My brother dealt with this last summer when he was desperate to get his passport in time for his language immersion program in Central America by booking a bus ticket from San Diego to Tijawana so he could truthfully say, “I have a ticket booked to travel to Mexico in ten days.” and could then get an emergency appointment.

I got so fed up with goatheads, I got this: https://a.co/d/hOJ8LZH It makes a pretty good magic wand.

I have never heard that term before, but maybe experienced it with my third. I was making such slow progress and the doctor was just checking me and saying “barely nine” when a contraction came and his heart rate dropped—and suddenly everything went into high gear, I was pushing and he was coming right that second. The cord had tightened around his neck with that contraction, but his head was born in minutes and the doctor got the cord over his head before he came the rest of the way. She said my body knew he was in danger so it got him out. I am so glad to hear you are feeling well, though! My bruising and tearing were terrible with that sudden birth.

In this situation, no. But I do think that questions like this become much more complicated when the adoptee is reaching out seeking connection to their bio family.

We are in tax limbo here. They restructured the tax classification of dh’s firm last year, and he also became a junior partner last year. Apparently this means that he is both an employee with a W-2 and a part-owner who has to wait until the business’s taxes have been submitted to receive a new form we need to file. I always file our taxes right away, but we have to wait until late March or early April for that form, and some answers. We actually received two W-2s; they gave us an amended one that, unlike the first and all pay stubs last year, shows the cost of our insurance premiums as income. They said, “don’t worry, you can deduct it”, but if the deduction isn’t above-the-line, our kids are going to lose their secondary insurance through the state, as it’s based on AGI. It’s a difference of probably $14K+ for us. They might possibly lose it retroactively, as the new W-2 is showing that as income back to January of last year, so it’s possible they might come after us for repayment. The payroll people at work are saying they think it is deducted above-the-line, but we need to talk to the tax guy, who is unavailable until after the business taxes are completed in March. So after stressing out about it for a couple weeks, I am doing my best to just let it go for now. If the worst result comes, we will start the process to appeal the state insurance loss for ds8 based on his cancer diagnosis, and we will have a very tight year, but we’ll get through it.

Oh, silly me. I just assumed it was newer because I never heard of it before five years ago. I wonder why no OB ever mentioned it to me when I was younger and looking for better options?

Maybe because it’s newer, so not all OBs do them? My regular OB has never done the arm implant, after talking over all the options and my past experiences she recommended it to me, but then had to refer me to someone else to get it.

I had a copper IUD because I didn’t want something hormonal after the crazy emotional issues I had on the pill. It worked fine without issues for several years until it became embedded in my uterine wall, which was very painful. Having it removed after it was embedded was extremely painful. After some years of using natural family planning methods and a surprise baby, I nervously decided to give the arm insert a try. The doctor said the emotional swings I experienced on the pill were less likely because it is a steady rate of release instead of the hormone levels varying through the day when taking the pill, and it has proved to be way better. I would definitely recommend an arm insert over an IUD as it works very similarly without the danger of becoming embedded and with less chance of causing an ectopic pregnancy. ETA: The copper iud did make my periods a bit heavier. Getting it in failed the first time and was very painful both then and on the second try. After one period while my body was adjusting to the arm insert, I haven’t had any periods since then.

Dh finally got reimbursed for a big work trip from last August, after he went in and informed them he would be refusing all out-of-county clients from now on until he started actually receiving the promised-but-eternally-delayed reimbursements. That was the biggest one at over $700, but he’s taken several other work trips since then that will hopefully also come through soon. I tried using the leftover ricotta whey instead of water to make broth from some chicken carcasses in the crock pot and it was so good! I made a gallon of yogurt, and strained some of it into Greek yogurt. I bought 40 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts for $59 and separated them out into bags and froze them. I have been trying to use up perishable items and stuff that is just taking up space in the pantry before we go on our trip. I had three boxes of dehydrated hash browns that my mil gave us years ago that I turned into Mexican hash brown haystacks with leftover chorizo for dinner. I was pretty pleased with that one. The plan for tonight is roasted spaghetti squash with leftover bolognaise sauce and homemade mozzarella cheese.

It turned out very well, but not very much (I spilled some as I was pouring it in to strain. The recipe said it should yield a cup and a half and I got about a cup.) In the future I’ll probably just make mozzarella and ricotta together one after the other.

I found shelf stable whipping cream at the bakery outlet store I buy bread from! Great for emergency preparation, and also it’s a couple dollars cheaper per quart than whipping cream from the grocery store. I’m especially excited to find this now since I am getting in to cheese making. I’m trying making ricotta from whey today. We’ll see how it goes.

I have been really working on keeping the our food costs down. We are going on a big trip in a few weeks and I want to come in under budget on groceries for the month to have some extra travel funds. I’ve been working out the actual cost per meal when possible to help me. Some meals are more or less frugal than I thought. Cajun sweet potato bowls came out to more than I had realized. One of our family favorites, madras lentils and naan, is only $6.25 to feed our family of seven. I tried my hand at making cheese today. I used reconstituted powdered milk plus a bit of leftover cream I had after using it in a couple recipes this week. I was very surprised at the quality of the result, considering it was made from powdered milk. It was a fresh mozzarella and turned out very nice, I’d say about the same quality as the nicer stuff at our grocery store.

Tasting History Astrum Primitive Technology Cracking the Cryptic

My son’s judo club had used gis for sale for half price that other students had grown out of. The kids prefer them, as they have softened up from being through the wash multiple times. Some kids who had to get new ones were complaining about how stiff they were.

I love Call the Midwife! I love the history from such a personal perspective. I actually rewatched a few seasons during my last childbirth (it was a long labor).

4.1 miles. 27.0 to go in January.

4.7 miles today. 31.1 to go this month.

I've been noticing for the last several months that the 5 dozen pack medium eggs I normally buy have seemed smaller on average than they used to, too. I assume they must still fit within the parameters to be considered medium, but maybe the company used to put eggs that were close to the line in the lower size-category, and now they are putting them in the higher if they strictly can?

5.15 miles today. 35.8 miles to go this month.

We were doing better here than most places, and were still able to get the large 5 dozen packs at about $3 per dozen. Now those are gone from the store with no place left open for them, and the cheapest eggs to be found are $5.28 per dozen. We’re still working our way through some eggs I found on a great sale last month, but once those are done we might just not be eating eggs anymore until something changes.

Or a food that has been prepared a different way than she has had previously. My brother is extremely allergic to fresh pineapple. Canned or grilled is fine (heating destroys the enzyme he reacts to).

Also if a laundry detergent or some product like that changed its recipe, she could have a reaction to something without it being a new product.

4.7 miles today. 40.95 to go this month.

I ran 5.35 miles, and managed it without any breaks to walk in the middle this time. 45.65 miles to go this month. Last night I pushed the baby around Walmart 5 times for half an hour during ds10’s judo practice as it was the only time I could get in any exercise and then it was too cold to go out with the baby. I guess today’s exercise can make up for yesterday’s sorry effort. I really need to get on the blog goals. I’ve only written about 3/4 of one item.

The stomach bug was thankfully short-lived. I managed a 2 mile walk yesterday evening and ran 4 miles today pushing the 13 month old in the double stroller, since the timing isn’t going to work today to have someone watch him so I could exercise. 51 more miles to go this month. And I was nearly at my weight goal for the week this morning, .2 lbs away.