Life begins at 35??

I always thought that those who are a bit more, ahem, seasoned than myself chose to pepper their life activities with statements such as "Life begins at 65!" To be honest, I am not at all sure why the term "The Golden Years" was coined save for putting a shine onto a period of life where memories of a life once lived may be more sweet than the life currently lived.

Please don't get me wrong, I don't mean that life is not precious. Each and every moment of it is! But as a thirty-five year old woman, my life is centered around food- meetings include a snack, there are cookies after concerts, I just took my mother out for dinner yesterday for her birthday. I've worked as a nurse's assistant, I know taste buds die out and spicy food items are crossed off of one's "OK" list as we age.

My diet isn't the best in the world. I put on weight VERY easily. I take it off reluctantly. I spent one spring and summer working out twice a day, living on fruits and vegetables and never shed a solitary pound. I wore smaller clothing, but according to the charts and medical "experts" I was still the "o" word. I still am. After that, I became very discouraged and convinced that I would always be a plus-sized gal. My husband thinks I am gorgeous, so what other approval do I need?

This way of thinking, thinking I have pounded into my skull, just may be changing.

After 35 years of service my gall bladder has opted to retire. It slowed down a few years ago (hence the inability to actually drop pounds), but I didn't realize it. I began showing signs of serious problems last year. My father was diagnosed with Stage IV colo-rectal cancer in July. He ignored his problems for far too long. When he realized I was having the same problems, he pushed me to have it looked at, citing his tragic diagnosis every step of the way.

I went through all the tests, and the GI doctor gave me a clean bill of health as far as cancer was concerned, but discovered I had ulcers- 3 in my esophagus and 1 in my small intestine. I also had food in my digestive tract 12 hours after consuming it. In normal people, digestion goes along quite smoothly. Food enters the stomach and, as we recall from 3rd grade health class, mixes with acids to become a thick paste-like substance. Digestion really takes place in your intestines. Most food moves on from stomach to intestines at a decent clip. Mine was not. I was diagnosed with Gastroparesis- a paralyzed stomach, slow motility.

Unlike the majority of GP'ers I didn't lose weight. I gained it. And I gained it while living on liquid nourishment. I took Nexium and felt so much better! Again I decided that losing weight wasn't going to happen, after all I gained it on Ensure and Life Water, so I went back to eating pretty much what I wanted. Vegetables irritated me so did Chinese food, it seemed like a no-win situation.

I sought out a surgeon to fix my adhesions. When he read about my GI issues and diagnosis, he asked me how much weight I'd lost. When I stated I had gained weight, he told me my gall bladder was bad. I had the required tests and sure enough, it functions at 4% of what it should. Turns out that lil bugger was slowing down my digestive tract, in a BIG fashion.

So now I am eating a low-fat diet. The list of what I CANNOT eat is without a doubt much longer than the list of foods I CAN eat. So long pork chops, ground beef, meatloaf, yellow cheeses, alcohol, oatmeal, pancakes, Ritz crackers, spare ribs, instant breakfasts, milk, ice cream, egg yolks and potato chips. This is an adjustment, and it's temporary.

I am going to have my adhesions removed on November 11. Three months following that surgery, I will have my gall bladder removed. It is essential that I eat low-fat so as not to trigger any gall bladder attacks. Since my gall bladder is full of toxins and my adhesion pain is constant, the adhesions will be removed FIRST and the gall bladder second so that any toxins that may spill out upon removal will NOT infect the wounds left behind from the removal of the adhesions. The second surgery will also allow the doctor to take note on HOW WELL he did removing my adhesions and NOT allowing them to RETURN.

Today I am following my new diet to the letter. R has a concert tonight at his high school. I am making a quick dinner of baked chicken nuggets and waffle fries for the kids. Even baked, there are too many fat grams for me. I am having a pan "fried" (Pam ONLY in the skillet) boneless, skinless chicken breast. I am actually starving and by now probably would have had a piece of bread, but I only get < 50 fat grams, it's important that I save them for my meals.

So there you have it. Life for me is beginning at 35! I am retiring my old style of eating as well as my gall bladder. We are both going to be fine... but by the way if you have any low-fat recipes, please feel free to toss them in my direction. I just don't think I could handle the "raw food" way of life! :)

FALL!

It's my favorite time of year! My favorite Holiday is Thanksgiving! I love the colors, the smell in the air, the comfort food and the fact that you can still be outside and enjoy the outdoors without being frozen in 60 seconds. I LOVE seasons, which is why I LOVE Ohio, but I prefer Winter inside with hot cocoa and a log on the fire and I prefer summer in the pool or inside with the air. I LOATHE mud so Spring has to lose top billing in my seasons list, but fall... AHHHHHHHH. PERFECTION!

And so as I begin to prepare for winter, I shall relish every spare moment during fall to prepare for gloomy days where hibernation sounds much better than going for a walk. I am making some small goals to myself, mostly in the areas of house work and meal preparation, but also in adding more activity to the kids' lives as well.

I want to do a leaf book with A1 for his preschool homework I give to him. When the leaves change, I plan to take a Saturday afternoon bundle everyone up and hit the trail at Teddy Bear Park collecting leaves. When we arrive home, I want to warm us all up with some chili for dinner. Over the week, depending on when Mother Nature touches the deciduous trees with her magic wand, A1and I will work on his "book" and I will have B and A2 make place mats.

I want to get all the outgrown coats out, washed and delivered to the Salvation Army with the kids in tow. They need to learn from doing.

I want to see when the Y has open swimming on Sundays so that we can attend and wear ourselves out since we can no longer play in our backyard pool. After Mass and lunch it would be a GREAT way to kill some time.

When the older boys were younger, we used to do Family Movie Night. While I am not a proponent of TV on school nights (I seriously do NOT allow it), this was something we all looked forward to. We would have a simple supper of soup and sandwiches, bathe early and dress for bed and then watch a family-friendly movie complete with popcorn. I'd like to go back to doing that.

I also want to make up a chore chart. That sounds like a no-brainer, like I should have had this done years ago. Before high school we had Friday night chores. After work, school and dinner, we would clean the house on Friday leaving the weekend free! I LOVED IT! What i want to do is FORCE myself and everyone else in this house to cleaning ONE ROOM a night. By Saturday it should all be done.

On Saturdays, I hope to be able to get over my fear of DIY. I have so many things that need to be done outside our home. Our shutters need to be cleaned and repainted. Our deck needs to be power washed and sealed. Our bushes need to be trimmed. Our flower beds need to be revamped and revised. Quikrete needs to be added to my front walk way. And even though my driveway is far gone, I'd like to go ahead and fill the cracks and seal it anyway. My downspouts and gutters need to be corrected and replaced. And I'd like to caulk all the windows outside before winter. After A2 bowls (and before) there is NO REASON for me not to get this done, with help from T and R.

HAH There, I set the bar for myself... let's see how far I go before I fall and have to kick my own behind AGAIN! :)

Tater Soup

My grandfather was an amazing cook. There are so many meals he made that just make me think of being a little girl and enjoying them with him. He passed away Labor Day weekend in 1999. Ten years already. : ( I miss my Grampa still to this day. When I cook, I try to duplicate his recipes from memory. His potato soup was a favorite of mine. This tastes DARN close to his. And it's EASY to make.

I only use yukon gold potatoes for this. I just find the taste so amazing. and I use a LOT of ground black pepper. Please alter to your tastebuds. And, I know there is a lot of butter in the picture, but trust me, this pot fed all of us for dinner and a guy I work with got 4 bowls (he asked me to try it) from his container of leftovers, and Brett and I BOTH had soup for work lunches. So that is my word on the buttah... it looks like it's a TON, but I swear it's not.



Start with half and half and chicken broth.



Pour into a nice big pot





Cube the potatoes. You can skin them or leave them alone. Entirely up to you.





Add onions. I love onions, so I add a LOT. Isn't this the niftiest cutting bowl? A guy at work gave it to me, his wife was packing up to move to their new house and she decided she did not want it any longer. I am in love with it!



Fresh Ground pepper. This is a blend of different peppers- McCormick makes it. You can pick it up in the spice aisle with the little grinder attached! :)




Add the butter. yes, the whole stick. REAL BUTTER not margarine.


Allow the soup to simmer until the potatoes are soft. About an hour.

My kids look forward to this on cold, snowy Saturdays for lunch... but I was craving it, so I made it for dinner one night! ; ) Hope you enjoy!

Some foodie posts

I thought I would share a few of the lunches I have been making, as well as my recipe for potato soup. I am by no means near as good as some of the mothers out there who make Bento lunches for their children, however my goal was to serve my children healthy food options and I am achieving that goal.

SO! Here is a lunch that I told the kids was "Muncher's Delight" LOL!



Cubed Summer sausage and cheese, frozen berries (raspberry, blackberry and blueberry), fresh cut peppers, celery and cucumbers, a smidge of light ranch dressing and a few vanilla wafers. This was a BIG hit.

My kids are pretty good eaters when it comes to vegetables and fruits. Salads are a big hit. I think they are easy to make and easy to pack.



So this is salad with fresh mesclun lettuce, to which I added very finely chopped summer squash, red bell peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes and topped it with cucumbers and mozzarella cheese. (I have a farmer that brings me fresh produce to work on Fridays for $10.00 a box- and I love to use it in their lunches!) I added whole grain wheat thins and grapes. (PS light ranch rides sidecar in a small container. My kids dip their forks into the dressing and then eat the salad!!! :) SAVES CALORIES!)

And this is today's pack for tomorrow's feast. I am actually VERY excited about this... I can only hope that the toothpicks are not construed as weapons. LOL!




to make the wrap, I used a flour tortilla, spread vegetable cream cheese on it, topped that with thinly sliced chicken breast, added some chopped tomatoes and low fat co-jack cheese. I cut that in half for A1 and B. I stuck toothpicks in it to hold it together and topped the picks with black olives. As you can see, this is accompanied by all natural applesauce and a few vanilla wafers. This started as PINWHEELS but for the LIFE of me, I cannot make good pinwheels, so I opted for a wrap. Eh, live and learn! LOL!

Ok potato soup in the next post...

I am SO Excited!

When I made my New Year's Resolution to learn to cook from scratch, one of the things I wanted to do was to learn to make noodles from scratch. My grandpa Bob used to make "dumplings" at Thanksgiving. They were my favorite. I really should have let him teach me how to make them before he died. It was 10 years ago Labor Day Weekend.

At any rate, every recipe has you dumping clumps of dough into boiling liquids. This isn't how Grampa made them. He rolled them out and cut them into rectangles. He also added a small amount of shredded roast to them.

When we went to Sauder's Sunday they were giving out recipes as they often do. Lo and behold NOODLES!!!!! A ROLL AND RAISE METHOD!!!!!! I cannot WAIT To try this out!!!!!

My battle with Dad's Cancer Doc's office

That seems like a lengthy title, but the problem isn't with Dr. G. It's with his finance office. Dad was deemed eligible for Medicaid with a start date of October, 2008 initially.

My father passed away April 7, 2009 from Stage IV rectal cancer with metastases to his liver and lung. He was only 56 years old. He died under a tragic set of circumstances surrounding his life, and to be brutally honest- he was homeless, and penniless. All of that means nothing now, however there are still some things that remain to be done and since I am the Power of Attorney, they are my tasks to complete.

In early July, Dr. S.- Dad's surgeon- called and informed me that Medicaid had retro-activated (I know that's not a real word, but that's the jargon for it) Dad's account to August, 2008 with a "spend-down" month of September, 2008. Since Dad had had surgery in August, 2008 and had put $150.00 down, I was due back this amount and the surgeon's office submitted the bill to Medicaid and was paid for it.

I had Brett stop by Dr. G's office to alert his staff of the same thing- not once, but twice. No one looked into this, and no one has presented me with reimbursement for close to/or for the entire amount of $900.00 that Dad paid them prior to October, 2008. As I understand it, I am due back the money EVEN IF Dr. G's office failed to submit the bills to Medicaid.

I have to hire a probate attorney because Dad and I did not get the title of his Chevrolet Avalanche out of his name before he died. I am going to sell it and use the funds to buy Dad a tombstone. He did have DI insurance on the truck, and it paid off everything on his loan, save for about 2500.00- which is due on or before Feb 26, 2010. However, since the Title is in his name, a mere POA will not allow the Title department to transfer a temporary Title over to me. I have to have a court order to do so.(The full title will transfer upon the loan pay off). I need the $900.00 back from Dr. G's office to pay for the probate attorney I need to hire.

So today, A2 started preschool. I took off 3 hours of time this morning to see him off to school and be close at hand- "just in case". I came home and drafted my letter to Dr. G's office, which I am cc:ing to the County Medicaid office. I am not trying to get anyone in trouble, I just am tired of Dr. G's office staff refusing to address this matter. All they have done is call to tell me Dad's account is current!

The whole ordeal has been frustrating, but I don't mean to complain. Dad thought he and I would get more days to work these matters out. We would go to breakfast and talk about things, or I would sit with him and talk about his affairs and to be honest, I think it depressed him. Who wants to admit they are dying at 56? I am not upset at all that I am the POA, I am simply upset that Dr. G's staff did not bother to check into what Brett was relaying to them for me.

YEAY ANGELA!

My cousin, Angela, and her yoga studio were given a positive review @ yogacitynyc.com!!!! How thrilling! :)

you can read about it here