Tomorrow begins two interesting and challenging "projects."
One. The Me Project book I reviewed a bit ago sparked some interest in tackling something that needs to be tackled. So. For 21 days I have committed to working on the book I'm writing with my buddy. I am writing the voices of an elderly lady and a 30-something male police officer. Yeah. A little out of my comfort zone. (Yes. I realize I'm opening myself up to a few comments about the elderly lady not being too much of a stretch.)
So beginning April 1st thru April 21st I will be spending focused time on this work in progress. I will be writing and rewriting and reading and learning and stretching.
And the second is even more interesting. We will be Vegan for the entire month of April. We've been into eating healthier and organic and local as much as possible the past three years. This was prompted by the desire to be healthier, but also because Rob was given the news that his rheumatoid arthritis had gotten to the point that he'd need to go on yet another medicine. An injectible. His pain level and the inflammation in his joints have really responded to the changes that we've made thus far. So much so that he doesn't need his break through pain medications. But the disease has not gone dormant and he hasn't been able to remove the big gun chronic meds that scare me the most.
A couple of friends have been really looking into Veganism because of their cholesterol levels and the desire to avoid having to take a medication. One of them has a strong medical background and she's digging into the science and research regarding animal-free eating. She is convinced. And she feels like a new woman after a few months of animal product avoidance.
Rob is a meat and milk kind of guy. This has been a tough challenge to convince him to give it a try. But he had a flare-up a month or so ago that left him unable to even function for a full 18 hours. Meat and dairy help inflammation thrive. And Rheumatoid Arthritis is not just aches and pains that kick in as we age. RA is an inflammatory disease where the body attacks itself...an auto-immune disease.
One month. He has agreed to one month meat and dairy free to see if it makes a difference in his life. I'm hoping it does. And it's up to me to feed him food that makes him think he's not giving anything up.
Expect to see posts regarding both of these situations because that is where my mind will be in April.
In case you haven't found your own scary for the day. (Thanks, Eleanor Roosevelt for the blog fodder!) Here's one.
You all know I'm a little kinked. As in my children think Geek is a term of endearment. And that I can sit through an hour of a mildly amusing movie and not crack up til someone gets hurt. Then I can hardly control my mirth.
My dad may be one of the reasons that I am who I am. My formative years included many of his physical pratfallish feats which no doubt gave me my inclination to laugh when someone gets biffed. One of his other very endearing traits was to blurt out creative, hilarious insults which often included medical jargon. Since my family has been in the medical field for a few generations my dad's use of medical terminology was something he learned at his mother's knee. My grandma's favorite question was "have you had a BM yet today?" Yes. It's true. And "let your mom carry that, she's already had children, and I don't want you to rupture your uterus."
I won't go into the story about the poor boy who died from awful diarrhea after eating too many green apples. (Sorry, I guess I just did.)
Anyhoo. I was one of the only children on the block who knew the word sphincter, let alone had been called one. Flatus was one of dad's favorites. And let's just say it was used fairly often. If you don't know what it is think four letter f-words but not the queen mother. And then think about beans. There you go. That's the one.
Lest you think of my dad sitting in a Lazy Boy and scratching his beer gut while fumigating the house, nope, that's not the guy. He's complex. Very, very professional and quiet. One peering in from the outside would never know that a crazy, funny man lives within. He's also loves to dive into the Bible and find treasures. I love the heavy duty conversations we have. (He also manages to find a lot of medical comparisons within the things that he learns.)
My Word of the Day text was too perfect to ignore the other day. And it sums up a good portion of my dad. I want to share it with you.
af·fla·tus /əˈfleɪtəs/ [uh-fley-tuhs] –noun
1.inspiration; an impelling mental force acting from within.
2.divine communication of knowledge.
Origin: Latin afflātus a breathing on, equivalent to af- af- + flā- (stem of flāre to blow ) + -tus suffix of v. action
In the spirit of Eleanor R. and doing something that scares me every day.....
Shopping. Ugh. And these arty heads were definitely awe-ish.
And let me introduce you to our Mother.
We are experimenting with coconut milk Kefir and Kombucha. A mother, and a small jar of kefir grains, came home with us from Minnesota.
The kefir "experiment" has already been "grown" and tasted and was not bad. Not bad at all.
The Kombucha is a whole different "animal" though. If you don't know about Kombucha, you might not want to. But I will tell you that it is a fermented tea. The mother is a colony that feeds off of sugar that is put in the tea in the early stages. I don't know that I'll be able to help in the fishing out of and handling of the mother as she finishes her growing phase and still be willing to taste the tea.
And the second is even more interesting. We will be Vegan for the entire month of April. We've been into eating healthier and organic and local as much as possible the past three years. This was prompted by the desire to be healthier, but also because Rob was given the news that his rheumatoid arthritis had gotten to the point that he'd need to go on yet another medicine. An injectible. His pain level and the inflammation in his joints have really responded to the changes that we've made thus far. So much so that he doesn't need his break through pain medications. But the disease has not gone dormant and he hasn't been able to remove the big gun chronic meds that scare me the most.
