Back to School Prep

With a little less than a week before school starts, the back to school frenzy is kicking into high gear.  Registrations (this year, I registered nine kids for school...two of my own and seven refugee children), orientations, pictures, school shopping, supply shopping, hair cuts, and weeding out the clothes from last year that no longer fit.  And in order to make my life easier, I am also doing some food prep so there is less hassle once the busyness of the school year begins.  

I started with strawberries.  My husband drinks a protein shake every morning that consists of soy milk, peanut butter, and frozen strawberries.  When I can find a good sale on fresh strawberries, I cut the stems off, flash freeze them and then put them in serving size baggies so he can just thaw one bag each day.

 

After the strawberries, I made egg sandwiches & English muffin bread.  I found the breakfast sandwich recipe here and adapted it.  

Freezer Egg Breakfast Sandwiches

12 light multi-grain English muffins

12 eggs

12 slices of American cheese

1.  Preheat the oven to 350.

2.  Split the muffins open and lay them all on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until toasty.

3.  Spray a jumbo muffin pan with canola and crack eggs in each one.  Use the tip of a knife to pierce the yolks.

4.  Bake eggs for 10-15 minutes until set.

5.  Remove eggs from pan and allow to cool.  Season with salt & pepper.

6.  Assemble sandwiches with one slice of American cheese and an egg between the English muffin.

7.  Wrap in saran wrap & freeze.

8.  To cook, microwave for 1 minute on 50% power.

And finally, I finished off my day of food prep with some freezer rolls.  This recipe makes enough rolls to last us about 6 meals so I only have to make a batch about once a month.

Whew!  That's a lot of work for someone who needs two naps a day to get by.  As a nice little break, my baby girl & I did a mama/daughter date yesterday and went to see Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.  It made Ani's day as she has read all of the books and loves them.  It was very good and neither of us can wait for the next movie.

Sjogren's....the gift that keeps on giving

My posts have been few and far between lately, and since God has blessed me with a meningitis-free summer so far, there has not been much health news to report.  But, with Sjogren's Syndrome being the wily autoimmune disease that it is, it would be too much to hope for a completely symptom free summer.  Sjogren's symptoms include dry mouth, dry skin, dry eyes, and at least in my case, reoccurring aseptic meningitis.  My worst symptom by far this summer is dry eyes.  My left eye is currently so dry that the vision is blurred due to erosion on my cornea.  See, I don't produce enough tears and tears are what removes the grit from underneath your eyelid.  If my body is unable to remove that grit with tears, it scratches my cornea giving me blurred vision and an uncomfortable sensitivity to light.  The ophthalmologist is not able to get me in until October so for now I'm continuing to use eye drops, ointment and warm compresses for comfort.

 Beyond the dry eyes, lately I've been suffering from insomnia (which goes hand in hand with my Fibromyalgia and which is why I am wide awake at 2 am on a Tuesday night) and some meningitis symptom flares, mainly headaches and nausea along with some dizziness.  At the end of last year my rheumy, Dr. H, decided that my next course of treatment would be Rituxan, a chemotherapy treatment used in some cases of lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis.  Understandably, I was concerned about the idea of an IV chemo treatment (I was already on the pill form of Methotrexate) and I sought a second opinion from a rheumy in Ann Arbor.  My pesky little B cells are the reason Rituxan was recommended.  It is theorized that the B cells in my body are somehow egging on my immune system to continue to attack my body which results in the meningitis.  Rituxan is supposed to deplete my B cells and give me a period of less systemic issues.  The negative (well beyond the obvious whole chemo thing)?  It does not permanently deplete my B cells.

 Yes, it's true, they do make an E-Card for absolutely everything!

This informative article discusses the relapse rate (about 80%) for those who are treated with Rituxan.  My rheumy explained that my treatments would be once, two weeks apart, every six months.  We are now nearing the end of my first six month period and that is likely the reason I have been having so many symptom flares as of late.  After my first round of treatments, I started to feel hopeful and definitely caught a case of selective memory.  Now I recognize that this is likely my reality for a very long time, so I just need to get used to the ups and downs.  I can bear any ups and downs as long as I remember that God is with me and will be my strength in all things.

I can do all things through him who gives me strength.  

Philippians 4:13 

More Summer Fun

We have been kid free for nearly one week and in that time I have been a complete and total bum.  Yes, I did some chores.  Some laundry.  Some grocery shopping.  But what I've mostly done is read, and Pin, and nap, and read, and maybe Pin a bit more.  I'll admit I needed the down time and some space to unwind but I feel like a sloth.  

In order to placate my sense of guilt I did my chores this morning, made a batch of granola and decided to post some more summer updates, photo journal style.

Celebrating the 4th of July

Zoo for AniBelle's birthday

Visiting Mom & Dad at the campground

Summer movies

Family beach day at Millennium Park

Bowling with the whole gang

Third Annual Bauer/Chase Trip-Chicago Bound

Eating in (not so polite) style at Ed Debevic's

Best father/son shot of Tod & Cam-photo by Jimmy

Whew!  We've had an amazing, busy summer and it's not over yet.  My kids come back next weekend and then it's time to cram in some more summer fun in between back to school shopping & way too many registrations and orientations to attend.