Month: March 2024

Bellyache

Well, it seemed a bit easier to eat today than yesterday, and definitely easier than the previous week. I missed lunch, due to the schedule at school and the fact that the one location didn’t have anything I could eat (and not be massively ill), and so couldn’t get to the other location in time before class even to get salad and quinoa. But, since that made me very hungry by the end of the school day, I went ahead and went to one of the Chinese places to get a dish I had kind of been wanting for several days already.

So, I arrived at home with a bunch of food for us both. I kept gluten out of it, and the only grains was a box of steamed rice that we barely even touched. (Genuinely had a single bite with the rest of the food, then a few bites after we got home later from shopping.) I overate, but we went for a digestion walk, so that helped.

However, as we headed out to pick up a few things from the grocery store and to look at a shelving unit at IKEA, we discovered that the food had hit us a bit. Walking through IKEA, my husband kept saying things like, “Don’t follow me,” as he casually walked away from me… to pass gas. And no, it was not even silent gas most of the time. It was a good thing the store was almost empty, because people would have been 1) shocked and 2) on the floor. They were bad. At one point, I was running away from one, and I hid my face so the approaching woman wouldn’t see that I was holding my nose. However, a few seconds later, she was covering her own nose with her jacket as she rushed down the main aisle. ::face palm

But, before all the gas started – yes, I had gas, too, but it was silent and meager compared to what was going on chez my husband – we had gotten some cake and coffee at the cafe, since the thing downstairs was closed and we couldn’t get any soft serve. It was a nice little date that cost us only the price of the cakes, since we’re IKEA Family members.

Oh! And we got our pillow and mat for the back door for a total of a dollar, seven, because I had a $10 discount birthday reward. So, yay to that, too! Double yay!

Anyway, I’m lying in bed now, clearly with gas still in my belly. Hopefully, it can release at least a bit more before I go to sleep, or it will be a tough night for sleep. I’m glad it was easier for me to eat and to stomach food today, but this gas… yikes. Haha

Yes, I’m sure you were delighted to hear all about that part of our evening. 😛 But imagine how surprised someone would have been if I’d allowed my husband to leave one of his noxious gas deposits in one of the drawers that have the “Look inside!” sticker on them… that would have been a terrible experience for the poor soul who opened it to look inside, to be sure. (Totally hilarious, of course, but also very uncool and not appropriate or loving to our fellow humans.)

Post-a-day 2024

Flawed

The system is flawed. How are we supposed to be healthy if we can’t eat healthy foods – or just about any foods at all – and drink heathy drinks, including water, without getting totally ill? Who made this plan? Why? How do we do it??

The body does this consistently with food poisoning, sure. It needs to clear out everything and start over. But anything more than a few days… that’s just absurd.

Dear God, help me to eat and drink well, that I be healthy and be my best self with and through you and with and through your aid. Please, keep my husband safe and well, same for me. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Chiropractor

I finally got to visit the chiropractor today, after days of pain. Though I am still achey in my back and neck, it feels different. Also, she gave me something to help with the digestive issues I’ve been having the past week or so. So, I might actually be able to sleep tonight.

I certainly hope I do!

God, help me to sleep well tonight especially and each night afterward, please. May your will be done, even, and especially so, if it isn’t my will. Thank you for this life. Please, keep my husband safe and well. I hand over all to you, that it be done by your will, not merely by my own. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Shelves

We are working on resolving the bookshelf need/desire. Hopefully, we will find a beautiful, effective, and affordable solution soon. I have a few boxes of books at my mom’s right now that I would like to have here, displayed and in my life. But I can’t even currently display all the books I have here.

So, something to figure out.

God, thank you for this life. Thank you for helping me see clearly and without shame that we need help with cleaning our home, at least for now, if not for always. Help us to improve continuously in caring for our home and our marriage. Help us to love fully and freely in our home, guided always by your love and hand. We trust in you fully. Please, take care of everything. Have us do as you will, and help us always to want your will, as you do. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Carnival

Tonight, we attended the rodeo carnival. My husband and I went in with my brother and his wife, because a friend gave us some carnival packs he never ended up using or reselling. Plus, we had a few free ride tickets from the volunteer appreciation brunch the rodeo had this year (which was quite cool, by the way).

I think we all went into it a little tired, but game. And I think we all ended up having actually a really good time. We walked around a bit to get an idea of pricing and availability, and then we rode the gondola across first (after I got a corn dog with the food card we had). It was actually quite neat, but also slightly terrifying. Something about it just felt kind of janky, when compared to ski gondolas, and we had this paranoid feeling that our phones were going to plummet at any second, and our hats would go flying, forever lost to us. It also stopped twice, though briefly. That didn’t make it feel any better. But it was still cool, and I’m glad we did it. Definitely a fun view to have of the whole complex.

Then we all needed a bathroom break, so we went over to Center to use real bathrooms and to see the youth agricultural mechanics contest. My committeemen who told me about this contest were not wrong: these kids make aMAZing things. We talked with one girl who is a senior in high school, and she presented her project to us. It was an automated washer and dryer for sheep, goats, and cattle (they do this for showing constantly, and it is actually kind of hilarious to watch folks struggle to clean and dry these animals by hand). It was immensely sophisticated, it boxed up neatly for transport, and it took her over a thousand hours of labor, which she did by herself, and cost $24,000 in materials. She plans to patent it in the very near future, her siblings will use it for their show animals this next year, and she hopes to get it contracted for production and sale at about $80,000 a pop. Oh, and she also demonstrated its functionality for us with life-sized stuffed animals. That was both awesome and adorable.

Pretty neat, huh?

Then we wandered back to the carnival to use up our tickets. Should have done it earlier, we quickly discovered, because the place was packed and the lines were long now.

Nonetheless, they rode a swing ride, a spinning ride with almost no line, and another flipping-spinning ride that went super high up and, somehow, had an almost-zero line as we walked up to it (which didn’t last).

We spent the final tickets on a game we had seen and called unfairly priced early on, where you get to throw baseballs at overturned beer bottles and try to break them. But you only get two balls per turn and have to break two bottles. (So, if you miss the first, why bother throwing the second? Exactly.) However, we had tickets to spare and no one wanted to wait in any lines for rides anymore, so we went for it.

The boys enjoyed it and did not succeed in breaking the bottles. They did, however, succeed in getting tiny bits of glass all over their hands from the used baseballs that had been falling on the piles of broken bottles all day (and all rodeo, most likely). So, that sucked. After they washed their hands, it was immensely better, but not all the glass was gone, apparently. I’m just hoping it’ll be fully clear from my husband’s hands during his shower, so he can come to bed with fully clean and safe hands. I’m too sensitive for stuff like that, and probably would freak out for weeks if any ended up in the bed.

Anyway, we then went to the club we enjoy, partly just to use he tickets my mom had given us, but also so my brother and sister-in-law could try the awesome frozen (think frostie-style) Jack & Coke and the awesome Milk Punch (also called Rodeo Punch), a milky drink with nutmeg that is like horchata, but not. On the way, a girl from one of my committees was clearly leaving and she could tell we were going up to the club, so she handed me a handful of drink tickets she was not going to be using before tomorrow night. (Not like we needed those, but more to share! And we did both sue them and share them, which was great.) We still ended up with three drink tickets leaving in my hat, but those had been a gift in the first place, so no monetary loss on our family’s end, anyway, and more money for the kids (scholarship money).

We finally left to go home at eleven o’clock, all of us wiped. But the highways were actually open tonight, free from construction shut-downs, so it was a quick drive home for once. (Yippee!)

So, yes, another night both out and up late for me. And I had a very nice time with my family, doing something we don’t usually get to do. So, that was fun, and so am grateful.

Thank you, God, for such a nice time with my family and for keeping us safe. I love you. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Bedtimes

I despise going to bed late. I always feel terrible the following day or three, and it takes me forever truly to catch up on sleep. Even if I get to sleep in late, that just doesn’t do it. Only going to bed early gives me the truly restful sleep.

The sleep I actually need.

And yet I keep staying up late.

And I keep being miserable.

When will I cut it out and just give up and go to bed early like both my mind and body want me to do?

God, help me sort this out, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Bedtime

I’m tired. And I want to be held. And I’m tired of going to bed alone. And I’m tired of not exercising enough.

I did actually get in some exercise both yesterday and today, though both were only partial exercise. However, they were more than I did the previous two weeks, which was an improvement, and I am grateful for that. I hope to do some tomorrow, too. Even that little bit today helped and that chunk yesterday helped, too.

I also wakes the dog today. It was the longer route, and we went kind of fast. I kept up my pace, which meant I was basically dragging the dog along by the final third of it. But it was good for us both. I got depressive today, which felt all the more terrible than I had been feeling lately for lack of sleep and for rodeo stress – aka people being stupid very unnecessarily. So, going outside into the sunlight and also doing a brisk walk we’re both helpful. And the dog’s being with me helped me feel like I had company. (I had thought my husband and I could spend the day together today, but hadn’t known until last night that he had his onboarding stuff at the office all morning today, then flying all afternoon. So, sad for the day’s plans, but good for his work, for his mental health, and for our income.)

But we got to have a Costco pizza pie for dinner (and a hot dog for me) to celebrate Pi Day together. We even shared one of the coffee freeze things that are delicious, which is rare for us – my husband doesn’t exactly share single servings of things, so that was big. We had a great little date night out at Costco, and we also got my grandma’s coffee things and fresh organic blueberries for myself (I’d say we got them for ourselves, but he never ate his half of the last batch, and they went bad, so I’m not bothering to share this time. Not in a mean way. Just in a practical sense. If he wants some, he can take them, but I’m not leaving any for him intentionally this time.).

I’ve been really wanting fresh fruits and veggies lately. I want all those awesome smoothies and juices from these couple super healthy smoothie places. But that’s super unaffordable. Why the stuff without all the added junk is so much more expensive is still baffling to me. It tastes better and is better for us, plus is easier to make, but costs loads more. I just wish I were better at making smoothies. I somehow mess them up 60-70% of the time and make something terrible, though healthy. That 40% where it is tolerable or delicious is giving me ever-decreasing confidence in trying to make them at all anymore.

But I really want a good smoothie. I can make this one morning one really well still. But making ones that don’t have too much sweet (to where they don’t give me gas) has been difficult for me the past few years. That’s why I stopped making them altogether, really. I need veggie smoothies, but don’t have any good recipes. I always just made it up. (Also why they often sucked.)

Anyway, I’m worn out. Off to snuggle with my stuffed animals and sleep half-upright, because that pizza was so bad for my digestion, I can’t even lie down flat without risk of things going back upward right now (hours later). Ugh…

Anyway, goodnight, folks! Sleep well, sweet dreams, and May God bless you beautifully and unexpectedly this week.

God, be with us all newly this week, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Bedsheets

How long is right for the time between changing bedsheets? Some folks sweat at night, others (myself included) really do not. Some folks go to bed without showering – absolutely not okay for my brain – and others always shower and go to bed clean.

If one is both of the dirtier options, then one necessarily would need to wash sheets more frequently (well, change them, anyway – one could have ten sets and wash them only rarely). If one is both of the cleaner options, it can go longer, but there is still a limit.

And the weather often affects what the body does throughout the night, anyway. So, a wrench in any effort at having a clear strategy from the previously-mentioned information.

So, yeah. Just about every day sounds good to me. Thanks. 😛

Post-a-day 2024

Fitness

I’ve gotten lazy as of late, and it is not okay. My mind is also not okay, because of it. So, I need to sort out myself and see what I need to make this happen. I weight more than I am comfortable weighing right now, and that is not cool. My natural instinct is to eat less, which isn’t always the right answer. Presently, the answer is very much to exercise again. Almost no exercise in two weeks is too long for me, both in mind and in body. Too long by a lot.

So, I’m going to do a touch of ab work right now, even though I’m lying in bed to go to sleep. Then, I am going to do at least what I consider a half-workout tomorrow whenever I get up. It’ll be abs and some weight movements, but nothing to crush me or to crush my will to work out the next time. Something I can handle in my current state of fitness, but that still stretches me for growth in my fitness. And I’m looking forward to it, though I am a bit too tired right now, going to bed so late.

At that, goodnight!

God, help me to sleep well tonight and to do well tomorrow, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Done

We are done with our rodeo shifts for this year’s rodeo. “We” being my mom and sister-in-law and I. My husband still had two more to go with my stepdad. But we are finished for the year now. We finished this afternoon. And then we had prime rib for having paid our dues early as a team, then tres leches for my miniature surprise birthday celebration. My brother brought the cake and the surprise, and my husband joined us, too, for the planned family hangout. We then strolled around with purpose, aiming to have the random terrible-for-you food stuff we had wanted to try this year. So, we each had a fried Oreo, we shared a funnel cake, my man and I shared a fried Snickers – actually, I like those lots better normal than fried, because it just seemed like warm crunchy peanut butter when fried (Not that it wasn’t good. It just wasn’t snickers.) – we considered some Fruity Pebbles things – it sounded kind of awful, in the end, either with friend shrimp or pineapple – we sat in absurdly expensive massage chairs that were so-so, and we watched some steer being judged in one of the youth shows for ‘lightweight’ steers, which are up to 1150 pounds… can you believe that is considered light weight?

Anyway, it was a good time. I am grateful to be done with shifts for the year and I am grateful to have had a good time with my family this afternoon and evening. Now, I shall sleep and truly relax.

Thank you, God, for the good time. Help me to recover well with my sleep tonight, please, that I may continue to improve our home tomorrow and the rest of this week. Help me to honor you through honoring my family and our home. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024