Blog

Around the House, Friend Time, I Really Do Cook, Lifelong learning, Music, My Own Personal Weirdness, What I Love

Nurturing Oneself

I had an early brunch with a dear, dear friend of mine this morning. As we sat in her sweet little breakfast nook with tea, boiled eggs, and stollen, we chatted about how the year was going and she asked me what I was doing to nurture myself. Honestly y’all, I babbled out an answer full of things that made her go “THAT’S what you find nourishing?” Things like scheduling things, making sure everything had a task associated with it, being better organized, etc. She expressed a bit of doubt with my methods, but being the gracious hostess she is, she just let it go and the topic moved onward.

I got home a while later and really started thinking about it. I am not really a planner. Oh, I try and try to be, but in the end every plan lasts a few days and then I scrap it. So I spent some time just meditating on the idea of nurture and what it meant to me.

Here’s what I came up with:

  1. Nurturing me means extra time around everything so I can digest experiences. Yes, that means a bit of planning, but it is soooo good to have time around things and not just be chock-a-block busy.
  2. Nurturing me also means time for music, which I have not been making. The words “I haven’t played the piano since I got these progressive lenses” slipped out of my mouth and now that I’ve ruminated on it, I got the glasses in January (9 months ago) and haven’t really touched the piano since my mom died.  Hmmm….
  3. Nurturing me means time to read. I have “Time to Read” in my Habit Tracker, but how much have I really been reading? None. Like one day a week, which is very close to none for a Lisa.
  4. Nurturing me also means eating foods I actually like. My husband is very good about cooking dinner, but he is very bad about making food that I really am fond of. Part of that is that the kids hate everything and part of that is that we really, Nick and I, have a totally different palate. I’ve been cooking my own lunches this week and eating all the things I love, like mushrooms and onions and zucchini and sweet potatoes and cabbage, and have been so happy at lunch time!

Anyways, that’s what’s on my mind today. Time to go eat the mushroom/onion/zucchini/feta dish that’s been sauteing while I type. 🙂  Hope y’all have a good afternoon!

health

Too Good To Be True

I had this “Too Good To Be True” nice kind of day where you kind of secretly wait for the awful thing to happen. Yeah. Prednisone wore off and I’ve got a sinus infection. I was finally going to get to chaperone the band. I was feeling so good. Now I feel like someone took a blowtorch to my sinus cavity.

health, My Own Personal Weirdness

Misreading Signs

Signs that you might need to go to bed early. I’m so tired right now that I just misread a sign as “The Devil’s Roomba.” Yesterday, similarly tired, I read a different sign as “Murders Ahead.” I also got mad at a light switch for not turning on the light that was already on.

My Own Personal Weirdness, Writing

Things I Do When I Cannot Write

I wrote 7 scenes yesterday, but my brain could not be bothered to come up with more than 500 words today, which is the lowest limit I allow myself for productivity these days. So I made this list of things I could do that are mostly Writing Adjacent on those days:

  • Make list of things to be done
    • Scenes
    • Outlines
    • Character sheets
    • Research
  • Research things off my Research list
  • Write “daily pages”
  •  Update Writing folders on computer
  • Read “Downloaded-yet-Unread Writing Related Articles”
  • Sort “Prompts” file by type of prompt for later use
  •  Figure out what topics I want more info on for the next writing group meeting
  • Prepare my 2-page item for sharing at TPL’s Writing Club
  • Do coursework for online writing classes
  • Help someone else with their writing

 

So then I did, yay verily, sort all my prompts. Also, dyed my hair teal. It didn’t come out quite how I hoped, but that’s how my whole week has gone.

20191016_1452582

I Really Do Cook

Sausage Mushroom Breakfast Casserole

I made a really delicious breakfast casserole this morning. Our picky eaters are out of town, so we are able to eat mushrooms and onions again. Let the rejoicing begin!

20191015_090803

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 of an 8 inch round onion focaccia bread
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1.5 cups of milk
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground mustard
  • 1 tablespoon Italian herb mix (mine has oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, and marjoram)
  • salt and pepper to taste (mine was light on salt and heavier on pepper)
  • 1 long piece of beef sausage (from those that come 2 to a package)
  • 4 ounces of sliced baby bella mushrooms
  • a few dashes of parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup or so of shredded cheese, this time I used a Colby jack/Monterary jack, next time I’m trying feta

Instructions:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8×8 in casserole with your favorite oil.
  2. Whisk eggs, mustard, and milk in a bowl.
  3. Cut foccacia into 1 inch chunks and place in bottom of casserole.
  4. Pour egg mixture over it and set it aside.
  5. Slice mushrooms, not too thin, into 1/2 inch or so sized pieces.
  6. Cook mushrooms with the Italian Herb Mix and salt and pepper until they are nice and yummy.
  7. Slice the sausage while the mushrooms cook, then when the mushrooms are just about done, add the sausage to the pan and cook for a few more minutes.
  8. Pour the mushroom-sausage mix into the casserole, giving it a bit of a stir to incorporate the mushrooms and sausage a bit into the bready goodness.
  9. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on first, then the shredded cheese.
  10. Bake for about 35-40 minutes. Let sit for about 10 minutes before cutting into it.

 

It was delicious! 🙂

 

 

 

health

Bright Sides

So yesterday was a good day to stay at home. I felt like trash, my meds gave me terrible acid reflux, and not even 6 prednisone gave me any energy to do more than sit on the couch. It did not, however, let me nap, so the band’s delay in getting home (buses arrived in Tyler at 2:30am) was …interesting. Especially as the light over the front door stopped working and I ended up taking a living room lamp out into the porch area so we could see to get back into the house.

I did finally sleep and today has been a better day because I got acid reflux prevention meds, I heard from my traveling boys, and Ree is back home to clean up all the cat vomit (Cosmo has decided that eating the plastic sleeves of things in the trash in my bathroom is a good plan. I keep my doors closed, but he has managed to get in there several times now. I swear he can open doors.). See! Bright sides! 🙂

health

Lyrica, Day One

Day one on new meds: I’m having one of those days like those old V8 commercials where they were leaning sideways (for me it’s left side only). Feeling super weird.

Organizing, Writing

Planning for Writing

I have been stuck at home either in my bed or in my favorite chair today because moving is ridiculously painful and just sitting makes me cringe, but have been watching all those videos I have amassed over the last few weeks of being too busy to watch them, so there’s that. Learning about other people’s planner hacks, some new-to-me novel planning procedures, and doing a little background research for the next novel. Have loved being cozy while watching the rain and breezes outside my window.

health

Fibromyalgia

Some people have asked about the fibromyalgia, since I don’t talk about it much. My version of fibro has been really quiet until recently. Now in addition to the muscle spasms, pain, and weakness, I am also having a lot of the cognitive issues (severe brain fog – I literally forgot I had a 3rd child the other day – inability to do simple math – not being able to figure out where I am in familiar places like my own kitchen, inability to comprehend speech, sensitivity to loud noise -which never has ever been an issue before, etc), plus dizziness & vertigo, trouble swallowing, and other digestive issues I don’t feel like discussing. It’s a LOT. Thanks for being concerned about me!

Here’s a link to a good fact sheet about the symptoms of this disease: https://www.verywellhealth.com/fibromyalgia-symptoms-716139

health

RA & Fibro Flares; update

I saw my rheumatologist today and brought up all the things that my neurologist last month told me were probably RA or fibromyalgia related. The doctor checked my fibro points and they were all super painful, so I’m getting a new med to add to what I’m already taking. My RA is also still flaring, so I get steroids, too. As for that pesky list from the neurologist, the doctor told me that those things usually only pop up in people with super uncontrolled disease states and mine has been good for the last couple years. So we did some “deep blood work” that we don’t usually do to see if something is wrong or if something else is at play. Being me is fun. But I have a new theme song this week. Listen and enjoy!

Rob Thomas – One Less Day (Dying Young)