The Friday five point five

1. I was able to get a dermatology appointment for early Monday afternoon for the multitude of unexplained rashes appearing all over my body. I don´t have a dermatologist so I  had to call around and try to find an appointment. I was really lucky to get an appointment. Someone had just canceled an appointment for the day when I called. 

The dermatologist took one look at my rashes and said, ¨hives." I was like, ¨huh?¨ My rashes don´t look like the google image picture of hives nor did hives comport with what the NP thought about them when I went to get an antibiotic for the red and warm areas emanating from some of the rashes. 

BUT, after a few days of the ¨fix¨ for hives, I am completely hive free so I´m inclined to think that the doctor was correct. All I had to take was an anti-histamine. Apparently, for reasons that the doctor said, ¨we´re likely to never know¨ (in a mysterious way as if we were talking about a philosophical conundrum) histamines in my body started acting awry resulting in the hives. He did ask me about common triggers for hives but none of those applied to me. Common triggers are having recently had a vaccine, having recently been sick with something viral, and/or extreme stress. I´m so thankful to have my ´mines under control.

Prior to the appointment, I couldn´t help but catstrophsize a bit. I thought there was something wrong with my autoimmune system that would need constant monitoring including food restrictions due to an allergy to something. I envisioned being told to avoid sugar or processed food or something food life altering. On the plus side, I did envision all those too tight clothes fitting a little better in the inevitable weight loss from changing my diet, haha. Hearing I need to take Zyrtec for the next few days seemed too good to be true :). No food restrictions- sugar and processed foods are not forbidden and I pretty much need to accept that some of my clothes are too tight or get new ones :). Cause if I don´t have to give up sugar, I am not going to. 

2. The weather- trying to see the good and the bad with the hot weather/ drought. The Bad- hot weather does not feel good. Drought is not good for living things. Ninety degrees in mid to late September sounds wrong. But it is what it is and the the heat, too, shall pass.

In the heattime, I will be thankful for the sun and heat´s contribution to the tomatoes growing redder and plumper on the vines and the peppers continuing to grow.

This was at 4:00 pm one day this week. TOO HOT!! And Friday and Saturday are supposed to hit close to 90. 

On Saturday, I´d picked enough tomatoes for marina sauce and made some that day. By Monday, I´d picked enough for another batch and made some. I added a jalapeno pepper for the first time (the recipe I use calls for red pepper flakes which I omitted with this batch since I had a pepper in it). 

3. Subbing- I worked two days this week so half of the work week (our district has Friday off). The first day that I worked was odd. I subbed for half a day at one school and then half a day at the other. The schools are close by- that´s the only way to make a schedule like that work. Originally, I was only going to work the 1/2 day in the pm (it actually starts in the morning but it´s considered a ¨pm¨ half day). However, I woke up at 3:00 am and saw the half day in the morning job posted and decided to take it since I was up and there was nothing that I had to do or get done at the house before I left the pm sub job. 

The second half of my sub day was nice because I had a break (the teacher whom I was subbing for plan period). Also the second half was slightly less than a half to begin with (but it was more than a 1/4- I didn´t know you could slice school days into something between 1/4 and 1/2 (for teacher absence/sub purposes) but apparently you can).

The students were shockingly well behaved and were the best part of both days that I was at school this week. I had some odd interactions with a few staff members on both days that have left me feeling, once again, whether subbing is what I should continue doing. While a part of me would like to share some of what occurred at school, ultimately, I know that this space is not the place to get into the details of the interactions. The really great thing, and that keeps me tethered to this ¨job¨ is that I only work when I want to and for the teachers that I want to. 

Reading and drinking on the job! Ha- reading during my break and drinking tea :)

 

4. Dinners- I am not a fan of making dinners! I do it and I don´t hate it, it´s just definitely something I view as a chore more than something that I enjoy. I do like it when I make a meal that we all like and I´m appreciative of having plenty of food in the pantry, refrigerator and freezer. And I love being super close to restaurants should the burden of making a meal prove too onerous and stores nearby should I realize that I´m out of something that I need.

Dinners went well this week and I need to document that here... By ¨well¨ I mean that I didn´t have to make dinner much at all. Monday night Donnie grilled leftover steak and I quickly and easily made loaded small potatoes as a side. So good! 

Tuesday, I made lasagna with freshly made marina sauce from tomatoes that I picked on Monday. The lasagna lasted us two dinners which was really nice.

Thursday, we uncharacteristically had plans out for the evening that included dinner. 

So, yeah, it was a good week to be the cook who doesn´t love to cook..

5. Baking- I am a fan of baking... I´m referring to baking as making a stand alone fun item like cookies or cake (putting a prepared lasagna in the oven is baking it but that´s not the way I´m referring to it!). One afternoon this week, I made zucchini bread from the last of the garden zucchini- the plants sadly have perished). I put these goodies in the freezer and plan to give them away soon. 

.5- I started listening to podcasts again this week- the day I was in the kitchen making bread and cookies and then later when I was on the treadmill. I stopped after last Wednesday and hadn´t done so since Wednesday of this week. Knowing that Charlie Kirk was not an option to hear was a roadblock to me.

Though I stopped listening for a time, I was actively engaged with the news- I just did it by reading news articles, not listening to podcasts. But I missed them and knew it was time to get my news and commentary from the trusted voices who have helped to shape, solidify and embolden me in my faith and my view of cultural issues. The two are intertwined. My faith dictates that I care about what´s going on in the culture. I can´t obey the command to love others if  I ¨sit out¨ caring about policies that are harmful to our nation and to others. 

I listened to Allie Beth Stuckey and Alisa Childers. They are both Christian women, first and foremost, and they both deeply care about the culture. Their podcasts often feature episodes that cover current event happenings. ABS is more cultural based I would say while Alisa Childers focus is more apologetics focused.  I want to copy something from both of their podcasts. I am copying my quotes from the transcript of their podcasts. 

From Allie Beth Stuckey:

¨How good is God? And it so like Satan to try to discourage, to try to demoralize, to try to destroy us, to take such a bold and stronger fighter out of the battle and hope to make the rest of us so scared and silent and ineffective. And it so like God to stack the odds against himself just to tear them down, to show up when it seems darkest, when it seems most desperate.

God who is in the business  of redemption, who is in the business of thwarting Satan´s plans, who is in the business of bringing people to himself, that´s what God is up to right now. And we as Christians have the glorious privilege to be a part of it. As his vessels of truth and bearers of the righteousness that Christ gave us, we have this incredible opportunity to be a part of this moment in which people are searching and they´re hungry and they´re wondering is there something better?¨

It goes on about this point and is just so good (I would love to copy the whole transcript but it´s really long!)

The link to listen to the podcast episode is here.

From Alisa Childers

¨Charlie Kirk either was a godly man who loved the Lord, who winsomely and graciously engaged college students on facts and logic, or he was a divisive, bigot, racist, sexist, misogynist. There´s really no kind of in between. And the reason I say it like that is because this a battle of good or evil. 

Remember that we don´t wrestle against flesh and blood. Let´s pray for those who are celebrating because they are captives of the enemy of our soul. And the Gospel is the cure that will set them free.

Alisa made many good, thought provoking points. Most of them I´d heard already but I like her calm and consistent call to never cease to pray and to speak the truth. 

The link to listen to the podcast episode is here

Allie Beth Stucey and Alisa Childers are also both authors whose books I have been glad to have read. I´m grateful for the wisdom of these older, oops, they´re both younger than I am(!!) women. Well, they´re wise no matter their age!