Epicurean
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Posts posted by Epicurean
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When you guys say, "manual, high pressure," do you mean you put it on the Normal setting or go higher? The user manual said Normal should be fine for most things, so I'm a little confused.
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Once I was the bad house guest. Our host had a couple of young kids and was always running behind on laundry. I had insomnia and couldn't sleep, and in my crazed state (can I use that excuse? please?) I decided it would be a really kind thing if I did her laundry for her. All of it. There were at least three loads, with their underwear and all that. At the time, I thought of it as a Christmas-elf sort of thing to do, for my friend to wake up to magically folded clothes. When she was tight-lipped and didn't say anything about it the next morning, I realized how intrusive and thoughtless I had been (and how it might appear judgmental). I apologized, and she graciously accepted my apology. But I still cringe over it.
We had a friend over a few years ago, and I remember walking into the living room to find all the cushions off the couches and chairs and the guy peering into our couch. "Look!" he said, "See what I found!" I don't know if words have ever filled me with so much dread as those (there could be all sorts of awful things I missed cleaning in there). It turns out that he was hunting for change, and he had found a whole $1.75. He proceeded to check in and under every piece of furniture, and gleefully pocketed what he found like he was a treasure hunter. The weird thing is, he made a decent amount of money, so it wasn't like he needed it.
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Our first recipe we tried was Kalua Pork and Cabbage: http://nomnompaleo.com/post/111934821818/pressure-cooker-kalua-pig
The pork was a little bland (maybe I underestimated the amount of salt needed?), but with the addition of BBQ sauce or (for the low carbers) guacamole, it was great. We like our cabbage with butter, so when the cabbage was done cooking, I added a melted stick of butter before serving. Yum.
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If the increase was on Amazon that usually means they're about to lower it. That is what happened with the 7 in 1 Instant Pot. Ive had it on my wish list for months and the price had stayed $119 the entire time. Last night it was marked $129. This morning it is a deal of the day at 69.
I hope so! But it was a coupon that you clicked to apply that's no longer there, so I worry it might be a manufacturer thing. We shall see.
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I've been waiting to buy a Rock n Play Sleeper because I hoped it would go on sale for Black Friday, and what do you know, the price actually increased by $10 since yesterday. Just my luck!
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I just read How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind by the author of the blog A Slob Comes Clean. I really like it as an alternative to Konmari. https://www.amazon.com/Manage-Your-Home-Without-Losing/dp/0718079957
I've only been following it for about two weeks, so it's too early to say whether it's a proven method long term, but so far the results have been drastic for me. The combination of a few simple non-negotiable daily tasks combined with systematic decluttering have been working well.
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I just had a 20 week ultrasound a while ago. They found a soft marker for Downs. A spot on the heart, I think it's called IEF. My DNA results put me at low risk (1 in 10k vs 1 in 434 for my age group) so they aren't that worried. They've scheduled a second ultrasound at 28 weeks to see if it disappears, which they usually do. It's hard not to worry, though, so I'm right there with you.
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For me, "being green" is too closely tied to my hoarding tendencies. "Oh, we can reuse this...someday," that leads to clutter, or agonizing over how not to use extra containers or bags. It comes down to a choice...do I try to save the planet or save my sanity?
There are some things we do to cut down on waste:
- recycle
- compost
- use reusable bags
- cloth diapers
- Divacup
- water filter instead of bottled water
But to be honest, I feel like I NEED conveniences like Clorox wipes and paper towels and an electric clothes dryer. My house is a mess as it is, and those things are worth their weight in gold because the place would be a disaster otherwise.
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I'm thinking of getting all the grandparents a calendar with 365 photos of our family: https://www.socialprintstudio.com/calendar/
We only do stockings, plus we're taking a trip to Disney this year two weeks prior, so Christmas will be pretty low key.
3 yo: cloth butterfly dress up wings, lacing cards, dazzler ribbon, doll, hand puppets, glow bracelets.
DH: desk catapult, trilobite fossil, card game of some kind, scratch lottery tickets.
Me: Scratch lottery tickets, dark chocolate, not sure what else.-
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I ordered medicine to increase my breastmilk supply online from Vanuatu. The site only gives a max of 90 day supply. Aside from it being a lot more expensive than if I'd been able to drive to Canada, where it's OTC and cheap (I live no where close to Canada), the experience was fine. I'll probably order again before this baby is born (takes a while to travel halfway across the world) so that I can nip at supply issues in the bud.
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A subscription to Tinker Crate! http://www.kiwicrate.com/
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The only reason I can think of for Bill's posts on this thread is that his high horse is so high that the atmosphere is thinner up there where he sits.
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Season 3 doesn't come out until January! :(
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What do you think of Broadchurch for young teens? My dds are 15 and 13. I know the basic storyline of the first season. We are all Doctor Who fans, so David Tennant is a big draw... We are looking for a new series after finishing Downton, and are anxiously waiting for Class to premiere on BBC America. I do have Call the Midwife in our queue but no one else here is excited about that one....
That's really dependent on your family. It deals with the question of pedophilia (though never graphically) and season 2 has partial nudity / sex scenes. I'd call it pg-13. I think for teens it's fine--there's a lot of good discussion to be had about bad things happening even in idyllic small towns, and how you can't just magically "sense" or anticipate the people who do horrible things. But if you don't think your teens are ready for mature content, it wouldn't be a good fit.
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OK so you believe that people who prefer to be moderate are wrong?
What does that actually mean though? One man's moderate is another man's extreme or rigid. It's a moving goalpost that's totally dependent on the person.
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My fil is a dentist. As someone else mentioned, carbs are a big factor. Things like bread and pretzels really stick to the gums and teeth. I could tell a huge difference in my dental health when I did keto. I'm not saying you have to eliminate carbs completely, but scaling back to maybe 100g a day might be worth experimenting with.
Cutting out snacking, using an electric toothbrush, fluoride, and getting sealants are all good ideas. Also, regular cleanings every six months if you can afford it. But my fil will be the first to tell you that genetics play a primary role, so don't feel like it's a moral failing if lifestyle changes just aren't enough.
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I would get a Kindle Fire Stick. I have a smart tv, fire stick, and chromecast. My smart tv stopped connecting to our wifi about a year after we bought it, and customer service said it was a software problem that could only be fixed by a technician (which wouldn't be worth it because its no longer under warranty). Even when it did work, it was sooooo slow and glitchy. I hear that's pretty common for smart tvs.
So now we use the fire stick in the same tv, and it works fine. The only cons are that our cable provider doesn't play nice with Amazon so we can't use HBO go etc. with it (we were able to use it with the smart tv). But that doesn't apply to you. I still wonder if we should have gotten an Apple TV instead because we use Apple devices, but the price difference was too great for me to justify it. The chromecast works great for mirroring things on our computers, though we honestly don't use it much.
Edit: You will need a HDMI compatible tv for the fire stick, which most relatively new tvs are these days.
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This topic came up here recently, so I thought you might be interested in this: Banning Deliveries Before 39w Isn't Such a Great Idea After All.
There was a panic highlighted in publications like Time Magazine that alleged that rich women were electing for early deliveries at 37 weeks for the convenience factor, which put their babies at a small risk for respiratory problems. Was this actually a widespread problem? No one knows, because there is no data to support or refute it. I suspect that it was overblown to sell newspapers, but who knows. At the same time, insurance companies were scrambling to find ways to cut costs on deliveries. The two-birds-with-one-stone result was that all across the country, many hospitals and clinics are refusing to perform elective c-sections (keep in mind, that term is a grey one) or allow labors to naturally progress prior to 39 weeks.
Insurance companies are saving a ton of money because there are less babies in the NICU with complications, but it's very likely that the reason is that those babies are in graveyards instead. As the OB of the above article notes, "The stillbirth rate increased from 2.5 to 9.1 per 10,000 term pregnancies. Instead of 3 stillbirths between 37-39 weeks among 12,000 patients, there were 11 stillbirths between 37-39 weeks among a similar number of patients after reduction in early elective deliveries."
Another complicating factor to all this is that dating a woman's pregnancy isn't always accurate, and even if it is, some babies grow faster than others. Recent studies suggest that one possible (but unproven) cause of autism is babies spending too much time in the womb after finishing their development. For those who have had c-sections in the past, waiting too long before having a repeat c-section puts them at risk of going into labor early and possibly causing uterine rupture if they are too high risk for a VBAC. There are no hard and fast rules being followed about exceptions to the 39w ban, so in some places, even if a woman has a verifiable health condition that could make waiting until 39w more dangerous for the baby, they are still being turned away. 37 weeks is full term, and the likelihood of babies having respiratory problems is only 5-10%; further, doctors can use sonograms to tell whether the baby's lungs are fully developed prior to the birth, and steroids can be given to help their lungs develop. If that isn't possible, most babies with that problem at 37 weeks only have to spend an average of four days in the NICU in an oxygen rich environment before they can go home (which isn't ideal, but isn't as dire as some alarmist mainstream news articles make it seem, and it sure beats the possibility of in utero death).
I've been reading a bit about this because I'm not a VBAC candidate and I worry about going into labor before my hospital's 39w c-section policy. Plus, my DH's work schedule is such that if I give birth at 37w2d, he will be able to spend nine days at home, but if we wait until the 39w he gets no leave (technically he is allowed leave, but no one takes his place at work so it has some unavoidable dire consequences). I do know they make an exception at this hospital if you come in and are found to be having contractions, they'll go ahead and do the c-section before 39w, but I'm not sure when the cut-off point to that is (hopefully 37w) or else they'd just stop the labor with drugs. I'll have to ask about it at my next appointment.
I think the crux of this issue is patient choice. Just like I think it's not right to ban VBACs, I don't think it's right to ban full-term elective labors. But I'm not sure this will ever gain the traction that the pro-VBAC movement did, since it's kind of a complicated issue and people often have a prejudiced view of what an "elective birth" actually means for most women.
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Thank you for all the feedback! This has been really interesting...and surprising, really. I know that the sample size is a little biased (is it a coincidence that "weird" homeschoolers would like the weird name? ha), but it makes me a feel a lot better about how people might react to Adalia. We haven't chosen one name for sure yet, but this definitely tips the scales.
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I'm beginning to wonder if messy people can permanently change.
My DH and I are slobs. We always have been. It might have something to do with the fact that we both came from homes where, for various reasons, almost everything sentimental to us was thrown away. As adults, we seem to be making up for it with hoarding tendencies. I will say that in our defense, our place isn't really gross in terms of food or trash...but everything else? Chaos.
It's hard to know how to rank our messiness compared to others. I guess one way you could do it is by asking how many minutes away we are to presentable if someone were to stop by unexpectedly. I'm guessing maybe an hour? That is, if I'm allowed to haphazardly throw things in closets and other hiding spots. It wouldn't be so bad if we were okay with being messy, but neither of us like it. Especially me.
I've read blogs and books and articles about picking up better habits. If I could put all the hours spend reading about cleaning into actually being clean, we might be okay. ;) I read and loved the Konmari book (with the exception of the pantheism), but nothing seems to cure our ways. Even when we do get it pretty close to perfectly clean (because I read x book or my parents are coming or whatever), it doesn't stay that way. Purging just puts the cycle on reset (although maybe I need to do a much bigger purge than I have been?).
It reminds me of those studies tracking the success of people who try to lose a significant amount of weight. Statistically, very few people can keep the weight off long term. I mean, that's obviously not a reason to throw up your hands and just eat all the donuts, but it does speak to how hard it is to maintain those lifestyle changes. I wonder if it's similar for messy people who try to change their ways.
Do you have a conversion story about how you used to not be able to have people over, and now your house is almost always close to respectable? I'm not so much looking for how-to tips, because honestly, I feel like I've read every single one out there...but obviously there is a disconnect for me, so feel free to preach about a method if it really works for you.
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Renter here. Our landlord uses erentpayment.com and I really like it. User friendly, you can set up automatic payments, it automatically stops payments at the end of your lease, etc.
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We are having a hard time deciding on a name for this baby due in March.
Sophia is a name we love, but it was #3 in popularity for girls in 2015 (it's actually even more common than that if you combine spellings), so we hesitate to use it because it's so popular. We deliberately chose a name that was somewhat uncommon (not in the top 200) for our first daughter. However, she won't be going to school, so she won't have to deal with being called Sophia W. or whatever as much as other people. We love Sophia because it's classic, feminine, and means wisdom in Greek. Also, the Hagia Sophia was our favorite place we visited on our European honeymoon. We would call her Sophia (not Sophie, etc.).
Adalia is the polar opposite of Sophia, in that it's so obscure it isn't in the top 1000 at all. It's pronounced ah-DAHL-ee-ah (like the dahlia flower but with an a at the front). It means "noble" and was the name of a beloved family member who is no longer with us. DH and I adored this lady, and it would be really special to honor her memory by naming our daughter after her. However, the name is so unusual that I can foresee a lot of people having trouble spelling and pronouncing it correctly.
Sylvia is kind of a compromise. It's #484 on the popularity list, and in Latin it means, "from the forest." We both love camping and hiking (we've visited 15 National Parks and hope to see more). I think DH has a stronger attachment to Adalia, and I have a stronger attachment to Sophia, but Sylvia bridges the gap between them as a strong, classic name that we both like.
What would you choose, knowing our reasoning for these top three? Any opinions on the super popularity of Sophia or the weirdness of Adalia? Oh, and we don't do nicknames, so none of the names would be shortened. We're not sure about a middle name yet, but the top contender right now is Claire.
The Most Improbable Thing You Ever Bought on Amazon
in The Chat Board
Posted
A redwood tree.
Really! It was about two feet tall when shipped, and it is now growing in my FIL's front yard as our Father's Day present.