Healthy lunch? What healthy lunch??

So I decided to be good and order a meal with fewer carbs today. A vendor is coming in for a short training and is buying us lunch.

I ordered a burger that comes with fries.

Trying to get a jump on the carb thing, I go online to the restaurant's menu and nutrition information to look up the amount of carbs in that meal.

75.

Not a typo.SEVENTY-FIVE.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

After my initial panic, I reason, "The burger can't have that many carbs...it's all from the bun and the fries."

So now I'm planning to eat only TWO fries and half the bun. The fries will be cold by the time they get here and I don't like them that much anyways.

How in the world do I count for that when I was only given the total amount??

I'm guessing the bun is between 40 and 50 grams of carbs alone. . . but then the burger is some serious protein. . . .

Time to SWAG.

1,000 Words

This one went in at 2 a.m. this morning. Made it to about 10:30. Phooey on it!

Marketing

I was watching the news this morning and thinking about how dumb commercials really are. Do people really fall for this stuff?

Do I fall for this stuff and not realize it?

I consider myself rather product-savvy. I have a degree in Business Administration which required me to take a couple marketing classes. I know how it works.

Create a problem for the consumer, present your "solution" and make a huge profit.

I like the mouthwash commercial that says it "cleans virtually your whole mouth, while toothpaste alone cleans only 75 %".*

Really? You can't just swish your toothbrush over your gums, tongue and cheek and clean what's virtually left to clean? Why does your mouth have to be sterilized with alcohol anyways??

Or the new handy plastic food storage baggies that allow you to grab your raw meat with the baggie turned inside out over your hand, wrap the baggie around the meat, and freeze it individually in the larger brand name baggie. Allowing you to buy in bulk, store in smaller portions and "save" money.
(I believe this is also the commercial where a wrecking ball company shows up on the woman's doorstep to apparently help her separate her frozen chicken that she didn't freeze with said name brand baggies. Overdramatic much??)

Ok, hello, I grew up watching my mom do that with sandwich baggies for years. Do I really need to buy your name brand? I could also use plastic wrap. From the dollar store. And save money.

I think products that are green or more environmentally-friendly have an edge over ones that aren't these days. But I've not always found the same performance in those.

I'm more of a price shopper, rather than brand shopper. But that does vary with each product I buy for our home. When J and I got married, we made a deal that if he never ran out of t.p., I would never run out of paper towels. I'm brand-loyal for those two products, even though I dislike anything else that brand makes.

I'll try a store brand at least once. I know we can't buy one certain store's milk, coffee creamer or coffee.

I mighthaveusedtomaybe fallen for the makeup commercials for foundation that makes your skin smoother, more even, and fewer blemishes; the mascara commercials that promise triple length and thickness (hello, those models are SO wearing fake lashes, if they aren't CGI); and maybe some lotion or other beauty products that make a gal smell good and look better.

But I can't tell you how many half empty foundations are in my bathroom. None worked. How many mascaras did I try before I finally settled on an oldie-but-goodie? At least 6 or 7. Multiple times. And don't get me started on lotion. Lotion I don't even want to use anymore because of the chemicals and stuff in it.

(Just can't bring myself to throw it out yet....there's probably expiration dates for that stuff, but I think more importantly, there's the law of diminishing returns {or whatever--I said I had a business degree, I didn't say I like economics}--how long should I wait before I can safely say I will no longer want to use that lotion and toss it?)

So I definitely believe I'm getting smarter about that stuff. Do you guys have any commercial examples you can think of that just made you think, "Really?"

*emphasis mine; and the quote may not be exact either--my fault

Keeping Calm

I have this poster on my wall at work. I got it right after we moved in to our new office in August 2010.

You've probably seen them around. Like, everywhere. They were hard to find when I first wanted one...of course (I'm hipster that way. Just kidding. Not really. But yeah, kinda.). But now you can even make your own online.

So when I read this blog post today from Rachel, I could immediately relate, diabetes-wise.

I can also relate in other areas of life. There is a reason I have this poster on my wall in my office. Sometimes work is just crazy and I forget that I can only do so much with what I'm given. I have to remind myself to do things to the best of my ability and let the chips fall where they may. Usually they "fall" in an acceptable, if not excellent way. Sometimes not. But that's life, and you gotta keep going. I have great bosses. They know I am still learning. They know that things change, the tools we're given change, and they work with us and help us learn the new changes so we can better manage our time.

That's what's been going on the past couple weeks. Sales meeting earlier this month, training last Thursday, more (different) training this past Monday and Tuesday, other people's training Wednesday and Thursday (that I didn't need to attend, but still affected me because I had to run around like a crazy person cleaning up Dunkin' Donuts' crumbs and spilled coffee from breakfast and getting the breakroom ready for the lunch delivery...then cleaning up after that and getting the extra food put away so that the pest control guy could come in and spray his magic bug-eradicating formula....because, seriously, what MALE in our office would have done that??) and now, hopefully, today will be calmer.

Only a week and a half until me and some gals take a road trip to PA. I'm excited to see my fam there, not so excited that one of my good friends who lives in that area won't be around, and excited to hit up the downtown area and find some cool stuff.

Also exciting is that the hubby has off on the 4th of July. For like, the first time ever that I can remember.

Randomly having a day off together in the middle of the week? Yes please.

Those Dummies

You ever feel like you put a lot of time, energy, and reasoning into the things you do, only to have some dummy somewhere not pay any attention to it and make you repeat yourself?

Again and again?

You ever just ignore that dummy?

Homemade Toothpaste Update & More

I wanted to post an update about how my homemade toothpaste is going.
I used most of the first batch I made, got tired of trying to squeeze the uncooperative "paste" out of a plastic baggie, and so found a good reason to toss the little remaining when I googled and found this method.

1 cup baking soda
five good shakes of rock salt (sorry, not very precise)
20 drops of essential oil (I used spearmint and accidentally got about 20.5 drops, but whatever)

I mixed all this in a ziploc baggie really well and just set it on my counter. When I go to brush my teeth, I just wet the toothbrush, stick it in the powder, and brushbrushbrush. It feels a little funny in your mouth at first until you get it all worked in, but my teeth feel clean all day. I rinse with a little Tom's fluoride-free and alcohol-free mouthwash. Super clean and minty fresh.

That same night, I decided to attempt a homemade, natural deodorant since the natural ones I was using just haven't been cutting it. I found a couple recipes by Crunchy Betty and decided to use this one, mostly because I didn't have any beeswax to try this one. (Mental note: buy beeswax!)

It all came together pretty nicely. I washed out my old deodorant container to use for the homemade stuff. I had extra liquid, so it got poured in a baggie.
Bad idea. After I let it set up in the fridge overnight (it's 77 in our house, so the coconut oil wouldn't have solidified if I had left it out) I discovered my error. The old deo container I have won't actually push the stuff up as you twist the bottom. Rats. So I broke off a chunk and now I stand at the fridge in the morning rubbing on my deodorant.

What a weirdo.

But hey! It's working pretty well! I'm only on day 2. I haven't been working outside in the disgusting heat or anything--with the other natural "deodorants" I would be sweating and stinking just from sitting in my office all day.
So far, so good.

I found a couple treasures at a local Goodwill-type store today. I'm excited to get them cleaned up and painted so I can blog about them.

I sat and figured out my sewing machine last night. The bobbin case was giving me fits. I got some thread on it just fine, but I could. not. get it back in the machine. Finally I text my mom and asked when she could come over and help me. Don't you know---THEN it decided to cooperate!

The evil bobbin case...

I'll finish with some cuteness to start off your weekend.

Now I'm wondering...what color do I want to paint this room??

Sewing Machine

I hit up the other antique store in town yesterday during lunch. When I say "antique" store, I mean antique/junk/Avon. Somehow they all work together to create a great place to spend a lunch hour!

The best deals come when you aren't looking for them. Or....have no money to spend, even on a great deal. In this case, I had the money.

$25 for this baby!

(Please excuse the blurriness. For whatever reason, my work computer does not like to save pics as jpeg and I'm not bored enough to want to sit and figure it out.)

It came with its user manual, a storage box containing extra feet, and some other doohickey thing that I haven't figured out the use for. Maybe some kind of guide to help you measure and sew a straight line?

I may even paint the table and legs. The front opens up like a door and has a little storage box on the inside.

I'm not sure what year it is. There's a serial number on it that I might try to google tonight. Then I'll sit down and read how it all works....

As Promised

I finished hanging the hooks in my closet this evening. Yesterday afternoon was spent painting and I must be a little out of practice because I wore myself out. The wall is only 3 feet wide by 8 feet tall, so it's really tiny compared to say, our entire master bedroom.

Again, here's the ugly board that was there before. The paint on the wall was flat, one of my biggest pet peeves.

I was rather proud that I managed to tape off the ceiling, corner, and baseboard in a fairly straight manner.
I then realized that I did not have:

1. a small paintbrush to use for the corners and edges and 
2. a stir stick for the paint

Necessity (laziness?) being the mother of invention, I dug out my Dollar Store plastic ruler (bonus: the latex paint peeled right off when it dried) and since I'd taped the three sides really well, I used my foam roller and just smooshed the paint up into the edge.

Professional technique?

Probably not.

Did it get the job done?

You betcha.

"Quill," used in our master bedroom as well

Thanks to my sis-in-law for her donation of an old sheet that we use as a drop cloth.

I did two coats and gave the first one about 45 minutes to dry. The second coat, I tried to put on a little thicker. Tonight after dinner, I hammered a few nails in the wall and......

Ta da!

I've got plans for various and sundry items to hang here. Jeremy's belts and ties are the one thing I wanted to display and store a little better.

After I finished, I still had the "itch" so I had to get outside and trim the stupidbig bush in our front yard that's growing insanely fast. Since we had a full day of rain, it was easy to pull up some of the runners it had sent out. The soil there was very loose, made up of a lot of composted leaves and mulch.

I just hacked and hacked with the new clippers that my parents gave J for his birthday last week. It was pretty therapeutic. Too bad my old painting injury was acting up and I had to quit.... ;)

I managed a respectable two wheelbarrow loads of trimmings. Which represents about 1/8th of the work needed to get that bush looking decent.

Then as I dumped the second load in the brush pile out back, I disturbed a doe as she was out for her supper.

I wanted to attempt a small boxed garden next year for some fresh veggies, but I have a feeling she and her buddies might eat it all...

Mission: Saturday Mini-Project

The other day on my lunch hour, I popped over to one of my favorite little antique stores. There's really only two good antique stores in our town and each has different types of antiques. I had some inspiration from Pinterest and I'd even gone so far as to make a list on my phone of things I wanted to keep an eye out for.

So with too many ideas clonking around in my brain, I wasn't really expecting to find anything (cause that's how it goes--if you didn't have any ideas, you'd be able to find TONS of stuff and not be able to justify your purchases because, what would you DO with that??).

Slight correction: I wasn't really expecting to find anything budget-friendly that I could take with me and not have to get the husband to come back for with his truck.

Imagine my surprise when I found these beauties tucked in a random corner of a booth!

Please excuse Madam during her nap.

The large one has a nice green patina. The bottom left corner had some dried spackle but a few swipes with a wire brush removed most of it.
The more ornate one had a print of Victorian ladies taped into it. With masking tape. Buh-bye Victorian ladies.
For the oval one, I wanted to hang it by the wire, but I didn't want some ugly nail showing.

Here's the wall I wanted to hang them on. To the left, out of the picture, is our front door. The door to the basement is directly opposite this wall.

A tiny bit of jury-rigging on the ornate frame - it kept falling off the nail, so my hubby drilled some holes for the eyelet screws that we then threaded wire through - and a stop at Hobby Lobby for my awesome little knob and here's the end result!

Looks great!

J was pretty confused at the decorative concept of hanging empty vintage frames on a wall ("You're not putting anything in them??") but I think he gets it now. Also....we agreed the upstairs is mine to decorate and he gets the shop, man cave, and garage. So there's that.

Slight art deco influence, I think.

I'm still trying to decide if I want to put a word of welcome in the larger frame. Maybe a vinyl wall sticker of a pineapple. Anybody have any ideas?

So that was my fun Saturday mini-project.

My original Saturday plan was to refinish my mirror....but I tore up the house looking for the paint and silver leafing kit I'd bought a couple years ago to use and I couldn't find it! I know it's here somewhere....

I have no idea how old this mirror is. Mom said it's an antique. In my earliest recollection, it was baby blue. Bless her for allowing me to paint it this color in my yellow phase. But it needs serious updating. It needs to go in my bedroom above my dresser. Needs.

Nosy-pants HAS to see what Mom is doing! I think she's actually posing.

And I'm hoping to finish another project tomorrow.

I decided to paint this wall in our closet, behind the door. The previous owner left an ugly corkboard there--who puts a corkboard in their closet?? (Ok, maybe a BIG walk-in closet may have need for one...not ours. I had to hold the clothes back with my elbows in order to get the majority of the board in the picture!)
And I have several hooks I want to use to hang J's belts, maybe his ties, and a few necklaces that I wear frequently. There's no room for shelving.

Here's the before:

Blah.

Stay tuned for the after, hopefully Monday!

(Only three and a half weeks until we travel north to see family in Lancaster, PA! There's some GOOD antiquing in that area! I can't wait to see what I can find!)

Communion

For those who aren't aware, the hubs and I currently attend two churches--we alternate every week. We're still praying and trying to figure out where God wants us permanently.

(I say "we're"--I mean, J is praying....I'm trying to pray, but my attitude keeps getting in the way. I'm working on it.)

BUT two churches means double the communion services. I usually enjoy the communion services, but it seems like I've been in an awful lot lately. "My" church does communion once a quarter. J's church has communion the first Sunday of the month. In all the months we've been attending both churches, we've only hit on his church's communion service once about a month ago.

But last Sunday, at my church, was communion.

Then this Sunday, being the first Sunday of the month, we did communion again at J's church. I think Easter threw us off somehow because now we're on track to hit J's church again at the first of next month.

Ok, I grew up Baptist. The order for the communion service was, we pray, then the crackers get passed out first, the pastor says a word from Scripture then says "Let's take together" and we all eat the cracker. Repeat for the wee cup of Welch's.

So about a month ago, my first experience at J's church went a little differently. They're Church of God and a bit more....enthusiastic....about things than us Baptists. Not that I mind. Us Baptists need a little more oompf most of the time.

Having worked at LifeWay for too long several years, I knew there were these convenience packs of communion wafer and juice together....

...and that the concept was pretty simple. The execution during the church service, however, was a little quicker than I'd expected.

Suffice it to say, I missed whatever verbal cue there was to open the top of the wafer and eat it, then immediately drink the juice. If there was a prayer, I'd missed it while admiring the tidy little packaging that I'd sold for so many years, but had never actually been handed in church. So I quickly stuffed the wafer in my mouth and immediately wanted to spit it out. Bleck! It tasted like plastic (sorry Celebration Cup, but it's true). The hubs looked at me funny. I guess I made a weird face. The juice tasted like typical juice, but then I got to wondering....

...how many carbs are in that??

I understand the symbolism of the elements being the body and blood of Christ.

But I'm also trying to take better care of my temple. I've stopped drinking soft drinks. I've quit anything with aspartame and fake sweeteners and I'm trying to limit my HFCS intake to as little as possible. Juice is medicine, not breakfast. Also, what kind of preservatives are in those prepackaged coffee creamer-shaped buckets of spirituality? (They have a shelf life of 6 months. Short, as shelf-lives go.)

An 8 oz serving of Welch's grape juice is 42 grams of carbs. How much of that juice does a communion cup hold? No idea. Half an ounce maybe? A quarter?

Maybe a quarter of an ounce. Those things are pretty tiny. So, that would be about 1.3 grams of carbs (42 grams divided by 32), plus whatever is in the wafer or cracker. Probably 1 gram. So communion = 2.3 grams of carbs. Enough to take insulin for? Not really.  

Enough to raise my blood sugar outside of the range I want it in? Maybe. My insulin correction factor (ICF) is 40. Meaning 1 unit of insulin will bring my sugar down 40 points. So it depends on what my sugar is to start with. By that time of day (usually the end of the church service = noonish) my breakfast (if I managed anything other than just coffee) is about worn off, the tummy is ready for lunch and my sugar could already be dropping....or it could be rising. Do I want to take a minute in church, pull out my meter, test, and bolus for communion? Not really.

Should I? Probably, if I want the tighter control I've been dreaming of.

This Sunday, when the tray came around, I admit, I was seriously tempted not to partake. The girl beside me passed it up. But there's kind of a social stigma surrounding that as well.

Just another example for all you Nons out there of how diabetes infringes on everyday life and wreaks havoc in places you least expect it.

The Baptist Faith and Message by the Southern Baptist Convention (the affiliation I'm closest to, even though I'm not entirely committed to them) explains the Lord's Supper this way:

The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

I've been participating in communion since before diabetes diagnosis....but I've only been really trying to handle the diabetes for about 3 months now. I know there's bound to be struggles as I figure it out. Yesterday afternoon, as I was pondering this, a verse popped into mind. Philippians 2:12-14 says (NKJV):

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing,"

Will the little bit of juice and cracker hurt me? Not really. Mentally, it's not quite the same as it was though--an extra effort that non-d's will never worry about. But like the SBC's statement above, it's about obedience. And obedience to God cannot backfire on you.
Now to work on verse 14 above and start taking communion without complaining, focusing on the obedience aspect, rather than the taste of the cracker or whether there was a prayer or not or what everyone else around me is doing.

I'm also entering an alarm on my phone to remind me on July 1st that it's communion Sunday and to be prepared to test my sugar in church before the tray is passed....