what i did today

Rarely do I take days off when we’re not going out of town.  Actually, up until last March I have always been a contractor so any day I took off was unpaid.  Last year, because I got hired in the middle of the year, I didn’t have much time built up and used any days I had on out-of-town vacations.  The kids have been on Spring Break this week and my uncle and his family came into town for Easter so I decided to spring for it and use two of my vacation days to be able to just hang out. No big plans, just being available.  A little Spring Break Staycation and day one was great.

This morning I made pancakes for the kids and we got ready at leisure.  We then did some consignment shopping and picked up a few things for summer.

For the early afternoon, my uncle took us all out on his boat for a few hours.  Man, was that relaxing.  The wind made it a little chilly so no tubing or skiing but with little to distract us except a nice hum of the engine, I could have nearly gone to sleep.  Just the perfect thing for a day off near home.

Late this afternoon we had my cousins (close to the girls’ age) over and then we spent the evening at my parents’.  Just some BBQ and a lot of talking. 

I have to say, I need to do these random days off at home a lot more often.  Exactly what I needed.

Before I write any sort of recap, I’d like this post to live up to its blog’s name Permission to Peruse. We have a few family members going through some serious stuff.  In fact, my busy thoughts and troubled heart are why I didn’t post at all on Friday.  Please know as I post in the next days, perhaps weeks, that my heart is heavy.  I don’t have the permission to let you peruse the details (sorry, had to) but if you could say some prayers, I know God knows what’s going on.

Scott worked the weekend so those are always the times the girls and I get out and have some sweet girl times together.  Friday night we got out to the park.  Emma was hilarious as two younger boys tried to join in their fun in the sand box and Emma kept looking at me and mouthing, “Save. me.”  It made me giggle even though we all know she’s been the busy little girl no one could keep up with before.

Saturday morning we got out to the library.  I love, love that both of the girls are becoming bookworms and nothing makes me happier than all of us carrying an armful of books out the door.  Their current favorite is Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  I was shocked when Emma ended up reading one of them in less than 24 hours.  We hit up the grocery store and then did a little spring clothes shopping.  We didn’t make any plans for Spring Break and the only request Lexi had was to go to Justice.  I don’t know if that’s good or bad but I do know one outfit is a lot cheaper than a Spring Break week at Disney.  We had someone come out and talk to us about landscaping the front yard since we never planted anything after the addition last year.  We had another friend stop by and then the girls and I just spent the night at home, capping off the day with an episode of Little House of the Prairie.  I’m not sure the girls quite appreciate the show yet.  In the middle, Emma exclaimed, “This is so pointless!”  The episode was about a couple in the town on the brink of divorce so I’m just not sure she connected.  Ah well, at least I’m trying.

Sunday we had church and lunch and then the girls stayed over with their cousin.  I did some heavier grocery shopping, laundry and the like.  My niece stayed over last night and we ended up at my parents’ house for the evening where they played, visited a neighbor’s horse and watched a movie in their theater room. 

Today is the first day of Spring Break.  We have family coming in to town on Wednesday so I decided to take Thursday and Friday off.  It’s a short work-week and I couldn’t be more excited. 

Before I end, I wanted to highlight the blog’s newest (and first!) official Sponsor.  Casey Coley is a Thirty-one consultant.  You’ll see her ad on the right sidebar.  I’m proud to say I managed to put that button together in Photoshop.  Musings of a Housewife has a great tutorial on creating a button.  Go visit Casey’s Thirty-one site and check out the latest Spring patterns and bags.

I’m in the car somewhere in Northern Georgia. We had our follow-up doctor’s visit today. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me refer you to this post. So here’s the results:

Emma’s liver is now testing clear and she does not need to take her liver pills anymore.
Emma’s emotional test was clear so she does not need to take her drops.
As for her milk, he still wants her to stay away from milk on its own. Cheese, baked goods with milk, etc are fine but if she’s going to have a glass of milk or a bowl of cereal, she should either have a dairy-free alternative OR he said he felt comfortable with her having drinking raw milk which I thought was interesting.
As for her gluten, it is better but she should continue gluten-free. I asked about a NAET treatment and he said it was not an allergy, but a sensitivity which is totally different. I had suspected as much after doing more reading these past weeks. He thought she may outgrow it though and could be tested in a few years.

Scott’s sinus is clear of the fungus but we haven’t seen much improvement. It turns out his other sinus cavity has a different fungus so he gave him a different anti-fungal medicine for that. He had indicated last time that might be the case so no surprise there.
As for his stomach, he doesn’t need the Amalyse anymore to help digest carbs but kept him on the Digestin. He ran out of that last week and his acid reflux returned immediately. He said his body is just not producing enough acid to break down his food.
As for his seratonin, he is also continuing that as we believe it could replace his OCD meds.

Overall, he said he could see improvement in both of them. I’m a little bummed we are sticking with gluten-free but it’s great to have the milk back. It opens up so many more Italian dishes and snacks she can have. We have found so many good gluten-free products. Oh, he also gave us a pill to take in case we did have gluten and it would help break it down. He didn’t see any need to see us again. He’d just check on Scott by phone.

Even though gluten-free is hard I’m so glad Emma is not suffering. While its no fun to miss out on some foods I think it’s better than hurting every time she eats and have no idea why. And even though Scott could be on that Digestin for years I feel better knowing it’s a homeopathic solution.

So that’s that. What questions do you have about gluten-free living? I’m just a baby gluten-freer but would be happy to help if I could.

I have had our Canon Rebel XT DSLR for years and all I’ve ever used is either Automatic or No Flash mode.  Every once in a while I’d catch a blog post of someone trying to teach ISO and aperture and all those manual mode words and I’d get courageous and turn the dial over to Manual to see what would happen.  Nothing but fail.  I just couldn’t get it together.

I’ve been a fan of Layla and Kevin at the Lettered Cottage for a while and when Kevin announced he had started a new online photography business with his friend Josh called Shoot FLY Shoot, well, I knew it was for me. 

And boy, was I right.  I SO enjoyed taking the classes.  Photography 101 is simply a set of 12 videos on a web page to watch at your leisure.  Kevin and Josh are super awesome.  They don’t assume you know anything and don’t make you feel stupid if you don’t.  They explain it in a straightforward manner but it’s not boring either.  In fact, the two of them are pretty charming if you don’t mind me saying.  The videos are sharp and professional and really just pretty, for a lack of a better word.  As a visual learner, I just couldn’t have asked for anything more.

The best thing is, I GOT IT.  I really, really finally GET ISO, aperture and shutter speed.  I get what that meter is for on the back that keeps moving back and forth.  Before, I knew that a high ISO would make the room brighter and low would make it darker but I didn’t realize I was sacrificing detail and really that’s not the thing I need to be messing with much.  I knew about bokeh but I was trying to change my aperture all on its own.  I’d heard about shutter speed but didn’t have a clue about how to change it and when.  It’s like I had some of the pieces but they finally put it together for me. I’m not an excellent photographer yet but I know the basics of what I need to do on Manual mode.  From here, it’s practice, practice, practice.

I have no other incentive to say this other than I mean it and you should know: help is out there and it’s 100% worth the cost.  If you’re scared of the “M”, go.  Go, go, go!

No blow-by-blow today from the weekend.  We spent a lot of time at home, some at the hospital to visit Scott’s dad and went out for little excursions like a milkshake treat at Cook Out while Emma was on a play date and we went bike-riding at the Riverwalk Sunday.  I had to work some on Saturday. And of course, I managed to get out late last night to catch The Hunger Games. 

I also spent a lot of time Saturday taking online photography lessons from ShootFlyShoot.  I want to dedicate a whole post to it when I’m done but thought I’d share some pictures I took over the weekend while trying to practice on Manual mode.   Yep, the big scary M!

I love baby leaves on our tree.

Lexi giving the “I’m watching you” signal.

Scott treated the girls to a soccer and volleyball this weekend

Emma is obsessed with inch worms right now.

We had nasty storms in Charlotte this weekend and I just had to capture this sky with the sun behind me.  It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing picture every but isn’t that blue-gray sky crazy against the sunlit green trees?

My flowers are coming back around my mailbox.  Love that I don’t have to buy new flowers this year!

Friday night did not go as planned. My mom decided last minute to have the kids overnight so Scott and I thought to hole up in our bedroom to watch the latest Big Bang Theory until AT LEAST 9 before we went to sleep (please feel the sarcasm). After spending a little time with the kids over at her house, going to see a neighbor’s horse and whatnot, we headed for home and Scott started to complain about his eyes really hurting. I noticed as we drove, our house not more than 8 minutes away, that his eyes were quickly swelling. By the time we got to the urgent care about 2 minutes from our house, we agreed he needed seen. I had seen this type of swelling one other time with my sister when we were in Wilmington one weekend and I did not want to see anymore eyes bulging. After a long wait, it was determined he was having a localized allergic reaction to something that had likely gotten on his hands when we were outside. All around his eyes were severely swollen, the doctor confirmed the whites of eyes were swollen and he was feeling it in the back of his nose and throat. He had to get a cortisone shot in his hip, get eye drops, Zyrtec and a cortisone pack to wean him off the cortisone over the week. Holy cow. We didn’t get home until 9 and with our Big Bang Theory plans shot and Scott’s inability to probably SEE the TV, we went right to sleep.

Saturday Scott woke up without the swelling so he was off to work. The weather was gorgeous when I woke up. Something about the way the sun was shining, the sky was a magnificent blue and everything seemed to be positively glowing. The kids were gone so I went outside to enjoy the weather and trim the monkey grass. I’ve never been so proud of a mound of ornamental grass. My legs are still screaming at me this morning from all the squats though.

Saturday afternoon we had plans to go to a local spring festival but the kids just weren’t into it so we stayed around the house. I had work most of the afternoon anyway and into the evening. Lexi had a sleepover Saturday night so Emma and I finished out our evening watching Zookeeper. Not our favorite. I didn’t realize until the very end all the big names that were the voices of the animals. Cher, Adam Sandler and Sylvester Stallone to name a few. I can see why it was supposed to be big but it fell flat for us.

Sunday was an awesome morning at church. I’m telling you, that sermon was a little gift from above. If you’ve been paying attention lately, money and possessions have been on my mind during this season. He talked about how we swing from prosperity theology of thinking God needs to bless us so we can give to poverty theology where we feel guilt and want to give everything away. He suggested a “generosity theology” where we give richly but we live sufficiently and have joy in both. I highly suggest that if money is a struggle for you in the least that you give it a listen. Good, good stuff.

After Sunday dinner, the rest of Sunday was spent grocery shopping and around the house. We watched Mr. Popper’s Penguins (GREAT kids movie), baking bread (OH MY WORD, I made bread! As in, the kids have a PB&J in their lunchbox made with that bread), and just generally resting.

Overall a decent weekend for us. Hope yours was great!

Friday night was a tad unusual for us.  First off, I need to tell you about dinner.  I fixed spaghetti but this time I used quinoa noodles. Both girls had seconds and Scott declared it the best spaghetti I’d ever made.  For local folks, I got them right off the shelves at Harris Teeter.  I love that their tag line is “You’ll never go back to ‘plain’ noodles again.”  It’s all true.  We won’t.

So after our delicious spaghetti, I got the kids off to Scott’s parents’ for the night but Scott had been at the chiropractor’s office since lunch time. He had agreed to trade out some work but realized quickly that he bit off a bit more than he could chew.  So after I took the girls, I headed to the office with him and helped him clean.  He had taken down a wall so there was dry wall dust everywhere.  I had my Dyson and I have to say it was a tad weird to vacuum the elevator in the same building where I used to take my kids to the pediatrician.  You know those moments where you go in one place when it’s being used for what you’re used to and then you go when it’s closed, everything seems eerie?  Like maybe the church sanctuary when all the lights are shut off?  It was that kind of weird.  Like, I used to carry my baby in this elevator when she was 3 months old to get shots in the office on the 2nd floor and now she’s 9 staying with her grandparents and I’m vacuuming it at 9:30 on a Friday night.  Just weird.  ANYWAY.

Saturday morning Scott and I decided to get some errands done.  I somehow managed to get him to go to Hobby Lobby with me.  I bought some candles that have timers on them for my new sconces in my bedroom.  They come on at whatever time you turn them on and then stay on for five hours.  I love walking into the bedroom after the day and seeing them on.  

After that, we went to a local farmer’s market to get some dirt for my new raised beds Scott built for me.  Yes, we are actually doing this.  I will have a victory dance the first time I eat a vegetable from my garden.  In fact, I may not eat it.  I might just set it on a shelf like a prize. Just kidding. I’m going to eat it.  Actually, I may have to sell it to pay for all the wood and dirt.

Saturday evening we headed out for some Mexican.  It was the first time we’d eaten out in nearly 2 weeks and I admit it felt a little like I was cheating on my kitchen.  I was disappointed to find out they put flour in their refried beans.  What’s a Mexican trip without refried beans and rice?  Well, a taco and a lot of chips and salsa it turns out.  It was still yummy and it was nice to get a break from cooking.

Sunday was church, dinner at Scott’s parents’, an afternoon at my parents’ and a whole lot of grocery shopping. I’m telling you, the grocery bill hurt this week.  It was kind of ok the first week, uncomfortable the second and third but this fourth week of spending hundreds of dollars on groceries is downright painful.  I keep telling myself it’s almost like medication.  It’s healing our bodies and preventing who knows what.  But still.  It hurts.

Know what else hurts? The Monday morning after Daylight Savings Time switches.  Scott, the early riser, is at work today and I just could not make myself get up without any sunlight outside.  We got up 30 minutes late and rushed so we were only about 10 minutes behind regular schedule.  But ouch.  Not a great way to start a week.  Hope your weekend went well and your week is great!