Ten Things of Thankful – Way Better Week Edition

November 7, 2013 Off By Lisa

How in the world is it Friday already?

Make no mistake, I’m happy to see it. But how did the week fly by so fast?

I’m happy to report that this week has been much better than last – way better, even with the last three days of grade reporting for the end of the marking period and a few other major stressors mixed in there. I am certain that the better week is due in large part to the choice I made to put up a TToT last week and find some positive despite my crankiness and the positive words of encouragement from my little blog posse.

So…thank you.

Please notice that this week’s TToT is EARLY – done on Thursday night already and ready to link up.

This week I am thankful for the following…

1. A great six month checkup with my allergist at which she informed me that I will not need a six month checkup in May…I’ve graduated to a yearly visit. Awesome. My asthma and allergy issues have never been in better shape. I’m well controlled and I can breathe. That’s something.

2. A very positive checkup with my rheumatologist. I recall that at my last checkup six months ago, I was feeling pretty lousy and was pretty sure I was headed for an extended RA flare-up. Thankfully, that flare-up was very short-lived and I’ve felt nothing but better since then. As part of that visit, I may have the next item to be thankful for…

3. A potential solution to what we’ll simply call a ridiculously inconvenient and irritating monthly female issue that far surpasses reasonable monthly female inconvenience and irritation. After a whole lot of observation, I suspect that one of my RA meds is wreaking havoc on my system. RA doc made an alternate suggestion and we’re going to give it a try…just as soon as insurance gets done woofing about it.

4. An apparently real weight loss. A week of doctor appointments means a week of standing on the scale. At the end of the day. Fully clothed. As any woman knows, this weight assessment is far different from the one you get in your house first thing in the morning totally naked and just after having peed to make sure you are as light as a feather. Many many times I have believed that I dropped a couple of pounds only to be told by the doctor scales that I am delusional. But it seems that I have lost twelve pounds for real and my bathroom scale is not broken. Go figure. Guess that explains why my jeans keep falling down.

5. Ibuprofen. As a rule, my RA pain and inflammation is pretty well managed. I try to stay off my pain meds unless I really need them. Tonight, I needed some relief, although – ironically – not for any RA symptoms. Last week I had a routine chiropractor appointment scheduled but somehow had an appointment card and a calendar telling me the appointment was at 5:30 when it was really at 3:30. Whoops. Not sure how that happened. Sooo…rescheduled the appointment for this week but in the meantime, something is not where it belongs in my lower back and so it has my left hip pulled out of whack which  means my left leg also hurts like crazy. By the time I got home tonight I was over that shooting pain so ibuprofen to the rescue.

6. The end of the first marking period grade reporting deadline. This means not only is the final grading finished but there are only three marking periods to go until summer vacation. Not that I’m looking forward to it or anything.

7. Speaking of school, the Fab Hub and I are both thankful that we are about to have our first IST meeting for Kidzilla at her school. As I think I’ve mentioned here before, we live in The House that ADHD Built and Kidzilla is a card-carrying full-benefits member. Knowing this as early as we do is going to benefit Zilla tremendously so we’re pretty pleased to be moving forward in this direction.

8. New light bulbs. The light bulb in our main living room light fixture burned out a while ago. The Fab Hub (finally) replaced it as well as inventoried other fixtures in the house that need some attention and procured nearly all of what we need to do a full round of replacements. Let there be light!

9. Potential progress on the Replace the Horrible Wall-to-Wall Carpet Project. Back at Labor Day, the Fab Hub and almost Brother-In-Law ripped out the carpet in the downstairs family room that our cats had completely befouled and replaced it with a hard surface which the home improvement place dude swears is cat pee proof. (Vinyl planks – who knew? Try and befoul THAT you Rotten Cats!) And then we paused the process because we have not been terribly happy with the labor estimates we’re getting from various places to do laminate flooring on the upper two floors. But the Fab Hub is going to look at samples and talk estimates with a potentially better option on Friday. Here’s hoping we like what we hear.

10. The end of the CSA deliveries for the year. OK, this is maybe thankful and maybe sad. I have completely loved the CSA deliveries we have been getting each week since early June. The food is organic, delicious, and plentiful (to say the least). So on the one hand, I am way sad that this week was our last delivery until they start again in the spring. However. Since school started in September, the pickup time and location has been a bit challenging for us and that part we definitely won’t miss. Perhaps next year we can find a better fit.

Apparently, I did not count correctly when I drafted this. I have one more. Since #10 was sort of a maybe I’m thankful maybe I’m not, I’ll toss in one more…

11. Enough food in the cupboard to handle a non-grocery shopping week. Hate those. With this week’s deadlines, I simply have not had the time or inclination to sit and make menu selections or a grocery list which means the Fab Hub did not do a grocery run other than for the emergency type items. But the happy news is that because my Mother is smart and taught me well, I have enough pantry items on hand to make sure we won’t starve until we manage to carve out a couple of hours to go grocery shopping. Add those pantry staples to the fresh CSA stuff and we’re good. Since we have yet to hit the grocery store, I’ve necessarily dubbed this a Clean Out The Cupboard and Fridge Week which means we will use up the odds and ends and forgotten items just in time for serious fall cooking style and the impending holiday season. And it goes without saying that if you have enough food in the cupboard to even be able to discuss leftovers and forgotten items, you are doing a lot better than many people who go hungry at night. That’s even more serious business to be thankful about.

12. OK, one more. I am thankful that there are still just plain old good and kind people in the world. Did you see this in the news? Most people would be freaked out by somebody – anybody – sleeping on their shoulder. This guy just let it be. I love it.

So that’s kind of the week in a nutshell. I’ve been a little absent this week for these and several other reasons, but I’ll be looking forward to seeing everyone else’s Thankful lists.

Hope your week has been great! What’s new and exciting?

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Ten Things of Thankful