heart of Romaine–torn

cucumber–peeled and cubed

tomato–cubed

jicama–cubed

avacado

mushrooms

feta cheese

dressing:  miso mayo with dill and herbs mixed with veganaise

YUM!

And I’m so glad.  there have been two predictable times in the last month when I’ve had horrible migraines and been in bed for a day or two.  But not “bedridden” like I’ve been in the past. Just went to bed early/slept in and took it very easy.  Otherwise I’ve had days where I feel great and I’ve had days where I felt enh but I’ve gone from living with my pain, on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst), at a 7 with sometimes getting worse and sometimes getting a little better, and a 5 being a GREAT day, to days that are more like 2 or 3 and sometimes getting to a 5.  7 is where I’d rate the couple of bad days I’ve had.  Granted this is my scale and my threshhold for pain is apparently way higher than most people and I ignore more pain than most people can handle but . . . for me this is a huge improvement!

I got a Trocanter Belt (it arrived Friday!) and I’ve been wearing it yesterday and today.  Not sure if I can explain this well in the written word, but there is an upside down triangle in the lower back from the Sciatic points on top down to the coccyx that drops in during pregnancy and as my stomach muscles have tightened again after pregnancy it’s pulled back into place.  With the twins it dropped in very low and then the c-section left my muscles trashed and it’s never pulled back up.  So my lower back looks literally sunken in.  This belt is given to women who break their hip in pregnancy and it holds the whole hip/sciatic/lower back area in place.  I wore it yesterday and where I’m normally hobbled over in pain by the end of a long day–especially on Saturday–I was fine yesterday. And it was a really long day.

I woke up sore today and started my day–wasn’t feeling well–bending over–and put on the belt . . . upright, feeling much better!

Add in the supplements, the support for my liver, adrenals, hormones, etc.  It’s really worth the effort. I’m down to taking muscle relaxants only a couple of nights a week.

This next week I have to go do a thyroid panel and send in a Cortisol test and I’ll get a lot of answers in two weeks at my appointment.  I’m really excited.

Well–I’m doing pretty good but I haven’t bought *nothing*.  I popped into Borders to get Bill the blank book he wanted to create his own monochronotebook and while there *only buying that*–I was so good! I found . . . their 50% off Hannukah table!!!  And I got a few things.  Hannukah stuff is really hard to find in this area and when I do find it it’s not cheap.  This was great!  I found a little stamp set, a kitchen towel set, and a couple of books including Lemony Snickets “The Latke that wouldn’t stop Screaming . . . A Christmas Story” LOL  But I contained myself and was proud of how well I did and what I got

I also found an amazing set of tea mugs.  I have a mish mash of tea/coffee mugs.  Nice ones–but mostly coffee mugs.  Yes, I am fully aware you can drink tea out of coffee mugs–that is what I’ve been doing   but it was just that morning that I was drinking my tea from a coffee mug and thinking I wished I had something to drink from that created that zen-like tea experience!  That I could set down in *my* house and have it look like it belonged.  Something that made me feel even better about drinking my tea–to inspire me to drink my tea–which is better for me after all. And since I’d been drinking more tea since both dd’s tea party birthday and my trip to the naturopath . . . well, I was thinking about it.

Imagine my surprise that night when I went into Starbuck’s and found the most amazing set of tea mugs! I wasn’t even looking for it–and had committed to stop buying mugs from Starbuck’s because they are made in China and all the toxic recalls and warnings and such . . . these were made in Japan!  And they were really well priced.  DH loves them–and I weeded out the mugs that were in the cupboard just to have mugs–put them to better use holding little things in the homeschool cabinet where there is always enough little things

I know this may sound like “spending confession” but I really am feeling good about this commitment. We’ve been at home, working on the house, working on the yard.  I’ve been feeling a lot better and when I got the Trocanter belt to help my lower back it made all the difference.  I went all day yesterday and felt great–and have been able to go today too.  I feel like I’m getting my life back.  Ironically . . . the better I feel the more I can DO and the less I find myself *wanting*.  I don’t have to think about what will make my life easier when my life isn’t so hard.  I don’t have time to even think about what I might want when I’m busy doing what I need.  And my commitment to not impulse buy has been a good thing.  I don’t spend a lot of money on impulse buys–but I want to spend nothing on them.  Any is too much imo.  It’s part of my commitment to be more intentional this year

Is to not buy stuff.  I mean, I need a new pair of sunglasses as mine broke today, but other than that . . . groceries.

One of the big challenges with being such a strong right brainer is that I tend to think of all sorts of ways to do this or that better, organize better, do this or that better . . . and yet I’ve finally gotten us to a place where most of those things are *good* OR we have the stuff to do it better and I just need the time to not get a new project and do it better

I now have the energy to do those things that I’ve been preparing for.

One of the things that I’ve done, and this may seem silly to some, is that I’ve gotten the idea from organizing programs and books that I have to find a place for everything . . . only with 5 children I have all this *stuff* that isn’t trash, isn’t being used, isn’t really something to donate . . . and because I just hate choices and this was presenting me with too many choices I decided to box it all up. Just went through each room and all that *stuff* went into a box Okay, a few boxes but not what you’d expect for a family our size which means I have done an amazing job with the decluttering

And now I can bring in one box at a time, after having the stuff gone for a few months and realizing what I need or don’t, and then I can make decisions for only a few things–one box at a time.  But in the meantime, I do not have all this *stuff* stressing me out! And it WAS stressing me out. Now it’s gone   And everything is so much cleaner.  So much nicer.

and I don’t want to buy anything else to take its place!

Don’t even know what to call this

Cube and fry up potatoes

Fry:

onions

cubed tofu

mushrooms

Add:

liquid amino acids

lg spoon of Veganaise

garlic

sea salt

cumin

curry

And then . . . the thing you would not at all expect   Saurkraut Seriously!