fast and I'm already fatigued by the limited food choices available to me for meal planning. (For those who don't know, we observe the fasting rules of the Orthodox Church, which mean eating vegan about 2/3 of the year. While I'm exempt because of nursing and my extensive food allergies, I still cook vegan dinners on fasting days, but our repertoire is pretty limited because of said allergies). I even considered eating the stir fry I made for everyone else yesterday because I love Chinese food and miss tofu with soy sauce and sesame oil so much. The wonderful smell about drove me mad. But I tried to content myself with Bird's Nests from Trader Joe's with a token amount of soy dipping sauce. I still got a roaring intestinal upset that hit at about 3 a.m., so probably not going to try tofu yet. My lovely goddaughter sent me a whole bunch of new recipes to try for the fast, but I'm stressed out enough about life in general that I can't quite tackle the pile yet, even though I'm very grateful for her thoughtfulness and care. I keep trying to come up with a meal rotation schedule for the fast, but I just don't have enough flexibility with the handful of recipes that work right now for fasting days to do so. So our meal routine for the next forty days is going to be pretty monotonous. But I suppose that is as it should be. I wish I could stop feeling so overwhelmed by it, though.

--4--

I'm reading Simplicity Parenting right now and I really appreciate so much of what he has to say. A lot of it is stuff we already do, like keeping our toy collection very small, and not having a television in the house, and keeping computers away from where the children are, severely limiting processed foods in their diets, keeping sugar to a minimum, etc., but I can tell by how my children behave that they are stressed much of the time (they are all high needs, high intensity, high energy kids), and I wish I figure out the magic button that would make our home life less stressful for everyone. I'm to the point that I keep looking around and wondering when the real grown ups are going to show up and start picking up the pieces. And then I remember, oh wait, I am the grown up now. This is real life.

--5--

On the eve of the fast, I made Loaded Baked Potato Soup and it was awesome. We had leftover stuffing from Thanksgiving and the soup was strangely good as gravy with the stuffing. Starch on starch, that's my kind of meal!!

--6--

I've made several of these gift boxes of cards in the last few weeks for clients and as gifts for friends, and I've really enjoyed that. I used different papers and stamp sets for a few of them; I'm hoping to post that in a few days. I have another project in mind using the Domestic Goddess suite that I'm super excited to make, but might need to wait until January, depending on how the rest of the month shakes out. Stay tuned. Need a nice gift for a friend or colleague? Contact me through my etsy shop and I'll set up a custom listing for you. Please order by December 15 for on time Christmas delivery.

--7--

My arms are tired and my hips ache. Between the demands of Birdie and Boo to be held all.the.time, I can't keep up. My poor introverted internal self is starting to have convulsions. But a friend gave me her ERGO today, so I'm now the proud owner of not one but two ERGOs, so now I can double baby wear in (relative) comfort. My double wearing system before now was to use our Belle Baby Carrier in the front, put our ERGO on for back carry, strap Birdie on the front, then tuck Boo onto my back, but the Belle isn't the most comfortable thing out there, and Birdie doesn't really care to have her legs dangling out and fusses more when she's in it. I'm kind of tired of baby wearing in general at this point, but don't see a way around it short of putting up with even more crying than I already do (which is considerable, let me tell you). It is easiest way to get out about with the two little ones right now since we limit our city driving and use the bus a lot.

--8--

Bonus quick take, because I thought it was funny (and apropos of the season), the five best toys ever. You're welcome.

Go see Jen at Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!