A Former Ex-Pat looks at Thanksgiving etc....

Well, Thanksgiving and Black Friday are now over. This was the first Thanksgiving in six years for my family to be on American soil. We did a traditional American Thanksgiving snarf fest just like we've always done, but it was so nice not having to comb through multiple grocery stores for weeks or even months stocking up on specific ingredients. I will admit, I used to horde French's Fried Onions since green bean casserole is such a fave in our house. I used to keep any where from 2 to 3 large containers of the things in the villa/apartment at any given time.

Before moving over seas, we always would get up in the morning and crash out in front of the TV watching parades. This year, we never turned them on. We are too much in the habit of baking/cooking and decorating for Christmas on Thanksgiving Day to care much about the parades. Instead, we blared 'classic' Christmas music through the speaker system (think Bing Crosby).

The thing I actually missed about Thanksgiving as an ex-pat is sharing Thanksgiving with non-Americans. It is excellent fun to invite someone over who has never experienced the massive spread of food at a dinner party that is very American. The best was seeing the faces of the munchkins' friends staring at a spread of homemade pies. It made all that work in the kitchen so very worth it. It was also wonderful to have over other Americans who didn't have any family close by.  Being outside of the States, we put serious effort into celebrating Thanksgiving.

This was also the first 'Black Friday' I have experienced in six years. The husband and I made a brief trip to the hardware store and the grocery store on Friday. The hardware store wasn't crowded at all which was a pleasant surprise and the same for the grocery store. The closest shopping mall, however, was so crowded that cars lined the frontage road waiting for parking, and a local Baptist church made some extra money hiring out their parking lot to mall shoppers. I, on the other hand, ran to two majors stores today. I got the same prices I would have paid on Friday and there were no crowds. 'No crowds' was great for me - I  was done in less than an hour - but I'm not so sure how that's going to fare for the retailers. But, the amount that Americans consume/buy is just not sustainable, and I think we're going to be feeling the repercussions of that for a long time.

Now that we are into the Saturday after Thanksgiving, there is only a tiny fraction of one pie left (we started with two), the cinnamon rolls are gone, and the stuffing is just about gone.  And I'm tired of being in the kitchen. Maybe we help the economy and go out to dinner tonight?

Peace.

Christmas Traditions

I was going through some old photos on my computer when I came across this little gem. This photo is probably 8-10 years old.  We were at a place for Christmas that hadn't seen snow in literally a hundred years. Naturally, we had to make snowpeople including a pet snowdog.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving which means we put up our Christmas decorations, eat a ton of food, and hang out as a family all day. We got into the habit of decorating for Christmas on Thanksgiving because while we lived in Dubai, the munchkins and I would have the day off from school, but the husband had to work. So.....we began a new tradition.

Now that we are back home in the States, the husband will be part of the tradition of decorating for Christmas on Thanksgiving day. The kids are super excited. There of boxes of new decorations awaiting happy munchkin hands in the dining room.  The husband and I took the munchkins to Hobby Lobby while all the Christmas stuff was 50% off. Since we don't have much in the way of Christmas decor amongst the stuff we brought from Dubai, the husband told the munchkins, "You each have $30. Go pick out Christmas stuff for the house."  You can't believe the joy with which my kids filled the cart at Hobby Lobby. After being away from such a plethora of Christmas decor for so long, it was like letting kids loose in a candy shop.

We also have another odd little tradition in our family - visits from Herman the Googalie.  Long before there was the whole elf on a shelf thing, my grandmother and I think great-grandmother knew about Herman. Herman is a special helper of Santa's. He visits before Christmas and leaves cute little gifts. One time, I remember going out onto the front porch at night with snow all around and actually talking with Herman. Very thrilling stuff to a four year old! My family has always been very into fairies and 'forest magic'. We even have a quiet little place on our farm that we call the Fairy Dancing Place. I used to find 'fairy notes' on bark from birch bark there as a young girl. There has always been 'magic' in my family.

Now that I am a mother, my children get visits from Herman the Googalie. But, the tradition has changed a bit. My munchkins each write a letter to Santa and place a 'magic' stamp on it (usually some very special sticker they have picked out). These letters are then left somewhere that Herman can find them, usually by a door or out on a patio. The letters than disappear (ie Herman collects them) and a little gift from Herman appears in their place. Many times, Herman leaves behind a half finished cup of coffee or half eaten snack he pulled from the kitchen, as well. 

Now that the munchkins are older, Herman may not visit for a few years which makes me a bit sad and wistful.  But I know that if my munchkins ever have munchkins, then Herman the Googalie will be back to spread Christmas magic.

Peace.

How to Leave a Comment

Ok, just a quick odd little post since it is stormy wintery weather outside and I have nothing else to do. Actually, I am pondering quilt ideas. I just cut a rather sizeable stack of quilt blocks; now I just need to figure out how I am going to use them.

It is the first day of holiday break for the kids, and the first thing Munchkin #1 wants to do is visit the library. And, Munchkin #2 is on the sofa in front of the fireplace attempting to plow through the book Catching Fire in less than two days. I told ther that she had to read the book before I'd take her to see the movie. I LOVE my kids!

Now, on to business.

I have had several family members ask me how to leave a comment to a blog post. Here's the drill:

Step 1 Click on 'Comments' or 'No Comments' at the bottom of a post. The 'No' bit disappears if there is already a comment.

Step 2 In the 'Comment As' pull down box, you can either use your Google name (ie what you have attached to your gmail account), you can choose Anonymous, or you can create an identity some other way. Most of the other choices are associated with other blogs. Anonymous is just fine if you are family because I have a listing of IP addresses that visit this blog, so I can probably figure out who the comment is from.

Step 3 In the box you can type in, type your comment. I recommend clicking 'publish' to publish it and skipping the preview. But please note that nothing is published until I read it and approve it. But, I'm very quick about getting that done.

I hope this helps!

Happy commenting!

Peace.

Living Life On-Line

Thanks go out to my Dad for emailing me the awesome snow pictures of our deck at the farm house. I am so loving being where there is actually a change of seasons.

I was at a rockin' good women's Bible study this morning. One of the nice things about being back in the States is how easy every thing is here including attending weekly Bible studies. I'm currently doing two; I'm a Bible study addict. I'm also totally addicted to coffee, but that's another matter entirely. If I can attend a Bible study AND drink coffee, then you know I am a seriously happy situation.

I was reading through the New York Times and came across the following article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/fashion/social-networking-App-allows-women-to-rate-men.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me

So...here is this new app thingy where women can log in and rate men. Really? Not cool folks. I realize that things happen like various ex's posting naked pictures of each other as break-up retaliation on-line, but does the world really need an app for girls to talk about guys? Posting anything 'not nice' (extreme understatement) about another person is just plain wrong. Period. Full stop. I'm not excusing the nasty horrid things that some men post on-line sometimes, but is this new app thing really helpful?

First, I think it is totally wrong to gossip about others. If I wouldn't want a picture of me in a certain pose or with a certain dumb expression on my face or whatever else posted on-line, than why would I ever do that to someone else?

I feel like I live my life on-line. Think about it: paying bills, emailing for work and personal stuff, various social media, blogging about stuff that like only 5 people might ever read. I love the internet. I love reading ancient text translations on-line, I read news, I laugh a funny cat videos, I read blogs, I write THIS blog. But, really.....I can't get over how the internet has taken bullying to a whole new level of badness.

My kids both use some social media - but not much.  I think they are concerned about what they put out there about themselves. I am glad they are not 'deep' into Facebook or Twitter. I'm not saying that Facebook and Twitter are bad things, but I do think that everyone, especially kids, have to be careful what they put out there for others to see.

So....my concerns as a mom of a boy about this new app for women to rate men......

This new app looks like it requires women to log in using their Facebook accounts. Here is what the app says it is collecting about a user's Facebook account: "Lulu will receive the following info: your public profile, friend list, email address, relationships, birthday, education history, hometown, current city and photos and your friends' relationships, birthdays, education histories, hometowns and current cities." Ok....so? Well, if you log onto this thing, you just gave away a bunch of personal data. Plus, you may not be as anonymous as you think you are. Someone somewhere whom you don't know just got a whole bunch of info about you. So.....

It is very easy to create a fake Facebook account. I've seen Facebook accounts for family dogs, I've seen fake Facebook accounts set up for the express purpose of on-line gaming (not by me, but I've seen some).  Using a fake Facebook account, how easy would it be for an angry person to go on-line and anonymously post nasty false statements about a guy? True, I don't know a whole lot about how this new thing works, but I have deep concerns about it. Potential employers could even figure out a way to access it. Not cool.

I am seriously into teaching kids about on-line safety. I deeply believe that using internet filters just isn't enough. We have to teach our kids how to navigate the on-line world just like we teach them how to navigate in the '3D world'.  Because when our kids step out of our homes, the 'filters are off'.

There is a comment section below each blog post. Just click 'Comments' or 'No Comments' and type away. I preview all comments before they are actually published. As long as it is not profane etc....I publish them. Spam comments I delete/report.

Peace.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Remission

I dearly love this photo. If anyone lays down for a snooze or to read on our sofa, Max Kitty is almost immediately there ready for a snuggle. He loves to be wrapped up in a fleece blanket on a lap for sometimes hours if you can stay on the sofa that long. Munchkin #2 was playing games on the Husband's iPad which made for the perfect Max snuggle opportunity.

Other days, Max would snuggle in with my Munchkin #2 while we had her joints packed with ice because of sore arthritis knees or wrists. Thankfully, we have not had to do that for a while.

The rheumatologist here in the States that we go to is talking 'remission' with regards to Munchkin #2's rheumatoid.  I know that the terminology has changed a bit, but I am still most comfortable and knowledgeable using the term 'rheumatoid'.  When we both first heard this from the rheumy, you can imagine the shock. The initial reaction was actually fear.  My kid, almost in tears, begged the rheumy not to take her meds away from her.  Now, however, Munchkin #2 is hoping to get away from having to take the weekly methotrexate injections.

I have tremendous fear about all this because of all we went through to get those meds. For my daughter, that vile nasty injectable danger was a actually miracle in a bottle. For us, it wasn't this horrid thing to be afraid of, but a medicine to be embraced. The effects were amazing in a good way.

So now that we are looking at walking away from this drug, it is of vital importance that my daughter and I feel VERY comfortable with our rheumy. And, unfortunately, neither of us really does. We're both really scared about the whole thing. My daughter is at the point where she feels it is worthless to talk with the rheumy at all. Not good.

So...being the way that I am, I decided to do some digging on the internet about RA remission. It is not a cut and dry kind of issue. First, give this a read.

http://www.arthritisselfmanagement.com/condition/rheumatoid/remission-a-goal-of-ra-treatment/?page=all

Remission is a definite goal, but one of the things we both worry about is having a flare when my daughter just doesn't have time to mess with flares. Flares disrupt daily living. They can make simple things like changing classes via stairways with a backpack very difficult. In the middle of a flare, sports and PE are usually off the menu - a almost horrifying thought to a child who loves her sports. My daughter gave up competitive gymnastics because of this disease, and she can't run track because it hurts her knees (a child who wants to run should be able to run!). Just regular PE class can cause knee pain even when she is not in a flare. By going off meds, we are greatly increasing the risk of a flare.

When my munchkin was first diagnosed, she used to have to fill out forms about how she was feeling and how her daily life was. I was reminded of this by this article:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/11/17/242366259/why-a-patient-s-story-matters-more-than-a-computer-checklist?ft=1&f=1001

We once visited a clinic where I mailed almost 70 pages of medical records weeks ahead of  time that the rheumy demanded access to. We got to the office, and he hadn't read ANY of them. When we tried to explain her symptoms, her pain levels were not believed. He felt joints but she looked 'ok'. MRI's were done showing bits of fluid in joints here and there, but she was proclaimed 'normal' yet we knew she had active RA. Her RA was so active that another rheumy in a different city (country actually) put her on injectable methotrexate changing her life.

The forms that tend to be standard in so many clinics, we have not filled out once since starting with the current pediatric rheumy here in the States. For bits on these forms, have a read:
http://www.sf-36.org/demos/SF-36.html

And....  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16273780 

It gets frustrating when all the rheumy cares about is what they can see and feel in the patient. In the case of my daughter, she only had severe morning stiffness at her total rock bottom of 'bad flare'. As a mom, I am terrified of the rheumy who doesn't listen to my daughter taking her miracle med away and not letting her have it back until she is at rock bottom bad flare again.

We have an appointment with the rheumy the first week of December. We have tried changing to a different rheumy within the practice, but they won't let us. Hideously frustrating.

Here is hoping and praying that the remission is real and that communication with the rheumy is better. Otherwise, I am ready to drive to another city to find a doctor whom we both feel we can trust will not let rock bottom bad flare happen ever again.

Peace.