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laboryourway.com

Four lunches because mom is going to substitute today! Turkey bagel sandwiches on everything bagels, red grapes, cucumbers, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, and a token piece of Halloween candy.

Menopause

Ha ha! And perfect for Halloween!

Adulting

Breakfast

Breakfast is my favorite meal. I love all kinds of breakfast foods. A friend posted this the other day and I thought “yes!”

Hassleback Chicken Caprese

(Pre-Baked Picture)

Hassleback chicken caprese. This recipe turned out great! I sliced chicken breasts, but didn’t go completely through to the bottom. So I basically created slits in the chicken. Then I stuffed fresh basil, mozzarella, and tomato slices into the slits. I placed the chicken into a pan with cream and parmesan. Then I baked it, uncovered. It took much longer to cook than expected, but was so yummy over rice. 

Nerve Block Injection

My sports medicine doctor says that the muscle specialist doc didn’t see anything unusual in my muscles. So, the next thing to look at is nerves. There are 6 nerves that run down the lower leg. Because my pain is mostly centralized to the inner leg area, my doctor wants to try a nerve block injection, just into the one nerve. He said that if my pain goes away after the injection, we can assume that a nerve is being impeded or pinched when I run. Then we would see how long the injection lasts. Some people actually never have their pain come back. Others, the injection can last 6 months to a year. If this is the case, I would have to decide if I want to just keep getting injections every so often, or if we do something more permanent with the nerve (surgery).

So, I had the nerve block injection a few days ago! Again, not the funnest experience, but better than the pressure test. Only one needle. He used an ultrasound to find the nerve. Then he started the injection clear up by my knee, and continued down the nerve. It took a couple of minutes. I just sort of laid there, holding my breath. My leg felt tingly and numb for a few hours, but then went away and I feel normal. I went for a run the next day. And guess what? I would say my pain was down 80%!!! This is such good news! Maybe we’ve found the answer! He said to give it a month, running a couple times a week, and evaluate/compare how it feels. I’m feeling very hopeful and am actually excited to keep running more. Maybe I’ll be one of the lucky ones who won’t have the pain return and won’t need continuous injections. Time will tell. But it was a good day! 👍🏻

Compartment Pressure Test

I had the pressure test done on my leg, to test for compartment syndrome. It wasn’t the most favorite day I’ve ever had. Lots of needle pokes. It was a few weeks ago and I still have small marks/scabs where they jabbed me. The needles were big and I must be a good bleeder because I had to come home and wash my shoes and socks. It ran right down. Yuck!

After the initial (resting) pressure readings, I ran 4 miles on the office treadmill. They kept coming in to monitor my leg pain. They wanted me to get off the treadmill when my pain reached a 9 out of 10. The evenness of the treadmill didn’t lend as well to creating pain. So it took longer than it would have if I was outside on uneven ground. I never did get to a 9, but they had me stop anyway. I would say my pain was at a 7. They stuck the needle pressure gage into the same 4 compartments and retested the pressures. Everything was normal. My resting pressures weren’t too elevated and my post exertion pressures were only slightly higher. Meaning, muscle pressure isn’t what is causing my pain.

While I don’t want something to be wrong with me, I was really bummed that we didn’t find the problem. This means we still don’t know why my leg hurts when I run or do other high impact exercises. My doctor says that my calf muscles are large, in comparison to the rest of my body frame. He is going to send my MRI to a doctor in Salt Lake who specializes in people with extra muscle length. He wonders if this may be something to look into, but it’s not his specialty. He said he will get back to me after he collaborates with the other doctor. If the other doc thinks this may be the problem, we would look into surgery to remove part of the muscle. I don’t have many details about this and will wait to hear.

Substitute Teaching

I’ve started substitute teaching at my kids two elementary schools. I will only commit to 1-2 days/week. So far so good! My kids like it when I’m at their school and it’s good to get to know classmates. Plus, I get to eat lunch with my kids 😊. Here’s to new adventures!

Applesauce

Homemade applesauce! My parents kindly gave us a bunch of apples from their tree. It’s always amazing to me how much apples shrink down when you cook them. They reduced to about ¼ their original amount. Crazy! The house smelled amazing and I didn’t need to add any extra sugar. Just a pinch of salt, a splash of lemon juice, some cinnamon, and time in the crockpot. Then I smashed them with a potato masher and froze it in individual batches. It will be so yummy this winter!

Christmas Gifts Plan

LOVE this list! I’m trying to implement it for my kids this Christmas. I think it will create great gift variety and not too much excess. 

Kids Chore System

Have I posted this before? This is how we do chores at our house. It’s been working well for years! Each kid has a door hanger thing (I got them at the dollar store) where I clip clothes pins. I change them up depending on what needs to be done that day. Some of the chores get paid (the ones on the left) and some things they get to do simply because they are part of our family (on the right). After they complete a chore, they move the clip to the bottom of their door hanger. Once all the clips are moved, they can go play.

Drop and Fluff

Drop and fluff. That’s what is supposed to happen to my implants. But it hasn’t yet. Still waiting and hoping. Basically, if the capsule forms firmly, and the implants don’t “drop and fluff”, the nipples always appear to be lower than desirable and the fullness of the implants stays at the top. This creates a less than natural look. One side has dropped some, so the two sides aren’t symmetrical, but I think I’ve decided I don’t want another surgery. I will deal with my imperfections and be grateful that breast cancer will likely not be part of my future.

I’m getting more used to the numbness. I still don’t like it, but it doesn’t feel quite as foreign as before. A new thing that bothers me is the visibility of my muscles, directly under the skin. As I’ve started working out again, I’ve noticed it a lot. Anytime I use my chest muscles, the flexing is so apparent and makes my chest look super strange and misshapen. That’s because the implants are under the muscle, lifting the muscle to the skin surface. Obviously, with clothes on, it’s not a big deal. It’s just another reminder that things aren’t as they once were.

I still have a bit of pain, but it’s totally manageable. The left incision bothers me sometimes, as well as down the center of my sternum and the sides of my chest, almost to my armpits. Hopefully it will disappear completely with time, but some women say it can last forever. Thank heavens the pain is minimal. I have my follow up appointment in one month.

Fireplace

We got our stove/fireplace installed in our basement! We’ve been waiting for this and are absolutely loving it! We also got a comfy sectional, with plenty of room for the whole family.

I feel like the size of our home has expanded, because I now want to go sit in the basement. It’s so warm and cozy! Great for watching movies or reading books. It’s the simple things in life. 

Picnic

We loved picnicking this summer/fall. My mother in law gave us this cute picnic basket when we first got married, and it somehow makes picnics more fun. We’ve been finding new hikes and trying to take better advantage of all the hills/mountains surrounding us. We even took card games up Mueller Canyon the other day. It was awesome to play together on a picnic table, rather than the living room floor. Utah is THE best!

Put the Garden to Bed

Winter is just around the corner. So, it was time to dig up our garden beds. It was kind of sad! We put so much effort into getting them up and running this summer. We really enjoyed gardening and learned a lot. Our basil did amazing, so we thought we would transplant it to a pot, and move it indoors. So far so good! It’s been a few weeks, and it’s still kicking. It doesn’t look quite as healthy as it did outdoors, but better than throwing it out altogether. It was great to have fresh basil in our pasta last night, in November. A treat for sure 😁 I also dried the rest of the thyme and oregano.

Kintsugi

I love this. A friend recently told me about Kintsugi. “Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.” –Wikipedia

I want to see myself, and others, this way. Like can be rough. We won’t make it through without cracking, breaking, falling, etc. But, as we teach our kids, the important part is to keep getting up and trying again. All is not lost if we make mistakes. Even big ones. We can be repaired, with the help of God, and come out even more beautiful than before. And, hiding the fact that we’ve been broken, doesn’t usually serve us well. The bumps in the road can add to the beauty of our soul, if we let it.