[History: Straight SOTW or HO Level 1]

My kids prefer HO to the SOTW AG and I find it easier to implement. The current level one HO uses SOTW as the main spine, but they will be updating it in the 2018-2019 school year to use a different spine. If you’re thinking that might interest you, you’d want to maybe hold off on making the decision. Pandia Press has their March 25% off sale going on right now, but they usually have one in the fall, too. I like level 2 less mostly because I dislike both spines, not because I dislike what it covers. I think it also is wise to view level 2 as more than a history class. If you didn’t want to use the literature and writing projects, then some of the work can be cut out.

[Well Trained Bodies (Diet & Exercise) - March 2018]

Ran outside today, 4.3 miles. The snow stayed away and it was fairly mild. Plus, no one locked my keys in the van and Girl Scout cookie season is over for us! It’s like the best way to start March.

 

All I want for dinner tonight is pizza. I could order a vegan friendly one for carryout except dd still needs to eat a bland diet for a couple of days at least just to be sure. And it would not be nice to leave her out, but boy does that sound good.

[vegetarian questions and musings]

BK has a veggie burger? I wonder how bad/good it is for you?

It’s the Morningstar Farms Garden Veggie Patty. Vegetarian, not vegan. https://www.morningstarfarms.com/products/morningstar-farms-garden-veggie-patties-tasty-product.html

[If you can't/don't want to join CC (Classical Conversations) for whatever reason(s), which....]

Not Christian so CC foundationally doesn’t appeal to me.

 

If I was looking for social opportunities and my kids were having difficulties getting enough of that with what we do presently, then they’d be going to school. We’re just too many years in, have spent too much time trying to find it within homeschool circles, and consequently I have zero forks left to give for that nonsense.

[Well Trained Bodies (Diet & Exercise) - Feb 2018]

It was in the 60s today and the sunshine lately dried up most of the puddles (really more like small lakes) so I turned the hill intervals on the schedule for tomorrow into a tempo run outside today. It’s supposed to snow tomorrow night, bah. I thought spring was nice today.

[Tofu for beginners - UPDATE - Surprising fan of tofu]

I'm sure this is a dumb question but here it goes.  Is it edible straight out of the package?  I assumed it was a raw product and needed cooking first.

 

 

Yes. No need to cook it. It’s already been cooked. Think of tofu as a soymilk “cheese†in that it’s related to soymilk in a similar way that cheese is related to milk. You can cook it, but you do not have to.

 

I really like super firm tofu for just about everything. This past weekend I mashed it up and made “egg†salad for sandwiches. No cooking necessary.

 

 

I THINK I remember that freezing and thawing gives it a more chewy, meaty texture.

Correct. The Easy Vegan on YouTube has a recipe for tofu bacon where he leverages this texture change. Dh often smokes tofu on the grill is large quantities and then we package it up and freeze it to use for pizza or tortilla soup or really anything that needs smoked tofu. :D The texture definitely changes, but it’s still amazing.

[Is your spouse your best friend? Should they be?]

Yes, my dh is my best friend and is the person who most understands me and all my quirks - often without me having to say anything.

 

That being said, I don’t think there’s any “should†or “should not†about it. I imagine people who do not feel their spouse is their best friend are as annoyed by being told their spouse should be their best friend as I am by the numerous articles published lately that say spouses should not be and marriages are harmed by viewing their partner as such. There are lots of ways to be married. Probably as many different ways as there are successful marriages. Like weight loss, we can talk population level trends, but it’s always going to vary when we talk about individuals.

[I need to do ITBS testing.... help!]

We did ITBS with ds last year (6th grade) with minimal prep. I bought the practice test ITBS puts out and that’s basically it. Ds had some fill in bubbles experience with the NME. He also had taken a computer based standardized test twice way back in 2nd grade when he was in the public school. If your ds has none of that experience, then yeah, I’d do some test prep for sure.

 

I apparently used the older form A, so I’m glad Farrar mentioned Brewer because I’d rather do the more recently normed test. I had planned on doing the ITBS every year in middle school to prep for the inevitable testing he’ll need in order to go to the public school for high school.

 

Like the others have mentioned, the ITBS is not an overly difficult test and shouldn’t be too intimidating to administer or take.

[Looking for a basic 9x13 baking dish....any suggestions?]

I prefer my metal ones from USA Pans. They’re inexpensive and high quality. They’re a family owned company and made in the USA. I used to sell Pampered Chef and own a lot of their stoneware, but I have been replacing them a pan at a time with the USA Pans and then donating the stoneware to Goodwill. If I own one piece of bakeware, it’s a USA Pan.

[Well Trained Bodies (Diet & Exercise) - Feb 2018]

I had planned to running a specific distance yesterday, but we ended up not having enough time so ran for an hour on the treadmill. Going to the gym with dh this morning.

 

There’s a podcast that I listened to this summer. She talked a lot about diet, habits, and weight loss which was interesting. She was fairly reasoned in the whole thing, but she relied heavily on Brian Wansink’s research, books, and the press surrounding his stuff which has tended to go viral. His name stuck in my head because she really struggled with pronouncing it, so when it popped up that he had several studies retracted I was intrigued. Turns out it’s worse than just a few retracted studies.

 

BuzzFeed News has a solid science reporter in case anyone else wants to read more about Wansnik’s statsistics hijinks - https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemlee/brian-wansink-cornell-p-hacking

[Need a good source for non-leather belts]

Josef Lincoln onYouTube is trying this belt - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013FVTERK/ - which he seemed to like. The pros seem to be that it’s durable and you cut it to fit. The cons being the C4 logo cut into the belt and the plastic buckle.

[Well Trained Bodies (Diet & Exercise) - Feb 2018]

I did an interval workout on the bike at the gym on Thursday. I’ve read how great it’s supposed to be for runners given how low impact it is - helping to develop high turnover on your stride and increasing cardiovascular fitness while also being low impact. I’ll give it the low impact part, but I remain dubious at it’s utility. By the end of the rintervals my quads are pretty tired, but that recoves pretty quickly post ride. So, is it doing anything? It’s really hard to say.

 

Friday we ended up not running because there was just too much else going on. If I hadn’t waited for dh I could have gone, but I wanted to go with him and then there was just so much to do. So, unintended rest day.

 

Yesterday, ran for 40 minutes on the treadmill. It seems to go by faster now than before and I’m practicing my dealing with boredom mental muscles. Which is good because sometimes running long distances gets boring and I get tempted to walk just because my brain has decided I’m so tired. Got some strength training in. With the videos online and dh it has become way less intimidating. Starting small helps too.

 

Down 110lbs as of this morning. I’m within 10lbs of a healthy weight BMI, but I obviously still have excess body fat to lose. It is a real shame the whole “targeted†fat loss thing is a scam. That’s a thing I could get behind.

[meal plan]

Homemade seitan is so good. How do you prepare it? Our family likes the seitan piccata in Veganomicon (it's a lemon/caper/olive sauce over the seitan) and we always serve it with mashed potatoes and green beans. But that's not part of a bland diet probably.

Totally not, but it sounds really good! I don’t own Veganomicon, but it’s on my list to buy.

 

When everyone’s digestive systems are functioning normally, we have seitan lots of ways. I like to make cutlet type pieces to put on the grill. Isa has a recipe in her cookbook, “Isa Does It†that grills chickpea seitan and serves it with a warm mustard potato salad and a green veg (maybe asparagus?). The chickpea seitan cutlets also work really well ground up in the food processor for tacos or spaghetti. Actually, “Isa Does It†has several seitan recipes that are very good.

 

Field Roast put out a cookbook late last year that’s pretty much all seitan. I own it, but haven’t tried it out yet. I had planned to, but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

 

We also smoke seitan on the grill after baking/steaming since the simmering never works for me. We make this recipe (http://holdthepigskin.blogspot.com/2014/09/bbq-smoked-vegan-brisket.html).

 

Currently, I’m using this recipe (http://chezrache.com/2011/10/seitan-gyros-recipe/) altered a bit to drop the lemon zest and rosemary and add in poultry seasoning. The original recipe is meant for gyros and they were fantastic both as a sandwich and as part of a grain bowl. I think this week we’ll simplify the recipe further so it’s a little more plain, slice the seitan, and heat up in a non-stick skillet. I have some veg broth that I’ll maybe thicken up a bit as a gravy for those of us who are healthy.

 

I had been planning on using a Chicago Diner recipe for a corned beef style seitan for reubens next month, but now it kind of depends on how long the bland diet thing had to last. And of course there’s seitan as sausages, brats, holiday roasts, and pepperoni. :D

[meal plan]

I’m afraid mine may not be very helpful. We have to stick with a bland diet here so we’re having lots of rice and potatoes.

 

Tonight is a stir fry with tofu on white rice and well cooked veg, no oil added. I was going to wing some kind of peanut sauce, but without the no-no ingredients it will probably end up smooth peanut butter thinned out with warm water and add in some soy sauce. And some ginger maybe? Or a pinch of asafoetida? It’s a work in progress.

 

I’ve also got a fennel risotto with peas, arborio vegetable soup, seitan (homemade) and mashed potatoes with green beans, pancakes, pumpkin soup, and tofu “egg†salad on white bread with a yogurt based dressing to bind it and oil free baked potato wedges with peas.

 

All of my favorite vegetables are out and the variety is down so the upside is that this is going to be easy on my grocery budget! :)

[Brainstorm with me about the GI bug that will not go away]

Have they checked her stool?

Yup. The enteric panel they used screens for Campylobacter species, Plesiomonas shigelloides, Salmonella species, Vibrio species, V. cholerae, Yersinia species, enteroaggregative E. coli, enteropathogenic E. coli, enterotoxigenic E. coli, Shiga toxin producing E. coli, E. coli O157, Shigella/Enteroinvasive E. coli, Cryptosporidium species, Cyclospora cayetanensis, Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia, Adenovirus F 40/41, Astrovirus, Norovirus, Rotavirus and Sapovirus. All of them came back as “not detected.â€

 

They did a celiac antibody panel that came back negative.

 

I'd temporarily stop all raw fruit and veg. Everything must be lightly steamed.

 

Add good probiotic capsules.

 

 

I think you should consider parasitic infestation (any dog of mine with symptoms like this would have been dewormed a couple times already - sorry I don't mean that in a rude way but that constellation of symptoms to me is suggestive of parasites)

 

celiac disease can present like this - you could do a food trial of that ...

Aside from the iceberg lettuce on her sandwich last night she has had no raw veg. She’d had very few veg until yesterday and before yesterday they were all well cooked and soft (like cooked veg in soup sort of thing). The only raw fruit she’s had is bananas.

 

I’ve got her on a probitotic and I’ve made some soy yogurt with the vegan starter from Cultures for Health. Do you have suggestions on a good vegan probiotic? She can swallow some smaller capsules, but nothing big and she’s not particularly adept so maybe chewable? I’ve got a probiotic that she has been taking, but whether or not it’s good is questionable.

 

One of my informants has shared that dd ate wasabi peas last night at the Scout meeting. I guess I’ll blame this morning on that as that’s the opposite of bland. *sigh* It still doesn’t explain why it’s taking so long for her digestive system to return to normal, however.

 

I really do appreciate all the suggestions and help in brainstorming this. Dh has jokingly suggested putting canned pumpkin in her food because it works so well for the dog. I am only half tempted to try that except she’s anti-sweet potato and squash on a normal day.

[Brainstorm with me about the GI bug that will not go away]

They ordered blood work (CBC w/differential, celiac screen, and urinalysis). Everything came back normal and the only suggestion they have is to keep her on a bland diet.

 

Dd went to a Girl Scout meeting last night. She had a turkey sandwich there (bread, no cheese, no condiments, some iceberg lettuce) which we had agreed might be an ok choice as it seemed to match up with foods mentioned on the lists I found online for what constitutes a “bland diet.†The doctor’s office has not quantified what they mean by it, so I was going off the list on MedlinePlus. I figured the iceberg lettuce would be mild enough given the small quantity. I did not stay for the meeting, but was apparently not forceful enough in telling her not to eat the other foods. The main meeting was an international foods taste test. She had some baked goods because she thought they’d be ok. She was sick again this morning.

 

Excepting the vomiting, I’d suspect IBS or IBD. If things go as they have in the past, this will be the only time she’ll throw up and the diarrhea is the main thing that sticks around - bland diet or no. Is there a virus that could be causing this that isn’t covered under the enteric panel? Is it just an irritated digestive system post virus? Our next step would be a ped GI doc according to her primary care physician. I’d like to see if I can get her to stick with a bland diet for a full week (after she graduates from BRAT) before we go that route.

[what the frack....re weather]

Same here. Except we got the warmer weather earlier. We had a bunch of snow before the warm weather. Then the warm weather which melted the snow. Then it poured rain for a couple of days. We had a bunch of flooding and roads closed due to high water. Then it got cold and a bunch of that froze. My yard has been snow covered, masquerading as a lake, and now covered in ice.

 

Somehow, even though it seems obvious that car engines and water do not mix, people seem to think driving across the flooded roadway is a good idea. Sure, it might work for bigger cars maybe, but those little ones?

[Man passed out on the side of the road this morning - when is it ok to intervene?]

My dh is an LEO, I would have called. You have no idea what he has going on with him and I wouldn’t trust in his ability to determine that on his own given that he was based upin appearances passed out.

 

Here, they would have dispatched an officer and the ambulance mostly because the officer is likely to get there first and his status is unknown. He could have had low blood sugar. He could have been drunk. He could have taken some kind of drug. He could have had a medical issue that needed attention. First responders would have figured it out and at least made sure he was safe.

[Well Trained Bodies (Diet & Exercise) - Feb 2018]

Ran on the treadmill yesterday with some strength training. I need to do something today, but haven’t settled on just what yet. Either the bike for some cross training or hill intervals on the treadmill.

 

Since someone at my house has had some sort of GI upset since the 8th, food here has rested solidly in the bland solids department which I am now sick of. I have seen multiple large salads on the internet and TV which has felt like torture. I have to be extra cautious with those who appear back to their normal selves because there have been reoccurrences if the child returned to normal eating in less than a week after the first appearance of symptoms. I miss our usual dinners. I miss flavor. I miss large amounts of vegetables. I’ll have to figure this out for next week. Maybe I can do the component approach. Also, am really hoping the lab work for dd illuminates something for her or that the doctor has some suggestions on what we can do. It has been the longest for her.

 

Also, stress is up this month, moreso than the usual February stress.

[Florida student Demostration]

(I haven't yet worked out if Paul Ryan has a right to block ME, LOL. My position is, I have a right to petition the Speaker of the House whether I live in Wisconsin or not. But I do not believe that case has yet been tried. Happily, neither has he.)

He’s a closed door, big donor, invite only kinda guy so I think he’s the type who just ignores everyone who doesn’t fit in with that group and doesn’t agree with him. I doubt he’ll block you, fwiw.

[Narcissist/estranged mother left a message on my machine]

Oh, gee, how magnanimous of her. Maybe she’s run out of entertainment options and is bored. In other words, thank goodness for voicemail!

[Well Trained Bodies (Diet & Exercise) - Feb 2018]

in case you wondered why....because I have a hard time reaching it and I find that very embarrassing...LOL

 

really part of the reason I am not doing weights is because I feel unsure and embarrassed about it...which I know is stupid, but just being honest!

I see people of all types on the machines at PF where I am so I’m fairly confident that you won’t look even the slightest bit out of place. Do you have a big bald guy to go with you? I find that helps me. :p My motto is, when it doubt, take the bald guy. Or a friend? A teenager? Someone you can stand next to and take up space with?

 

This YouTube channel has videos showing how all the machines a PF work, how you can adjust them, etc - https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCnA2IGSh8jOPPiz20oamKzA

 

They’re really short videos and not at all encyclopedic, but maybe it might help? At my PF, the machines in the circuit area look different than the ones in the main area. The ones in the video look more like the ones in the main area at my PF.

[Two questions for the vegans here.]

My tofu scramble is close to hornblowers. I’ve only made a few different ones, but my favorite is from “Vegan with a Vengence†by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I’m fairly certain it’s on Isa’s website and I’ve never found it to be bitter. I prefer my tofu scramble with extra firm sprouted tofu. Before I heard about black salt, we never added it and I liked it just fine then. We add black salt now, but if I was out, I’d still like ot the same. She’s got a french toast recipe too. No chia seeds. Plus, her recipes are “normal†and not overly obsessed with “healthy†so that fits my taste well. Sometimes the internet vegans get s focused on “healthy†that the recipes are just weird.

 

I don’t wear make up so I can’t help there.

[Gut check - is this okay?]

I don’t live in a culdesac, but I do live in the city neighborhood with plenty of sidewalks. I have graduated “territories†depending on the age of the child, their level of maturity, and how many/what kind of streets they’d need to cross. Dd2 who is 8 can go outside of her territory if her 7th grade brother is with her because I know she’ll listen to him. She won’t listen to the 10yo so she can’t go with that sibling. The 10yo has a wider area than the 8yo and can go with her brother within a certain area, but cannot cross over a busier street with him. I’ll probably reevaluate that this summer. Usually that means I walk with the dog and have them lead me along the boundaries while I watch to see how they handle crossing and tell me what they would do.

 

Like you, ktgrok, I figured they needed to have practice along the way, starting small, and working the way up. I was probably too conservative with my oldest, but we’ve made strides since then.

[Well Trained Bodies (Diet & Exercise) - Feb 2018]

I'm so jealous of the date, seriously. I told dh about one of my friend's husband joining her at the gym for V-Day, he just looked at me (to be fair he has a lot going on) and we both want to see Black Panther too!

Lol, well, he didn’t say no outright so that could be a slightly hopeful time. Maybed sometime down the road he’ll be game! Dh is by far my favorite running/training buddy because he understands my need for silent, paralell togetherness. While also being my buffer from the other people. I have been harassed with running and creepy guys tend to want to run on the treadmill right next to mine when I go by myself, but no one ever does it when dh is with.

 

He’s not as available as I might like and he’s a faster runner than me so I’m jealous of anyone who has someone who is both at their level and more regularly available. He doesn’t complain at running my slower pace, but he probably doesn’t run fast enough and I’m more likely to run faster than I should.

 

Sparkly - my PF has the 30 minute circuit and it seems like no one ever uses it so if yours id anything like mine, it will be free and open while the rest of the weight area is hopping.

 

I ran 5 miles on the treadmill on Sunday. I checked the weather this morning and there was nothing on the radar and Accuweather said there would be no rain for 120 minutes. Since ot was in the 40s, I decided to get my run in outside and add in voting in today’s primary in the middle. Heh, it started raining 10 minutes in. I’m stubborn so I kept going, voted, and then it poured when I left from voting and all the way home. 39 minutes of running excluding the stop light and voting. I’ll take my DGAF runner badge now.

 

Dd get sick again Sunday afternoon and yesterday morning. Frustratingly, it appears she has no GI virus given the test results, but no clear reason why it keeps popping back up. Silver lining being she’s not contagious.