Seven Quick Takes

One

Spring is finally coming! It's late for this area.  We had a warmish day and we all ran outside and planted cabbage.  My friend Nicole (who lives down the street) is also the contact for the Bonnie Plant school program for our homeschool group, and she showed up one morning with the back of her (enormous) truck completely full of plants... for free.  

 And then my husband bought 90 strawberry plants when he thought he was buying 9 (they came in bundles), and we suddenly remembered that a lot of seed potatoes will be coming in the mail, and we haven't planted peas yet either... so I think Andy is going to be building a few more beds soon, too.

Ahem. Spring abundance.

Two

My C-section was supposedly scheduled today.  Not for today (obviously I am still here), but for March 29.  That would be... Good Friday.  My eldest tells me that having a baby on Good Friday will be a good penance.  

Yeah, he's a comedian.  A Catholic comedian.

Three

My current doctor won't schedule a C-section before 39 weeks.  On one hand, this is probably a good thing because it keeps that baby tucked up tight until close to the due date.  On the other hand, the baby has to make it to 39 weeks, and only one of mine (the very first) has.  And he was born 5 days before his due date.  So... I'm a little nervous.  This baby is breech, just like Leo was, and I'm really not sure I want to go into actual labor with a breech baby after four previous C-sections.  

Four

On the other other hand, it sounds as if we will have a new Pope by the time the baby is born! I pinned Jessica's lapbook , but of course we haven't been following along... Until a couple of days ago, our only table was full of random stuff from the china cabinet we moved to put up our new shelves.  We've read a few picture books, and I've been trying to keep up with EWTN and National Catholic Register twitter updates, but other than that, there is a lot of Mom Guilt floating around our house.  Theoretically, I would love for my children to have a tangible keepsake of the election of the new Pope.  In practice, I am succumbing to the cheap and easy availability of iPad educational apps to fulfill my duties as a homeschooling mother.

Five

Speaking of Mom Guilt... Katydid broke a tooth yesterday on a macadamia nut.  Or an apple.  Something she was eating? It isn't entirely clear whether this is still a baby premolar that she never lost, or if it was an actual adult tooth that deteriorated because her mother was putting off the Olympic feat of taking six kids to the dentist. 

Six

Because I can't do a Quick Takes post without talking about food at least once... I've become increasingly frustrated with all the noise out there in diet land.  The bronchitis is gone and I can breathe again, but for the past week or two I've had to deal with the after-effects of steroids and antibiotics.  (A 7 lb weight gain in 2 weeks anyone? I didn't think so.) Anyway, it's like reading nutrition blogs has become a near occasion of sin.  It's always a temptation (at least for me) to keep giving up food to see if it helps.  Oxalates (compounds that occur in large amounts in certain vegetables like spinach) were the latest to hit my radar.  Instead, I made myself a green smoothie. Because I'm a contrarian at heart. Or maybe I'm just cranky.

In any case, I went on a search for possibly saner ways to help curb inflammation, and I found Clean Cuisine. I'm reading their new book (advertised on their web site) right now.  It seems to be a more middle-of-the-road approach, although less meat-and-fat based than, say, Perfect Health Diet. So, basically, I can now put together a few dietary principles for myself:

1. Eat a lot of vegetables and fruits every day.  Like, more than you ever thought it was possible to eat when you still bought Twinkies.

2. Eat more fish and seafood -- at least twice a week.

3. Avoid vegetable oil! (!!!!!!)

4. Do not fear the carbohydrate.  It is not your enemy. 

5. But you should also know and recognize where your carbs come from.

6. Sadly, Twinkies (if they still existed) do not count.

Seven

Anyway, I'm feeling better.  I think I had been using a few too many probiotics to compensate for the antibiotics, and also not eating enough produce.  So I cut down on the probiotics, and I've been making a lot of mid-morning smoothies as snacks. Today's was Papaya-Ginger. I subbed coconut milk for the yogurt and threw in a couple of bananas.  In spite of the coconut milk, the kids thought it was really good.