So Begin The Doldrums

So begins the season when I randomly fill the void that the lack of football has left behind with hockey. Namely Red Wings hockey, as if there was any other kind. Someone might say "Have you forgotten about the Superbowl?" No, and I am thrilled to watch a team that the Lions actually beat this year play in XLV. Not to mention that that game was their first conference win in God knows how many years. Actually, I do know. It had been three years. For those of you who don't follow football, that's an eternity.




So before I say good-buy to the pig skin for the year I'd like to send out a few thank you notes. Thank you Jim Schwartz for a better year. Thank you Suh, and back-up quarterbacks. Thank you Calvin Johnson, Jahvid Best and Kyle Vanden bosch with those crazy eyes. (Sorry about all that hurty stuff Hansen and Stafford.) Thank you those of you who might turn into a speakable secondary next year. Most of all I'd like to thank the Rams, Redskins, Packers, Buccaneers, Dolphins and Vikings.



Anyway, hockey fills some of the void, for a few weeks in March there is some decent basketball so long as Izzo lives up to his reputation. The Stanley Cup wraps up in June. Summer is a wash. I think I'd rather eat a baseball bat than spend 3 hours watching someone trying to use one.





sigh





Red Wings just scored and there is blood on the ice, in HD, I might add. So I think I'll be OK for a while.

None Of Your Bee's Wax

It's become quit obvious that I'm expecting. I can no longer blame the bump on a few extra Christmas cookies, though they did help. I don't mind when patients ask about it. I get a lot of "Are you expecting?" "When are you due?" "Is it a boy or a girl?" "Is it your first?" I'm obviously pretty excited about having another baby so I really don't mind this line of questioning.

But yesterday a mother who I have seen with her children only once or twice before asked me; "Was this a planned pregnancy?"

uhhhh

Nobody but my OB has ever asked me that. I don't think I would have been uncomfortable if a friend or a family member had asked me this but a patient? eek

So what else could I say but "Yes" followed closely by "Keep Johny out of school one more day and here is your slip for checkout."

But it made me wonder, should I be answering any of these questions if I don't feel comfortable answering all of them? Is there a line in the sand when it comes to the Doctor Patient Relationship and such things? And if there is who crossed it? Me by being open about some things or her by crossing a line I had arbitrarily drawn?

Cheater, Cheater Sushi Eater

So I'm nearing the 24 week mark in this pregnancy. A mark that fills pediatricians with both glee and fear, accompanied with breath holding until about 30 weeks. The pregnancy has been good, easy for the most part, since beating a bout of morning sickness from weeks 8-10.

Somewhere around 20 weeks I started getting really run down. I was exhausted after work, not rested in the morning. I didn't want to run on the treadmill or even walk up the stairs. I was just not myself. I got so sick of it, that after 3 weeks of crabby, sluggly Sarah, I started myself on some iron. I don't know if it was the placebo affect or what but for the past 3 or 4 days I have been a changed woman. I wake up with energy (when little fox lets me sleep), I'm back on the treadmill, I'm not winded after a flight of stairs and most importantly, it's not as hard for me to get on the floor and wrestle with Adeline. So I think the iron is here to stay.

But that said, I'm feeling a little guilty for eating a plate of seared ahi tuna last night. I adore sushi. I would love nothing more than a big plate of sashimi and a side of chardonnay. I know that all fish has worms and it really should be eaten cooked but man was that an excellent plate of blood red fish....

And I thought I had a bad day

Poor Adeline. Yesterday when Joel went to pick her up at school it was obvious that it had been the worst day ever.
She peed her pants. (Insisting that her teacher wouldn't let her go) Then later she apparently dropped trow and peed all over the car rug leading to the remainder of her class begrudging the loss of said rug.
She didn't take a nap and I think there might have been a poo incident as well. She was desperate to leave, has a horrid cough and a thick runny nose and was in bed before I got home from work.

And I thought I had a bad day. At least I didn't pee myself.

Decisions Decisions

Not to many days ago I finished reading Beautiful Darkness (by Garcia and Stohl), the sequel to Beautiful Creatures. Both very nice Southern Goth YA fantasy picks. But now I'm in the mood for a little something different. I have several books on my nightstand just waiting for me to read including a few more sequels, a couple newcomers and one random grab off the shelf from the Hull Family Christmas trip to B&N.

I would really like to start reading this one:

Because nothing gets me reading like an apocalyptic, vampire-virus, fantasy novel -happy face-. But the damn thing is 784 pages long and weighs about as much as Henrietta H. Hippo. It's the kind of book that makes me rethink, albeit for just a brief moment, my stance on Kindles. I'm just not sure I'm ready for that kind of commitment right now. So I'm thinking I might save it for my maternity leave.

Instead, last night I started this one:

It's a literary-historical thriller centered around religion and cryptology written by a marine biologist. How could I go wrong? That and it's a much more manageable 496 page paperback with a weight class more closely resembling Giraffy.

Now I know it's a crying shame to chose the books I read based on pages and weight but what the hell. What are you reading?

Pregnancy Shopping List

What do all of these things have in common?

Garlic Stuffed Olives
Heath Klondike Bars
Wasabi Peas
Conversation Hearts
Frozen Egg Rolls
Hummus

They all came home from the grocery store with me yesterday. And yes, I had a list.

I Can't Remember

For the past year and a half I have worked full time. Since then my wonderful husband Joel has taken over the household duties in addition to starting our hops farm. At times in the summer he is as busy if not more so than I am but in the winter things have died down. Today as I considered going grocery shopping I realized that there are several household chores that I haven't done in ages.

For example, I can't remember the last time I:

-made a dinner from scratch
-did a full weekly meal planning and grocery shopping
-cleaned a toilet (or a sink or a shower)
-paid a bill
-collected chicken eggs
-bought toilet paper
-shoveled or blew snow (believe it or not I did this on a semi-regular basis when we lived in Cleveland)
-did dishes (not including starting the dishwasher)
-filled up my own gas tank, or got my oil changed, or my snow tires switched out
-cleaned kitty litter
-mopped a floor


As I look at the list above I can't help feel a little guilty and even a tad bit useless. I used to have a pretty good grasp of what was going on around the house. Now I don't even know where the new kitty litter is kept or what our last electric bill looked like. I can't tell you if we have any pasta sauce in the freezer or where the vacuum is.
I still do some laundry and run errands with Adeline on my days off. I love to stuff cloth diapers and water the plants but I'm otherwise incredibly disconnected from the house. As a woman raised by a feminist I really shouldn't feel any guilt about all of this but I do.
Why? And does my guilt mean I should be doing more?