Alchemists; making potions since 1600.

So last summer there was a class at the yoga studio on using essential oils. I went to it with a couple of friends, Shelley and Paula, and it turns out that Shelley knew all about using essential oils because her daughter uses some to manage her son's asthma.

I had no knowledge of oils at all, but it was very fascinating, and I started buying bottles of oil for my own use as I learned more about their uses.

One of the first ones I used was called Calming the Child, and it's still one of our family favorites. It smells fantastic and we use it to help keep Hurricane Maddy down to a dull roar.

Then a couple of months ago, I found out that my niece, Jenna, is a dealer for Doterra essential oils, and wow, I have been having so much fun since then! She knows how to use oils to treat minor medical problems, and she's been a great resource! She has a blog here, if you want to see some of the things she is talking about. She's the one I call when I need to know how to treat something!

So I've stepped up my use of essential oils for health and well-being, and you know what the funnest part is? Mixing up blends of oils to treat things like colds and rashes. I got so excited last night when I was looking for a bottle to mix up a blend to treat the eczema spots that I have behind both ears!

I needed a bottle to put my 'potion' in, and I found a plastic squeeze bottle in the kitchen cabinet where I stash medicines like Advil and Neosporin, you know, the stuff you need sometimes and you just keep it in a cupboard so you can get to it.

The bottle originally contained calamine lotion, and it had an expiration date of May, 1996! So I didn't feel bad about pouring it down the drain and rinsing the bottle. I washed it out thoroughly, and then I mixed up my potion and labeled the bottle. (It was a recipe that I found on someone else's blog, but sometimes I find them on Pinterest, too!)

I took a picture of the eczema spot that Kim has on her back before I started treating it last night with my potion, and if it starts showing improvement, I'll post pictures!

In which I was (gasp!) wrong!

So it looks like last week was just the preparatory week for the 30 Days of Curvy Yoga, and the actual doing of the practice started today. Well, here's the thing - I went to my regular Monday yoga class and then I went home, had some dinner and went to bed.

I think that I might just do the 30 day practice on the days that I don't have a class. Unless I have some need to feel morally superior to everyone around me, then I will totally do a class and then the home practice!

In which I am zen as hell.

Today is the first day of 30 days of Curvy Yoga, and I am writing about it so I can remember when I started. Actually it started on Monday, but this is the first day of actually doing the yoga practice. The first few days were about committing, and setting an intention.

I know it seems like I am doing more than enough yoga - I have gone to three classes a week since June, and four classes a week for the last two weeks - but I want to do this 30 day program to develop the habit of a home practice.

So I'll be doing this home practice daily as well as my regular classes, but it won't kill me, this home practice is very gentle.

In which we do not go to yoga class.

I almost never miss a yoga class, but today Kim and I stayed home. Kim was babbling about doing some core work after dinner, since we were missing class, but need I say that did not happen?

We stayed home because early in the evening, when there was plenty of time in which to do so, we decided to make gluten-free hamburger buns. The recipe said the prep time was 10 minutes, and the cooking time was 40 minutes. That meant that we could make our hamburger buns, eat dinner and have plenty of time to mosey on over to the Y for yoga.

Well first of all, let me say that the prep time was nothing like 10 minutes, even without the trip to the store to buy cream of tarter (what is that, anyway?) and butter. I sent Kim to the store, and I stayed home doing some more of the prep work and it still took us two hours to finish the hamburger buns.

When I finally had put the buns in the oven (Har.), I went back to the counter to check the recipe so I could set the timer, and there, lurking behind the mixer, was the sugar that I forgot to add! Oops. So I wasn't sure how good the buns would be, because how important is sugar?

I still don't know the answer to that one, because the buns were delicious! They weren't soft like hamburger buns that we are used to, but they were great! We each ate two hamburgers, because the buns were so good!

Maybe the sugar would have made the buns softer? I just don't know.

In other news, the new refrigerator arrived this morning and we are happy to have shelves again. Maddy has already made a big mess getting a glass of water from the door spout, so that was a success.

Now we're cooking!

So the biggest change in our lives since Rich had to start eating gluten-free is that I have to cook all the time!

I used to make dinner every night when we had kids at home, and since they have all grown up and moved out, I hardly ever do. We go out to eat or we forage in the cupboards like bears, and about once a week or maybe twice, I make something for us and we eat in the living room in front of the TV.

Now I have to cook so he will have food that he can eat! We can't just get hamburgers from Culvers or subs from Subway because they aren't gluten free! One of my friends told me where we can get a gluten free pizza, so we're going to try that on the weekend.

So far I have made a really good pot of chili, some chicken stew with chickpeas and kale, and umm, some other thing with kale in it. (Kale comes in a huge bag, and I had to use it all up!) I've been using the cookbooks I bought, and one of them is really great because it has dinners you can make on a weekday night that only take about a half hour to cook.

Sunday night Rich said that he had been wishing for some Shepherds Pie, which was a funny coincidence, because I had found a recipe for Shepherds Pie in that cookbook, and was planning to make it on Monday!

I made the Shepherds Pie tonight and it was very good. As I made it, I could see that it was almost identical to my regular recipe for Shepherds Pie, except that my recipe makes twice as much, so I will probably make my recipe for Rich to take for the potluck after church this Sunday. My regular recipe uses flour to thicken the sauce, so I'll substitue gluten free flour.

I usually skip that once-a-month potluck, but I might go this time, just to see what other people bring. Rachel is planning to make a gluten-free dish to share, and one of our friends says she is going to make some gluten-free brownies so Rich can have dessert!

The lost weekend

So last weekend was the lost weekend. So lost, in fact, that when I got dressed to go to work yesterday (Friday), Rich said, "Are you going to work? Isn't this your weekend off?" and I said, "That was last weekend, but you missed it!"

Last weekend was lost because on Friday Rich went to see a doctor about his ever-lasting cough, and the doctor ordered some tests including a blood test. On Saturday morning Rich went in early to get his blood drawn, and an hour later, he got a call from the doctor telling him that he needed to be admitted to the hospital right away because he was severely anemic!

Rich was so anemic that no one at the hospital could believe that he was still walking, and Rachel told me that she has never even had a patient whose hemoglobin count was so low!

So Rich was admitted to the hospital and spent all day and all night getting six units of blood and watching a Harry Potter movie marathon on tv while relaxing in bed and ordering large meals from room service.

Rachel and I hung around and watched TV and knitted (me), and kept an eye on the medical side of things (Rachel) and Maddy visited Poppy's room, too.

Rich had to be tested to see where all his blood was going since he didn't seem to have any in his body, so Sunday was a prep day for those tests, and then Monday evening he finally was tested, and the doctor came back to tell us that he has Celiac Disease.

When you have Celiac Disease, you are sensitive to gluten in your food, and it prevents you from absorbing nutrients like iron, which is why Rich was so very anemic. Which means that Rich needs to be on a gluten-free diet.

Rich was all groggy from the testing, so he doesn't really remember us getting the news, and discussing the new adventure of being gluten-free. He doesn't remember that Rachel left the hospital to go shopping for gluten-free foods so he would have something to eat at home.

Rich ate a (gluten-free) meal that the nurses ordered for him and waited groggily to be discharged from the hospital and watched Wall-E with Maddy, who was resting happily in Poppy's hospital bed, eating Pringles out of a can.

Rachel came back with Kim and three bags full of gluten-free food they scored at the supermarket, and we spread the loot out on the hospital bed to look it over. She had gotten a wide varity, and it was pretty thrilling to see it all.

The next morning I was at work, and I got a text from Rich aaking me if oatmeal was gluten-free. I texted back that there was instant oatmeal on top of the fridge that he could eat, knowing that I had put it up there when I unpacked the gluten-free groceries the night before.

When I got home a little later, Rich was still puttering around in the kitchen, and I asked him how the oatmeal was. He showed me the oatmeal he had eaten, which was some instant strawberry-flavored regular oatmeal of Kim's! He ate the wrong stuff!

I showed him the correct box so he would know where it was, and he nodded, and asked if he could eat saltines, which is what he normally snacks on while he works.

I said no, but he could eat the snacks Rachel bought for him, and I started pulling them out of the cupboard and putting them in a bag to carry up to his office. He looked surprised to see them, and that was when I realized he didn't remember anything that happened after his tests because he was too groggy!

So I explained about Rachel shopping for snacks, and gave him the bag. Then I opened the freezer and showed him what was in there, because Rachel had also bought him some frozen foods for his lunches. (If you are thinking now that Rachel is a wonderful daughter, you are right.)

He was relieved to see that stuff, because he usually eats a TV dinner for lunch, and he was wondering what he was supposed to eat if his TV dinners were banned!

I told him that while I was at work during the night I had bought two books about living gluten-free and three gluten-free cookbooks, and that there will be plenty of things for him to eat.

So Rich toddled upstairs clutching his bag of gluten-free snacks and I went to bed, and when I got up I made a gluten-free dinner. I made dinner the next night, too, so there, do you see how helpful and supportive I am?

My friends are all being super helpful and supportive, too, because Paula's daughter-in-law is gluten sensitive and Laura's friend is, too, so they are full of suggestions and information. It's an adventure!

Today Rachel slaved all afternoon to make gluten-free Twinkies! They are pretty good, although not so much like a real Twinkie. Maddy carried them to our house in a bowl on her lap, and brought them in and gave each of us an individually wrapped "Twinkie". It was so cute. Then we put the rest of them in the fridge and went out to swing Maddy on the swing, which is all she really wants to do at my house now.

So there you go, the story of the lost weekend.

I just want to tell you about a book!

I know I haven't written anything here in forever, but I am here now because I want to tell you about a book I read last night!

It's called Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore. It's by Robin Sloan, and it was just so much fun to read that I read the entire book last night.

It was about...you know what? I can't really describe it. It's about a quest, a modern quest, using the internet, and social media, and the main character works the night shift, which only makes it better. I have a soft spot for people working the night shift. The only thing that could have made it better is yoga. Sorry, there was no yoga.

Anyway, I reccommend recommend think you should read it.

The Bronchitis Blog; Day Eight

I have been sick for more than a week, and on antibiotics, steroids and an inhaler (oops, I keep forgetting to use it), for 4 days. I'm feeling better, but not entirely well.

Maddy and Rachel are both sick now. We're hoping Kim stays healthy. She hasn't been around Maddy and Rachel much, and I was already on the antibiotic for about 12 hours before she got here, so I think she'll be okay.

So yes, Kim has been home for a few days. She's taking her Christmas vacation now, because there was an emergency at work at Christmas and she had to stay in town and work and only came home for about a day and a half.

So far we have shopped for jeans, socks, and underwear for her, she got her hair trimmed, and had a massage. She's getting a lot of sleep, too. We did a short yoga sequence tonight, too, which is the first time I'm done any yoga in a week, and it felt really good. She says it's the best vacation ever.

Looking forward to a quiet night at work with my reading and my knitting. I'm trying to finish a couple of things, as well as work on the Cowboy Cowl I started weeks ago. I've got the Knit a Long we're doing at the yarn shop, which is a pair of socks knitted in a new yarn called CoBaSi, made of Cotton, Bamboo and Silk. Everyone seems to like it except me, so I'm not going to complain about it, and really, it's fine, I just don't love it. I will just say that it's a bit splitty.

I wish I had some popcorn.