My Black Friday

January 16, 2016Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Health and Medicine, UncategorizedCadyLy

Friday morning. One of those which is so blackly frustrating that you are certain you are getting a foretaste of Hell itself. I have been having increased pain in my arm and it took a lot of crying and tossing and turning to fall asleep. Then, an amber alert went off at 2am, waking me again. No surprise, I woke up later than I wanted.

Getting dressed in new clothes always takes a little longer, due to the tags and whatnot. Getting dressed in new clothes with a messed up arm and hand is even worse. DELAY.

Blood glucose, which was low at the time of the amber alert, is now high. Decide it’s best to take insulin now, rather than in an hour when you get to work. DELAY.

Frustration after frustration happened in the short time I was getting ready to go to work. The final straw was when I could not find my glasses and spent 10 minutes looking for them. I wanted to do violence to something, but I couldn’t think of a proper target. Just one of those frustrations where you want to scream and hit something and fall into a puddle and sob until it gets better.

But I’m still running late.

And I have to scrape snow and ice off the car. With my painful, messed up arm.

WHY am I in Hell? What did I DO to deserve this?

The drive in to work was probably mostly fine. The normal morning rush and all that, but I was in a black mood (and knew it). I wasn’t driving with road rage, because I don’t do that. But there was plenty of profanity in my head for all. My apologies, fellow drivers.

I arrived in Ann Arbor with some time to spare, so I decided to stop at Starbucks to get some coffee and breakfast, as I had taken insulin before I left. While there wasn’t a lot of people in line at the drive-thru, this is the slowest Starbucks ever. DELAY.

I make it to work and to my desk with 2 minutes to spare, but I was already done with Friday.

THANKFULLY, I love my job and my coworkers, and I had a project to work on, so things improved greatly from there. I got to have breakfast, work on my project, take some calls, and prep for a professional certification exam I was taking in the afternoon.

I had sent a message to my Neurologist’s office yesterday about the increased pain and numbness and received a message back, adjusting my medications. I looked up the gabapentin online to look at dosing and saw that it peaks in effectiveness about 3 hours after you take it, and can make you sleepy. I was told to increase my dose to about three times what I was currently on. My boss noted that everyone will have to keep an eye on me, as I adjust to the new meds, and make sure I’m good with the changes before I tackle my long commutes. He asked when I was starting the new meds. As soon as I got home, I replied, as I had counted out my medication for the week and only had the old dose on me (which was fine). The suggestion was made that I start the new dose at home, where I can evaluate how it affects me. Which was my plan all along.

HA HA HA.

The drive home took TWO HOURS. It was grey and cold and rainy and SLOW. I had to keep turning the heat/defrost on, then back off as I got too warm. I was getting really tired, bored by the slow traffic and lack of distraction (my phone battery had died), and was feeling slightly nauseated from all the stop-and-go. And, of course, this was just about three hours from when I took my noon dose of medication. Never mind that it had never affected me like this before, but NOW I was being crushed with fatigue.

I made it home without incident, but I was crazy tired. I mean, like I was drugged (hahaha). I stumbled to and from the mailbox and brought packages in, took my dinnertime medications, and immediately fell into bed. I was asleep probably within 5 minutes of being home. I slept from 6 pm until 4:30 am, when my alarm went off.

AND THUS FRIDAY ENDED. Hallelujah!

(Sorry, everyone. I don’t have any pictures from Friday.)

A Dark, Quiet Morning

January 10, 2016UncategorizedCadyLy

This morning is a bit of a rarity. I don’t have to go to work today, and a have a couple hours before I have to be out of the house. So, I am not rushing around trying to get out of the door. I woke up to the sound of rain, but now there are just a couple snowflakes floating to the ground. Even though the sun is technically up, it is overcast outside, which means that my house is dark and still.

My desk, illuminated only by my little task light.

Typically, I like all the lights to be ablaze, and I keep myself busy flitting about the house going from one task to the next.

But there’s something nice about this stillness and quiet. I’m going to keep the light low for a short time, grab a coffee, and reflect upon my day. It’ll be nice to have a low-key morning.

Happy Sunday!

7 Quick Takes

January 1, 20167 Quick Takes FridayCadyLy

— 1 —

I’ve joined a site called Blogging for Books. They send you books for free. In return, you review and publicize them. 🙂 I ordered a book about Pope St. John Paul II for my first review.

— 2 —

PopSugar Reading Challenge. This challenge isn’t so much about reading a specific number of books, but rather to read all different kinds of books. I’m looking forward to broadening my horizons in 2016!

— 3 —

Full Disclosure…Up to this point, these Quick Takes were written on December 1, 2015, and then left, neglected, in my Drafts until now.

— 4 —

Redemptive Suffering. If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you know that I have a mitochondrial myopathy. It’s a rare neuromuscular disorder that most people have never heard of. For the past 3 weeks or more, I have had horrible knotting of my muscles in my right arm. It really hurts and makes me cry sometimes in front of other people. It’s made worse when I use my arm, so writing and typing are difficult and painful. I’m trying to use this pain constructively, but I really hope that relief is around the corner somewhere.

— 5 —

I started knitting (again). I saw a picture on FB yesterday of someone considering making a temperature blanket (basically, knitting one row per day in the color of the high temperature of the day).

It looked really pretty and I was considering making one. The only problem is… I don’t knit. I *did* try knitting once and got a few rows done, but since then, my yarn and needles have been sitting on top of a bookcase collecting dust. So, today on the way out the door to work, I picked them up and stuffed them in my purse. I had watched a tutorial from New Stitch a Day yesterday, and picked up where I left off this morning. I even multitasked, watching training videos for work as I knit. This is (more or less) what it looked like a little earlier this morning.

— 6 —

If you read my last blog post, you know that I have created a plan for this new year which includes 12 different focus areas. I still have to make detailed plans for exactly how I’m going to progress in these areas, but I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to make progress in each area, even though I know that I will not make every goal and that things will not go perfectly. Such is life, right? 🙂 What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

— 7 —

Happy New Year! I wish you all the best and hope to be more prolific in my blog posting this coming year! Please comment or write me! I love hearing from people.

God Bless!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t the Lyceum!

Making It Happen for 2016

December 31, 2015Challenge Accepted!, Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, PlanningDiscipline, Goals, Intentional Living, Lara Casey, Making It Happen, New Year'sCadyLy

A friend recommended a book to me, “Making It Happen” by Lara Casey. As I was looking into the book, I found that it was part of a larger program to help you live more intentionally and realize your goals. The more I read, the more I wanted to try her whole program, so I ordered the Powersheets bundle with her book. Not being patient enough to wait for the order to come in, I also got the Audible version and listened to this in the car during my commutes to and from work.

I absolutely loved it! She does an amazing job of weaving together advice and personal testimony while keeping your primary focus on what God wants for your life.

I identified strongly with Lara herself, and a lot of her personality traits are my own, so her advice based on her experience was immediately relatable to my own life.

There are 7 initial steps to get ready to Make It Happen.

Step 1: Evaluate Where You Are

The very first thing you do in your Powersheets is to fill out a page about yourself. After your name, it says, “I am a (thing beyond a job title here) ___.” I filled in that blank with “joyful mess!” I guess that’s the best descriptor I have for myself at the moment. Things to tend to be pretty messy and haphazard in my world (which hopefully will be helped this year), but I do tend to be optimistic and joyful, no matter what happens.

After this, I wrote, “In the past, I have ignored, neglected, and put off many things I needed to do but now, I’m ready to make a plan, evaluate what’s important, and MAKE IT HAPPEN! The things I value most are the people I love, God, and my faith.”

Three words that describe me: fun-loving, extroverted, and enthusiastic.

My home/personal space is usually lived in, chaotic, and a MESS! (Probably my mom’s fault… After all, she used to call me Mess Anne growing up….)

Favorite colors: yellow, green, aqua

Favorite foods: chips + salsa, Taco Bell, alfredo sauce, grilled cheese

If I could have someone else’s job for a day, I would be a travel photographer.

My favorite song right now is Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.” But check back in a couple days and it’ll likely be something else.

Person I would most like to meet: Right now, I’d most like to meet Lara Casey. I think we would become friends. 🙂

I get most fired up when someone encourages me or I’m challenged or pushed to soar. I’m fairly extroverted, so it makes sense to me that I find strength and motivation from other people.

I get along best with people who – yeah, I checked off every option there. I love people!

My best memories involve spending time with friends and family, experiencing something new, and doing an activity that I love.

I accomplish things best when: (1) I have a cheerleader rooting me on, (2) someone else depends on me, or (3) I give myself a deadline. The only one I didn’t check was the one that says, “I have quiet time and space to think,” because I am awful about sitting still. I never do it. I am horrible at meditation and listening to God. But I know that I need to grow in this area. Still, it’s important to know how I’m best motivated, especially as I try to stick to the plans which I’m making now.

Things I love to do:

Be with other people
Dance + listen to music
Watch movies
Read books
Take photographs
Travel
Give random gifts
Make others happy

I am most grateful for (in no particular order):

The people God has brought into my life
My cheerful disposition
God’s faithfulness and love
My job and boss
My best friend
My goddaughter
Fr. John
My faith

It is good to take these steps, these minutes, to reflect upon who I am, what I love, and what motivates me. It’s part of the process to determine what is really important in my life. I only have so much time and energy. If I waste it on something that I don’t really value, then what was the point? I’d be much better off to allocate my resources to things and people that are important to me.

Step 2: Plant the Seeds

I’ve made 12 categories of things that I’d like to work on in the next year:

Blogging
Exercise
Faith Life
Finances
Food/Blood Sugar
Household
Personal Relationships
Photography
Reading Challenge
Thesis
Twidget Enterprises
Work/Professional Life

Step 3: Clear the Clutter

This section tells you to write down everything that is distracting you or holding you back from realizing your goals. In addition to knowing what’s important to you, what motivates you, and what you want to accomplish, it is good to know what obstacles are in your way. If you are aware of them, you can plan for them (to an extent).

For me, some of my pitfalls are if I am not feeling well or if I let myself become distracted or sidetracked. Plus, I also have a tendency to allow one “mess-up” to completely derail me. Right now, I don’t feel prepared for the next year and the challenges I’ve set for myself. But that’s okay. I don’t have to have the entire year figured out by tomorrow. I *can* figure it out as I go.

I want to change my thinking from “chasing perfection” to “chasing progress.”

Step 4: Meet Your Fears

I don’t have a ton of fears. The couple that I came up with are that I’m afraid that I’ll burn out or compromise my health, as I have a tendency to take on too much, work too hard, and not leave any time for myself to rest and recharge. I’m also afraid that I won’t follow through and that I’ll be in exactly the same place in all of these areas this time next year.

Step 5: Watch the Powersheets Video

There’s SO MUCH great information on her site, LaraCasey.com. Some of the things that stayed with me as I watched was that it’s okay to make a mess. She was talking of working in your Powersheets, but I take it to mean anywhere along this process. The Powersheets, my planners… All of these things are just tools, things that help me. I shouldn’t be concerned about keeping my tools pretty. I just want to make my life beautiful — for myself, and so that I can me a mirror of God’s grace and love to others. At the end of the day (or year), who cares what my planner looks like, or if my handwriting was bad? These things are not ultimately important. If I end the year having grown in faith and love and as a person, then my year will have been a success.

In doing her Powersheets, Lara got on her knees and read Scripture. I need this kind of inspiration. To have God be such a central part of my life. She recalled a passage in the Bible, right before Jesus selected the Twelve. In order to make good decisions, Jesus first spent the entire evening in prayer to the Father. Grounding yourself in prayer and the Word is so important.

In one of her Periscope videos, she talks of the song, Oceans:

While I was waiting for Oceans to load on YouTube, I had to watch an advertisement. It was for Zootopia, and during the ad there was the quote, “No matter what type of animal you are, change starts with you.” Which is SO appropriate for today and for this project!

Step 6: Decide You Can

This is a very long section in the Powersheets. Basically, you write out what has been working and what hasn’t, what you would like to prune from your life, and what you would like to cultivate. Then, you decide on goals (which I’ve written above). Remind yourself of what you want to achieve and why.

Step 7: Set Purposeful Goals

This is where you break down your goals into actionable baby steps, so that you have something concrete to work on and a way to measure progress on your goal. I am really glad that Lara has you revisit and tweak these goals every 3 months. It will help me re-commit to them (or refine/delete/replace them if that’s appropriate) and also see where I am, like a report card.

I’m so excited for this year and hope that you are as well!

God Bless and Happy New Year!

Getting Ready for 2016!

December 31, 2015Blogging and Blog Friends, UncategorizedCadyLy

Hi Everyone!

I am still working on finalizing my plans, resolutions, and goals for 2016! I know, I should have ironed all this out earlier, but at least I have been *thinking* about it for a long time.

That counts, right?

Shortly, I’ll let you all know what I’m looking forward to in the New Year.

A little hint, my word for 2016 is Discipline!

I’m so excited! I’ll see you all shortly!

#DecemberDaily: 12/1

December 1, 2015December DailyCadyLy

Someone in one of my planner groups was showing how she incorporates some scrapbooking into her planner, and mentioned a project that she was doing through Ali Edwards‘ blog called December Daily. I checked out the site, and while I haven’t been into scrapbooking so much in a number of years (it takes a LOT of time and dedication), I thought that the idea of recording how I spend these Advent days leading up to Christmas to be an intriguing one. So, I’m going to attempt to do that here.

I had so many ideas for what my main picture was going to be for the day. I was initially thinking that it would be a photo of an exam room, as I had an appointment with my Neurologist today (and a half day at work!). However, the doctor takes you back to the exam room and I felt a little weird asking him if I could take a photo.

Then, I thought – maybe I can take a photo of the library? After all, I have to *renew* my library card, so it’s a little more than just a normal visit. And I do intend on spending less time binge watching Netflix and more time reading books this season.

But, ultimately, I picked something a little more … cozy.

I made soup!

I love soup and I had some veggies to use up. I like how it doesn’t take a ton of time and effort, and then I can put it in some plastic containers and have dinner ready for almost an entire week.

In this soup, I baked a chicken breast and shredded it, adding it to some chicken stock, then chopped up some fingerling carrots, ripped up a bunch of kale, and added a can of chick peas. I decided against putting some kind of noodle or rice in. I suppose I can always add that later, but I probably don’t need the extra carbs anyway.

This is my “Day One” for my December Daily project. Something a little warm and cozy that I enjoy a bit more in the winter months. Soup and reading a book at the dinner table. 🙂

How are you spending your December?

doTERRA Essential Oils: Peppermint

December 1, 2015Health and MedicinedoTERRA, essential oils, peppermintCadyLy

Peppermint is some potent stuff! I was first introduced to peppermint in my introductory class at the Troy Community Center about a month or so ago. It was passed around for us to put a drop in our hand and sniff it. I couldn’t even take a complete breath in — it was strong! But it does give that nice, minty clean feeling in your nasal passages and throat, similar to Vicks Vaporub.

Since I really wanted to give essential oils a good, fair trial, I also got a book about them, so that I could learn about each oil, its uses and applications. (The following facts about peppermint are from the book, “The Essential Life,” by Total Wellness Publishing.)

Peppermint is listed as being good for:

Alertness
Allergies and Hives
Asthma and Sinusitis
Autism
Bad Breath
Cravings
Decreasing Milk Supply
Emotional Balance
Fevers and Hot Flashes
Gamma Radiation Exposure
Gastritis and Digestive Discomfort
Headaches and Migraines
Loss of Sense of Smell

And has the following properties:

Anti-inflammatory
Analgesic
Antispasmodic
Warming
Invigorating
Cooling
Expectorant
Vasoconstrictor
Stimulating

Now for my personal experience with peppermint. It’s a little mixed, and I’ll tell you why…. It’s potent! This is one of the oils which is listed with a safety warning: “Dilute for topical application as may cause skin sensitivity.” THIS IS NO JOKE, PEOPLE! A friend stated that she used peppermint topically on her forehead and back of the neck for headache relief, so when I had a headache, I decided to give it a try.

I forgot that I have sensitive skin.

So, I ended up with a huge rash and a bad allergic reaction. Like, affecting my breathing bad. The rash lasted for about a week and a half and then went away, but it was red, raised and itchy while I had it.

Moral of the story: pay attention to any warnings that are on the oils! Some are not meant to be ingested, some may be irritating for sensitive skin, etc. There are carrier oils, like fractionated coconut oil or almond oil that you can use to dilute the essential oils, and these may be helpful for some of the more irritating oils.

While I’m sitting here typing out this post, I have a cough from a mild cold. Since my essential oil book is right here, I decided to look up what you can use to treat coughs. In order of efficacy, they suggest lemon, cardamom, respiration blend, peppermint, and cinnamon. I only have the peppermint, so I decided to give that a try. I put 2 drops in an 8 oz glass of cold water and have been sipping on that while writing. Since it’s in my glass, I can also inhale it as I sip. It has helped my cough somewhat. Better than a cough drop, actually. Be careful not to exhale into the glass with your eyes open, you don’t want to get peppermint into your eyes!

doTERRA Essential Oils: Therapeutic, Placebo, or ?

November 22, 2015Health and MedicinedoTERRA, essential oilsCadyLy

So, you may have heard about essential oils from a friend, or heard about someone trying them. At the moment, it’s kind of the “in” thing to do, along with buying trendy, healthy food from Whole Foods or Fresh Thyme or Trader Joe’s. At some point, you will probably try some, just to see what all the hype is about.

This more or less is me. Just to let you know where I’m coming from, I am a big skeptic when it comes to these things. I am a firm believer in modern medicine and science. I think medications made by pharmaceutical companies work because they have researched the exact component or chemical needed to be efficacious for some disease process or the other, and have found a way to replicate or isolate this component, so that you are getting precisely the effect you are going for.

There are pros and cons to everything in life.

I recently attended a seminar on essential oils, willing to hear their side of the argument and find out for myself what it’s all about. I’ll tell you right now, I suck at direct sales and am a much better consumer than salesperson, so I’m not here to pitch you a line or make you buy anything from me. I *am* here to try out this line of products and give you my brutally honest opinion. Like anything else, if it’s a quality product, its got nothing to fear from a little scrutiny, right?

Here are some pros, coming from someone who has made selling doTERRA their full-time job:

It’s natural, not synthetically made.
Components are not removed from the essential oil, so that if the oil from a plant has 20 different compounds within it which are good for treating 20 different ailments, you are getting all 20.
It’s a lot cheaper per dose than pharmaceutical drugs.
Essential oils do not have the same long scary list of side effects as do pharmaceutical medications.
You can treat a lot of common problems at home without a prescription.
Because they are natural, you can feel confident about what you are putting in your body.

I’m sure there were a lot more benefits that I’m not remembering at the moment. What I was left with was a few questions….

Since I’m getting “all 20 compounds” in an essential oil, is it possible that I’m over medicating, or getting chemicals that I don’t need, or to which I could react, when I’m seeking to treat just one particular ailment. E.g. If I want to treat acne and the plant is also known for raising blood pressure (completely hypothetical, I don’t know that anything like this exists, but it could), could I inadvertently raise my blood pressure while taking the essential oil treatment? This would be an unintended side effect.
DOES IT WORK OR JUST SMELL GOOD? This is probably the biggest question. After all, there’s no sense in buying into (literally and figuratively) a product which doesn’t do what you think it will do.

All this being the case, I am going to be writing articles on my findings and publishing them here. I’m hoping that the essential oils will win out over my skepticism. I really do. I am intrigued by the idea of being able to take care of things on my own without resorting to a whole medicine cabinet of prescription drugs.

Since I post a lot of different things on my blog, I’ll be tagging these posts with “doTERRA” and “essential oils,” so feel free to search/filter by these tags. 🙂 Join me on the journey! And feel free to ask me any questions along the way! I will try to find an answer for you.

Seven Quick Takes – Saturday Afternoon Edition

September 26, 20157 Quick Takes FridayCadyLy

— 1 —

Thing have been CRAZY around here! You would think that a girl with as many planner as I have would be able to stay sane… Well, yes and no. I have been working a lot of overtime, which is my preference, but between that, grad school, and extracurriculars, I don’t have a lot of down time for myself and it’s starting to take its toll. I don’t have a good diet at the moment. Nor any sort of exercise routine to speak of. I desperately need to clean the house (although a friend helped quite a bit recently). This week, I think I’m going to take a hard look at my time commitments and make a plan for fitting some of these things in. Please keep me in your prayers and keep cheering me on! 🙂

— 2 —

Speaking of my Mitochondrial Myopathy… This week is Mitochondrial Awareness week. My particular disease is a neuromuscular disorder, most consistent with MELAS. It is progressive and terminal. But this doesn’t stop me from trying to do everything that I love, sometimes to the dismay of my friends. However, I recently came across a quote that I just love:

Will I someday be standing with scars to give account before Him that I wasn’t about my own comfort but Christ’s call, that I didn’t make my life about safe living but about dangerous dying, that I didn’t escape into a neat, saved American dream but into a messy, mission-driven God-sized demand, H/T

I think this sums me up pretty nicely.

— 3 —

Papa! My favorite family made the front page of the Free Press! Not only that, but they are currently in Philadelphia trying to cozy up to Pope Francis! What an awesome adventure! I am praying for their trip and for God to bless them with His grace. Love you guys!

I guess I only have 3 Quick Takes this week…

God Bless!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t the Lyceum!

Fr. John’s Daily Pontiffications

September 25, 2015UncategorizedDaily Pontiffications, Pope FrancisCadyLy

Fr. John has been breaking down and discussing events and issues surrounding the Holy Father, Pope Francis’s, trip to the US. Well worth a watch! Enjoy!

Daily Pontiffications #1