Friday bullets, Aug. 25, 2017

Feeling under the weather is not a pleasant way to end the week. Bleh.

• I did get a huge chunk of school planning done while I was inert on the couch, though. So the time wasn't totally wasted. I can't say I enjoyed the process very much. 
• As a result of putting so many books on hold, I now have my new library card number memorized. This feels vaguely comforting to me.
• Olive went to the vet two days ago and had a round of shots. She now weighs 19 pounds... a bit bigger than she was when she came home.

Olive when she first came home

Olive yesterday

• Kenzie seems to have discovered that Olive is a dog. He wants to know where she is and what she is doing, and has started to play with her. The first few weeks, Kenzie barely acknowledged the puppy's existence.
• On my list of things I really, really do not like, are textbook publishers. P.'s textbook for her French class is outrageously expensive. Like half the cost of the class expensive. And, you cannot buy a used book, because used books do not come with the precious online code to access the information needed on the internet. Seriously, the book is half the cost of the class. Grrr... she will be instructed, as so many of my children have been, to complain about book cost on the teacher evaluation. Would you believe that several of my children's teachers happened to mention that they had no idea the book was so expensive?! I can't even....
• We have found a church that I think we are going to try going to for a while. This coming Sunday will be the first time the younger group goes to Sunday School there. (They are so excited. We've been hearing a lot of complaining that they haven't been to Sunday School in a while.) So I went down and met the person in charge last week to get a sense of how things would work with some of our less typical children. All I can say is that we feel so welcomed. Everyone we've met has been excited and accommodating of all of our people. One of the reasons we tried this church to begin with was they had a stated goal of inclusion of people with all different functioning, and that has certainly been playing out in our experience so far.
• We have all of our new Ikea bookcases up, but I still have yet to sort the piles of books onto them. I don't know why this particular job feel overwhelming. I think it is just the cumulative fatigue of unpacking, combined with that last 5% of a job that is hard to get to. I would like to walk across my bedroom floor without stepping over piles of books.
• R. is nearly completely weaned off one of her seizure medicines. We will be done with it in one more week. So far, no seizures. She has had a lot of anxiety about not taking the medicine, though. I'm hoping that the increase in shrieking is caused by the beginnings of more cognitive function. Anything new causes her to shriek, so maybe firing neural synapses are making her shriek. Don't pop balloon yet, please. Besides, we still have one more medicine to wean off of.
• I'm not sure how one goes about prioritizing what to do regarding improvements to the house and land, when you really want to be able to do it all. Do the addition, but don't do the kitchen? Do the addition and kitchen, but don't do the fencing? Stable and fencing, but not kitchen or addition? Which do I want more... a kitchen that doesn't function and makes me unmotivated to cook or the ability to actually own a horse? The answer to any one of these questions changes from moment to moment and day to day. 
• If we don't do the addition, it will be difficult to ever invite anyone over to eat if we can't be outside. We barely all fit in the current dining room as it is, and I can't figure out how to add anyone else. This is kind of hard for someone who is used to being able to invite as many people over for a meal as I wanted.
• And finally, the vegetable tally so far this month.

Artichoke - 1

Avocado – 3

Basil - 1

Beans (black) - 2

Beans (navy) – 2

Beets - 1

Bell pepper – 2

Broccoli - 1

Brussels sprouts – 1

Carrots - 3

Cauliflower – 1

Celery - 2

Chickpeas - 1

Chipotle pepper - 1

Corn – 3

Cucumber – 2

Edamame – 1

Eggplant - 1

Escarole – 1

Green beans – 1

Green onions – 1

Jalapeno – 1

Lettuce (iceberg) - 1

Lettuce (leaf) – 4

Lettuce (romaine) – 2

Mushrooms (white button) - 1

Okra - 1

Onion – 7

Peas - 2

Potatoes - 1

Spinach – 1

Swiss chard - 1

Tomato (cherry) – 2

Tomato – 6

Zucchini - 2

Tonight's dinner was a green chicken curry with eggplant. It's pretty easy. Cut up some chicken (I used one package of chicken breasts), cut up some eggplant (I like Japanese eggplant, but I couldn't find it here, so used a couple of regular eggplant). Cook the chicken in a little oil in your skillet. Remove chicken when cooked through. Saute the eggplant for a bit, then add green curry paste (how much will depend on how spicy you like it) and one or two cans or coconut milk (I used two). Add the chicken back in and simmer for a bit. Serve over rice and noodles. If you don't forget, like I did, you can throw some Thai basil on top.