My Divas

Here's what I thought of the DivaCup:

Pros:

Don't have to buy tampons or pads. Better for the environment and your pocketbook. There's just a one-time cost and it has gone down in recent years (I got mine for about $20--a few years ago it was closer to $35-40). It's supposed to last for 10 years or more.

You get to be well-acquainted with your body and your cycle. Most of us aren't really familiar with our menstrual flow; we don't necessarily need to be, I suppose. Although if you had a medical condition or were curious, the DivaCup is a great way to get familiar with it.

No more tampons and pads floating around your purse. Just your DivaCup. That's it. No more running out at the office, in the middle of the night, etc. Another little bonus: if you can tell you are about to start, you can insert it fairly early. You don't have to wait until you are flowing to insert it (like with a tampon).

Virtually no risk of toxic shock. Which means you can wear it all day on the last few days of your period when your flow isn't as heavy or all night and not worry about it.

Lots of other things. All the things you can do with a tampon (swim, exercise, etc.), you can do with this. Haven't had a chance to experience foreign travel or camping with it, but I've heard it works out pretty well.

Cons:

Messy. Your fingers are going to get messy. Most of us wash our hands after using the restroom anyway, but in this case, you're probably going to want to wash your hands before, too. Which means...

Dealing with this in public restrooms sucks. You just touched the door handle and now you are going to touch yourself? Mmmm, yuck. And since you are not in the comfort of your own home and most restroom stalls don't have a sink in which to rinse out the cup, you kind of have to dump it and wipe it as much as possible with toilet paper and then reinsert it. Doing this once or twice is not really a big deal, but an all day shopping trip or something during the first few days of your period might be really un-fun.

Personally...I seem to have a heavier flow than most DivaCup users...I'm emptying and rinsing more frequently than many people (according to internet forums) seem to need to in the first few days. I also need to use liners almost always--I didn't usually need to when I was using tampons, and I could go a bit longer between tampon changes.

It definitely takes a little time to figure out how exactly to insert and remove the DivaCup. There are lots of little tips online that may help (how to fold it, how to pinch it while removing, etc.).

I'll probably keep using it. I'm used to it now and it's pretty convenient. Plus, the frugal environmentalist in me likes it a lot. :)

Hope that helps, gals!

Soon

I'll be writing a review of the DivaCup...soon!

Love to my gals.

What Do You Think?

I am wondering about this: What would be the most important verses for a person seeking God after the rapture? I'm looking for about 10-12, easy-to-memorize verses. Anyone?

We keep trying to find ways to survive, finding out we owe over $5,000.00 in taxes didn't help any though. I have canceled all of our insurance except our home owners and our life insurance and of course the insurance on the vehicles that is required by law. Today I canceled everything on our satellite tv plan down to the base package. We have to keep the Disney channels for Emily :)

Our internet business is slower than it has ever been except for a brief period after 911. When 911 happened it was as if someone had flipped a switch. Up until then we had a pretty steady flow of orders then suddenly nothing for several months.

The shop is still doing okay but it alone isn't enough to keep us above water.

I keep hoping and believing that things will start picking up, once tax season is over and summer gets closer (the music business is traditionally busier during the summer tour season)

It is really hard for me, mentally, to see our savings dwindling.

A Whole New Life

Well, this week I start a new thing. I am unemployed starting April 1. I feel like God is wanting me to write. For the time I have off, or until I absolutely have to take a job, no matter what it pays, I am supposed to write. I have four kids' curriculum projects; my book to my family; my Mercy blog and my personal blog. Pray for me, will you? I'd like to somehow earn some money writing, editing, etc. Thanks, ladies.

I guess I'm not that interested in losing weight. I'm walking/jogging almost every day when the weather cooperates and eating as I please. The scale hasn't budge one way or another. I'm not pushing myself to do anything more right now.

One thing I've noticed is my aerobic tolerance is so much less than it ever has been. I know that has to do with being pregnant and not working out for quite a while, but it's really deteriorated. Walking up the hill by my house is a true task and it's a hill I used to run up in my teens. I think something my surgeon told me might be the cause. He said that being pregnant and all of the stress that adds to the heart along with the stress of the ASD caused me to go into acute heart failure. That would be the reason the first cardiologist thought I needed a heart transplant. Luckily for me my heart was able to recover and no transplant was needed, but I'm wondering if the damage that currently exists is in some part due to all the added stress of pregnancy. Even at 8 months pregnant I could walk up this hill without much of a problem. Now I huff and puff my way up and my lungs feel like they are on fire! I'm very interested to see how things will feel after the surgery.

Oh, and these stretch marks. They suck!

Oprah on Thursday was about shopping (for groceries)wisely, not buying prepackaged foods, buying what you need and not being wasteful, about cooking for your family..

For some reason I am always totally surprised at the number of women who don't know this???

I guess I am just old school but it still surprises me that there are so many young women who can't and don't cook. Both of my married sons have wives that don't cook. My sons do.

There was one woman on Oprah recently with two older teen boys and she admitted that they had not sat down at the dinner table together in TWO years! To me that is just unbelievable.

No wonder there is so much talk on television about bringing back the family dinner...

The no sugar thing didn't work. I lost 2lbs in two weeks which is frustrating and really not worth all that effort. David's sister has convinced me to try the Zone diet. She's been on it for as long as I've known her and even used it to lose baby weight from both of her pregnancies. I was supposed to start it on Monday, but faltered a little. Periods and diets don't seem to mix very well.

It's almost time for the 2009 Championship!

This is one of my most favorite global competitions. It's completely frivolous yet it brings people together from many generations. It also allows people to be comfortable with non-conformity.

Now, if only they'd have a 'Best Granny Whiskers' competition.... I'd take a run at it. Dye my 17 whiskers brilliant aqua and go as best abstract beard.

Have a wonderful day, Phenomenal Women!

Dilema

I'm trying to decide....

Mark's life insurance policy is with AIG. We have been with them for years, ten or more years. This policy is a return-of-premiums policy and under 5 years old, so, if I cancel it now we will lose everything we have paid in on it. But, I keep wondering if it is just stupid to keep paying it. The government says it won't let AIG fail, but who the hell trusts anything "they" say? AIG says that the insurance part of the company is still okay... again, how can you trust what they say?

Will they fail? What in the world would I do if something happened to Mark and his insurance didn't pay off????

Life's a gamble and I don't know which way to bet.

Hard Currency for Hard Times

Ok, I've actually bought some silver.

I have 3 ounces in the house, and 13 more on the way. All from e-bay. Some are in 1 troy ounce coins, and 8 oz are in mixed pre 1964 us coins.

I have set up a budget about how much I am going to spend each pay period on hard currency. If we need it, then I'll feel great because we had it when times were tough. If we never do, then great, my nephew will get it one day.

But, the more I see the market slide and watch our government print useless bills to pay debt, the more I think that this is going to be an important component of our security and supply.

Oh, I found this wonderful explanation of the credit crisis.

Cutting out sugar has almost become a habit now. I'm not craving it as badly as I was and I don't feel tired, other than the tired I feel from being sick. I did have Starbucks yesterday. It's the first one I've had in long time. It didn't taste quite as good as I remember. Luckily it didn't send me back into sugar mode.

I haven't been working out because I've been sick, but I'm looking forward to some time on the treadmill tomorrow.

Did anyone else watch Oprah yesterday? I was shocked! It was about the effects of the recession on America. Lisa Ling was doing a report from Sacramento about the tent cities popping up there and not only there but they said they are popping up in most large cities.

I had no idea.

Almost all of the people they interviewed that have been hit hard by the recession said the same thing over and over....

They had not spent wisely. They had lived beyond their means. They had not saved anything.

And, what would they do differently? Save, save, save and not spend, spend, spend.

More about Money and Financial Stuff

If you've been to my blog and watched the 'Financiall 9/11' video then you'll know that my alert level on the financial state of the US has ratcheted up significantly. Now I'm deciding what to do about it personally.

I have started buying hard currency (silver coins - gold will follow as I can afford it), and I had already changed over my 401K about 5 months ago to the super secure Treasury bills fund.

Then I got this article

http://www.hoisingtonmgt.com/pdf/HIM2008Q4NP.pdf

It's kind of a chewy read, I felt like I wanted a vitamin and a latte first. But it really spells out how and why things may or may not work like the government is hoping it will.

The other things I'm thinking about and planning for kind of make me feel like a survivalist whack-job so I'll save those for later.

Becky and I are having a conversation in the comments of my last post regarding the labeling of our struggle with food/eating. In thinking about the conversation and searching for information, I came across some interesting articles that I want to share. I'm interested in your thoughts. For my entire life food has either been my friend or my enemy depending on the day of week, time of month, or phase of the moon. I've always looked at this struggle one dimensionally realizing on some level that there were other factors involved but never pointing the finger at them. Just now, in a single thought, food became neutral ground. Food is only the ammunition I use against myself. I'm still trying to sort this all out. I'm not sure my thoughts make sense.
Anyway, here are the links.


http://www.womentowomen.com/nutritionandweightloss/emotionaleating.aspx

http://www.womentowomen.com/nutritionandweightloss/splenda.aspx

I'm really interested in continuing this conversation.

I'd love for this to be the post where I tell you how amazingly easy it is to do without sugar. I'd love to tell you that in the battle between Sandra and cupcake Sandra won, but it wouldn't be true. I gave in to temptation today and had a cupcake. Blasted cupcake! I didn't even enjoy it if that makes up for it. I did wrestle with myself for an hour before giving in. What I found is that I wanted the texture of the cupcake not the sweetness of it. I'm not sure there is a substitute for cake/brownie like texture that doesn't involve sugar. I'm going to try an apple sauce cake and she if that does the trick.
I did skip on pasta for dinner. I almost just said screw it and loaded it on my plate, but in the end sanity won. I loaded up on sweet peas and zucchini instead.

I have a friend that's been on a no sugar diet for three years now. I guess it's a lifestyle change after that long. She also uses over eaters anonymous, which is based on AA, to help her through it. I went to a meeting with her once, but thought it wasn't anything I needed, but I'm changing my mind. When I think of my relationship to food I can see pretty clearly that it's very similar to what any addict must feel. The ease of giving in to temptation. The way I tell myself just one more won't hurt anything. It's even more tricky because my battle is food and I have to eat. There is just no way around it. What I realized today after eating the cupcake is that in the past once I give in to that sort of temptation I just give up on myself. I'm not giving up this time. I may slip a million more times, but you'll still find me trudging up that hill.

Learning to live without, well with LESS, salt....

normally when I grab a piece of celery, or a cherry tomato, or just about any other thing I eat I also grab the salt shaker. I've said in the past that if the little thin extra salty pretzels had any kind of nutrient value I would live on them. I salt everything.

Rethinking the way you eat sounds like a really hard thing to do but I'm finding it is not really all that hard once you just actually do it.

I can not eat pretzels (and live)
I can pop a cherry tomato in my mouth without salting it first.
I can eat a stalk of celery plain with nothing whatsoever on it.
I can sit down and eat a meal without salting all my food.

And am finding very quickly that it doesn't make all that much difference. I still like the taste of the food.

Who Knew?????

It's the end of day three and I'm tired, but I feel like this is doable! The food is getting easier. I picked up some raw almonds and chick peas today. I'm going to try Becky's tip of roasting them. I'm also going to make some humus. I'm back and forth on the idea of using sugar free items. I have sugar free Jello in the fridge, but that's it. What do you think? I had natural peanut butter and celery today and am amazed at how full it made me feel! I'm not a huge celery fan, but I can eat it. :)

Levi found the coolest website the other day ... organicfacts.net.. it has tons of food facts. We have been reading about the benefits of the super foods, you just can hardly believe the benefits of some foods... like celery. I knew it was good for lowering blood pressure but I had no idea it was SO good for so many other things.

check it out

Yesterday was tough. I had no sugar at all. I drank my coffee with only half and half. I skipped on the tortilla when we had fajitas for dinner. I had a two egg white one whole egg omelet with two slices of turkey bacon in half a whole wheat pita for breakfast. Lunch was a grilled chicken salad with two tablespoons of light sugar free Asian dressing. I had half a banana with sugar free cherry jello for a snack. The banana probably has more sugar than I need, but I'm not going to beat myself up over that.
There were far to many temptations! David and Erin had candy from V-Day left over which seemed to be everywhere. The brownies I made a few days ago were still on the cabinet. And to top it all off, it was my step-moms birthday and the only thing she asked for was some of my cranberry apple bread! So, I made her some. If I can avoid all of those things, I know I can do this.
I've had the same breakfast today and made it over to my dads house to workout on the treadmill. I'm going again this evening.