Road to Rebalance

For many years I have dealt with:

Excessive hair growth

Mood swings beyond a menstrual cycle

Fatigue

Lack of focus

Memory loss

No drive/motivation or just short bursts of it

Weight that wont come off

Elevated blood pressure & cholesterol levels

And a few other things

While I *know* the potential cause of much of this, having a doctor say so, makes it more real. What I did not realize is how connected all of this is. While we wait for the blood work to come back to confirm things, he has already told me most of not all of this can be due to hormone levels & thyroid. He predicts my thyroid is low & my hormones are upside down.

 I had my cholesterol checked in 2009 & brought that paper to show him. Only one of the levels actually concerned him. While my blood pressure is slightly elevated according to “standards” he is not concerned. We agree standards are just that, & not right for everyone. I am to eat more protein & salt. And of course, pay close attention to what I crave as that is what my body needs.

I have been learning a lot of things over the years. I talk a great game. I try to do what I say but often fall short. I have felt guilty when I fall short. When I explained the things I have done for my diet & our general food intake, he commended me for being that much ahead of the game.

I have felt guilty over many things that I learned today are not all my fault. Many of the things I have felt guilt over, were because my hormones & thyroid are so very out of whack & have been for a long time. My lack of motivation, lack of focus, lack of desire. Yup. Hormones. Low thyroid. I am anxious to begin a road to rebalance.

You know, I don’t know if I can even begin to tell you just how this has affected my life over the years.

A new journey begins

It has been a long time since I wrote in here. I think perhaps I need to rectify that. I think I have a good reason now.

After about 10 years of not seeing a doctor, I am now seeing one. A Naturopath at that. No, this is not thanks to Obamacare. We can’t afford that. The monthly cost might be okay but the rest is not. And while this alternative is not cheap either, it feels better. With Dr. Hoey being a Naturopath, there is not simply a test for everything & a pill to match.

My journey started yesterday when I enrolled in a direct patient care program. A small local clinic has evolved over the years & is now offering this groundbreaking awesome new care model. When you enroll, you pay a monthly fee. It is based on your age. This fee then allows you to choose your doctor (they currently have 3). You then have access to that doc via cell phone, email & office visits. You can go in as many times as you need in any given month. You get discounts on lab work & prescriptions. Now, this does not seem to be a substitution for serious care or surgeries but will most certainly work for the simple doctor visit stuff.

Today I went & had a meet & greet with my new doctor. He spent almost an hour with me. We went over my small laundry list of issues I would like to find answers to. After listening to me, asking more questions & listening some more, he already had answers & ideas. And thankfully, fairly simple answers as a whole. We drew blood & I will go see him next Friday morning to talk about the results & start my road to wellness.

Until I see him again the only thing I am to work on is getting more protein & salt in my diet. I think I can handle that. I think I will use this to document my journey. And yeah, I’ll go into my laundry list of concerns too. I welcome any reader’s comments & input if you care to follow along. 

New Granola Bar recipe

dry stuff mixed together

It’s been forever since I made a post in here. Well, maybe not quite forever, but a long time. I always have the best of intentions but something always gets in the way it seems. It’s been a long winter up here in the Northwest & Spring has finally sprung. You’d think with the cold, I’d be inside more & writing more. Apparently not. And with the nicer weather, I should be outside more. I’m getting there …

For now, I thought I would share a new recipe I found & adapted for granola bars. I had run out & stayed out for probably close to a month. Maybe longer. 

Since I have managed to spoil my man with these homemade lovelies, he was a bit bummed at not having any in his lunches for so long. I finally got my butt in gear just a few weekends ago & got a new batch made. I tried a whole new recipe this time too. He likes it! So, I made them again today. This time I remembered to take a few pictures too. After all, recipes & blog posts are always more fun with pictures right?

honey, sugar & molasses

Ingredients:

1/2 to 2/3 cup local raw honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp molasses

1/2 cup organic peanut butter

2 cups oats

2 cups puffed cereal*

1/4 cup ground flax

1 cup total, of desired mix-ins*

peanut butter added

Using a large bowl, add all dry ingredients & set aside.

In a small saucepan combine the honey, brown sugar & molasses. Over medium heat, stir until sugar dissolves.

Remove from heat, add peanut butter & stir quickly to combine.

Immediately pour over dry mixture & stir to combine.

Press into a lined 9x13 or so pan. Let cool to firm up.

adding choc. chips!

Now, this all sounds simple enough. Here’s what I learned. The recipe I first saw had you mixing/melting the sugar then mixing the dry stuff. Lesson learned to mix the dry first & set aside. The honey/sugar/peanut butter mix hardens FAST. 

First batch I used a big plastic Tupperware mixing bowl. Second batch, I just grabbed a glass bowl. I had more mix stick to the side of the glass than I did the plastic. I’ll use plastic again next time. I’m guessing the glass bowl was colder than the plastic & hence let the honey/sugar mix harden faster when it hit the side. 

And as you mix, it’s almost handy to have another set of hands … one to slowly pour the mix while another begins to stir. I ended up mixing with my hands to get the dry off the bottom of the bowl.

first batch cut. 

*The mix-ins we used were a rounded 1/4 cup each of: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, fig pieces & raisins. The puffed cereal we used was millet. No sugar added stuff. You could use rice crispies or whatever. Millet was what I had at home & it worked well.

Once pressed into the pan, we added some chocolate chips pressed in one by one. After they cooled completely & were cut, it makes 12 nice sized bars. You could easily make smaller bars & get 20 or so.

How I'm keeping my sanity during the fires & smoke....

A couple weekends ago we got a new to us nifty file cabinet. It has 3 drawers on the left & a door on the right. Open the door & it has a small safe & 2 shelves. We snatched this up for $15 from a yard sale. It needed to have the safe combo picked. Well, to have that done by someone would have cost around $50 & done some damage to the door. We figured out how to get the door off, losing only the 2 hinge pins. We took apart the door/combo lock & got the combo to the safe. 

Put it all back together & now all we need is new pins to use that part. The drawer side had a stuck slider & no key for the lock. No biggie, as we just disengaged the slider & lock. The door also had a lock with no key. That one was easy to repair with a new lock for $4.

It now sits comfortably in the closet of the spare room.

not filled yet but working on it.

Having this new place to put files of course leads to going thru our files … which led to finding old papers from when the girls were in school. So before just re-filing them, again, I asked if they would like to have them so I don’t have to keep them anymore. My oldest responded with a yes. No word from my younger one yet. Now, as I pulled the papers out I knew there were more somewhere. So this led to me pulling containers of keep it stuff down from the top of the closet in the spare room. 

Holy cow what did I get into? What I got into was the past … lots of cards exchanged between me & hubby, cards & letters from my Omi to me & the girls, letters from my older daughter when she had to spend summers with her dad, and so much more. This was on top of all the school papers, report cards, award ribbons & certificates & old pictures & a couple year booklets. So there I sat, going thru it all just enough to make 2 piles, one for each of my daughters. I could sit & go thru them again enjoying some of the memories … but I think the girls are old enough now to maybe appreciate some of this too.

kids stuff - 2 piles & 2 big folders w/artwork

It’s funny how attempting to organize one new thing leads to re-organizing several other things. I now have one file box under my desk area that has paper, labels & all the extra file folders I have left over stored neatly away, within reach. One drawer of the cabinet has all our personal file stuff while the middle drawer has all my business stuff. The bottom drawer will house all misc stuff. Feels kinda good to once again be a bit more organized in this area. While going thru the kids stuff & several containers from the closet I managed to repack some things into fewer containers. So that was a plus as well.

misc files let to sort

I have a small stack of misc stuff to go thru & file into some sort of organized system. I know I have plenty of folders for the task!

Next I really need to organize some of my misc business *stuff* better. I have several containers full of … stuff. Stuff to mount & mat some images but I want to use these things in a different way now. Stuff for packaging product. Stuff for … making things (parts) and just more … stuff. Of course its also the time o year where I really need to get moving on making new 2013 calendars for the upcoming holiday show as well as anything else new for the holidays. I think being a bit more organized might help me focus better on the next things. We’ll see. Here’s hoping the organizing of the biz containers goes quick!

Wishcasting: Healing

I write about many things in my blog. Lately not much has been of a truly personal nature tho. I tend to keep the personal stuff in a more private setting when I do share. But this idea of coming together to wish for things is too awesome not to share.

I have been reading these wonderful Wishcasting Wednesday posts in my daughter’s blog for some time. I wandered over to see where she gets these prompts from & learn more. Jamie hosts a  Wishcasting Wednesday each week. I enjoyed reading & signed up to get the prompts in my inbox. Seeing today’s topic I had a wish come to mind easily, so finally I am jumping in & joining!

Today Jamie asks:  What Healing do you wish for?

I think I have healed emotionally, for the most part, from the inflictions of my first marriage. It took a long time.

Now, I think to my own body. I think to the internal things which I know plague certain areas, both inside & out. Some of the things I am fully aware of yet have not found it within me to find the correct remedy, for me, to fix them. Some things I know I am not even fully aware of what exactly they are …

Without any health insurance, it is extremely difficult to just go to a doctor for something. Never mind the fact I would search out a Naturopathic one which might not even accept my insurance, if I had it. For the time being I rely on what I learn & listening to my body. Not the best solution, but it works. Well, kind of.

On that note …

I wish for healing of my body. I wish for my body to be in perfect health; to be well.

 Now, to make some new friends by reading what others are wishing for & helping to spread their wishes!

Life without ... store bought taco seasoning mix

In my wanderings around the internet I came across what sounded like a wonderful recipe for homemade taco seasoning. I was intrigued & went to read more. I had given up buying the packets (for tacos & many other things) long ago, after reading some of the "stuff" that's in there. I'm happy to have found this nice alternative.

Here are the ingredients …

    1/2 cup chili pepper powder

    1/2 cup corn starch

    1/4 cup salt (reduce to 1/8 cup for low-sodium version)

    2 tablespoon ground black pepper

    3 tablespoons paprika

    1 tablespoon smoked paprika

    1 tablespoon onion powder

    2 tablespoons garlic powder

    2 tablespoons dried leaf oregano

    2 tablespoons ground cumin

    1-2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

    2 teaspoons ground coriander

    1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

All you need to do is combine them either with a whisk (as I did) or in a food processor. Very simple. I used a pint mason jar with plastic storage lid to keep mine in. Any airtight container will do.

I used the low sodium amount on the salt & just 1 teaspoon on the cayenne pepper. It came out amazing. I also used ground chicken for my meat.

Cooking directions are very much like what you would follow from those packets you (wont ever again)buy from the store.

Cook your meat in a skillet over medium-high heat until no longer pink. Drain off fat. Add 1/4 cup seasoning mix & toss/mix to coat the meat. Add 3/4 cup water & stir to combine it all. Now just bring it to a boil. Lower heat to simmer & cook, uncovered for about 5-10 minutes or until the water is absorbed & the mixture is as thick as you like.

If you are using ground turkey or chicken in place of the beef, add 2 tablespoons cooking oil when cooking the meat. Still drain the extra tho, after its cooked.

 

So how simple is that? The mix makes about 2 1/2 cups so you’ll have plenty to use for later. I was skeptical but a real believer after tasting.

Check out The Yummy Life blog for Monica’s full blog post on her making this. 

 

For our dinner we made taco/tortilla shell bowls which came out so good covered with fresh stuff, shredded cheese & a little sour cream. Yum!

In my pantry we have organic corn starch & cocoa powder. I do not however have shelves full of organic spices.  A few here & there, but most are now bought in bulk from my store's Frontier brand spice area.

   

Catching up after a vacation

So, another week ends. This one was kind of nice tho. For the last 9 days, hubby has been on an actual paid vacation. Not that we had funds to really go away, but it was nice to have the time together even at home. We totally did not do several things we talked about doing. Figures. We did go back to a place we had not been since 2008. That was nice. We visited Deception Falls which is located just on the west side of Stevens Pass, in the North Cascade Mountains.

The first Saturday we went & bit the bullet of getting new tires put on our Escape. This alone would have not been bad. But, as it often goes once you begin to have something done, more things make themselves known. That was the case with the car. Wasn’t bad enough we had to spend just over $800 on 4 new tires. Nope. Now we have to spend another over $900 on tie rods, struts, brakes & ball joints. Tho we can’t really complain too much since the car is paid off & we have not done much to it in the years we have had it … it just hurts when it all comes at once. At least we’re safe again when we drive.

clear coated & stenciled. big hit!

We also took a trip down to visit with my dad & his wife. They live down in the Tri Cities, as its known. It’s about 2.5 hours south of us, along the Columbia. There are 3 cities that all kind of run into each other. Was a nice visit. It’s really strange too … for the first time, there was no feeling of anxiety or stress or anything. It was calm & fun. We talked about it on the way home. How if it had felt that way a couple years ago, we probably would have more eagerly looked to move there. Will we now? I don’t think so… not right now anyways. Aside from the freaky landlady we like it here, and the way things are. But anyway … I shared my new venture of making wrap pants with them & Neva now wants me to make her a pair. Nice. We got to go fabric shopping too! And, hubby brought the wine box we made for my dad. He loved it. And, asked us to make one for his brother in law. Cool. Nice visit & not one but 2 paid orders for stuff. We both have a deadline of the 25^th for these.

gotta love peanut butter in a kong bone!

We got back from the visit Friday afternoon. Left the dog at the local Club Pet … its affiliated with & connected to the local Humane Society, which is where we got her to begin with. Anyway… it was her first time being away from us since we got her. When we dropped her off on Wednesday afternoon, the one gal was pretty nice & understanding. The one at the desk tho, left much to be desired. Not sure if she was new or what … but her people skills, need serious work. Then when hubby went to pick her up, the same girl was at the desk & another gal was the one to bring Caeli back out. No notes on how she did or anything. Again, no people skills from the front desk gal either. Very disappointing. In the past we have had nothing but good service & communication with them. It makes me sad to think we might want to find elsewhere to board her when we need to. I think I’ll email someone in charge tho & voice my concerns …

Sometime earlier in the week I did something to my left knee. Not sure what but it hurts. It’s not really swollen tho. First night in the hot tub at dads was alright ... second night tho, kinda made it hurt more. Then Saturday while chatting with our upstairs neighbor, I put my right foot down to get from the upper drive to our main driveway & messed up my ankle. Lovely huh? So here I am with a bum right knee & left ankle. The ankle is a bit swollen but not bad. Walking with a normal gait hurts, but if I walk on the ball & toe of that foot I can hobble along nicely. LOL It’ll get better & meanwhile I’ll work to not be on it so much if possible.

I’m hearing again of my stepfather’s father being in the hospital. Not cool. He’s always been Papa to me. The only grandfather I’ve had. He had gone in several weeks ago for something & came out with knowledge that he not only has several medical issues, but a bone cancer. Funny how you never think of a man who has always been such a strong family leader as being able to be sick. He is old too, born in 1928. I always just thought they both would die of old age. I guess we all just hope that for our elders.

I am really not liking this whole phase of life where a woman goes thru menopause. Nope, not at all. And of course I can’t be one of those women who just have their cycle come to an abrupt halt. Nope … mine has to become a bit erratic & give me even more of an emotional roller coaster. And I’ve read that this whole process can take over 10 years to completely pass… that, is way too long. I am so very thankful to have such an understanding husband. Tho I think he’d be more understanding if I could be in the mood a bit more often … I do not like this decrease in the libido thing. Not that it’s gone, just more erratic.

So here I sit, on another Monday, trying to figure out what to do first. I should be hearing from the landlady sometime today. I need a shower, to do a load of laundry, wash a few dishes, vacuum, plan at least dinner for tonight & I’m sure several other things involving the computer. Oh yeah … & I need to figure out how to get the slick fabric to cooperate so I can get another pair of wrap pants sewn for one of the girls who works with my hairdresser… then I can start on my step mom’s pair.

I know I need to get my business back into high gear too. The holidays are coming & I want to get some stuff made & lots of stuff sold. Gotta make time to get a few new calendars designed for next year too. Wow. Lots to do & what am I doing? Sitting here farting around with my thoughts. LOL Guess I should get this posted & get a move on….