On Health and Diets

I have seriously been neglecting my health.

First, I was just sick of doctors telling me that losing weight was the answer to all my problems.  Second, there was always some homeschooling task or event more important and fun than a doctors appointment.

There's that and the fact that it was hard to make doctors appointments while toting kids around and how the doctors staff used to glare at me for bringing them to appointments when they were younger.  When they were finally old enough to be left home, I missed a scheduled appointment and the self important doctor's office left me a message to not come back...  so... it's been about 5 years since seeing a Gyn and 3 years since seeing a general practitioner for anything

So with no excuses left, I dragged my butt to the doctor yesterday.  I am not pleased.

I decided to go because of a diagnosis my daughter got that I had been trying to get for myself for years (PCOS).  So I asked the endocrinologist if they would see me and they said I had to get referred back.  Shoot.  OK.  I made an appointment.

So I write down my history.  Relatives health issues, my own health history, my surgeries, and last appointments.  Then we go over it.

I explain to the doctor why I am there.  Sure this hurts, and that is bothersome, but I want to get this particular health issue addressed, and I am tired of doctors just waiving their hand and saying, well, if you just lose weight....

Son of a biscuit.....   She did exactly that.  And proceeded to tell me that the only way to get the weight off is to gradually lower my calorie intake to 1000 calories a day.

Sure that would make me thinner, but it would take away any muscle mass I have and then as soon as I could no longer hold the 1000 calories a day, I would end up twice the size I am now.....  no-thank you.  and Suck it, madam doctor.

I left livid, with a pile of tests I need to have run before I can get referred out.  I scheduled my ear irrigation, mammogram, and ultrasounds all in the same day.  That is how eager I am to just get through this process and get the real problem addressed.

I am praying right now that all these tests come back like last time... that I am in overall great health, in spite of my size 20 pants. I am praying that I can get the help that Jordan is getting that is the main cause of not being able to control my weight... and I am hoping I never have to see that 1000-calorie-a-day doctor again.

Did I just edit my kid's college essays?

Yes, why yes I did.

I guess a homeschool mom's work is never done.

Last year when my son started college, I introduced him to my Grammarly account which I use to help me with editing.  Since he is an intensely private person, I knew he didn't want me reading his papers, but I knew that he (we all) could use a second set of eyes on his work.

This year, I instructed daughter to use the college writing center, as she would gladly let someone else look at her work, but since they are not opened yet, this early into the semester, she sent her papers to me for an extra set of eyes.  Instead of making a correction for her, I used a tool in Microsoft Word that let's me make comments on the side of the page. This way I could point out grammar issues without changing the meaning or intended meaning of anything she wrote.

I really enjoyed being called upon for a little help from my girl, though I realize these requests will become fewer and further apart over time.

I don't know if this is a symptom of helicoptering or not, but at least I didn't re-write or change anything, wanting her to be responsible for her own edits.

I miss your face (update on college kids)

I am talking to my kids daily at this point, so I still feel pretty connected, but as I said to my daughter last night... I miss your face.

It is a line stolen from an online news personality, who at the end of his news updates says "I love your faces", and my daughter and I love the sentiment, so we have made it ours too.

I am going to visit them tomorrow because they forgot stuff (yeah... because they forgot stuff), but mostly to see their faces.

Meanwhile, I am still not crying, but hubby is a wreck!  He has talked the boy, now 19 into taking his road test so we can get him a car... just for our own peace of mind that he's now hitching rides from crazies.

That is all.

Have a nice day :-)

Thoughts on another school shooting

This afternoon, there was another school shooting incident, in the adjoining county from where I live.  Fortunately, the gunman did not succeed at taking any lives, and it appears that his goal was to shoot police officers as they came to protect the children from him.

As it is being told on the news, he somehow got into the school and confronted the school secretary with an AK47 and told her to call Channel 2 news.  (he also walked around the school building and fired shots) He relayed to them that he wanted to film as he killed officers.

I joked with my brother about the shooter being a punk because after they fired a few shots at him he surrendered.  Meanwhile parents were alerted, and had to pick up their kids at the nearby Walmart parking lot.

On Facebook, friend of mine are saying things like "This is why we homeschool".  I definately agree with that sentiment as it definately gave me a sense of relief to know as crazy things happened at the nearby schools over the years, that my kids were home where I could see them.  I wouldn't have to rush over to a school and go through an unfathomable level of bureacracy and procedure to get my kids back.  I'm not saying that the steps of being called one parent at a time, showing ID and then having a photo taken with the child is unnecessary, because it seems like a good procedure, but it's got to be pure torture for both the parent and the child each second that they could not wrap their arms around each other in relief.

While I never experienced anything of this magnitude, when my kids were in school, there was a weather event that caused the school to withhold the children from the parents for a couple of hours.  Just remembering the way I felt that day, I don't know that I could begin to handle the amount of stress I would have felt had there been a school shooting.  God bless those parents who had to go through this.  I can see on the news (which I am currently watching that they are all in good spirits.

Of course, these days are long past for me.  I homeschooled my kids for 10 years, and now they are in college, and I dawns on me that those days of the security of being able to have them close are gone.  There are no guarantees of safety on the college campus just like there ate no guarantees of safety in the public elementary school.  Heck, there aren't even guarantees of safety in the home.. the only difference is that they are typically within an arms reach if they are being homeschooled.