Marsia's Diary
- Thread starter Marsia
- Start date
We're thinking of trying lion's mane and other mushrooms that also are immune boosters. It should be really fun! The storms have been wonderful all this week. We walked in the rain to some islands on the Intracostal Waterway today and K took a ton of mushroom pics, and I got nice pics of all the egrets and little crabs in the reeds. Also J and K ran and I rode my bike and switched when K couldn't run anymore, so I got a little run in, too. Met nice neighbors who live on the river.
I made a big meatloaf and cucumber salad which were both yummy. We're having fun designing the curriculum as a family, and it's coming together. K likes my bike, so we'll get her one with big tires like mine and we can go biking on the beach together. It feels like life is coming together and things are working out well!
I made a big meatloaf and cucumber salad which were both yummy. We're having fun designing the curriculum as a family, and it's coming together. K likes my bike, so we'll get her one with big tires like mine and we can go biking on the beach together. It feels like life is coming together and things are working out well!
Thanks everyone! Morning weigh in before I forget: 196.2. K and I hadn't been feeling the best this last week and didn't get much exercise with all the rain. We went and celebrated J's birthday and went to an oyster bar. I just had 2 raw oysters because I don't do well with shellfish - too many bad clams at clambakes while on vacation as a kid. So glad that's all I had (besides delicious ceviche and a cooked very small fish dish) - felt like throwing up all night, but went to sleep and slept it off. Not a fan of places that charge a lot for a little bit of food anyway, and I don't like more formal dining where it's not a relaxed atmosphere, either. J and K had a great time, and we also went out for ice cream cones, and the cones were enormous and tasted like the ice cream from my childhood which brought back fond memories. Must be from the different breeds of milk cows on this coast. Anyway, didn't gain weight, but did suffer from a sore throat from too much sugar. I have got to master dining out here.
The pantry is finally finished being painted, so I am putting food stores away, and am happy I have a good amount of back stock now. LaMa, I am pretty fit as far as endurance things like shoveling a long time or walking, but not so with aerobic exercise. J plays tennis a lot and is a good runner. He also studies books on exercise and always has the best form. It's good because he can show us how to do exercise well.
The garden is having some problems with the intense heat and intense rains. There's powdery mildew on the winter squash, so I am spraying the leaves with diluted apple cider vinegar in between the rains, and there is a grasshopper plague in the lawn and they found the corn. I also had caterpillars eating the sweet potato leaves, but sprayed with an organic type of fungus, and they seem to be gone. But most of the crops are fine. I may grow the corn in the screen house next year to avoid grasshoppers, and not plant during mini-monsoon season. There's a lot to learn about planting here. My herbs are huge now, so time to make a nice Thai basil sauce - the Thai basil is massive. I can make lots of pesto here and can it!
I'm feeling better today and am happy about getting the interior of the house painted and everything put away soon. Switched homeschool associations because we found one that helps with making things so they count for prerequisite classes for college. I have all the textbooks picked out and we're feeling good about school now. I think I'll do a seed order for next year and get lots of herb seed. I realized K won't be away at school in the fall, and she won't be up until 3 or 4 in the morning most nights doing homework anymore. I got my kid back!! So wonderful!!!
The pantry is finally finished being painted, so I am putting food stores away, and am happy I have a good amount of back stock now. LaMa, I am pretty fit as far as endurance things like shoveling a long time or walking, but not so with aerobic exercise. J plays tennis a lot and is a good runner. He also studies books on exercise and always has the best form. It's good because he can show us how to do exercise well.
The garden is having some problems with the intense heat and intense rains. There's powdery mildew on the winter squash, so I am spraying the leaves with diluted apple cider vinegar in between the rains, and there is a grasshopper plague in the lawn and they found the corn. I also had caterpillars eating the sweet potato leaves, but sprayed with an organic type of fungus, and they seem to be gone. But most of the crops are fine. I may grow the corn in the screen house next year to avoid grasshoppers, and not plant during mini-monsoon season. There's a lot to learn about planting here. My herbs are huge now, so time to make a nice Thai basil sauce - the Thai basil is massive. I can make lots of pesto here and can it!
I'm feeling better today and am happy about getting the interior of the house painted and everything put away soon. Switched homeschool associations because we found one that helps with making things so they count for prerequisite classes for college. I have all the textbooks picked out and we're feeling good about school now. I think I'll do a seed order for next year and get lots of herb seed. I realized K won't be away at school in the fall, and she won't be up until 3 or 4 in the morning most nights doing homework anymore. I got my kid back!! So wonderful!!!
Llama
Well-known member
Have you considered you might be allergic? If you haven't been tested please get on it because shellfish allergies are among the potentially deadly ones in the long run.
God man, J! Doing it correctly can spare you from so many health issues.
J is great at exercise. We're lucky because he can teach K a lot of sports the right way the first time! I think you may be right about seafood - when we get better health care on this coast I'll get tested. Our health care provider is not on this coast, so only allows emergency visits right now.
Switching from a "you can do anything you want for curriculum" home school association (which caused a lot of anxiety that colleges won't accept our classes) to a "here are the suggested 1000 page texts to read and do all assignments from if you want honors credit" association got me really stressed. J and I had a rather heated talk about the new association and their requirements. One of the main reasons I want to homeschool is that I view quality of work way above quantity, and K was drowning in busy work the last 4 years of school. I wish I hadn't gotten mad at J for siding with the horrible rules of the new association. Thinking about it this morning I realized that we can do a lot of the work verbally together and skip a lot of the nonsense that she usually already knows and move on to the interesting part. I was looking through really abysmal composition and grammar books last night, and could not find one that would count that wasn't 300 pages, and I stayed up really late thinking about how either she already knows this stuff or I can show her in a few sessions. My mom wrote newspapers and let me edit the back pages of alumni writing in about their lives. I worked at my college pager in advertising design. I had excellent college English profs, and I edit patents for major tech companies. I do not need to stress about this!
Oh, weigh in 196.1. 12 pounds down altogether!
Switching from a "you can do anything you want for curriculum" home school association (which caused a lot of anxiety that colleges won't accept our classes) to a "here are the suggested 1000 page texts to read and do all assignments from if you want honors credit" association got me really stressed. J and I had a rather heated talk about the new association and their requirements. One of the main reasons I want to homeschool is that I view quality of work way above quantity, and K was drowning in busy work the last 4 years of school. I wish I hadn't gotten mad at J for siding with the horrible rules of the new association. Thinking about it this morning I realized that we can do a lot of the work verbally together and skip a lot of the nonsense that she usually already knows and move on to the interesting part. I was looking through really abysmal composition and grammar books last night, and could not find one that would count that wasn't 300 pages, and I stayed up really late thinking about how either she already knows this stuff or I can show her in a few sessions. My mom wrote newspapers and let me edit the back pages of alumni writing in about their lives. I worked at my college pager in advertising design. I had excellent college English profs, and I edit patents for major tech companies. I do not need to stress about this!
Oh, weigh in 196.1. 12 pounds down altogether!
Cate
Long term member
I'm sure you will sort it out, M. There are not many parents who are able to contribute so well & be so supportive of a homeschooling program as you two. K can draw on both of your strengths. She will be right & so will you. I have faith in you.
Well done on 12 lbs down. I'm back on track. I think I'll count calories again starting in August.
Well done on 12 lbs down. I'm back on track. I think I'll count calories again starting in August.
Hi Em. A structure is really good, but I was freaked out at the amount of work the recommended books are going to be. The last school K was in piled on the homework in every subject and she was often up doing homework until 3 -5 am. It was awful, and we barely got to do fun things with her or relax as a family together. I view homeschooling as a way to have a more relaxed education where you do things other than extracurriculars and 6+ hours of homework each night. The whole system of making kids fear they will never get jobs if they don't have the perfect resume to get in the perfect college is just horrible. I want K off the hamster wheel of stress. She was starting to bite her knuckles until they bled she was so stressed out. But I thought about it more and we can do the texts, but in a casual way where it isn't massive amounts of useless busywork. I just wish I were more patient when J and I disagree. I am working on it and getting better bit by bit, but I would love to have an even keel personality, but I just don't!
Thanks for the wonderful support Cate! I have been rereading what you wrote and it calms me down and makes me happy! So glad you're back on track!
We made shrimp ceviche yesterday, and it was so delicious. I decided to sauté the shrimp in butter and sherry first and not chance getting any raw seafood - thanks LaMa for the suggestion! We used a pepper from a plant that came up on it's own in the screen house. It was soooo hot I chopped it up into a paste before putting it in the dish so no one got a burning chunk of pepper!
I figured out new texts for all the classes and how to make things fun and not cumbersome, and submitted everything to the homeschool association to review. That feels a lot better! We went for a nice bike ride last night. K's bike doesn't do well on the rough dirt roads here (her arms were red and itchy from all the vibration of the bike making her circulation funny), so we're getting her a beach cruiser like mine. Can't wait to take them to the beach and have miles and miles of beaches to explore!
Thanks for the wonderful support Cate! I have been rereading what you wrote and it calms me down and makes me happy! So glad you're back on track!
We made shrimp ceviche yesterday, and it was so delicious. I decided to sauté the shrimp in butter and sherry first and not chance getting any raw seafood - thanks LaMa for the suggestion! We used a pepper from a plant that came up on it's own in the screen house. It was soooo hot I chopped it up into a paste before putting it in the dish so no one got a burning chunk of pepper!
I figured out new texts for all the classes and how to make things fun and not cumbersome, and submitted everything to the homeschool association to review. That feels a lot better! We went for a nice bike ride last night. K's bike doesn't do well on the rough dirt roads here (her arms were red and itchy from all the vibration of the bike making her circulation funny), so we're getting her a beach cruiser like mine. Can't wait to take them to the beach and have miles and miles of beaches to explore!
Sometimes you just have to have the argument Marsia, nothing wrong with that in my mind as long as you all move on from it. I'm sure you will find the right balance together. Staying up till 3am doing homework is crazy! I think when I had too much homework, I just didn't do it, haha.
I think you're right, LaMa - I think I am just sensitive to uncooked seafood, and won't have that again (except if I can ever get good sushi again!). I realized the irony of precooking the shrimp for ceviche, but did just minimally sauté the shrimp so it would be safe, for sure. It came out very tender, so though not technically ceviche, I think my cheat worked!If you're fine with seafood when it's cooked you likely don't have a proper seafood allergy. (Which is great!) Also: I don't think it's ceviche when the protein is cookedBut who cares when it's delicious?
Thanks for the nice encouragement Cate! It helps to have someone else think I can do this - it's a little intimidating! I'm really really happy you are doing Tai Chi again! And thanks for the reminder. I did gentle yoga last night and feel so much better. I tried to meditate, but the thunder and lightning last night was epic, and it distracted me from meditation to the point that I forgot I was meditating. But good practice anyway!I'm glad you feel a bit calmer about homeschooling. I'm sure you will find a balance & K will have a great education combined with a stable, happy homelife
I have been doing Tai Chi every day. It really does help. Don't forget your meditation and/or yoga xoxo
I like this perspective. I do think I needed to stand up for K not having too rigorous of a workload, but J was also right that we need to make sure she also has a good education with some rigor. And I especially like how you said to move on after arguing. I beat myself up for it (having had 2 hothead parents who I didn't want to be at all like). But it doesn't help things to be fighting my conditioning - I think it actually makes it stronger. Thanks for that! I hope some day I get good at arguing fairly, but in the mean time, I do just need to say my peace sometimes. I think I got mad because J kept ignoring what I found objectionable (the massive workload) and kept acting like I was having trouble with the good aspects of the homeschool association. He has had way too much work work lately, and does not do well with listening when he gets like that.
Yesterday was good. I did some gardening, lots of hanging out with K, and got to have some time to myself. I realize that when I get grouchy I think a big component is that I don't have time to do my own thing for weeks at a time - or I just get lazy and don't do things for myself. I am going to work on this!
Hi marsia!
I'm back after a time away and just catching up on people's diaries--I think I'll limit myself to just the last page for now otherwise it'll take me a year to catch up! But I see you are planning on homeschooling, keeping up with the gardening, and doing some painting at your place. I am just now painting my place. A pain when i have to move all the stuff around this tiny place to get at the walls!
Anyways sounds like you are doing pretty good overall and doing a nice job with weightloss too! Hope to stay in touch here more often now I'm back again!
I'm back after a time away and just catching up on people's diaries--I think I'll limit myself to just the last page for now otherwise it'll take me a year to catch up! But I see you are planning on homeschooling, keeping up with the gardening, and doing some painting at your place. I am just now painting my place. A pain when i have to move all the stuff around this tiny place to get at the walls!
Anyways sounds like you are doing pretty good overall and doing a nice job with weightloss too! Hope to stay in touch here more often now I'm back again!
Cate
Long term member
I think of you when I start my Tai Chi. A lot of it is coming back to me thank goodness. I still haven't contacted my old teacher except to wish her a happy birthday a couple of days ago.
It's time, my friend xoxo
Hi Em! The thunder shook the house, and the lightning lit up the windows - I think I couldn't do anything but meditate on them, they were so dramatic! Quiet time is wonderful, and I am really happy I realized that I need it, even amongst my own family!Does meditating on the thunder and lightning count?
I'm like you - love having social nights and all of that, but I need quiet time afterwards.
Wow, Liza, it's so good to have you back!! I had been wondering a while ago how you were doing, and it's really good to hear from you! We just moved to South Carolina to an island off the coast near Charleston. It's very hot and rainy, but so charming and just gorgeous, pristine nature where we are. Funny we are both painting our houses. I commiserate with you about needing too move everything. There are moving boxes everywhere and furniture, too, but it's so good making our new house our own. It's been easier here to lose weight because gardening in the heat is really intense. I gained back most of the 50 pounds I had lost. I don't remember if you knew that I was taking care of my mom in hospice and it really was very stressful, and that plus the whole Covid thing was just too much stress, and I gained like crazy. Let's definitely stay in touch!
Thanks, LaMa! I had a good day with lots of yummy food, so definitely feeling more relaxed.In the end it doesn't matter if you follow the official rules for a dish as long as it's safe and tastes good
I think of you when I do yoga, too! Glad you are remembering a lot of your Tai Chi. I find I miss my first yoga teacher a lot. She was so great at showing us just how to modify poses or how to get the most out of them, and she could have you in a slightly different position and a whole new set of muscles got stretched. It's good you keep reminding me to do my own things - I forget so easily!
Today we made a nice vinegar based Cole slaw - it's a southern actual healthy recipe. I put red cabbage, red onion, scallions, ginger, carrots, and cilantro in it with a nice olive oil, dijon mustard, and cider vinegar vinaigrette, and it came out so delicious. We had fresh Monck fish that I sautéed in butter with Old Bay seasoning- nice southern celery seed and paprika type seafood seasoning. And I made a quick mushroom risotto-like dish. This morning I took a short walk in the vacant lot next door that is a neighbor's woods - so many cool mushrooms in the woods. Did a little gardening, and K and I had a nice day together. We kept doing a little bit of chores and getting sleepy so had another lazy day. Her room is almost prepped to paint, so we'll do that tomorrow. Mostly we both did figures for a patent, and I proofed the super long thing this evening. It's good to help J so he gets done by his deadlines. Feeling sleepy now, so time to turn in!