What do you enjoy listening to?

A lot of people crochet and knit while they watch TV.  I try to, but since I take my glasses off when I do handwork, and I need my glasses for TV viewing, I either end up doing a lot of frogging, or rewinding.  Actually, to be perfectly honest, I do a fair amount of both those things and it's often less than satisfying.

My happiest arrangement is to watch/listen to YouTube videos on my phone while my hands are busy with something else - especially if my brain doesn't need to be deeply concentrating on what my hands are engaged in.  The types of YouTube videos I watch rarely need me to pay close attention to a screen.  I also listen to Spotify sometimes, and more rarely, I listen to a recorded book while doing my handcrafts - rarely only because I have trouble concentrating on someone reading aloud.

Recently, I have rediscovered two of my favorite podcasts from the not-too-long-ago past now on Spotify (and other platforms).

I was pretty hooked on Darkhorse Podcast from its inception, but once COVID hit, and it soon became evident the news media were doing their best to keep us frightened and ignorant, I found Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying a breath of fresh air.  The insights, that come from their professional backgrounds as biology professors, who also have real world experience, were (and I'm sure still are) an exercise in thinking logically.  Never downplaying the seriousness of COVID, they pointed out many of the things that didn't make sense in how it was being handled.  For those of us who were nearly driven crazy by the blatant censorship of information during the most worrisome years of COVID, I found their podcasts to be a dose of sanity.  Instead of fear mongering, they applied their intellects to the situation, and while they certainly didn't always have answers, they had logical responses.  All that said, they are two very long-winded and heady individuals.  While I love that up to a point, even I can only take so much.  In time I watched them less and less, probably as COVID became less and less scary (thanks to their insight, if I'm honest), hence now I'm re-discovering them.  I see they've moved on from COVID, and appear to be applying their intellects to various topics that I imagine are interesting to a wide audience.  Not everyone will like everything, but there's probably something in their catalog of videos that will interest nearly everyone.

A few years ago a fellow blogger made mention of SmartHerNews, and when I checked her out I was truly impressed at the non-biased news reporting Jenna Lee does.  I don't know Jenna Lee's story well, but she says she left traditional news media (at the time, she was with Fox), so that she could cover the news from as unbiased a position as possible.  She was among the first people (even before mainstream media) who had contact with a journalist on the ground in Afghanistan right in the middle of the evacuation in 2021.  I have not been disappointed in her or her interviewees.  I only wish she produced more content.  I was just wondering where she was, and why I hadn't heard from her in a while, when an email today pointed me to her podcasts on Scoop and Spotify.  Jenna Lee is actually the inspiration for this post.

I look forward to getting my fill again of these podcasters while I crochet, knit and stitch.

And now, to finally share my latest finished crochet project.

You may remember seeing this some posts back:

It has turned into this:

This pattern is, no doubt, available free somewhere by another name, but I used The Bertie Blanket pattern, and I have to say it is a fun stitch to do.  I've made it differently in the past, and I can imagine a number of possibilities using this pattern with scrap yarn.   I don't remember if the border I made is the same as the pattern's, but in case you're curious, the final round of the border is the crab stitch - it's single crochet stitched backwards.  It always sounds impossible to do when I haven't done it in a while, but it's actually super easy, and makes for a nice, understated edge.

Soon, I'll have another blanket to show.  I just need a sunshiny day to get some good natural light inside to photograph with.

Enjoy your weekend!

A writing and learning opportunity...

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting with my friend, Dory, and learning about an 8-week long online writing class she is hosting, starting this coming Monday (January 29, 2024)!  The first meeting is an orientation, so there are actually 9 meetings in total.

The workshop is "Writing as a Release".   From the website:  

"You don’t have to live in fear. You don’t have to walk in guilt. Educator, author, and coach Dory Oda shows you how she learned to let go of pain, guilt, and shame through writing. This interactive course will be presented live online via Google Meet."

If you're interested in checking it out, scroll to the bottom of the link above and you'll see a description of each of the eight class offerings.  The classes meet online every Monday night from January 29th to March 25th from 6:30 - 7:45 pm.  Clicking on the Register button will give you an e-mail address to connect directly to Dory for further inquiries if you'd like to contact her.

Worthy of mentioning, I think:  

Dory is a gifted writer in all respects, but I have especially admired Dory's fictional writing and her ability to put thoughts and feelings common to us all into beautifully satisfying phrases and poetry.  I am not a fictional writer, nor a writer (nor especially a lover) of poetry - all of which Dory is.  When I expressed interest in the classes, but reminded Dory I do not aspire to fictional writing, she assured me that the writing done in this course does not have to be in the form of fiction, though it certainly can be.

Also, while Dory is a Christian, and her writing is often influenced by her faith, this course is open to all.  While I imagine it's possible that different faith beliefs could be expressed by the participants, Dory did tell me the course material is not a "Christian" or faith-based course. 

Anyway, none of this is meant to prod or even necessarily encourage my readers to participate in the first-ever offering of this class.  My purpose here is to simply share an opportunity.  Since most of my readers are bloggers, and bloggers are generally writers, and I know how gifted is the teacher, how could I not share?  In fact, I asked Dory if I could share about it here, 'twas not the other way around.

I hope you're having a good week wherever you are.  It is foggy, wet and gray here, but it's also over 50 degrees!  In January, in central Indiana, that is a rare treat.  

A good rest of the week to you all!

What's on the menu?

Do you (or someone in your home) meal plan?   I go through periods when I don't meal plan at all, and just wing supper every night.  Then sometimes I get inspired to go through my recipes and decide to make some old favorites - making a list so I don't forget what I want to make.  

Sometimes I inventory our food supply just hoping to be inspired to make something.  

Sometimes I look through what's in the pantry and freezer to find anything close to expiring, and make that my motive to plan out a menu.   

Sometimes I challenge myself to a no-grocery shopping month (except for needed perishables).  

This week, I just looked in my refrigerator freezer and decided I was tired of seeing the same things in there for months now.   

I decided to take everything out and clean the freezer.  That's when it occurred to me to take some pictures and make a post out of this activity.    And because I know you are immensely curious, I have itemized what is in each picture.

The top drawer contained almonds, walnuts, shredded pork, dressing from Thanksgiving, some cheese logs from Christmas, ham slices, some crescent rolls, dinner rolls leftover from Christmas, and some homemade all-fruit popsicles.

The bottom drawer contained some sugar free popsicles a friend gave me during chemo treatment.  They were so appreciated when my throat and mouth hurt.  Also pictured are raisin bagels, strawberries, a couple of cubed steaks (more leftovers from a meal brought during chemo), a few peach slices, some pepperoni slices, turkey bone broth cubes, cooked fajita-seasoned chicken strips, and several packages of frozen raw chicken, some cooked rice, and a bag of browned ground beef.

Next, I sat down with my laminated erasable menu planning page, and without bothering to look through my recipes, I quickly jotted down  a week's worth of ideas for using a good portion of what's currently in this small freezer.

A mixture of healthy dinners and some lesser so, but it feels good to have a plan and resolve to move the food out of the freezer inventory.   Also, I've added salmon from the garage freezer because I'm trying to get fish into our diet every week.   As always, I reserve the right to completely ignore the suggestions I've jotted down, or change the days we eat things, but as long as I make a dent in the contents of this freezer, I'll be happy.   

If I'm feeling brave, at the end of this week of dinner plans, I'll post a picture of my revised menu.  Now that I think about it, I won't be home for dinner on Friday night because I'm going to a ladies' pitch-in.  I said I'd bring cheese & crackers and summer sausage, so there goes the rest of my cheese logs to that effort.

I printed out my menu page years ago, and laminated it so I can write on it with a dry erase marker.  If you're interested in a printable menu page, there are lots to be found online, but here's a link to a colorful one:

https://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2018/01/free-printable-menu-plan.html

This might have been where I found mine, I don't really remember.  This blogger has a whole bunch of free printables for all sorts of purposes.  

Happy note:  Before we even got started eating through our menu this week, I gave some chili to a friend, along with a package of dinner rolls, a cheese log and a package of crackers.  It's terrific to have good food ready and easy to share.

~~~~~

Back to share my amended menu:

The value in planning a menu is about making life a little simpler, hopefully saving some money by making meals with food one already has, and lessening the waste of forgotten food stuff eventually being thrown away.

As the week went on, I realized I had cabbage in the fridge, and a pie crust and half a quart of cream that needed to be used.  Having bacon and swiss cheese on hand, it was easy to change out a meal that could be held for another time for Quiche and slices of  Roasted Cabbage.

Finally, something worth noting that I've recently done:  In November, after roasting a turkey, I made bone broth with the carcass.  Making bone broth is a slow nearly all-day process, but I'm so glad I did it, and froze the bone broth in ice cube trays.  I have begun using this bone broth, adding it to all kinds of things.  It was added to the Chicken Skillet Dinner on Wednesday above.  The next week, I added bone broth cubes to some leftover stuffing I heated up for a meal of turkey and stuffing (all frozen last November).  I added some to chili that was heated up out of the freezer.  Really... in anything that can take a few tablespoons of liquid, a few bone broth cubes can be used.

Bon appétit!

What's in the old noggin today...

I've started this post several times in the last few days.  I have so much swimming in my head, every time I sit down to write, way too much starts spilling out.  This is just an introduction to what I've been mulling over recently.  Over the last month or so I've been immersing myself in researching how to manage and possibly improve osteoporosis.  

In November, I mentioned receiving a diagnosis of osteoporosis [OP] in a section of my spine after my first ever DEXA scan.   Having any amount of OP is hard news, and I didn't see it coming at all.  Then it felt like a double sucker punch to learn on the heels of an OP diagnosis that the aromatase inhibitor (endocrine therapy) I've been placed on for 5-7 years is known to diminish bone density.   

An aromatase inhibitor [AI] is prescribed to reduce risk of breast cancer recurrence - which is great, but sacrificing ones bones to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence seems an awfully steep price to pay.   "Not to worry", the doctor says, "there are medicines for osteoporosis too!"  Aside from the fact that OP drugs have some worrisome side effects, managing medicines that manage the effects of other medicines is not how I want to spend my "golden years" - if I can help it.  

I will meet with an endocrinologist in the spring, to see what she has to say.  On one hand I'm glad to have this appointment on the calendar, but on the other hand, I'm not thrilled with the drugs that will undoubtedly be recommended to me.   For now, I'm doing what I can do - in terms of making some lifestyle changes, and increasing my understanding of how exercise, nutrition, and yes...  possibly even drugs, may be used to get me to a better place with my bones.  

Since doctors don't have time to explain everything a patient needs to know in order to make a truly informed decision about treatment, I suspect the internet becomes a main source of information for a lot of us.  While the internet is a marvelous thing, it is not without its problems.  I am, first of all, very wary of anyone and everyone who has a YouTube channel and claims to be an expert.  It's an interesting time to live in.  So much information at our fingertips that we can avail ourselves of to improve our lives, but at the same time, the danger is great of falling prey to cyber snake oil salesmen and women.   Or following poor advice from well meaning and good people.  

I'm grateful for the people who share their experiences, and even medical expertise, online, but I try to be smart about consuming what is out there for the taking.  I research (or at least attempt to research) further anything that catches my attention and sounds like it might be helpful.  The internet was very helpful to me last year during the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.  It allowed me to dive deeper, to understand and trust the procedures done and treatments I received.  I'm hoping it will benefit me in this present situation, too  

I have found it helpful and rather amazing that the internet puts at our fingertips digital libraries of trials and research studies.  Even individual case studies can be enlightening.  We joke about consulting Dr. Google, but seriously...  Google is a powerful tool that, while it can drive a person insane with too much information, it can often help a person discover a solution to a difficult problem. 

Mostly, the internet has served me well.  Recently I stumbled on information that compelled me to approach my oncologist (just this past Monday) and ask him if a different endocrine therapy - that may actually help bone density - could be an option for me.  While he prefers an aromatase inhibitor for me, and frankly, I would too if it weren't for the bone density issue, he was agreeable to me trying the other (older) therapy.   In fact, in the notes of the encounter, was written that this switch was reasonable in light of the recent discovery of OP.  The older SERM therapy (in this case, Tamoxifen) is still widely used, and is considered great therapy for reducing breast cancer recurrence in pre-menopausal women, but aromatase inhibitors  have become the preferred therapy for post-menopausal women because AI's are a bit more effective, and they hold fewer potentially dangerous side effects for older women.

Having weighed the possibility of a terrible side effect of using SERM therapy with the pretty much guaranteed loss of bone density with AI's, switching to an endocrine therapy that won't harm my bones feels like a reasonable trade off.  And I can relax in the worry department while I wait for my endo appointment, and use my time and energy more productively, namely focusing on nutrition and exercise.   

It's possible (maybe) that the endocrinologist will ease my fears of osteoporosis medicine - even though I, personally, have big reason to be more concerned than maybe the average person does about one potential side effect in particular:  Osteonecrosis of the Jaw [ONJ].  It's not helpful to read that ONJ may be considered a rare occurrence if you fall into a category that makes you more likely to experience it.  I see my dentist later this week.  I will be interested to see what he has to say about it.  

For now, I'm relaxing into the relief I'm feeling because my oncologist heard and responded to my concern. And I feel empowered and motivated to continue to try to improve my situation, rather than helpless and rather hopeless like I was feeling about it over the last few weeks.

This week, I'm watching some of the presentations in a temporarily free online summit called Natural Approaches to Osteoporosis and Bone Health.  It has been interesting.  [I've removed most of the paragraph I wrote about accessing the free Summit because that is not pertinent at this point.]

I'm finding some of the presentations interesting, and oddly...  one of the main presenters, who recognizes the potential pitfalls of osteoporosis drugs, gave me insight and hope that this kind of drug may be safe enough for me to feel comfortable using for a short term.  It gives me something to discuss with the endo, at least.

Thanks for entering into my brain again.  Sometimes I just need to do a dump of all that's swimming around in there.  Though, to be sure...  this was more like a dribbly overflow of all that's sloshing around in my head at the moment.

A goal for the new year...

A new year seems to inspire many of us to at least contemplate starting to clean up, clear out, and think about things we hope to accomplish over the next twelve months.  

I am no different.  Sometime last fall, I dug through my yarn stash so I could start crocheting my gold colored Sweet As Can Bee blanket.  When I was getting the yarn out for that project, I was sobered by the realization that I had barely touched my yarn since getting it put away here in our present house - maybe a year and a half ago.  There were good reasons since moving why I wasn't up to crocheting and I have no interest in going over things that kept me from crafting the last two years, but going into the closet where my yarn and other craft materials are stored was pretty pivotal to me.  It got me to thinking again about culling through my current craft supplies and maybe start reconsidering some of the crafts I've collected stuff for, and maybe sharing the craft-love by donating some things.

While I have a couple of shelves and small drawers in the room outside this closet, the majority of my actual craft supplies is housed in this closet:

On the right side of the closet is all of my yarn.  Well, most of it, anyway.  I know...  it's a crazy amount.  But it was accumulated over a number of years when I was crocheting a LOT.  At the time is seemed completely reasonable to think I could use the yarn - every time I found yarn on sale and had the thought I should get more for another project.  It always starts innocently...

I'm not so sure anymore that I'm ever going to be able to use all this yarn, and having a talk with myself I came up with an idea.  I have a mind, that by the end of 2024, to only own as much yarn as will fit in about two thirds of these large plastic tubs that presently contain all most my yarn.   

If that doesn't seem ambitious enough, well...  that's all I have the oomph for - for now.   A year at a time seems like a good idea to me right now. 

And coming around front and center, we see more crafty stuff along the back wall and on shelves above.  This is most of my embroidery and cross stitch supplies, but also a multitude of miscellaneous stuff that is used for various crafts.  Some interfacing, some batting. Buttons.  Ribbons.  Laces.  Other stuff - probably half of it inherited one way or another.  And on the floor are some tote bags with more yarn, and more miscellaneous.  

My goal is to eventually not own anymore miscellaneous stuff.  For me, "miscellaneous" is the death of organization, and using things productively.

Now, if you've been around here during my decluttering challenges in years past, you may remember me referring to Dana White and her "container concept" before.  I have found this concept to be the most compelling idea for finding the will and clarity for letting go of things.  To save you time looking her up, below is a video from a couple of years ago where she discusses the container principle:

Oooh...  And below is an updated video on this concept she just posted a couple of days ago:

You're welcome!

This year-long whittling down project isn't going to be documented here on any kind of regular basis.  I hope it goes on quietly and consistently in the background, and while I'll show my makes here, maybe by summertime I'll have something to show as progress in the closet. 

Meanwhile, in an effort to use up some yarn relatively quickly, I've pulled together some collections of yarns to make some baby/child-size blankets.  A friend asked me if I'd like to join her in making some baby blankets for donating to a crisis pregnancy center.   She offered me yarn.  LOL!   I told her I'd love to join in, but only if I can use my own yarn.  This is the first collection of colors I pulled together:

To be honest, I wasn't sure about this combination of pastels and brights, but I'm finding myself pleasantly surprised by how well they all play together.  Check back soon for the finished project!