Blank September 16, 2010

Blank. That’s the only word I can come up with to describe my week. I have just been lethargic and lazy and… well… blank. Zero motivation.

I described it to someone yesterday as if I almost feel like I am falling into a depression, but I don’t feel ‘depressed’. It’s just the feeling of not wanting to do anything.

I have had a lot of news from home recently that has really stressed me out. At the same time, last week’s duty experience left me feeling like a glorified vital signs taker, and in addition to that a teacher basically told me that even if I deserved it, I would never get an ‘A’ at this school. Even.if.I.deserved.it.

My classmates get away with murder here compared to the expectations and practices back home, and until now, I have really been working hard to do the right thing, be a good student, set a good example.

But that is hard when you can see the work that you put into something would be an A- at the least, but probably an A back home and here they are telling you you got a B+/A-. They won’t give me my actual grade. They said something about it not being fair until everyone is finished. It’s not fair that I have to wait for people who aren’t ready when they are supposed to be, and don’t care.  We are coming up on only four weeks left in this semester, and out of 70+/- students, more than half still need to make their presentations.

I go to a Christian school where there is absolutely zero academic integrity. ZERO.

Some of the faculty have said that it’s because the school has a redemptive philosophy, that is why they are so accommodating, and always giving ‘special considerations.’

But I wonder, what is that really teaching the student population here?

To me it seems like a message that it’s OK if you are irresponsible, simply because you feel like it.

I haven’t been to duty or class all week this week, and right now iI feel like skipping out on the next three weeks because, you know, hey, it doesn’t matter, because nobody fails at this school. That’s the motto it seems among my classmates and others.

I have lost my drive to become better.

Not better than everyone else, but better than I was yesterday or the day before.

I don’t have a desire to be challenged anymore.

I have lost my fire.

Today I got out of bed and decided I must go over to the school and get some things done. I tried to do it the other day, but there was no power and while classes hadn’t been canceled, there was nobody to be found in any of the administrative offices. Today was better. I did take care of many of the things that were on my list for school, and I have a reason to be awake and ready for the day early tomorrow morning. It’s hard to do anything when there is just no feeling of purpose. How can you be the change you want to see when you see there just will not be change?

I know this is just complete babble to you. I’m just trying to clear some mental clutter and end my day with some motivation in my belly for tomorrow. I’m trying to decide that tomorrow will be a good day. I want to have fire again. I’m trying to get back to that place. Since tomorrow is Friday, and it is only a half day of classes, I’m hoping that I will use that motivation I am trying to gather and keep it going even if only simmering on a back burner. It think I should just take this weekend as connection time with my children and be reminded of why I am here, and what is really important to me. I am going to stop thinking and act.

It’s Only Thursday September 9, 2010

It’s Thursday evening here, and I have not done much of anything this week at all ,except wallow around in a foul mood and sleep. Lots of sleeping here. I don’t know what my problem is. Is it mid-semester blues? We are actually now past the mid-point of the semester, and I am both grateful and terrified. While I have only 30 days from today before I land on familiar ground and hopefully have some good reconnection time with family and friends, I have so much work that has to be finished before the end of the semester. I’ve decided to do a weekly week in review to help me stay accountable for my list of 50, and I’ll start a day early, here, now.

1. No play time on the computer when the children are awake   –  I can half check this off since I can honestly say that this week I have been VERY conscious of how much time I have been spending on the computer, and definitely holding off on the pleasure surfing until after the kiddo’s bedtime.
2. Start the Whole Foods Challenge
3. Help the Manchild come up with a schedule
4. Encourage the Manchild to come up with his own list of 50   –   Manchild made his list of 50, now I just have to encourage him to stick with some positive changes. He doesn’t want to share his list, but hopefully we can chat on a few items and keep each other motivated.
5. Wake up earlier in the morning
6. Finish It Takes a Village
7. Return the library books on time
8. Re-read/finish Happiest Toddler on the Block
9. Start packing for our visit back home
10. Find a good NCLEX reviewer
11. Start reviewing for the NCLEX
12. Start posting at least 3 times a week
13. Take more pictures of my children
14. Cook at least one healthy rounded meal a day
15. Take my lunch to duty
16. Drink more water
17. Say “I love you” more often   –   Improvement has been made already here, but not where I want to be.
18. Re-learn to crochet more than a chain
19. Learn to knit
20. Leave more comments on blogs I love
21. Give more hugs and smoochies
22. Build more forts with the babies
23. Read together with the Manchild
24. Read more with the babies   –   I have read so much with them already this week that I think it will be no problem to stick to this one! I also want to incorporate a regular weekly/biweekly trip to the library for the girls to be able to get some refreshed reading material. The only problem with this is that the library here has about as many books as we have at home! Maybe I can bring some more books back with us when we visit home next month.
25. Pay more attention to real news
26. Pay less attention to gossip
27. Read The Purpose Driven Life
28. Actually cross everything off of this list
29. Major de-cluttering when we go home
30. Mail some handwritten notes instead of email
31. Send that postcard to Dan
32. Give more
33. Let go
34. Be here now
35. Go to bed at a reasonable hour, regularly
36. Make a family tree
37. Get a haircut
38. Start a recycling program at school
39. Dance with the kids
40. Finish my outstanding assignments by the end of this week
41. Practice more random acts of kindness
42. Filter more frequently   –   This was a horrendous week for this!
43. Develop a business plan
44. Learn more about herbs
45. Learn more about gardening
46. Finish French in Action
47. Smile more
48. Thank someone who made a difference
49. Don’t let the moment slip away
50. Lose 40 more pounds

I haven’t been able to cross much off here this week, but it’s been a really difficult week for some reason. I’ve just been physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. We have no classes tomorrow, but it is week of prayer at school and we are required to attend services. I plan on joining and hopefully between that and the Manchild’s desire for some of his own changes, I will wake up tomorrow with a better outlook moving into the end of this week/weekend/start of a new week.

As far as what we’ve done, in general, not much of anything out of the ordinary. I had duty at a new hospital on Monday and Tuesday, and it was yet another reality check of what living in a third world country really means to an average person. Wednesday we had case presentations, and one of the review centers came in for a little seminar. This morning I had class which consisted of a “meeting” of sorts with both nursing programs and the dean regarding the rest of this semester and reviewing for the boards being incorporated into our curriculum, and then lecture on psychiatric nursing. I came home and snuggled with my girls and fell asleep with them… when it was time to wake up I just stayed in bed. Where is my energy!?!

To Everything September 4, 2010

Funny how things work out. The last six months have been very trying for me, and I have already started working on a lot of changes in myself based on some serious reflections that started a while back. In the mean time, in the last week or so, I have been thinking a lot about some more things that I would like to do/change, and even though I have no idea who is reading this, and I’m pretty sure it’s not anyone I know personally, I’ve been thinking about blogging a list of things I want to do in a way to make myself more accountable.  You know how that one works… once you tell someone about it, you feel like a schmuck if you don’t actually do it. I was thinking of 7 things in 7 days, but as I was signing on here I realized that this will be post #50. I kind of can’t believe that! But… in honor of that, I’m just going to make a list of 50 random things I want to finish, start, do, or change, and work from there. I’ll update my progress as I go along.

My list of 50 (in no specific order)

1. No play time on the computer when the children are awake
2. Start the Whole Foods Challenge
3. Help the Manchild come up with a schedule
4. Encourage the Manchild to come up with his own list of 50
5. Wake up earlier in the morning
6. Finish It Takes a Village
7. Return the library books on time
8. Re-read/finish Happiest Toddler on the Block
9. Start packing for our visit back home
10. Find a good NCLEX reviewer
11. Start reviewing for the NCLEX
12. Start posting at least 3 times a week
13. Take more pictures of my children
14. Cook at least one healthy rounded meal a day
15. Take my lunch to duty
16. Drink more water
17. Say “I love you” more often
18. Re-learn to crochet more than a chain
19. Learn to knit
20. Leave more comments on blogs I love
21. Give more hugs and smoochies
22. Build more forts with the babies
23. Read together with the Manchild
24. Read more with the babies
25. Pay more attention to real news
26. Pay less attention to gossip
27. Read The Purpose Driven Life
28. Actually cross everything off of this list
29. Major de-cluttering when we go home
30. Mail some handwritten notes instead of email
31. Send that postcard to Dan
32. Give more
33. Let go
34. Be here now
35. Go to bed at a reasonable hour, regularly
36. Make a family tree
37. Get a haircut
38. Start a recycling program at school
39. Dance with the kids
40. Finish my outstanding assignments by the end of this week
41. Practice more random acts of kindness
42. Filter more frequently
43. Develop a business plan
44. Learn more about herbs
45. Learn more about gardening
46. Finish French in Action
47. Smile more
48. Thank someone who made a difference
49. Don’t let the moment slip away
50. Lose 40 more pounds

WOW! It was harder than I thought to come up with 50 things! When I was trying to decide how to post on it I felt like I had 100 things I wanted to do, but when I had to actually come up with them it wasn’t so easy. Here we have it. Let’s see how well I can do here What would be on your list of 50?

Birthright September 3, 2010

This has really been weighing on my mind. I know I’m really going out on a limb here, but I need to lighten up.

I feel like if I hear one more person contradict themselves or show me the hypocrite that they really are, completely unawares, my mind may split in two.

There has been a lot (A.LOT.) of hot debate on the immigration in the last few years what with the election and all, but it seems to me that it has really been coming up a lot lately. As in, people say the most asinine things I have ever heard. Either verbally in words, or posted as a facebook status, of their own idea or copying a quote. And I feel like it is just going to continue to follow me around and disturb me until I do something. Posting responses doesn’t seem to get anybody’s attention, and I don’t have any followers that I know of on here, but I’m hoping that just writing this will free me of at least a little bit of the upset I am carrying around.

My only disclaimer before I start my tangent is that I have not always been so liberal, and it is over time that I have come to see things as they should be. That being said, I understand that different people come from different backgrounds and have different ideas for different reasons, be they good or bad, but we all have a responsibility to question… everything.

OK.

So, let’s say that you are not a liberal open-minded person, and you are of the opinion that people from other countries should not be allowed to move to the US. Does this include all people? Or only people that are a different color or different religion that you? Let me also ask, are you 100% Native American? Because as far as I know, somewhere down the line, maybe 1, 10, or 100 years ago, someone in our family migrated to America, and for that reason alone you are now an American citizen. What do you think that person had to offer ‘The Land of The Free’ when they first stepped onto foreign ground? My guess is that it probably wasn’t very much, except hard work and the ambition and dedication to make a life for themselves and their family.

One thing I hear/see frequently is people griping about illegal immigrants or foreigners being able to get free medical care while [the person making the statement] can’t get the same care; how is that fair? I’ll also go out on a limb and make a guess that most of the people with this same attitude are against any kind of socialized medicine, because of course, that takes away our freedom. So… Mrs. X travels to the U.S. on a tourist visa for vacation. She has no intention of staying past her visa expiry date, but while she is in ‘The Land of the Free and Opportunity’ something completely out of her control happens, and she gives birth to a premature baby. Who has an unplanned  stay in the NICU. Of course she doesn’t have insurance, and of course she doesn’t have the kind of money needed to pay that medical bill sitting around. Neither do I. I’m guessing that you probably don’t either.

I don’t even know where to begin here, but technically this baby can get a U.S. passport now, right? He does, after all, have a U.S. birth certificate just like so many other Americans. Since his parents don’t live in the U.S. and didn’t plan on staying, does this mean that you also think now that he should not be considered an American citizen? Just curious, because after all, we don’t control where we are born, yet where we are born can in so many ways have the greatest impact on our lives.

Are [so many] people suggesting that mom doesn’t get medical care because she is not a U.S. citizen and she doesn’t have the cash to pay? Since mom is not a U.S. citizen, should baby not be able to enjoy the benefits of being born in the U.S.?

I can (somewhat) understand that born and raised American citizens feel that there is a lot of work that can be done in the U.S. while it seems that the country is doing things to make life great for so many that live in other countries*, but at the same time, I would venture to guess that a lot of these same people that don’t like the idea of U.S. tax dollars going to feed starving children in other countries had no problem with the ‘War on Terror’.

Should families not be able to have international adoptions because there are so many children in the U.S. that are in need of families that want to love them and take care of them?

Should there be no such thing as non-profit organizations that help people that do not live in the U.S.?

I have had an amazing opportunity to live outside of the United States. Not in a fancy country that has all of the comforts of home, but a third world country where I have seen children using cardboard boxes as mattresses on a sidewalk at night; where a mother carries her infant around with nothing but a ragged shirt, no diaper even, begging for change; where patients in the hospital have to send someone outside to buy their medications at the pharmacy; where babies in the NICU scream themselves exhausted from hunger if their mama is not available to come and nurse them; where a makeshift one-room shack with a corrugated tin roof is the place so many families call home.

I am so thankful to have had this experience, and I am grateful for everything that is available to me because I happened to be born in the United States. I don’t however, think that it makes me any better or any more deserving than any one else on this earth, and I believe that all people, in every nation, have a responsibility to every other person in every other nation, to reach out and help. It doesn’t matter what color they are, it doesn’t matter where they live, it doesn’t matter what they believe; they are a living, breathing, feeling person, and just because they don’t share something in common with you doesn’t mean that you are relinquished of any responsibility to help a person in need in whatever way you are able.

America became the place it is because people from foreign lands saw that things could be better, and worked to make it happen.

No Comment August 20, 2010

Or in other words, more. culture. shock.

A few weeks ago I did my first rotation in a surgical ward at a government hospital. When I say ward, I mean what we typical Americans think of if someone said, “you know, like the hospitals in the 1950′s,” or, at least, for those of us who never experienced it, what we see on TV.

There is one large room with let’s say, maybe 30 beds. Not the hospital beds we know, with buttons and head/feet that go up and down. No, more like dorm room beds, with hard vinyl mattresses, a hospital sheet that is as thin as paper, and doesn’t stay on, and you have to bring a pillow from home. There might be a large electric fan on the other side of the room, but you should bring one from home, because there is no such luxury as air conditioning in this room. There is one bathroom. I’m not sure, but maybe it has three toilets in it, and everyone in the ward, including the watchers share it.

There are actually rooms like this, one for the men, and one for the women. Have I said enough?

While I was on this rotation, I did a lot of preparing of medications. Lucky for me, and my patients, math has always been a strong subject for me, and I never had trouble doing math for medication dosages. I was preparing one medication, it was a simple one, let’s say the patient needed 100 mg of an analgesic, and it was available in an ampule, which contained 2 ml, and indicated the medication was 50 mg/ml. So, quickly, I can determine that I need to give the patient 2 ml in order for him/her to get the correct dose of 100 mg.

My clinical instructor looked at me and couldn’t figure out how I could get that amount in my head, but just went with it.

The following week, the clinical instructor gave us a quiz. On the quiz were things like the 10 rights of giving medication, the color coding for the medication cards, and some IV flow rates/dosage problems.

We went over the answers after finishing and turning the quizzes in, but I wasn’t paying much attention because I didn’t remember what I wrote for all of the dosages. Until. Someone asked him to explain further, because they got a different answer than the instructor, and wanted to know how he came up with the dose.

To make a long story short, the clinical instructor indicated that the correct answer was really double the amount of the correct dosage. We went over and over and round and round, and finally he understood where the problem was. Later in the week I asked another instructor to complete the same problem, and he also answered with double the correct amount. He suggested that I talk to the dean, because the instructors learned this formula for figuring meds, and as I had already concluded, this is a serious problem.

I followed his advice and spoke to the dean who immediately understood the problem, thankfully, however… The reaction was not quite what I was expecting. Something to the effect of we really need to address this with the person who is teaching medication dosages, and be sure that all of the clinical instructors in the hospital are aware of this, is what I was expecting. What I heard was something more to the tune of how they use a standard formula here, the pharmacists, the doctors, and the nurses, and how this, that and the other agency and person need to have this brought to their attention. There was also a comment about speaking to the doctors, who are ultimately responsible for this…(?). Say wha…?

In another class, I just received hand outs about nursing as a profession, and patient’s rights, and nurse’s rights. The bottom line is that nursing IS a profession. Nurses ARE professionals. Nurses have the right to be respected and trusted, not only by patients, but also by colleagues. I think doctors count as colleagues. Here, they don’t agree.

Here, doctors are Gods, and if you question an order, you might “hurt their ego.” Yes. You understood that correctly. If you are a nurse, in this country, at least to say generally speaking, you follow the doctors orders even if they are questionable, and even if you know there are additional things that should be done for the patient (let’s say a daily weight/abdominal girth on an ascites patient), you do not take the initiative and do these things if the doctor forgot to write it in his/her orders. You do not ask the doctor if these things should be done. Apparently, here, the doctor’s ego is more important than quality care, or possibly life.

I’m having a hard time right now, as I have more and more hours of duty logged in. I’m being exposed to more and more eye opening things every time I have a new rotation. I am trying to find some kind of balance, a way that I can somehow ask questions without getting into trouble while I am representing my school. I’m trying to ask questions more in an ‘I’m just wondering kind of way’, hoping that I am bringing to someone’s attention something that needs to be addressed, something that needs to be changed, desperately.

I’m trying to be the change I want to see.

How can I be that change and culturally sensitive at the same time?

Culture. Shock. August 4, 2010

Where I am here, on the other side of the earth, things are different. I was expecting different when I got here, and I think I adjusted well, but there is still something weekly, if not daily that just shocks me for at least a second. This last week it was more than one, and it was day after day after day.

First, a friend/neighbor was sick and had to be admitted to the hospital. Since there was nobody else volunteering to go, or even one that said yes when asked directly, I was the ‘watcher’ as they call them here. That means that I was at the hospital for a great amount of time during the admission, running here and there to get food and more supplies from home. This is in addition to having duty, and while conveniently the hospital happened to be the same as friend was admitted to, said hospital is about 1-1.5 hours away from where I live, depending on how I am traveling.

Now, this was all good, and I am not complaining, but I just have to say that what bothered me has bothered me before. It is times like these that we see who people really are. Who is really a friend, and who really gots-your-back. Lots of people knew friend was sick. Lots of people knew I slept not a wink in over 24 hours and have 3 children I would love to see for at least a minute in the craziness that can be my life, and lots of people knew that I was traveling back and forth sometimes twice a day between duty and keeping friend company. But do you think that anyone offered to trade places with me? Even for just the afternoon? Enough said, I just needed to vent and now I can move on.

The next thing that got me is the difference between what a private room and the ward patients experience. I have put many a hour into the medical ward at this hospital, and I’ll just say that it is not a place I would like to be in when needing any kind of medical care.

Ward equals up to six beds in one room with noises, lots of people in and out, and could be lights on for 24 hours… mostly student nurses attending to your needs, which typically equals a visit every two hours for vital signs depending on what the good doctor ordered. The CR (or bathroom as we like to call it in the west) is shared by everyone, might not have a shower, typically has not been cleaned since Moses was breathing, and has only a hole where there may have at one time been a door knob. Sheets and gowns are not typically changed during the entire hospital stay, and you may have an additional fee if they are.

Private room equals two sheets on the bed, two pillows, a TV, a fridge, and a private CR with a shower. They get better food for meals, better dishes, and they even get a snack. The sheets were changed while we were there without any request being made. There were three staff nurses for no more than 10 patients, while in the ward they could have three nurses with as many as 60 patients.

Big.difference.

On a general note, I have to say that I was shocked, but not really, when I noticed that the stretcher in the ER that friend was placed on had a sheet that had not been changed since the last patient, or who knows how much longer. How do I know that you ask? There was a little blood dripping there that I noticed. My observant self also noticed some blood drippings on the floor that had not been cleaned up.

That was Friday. Fast forward to Monday, 3 pm -11 pm shift duty. To make a long story short, I observed a human being with feces draining from an abdominal wound that had dehisced, a colostomy bag made out of what appeared to be a tube normally used for suctioning and a rubber glove, and a decubitus ulcer. I haven’t been impressed with the care I have generally observed since I have been here, but this one just made my jaw drop.

Fast forward again to Tuesday 3 pm – 11 pm shift, different hospital. I got my patient assignment, which was nothing too terribly toxic. Went to take the vital signs, and my classmate is waving at me and speaking lip. I went out to the hall and asked her what she was trying to tell me, and the answer was, “you might want to put a mask on because there is a patient in there who has PTB.” Enough. said. I asked to be reassigned because I am not really sure if my reaction from the BCG vaccine was really positive, and The Baby has now had two doses that were NOT reactive. My choice was a patient in the other ward room, but there was another PTB patient in there as well. Aren’t these patients supposed to be in isolation? Why weren’t they at least sharing a room while the other non PTB patients shared another room? I’ll never know the answer to that one, that’s just the way they roll here.

So. Really. All I wanted to do here was make a note so that I would never forget this past week, and be reminded of how little we really have to complain about living in such a rich, developed country.

By the way, another thing that has been nagging at me… Um… if you live in the U.S. and you are not a Native American Indian (or whatever the politically correct term that we are using these days is), you my dear are really an immigrant too… Maybe not directly, but somewhere along the line one of your family members traveled to the U.S. from another country. Stop bitching about immigrants. Please.

Monday Meal January 4, 2010

Not much to say here today, other than I grew some kind of wild hair this afternoon and decided it was time to make some kind of big deal meal for the family.  I didn’t really follow my menu plan last week, which of course is no surprise (to me anyway), but I forgive myself and rationalize by saying that the first step is at least making it, right?  If I at least make the plan, half the battle is won, and I just need to improve on the actual making the food part.

Anyway.  I digress.

This afternoon I came home from class and I was absolutely starving. My wonderful neighbor had offered up some of what she had prepared for lunch, but I just wasn’t really in the mood.  I thought I might like to eat some sleep instead and tried to lie down with the babies to get a few quick zzzz’s.  The first day back to classes wore me out.

And I digress.  Again.

I couldn’t fall asleep so I got up and started rummaging around in the cupboards, when my eyes fell on the lasagna noodles I bought when we first arrived here about 2 months ago.  And I thought of that broccoli that was soon to be unusable in the fridge.  And the tofu that was due to expire in a week.

And my veggie lasagna was born from these.

But I didn’t stop there.  I made a salad.  Without lettuce.  You see, where we are here in Asia, lettuce can sometimes be hard to come by, and apparently I had used up the last of what we had.  Or someone did.  So I improvised and made a salad with just carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onions.  Mixed ‘em all up with a little Italian dressing, and there were no complaints.  I also made some delish garlic…toast I guess we will call it.

I made some fresh homemade garlic butter.  Softened a stick of butter, crushed some fresh garlic, chopped some fresh parsley, mixed it all together, spread it on both sides of some bread and grilled it until it was nice and toasty.  There were no complaints about that either!

All said and done it was quite an enjoyable meal.

Out With The Old January 1, 2010

I’m not very different from everyone else.  The last twelve months have been a roller coaster ride for me.  Every time things seemed to settle down, either in a good way or a bad way, all of a sudden that incline came out of nowhere and I then there I was, facing a landslide decline.  The downhill was not always bad, not always scary, sometimes it was just that rush of excitement that I needed.

I have been struggling over the last few days both with some decisions I have to make in everyday life, and with the decision as to whether I should make The List.  You know the one, it has a Part A: all those things from the last twelve months that I deem to be list worthy, and then comes Part B: all those things I resolve to do in the next twelve months.

But why do we make these lists?  Especially the ones we resolve to do in the next twelve months?  How many times over the course of your life have you made those resolutions and then actually followed through with them?  I have decided not to make a list after all; I have decided that instead of making a list of resolutions to try to stick to… I am doing one thing only, I am going to wake up each morning and take a moment or two to meditate on all of the things I have to be thankful for.  I have been thinking that I need a little fine tuning of the attitude, and I think that this one daily exercise will help keep me centered, focused on what is really important.

While most of you are just waking up and starting your new year, I am half a world away.  My first day of the new year is already almost over.  Today was a challenge for me.   I find myself standing at one of those major forks in the road where I am forced to make some very hard decisions.  Today I made a conscious effort to give thanks for all of my blessings, and come back to center before I reacted to anything.  With this effort, I hope that I smiled at least once more than I did yesterday.  If I did, then I was successful.

A Milllion Miles December 19, 2009

Wow, long time no write!

I was just thinking today on my way home from a trip to the mall, that I really need to get back here a little more often… or at all for that matter.

When I finally arrived home, I checked my email, and lo and behold, a new comment was waiting for me; I think that was a sign.  So now it is 2:07 a.m. and here I am typing away to bring you up to speed.

Have you ever done anything crazy with a pinch of impulsive mixed in?

I sure have.  Sometime over the summer, probably in early to mid-August, we (hubby and I) made a kind of spur of the moment decision. That was, Plan B for the completion of my BSN was developed and put into action.  Here I am now, half way across the world, a foreign student in a new school, away from my hubby, extended family, and friends, welcoming new experiences.

Here I am in the Philippines, making my goal become a reality.  Hopefully in two years (the length of time is still debatable) I will return to the States ready for another new chapter to start.  But for now, I am here learning lots of new things, seeing lots of new things, doing lots of new things, eating lots of new things, and loving lots of new things.  The decision to come here was difficult to make on some levels, but on others, it couldn’t have been any easier.  I’ve been here now for just over two months, and so far it’s been pretty great.

I’ve been trying to keep a handwritten journal of sorts, a record of my adventures, but even with the pen I have been slacking.  Just before I signed in tonight, I thought maybe I should try to start the new year off with a resolution of sorts, to post once a day… but I figured I should be more realistic and aim for at least once a week, both here in the cyberworld, and with paper and ink.  I would really love to look back and have a regular record of our experience, especially for The Manchild and the babies.  I have also been encouraging the Manchild to keep his own journal, because I think it will be amazing to look back in years to come and see the different perspectives we had throughout this time.

So here I leave you for the evening (or wee hours of the morning), before I fall asleep, hoping to be back sooner and more regularly with some adventures to share!

Un-Menu Plan Monday September 1, 2009

Well, I promise that I don’t intend to have this turn into a once a week post about what I am or am not doing around the house, but today I realized that it was Monday, and last night I decided to try to organize the ‘pantry’.

First things first… Last week’s successful menu plan was not a success.  Well, I guess it was a success in that I actually did it, and I made it about half-way through.  I cooked I think three of the items I had listed for dinners, and I brought lunch to work with me 4 days, although I don’t think it was ever anything that I had actually posted on the menu plan.  Breakfasts?  Well, those were as usual, flying by the seat of the pants, and for me mostly it was toasted whole wheat British muffins from Trader Joe’s with peanut butter.  So, we do have to say that there was at least some improvement.

So my goal for this week is NO TRIPS TO THE GROCERY STORE, and finish eating everything in the house that was intended for last week’s meals, as well as eat down the ‘pantry’ a little bit.

Today I was off from work, and I made a veggie lasagna that was pretty good, I think anyway, for a domestically challenged first timer.  The kids ate it, and even The Manchild, who doesn’t eat anything, said it was pretty good.  Did I mention that he HATES lasagna?  Well, he does.

I hard boiled some eggs that were expired by one day, figuring to make some egg salad for lunches this week.  I also shredded some zucchini that was about to go bad, and some carrots that were about past their prime.  I plan on using those in some bread, hopefully tomorrow, when I also use up some bananas that I got off the reduced produce rack.    I’m thinking, banana cake, banana brownies, banana bread… we’re going to be banana’d out, but at least it will taste good!

Wish me luck!