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Bits and Pieces

June 24th, 2021 at 06:39 pm

So DH totally screwed up in telling me how much an hour his raise was.  It wasn't $11 an hour, it was $1.10 an hour.  Way to move the decimal point.  And no, he didn't give it to me in print, he literally told me $11 an hour.  So basically none of the stuff I thought was going to happen with retirement or savings is going to happen.  It's a bummer.  Hopefully he will also get a merit raise.  $1.10 an hour doesn't even keep up with how bad the cost of living has gone up in the last two years.  Better than nothing, though.

I did notice that if we could save just $66 more a payday into retirement we would max out, though.  I just don't think I can swing it, not with the forced long-term care insurance starting.  Maybe after we max out our Emergency Fund that can be something we work toward.

Our steer has gone to butcher.  It has a hanging weight of 665 pounds.  I have sent the check off to the farmer for the remainder, $1892.20.  With the deposit, that means the beef cost me $2292.20.  There is still the cut and wrap fee of .78/lb.  Well, they say .78/lb, but it tends to be more like .78 per package and a lot of packages have more than a pound of meat in them.  So while I do have $600 I left in the beef fund to cover it, it'll be $521.04 max and I don't think it will come to that.

Above that amount I had $254 left in the beef fund that I went ahead and moved to the hog fund.  That brings the total in the hog fund to $647.  As soon as I pay the cut and wrap fee at pick up, I will move whatever is left over to the hog fund, which will be at least $78.96, making that amount be at least $725.96 and probably a little more.  My goal is $1000, so I will be just shy of 3/4 of my goal.

We continue to eat down the chest freezer and move things into the house freezer as things from there are used up to make room for the steer.  It is coming along nicely.  He said I should be hearing from the processing facility sometime in the next 11 days for my cut orders.  I  want as much chuck roast as possible, but not so much the other types of roasts except pot roast.  I want all the round ground, we don't like them as roasts or steaks.  I want all the sirloin tip roasts cut into steaks.  And I want my steaks 3/4 inch thick not 1 inch thick.  I can genearally get two extra steaks out of it per type that way.

I want all the soup bones, the fat for making my own tallow, and the liver, heart, kidneys, and tongue.  We've never tried the tongue or kidneys before, so that'll be interesting.  Organ meats are quite healthy for you.  I'm a little squeamish about the tongue, but it is supposed to be quite good.  I guess we will find out. 

The special standing walker we ordered for DD arrived yesterday and it is really going to be a game changer for her.  And it has a seat she can actually sit down on.  Standard walkers are pretty painful for people with her conditions.  It folds up easily enough that she can do it herself, at last for the time being.  That was $248, but money well spent.

I can make do with the walker we inherited from FIL after he died for quite a while yet.  I only use it on severely bad days where I have to go out of the house.  Most days I am fine with my cane or if I am doing really well, without it.  But as things continue to worsen, I would definitely like to get one like that as it is easier on the L-4 and L-5 area of my back.  It takes up a lot less space when folded, too.

My referral for a neurosurgery consult finally went through so calling them is on my to do list for the day.  Along with finally getting the drip line put in the raised bed with the tomatoes in it added and the last set of hoops and deer netting up.  There is a lot outside that needs to be done and I am finally starting to feel like I can do some of it again.

I think I'm finally getting my sleeping straightened out.  I've been falling asleep between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. instead of 3 or 4 a.m. and I've been waking up in the morning instead of the afternoon, so hopefully this will last.  I like actually having a whole day of sunlight in which to live my life.

If I am feeling particularly ambitious I might try to plant some seeds in the garden.  I'd really like to have some kohlrabi this year.

 

MRI Results Came Back Fast

June 7th, 2021 at 04:32 am

My MRI was pretty awful.  I don't generally get claustraphobic, but I've never been in the smaller machine before, I've always been in the open one.  They put me in head first, but it hurt my shoulders so much (severe RA in them) that they pulled me out and turned me around and put me in feet first and I had to put my arms over my head, which was also uncomfortable, but was way better, plus I could see out of the machine a little bit and that calmed down the panic of being so enclosed.

I was in so much pain by the time I got off the table that it has taken me until today to recover.  I had no strength or grip in my right arm yesterday, which happens sometimes when the shoulder stays in a position for too long that is bad for it.  It was back today, though.

The doctor's nurse called me with the results.  I have moved from mild to moderate diagnosis via x-ray to moderate to severe via MRI degenerative disc disease with changes in the plates.  So I am being referred to a neurosurgeon.  That doesn't necessarily mean surgery.  There may be other things that can be tried first that is not physical therapy.  Pain management and cortizone shots while I try to lose more weight.  If I can manage the pain better I can walk around better and get some real exercise.  It's always been hard for me to lose weight from just dieting alone.

After trying those, we might consider a nerve block, but I want more info on that.  Failing that, surgical intervention may be required.  It may be required from the start, though.  That's what the referral is for, to find out.

I haven't done anything in the garden the last two days except keep my son company while he picked strawberries.  I needed the fresh air and while DS is willing to do the work, he likes having someone to talk to while he does it.  No photos yet for LAL.

I watched the US Nationals Gymnastics.  It's kind of a forgone conclusion anymore who is going to win with the women, which kind of takes the suspense out of it for me.  I enjoyed it anyway.  Simone is fun to watch and has so much power, but she really doesn't seem to ever stick the landings.  She excels so much that it doesn't matter, but after all these years, I would expect her to get better at that.  And her artistry is almost non-existent.  The men stick their landings a lot better than the women did.

I really liked Suni.  She has more artistry in her little finger than anyone else and she stuck her landings more often.  And that's with coming back from a foot and ankle injury.  She was just beautiful to watch, so graceful and not so much about the power, though she is clearly very strong.  Her floor routine and her balance beam were so pretty.

I see a lot of potential in Jordan.  She's got better artistry than Simone, but Simone barely has any, just depends on her power.  Her routines are not as difficult or complicated, but give her a couple more years and she might be able to challenge even more.  I am looking forward to the Olympics.  I don't watch much, but I do enjoy men's and women's gymnastics.

I liked watching the guys, too, but it is all about power and strength there.  So it's cool and fun and impressive, but more about skill than anything.  I prefer artistry.

Not much else going on around here.

Van Maintenance

June 3rd, 2021 at 10:55 pm

We took the van in for a 5000 mile check up yesterday.  It was basically an oil change and fluid fill up and an inspection to see what else needed to be done now that the car has reached ten years of age.  They do have things they rec at either 10 years or 100,000 miles.  Well, we only have 51,000 miles, but we bought the van in June of 2021 so we are going with getting the work done that is recommended.  We paid $94.69 for that appointment.

Because we want to drive this van until it dies, maintenance if very important to us.  Vehicles, even used ones, are super expensive, so we take as good of care as possible of our vehicles.  They want to flush the transmission at $315, flush the coolant at $200, do an induction (cleaning the build up off the inside of the engine) at $170, and something to do with the electonic fuel injection at $170.  That's a total of $855 worth of work.  I only have $708 in my car maintenance envelope after paying for the other.  That's a shortfall of $147.00.

Since DH will get quite a bit of overtime on the next paycheck, I will take out $200 for car maintenance, which will cover the shortfall and leave a little left in the envelope.  I set aside $100 a month generally in this envelope.  I will set aside an additional $100 the following payday, too.  I don't like to run that envelope so close to bone.

I didn't end up planting any seeds yesterday, but we did get the wire hoops cut to size and put into the bed and then measured out and fitted the netting to the hoops.  We hand watered, too.  It was still pretty hot and it just sapped your strength.  Today is 68 and much cooler so we will try to get it done.  My soaker hose is supposed to arrive today.  I got it for the bed that has the tomatoes, peppers, and summer squash in it, because those don't like to get their leaves wet and will get blight if they are wet too much.  This way I can water at the base and not have to worry about that.

If I like the way the soaker hose works I will order them for the other beds, too.  I want to see how great the coverage is with it.  A soaker is the type that beads out water droplets not sprays them out.  That's a drip hose.  People get them confused, understandably, and then complain on Amazon reviews because it doesn't work the way they thought it would because they ordered the wrong thing.  A simple reading of the description would tell them.  But the whiney reveiws were actually helpful because I knew for sure it would do what I wanted it to do.

Tomorrow is my MRI on my back.  Since the 20 weeks of physical therapy did nothing to improve things, they are now looking for disc issues, most likely a slipped disc.  It would be nice to have an answer and maybe a better course of treatment.  I really don't want to be on pain killers the rest of my life.  It addles my mind.

It's Been a Long Two Weeks

May 14th, 2021 at 08:08 pm

Until today I think I went about two weeks between posting.  I had my colonoscopy/endoscopy on the 3rd and it really threw me for a loop.  They gave me ketamine.  The anesthesiologist says it was the highest dose he had ever given anyone in his career.  I was in a lot of pain and kept waking up.  I don't remember being in pain, but I do remember waking up once and going ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, then nothing.

I think a lot of the pain had to do with the position I had to lay in, which was on my worst hip and worst shoulder and it put pressure on my degenerative discs, as well.  But when I woke up my fibromyalgia pain was gone.  I had been in the middle of a bad flare up and it was the weirdest thing in the world.  Usually my pain background level is a 6 or 7 out of 10 and the really bad days can go up to a 10.  I woke up at about a 3 and it was very specifically the degerative discs and the joints with arthiritis in them.  And high as a kite.  It was so weird to be at such a low level of pain.  I'd forgotten what it was like to not have the fibro pain.

The high lasted a good 48 hours and then I was just kind of dissociative for another couple of days before I felt like I was in my right mind again.  The fibromyalgia pain has not come back yet.  It will, but for now it is turned off and I am getting stuff done.

My daughter had her lumbar puncture on the 7th and her spinal fluid pressure was super high.  It was supposed to be a 20 and it was at 44.  She was given a new medication to start on, but we had to consult with her neurologist because she is on another medicine that does not play well with others.  It is generally a drug that needs to be weaned from if you take it for epilepsy, but she takes it for migraine.  So we are waiting to hear back, but of course, the neuro doc is out of the office for the rest of the week.

They were going to see if they could consult someone else, but even if they do, that person may decide it still needs to be a consult with her neuro doc first.  So we may get nothing until Monday.  She can't start the new drug until we find out and she really, really needs to start it because her pressure is building up again.

People always go on vacation at the least convenient times, I've found, for our medical needs.  Ah, well, what are you going to do, but wait it out?

Once she does start this medication it should help her significantly.

My chiropractor mentioned the other day that they are testing a new fibromyalgia drug that is supposed to be really promising and they are looking for volunteers.  I have to look it up and see if I can find out about it.  I wouldn't mind being in a trial and neither would DD.

My husband, son, and I are all scheduled to get our first dose of the Covid vaccine on Sunday and then DD is scheduled for the 25th (she wanted a late afternoon appointment and that was the soonest they had).  We'll be getting the Moderna vaccine.  I will be glad to have that done with.

We have hit our out of pocket max on medical so now all of that is covered for the rest of the year.  We hit it before the above procedures so those were completely covered.  I will still be putting money into the medical fund, though.  DD still needs to get a pair of glasses.  We were waiting until this stuff was resolved.  And then DS needs braces.  We'll be doing Invisilign.  I have $3000 saved for that so far.  We have to go in and do a consult and get an estimate, but it will probably be around $6000 based on what I am seeing online.  Which I can save by the end of the year if I put $400 per payday into the Medical Fund starting next week.

I don't want to go into debt for it.  I am hoping the orthodontist is willing to start with $3000 up front and then either do a pay as you go or wait until January for the rest.  When DD had her braces the doc we went to wanted half up front and then the rest paid off in the following 3 months which was very hard on the budget and that was when we had 50% coverage on insurance.  We have no coverage now with the dental we have.

I had been hoping to use that money for our deductible and out of pocket max for 2022, but such is life.  We just never get ahead when it comes to medical expenses.  But at least we break even.

I need to get the ball rolling on trying to get DD on disability.  She's got hypothyroid, secondary adrenal insufficiency which makes her steroid dependent, ideopathic intercranial hypertension (too much spinal fluid on the brain), fibromyalgia, bulging discs in her back, traumatic brain injury, Raynaud's Syndrome, and Sjogren's disease.

I think she should qualify and then there would be that money to use towards her medical expenses as well as to give her a little something for herself.  We can handle the living expenses, it's her medical that has us barely making progress towards our goals.  She has to go off our insurance at 26.  I don't know if there is any provision for her staying on longer because she is disabled, other than 18 months of COBRA.  DH is supposed to check into that and what qualifies for it.

I am not sure if going on disability also qualifies a person for a government insurance like medicare or the other one, but we might be able to afford a policy for her with the disability at least.  That's what she wants it to go towards if she can get it, her medical expenses.  A private policy would probably be better just because so many doctors don't take medicare or the like and you are often relegated to a lesser standard of care because of it.  That has been my experience with Mom anyway.  It would help if there weren't so many run away costs in medical treatment.

Anyway, other than that we've been working hard in building the garden.  It is going slower than planned, but is starting to come together.  Once we make a bit more progress I'll post photos or a video link or something.

I've also been reading now that I have functional glasses.  I'm on my third book in 4 weeks, which may not seem like a lot to the avid readers around here, but for me, it is.  The first book I read this year took me 3 months because my glasses were so bad and it wasn't easy to read.  This is so much better, now that they raised the reading line a couple of mm.  It's such a tiny amount, but it has made a world of difference.

They are saying the library might open up on a limited schedule shortly.  I hope so.  I like to browse and by then I will be fully vaccinated.  You just don't stumble across books that might be gems if you have to know what you are looking for to reserve online.  I like the books I wasn't looking for.  Those are some of the best.

It is also looking hopeful that the fair will run this year.  They didn't have it last year and it was a major bummer for the community.

Not much else going on here.

Updates on DD and BIL

April 17th, 2021 at 03:34 am

Well, DD did not get her lumbar puncture because the person who was going to perform it chickened out and decided she had too many problems for him to feel comfortable doing the lumbar puncture.  Even though we stated every possible medical issue she had at the time of scheduling the appointment and were assured that it would be no problem.  I double checked the day before because we have had issues in the past with this hospital.  Again we were assured everything was fine.  But when we actually get there they decide nope, too risky.  They wasted our time, made us get her cleared medically by a doctor the week before (an expense), made her got a covid test (another expense), delayed a necessary medical procedure, and thus treatment, and flat out ticked me off.  If they try to charge us even one cent for this I am going to raise holy heck.

Her doctor was angrier than I was about this.  He said what they did to her was unprofessional and discriminatory and he tore someone a new one.  He also had double checked about all her medical issues ahead of time.  So we have a referral in to Virginia Mason and it will be at least a week before we hear from them and then who knows when we can get the appointment scheduled.  I hate our local hospital.  Hate them.  Except the ER staff.  Virginia Mason has never been anything but a pleasant, caring experience.  Hopefully the pressure on her eyes does not make her go temporarily blind in the meanwhile.  It's already causing tunnel vision.  It's not permanent, but...

Deep breaths.  Anyhow, the news on BIL is very good.  While he is still weak he is laughing and talking and eating and well on his way to recovery.  He will still be in the hospital quite a while yet.  Sister won't be able to see him for 8 more days.  I'm not sure if that is because she is still under quarantine herself, or if it is because he hasn't tested negative yet.  I am thinking the latter because I think her quarantine is almost up.  It's pretty hard for her because she is not used to being away from him.  But they can communicate over computer now with video calls so that is an improvement.

Update on my BIL and my Daughter

April 13th, 2021 at 05:58 am

BIL has been improving every day.  Yesterday they were able to take out the feeding tube and today he was able to sit up and talk and eat.  They have moved him out of ICU.  He will still have to stay in the hospital, but there is no more talk of him not surviving.

On the 13th at 1:30 p.m. PDT my daughter has a lumbar puncture.  That's tomorrow, but the time stamp here is never right so putting the real date.  If you can keep her in your prayers that would be great.  Hopefully we will get the answers we need regarding the excess spinal fluid on the brain.  If it is what they think it is, it is treatable with medication.  If it is not we are back to square one.

Covid Hits Home

April 4th, 2021 at 04:25 am

My middle sister has been badly ill for the last two weeks and I had been trying to get her to go the hospital for the last week, because I suspected Covid based on her symptoms and based on what we had been through in March of last year with it.  Well, her husband came down with it as well and while it looks like she is going to come out of it, she is now under quarantine.  BIL on the other hand had to be flown to Portland.  He's got severe sleep apnea and the little hospital in the tiny Washington town did not have the resources to treat him.  It is not looking very good for him.  I wish they'd taken him to Vancouver or Seattle instead.  Portland is a very dangerous city to be in these days.

So we don't know if BIL is going to make it.  My sister is 56 years old.  That is awfully young to become a widow.  Hopefully that will not be the case.  Prayers would be appreciated.

My sister, well both of them, really, have been very anti-Covid vaccine.  While I am wary, I am willing.  They've never been anti-vaccine before with standard vaccines.  I know this is a whole different type of vaccine, that we know very little about it because there is no history, but I don't think it is population control or the mark of the beast or any of that.  I don't know when my sisters went all conspiracy theory.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good conspiracy theory, but I don't really believe any of them.  I wonder if getting the virus will change their minds at all.

I just hope that they will be able to afford all this.  Being airlifted is expensive without insurance, but BIL is on disability so he might be on government insurance, too.  And most major hospitals have charitable assistance programs.

I believe sister has life insurance on him.  At least I hope she does.  It's been crazy these last couple of weeks.  Hopefully it will all work out, but who knows.  With sister living so far away, it is not like we can be there for her.  At least her landlords will be taking care of her while she is in quarantine, bringing groceries and making sure she is alive every day.

I hate this virus.

Changes

March 22nd, 2021 at 01:50 am

My eldest sister moved out yesterday.  Not without almost coming to blows with Mom.  I say that, but I don't mean they would have physically fought.  It was a pretty strong verbal one, though.  My sister had a small stack of things she did not want to send with the movers and my mother wanted them to go with the movers instead of waiting a couple hours for my sister to come back and transport them in the car.  Mom couldn't get it through her head that my sister didn't want to send her personal documents, jewelry, laptop, and other most special items with the movers and wanted to move them herself in her car.  Some things you don't want to risk having misplaced, buried by boxes, or stolen.  It's like she's trying to slam the door on her on the way out.

Eldest sis will be much happier out of here.  Mom's been really petty and vindictive about her staying here even though she was invited to stay here.  They just don't get along well and it isn't my sister's fault.  She's never been able to get along with Mom since she hit high school on.  Even at 61 she can't.  I don't blame here, though.  Mom picks at her constantly.

She will be living in a small efficiency apartment 2 miles away.  It's a cute little apartment complex with one on the corner that always goes all out to decorate for the holidays.  I love driving past there to see whatever new thing they've got up.  Right now it is still leprechauns, but won't be much longer. Probably won't see anything else until they decorate for Easter.

Anyway, sis is safely out of Mom's war path and things seem to have settled around here.  My nephew (from my middle sister) is still living here, but I think he is getting close to proposing to his girlfriend.  She isn't allowed to live here, not even if they get married, so he would be moving out.  He's not got a job, though.  He has been living on his savings since he moved in here and could probably do so for another year.

I think he needs to get going on his life, though, get back into the work force., move out and marry this girl.  He'll be 30 in April.  We have fully reopened here, so it really is time for him to go get a new job.  It's one thing when a sixteen year old wants to play video games all day, every day.  It is kind of sad when someone his age actually does it for six months straight.  He doesn't help around the place, which is mostly what irritates me.  If you live in a household, you should contribute to it.

I have qualified for the Covid vaccine and so has my daughter, but not my husband and son.  I'm not sure when that will happen though.  DD needs to get a lumbar puncture soon due to issues with her spinal fluid putting pressure on her brain and eyes.  And I will be having the full roto rooter now that I'm over fifty.  I'm scheduled on April 20th.  I should have had it done last year, but Covid happened.  Not really looking forward to not eating for 24 hours and drinking that junk that makes me sick.  I've had an endoscopy before, but never a colonoscopy.

I need to schedule a mammogram in there at some point, too.  I haven't had one since I was 45.  Once we know when the lumbar puncture is, we can figure out when to get the vaccine.  Plus DH and I are going away for a little vacation on the 23rd of April to the cottage by the sea.  I need to get away from here and recharge by the water for my own mental health.  So it might not be gotten until May unless we can fit both injections around everything else.  I'm not really in a rush unless they start requiring it to enter businesses or something.  We go out so little, just to grocery shop and go to the appointments.  But we will get it when we can figure out the time.

Or I may go sooner and we wait a little more for DD.  Might not be a bad idea if we have a bad reaction and go down for a day like some people (my physical therapist had to go to bed for 24 hours after her second shot, but no one else she knows who got it has), to not do it on the same day so I can take care of her if it happens to her.  People with autoimmune dieseases like us are a little more prone to that reaction.

I have to go and pick up my new lenses tomrrow for my glasses.  They didn't measure right and the reading portion is so small I have to tilt my head up, but then look down through the bottom to even read.  Either that or literally hold them up an inch.  So no, that was getting fixed.  I had to go back 3 times before they would do it, kept trying to adjust the arms to fit better, but it didn't.  I do get one free remake with what I purchased, so hopefully nothing else bad happens.  I had a lot of issues with the coating on the last pair.  I will just be glad to have it sorted out and see if I can read comfortably again.  If not, I may just get a pair of prescription reading glasses made with my old frames.  But hopefully not and it will all just go well.

Dentist and Doctor

January 21st, 2021 at 05:16 am

Today I had a dentist appointment.  I had to have 4 bitewing x-rays, and then had a cleaning and an exam.  Everything looks great, but there might be the start of a chip on one of the pointy bits of the tooth behind the incisor.  So we'll have to watch.  I wear a mouth guard, but I still grind my teeth like crazy.  It mitigates the damage, but doesn't always stop it.  Since there is a $50 deductible for the year, plus we have to pay for a portion of the bitewings, it ended up costing $88.  This comes out of our FSA debit card, which we are free to use up to the full amount for the year and they deduct pre-tax from DH's paycheck every payday through the year.

After that I came straight home and got here about ten minutes before my son's follow up appointment with the doctor.  Right now he is doing a blind study and ADHD meds.  Unfortunately they put them all in dark purple capsules so you can't see through them.  DS is allergic to dyes, so it is affecting him somewhat, regardless of whatever is in the capsule.  He is having to live on dye free Waldryl and we have to monitor him closely for the rest of the study in case he starts to have suicidal thoughts or violent mood swings.  The pills themselves, if he gets put on one, will be white.

It is so weird to see some of the issues arising from his past that had been cured by cutting artificial dyes and artificial sweetners out of his diet.  I think he must be on the placebo this week, though.  There is no increase in focus.  If anything, he is more spacey than usual.  And he's pacing a lot.  At least the placebos and actual drugs are gluten free so he doesn't have to deal with that on top of everything else.

The eat from the pantry challenge is still going great.  Tonight for dinner I made French Onion Chicken.  I haven't made it in a long time, but it is still as amazing as the first time I made it.  And while it is time-consuming, it is simple, and a lot of the wait time I was just on my computer so it went by pretty fast.  It is definitely not a set it and forget it meal.  But it was so yummy and I even dipped my broccoli in the broth, which added so much to it.

I did alter it slightly because I did not have Muenster or Gryere cheese.  I used Jarlsberg, because that is what I had on hand.  I thought I had Gryere and in a normal month I would have just sent DH to get some, but instead I made do.  The Jarlsberg gave it a slightly different, but nice flavor.

I cut up some extra onion while I was at it so there is about one onion's worth of slices in the fridge ready for some recipe later in the week.  I also had to shred the Jarlsberg for this recipe, so I went ahead and did a big brick of parmesan and a big wedge of Romano.  They have been in the fridge for a long time, so it was nice to use what I had and put it in a more accessible form for meals in the upcoming weeks.

We did do a little bit of grocery spending, though.  My husband got my daughter some Simply Cheetos and some Dietz and Watson deli ham and then 2 loaves of bread.  We agreed at the start of the challenge that bread was one of things we were going to buy and that we would allow a couple things for my daugher post surgery, so the ham and the Simply Cheetos were for her.  We've found that the Simply Cheetos quell her nausea.

The ham was just so she could get something easy without help from others if she woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to eat something.  She wakes up when the pain meds wear off and then likes to eat a little something with the pain pills so she is not taking them on an empty stomach.

That came to $24.24 of grocery spending so far this month.  I may end up spending another $25 this month, because we are out of oranges and I started the last head of lettuce and possibly milk.  We still have half a gallon and we don't really drink milk, we just use it in things or on cereal.  I really would like to be able to put $750 in the beef envelope out of a $800 monthly grocery budget.  Even $700 would make me very happy.

This and That

January 17th, 2021 at 06:07 am

My daughter came home from the hospital last night.  They got all of the tumor.  We have to wait a week or so for the biopsy results, but it did not appear to be cancerous.  She is doing well, eating soup and Welch's version of Jell-O, which has no artificial dyes in it.  She's a little high on the pain medicine, but that's kind of how she reacts to it.

I started physical therapy on Friday.  They can't do much with me because of how inflammed I am right now, but they started an electrical stimulation thing called a tens machine and did that over the L-4 and L-5 vertabrae on my back.  I think it made a small amount of difference, but it is early days.

The pantry challenge is going well.  We still have not gone to the grocery store yet.  I have only repeated one meal and that was because there were leftovers.  I have salmon and spot prawns thawing in the fridge, both of which my husband and son caught.  DD thinks those will be easy for her to eat.  Her jaw and throat are pretty sore from having a breathing tube in during surgery.  So easy to chew foods are on the agenda for a couple of days.  We have a lot of seafood in the freezer, but it is getting close to the time when it needs to be used up by.

I finally succeeded in finding some dye free, fragrance free shampoo and conditioner.  I am hoping they are good products.  I still can't find a body wash like that that doesn't use coconut oil.  We make do on the castile bar baby soap that is fragrance and dye free, but sometimes you just want a liquid body wash.

If that new stimulus Biden wants passes that will give you money for all dependents not just children, we will be getting quite a lot of money.  DH made a mistake when he was trying to figure out our taxes early.  Turns out we will owe somewhere in the $900 range, not the over $2000 he'd originally thought.

If so, and if this stimulus comes quickly I figure we'll open a spousal IRA for 2020, which may be enough to get rid of that tax bill, and see about getting a new ceiling in the tiny bathroom.  If it doesn't pass or we don't get it, then I guess we will just have to save up to fix it.  First off I will need to price everything, but I think DH and DS can do it themselves.

It should only require two pieces of the moisture resistant drywall and rental of a drywall lifter, and some tape, some mud, and some paint.  We have plastic sheeting to keep paint from dripping onto the floor, tub, sink, mirror, and shelves.  We saved everything our mattresses were wrapped in.

I got my first seed order today from Victory seeds.  I am really excited about starting to plan for the new garden.  We are completely redoing it with cinderblock raised beds that we will use mortar on to make a permanent structure.  The wooden beds just fall apart too quickly and I don't want to throw away anymore money on this.

I have another order coming from Fedco and I have to order a couple more things yet, but not much.  I am just waiting on one of the companies to put up its seeds for the year, which should be any day now.  It's just the type of broccoli and the type of lettuce I want.

Not too much going on here.  I have slowly been working my way through the novel I am reading and am about 80% done.  I can't read like I used to since the concussion a few years ago and because of the floaters in my eyes so I mostly take 3 to 4 weeks to read a large print novel these days.  I set my goal on Goodreads to 12 books read for the year.  I listen to a lot of audio stories and books, though, but I don't count that as actual reading.  I do read quite a bit online, but I have to put the magnification up pretty high.

I've now lost 13.4 pounds, but I gave in and ate gluten today, still within the confines of my diet.  It was breaded cod fish.  We will see how I feel tomorrow.  I don't react like my kids do, but it usually makes me feel bloated.  At least I made it halfway through the month.

 

Bits and Pieces

January 13th, 2021 at 06:26 am

The Eat from the Pantry Challenge has been going well.  We haven't bought anything at the grocery store since December.  I had a massive I don't know what to cook/I don't want to cook moment tonight because I am just exhausted, but my son stepped up and listed ideas and then helped me do everything but chop the onion to get dinner on the table.  He's been so good about that.  He really wants us to get that grass fed side of beef.  He's also been really encouraging when I want to eat gluten, by talking me out of it.  I'm going to hold out as long as I can before I buy some fresh produce and milk.  The challenge allows for that, just to keep any spending to a minimum.  We still have both.  I'll be baking gluten free bread tomorrow.

I've lost a total of 10.8 pounds since the start of my diet the day after Christmas.  I'm happy with that and I'm past the point of wanting to cheat on my diet.  My diet does allow for gluten, but my personal goal is to stay off it for the month, then possibly the year.  It'll be a step by step, moment by moment journey.  I hope I can hang with the diet for the whole year, even if I don't stay off gluten.  I'm usually pretty gung ho for a while, but then life happens.

I'd like to stay away from eating out this year, too.  I feel better after not having eaten take out at all this year.  I know if we have to travel to Seattle and back for medical reasons there will have to be a meal somewhere, but MIL says she will pay for all travel costs related to DD's medical stuff and that includes food and lodging.  She's also paying the Virginia Mason bill for surgery for us when it comes, too.  So that will be DD's deductible and her out of pocket max and then we won't have to pay for any medical stuff for DD for the rest of the year.

Things are doing better here.  My little grand niece has been home from the hospital for 2 days and is doing a lot better.  Still waiting on the test results, though.  My sister and her husband came for a visit today (they are the grandparents of my grand niece).  I stayed six feet away from both of them and talked for a little while.  They were just dropping off their son, who lives here, and then BIL has a doctor's appointment down this way on Thursday.

DD had her Covid test today and goes in for her liver tumor to be removed on Thursday.  I am not going down, just DH.  They won't let us in to see her at all and the last car trip I had to Seattle put me out of commission for weeks.  It's what led to the pulled muscle.  I can't just sit in the car for several hours and wait until the hotel room is ready.  It hurts too much.  And since I won't drive in Seattle traffic due to the lunatics (seriously, Orange County is sane compared to Seattle drivers), DH it is.  And she is honestly a Daddy's girl.

They are keeping her for 24 hours observation due to the secondary adrenal insufficiency, but it is a laproscopic surgery, unless something makes it not be, in which case it will become a  3 day stay.  I hope it is the former, because her anxiety levels will be very high not seeing one of us for 3 days.  She hasn't had a panic attack in a long time, they were mostly related to cortisol crashes, but this is the sort of thing that might bring one on.

I start physical therapy again on Friday.  I don't want to, because it didn't help last time and I am worse off now, but they won't do an MRI until I've done it.  I know there is something going on with my left hip that is beyond degenerative rheumatoid arthritis.  I think there might be a detached or torn ligament.  So I'll go, I'll do the exercises, and I will hope against hope that they will work.

I am working on getting the kitchen organized and more disability friendly.  We got some new shelves put up and the best part of that is I have the recycle bins at a level where I don't have to bend down to put stuff in them.  They are at belly-height for me, so I can just pull the bin out and put something in it.  Because of the damge to the L-4 and L-5 vertebrae, it was pretty hard to bend to the floor and they were under something so I couldn't just drop them straight down.  DD is pleased with that, too.  These are just our inside bins that we fill and then take out to dump in the bins that go curbside.  We recycle more than anyone else on our block.  We also only put out a garbage can every other week and every other house puts out one every week.  It cuts our bill significantly.

Well, that's it for tonight.

Change of Plans

January 10th, 2021 at 02:38 am

What is that old expression about making plans and then God laughing at them?  Well, my plans for 2021 just got thrown for a loop.  Not completely, and it is something we can cash flow through March for, but it means only putting $195 a month into the Emergency Fund.  For the first time ever we will be owing taxes.

It isn't an exact amount just yet, and won't be until DH gets his W-2, but with the numbers we do have, he estimated we will need to pay $2304 in taxes.  It might vary.  That means saving $768 a month for the next three months.  The only place to take that money from was what we planned to put into the Emergency Fund.

If I want to hit our goal of six month's expenses by the end of the year, that means I will need to save $1018.55 a month from April through December.  What I had budgeted for was $950 a month before all this.  So that is a shortfall of $68.55 a month or $616.95 total.  We might be able to make up for that on 3 paycheck months where medical would not be taken out so the checks are bigger.  There is one in April and one in October this year.  I would know how much it would be by April to know if it was enough in October to make up that difference.  If not, I'll just have to find the money somewhere.

I'm not sure what our tax situation will be for 2021.  We will be almost maxing out our 401K which one would think would lower our taxes by quite a lot.  We only did 5% in 2020 and are doing 15% this year, which is $17,160.  The max is $17,500 for 2021, although since we are over 50 we could do the catch up rate of $19,500.  But we're not, at least not this year.  Once we have our six month's expenses saved, the plan for 2022 is to max out to the catch up rate if we can.

I don't know if they will eliminate that tax cut Trump put in or not, but if they do that will affect everything, too, so until we see what they will do in Congress, it is kind of tilting at windmills to even try to think about taxes for 2021.  Of course, that drives my planner's mind crazy.  I am going forward assuming it will be eliminated, though.

I guess if we do have to pay taxes in 2021, we will probably be fine just doing what we are doing this time, altering the budget to cashflow the taxes.

You know what?  I am so grateful we have no debt.  So, so grateful.  This would have made me so upset a year ago, but now we can just absorb it.  Yes, it makes me annoyed, I don't like change, but not "Oh, my gosh, what are we going to do?" freaked out.  I knew exactly what we could do and how to manage it without even blinking.  That peace of mind, after so many years under the burden of debt, is priceless.

I don't know if I mentioned here about my little grand niece, but she was in the ICU at Children's for a couple of days, then one day out of the ICU and today she got to go home, but she's still not great, just not life-threatening anymore.  There is something wrong with her blood sugar, like she's not absorbing enough sugar or something and it just got so bad because she stopped drinking for a day and got dehydrated.  They had genetic testing done, but won't get that back for a week or so.  Meanwhile they gave my nephew and his wife some sugar paste that absorbs directly into her gums if she won't drink enough juice to keep it up.  They haven't mentioned diabetes at all, so I don't think that is the issue.  Hopefully they will get it figured out soon.

Moving was Much Easier Today--Grocery Spending Tracking

December 18th, 2020 at 08:28 am

As my back starts to calm down it is getting easier to get around and even to stand in one spot, although that is the hardest thing for me.  Sitting up straight still hurts, but not to the point that I can't do it, so I am back in my computer chair instead of the recliner.  Standing in one spot hurt less today, but still hurt too much to scrub the dishes.  I'm hoping by the weekend I can pick that task up again and empty the sink.  DH is trying his best, both kids are sick, so it is what it is.

I have also lost 5 pounds in the last four days, so I am sure that is helping a lot with my back.  I can tell it is from my stomach because of how my clothes fit, and that is what is pulling on my back, so it is a good thing.  I hope this degenerative athritis helps me to actually stay on the diet this time.  It is so much better already and I know that for every pound I lose it will only feel better.  I was able to do some walking today, albeit at the grocery store.  I did one shop on Tuesday before the sales I wanted went off and then two shops today.

Tuesday I spent $82.45 at Fred Meyer and bought 2 chuck roasts, 1 Justin's honey peanut butter, 2 small picnic hams (will fit in the crock pot or the Instant Pot), 6 pounds of hamburger, 2 packages of chicken thighs with 20 thighs between them), 1 steelhead trout, 1 pound shrimp, and 2 pineapples.  I didn't buy anything that was not on sale.

Today we went to Whole Foods first to get some lemon and peppermint extracts, garlic sauce, 4 packages of Birchbender paleo waffles (gluten free), and gluten free Jovial brown rice pastas that were 2 spaghetti, 2 penne, 2 fusilli, 2 farfalle, and 2 tagliatelle, 2 bags of soy free tater puffs (tots) and 2 bags of soy free hashbrowns.  I spent $89.28 there and used my Amazon Prime discount.  Gluten free pasta is about $5 a box.  If I ever find my pasta maker in storage, I will make it from scratch, but until then this will do.

We only eat pasta once a week, so this plus what I already had at home should last us 3 months if we go into a full fledged lockdown again.  Plus we don't know if we will need to quarantine before and after DD's surgery, either.  I'd like to not have to worry about shopping.

Then tonight we went to Haggen and it cost $101.48.  I got 4 of the huge bottles of organic ketchup, 6 bags of the Perdue gluten free chicken strips, and 2 of the bottled half gallon containers of milk.  Each bottle has a two dollar deposit that we get back when we return them.  Of course I forgot to take the 3 empty bottles we have at home with me.  I wish gluten free was not so expensive and one day I will learn how to do my own gluten free chicken strips, but right now it is good just to have a couple convenience foods that the kids can eat.

So all told I spent $225.67.  I have $77 left in my grocery envelope, plus some change that I just don't count, but use.  And I sent DH to the store last week and he spent around $97.  I remember what I sent him for was 20 pounds of potatoes, 5 pounds of onions, 2 pounds of carrots, 4 scallions, grapes, some deli meat, Jarlsberg cheese, 1 loaf of gluten free bread, and 2 loaves of potato bread.

We get paid a day early on the 24th and I won't spend anymore between now and then, so I think I will sweep that extra grocery money into starting the Bulk Meat Envelope for the side of beef I want to get at the end of next summer, followed by half a hog, and a whole lamb if I save enough.  It makes sense to save it out of the grocery budget, although I may have to save more than that.  In 8 months I should have enough for the beef if I can put aside $200 every 4 weeks, which puts me at August, which is when a lot of butchering is done.  I might have a little more since there will be 1 or 2 three-payday months.  Probably more in June and July and August because of the garden produce.  Anyway, that is the plan.

X-rays

December 12th, 2020 at 03:48 am

My x-ray results came back and there is significantly more degeration due to arthritis in the L-4 and L-5 vertabrae, which is the lower spine, but no bulging discs.  So that is probably what is causing all the pain in the hip, pelvis, and down the leg.  I still think there is something else wrong, like with ligaments or tendons, but I have to do more physical therapy before I can get an MRI.

He is referring me to a different physical therapist's office this time.  I didn't really feel like the other place has ever really done me all that much good.  I still do the exercises they gave me, but I don't feel like it helps at all.

DH took an hour off today to drive me around to do the banking and then to the post office to mail the tithe check and another bill that we don't do online.  It hurts too much for me to drive right now.  He made up the hour later in the day.  Working from home is a wonderful thing.

We were going to go and have our glasses made today, but they told us that if we wait until January we will qualify for both frames and lenses and not just lenses.  I had no idea we were that close to being able to do that.  I thought it was at least six months away.  So we will try again after the calendar turns.

DD is having bad symptoms today from the bleeding liver tumor.  She hasn't been able to eat much at all the past 3 days and is super nauseated and in a lot of pain.  I know we are in the home stretch here, but it is agonizing for her.  I'm just glad they finally decided to do something.  She looks awful.  You can just see how much pain she is in by looking at her.  I feel helpless.

I did get the bills and all that done, but I'm too tired of sitting in my chair to do another entry with all that tonight.  Hope everyone else is doing well.  I'm too tired to read the blogs right now to check up on you all.

 

A Bit of Good News

December 10th, 2020 at 10:59 pm

I do have a bit of good news in all the upheaval of 2020.  There will be a Christmas contribution to the 401K and a small bonus at DH's work.  And I do mean small in comparison to past years.  $500 after taxes is nothing to sneeze at and will go directly to the Emergency Fund.  Unless DH works overtime between now and the end of the year the 401K contribution will be $813.17 because it is based on a percentage of hours worked during the year.

Starting next year they are going to start matching 401K contributions again, but not at 5%.  At 2.5%.  It's a lot better than the 0% they had to do for the last half of 2020.

I saw the doctor yesterday so I could get migraine medication and pain medication and do a blood pressure check.  I got the flu shot for the first time in a couple of decades.  I had a gut level intuition that this was going to be a bad flu year and they had the right strains this time.  I don't know where that came from, but I have always found that I should follow that voice when it happens.  I'll probably feel cruddy the next couple of weeks because of it, I always do, but that's the choice I made.

We also talked about my hip and low back pain and how it radiates he is suspecting a bulging disc, so once I am done with this entry I am going to go get an x-ray taken and see if there is anything obvious.  I might have to do physical therapy again.  I don't see how that will help as I am still doing all the exercises from last time.  And 45 minute sessions to an hour with a mask on when I have asthma is going to be torture even if I use my inhaler first.  I'll probably have to do albuterol treatments afterwards.

Then after I've put in my PT time for the insurance company I can get an MRI on my low back and hip area.  It's a lot of hoops for this type of MRI.  I hope they find something they can fix when all is said and done.

So, Progress I Guess

December 9th, 2020 at 12:44 am

So last night around 5:30 I got a message notification.  Not sure why my phone didn't ring, but it wouldn't have mattered since I was not in the room with my phone at the time.  Usually my fitbit tells me when my phone is ringing, but this time it just told me missed call.  Technology, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  Anyway it was from the Virginia Mason surgery center scheduler.

Bear in mind that my daughter's liver daughter met with the liver tumor board yesterday, but we had not heard anything from her doctor at this point.  We weren't too fussed because we knew she had a video appointment with her today at 3.  So I was planning to wait until after the appointment to call back but they called again first thing in the morning.  This time the phone was answered and they said it was for a consult for surgery, which is more information than I had the first time.  So not really knowing what was going on yet, DH went ahead and scheduled it anyway.  On the day and at the time when DD has her brain MRI.

So then that had to be rescheduled.  Then an email came through from the liver doctor which explained what was going on with the liver tumor and also that she may have to go see a kidney doctor after all this because she has multiple cysts on one kidney.  Then we had the video appointment and got more details.  They want to take out the tumor.  It's basically right on the edge of the bottom of the liver and will be a super easy, laproscopic surgery.  Apparently now that she had time to review the MRI and so has the liver board, her tumor has been bleeding internally into the liver which is what was causing the hot ice pick through the back pain.

Apparently my daughter is that special someone who does get pain with this sort of thing (which we have been insisting on) and also she's too young for this sort of thing so that's extra bad, and along with various and sundry things, it is weird and worrying (her words) to not only the doctor but to the tumor board.  And also left unchecked this thing could turn cancerous because of the internal bleeding.

Of course she is that special someone.  This has been her medical history her whole life.  If this were an episode of House, he would not be able to find any one diagnosis because she has all of them...except Lupus.  Doctors are trained to look for horses, not zebras.  Well, my daughter has a herd of zebras running around inside her and not only that, but they are rainbow striped with wings and a unicorn horn.

All that to say they are going to flipping do something.  It's no longer wait, and wait, and wait.  It's get that puppy out within the next 3 months or so.  And MIL has already said she will pay for the surgery, the hotel, and meals while down there, since it will hit next year when the deductible and out of pocket max will, as it inevitably does, start over.  And DH can take sick time so it will not affect us financially whatsover.  That is a burden lifted.

Then I had to call DS's neurologist and see why they didn't bill the insurance for his latest appointment.  We gave them the insurance card at the visit and watched them scan it in.  Apparently they still sent it to last year's insurance, because they didn't bother to terminate the old one when they put in the new one.  So after a half hour on the phone, mostly on hold, I got that straightened out and they will bill the proper people.  Darn tootin'.  That bill was for $284.  The lady was really nice, though, and actual time to take care of the error was less than five minutes.  But dang, that doctor charges a lot for a 20 minute office visit.

Almost Through the Potatoes and Medical Stuff (Always Medical Stuff)

November 11th, 2020 at 06:06 am

Yesterday I canned 14 more quarts of potatoes (and I mislabled them with today's date, but what are you going to do?  I washed up the jars and tops today so they won't be sticky in storage.  They didn't feel sticky, but I don't take any chances.  I have enough of my garden potatoes left to do 7 more quarts and that will also fill my potato shelf.  Then I will start on carrots and parsnips.  I am switching to the single decker canner instead of the double decker, since I will be doing smaller loads from here on out.

DD went to the eye doctor today and the bulging optic nerves have stopped bulging so much.  She lost 20 pounds in six weeks, so we are thinking the water retention was what the issue was, because she had ballooned up because of it, and she is out of the danger zone now, but she is to follow up after a while just to be on the safe side.

No more doctor appointments until Monday when we will go down to Virginia Mason to meet the new endocrinologist and then spend the night and go to the liver specialist on Tuesday.  I am glad my nephew, my sister, and my son will all be here with Mom, though.

We are trying to sell the last two rabbits we have, but Facebook hates animal sales and censors posts on them.  You have to be very careful how you word things.  Even if you don't say a price they automatically throw out animal photos to be checked.  It's a farm group.  Farm sales should be allowed.  It is no way, shape, or form like a puppy mill, but that's how they treat it.  I hate their censorship.  I wish MeWe would take off, but I don't think it is going to.

I am going to look into Rumble as an alternative to Youtube as well.  Every time the algorithm starts working for me, they change it, and my channel just gets kicked back down.  It makes it hardly worth the effort, especially in the off season.

Tonight for dinner I made beef stew with celery, onions, and potatoes, with gluten free flour for the gravy.  I was out of carrots.  And had two yellow kiwis.  Those things are amazing.  I like them way more than green kiwis and I like those a lot.

We haven't spent any money for the last few days, but I will be tomorrow morning when I buy the carrots and parsnips.  I need 8 pounds of carrots and 8 pounds of parsnips.  Then on Friday when it is payday I will buy some more to do.  I haven't gone to the store since before the election so I have no idea what the shelves look like.  I won't be able to can much at all next week as I will be wiped by our trip to Seattle I am sure.  The season is winding down for me anyway, unless there is a terrific meat sale of some sort. 

 

 

New Medicine and Dietary Regimen Improving Things

November 9th, 2020 at 12:12 am

I went to see my rheumatologist on Thursday while I was in the middle of one my worst RA/Fibromyalgia flares I've had yet.  She decided to try me on prednisone long-term in conjunction with the embrel and hydroxychloroquine I already take.  I started it Friday morning and by the time I took the second dose Saturday my swelling and pain had already started to go down.  By this morning my hands felt almost normal.  They still tremble, but they are so much more functional and the pain has reduced tremendously.  I haven't seen my fingers this small in a few years.

She's started me on 10 mg for two weeks and then I can move up to 20 mg.  I will be seeing her again on the 23rd and we will go from there.  I really hope this is the answer.  I feel so much better in my body right now, it's like it isn't even mine.  The flare is definitely over.

As for making changes to my diet, I have stuck to portion sizes for the last 3 days and I am off the caffeine again.  I have been making sure that I drink 3 of my waterbottles a day.  My waterbottle holds 32 ounces.  I would like to get to 4 of them a day now that water is the only liquid I am drinking.

Today I am making a new step of controlling my high carbs to one meal a day, and then from there I will work towards only have 60 grams of high carbs a day.  Right now my plan is one fruit serving and one higher glycemic carb vegetable serving with my protein and low glycemic carb vegetables at dinner.  Tonight's plan is chicken sausage with bell peppers and onions and some fresh pineapple.  The onions and pineapple being higher glycemic and the peppers being lower.  Breakfast was 2 eggs and half a cucumber and lunch was thinly sliced leftover pork (4 oz) over a bed of lettuce.

I feel a lot better now that I am eating better again, too.  Caffeine really drags me down and makes me retain a lot of water and I can always feel the difference between being on it and being off of it.  I also feel the difference when I eat too many carbs or too many grain based carbs.  I will be going back to eating gluten free 100% of the time, too.  I won't be eating any gluten free bread for at least a week, though.  Just fruits, vegetables, and protein until things are firmly under control.

It is weird paying so much attention to portion sizes.  I don't think I really realized before just how skewed my perception was of portion sizes.  Now that I am measuring and weighing my food, it shows how off I was.  I am trying to do a 1600 calorie diet and being more careful is helpful to that.  I don't want to do anything more drastic than that.  I don't need superfast weight loss, just weight loss.

I am using my fitbit app to track both food and water.  Not really worrying about steps at the moment, but maybe in a week or so I can be more mindful of those as well.  Incremental changes are more important to me than trying to do everything at once and then failing.

General Update

November 5th, 2020 at 12:29 am

Yesterday I canned 14 quarts of potatoes, which is 2 lbs per jar.  I peeled 29 pounds of potatoes.  I always do an extra pound because you lose about a pound to peels.  My hands were very sore afterwards, but are doing surprisingly well this morning.  That makes the total jars of potatoes canned so far 21.  I think I've got at least enough to do 14 more jars, possibly 21, but we'll have to see.  There are lots of little ones that are too small to peel and will work better as roasted or fried.

I took DS to the doctor this afternoon and they finally gave him antibiotics for his sinus infection.  Hopefully he will start to improve now.  They should have given them to him the last week of September when he went in the first time, but his dad took him because I was too sick and his dad does not know how to advocate for him or tell the doctor's what they need to hear to get antibiotics.  We know when we have sinus infections around here, they happen too often, but sometimes on call doctors don't know the history, so I have to be forceful in advocating.

I finished my course of antibiotics yesterday and I am glad to be done with it.  I had to take the liquid form because the pills have red dye in them and I am allergic to red dye.  But the liquid has artificial sweetner and it was awful.  I don't react well to artificial sweeteners, but at least they don't intefere with my breathing or give me hives or cause migraines.  Lesser of two evils, especially since I can't take penicillin and the Z-pack didn't work.  I don't feel 100% better, but I do feel functional at a higher level than I've been.  If I could just shake the cough I would be happy.

I am taking the day off from doing any work and just giving my body a chance to recover from all the canning work I've done in the last few days.  Tomorrow I have an appointment with the rheumatologist and I am going to see if we can try a different medication.  I don't think mine are working anymore.  If she prescribes it with an anti-nausea med, I might be able to take one of the others I tried before that made me sick.

I am preparing to start on a new eating plan tomorrow.  I am going to work on weight loss again.  I am prepping the vegetables today so it will be easier for me to just get up and grab the proper food in the right portions.  All of the junk food is out of the house and I'm not going to bring in any more for the next two weeks.  And I'm going to go off gluten again, hopefully permanently.  My focus will be primarily on controlling my carbs to 60 grams, eating more seafood (twice a week at least), keeping my vegetable intake up, and cutting out gluten for good.  Also, I'll be cutting out sugar, but I will allow a small amount of honey while breaking the sugar addiction so the withdrawal isn't too bad.

Entry I Wrote on October 25, 2020

October 28th, 2020 at 10:24 pm

The lack of progress on the blogs is really starting to frustrate me.  I know it’s a platform change and that just makes everything drag out longer.  It looks like a better system when I can get into it.  At least one from this century anyway.

So, I added up the numbers and this is what we have harvested this year:

102 pounds of potatoes

5 pounds of bell peppers

5 pounds of Anaheim mild chile peppers

3 pounds of serrano chile peppers

6 pounds of Trident poblano peppers

2 pounds of jalapenos

12 pounds of radishes, plus their greens

3 pounds of carrots

64 ears of corn

104 pounds of green beans

6 bunches of celery

12 kohlrabi

12 broccoli heads

45 pounds of cucumbers

3 months’ worth of lettuce greens

2 cabbages

30 pounds of tomatoes

5 months’ worth of chard (still going strong)

10 pounds of beets, plus their greens

1 quart jar each of dried peppermint, spearmint, raspberry leaves, bee balm, calendula, and yarrow for tea

1 quart jar each of dried basil, oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and nasturtium buds (dried they taste peppery)

 

I will be drying and powdering some of the poblanos to make ancho powder and the serranos to make a substitute for cayenne powder.

 

Sirloin steaks are on sale this week for $2.88/lb.  Hopefully I can make it over to the store this week and get some.  I’d like to grind some for burger.  You can’t beat that price right now.  Don’t know if I will make it or not.  This sinus infection is still kicking my butt.  I did go and have a car appointment on the 23rd and the doctor I saw put me on prednisone and an antibiotic called cefdinir.  I had to get the liquid kind though, because the pill form is red #40 and red #28 and I really prefer not to have migraines, thank you.  It tastes like artificial sweetener, which I also try to avoid, but sometimes you have to pick your battles.  Since I can’t take penicillin without getting hives it is the lesser of two evils.  And the Z-pack didn’t work last time.

 

Mom canned 14 jars of beef for me and seven jars of potatoes, so even though I’ve been in and out of it, things are still moving in stocking up the pantry for the upcoming cold and flu/political upheaval season.  Time is running short and I want to be ready in time.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention, DS passed his driver’s test.  This makes my life so much easier.  His license should be here in a few days.

Entry I Wrote on October 23, 2020

October 28th, 2020 at 09:57 pm

Things have been trucking along here in the days of a non-functional blog platform.  Mostly, I've been canning beef.  They had a massive sale on chuck roast, $2.99 a pound, at Fred Meyer on the last ad flyer and no limit.  I went in 3 times and ended up with a total of 34 roasts.  I did check with the meat guy and he said people just weren't stocking up and to take what I wanted because if it didn’t sell they’d grind it into hamburger.  I always made sure there were plenty left.  I will never clear a bin or shelf of anything except the particular type of chili DS likes.  It is hard to find so I grab it when I do.  I will be canning 14 jars today and putting the rest through the meat grinder for hamburger.  It is far cheaper at the roast price than at the burger price right now.

DH dug up the last of the potatoes.  It was a little over 4 pounds of baby reds.  So that is done.  I harvested all of the peppers and pulled them because I want to plant garlic in that bed, assuming I can find any to plant.  I’m checking the feed store today.  I cut off the side shoots on the broccoli and pulled them, too.  I still need to finish that bed and then we will be using it for strawberries.

I picked the dried out snow pea pods and harvested the seeds for next year.  With the way things are going seeds may sell out faster than they did this year because of the pandemic.  I’m saving bean seeds, too even though I still have a big packet left.  Thankfully, I’ve got quite a bit of corn seed.  And if I can’t get seed potatoes in the spring, I can do the organic grocery store potatoes again.  Maybe some of the ones I harvested will keep until March and I won’t have to worry about it.  I have tomato seeds and zucchini seeds and sweet meat squash seeds that I harvested a couple years ago.  And I have copra keeping onion seeds.  I am most concerned about finding an open pollinated carrot seed so I can start saving carrot seeds in the future, too.  There are a lot of seed packets in my bin of some older seeds so maybe some of those will germinate, too.  I’ll be starting a lot of my own seeds in the spring.  I’m going to do a full set up, no playing around this time.  It was hard to find all the starts I wanted last spring.  I need to be better prepared this time around.

I just want to be ready for whatever is going to be thrown at us next.  I really dread what the next three weeks are going to bring for this county.  If riots come to my city, I don’t know if we can protect ourselves.  We should be far enough away from Seattle, but we do have about 100 or so of that sort who like to cause trouble here downtown.  Mostly college students and university professors.  Usually armed citizens come out to deal with it and protect the shops, though, just as a presence that keeps things from getting out of hand, so who knows?  There’s three months to go after that before we see if things will even go back to some kind of normal.

Hopefully, it’ll just be bad for a week.  We have to go to Virginia Mason in Seattle two weeks post-election to the liver specialist to see if my daughter’s liver tumor has grown, although we should have the MRI results back in her patient portal sometime this week.  I still like things interpreted by a doctor.  The day before that she will be meeting with the new endocrinologist who specializes in adrenal insufficiency, so there will be an overnight down there which makes me even more nervous.  Most of the rioting has been going on a half mile away from the hospital, but that is not very far.  The talk is that they will riot no matter who is elected.  Fun times. /sarcasm  Remember the days when people accepted the results with dignity and grace?

This afternoon I have to take DD to the rheumatologist and remake the appointment I cancelled for myself because I was sick while we’re there.  I think I’ll just make mine a telemedicine visit, though.  This time of year I tend to get sick a lot.  I really need to make an appointment to get my eyes checked for new glasses, too so I can get them and some contacts.  I am sick of my glasses fogging up every time I put on a mask so I want contacts for the days I have to go out in public.

I made a very good loaf of gluten free bread last night, in the bread machine, using Jovial gluten free bread flour.  I tweaked it from the last time I made it and it was far less dense and the crust was amazing.  It was almost as big as regular sandwich bread.  I think with a bit more yeast, honey, and salt I can get it to be a fantastic loaf, but this one was enjoyable.  The one before was too dense for my liking.  I am getting this thing down.  And once I do I’m going to try to find a way to make a crispy crust gluten free pizza.  I can make a soft crust, but I want to get that crunch I like so much from the gluten pizzas.  I think this bread flour will help.  Jovial’s been in the business of gluten free since way before it came a thing and just belonged to celiacs.  They have the best pasta and I am looking forward to trying their pastry flour, too.

Well, I’ve wasted enough time on here, I best get back to real life for the day.

Are We Working Yet?

October 22nd, 2020 at 08:51 pm

Testing

Wellness Visit with Mostly Good Lab Results

September 12th, 2020 at 03:03 am

I was finally well enough to go in to the doctor for my Wellness visit, which I needed to do by October 1, because if DH and I both do that yearly and turn in the results of our labs to his work, we get $20 a month off our insurance premium, which is a savings of $240 a year. They don't report these to the insurance company, however, it's just a company program to make sure you get your check ups. I had the labs done back in early June, but had to cancel the appointment that went with it when I got sick and then didn't get better until recently.

For the most part my labs are better. There has been a steady improvement in the last 2 years, but this one was really good, except for my glucose level, which went up from 106, which was higher than it should have been, to 119, but I had eaten an unusual amount of sugar the night before (as in two gluten free brownies) for a special occasion.

We are going to retest that next week and I'll make sure not to eat things I don't usually eat. I won't try to be extra good, though, as I want a real reading, based on my normal eating. I just won't be extra bad. I don't tend to eat processed sugar, just fruit and not every day on that.

My good cholesterol (HDL) went up one point, from 43 to 44. My bad cholesterol (LDL) went down by 10 points from 67 to 57. My Triglycerides went down 26 points from 162 to 136. And my total cholesterol went from 142 to 128. So a nice downward trend on everything. My numbers were really good last time and the doctor is happy with the even better improved numbers.

I wonder what my lipid panel would have looked like if I'd had it while on my dietbet and eating for weight loss all month? I did win my dietbet goal, but until all weigh-ins are in at midnight tonight and they close it out on Saturday, I won't know by how much. I think I'm going to wait a week or two before signing up for another one. It is motivational, but I started a bit of a flare and am retaining water like crazy, so would like to wait until that is sorted.

The doctor did up the portion of my blood pressure medicine that is a diuretic because of the water retention. That's been an ongoing problem. The HCTZ has gone from 12.5 mg to 25 mg. He had to do it in a separate pill, because the 50 mg Losartan doesn't come with more than 12.5. Only the 100 mg comes with 25. So another pill for me to take, but oh, well. If it helps get rid of this fluid that's fine.

He also renewed my hydrocodone prescription, since the last time I had it renewed was February. I don't use it much, only a half a pill at a time when I flare and usually just at bedtime so I can sleep through the pain. I had to use up most of what I had when my knee got so painful. It is doing a lot better, actually. I have been consistent with my physical therapy exercises and watching how much inflammatory foods I eat. Hopefully I won't need it much longer.

Sore Knee is Getting Sorer

September 4th, 2020 at 06:10 am

I canned 10 more quarts of green beans yesterday, bringing the total count to 29. A deer got in the garden and ate a lot of the middle sections of beans and I am not sure if that part will grow back now that we've fixed the fence. It has caused a rush of growth at the top as the plants try to make up for the loss of leaves, so maybe it'll just get really full of beans up there where the stupid dear can't reach. It doesn't eat the vines, thankfully, so the plants are still alive.

I may have to buy some beans if I want to have enough canned for the year. I had really hoped not to have that happen, but I want to can 104 jars. I should have been able to with what I planted. I sure wish I could put that deer in my freezer to make up for what it has stolen from me. I am just glad they don't like tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. Maybe someone will trade me beans for cucumbers.

My knee was so bad today I didn't do anything but stay in bed and keep it elevated. I was pretty wiped out from snapping beans and canning them yesterday anyway. It doesn't seem like it should, but when when you've got two autoimmune diseases, it takes its tole on your body. Tomorrow is payday and shopping day, so I am glad I took the day to rest. I think I will have to use the ride on carts, though. I try not to unless I absolutely have to, but I'm not sure my knee can handle one store, even with the shopping cart for support.

I'll be through my antibiotics by Monday and they should let me come in for an in person visit on Tuesday at that point. If I can just get the fluid drained and maybe a cortisone shot I think I can manage. Unless I did tear something. If it gets any worse over the weekend, I'll just go to the hospital. Our out of pocket max is met, so it won't cost us anything to do that.

We've gained over $500 in the stock market in six days. It's been a crazy week.

Bits and Pieces

August 28th, 2020 at 02:38 am

As of today, I have lost 10 pounds on my diet bet. I have 13 days until weigh in and need to lose 3.7 more pounds. I think I am going to make it. I can see a big difference already and my knees certainly feel better.

We picked green beans, tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers. I filled two plastic grocery sacks with green beans, 1 with cucumbers, got 10 tomatoes and two patty pans. I also harvested my first jalapeno, so I will be making pico de gallo this week. I will be spending a couple of hours snapping beans tonight so that I can can them tomorrow. I may have enough to do two canner loads.

It looks like DS is going to need a new mattress. That'll be around $900 I wasn't expecting to spend. We won't be buying bamboo mattresses again. It made it 3 years when it should have been five. DS has a huge wallow in the middle of it. We are looking into a Purple mattress.

We have just about got everything arranged so we can purchase a handicapped ramp for the back porch. It will make life so much easier for my knees and hips to not have to deal with stairs, and also for DD who has mobility issues due to hip dysplasia.

My poor mother got into an unexpected wasp's nest today. She got stung twice in the back of the head, once on the ear, once on the tip of the nose, and twice on the wrist. We gave her benadryl and got the one stinger out that was in. She used to do bee venom therapy on purpose, so she's pretty well immune to any allergic reactions, but we are watching her just in case.

We found out yesterday that one of her arteries, I believe it was one in her neck, is 95 percent calcified. But the ones around her heart are fine. Now that she's had the test we are waiting for her doctor's appointment to see what is to be done about it. She's probably going to have to have a procedure and change her diet. Good luck with that. At 80 I don't see her changing her diet.

Garden Produce is Coming out my Ears

August 19th, 2020 at 03:14 am

It's been a rough week because I twisted something in my knee, the knee formerly known as the good knee, and it swelled up with a ton of fluid which made it hard to walk. I've been icing it and finally took some water pills to help with the excess fluid and the pain has eased up a little. I hope I didn't tear anything. If it is still bugging me next week I will go to the doctor. My doctor isn't in this week. It's finally easier to walk today and I was able to get out to the garden.

The weeds are ridiculous, but I was able to get some of them pulled and I got my first green bean harvest. It filled up a dishwashing basin that is 3 gallons. I think that is enough for a canner load and there is enough out there for another one in probably two days, maybe one.

I've also harvested 60 odd cucumbers so I need to get to pickling. I picked up some dill and garlic so I can do that tonight. I think I will get at least one canner load of pickles and do some refrigerator pickles as well. I'll can the green beans tomorrow. If I have the energy, though, I will snap them tonight. That will make tomorrow go much easier.

These cucumbers are amazing. They are so sweet they taste almost like melon. Which makes sense since botanically they are pretty closely related. It is nice to be noshing down on a cucumber every day. I love this time of year.

I also have some red tomatoes. Just two, but one is not far behind it. I can wait to pick them and eat them. I'll probably make a nice pico de gallo with them. I like that better than salsa. I just need to pick up some cilantro since mine has flowered and will soon go to seed.

The strawberries look like they need another picking and I've got to harvest herbs and tea flowers and dry them. I can't believe how much the garden exploded in just a week.

It looks like the potatoes I planted first are starting to die back. Maybe in another week or two I will be able to start digging up potatoes. I hope we get a lot out of it. I plan on canning most of them since I don't know if any of them are keeping potatoes. I waited too long to get seed potatoes and had to buy and sprout organic ones from Trader Joe's. I have no way of knowing if they are determinate or indeterminate, either. Next year I will be better prepared. I hope.

I am thinking about getting an electric weed eater, the kind that plugs in. We have battery operated ones, but the battery pack makes it too heavy for me to operate with my arthritis. This is also my problem with gas powered ones. Plus those ones are too long for me. I want to get a shorter one with a cord. I always hated dealing with a cord when we had one in the past, but it was so lightweight and it was short so fit my arm length better. That one is long gone, but they don't cost too much and since my husband and son don't get around to it when I need it done, it might be the best option. I have enough in my allowance envelope, even after buying a new laptop. I had been saving for almost a year.

Oh, yeah, I got a new computer! It was $600 plus tax. It has a DVD player in it, which is pretty hard to find anymore. It is not touch screen, which takes some getting used to, but I really like it. My old one is still going, but the DVD player has been broken for almost two years and the speakers don't work well, so I had to use regular speakers.

I figure I will continue to use that one for writing and for video editing because it has the software and I will use this one for everything else, which is basically watching videos and movies, and doing research. I couldn't justify a big expensive computer like my last one was if that was all I was going to use it for even if I had enough money to buy one.

We are still eating out too much. It is hard to cook when I am in pain. I need to try to push through and do it, but I just have no motivation.

New Diet Goals, Motivations, and End of Life Planning

August 12th, 2020 at 12:26 am

DH and I decided to sign up for a dietbet. We've gotten so far off track and I am now at a higher weight than I have ever been in my life. I don't know if he is or not, but it looks like he is. I am ruining my knees at this weight and am in constant pain. So the dietbet we joined was $35, so that is $70 out. It starts on the 13th and is a 4 week kickstarter. The goal is to lose 4% of your body weight in that amount of time. So that is my goal. I know sometimes people on here do one, so if you want to join the same one as me the invite is here: http://dbet.me/lrobbins

Now that my focus does not have to be on paying down debt anymore, I do think this is an area where I need to target my focus. I need to get my motivation going again and I think that if I start being successful at weight loss again I will also want to work towards being more successful at working towards saving goals.

Right now I need something strong to focus on. Mom isn't doing too well healthwise right now. It's to do with her arteries and her heart. She does not want me to tell my sisters. She had a talk with us last night about what we want to be passed on to us. My answer is simple, keep living 20 more years. Then after that the knives and the canning equipment, and some of the paintings I gave her. She has already given me the Christmas ornaments (most of which I gave her over the years) and told me to take them to storage so my middle sister doesn't try to steal them. She already said she wanted them and my mom said no, they were mine since I gave them to her, but that sister can be persistent. She has long since given me Grandma's bowls and china.

Mom is going to get her will done up. She's kind of annoyed with my sisters, though. She is insisting on there being no funeral and the cremation is already set up and paid for. Her figuring on the funeral is that no one came and saw her while she was alive, they don't need to see her when she is dead. My figuring is that I have been here while she is alive, so if those are her wishes, so be it. I know my sisters might be mad at me, but if they wanted input they could have been here helping all along. And if they want a funeral than they can put it together and pay for it. Mom wants me to dispose of her ashes.

I think we need to revisit what is going to go on with the house, though. I need to make sure we can continue to live here as long as we want after she dies. She has always said we could and that my sisters won't be allowed to force a sale, but I need to make sure that gets in the will. Although the way my sisters have been acting all these years, I'll be surprised if they even end up in the will at all. It is sad when they only see her when they want something from her. It is also frustrating because they never come give me a break despite knowing I have these autoimmune diseases.

Yesterday was DD's 24th birthday. We made a gluten free chocolate cake. It was from Bob's Red Mill and it was very good. It tasted just like regular cake, maybe better. It doesn't rise as high, but it is not dense at all. I made homemade vanilla buttercream icing. It was way past the level of bakery icing in my opinion. The trick is to whip the heck out of it at every level.

We also did a barbecue with steelhead trout, corn on the cob, and zucchini and ate dinner outside. It was good birthday dinner for her and she picked everything that she wanted.

I need to get on top of the garden again. I need to go harvest a bunch of cucumbers and berries. It has finally cooled off enough, but it has been hard since my knees are both swollen and DS has been sick. He's feeling better today, though.

Financial Housekeeping

July 29th, 2020 at 09:59 pm

I finally sat down and balanced the checking account of my Medical Fund. I quit doing it back in October and then it started to become this insurmountable thing that I just didn't want to deal with. At least that is the way it seemed. It took me all of an hour to do it. Sometimes I think we build these things up in our heads to the size of mountains, when it is really just a foothill. Everything balanced out and I didn't have to hunt down any transpositions or subtraction or addition errors. I love it when it is easy.

After that I set up the August budget. If we can keep the eating out under control, things should be back on track. I will still be adding to the Medical Fund, so the EF will not grow as quickly as I would like, but without the MF we would just be raiding the EF constantly. Makes more sense to just put it there in the first place.

I finally got out of my mother the other day that Dad wanted to leave us daughters an inheritance, so she has it in her head that she has to do that. I told her flat out that I don't care about that, she needs to use her money on herself. Dad wouldn't want the end of her life to be so miserable. I mean, sure, if there is anything left, that's fine, but she is not to even let it enter her head that she shouldn't make her own life more comfortable.

We may be looking at a move to Montana in the future and she just may sell the house and move with us if we do. She knows that she can't live alone now, and neither of my sisters are willing to deal with it. She would like us to get a big enough property that she can put a single wide manufactured home somewhere on our lot. We are planning on rural 10 acres if it gets to that point, so that would not be a problem.

Her money is all tied up in the house now, but if she just bought a little house she would have a lot of money available. Her final years would be so much better. Then that house would belong to us after she dies, because we have cared for her all these years with no help from my sisters, though I would allow either of my sisters to live there if they wanted to up and move. I don't think they would since their kids are all here, though.

I don't particularly like the idea of transferring to Montana down the road, but at the same time I don't like what my state is becoming, especially in the Seattle area. If this violence and lawlessness becomes too much worse or comes closer, I'm prepared to leave the state once we can afford it. I hate cold, snowy winters, and it'll be hard to not be near the ocean, but Montana is beautiful, less populated, less political, and has a lower cost of living, and so I'd cope. It would be a few years down the road, anyway.

Payday Report for 7/24/20

July 25th, 2020 at 12:05 am

My Google AdSense Payment hit this week so I combined that with DH's pay and upped the tithe accordingly. I also had some money left in the checking account. No money went into the EF this time as we replaced some items and upgraded others that I was holding off on when we were still in debt and DH needed new boots.

We also got take out more than we should have as I tripped over a floor fan and banged myself into the bedroom door and then as I stumbled forward got my other side on the door jamb. Not fun. I am doing better today, but the last week was really rough. I am still pretty stiff and sore when I wake up, but at least I can dress myself again and walk around without my cane.

I did not spend all of the grocery money from last payday, though, so that went into a new fund, the Freezer Fund. So that envelope was started with $179. I want to get a good freezer, not from Lowe's or Home Depot, so we will have to go to the actual appliance store and price what I want, which is a freezer with a temperature display on the outside and that beeps if the door is open too long. Frost free would be nice as well.

Here's how the paycheck broke down today.

$328.70 Tithe
_400.00 Grocery Envelope
__75.00 Household Envelope
_500.00 Medical Fund
1608.60 Citi
__71.99 Life Insurance DH
__60.46 Life Insurance Me
_100.00 Spending Money Adults
_120.00 Allowances Kids
_100.00 Car Insurance Fund
-------------
3364.75 Total Money Out

The Dentist is Up and Running

July 15th, 2020 at 05:42 am

I went to the dentist today. The hygienist had on a face mask and a face shield and two pairs of gloves. Everyone else in the office wore masks and when the dentist himself came in he also had the same get up as the hygienist. They had a blast shield installed at reception. Such is life in the new world.

It felt really good to have my teeth cleaned. It has been since September. I was due in March but of course that was cancelled because of Covid. My teeth were in great condition and nothing is wrong with them except the chip that I will finally be able to get fixed at the end of August. That was also due to be fixed in March. I take excellent care of my teeth. It took a lot for me to bring them back from my early adulthood issues, but they have been great for the last several years.

DH went on Friday and the fees so far were $78.80 twice. We don't have the best dental insurance, but someone would have to get at least two crowns in a year to make the more expensive insurance worth it, even if the money does come out pretax, we'd still have to pay half. Better to have the cheaper insurance and pay full if someone needs a crown, which DH does need one.

Both kids are scheduled later in the month for their appointments. I am hoping things are fine with them, too. I am sure they will be with my daughter, not so sure with my son.

DH did do his eye exam, but we are waiting on next payday when there is more money in the medical fund for him to get his glasses. He will need both lenses and frames. I see the eye doctor in September for my retinal testing and for a new prescription. I have not made appointments for the kids yet, but they will both need them. And DD will need to start the retinal screening as well since she is on the same medication as me now that can, in a small percent of cases, turn your retinas yellow. So far so good with me.

DD will need new frames and lenses, DS and I will only need new lenses. We each have previous frames that are in good condition that we like and since the insurance only pays for frames every two years, but lenses every year, that is what we go with. I will be able to use my current frames again in the future as well, which is great because I really like them, too. That will cut costs somewhat.

The next thing I really need to do is get a hair cut. I need to cut off about 8 inches of hair and thin it out. My hair grows so fast, about an inch a month and it is getting so long that when I raise my arms and then put them back down it gets caught in my armpits. I hate that. That and when I accidentally lean on my hair when trying to get out of bed.

I am debating on getting a short layered cut or just a sort of bob thing that flips up on the ends instead of going under. Whatever I get, I want it to be low maintenance. I hate fussing with my hair. But I also want it to be something that will grow out decently if we get locked down again. I've decided not to color it professionally. I just don't want to have roots in six weeks and have to keep doing it. I've been out of that race for years now. I like my grey streaks.

And I can always change my mind later since it will be much shorter and a lot easier to color at home than it would be with my current length. I really just need to see what color and how much grey is left when it is short before I make that decision and live with it for a while. Plus if I do do it myself I will only need one box and not two after the cut. We'll see. I am so wishy washy about this.


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