Wellness Wednesday #26: Yoga Camp

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Thistle

buttonA year ago, I started researching yoga as a therapy technique for my complex PTSD. I checked out videos from the library and asked friends online for suggestions. That led me to Yoga With Adriene. Over the summer months, I began using yoga in a very limited way, mostly focused on certain poses when I was started dissociating. Only in the fall did I try to start with a regular yoga practice, choosing Adriene’s 30 days of yoga program from Jan 2015. Though of course I then managed to sprain my foot and ankle right after finishing my day two workout. Boo.

childs poseAs 2016 began, I decided to follow along with Adriene’s 30-day Yoga Camp, going from January 2nd to 31st. I did well…until day 5. The previous evening, there had been a little family emergency that took several days to deal with. Yoga stopped being a priority. When I could finally work on it again, I resigned myself to starting over from the beginning, really wanting to hit it 30 days in a row. Then I thought, you know what? I have three teen boys and an absolutely crazy schedule. It’s not going to happen! And rather than keep on starting over from Day 1, I’m just going to keep going forward.

March 29, Day 30. Yes, it took me three whole months, but I made it. I finished this 30-day Yoga Camp. It was a wonderful, if sporadic, experience, and I took home a lot of great things:

  • It is possible for me to increase my flexibility. Slowly. A little. I’ve never been flexible, not when I was tiny and athletic and doing every kind of exercise and stretch known to man. But by the end of these three months, I can get my heels all the way down during downward dog on some days, and I can reach past my toes almost to my wrists, and I can hug my legs to my chest, and I can open my legs past a 90-degree angle – none of which I could do at the beginning.
  • My foot, now seven months post-sprain, is still healing. I had to modify certain poses to accommodate it, and certainly can’t balance well on that leg. Warrior I with that foot turned out? Yowch. However, the Camp has been helping me to build strength, balance, and flexibility back into that foot, and along with my therapy exercises, it is getting so much better!
  • I will do child’s post as extended child’s pose 99% of the time, and I don’t feel the slightest bit guilty for “breaking” the rules. Wide knees, belly dropped between them, arms above my head and cradling my elbows (see above pic). This is my go-to PTSD safety pose, and it calms me every time.
  • My back and neck feel about a thousand times better when I do yoga. It gets all the kinks out, and my muscles grow looser but stronger, allowing me to get the kinks out on my own outside of practice. Both my husband and my chiropractor have noticed a change in my back and neck muscles, as well as in how self-adjusting my body has become through yoga.
  • I am a strong person. Yes, I may weigh over 200 lbs, but I have a ton of muscle. There was very little in the workouts that I couldn’t do, beyond what would have stressed my injured ankle. Total confidence builder.
  • The Camp had daily mantras. The mantra from Day 26 struck me in particular: I attract ___. (fill in the blank) At first, I had no idea what to say. Health? Love? Good words for my manuscript-in-progress? An agent and a book deal? (ha!) But then it struck me, and just felt right: I attract READERS. Yes!
  • Yoga is so much better in a semi-dark, cool room wearing nothing but light pjs (or less if no one is home!).

I have loved doing this Yoga Camp, and don’t plan to stop yoga any time soon. I hope to keep it as part of my life several times a week, and maybe this fall, I’ll get back to that original 30 Days of Yoga from 2015 that I had to abandon this past year!

A note on test results:
The rest of my extensive blood work came back. Most of what it said came as no surprise, though I did find out I’m extremely low on vitamin D despite being in the sun (without sunscreen – don’t lecture me, there’s a medical reason for this!) quite often. I’ve started a supplement for it, and also now have specific dietary requirements tailored to my health and genetics per this test. Follow up in six months with another extensive blood test. Point being that my doctors are really getting down to the causes of the medical problems from the last year, and are (hopefully) helping to put me on the path to healing.

Posted in Wellness | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Graphic Audio

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Thistle

IMG_4373Earlier this week, I read a blog post from Brandon Sanderson that mentioned a website called Graphic Audio. A regular audiobook involves a narrator (or several) reading the text of the book, unabridged. Graphic Audio productions, on the other hand, act out the book, complete with sound effects and interactive dialog, etc. The tagline of the website is “a movie in your mind.”

Prior to learning about this website, I’d heard of a couple audiobooks that were more than just straight readings. The audio version of Hugo Cabret, for instance, replaces the extensive artwork of the book with sound effects to get across the story in a similar way as the art. While I haven’t listened to either, I know there are dramatizations that audio-act versions of Gaiman’s Neverwhere and Wells’ War of the Worlds (the latter produced via radio early last century). I’d guess these two are similar to those put out by Graphic Audio. Similar concept, anyway.

I listened to the preview of the Graphic Audio version of A Way of Kings, included in Sanderson’s blog post. It was an interesting experience – though admittedly, I’d rather read or hear about a spear being thrust through someone’s leg, rather than listen to the sound of it as it happens. I’m squeamish that way. The thing is, I’m still boggled by the term “a movie in your mind.” Because really, isn’t that what a normal audiobook is?

Audiobooks aren’t for everyone, I know. I love them myself, but I’m also very picky about them. The right narrator is crucial (example: I don’t listen to YA on audio very often because the readers tend to portray teens as perpetually whiny in a very unrealistic way). The ability to listen at the right speed is crucial (no way in hell that I’m going to listen to the excruciatingly slow pace of most audios – I want them to speak at regular dialog speed!). The right kind of book is crucial (in other words, it has to create a movie in my mind).

When I read a book, I get lost in the world of that book. My brain begins to imagine the things that are happening, so that I barely see the words on the page**. When I listen to an audiobook, a similar thing happens, except that absolutely no part of my brain is focusing on words on a page. It’s more similar to daydreaming, except someone else is guiding the dreams. The right kind of book makes a wonderful mind-movie. (Notably, this is why I don’t listen to most literary novels on audio, unless they are performed instead of read, and why I do listen to nonfiction on audio, because I have a difficult time seeing beyond page-words when I read nonfiction.)

I would love to experience a few more of those Graphic Audios. I imagine they’d be a fascinating experience, and quite different from reading, audiobooking (that should be a word), and movie-watching. I’ve long wanted to try out the dramatization of War of the Worlds, despite not liking the book itself. I’m all for different medias and experiences helping to create a rounder understanding of a work of art! Though perhaps I’ll try with a book that isn’t going to make me squeamish. I vehemently do not want to hear the sounds of ripping entrails or characters vomiting…

Library
IMG_4367Decided to go kinda crazy at my library this week. Some of these books are from new-to-me authors. Some are authors I’d like to try again. Some are books I’ve never heard of. In all likelihood, only one or two of them will make it past my five-page trial. I think my brain is coming out of reread mode. From top to bottom:

  • The Forgetting Time – Sharon Guskin (audio)
  • Girl at War – Sara Novic
  • My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry – Fredrik Backman
  • The Map of the Sky – Felix Palma
  • Purity – Jonathan Franzen
  • The City & the City – China Mieville
  • Humans of New York: Stories – Brandon Stanton

Any of these you recommend in particular?

**Bizarrely, my brain hasn’t figured out how to branch away from the screen into imagination when it comes to ebooks, which is why I don’t read them often. I’m sure one day, the right synapses will connect. A decade ago, I wrote all my stories/novels by hand because my brain wouldn’t write/create while I typed, and then one day, it was like a switch had flipped, and I could. I had a similar flip in 2010 when it came to audiobooks, and I’m sure ebooks will have their day, too. Yay for constantly growing brainpower!

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Breaking Up With Ipsy

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Thistle

About a year ago, I made the decision to start wearing makeup for the first time pretty much in my entire life. The goal was to try for a month. Then I kept wearing it, and in the summer, signed up for Ipsy as a way of trying out different kinds of products. In the beginning, I loved the program. After the first few months, I grew wary. This month, I canceled my subscription.

Two factors decided me. The first is to do with Ipsy itself. I’m not sure if my stylist just didn’t pay attention to my requests and preferences, or if the company simply doesn’t care what they send you. Either way, I kept ending up with products I’d specifically asked not to receive. For three months in a row, for example, I received eyebrow-related products. All three months, plus in my introductory survey, I said I had no interest in eyebrow stuff. And yet, the products kept coming. Then I started receiving stuff like perfume, to which I’m allergic – something I stated in the introductory survey. Since about October, I haven’t liked the majority of what’s come in my packages. The monthly cost, though small, no longer seems worth it.

IMG_4363

(just plain me)

Second, and probably more important, are the changes that I’ve gone through myself. When I began wearing makeup a year ago, I was in a place of insecurity and reinvention. I started dressing up as a way to try to make myself feel better, and indeed it was nice when people paid me compliments. But honestly, I’m just not a makeup person. The stuff takes too much time, and the more stable, confident, and secure in myself I am, the less I’m inclined to wear it. I think I may have used makeup maybe twice or three times in 2016 so far. I just don’t care to take the effort.

Most people, I know, would see that as a sign of depression, but for me, it’s the opposite. Depression makes me more likely to act different from my normal self, in an attempt to defeat the depression. If I wanted to dress up but didn’t have the energy, sure, that would be depression. The fact that I never even think about makeup anymore shows that I’ve gotten past that place of insecurity and reinvention. I’m starting to feel more comfortable with my true self again.

I probably won’t stop wearing makeup altogether, but I certainly have no need for a subscription any longer, especially one that ignores my preferences.

Posted in Personal | 12 Comments

A Day in the Life of…a writer and SAHM (on spring break)

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Thistle

A-Day-in-the-LifeA Day in the Life is an event hosted by Trish at Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity. She’s posted this for the last couple years, though this is my first participating. Honestly, I wasn’t really thinking I’d participate this year, either, until a day came up about a week ago that made me think, hmm, maybe it would be fun to have a day’s snapshot to look back on!

As a writer and stay at home mom, my schedule varies wildly from day to day. My boys are 15 (freshman), 13 (8th grade), and 12 (6th grade). My husband works from home (or from Starbucks or the library on days when it’s easier to work outside the house), and our family collectively attends about 25 doctor appointments a month. We’re a mess! We’re a triple-puberty, moved-across-the-country-twice-in-one-year, mental-health-issues-galore, booknerd, gamer-nerd, wacky, zany household. The day I chose to record my time was right smack in the middle of spring break, with all five of us home instead of three off to school.

March 16th, 2016

IMG_43257:00 am – I’m up, by necessity instead of choice. Still adjusting to the time change and it feels way too early. Laurence (my youngest) is up, too, because both of us have chiropractor appointments this morning. As he showers and has breakfast, I go through my morning rituals. I make coffee (using my brand new kettle for the first time!), feed the cats, post the day’s blog, go through my email, write in my journals, and draw my tarot card for the day (Knight of Wands). Eventually, though it’s really too early for breakfast, I have a biscuit and two chocolate-covered strawberries from the bouquet Jason brought me the day before (Edible Arrangements).

8:50 am – Laurence and I leave to go to the chiropractor. We’re the only two in the family who enjoy going, and he hasn’t been since the Christmas break. I particularly need a bone in my injured foot adjusted! We’ve been seeing this chiropractor for nine years and I love him to pieces. On the way to the appointment, L and I end up talking about how various religions have different “correct” ways to pray.

9:45 am – The chiropractor visit is done, and we stop by HEB, our grocery store, on the way home. We need to pick up a few things: yogurt, eggs, baby spinach, and honey.

IMG_433010:15 am – I put up the groceries, while Laurence rushes outside to start the lawn-mowing. He’s excited that it’s cool enough outside and he’s going to get paid to mow the lawn. He’s our youngest, but also the one who takes advantage of money-making opportunities. Jason moves to work outside to keep an eye on him, and Ambrose (middle child) goes with him to work on his own programming project. Morrigan (my oldest) is cloistered away in his room, reading or hiding or designing Magic decks. The house is relatively quiet. Time to write!

For the next almost-two hours, I work on the next chapter in my current manuscript-in-progress, stopping only for iced coffee and a few chocolate-covered apple-slices (Edible Arrangements again). This chapter is (generally) about a priest retrieved by a soldier to return to the capitol to investigate the unexplained murder of a fellow priest. Progress goes well, a good 2000+ words written and the chapter finished before the family comes together for lunch. Success!

Noon – Lunch is a haphazard and quick affair involving leftover pizza. I did at least make a salad with mine…

IMG_432912:30 pm – Time for audio! I put on my current audiobook (The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson), and alternate doing a couple lines of crochet on my current WIP with afternoon fitness/therapy work: yoga (32 mins, Yoga With Adriene), ankle therapy for my injured ankle, foam rolling (even though I really hate foam rolling!!!), and finally, showering for the day. Yes, I know. It happens. I have three kids…

IMG_43273:00 pm – Yogurt…mmm… –>

3:30 pm – So most of my planned day is done by now, lots of Xs in my bullet journal, with a few things waiting for later in the evening. The audiobook goes back on, with earbuds now, as I random-pants my way through the rest of the afternoon and early evening. A few more lines of crochet. Cleaning out my French press. Taking out the waste baskets around the house. Catching up on some paperwork like health insurance tracking and receipts. Playing around on facebook and other internet rabbit holes. Chasing the boys to make sure they get their chores done for the day. Eventually, I settle into my recliner and absently watch as the boys play Zelda and Super Smash Bros, now that Jason is done with work for the day. Once the allotted video game time is over, the boys and I watch an episode of NCIS together (Grounded, from season 12) – they’ve almost watched the entire backlog now! Jason is making fun of the show, so I “make” him rub my feet in recompense. Ha!

IMG_43366:15 pm – Tired of sitting around, I decide to take a leisurely 45-min walk around the neighborhood while Jason and Laurence make dinner (his turn today). Of course, I have my audiobook to accompany me. And while I’m out, the boys take the trash to the curb – the last chore besides dishes for the night!

7:00 pm – Dinner time! Tonight we have meatball-porcupines on rice with roasted asparagus on the side. Most nights, we choose a topic to discuss at dinner. Jason asks us questions and we see what we can all come up with. Dinner topic this night was “children’s TV shows,” because we’d been talking about Veggie Tales and Thomas the Tank Engine as the dinner began. Dinner is quick tonight, and Morrigan rushes to do the after-dinner dishes (his turn today) so we can play a game.

7:30 pm – After dinner, we put Scene-It on in “party play” mode, and spend an hour answering movie trivia questions together. None of us are big movie people, which means we fail often, but it’s fun, and in party-play mode, none of the boys feel like they’re failing or losing, which is a common game-problem in our family!

IMG_43268:30 pm – Lights out is around 9:00 pm in our house, so around 8:30, we move into prep-for-bed mode. I gather up the electronics and lock them away in our room (necessary precaution with preteen/teen boys!!), lock the doors, turn off the ceiling fans, feed the cats, and tidy the living room. While the boys get in their pajamas (or complain they don’t need pajamas) and brush their teeth, I stir up my nightly liquid magnesium citrate supplement (to help me sleep) and drink. The boys give us stuffed animals – they live on the back of our headboard for a week before going back to them. Tonight it’s a small frog and a giant Ugly Doll from Ambrose and Laurence (nothing from Morrigan). There is a flurry of hugs, multiple rounds, as they try to stay up later than 9:00, and eventually lights go out. Jason and I retreat to our room.

IMG_43289:15 (ish) pm – Now it’s time to relax just a bit before bed. I change into my PJs after skinbrushing (feels sooooo good), brush my teeth, and do a few more lines of crochet while I listen to a tiny bit more of my audiobook. When Jason is also ready for the night, we plan our days together. Then we lay back and just talk until we’re ready to sleep, which comes around 10:20 pm tonight (a bit later than usual, because again, still adjusting to the time change).

11:15 pm – Finally fall asleep after multiple interruptions, including 1) shouting teens outside who play basketball two houses away to all hours of the night, 2) some bizarre flashing lights that are near blinding even through wooden blinds, 3) Morrigan coming to check up on what said flashing lights are, and 4) a cat in heat yowling and fighting outside our window. It’s a good thing I don’t have to get up until 8:00 the next morning!!

It’s not exactly a typical day, but typical-enough for us, with all our crazy circumstances. Hopefully I didn’t bore anyone! Thanks, Trish, for hosting this event!

Posted in Personal | Tagged | 48 Comments

Callback: The Well of Ascension

Posted on March 21, 2016 by Thistle

well-of-ascensionRecently I’ve been re-listening to my favorite of Brandon Sanderson’s trilogies, the Mistborn trilogy: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages. After finishing The Final Empire, I found I didn’t have much to say about the book beyond what I’d said in my first review. With The Well of Ascension, however, so much came to me to discuss. Fair warning, there will be spoilers in this review, as I plan to go in depth into several topics.

Identity
This is the first thing that struck me during both readings of this book. Several of the main characters are struggling with their identities in this new world. Vin was formerly a young member of the slave underground class, now infamous and even regarded as a kind of deity by some. She’s spent her life in the shadows, trying to stay as small and invisible as possible. Her entire world is focused on survival and the protection of a select few, and now she’s responsible for the protection of an entire kingdom. Elend grew up as a pampered nobleman, a sort of rumpled, disheveled scholar who loves to read and discuss philosophy. He wants to the world to be better, but he isn’t prepared to have kingship thrust upon him, and soon discovers that all his idealistic politicking won’t help against the ruthless men who want to take the kingdom for themselves.

The Well of Ascension is a middle book, and there’s a lot of focus on evolving characters and identities. The kingdom has passed from a tyrannical deity (book 1) and hasn’t yet stabilized into a sturdy government. There’s a lot of floundering, both in politics and characters. A lot of bad decisions are made. Vin and Elend, along with others, are easily manipulated by their naivety, innocence, idealism, and/or feelings of inadequacy. One of the big themes that goes through the book is the growth from those unsure, hesitant, easily-manipulable characters into people who make firm decisions and know who they are and what they want.

Power vs Responsibility
Through all this growth, there’s a careful balance needed between power and responsibility. Elend wants to maintain his crown, not because he necessarily wants to have power, but because he knows he will look out for the former slave class, whereas other leaders openly profess that they will reinstate slave conditions. He wants to give the people power. At the same time, he doesn’t want to be a tyrant, and so builds into his laws the power for his own assembly to overthrow him and choose a new king. All through the book, he falls mostly on the side of responsibility, not exercising his power enough. Vin, on the other hand, tends to fall on the opposite. She is the most dangerous force in the kingdom, mistborn, deadly. There is a part of her that wants to simply assassinate all of the other people vying for the crown, to keep Elend and the people safe. Only Elend’s refusal to take/keep the crown by force holds her back, and sometimes even then, she chooses poorly and later feels the crushing guilt of responsibility after assassinating hundreds of guards. Both characters must find the right balance between power and responsibility.

This comes into play even more when Vin enters the Well of Ascension at the end of the book, and has to choose between taking that power for herself to save the people she loves, or giving it away because it’s what her duty demands. I believe that it was only her development through the book allows her to make (what she believes to be) the right choice, giving that power away.

Moral Dilemmas
There are several very uncomfortable moments in this book, and some very disturbing scenes. I’m going to talk about two of them here, because they are related to the many moral dilemmas that come up through the course of The Well of Ascension. The first involves a small town that the character Sazed comes across in his travels. He searched the few buildings in the town, finding dozens of emaciated corpses, as if the people locked themselves inside and died of hunger, refusing to leave. In one building, a single man is still alive, wild and feral. The first thing this man says is, “There is no food. We ate it. All except…the food.” Then he glances at a pile of gnawed human bones. The man has been keeping himself alive by eating the other corpses in the room. His brain is so addled that he doesn’t even appear to realize he is doing this. It’s a very disturbing scene, but also one that made me think: trapped in a house, unable to escape, no food, the dead all around you, and you yourself are dying…would you die, or break down and eat “the food”?

The second extremely disturbing-to-me scene came when Elend and Vin visit Elend’s father’s war camp. Straff (the father) is threatening the city, trying to become the new king. In the course of the conversation, Elend uses Vin’s powers as Mistborn to threaten his father in return. She takes control of Straff’s emotions, forcing him to feel nothing but anger, then fear, then passion, then calmness. Lastly, she takes his emotions and blankets them away altogether, so that he feels absolutely nothing at all. An empty, hollow shell. The moments pass, of course – the change isn’t permanent – but still, that last move felt…too much for me. Crossing the line into the unacceptable. Straff is a terrible man in every way, and I feel no pity for him when he later dies, but the removal of all emotions feels akin to using torture as a weapon, and isn’t something I would wish even on the worst of men. The question of course brings up many moral implications – what is and isn’t okay in war?

There is more in here. Tons more. I haven’t even begun to talk about the kandra, or Zane’s very disturbing character, or relationships, or the relationship of this book/story to Sanderson’s Cosmere as a whole. It’s too much to cover in a single post, even for a book that is my least favorite of the three in this series (though still a favorite of books in general – the whole trilogy is amazing!).

Posted in 2016, Adult, Prose | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Energy!

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Thistle

IMG_4335I mentioned this past Wednesday that my new medicine has helped to regulate my body to a certain degree. I no longer feel like I’m fighting my body all the time. One major side benefit I didn’t realize would come up is an excess of energy. See, when you’re constantly battling your body, you don’t have the energy to do anything. Every day is a fight just to get the bare minimums done. I’m not talking about the fug of depression, or a lack of motivation. I’m talking about the need to be constantly vigilant, holding yourself together so your body doesn’t spiral out of control.

I didn’t realize just how much energy I was spending on keeping my body together. A single short trip out of the house would wipe me out. On the rare occasion that I managed to exercise three days in a row, I’d be flattened for a week. Sometimes I had to choose between setting rice to cook or calling to schedule a doctor’s appointment – I simply couldn’t do both. It was easier to skip scrubbing the bathroom or vacuuming the house because I just didn’t have the energy or time. And forget doing the things I wanted to do, like write. I blamed this on depression or the fifty million doctor appointments or my much-heavier body or many other things. I didn’t realize that the fatigue and lack of energy boiled down to the simple fact that I was fighting my body 24/7.

My first day on this medicine was March 4th. In the two months before that, I’d managed to write a measly 3322 words on my current manuscript-in-progress, most of them scrapped because they were just so bad. In the two weeks since I began taking it, I’ve written over 13,000 (good) words. This is despite several birthday parties, my kids being home from spring break, many doctors appointments, exercising nearly every day, getting all my chores done, running tons of errands, and taking time to crochet most days. I don’t have more time than before, and I don’t feel less depressed…but my brain has been freed from the prison of body-battle and can now focus on other things. And let me just be the first to shout HURRAH!!!!!

Posted in Writing | Tagged , | 5 Comments

March Minis (Crochet)

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Thistle

Yes, I am still totally obsessed with crochet! After finalizing the winter portion of my 2016 blanket, I decided to try a few smaller projects. The goal was to try out some new stitches, and to see if I could make something a bit more practical than a couple square coasters.

02 ravenclawMy first project was a Ravenclaw scarf for Jenna as part of a book swap. I expected the scarf, which was six feet of sand stitch, to take a long time to make, but this ended up being a super fast project, taking less than a week to finish. The sand stitch turned out to be both easy and beautiful! One thing I discovered, though: this was not my favorite kind of yarn. It was rougher than I think a scarf should be, and despite my two skeins of blue yarn being from the same lot, there was a slight color difference between the two. One half of the scarf looks a bit lighter than the other, grr. Jenna told me she loves the scarf, and I’m glad, but there’s part of me – the perfectionist part – that wishes I could have made it just slightly better for her!! Still, it was pretty, it was fun, and I enjoyed making it for her.

02 green hatNext up, I decided to try my first attempt at using an actual pattern. With my blanket and the scarf, I designed my own, and it was all just straight lines, no increasing or decreasing or fancy stuff. I have two books of crochet that Jason and my friend Stephanie gave me over Christmas, and I chose the above hat to work on next. I found a softer, smaller yarn, one that would be lighter (for Texas winters), and got to work. And while the beanie was a bit more complicated – especially that edging – it turned out so well! I actually wore this to Library Palooza, and will definitely be wearing it next time it gets cool enough out again (it’s currently in the 80s).

02 water bottle holderThese projects made me even more excited about the possibilities of what I could do, so I tried a slightly more difficult project, which used a few techniques and stitches I hadn’t yet attempted. My stepmom’s birthday was coming up, and I wanted to make her a water bottle holder for when she’s on long walks or hikes. Additionally, I wanted it to be big enough to serve as a gift wrap for a nice bottle of red wine, which both she and my dad enjoy. My yarn choices were limited, and I wanted a color she loved, so I ended up with a very soft baby yarn that, admittedly, was super difficult to use. The result was nice, though, and she loved it, too!

water bottlesAnd, I’ll admit, I loved the project so much that I went on to make two others, using a different (easier) yarn choice. The smaller one is for my mother at Mother’s Day (good thing she never gets online!), for the ever-present water bottle she carries with her, and the larger is for me for long hikes. To give an idea of how different the yarns were to use, what took two days in purple took less than two hours in each of the others…

After that, I decided to learn some more advanced, raised stitches. I had so much more bronze-gold yarn from the Ravenclaw scarf, and this was only meant to be a practice, so I decided to make a posted-stitch hat with it (which, heh, still didn’t use up the yarn). I didn’t expect anyone to actually use this hat, but when I was done, Laurence fell absolutely in love with it. Sure, kid, it’s yours!

03 posted hatI’m off to a longer-term project now, which will likely take a few weeks, probably ending just in time to start the spring section of my 2016 blanket. In the meantime, I’ve learned a few things about crochet:

  • Type and quality of yarn is super important.
  • Some of those fancy, pretty stitches are deceptively easy in practice.
  • Crochet is so much more versatile than I expected, and takes far less time than I thought.
  • I hate starting projects with that “magic circle” thing.
  • It’s okay to modify a pattern to fit your needs.
  • If you crochet too long too often, you start getting sore along your shoulder and back, not to mention hands and wrists!
  • Audiobooks are the perfect accompaniment to crochet projects.

Til next time!

**All patterns, except for the scarf, from One Skein Wonders (adapted where necessary).

Posted in Crochet | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Wellness Wednesday #25: Goal Outfit

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Thistle

buttonNote: Much of the early part of this post will be medical/technical.

I mentioned a few weeks back that I was having some tests run. Some of those tests will take a full month to hear the results, but the initial round came in after a week. The bad news: my doctor does indeed think I have PCOS. The good news: Because I’ve been really good about paying attention to my body and knowing what it needs, I’ve managed to keep my numbers mostly in a normal range, though on the extreme edges of normal. There was a lot of “progesterone is almost too low” and “testosterone is barely normal, but low enough that a hormone that binds to it is too low.” Etc. Additionally, while my glucose and diabetes tests came out normal, my insulin levels are way too high. I’m definitely insulin resistant, though I’m controlling it as well as possible without aid.

My doctor said we had three choices for treatment: start by addressing the insulin, start with the progesterone, or start treating both together. The last isn’t recommended, as we wouldn’t know what causes which results. Together, we decided to tackle insulin first, because 1) it’s the abnormal result, and 2) fixing the insulin might help the hormone levels to fix themselves. She decided to start me on Metformin, though only a half-dose because my glucose is normal and she didn’t want my blood sugar to drop too low. The goal is to try that out for three months and get retested, to see where to go from there.

Metformin is one of those medications that kicks in right away. During my first day taking it, I felt like hell. I was shaky and weak all day, like my blood sugar was waaaaaay too low. I decided I would keep going for a week, and if I still felt like that, I’d call in and let my doctor know, like she asked. The second day, however, I felt fine. More than fine, actually. I felt stable. I’ve spent the last who-knows-how-long feeling like I constantly needed food, fighting off hunger and shakiness no matter how many calories I consumed. After one day on Metformin, that was gone. I feel like I can eat normally again, the way I used to. Which is awesome.

Of course, I’m also hoping this means that I can lose weight again. I’m tired of gaining despite everything I try, especially as I know REALLY WELL how to lose. To start myself off, I decided to give myself a short-term goal outfit.

collageThis outfit currently looks terrible on me. The pants are the same brand/size I normally wear, but for some reason this particular pair is way too tight. The shirt was a birthday gift from my friend Stephanie, and while you can’t see it here, it includes about 40,000 words from Jane Eyre across it. !!! Like the pants, I can wear it, but it’s too small to wear comfortably, and that makes me super sad because I love it so much. I imagine both will fit well after about 10-15 lbs of loss.

Of course, I can’t know for sure how well any of this will work in the long run. There’s still a lot to figure out about why my body is rebelling. More and more, though, I’m trusting this team of doctors I work with, and I hope that together, we can get me back into good health!

Posted in Wellness | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Spring Book Swap

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Thistle

It’s that time again – book swaps! I love my little book swap group. I have so much fun prepping and sending out packages, and awaiting what comes in return. My package from Jennifer at The Relentless Reader came late last week, and it was wonderful! See:

03 book swapFunny story: A year ago, in a completely unrelated swap, I barely got a package also from Jennifer because the box was half-buried in the middle of a blizzard. This year, I left my house for an appointment, and discovered the box there, soaking wet from all the rain we’ve been having. Thankfully, everything was prepped super well and nothing was damaged! But seriously, there must be a curse when it comes to Jennifer sending me packages. Ha!

03 cat in boxBonus: Gavroche fell in love with this box. He pretty much spent an entire day like this. After it faded to damp instead of wet, of course.

Thank you so much, Jennifer! 🙂

Posted in Book Talk | 4 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Happy Birthday, Laurence!

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Thistle

IMG_4309Twelve years ago today, I finally went into labor, five days overdue. My third child entered this world several hours later at a whopping 9 lbs 12 oz. Thanks, Laurence! (ha!) From the beginning, he was an old soul, the quietest and calmest of my three boys, the one who communicated earliest, and was the most afraid to try new things. Today, in sixth grade, he loves forensics (of both the debate and body kind), being outside, manga, cats, fashion, superhero movies, cars, musicals, eggs (cooked in just about every form), history, talking/hanging out with adults, and listening to music. He’s a bit of a pack-rat, though he tries not to be, and gets very attached to items that most people would never think of (like the cheap wall clock we’ve had since before he was born that finally died last fall). He’s extremely intuitive and empathetic, and wishes middle school wasn’t so…middle school-ish.

twelveMy youngest baby is growing up. Love you, Laurence. I hope twelve is a good year for you!

Posted in Personal | Tagged | 8 Comments