| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Snack | Dinner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | yogurt, granola coffee |
salad water |
nut bar | burgers water |
| Tues | yogurt, granola coffee |
veggie plate water |
nut bar | hot dogs water |
| Wed | yogurt, granola coffee |
salad water |
nut bar | chinese veggies w/ beef rice water |
| Thurs | yogurt, granola coffee |
veggie plate water |
nut bar | pasta meatballs water |
| Fri | yogurt, granola coffee |
salad water |
nut bar | dinner out/ leftovers diet soda |
| Sat | yogurt, granola coffee |
salad water |
nut bar | takeout |
| Sun | yogurt, granola coffee |
heat n' eat dinner water |
nut bar | ital. meatloaf pasta diet soda |
Essays, random spoutings, and occasional stupid humor from the desk of the Wife.
roses
Sunday, September 13, 2026
Monday Menu
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
I'm melting.
The apartment is 73 deg F. and I am sweating like crazy. Earlier I was freezing. The temperature wasn't different. I haven't gone outside yet today. It's about 80 deg. F right now. The neighbor's kids are running around and having fun. Every so often I hear screaming, and out of reflex, I look to see if somebody's bleeding. Working at a daycare burns some things into your brain, I think that's one of them.
So, June saw me hypomanic for most of the month. July came along and I was in a mixed episode for most of that month. Now my seasonal affective disorder is knocking on the door even though we haven't lost a lot of sunlight yet from the changing of seasons. I just seem to be more sensitive to changed in light levels. Also, a couple of trauma anniversaries rolled over me and knocked the wind out of my sails.
My ability to focus has been problematic. It made my attempting Camp NaNoWriMo in July a joke. As some of you may know, I can complete at least one novel length manuscript in a month when my brain is working properly and I'm motivated it can be two manuscripts. July's final word count was 15k, not the 50k goal. I am really hoping November goes better.
I confess, focus has been a problem for me in remembering to take all of my medications. I lose track of what day it is and then I have to adjust my dosage schedule for some of my medications. It throws off my biochemistry and I have more problems with hot flashes, aches and pains, and brain fog. Hormone replacement therapy actually does help, but you have to take the medication for it to work.
Failing to remember if I have taken my medication is less of a problem with pills because I have a pill sorter. It's when I deviate from using the pill sorter that problems happen. I have two medications that can't be fit into the pill sorter. One is the Estrodiol patches (one twice a week) and the other is my Trulicity injection (once a week). Those are the two that I have problems keeping on schedule. I haven't gone so far as to writing them on the calendar, but the calendar doesn't have space for notes like that, it's barely got room for appointments.
You'd figure that my all important day-planner would be my go to on this. If I didn't have goldfish brain, I would be set. But I keep forgetting to use it. I look at it and think, I should check what I need to do today. Then I look away and it goes right out of my head. Perimenopause makes me feel stupid.
Sunday, July 19, 2026
Monday Menu
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Snack | Dinner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | yogurt, granola coffee |
salad water |
nut bar | burgers water |
| Tues | yogurt, granola coffee |
veggie plate water |
nut bar | tacos water |
| Wed | yogurt, granola coffee |
salad water |
nut bar | pulled chicken sand. water |
| Thurs | yogurt, granola coffee |
veggie plate water |
nut bar | pasta salad meatballs water |
| Fri | yogurt, granola coffee |
salad water |
nut bar | hot dogs water |
| Sat | yogurt, granola coffee |
salad water |
nut bar | takeout |
| Sun | yogurt, granola coffee |
bagel cream cheese coffee |
nut bar | sand. salad water |
Friday, June 19, 2026
Hypomaina sucks.
I have not slept well this week. Last night I didn't sleep at all. As a result, I am hypomanic. I don't trust this 'good' feeling. I do dumb things when I am in this state and feel like I am fantastic as I do them. Example, one of my hypomanic episodes included a cleaning binge in the project room. I put all of my magazines into one file box and attempted to set it on the floor. While it was a somewhat controlled descent, it basically fell because the box was somewhere around 50 lbs. This stupid act is why I have a hernia and can't lift anything heavier than two gallons of milk. All the positive endorphins running around in my system buffered my senses from the initial pain of the hernia and I felt 'a little sore'.
By the time I realized something was wrong, it was a few days later when I was no longer hypomanic and I couldn't figure out why when I moved a certain way a lump would stick out of my abdomen. Like an idiot, I poked at it, pushed it, and prodded it into creating another, larger, hernia. As this opened up, I felt a burning sensation. Being ignorant about how to manage what I had done to myself, I let this sit until my next diabetes follow up (months later). As a result, the second hernia was bigger and wider by the time I saw my doctor. Apparently this is a good thing because it's the small ones that get trapped and need surgical intervention.
But, hypomania and ignorance is why my sex life is dead, I can't do my back therapy exercises, bend over, or pick crap up off the floor with out squatting down (and even that is a bit risky). Beloved, bless that man, isn't angry with me for the long term impact of this on our relationship. Hell, the timing was pretty close to when the vaginal symptoms of perimenopause hit. Fortunately, we have a long time that we were working around problems like this due to trauma instead of physical injury. So, we know how to keep the fire in our marriage even if we can't get it on.
A part of my brain says I should info dump about how we coped early on in our relationship with my sexual difficulties. Another part of my brain says I should info dump about how perimenopause is treating me. And then there's the third part that is insisting I should go to the library and return a book. As is there the urge to start cleaning all the things, clip all the dead leaves off my plants, and throw this restless energy into meal prep for next week. Generally, do everything all at once and throw a few more items on the pile just for laughs.
No hard feelings or depression right now. I'm somewhere around bubbly and silly, but I have some control over it. In case you can't tell, I am very verbal at the moment and thoughts are racing. I can't type as fast as the ideas hit me. It is exasperating. My attention span isn't too great. I'm currently disorganized as hell. But my brain is feeling more wound up than it was last night. Thoughts are racing faster. I'm practically vibrating with energy. And all I have been drinking is water.
Saturday, June 13, 2026
All Hail Air Conditioning!
It is hot and humid outside. We just closed the windows and turned on the AC unit. It's buzzing loudly but it is making a distinct difference in the comfort level of the room immediately. The AC is drying out the air and that makes it feel cooler in here. The temperature before we turned on the thing was 77 deg F in here. The AC is set to 75 deg F, as to avoid making it work too hard. It is an older unit, but still functional.
I figure if I want to listen to my music, I have headphones I can use. It is buzzing loud enough that listening to music off the television is not really an option unless I turn the television up obscenely high. I'm not going to do that because I don't want to blow the speakers. Maybe this weekend, Beloved will help me set up my new(ish) radio that's been sitting in the box for the last year and a half.
Took Cuddle Bear out for a driving lesson and to take care of our recycling run. He did pretty good. I completely empathized with him when he started swearing at the other drivers for cutting him off as he was turning. There's a corner in the next town over that has to be one of the worst in the whole town. It is another 5 point intersection, just like at the end of our street. To make matters worse, it's at the apex of a hill, so in one direction, you really can't see people coming up the hill until they're right on top of you. And everybody wants to speed through the intersection. I'm surprised the town hasn't put a light there yet.
In that next town over, they have gathered at one of the busiest intersections to protest the current administration. Each protest is more organized and bigger than the one before. This impresses me given how Republican dominated our county is. More people are getting ticked off with the government's bullshit and making themselves known. My son and I briefly talked about stopping to hang out with them and lend support. But we have a lot to do today so that didn't happen. One of these days, however, we're going to make a point of participating in one of these No Kings protests.
Friday, June 12, 2026
Garbage plates and stuff.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
Too many cookies
I have been having trouble over the last couple days getting my web browser to work properly. After a bit of poking around at it, I discovered that I had several thousand cookies. So, I deleted the cookies and ta-dah, it started working right again. I am annoyed with the fact that I had to do that but that is the state of the internet right now. It's like the 1990s returned to gift us with popup ads and bullshit. Unfortunately, the funny memes haven't come back into fashion.
Life around here has been challenging since I last posted. Hence the long silence. My mother-in-law was in treatment for cancer. She's successfully completed that and is working on getting back to what passes for normal. Now we wait a year and see if it comes back. If it doesn't she'll be declared cured.
Work continues to drive Beloved batty. His boss has a bad case of undiagnosed ADHD, we're absolutely convinced of it. The man is in squirrel mode 95% of the time. His dog just about runs the office, when Dan doesn't put his foot down and get the dog to back down. She's a beautiful rescue dog that is very mouthy and anxious. And seems to have a bladder the size of a walnut. Between these two facts of his boss's lack of ability to stay on task and the dog has needs, Beloved is frustrated and trying to keep work grinding forward. It's been an on going problem for a while that is just slowly getting worse and more insane.
Cuddle Bear had oral surgery yesterday to extract a baby tooth and make room for the adult tooth erupting behind it. He's still feeling the effects of the anesthesia and is kinda grumpy and tired. He is doing ok with his driving lessons. Cuddle Bear is real cautious about four way stops now because he witnessed an accident a few days ago where someone tried to get through the stop before another person. There was a t-bone collision. Cuddle Bear was pretty rattled by the whole business. Apparently one of the vehicles involved was a police cruiser. Police showed up in enough numbers they were directing their own traffic. The drivers of both vehicles were taken to the hospital by ambulance, but fortunately alive and relatively whole. The fire department had their rescue truck out. It was a whole thing.
Snuggle Bug is very irritated with school. For anyone who has been keeping score, he started the year in the BOCES program for computer programming. This went sideways in a big way. He was failing all of his classes at BOCES, suffering from severe depression, and getting bullied a lot. We intervened at that point. He was pulled from BOCES and returned to his home school district. They gave us a line about how they didn't have room in any classes for him aside from his three morning classes before he went to BOCES. After some friction and frustration, he now is at school for a half day and comes home after his lunch period. Snuggle Bug isn't pleased but he is doing his best to stay positive. Bullying is still a problem, but less of a severe one. Now, however, he is getting super anxious over final exams later this month. I'm going to bring up his concerns with his guidance counselor to see if there's something we can do to help him be more successful.
Both the kids are not pleased about the talk around town about making changes to the park around the corner from us. From what they have heard, the playground is going to be ripped out and completely replaced. Snuggle Bug has been making noises about protesting the changes. Cuddle Bear has been making noises about never going back to the park after the changes are made because they are "ruining my childhood". To say the least, they have Opinions on what's happening. Nobody knows what is being built on the formerly empty lot between the old real estate office and the office park where our doctor's office is located. Whatever is being built, they're moving quick to get it done. It's been about 3 weeks since they started and they've got cement slabs poured and walls starting to go up on the exterior.
That's pretty much everything that's been going on in our neck of the woods. I am going to try to write more soon. Life has been challenging on top of daily irritations and the adventure of perimenopause. Hormone therapy helps even out the mood swings and make the hot flashes less frequent, but I still am off kilter. My doctor says that I'm about 2/3 of the way through it. I'm being optimistic and taking that number as a solid benchmark. But I'll go on about that on another post.
Sunday, April 19, 2026
Monday Menu
| day | breakfast | lunch | dinner |
|---|---|---|---|
| M | yogurt granola coffee |
veggie tray h2o |
hamburgers cheese h2o |
| Tu | yogurt granola coffee |
chicken salad sandwich h2o |
tacos roasted chickpeas h20 |
| W | yogurt granola coffee |
salad cheese h20 |
meatloaf mashed potatoes h2o |
| Th | yogurt granola coffee |
veggie tray h20 |
hotdogs deviled eggs h2o |
| F | yogurt granola coffee |
salad cheese h2o |
pasta w/ meatballs h2o |
| Sa | yogurt granola coffee |
chicken salad sandwich h2o |
take out h2o |
| Su | yogurt granola coffee |
leftovers h20 |
TBD |
Saturday, November 15, 2025
NaBloPoMo: Some whining.
Friday, November 14, 2025
NaBloPoMo: What Would Loki Do?
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
NaBloPoMo: Exhausted.
Seasonal Affective Disorder is bullshit. The weather's gloomy and cold. My brain says that everything is awful and I should sleep until spring. I confess hearing Bing Crosby caterwauling doesn't help my mood any. I hear Bing Crosby and I want to throw things, like the radio, out the window and destroy it with a baseball bat. The 'traditional' christmas songs all irritate me. If I have to hear 'White Christmas' one more time, I might scream. And we haven't even hit Thanksgiving yet.
I didn't sleep great the last few nights, which is aggravating the SAD mood effects. My hormones are swinging back and forth, which was part of my problem sleeping. I thought PMS was bad, perimenopause is PMS on steroids. I'm pretty sure that my fatigue today is hormonally based too. Ugh.
Monday, November 10, 2025
NaBloPoMo: First Snow Fall (and a little ice)
Yesterday, we went to visit my Mother-In-Law. The weather all day was gloomy and cold. Somewhere between sundown and when we went to the car, it started to ice. It didn't make the drive home problematic but we did have to be careful on the steps into the building. I figured it was going to continue to ice through the night. I was partially correct in my assessment. Some time in the night, it started to snow.
When Snuggle Bug was heading out the door for school, I told him to be very careful because underneath that puffy, quarter inch of snow was a glaze of ice over everything. A little later, I went out and threw some salt down on the ice and warned neighbors on their way to their car about how slick it was out there. A light dusting of snow and a very thin glaze of ice made things look kinda pretty. I was glad we didn't get more of either because lots of trees still have leaves on them right now.
We're just to the east of one of the snow belts off of Lake Erie and just south of one of the snow belts off of Lake Ontario. The hills do a pretty good job of sheltering us from the worst of the winter storms that blow through the area. I suspect, however, that the hills are not going to be as successful as they were in past years when the next big storm comes through. It's cold enough that my joints ache and I've been wearing a shawl over my sweater.
My body does not approve of this weather. Fortunately, however, I didn't have a migraine this weekend as the system was moving in to the area. We'll see what happens when it moves out. I can say this for certain that the growing season is done now.
Saturday, November 08, 2025
NaBloPoMo: Is it too late to winterize?
Beloved and I were talking about preparing for winter earlier this week. I think it was Tuesday. He was talking about getting the car's tires replaced and possibly the windshield wipers. I was talking about putting up plastic over the windows to block the drafts that blow in around them when the wind comes hard out of the west. Come to this morning and I smelled snow on the wind as I was getting to the car to go run errands. It's currently too warm to drop snow on us right now. But if you look at the clouds, they're snow clouds up there.
I now find myself wondering if we're going to get walloped by a big storm in the immediate future and temps will just stay bitter cold. I'm probably worrying over nothing. But, if we can get the apartment a bit more sealed up, it'll lower our heating bill and keep us more comfortable. Of course, the landlord will bitch about the tape holding the plastic on the windows but he doesn't live here. The only evidence he'll have of us putting up plastic will be less dust in those spots.
Anyways, our security deposit went missing sometime between when our first landlord died and the property got inherited by his wife. We suspect she used it to cover burial funds.
Thursday, November 06, 2025
NaBloPoMo: Decaf Coffee < Regular Coffee < Espresso
Wednesday, November 05, 2025
Sunday, October 26, 2025
Monday Menu
It's going to be a long week. Appointments and halloween this week. oh boy.
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | yogurt with granola coffee |
pb&j tea |
chicken nuggets w/ mashed potatoes water |
| Mon | yogurt coffee granola |
quesadillas flavored water |
hamburgers quick salad water |
| Tues | yogurt coffee granola |
leftovers flavored water |
tacos water |
| Wed | yogurt coffee granola |
taco salad water |
spaghetti & meatballs water |
| Thurs | yogurt granola coffee |
leftovers water |
split pea soup & sandwiches water |
| Fri | yogurt coffee granola |
leftovers tea |
chicken patty sand. water |
| Sat | yogurt granola coffee |
ham sand. water |
take out water |
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Monday Menu
Second verse, same as the first. Last week's menu went over so well with the guys that I'm doing it again. I think these guys would eat mashed potatoes everyday for the rest of their lives given the opportunity.
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | yogurt with granola coffee |
pb&j tea |
meatloaf mashed potatoes water |
| Mon | yogurt coffee granola |
quesadillas flavored water |
hamburgers quick salad water |
| Tues | yogurt coffee granola |
leftovers flavored water |
tacos water |
| Wed | yogurt coffee granola |
taco salad water |
spaghetti & meatballs water |
| Thurs | yogurt granola coffee |
leftovers water |
split pea soup & sandwiches water |
| Fri | yogurt coffee granola |
leftovers tea |
chicken patty sand. water |
| Sat | yogurt granola coffee |
ham sand. water |
take out water |
Sunday, October 12, 2025
Monday Menu
The last week and a half has been crazy with little details tripping me up and getting in the way of making progress on anything. It has been absolutely maddening. That said, it is looking like this week is going to let me actually get things done despite Columbus day. My new eye glasses are ready for pick up, so that will be happening on Wednesday. Tomorrow, there's two appointments in the morning back to back. And Cuddle Bear is talking about wanting to stop by the DMV to get his application for a learner's permit. Things are happening at a slow but steady rate.
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | yogurt with granola coffee |
pb&j tea |
meatloaf mashed potatoes water |
| Mon | yogurt coffee granola |
quesadillas flavored water |
hamburgers quick salad water |
| Tues | yogurt coffee granola |
leftovers flavored water |
tacos water |
| Wed | yogurt coffee granola |
taco salad water |
spaghetti & meatballs water |
| Thurs | yogurt granola coffee |
leftovers water |
split pea soup & sandwiches water |
| Fri | yogurt coffee granola |
leftovers tea |
chicken patty sand. water |
| Sat | yogurt granola coffee |
ham sand. water |
take out water |
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Fear, no. Rage, yes.
Hey y'all. I've been pretty quiet. I give my standard apology for that. (And feel kinda bad that I've got a standard apology for it, but hey, it is what it is.) Part of my problem has been a lot of stuff going on in my life and my anxiety being through the roof. More of my problem is fear that I am going to have my blogs shut down because I am not peddling the christ-facist crap that is flying through the airwaves right now. Once I realized my problem was fear, I got spitting mad. So angry that I was ready to throw things and then I instantly calmed down realizing that there was something I could do about that.
I can write and actively resist the bullshit going on through my blogs. I can point out the facist bullshit for what it is. I am no longer a kid stuck in a household where my parents espouse crap that sounds like this while calling themselves atheists and good americans. The memories of that part of my life have been roaring back but I am doing my best to function and using my anger to push forward.
I am the same person who was ready to punch out my little brother for espousing Nazi ideology in high school. I just have a better way of expressing myself than my right fist. Though the urge to punch people is rising.
Sunday, August 31, 2025
I am displeased.
I have been diagnosed with the beginnings of glaucoma. It doesn't help that my optic nerve is already thin. Like significantly so because I was on oxygen as an infant. Being born preemie didn't do me any favors. So, I now have eye drops to lower my eye pressure. Put the effects of the eye drops together with the effects of the antibiotic I'm on for a uti and I am dizzy and unable to operate heavy machinery. Fortunately, I take the eye drops at night. I am exceedingly frustrated. I figured it was just a matter of time but I thought I had more time than this.
Hormones are making me miserable. They're messing with my sleep and my appetite. Now, you'd figure with the cocktail of medications that I am on to help me sleep and the CPAP making sure that I'm breathing properly through the night, I'd be sleeping like a rock. The problem is the night sweats. And the hot flashes during the day. I have heard rumors that this symptom of perimenopause can last months or it can last years. All I know is that it's really irritating waking up in a pool of your own sweat.
The other thing my hormones are messing with is my mental state. I am irritable, to put it lightly. I am more forgetful than usual (which is seriously not a good thing). And my mood goes from ok to moderately depressed like some hyperactive toddler who has discovered light switches. I don't have rapid cycling bipolar, but my hormones didn't get the memo. I am this tired, irritable, fog of misery trying really hard to resemble a sane human because my teenagers are going through puberty and deserve a sane mother.
Did I mention that my anxiety is up? I'm twitching because of it. And I'm anxious over everything. I can't take my anxiety pill as often as I probably should because I fall asleep when I take it. So, my anxiety being high makes my irritability hair trigger. My focus is garbage because my anxiety clouds my mind. I try to meditate. It turns into a running monologue of what I'm worrying about. And I can't focus on my crafts to quiet my mind because of that running monologue.
Second puberty < Second breakfast
I got irritated with my thin hair and bald spot. The gal at the salon who does my hair was a little surprised when I said hack it all off. I explained that my hair was irritating me and looked like a picket fence with gaps in it because of how it was thinning, she tried not to giggle at my description.
She wasn't comfortable shaving it all the way down at first. She took it down super low. It just made the thinning spots even more obvious. So I had her cut all of it off.
I'll be saving money on shampoo now.

