March 30 - War Dances Audiobk Review

I should never read the jacket reviews before writing my own thoughts. Those guys sound all enlightened and brilliant and stuff. Aside from directly copying and pasting their wisdom, now all I can think of is, "I really liked it."

The writing was gritty, vulgar at times but never totally inappropriate, and insightful as it explored the inner lives of men on the brink of change or self-realization. The author narrated seamlessly in accents from white middle-class American to obviously Native American, lending authenticity and an almost auto-biographical tone to the stories. I about fell over when he asked, dead-pan, if an Indian dying of alcoholism and diabetes would be considered "natural causes".

So unless you're offended by exploration of racial differences and inequities, or the occasional f-bomb, I'd definitely recommend this collection of short stories.

March 27 - Happy Birthday, Dale!

Today my marvelous, sexy, smart, funny husband turns a year older (but perpetually younger than me - grin, wink). To celebrate, he's parked in front of the computer spending his birthday money on new music. I love that guy!

A few random facts:

Favorite band: Muse, although Led Zeppelin is the "best band of all time"

Favorite color: "blue, I guess"

Favorite food: anything Mediterranean

Least favorite household chore: folding laundry

Next vacation spot: Tennessee

Future aspiration: be the best husband ever! (OK, I may have made that one up...)

March 23 - Hormones Shmormones

Last night I had the pleasure of hearing Connie Chalko, Pharmacist and Certified Menopause Clinician from Mar-Main Pharmacy, present a fraction of her wisdom on hormones. I learned so much in that 1.5 hours, I thought I should write some of it down.

Let me start out by being a flat-out amazed at how wonderfully complex we human beings are. God's design never ceases to intrigue and fascinate me. I work in "health" care, so sometimes I get stuck in all the ways things can go wrong. I also spend a fair amount of time "diagnosing" family, friends, myself. Between my desire to be a doctor and an herbalist (you know, in my spare time), I probably know just enough to be a pain in the tail.

That being said, here are some of the cool things I learned:

- Taking too much Calcium (>1000mg/day for women) can increase your risk for high cholesterol.

- Vitamin D-3 is necessary for mineral absorption and can protect against cancer, bone loss, immune dysfunction, multiple sclerosis, and more. Living in this latitude we are limited in natural source (hello, Permacloud) and supplementation to a therapeutic level (2000 units/day in gel capsule form) is highly recommended.

- The majority of hormone production takes place at night, especially around 2-3 A.M., so if you're not sleeping well you're not going to have the stuff you need to function. Insomnia is often a learned behavior and becomes a vicious hormone imbalance cycle.

- Insulin is a hormone.-"Diet" sweeteners are the devil. I've heard this before, and figure we're all going to die of something anyway, but when she explained the "why" she converted me. All the sugar replacements are molecularly close to toxic pesticide-like substances, and some, like Stevia, are banned in most of the world. But I don't care about that. What made sense to me is that the concentrated sweetness tricks your brain into pumping out lots of insulin, which then doesn't really have a place to go since no actual sugar needs to be digested. Short term, it makes that half-eaten doughnut in the trash look downright delicious. Long term, your body gets tired of being faked out & the insulin-sugar uptake system breaks down. Voila: diabetes, nerve damage, circulatory failure, skin breakdown, etc.

Now I have the family taking Vitamin D-3, and we're weaning off the Splenda. I will miss the sweeter days of innocence, but health is worth it!

March 21 - Facial Hair Frivolity

Oh look. It's Mustache March.

Also known as:

"Look at all the ways we can have fun at work!"

Even if it means not kissing our wives for weeks. Ha.

March 19 - Happy 1st-iversary!

Today marks a whole year of marriage to my marvelous husband, Dale. I felt enourmous pressure to create appropriate fanfare, like spelling out his name in turquoise balloons, renting a helicopter, writing a sonnet. Unfortunately, when I feel like something's expected of me, I totally balk, get grumpy, and lose all creativity and thoughtfulness.

So I'll just record for posterity the card I gave him (with a moderate bottle of Shiraz and his favorite Easter candy):

I Love Today.

Because it celebrates the amazing ways

We have brought

Our love, our kids, and our lives

Together.

Although we are just beginning,

I'm excited about the future

We are building

And that I get to take

Every step of the journey

With you.

Happy Anniversary, Dale! I love you!

March 9 - Family Values

As each stage of growth whizzes past, I always wonder what will actually stick. It makes my heart glad when I hear the phrases parroted back, as they "coach" each other. Sometimes I have to say, "Hey, I'll be the mommy today, ok?" Ah, parenthood.

Here are some of our family values that sometimes work:

"say what you mean, mean what you say"

"we don't do bored"

"don't waste! (food, energy, electricity)"

"manners matter (don't talk with your mouth full, it's gross)"

"don't give up what you want the most for what you want at the moment"

Here are a few that don't seem to be sinking in too well:

"pick up after yourself!" (if I step on that tiny pokey toy one. more. time...)

"take care of it today so you don't have to worry about it tomorrow" (really, that 2 page report is due to-morrow?!)

"treat others like you want to be treated (stop hitting!)"

And that was just today! :-)

March 5 - Audiobook review

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, read by the author, was initially intriguing but painful, and ultimately depressing and disappointing. It's a tale about a young girl who suddenly discovers she can taste the emotions of whoever prepared her food. She is then unintentionally tortured by the knowledge of her mother's unhappiness, her brother's isolation, the cafeteria lady's despair. As she grows, she matures into the "gift", and discovers odd gifts run in her family, but doesn't promise much human hope or worthiness.

I generally prefer professionally narrated stories, since authors themselves often can't provide the voice variation to draw me into the drama. Every time she read "I said, she said, he said, so I said" I started to suck in my breath a little. While the cover reviews tout it as an insightful, fantastical exploration of what it's like to love those you know too much about, it left me empty, with a dry, bitter taste in my mouth.

March 2 - Sickies

Today's fun adventure: trying to determine if Naomi's constant complaints of stomach aches and teariness over getting ready for school are related to an actual germ or some other phenomena. She does really well in school, likes her teacher, does all her work in advance, and seems to get along with the other kids. So why does she get up crying at 4 A.M., sobbing that she can't possibly go to school, she's too sick!?
This morning I spent quite a bit of time in scientific diagnosis mode. Throat clear, tummy non-tender, warm but not too dry skin. Of course the 2 ear thermometers need batteries. The forehead strip is non-functional. Finally located a giant old-fashioned mercury thermometer - that reads Celcius. So afer I looked up the conversion online, it seemed she was running around 99.2 temp. Borderline. Sigh. And I already had patients scheduled today. We made a deal: try to make it through 10 A.M.

By 11, the nurse called. Third time in the last month her school has called me to pick her up. (Bad mommy?) She practically skipped to the car. "I already had a nap, Mama."

She ate her lunch, and is happily tucked in front of the TV now. Is it possible my little princess manufactures fevers so she can lay on the couch and watch movies all day? She has been begging for a Chicken Run/Wallace & Grommit marathon all week. I'm suspicious.

Then again, I've had a headache for 4 days straight, so maybe there's just something out of kilter in the neighborhood.