Strawberry Honey Freezer Jam

For the past few years, my mom has had an extensive vegetable and herb garden.

We also have a serious number of strawberry plants. The berries are smaller than the ones you'd get in the store, but have a much stronger flavor (sweeter and juicier).

Starting in 2014, she hired a beekeeping service. So now, in addition gaining several thousand little pollinators, we have fresh, local honey. It is like no other honey I've had before. The color changes from season to season, starting out a very light yellow (straw yellow) and getting darker, with the late fall honey being a dark golden yellow. The flavor gets somewhat richer as the honey gets darker.

My favorite thing to do with our strawberries, besides eating them within seconds of picking them, is to make the following jam:

Two Years After

It has now been about 2 years since I moved back home. I have thought a lot about those two years, and of that rough journey from being a nursing student to being the patient.

Books of 2014 - July

As I worked on this post, I noticed that I desperately needed to read some non-Jodi Picoult books. My boyfriend's been making fun of me, which is a let-down because now I can't tease him for being a John Green groupie.

This is a long post. Don't say I didn't warn you. ;)

My Thoughts on Hobby Lobby

I originally wanted to write some of my thoughts on the ruling on another form of social media, but found I had exceeded a reasonable word count. I moved it here, and might have gotten carried away. But all of it has been on my mind, and it felt good to let it out.

***

I was beyond disappointed in the SCOTUS ruling on Hobby Lobby. I was outraged. As a woman of child-bearing age (what a lovely term), I care a lot about access to contraception. I want to be able to have children when I am emotionally, financially, and spiritually ready, if I decide on motherhood. I do not want to make decisions about contraception based on what the people who own my company (or my hypothetical spouse's company) believe about contraceptive methods.

I have the crazy idea that my decisions about my reproductive health should be guided by my health, my doctor's advice, and my personal wishes. Even though in the real world, there isn't a sacred bubble around a patient and health care provider, there need to be reasonable guidelines for third-party limitations. How is the religious beliefs of a company owner trumping those of an employee "because I believe so" reasonable?

Books of 2014 - June

I only have two books to report on this month. Sorry readers.

I ran out of gas! I--I had a flat tire! I didn't have enough money for cab fare! My tux didn't come back from the cleaners! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!!!*

Actually, this month I've been crocheting a blanket and spent a lot of time tending my mother's garden while she and my dad celebrated a major anniversary.

In addition, I've been preparing for the arrival of my nephew. I have been taking the American Red Cross babysitting course (with such sage advice as following the parents' instructions regarding TV/internet time and acceptable snacks**) and will take a First Aid/CPR class. One of the more interesting tips was how to determine if a toy is too small for children under 3: see if it fits through a toilet paper roll. If it does, it's a choking hazard.

Moving on to the books I read:

Books of 2014 - May

Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis by Helen Bynum
Life Animated by Ron Suskind
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

It's a shorter list than April, so I will give you my thoughts on all 3 books after the jump.

Books of 2014 - update

It has been a year since my last post. Much has happened in my personal life, some of it very joyous, some of it exciting/terrifying, and some of it very sad.

For now things are going quite well. I have a wonderful volunteer job at a local cat shelter, and I have successfully turned my childhood room into a grownup room.

Also, I have been reading a ton of books, thanks to my new Kindle.

January:
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach (started 1/5)
The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin (1/28)

February:
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (2/5)
Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick (2/15)

March:
The Borderline Personality Disorder Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Living with BPD by Alexander L. Chapman (3/2)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (3/6)
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (started around 3/15?)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (started around 3/22)

April:
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (4/3)
You Can Date Boys When You're Forty: Dave Barry on Parenting and Other Topics He Knows Very Little About by... shoot, I forgot the author (4/3) 

Updated to add (on 4/21/14):
"If Your Baby Must Travel in Wartime" by United States Department of Labor - Children's Bureau (1944)
The Etiquette of Engagement and Marriage Describing Modern Manners and Customs of Courtship and Marriage, and giving Full Details regarding the Wedding Ceremony and Arrangments by G. R. M. Devereux (published 1903) - this was a riot and deserves its own blog post
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel  Hawthorne - I liked this way more as an adult than as a high schooler
Big Trouble by Dave Barry - I've reread this a lot but it's always a treat

New Home, New Projects

I realize that it has been a long time since I posted.

During my fall semester went back home to MA to recover from an illness. During my recuperation I did a lot of writing/crocheting (made 2 afghans and several scarves in about 2 months). When I was feeling better, I took on a part time job as a barista, which got me to appreciate coffee a little more (in the form of good lattes and mochas - yum).*

Right now I am making an afghan composed of 20 square blocks. Each block has 3 "V" shapes from the lower left corner going in, each of a different color, and a small square of a 4th color in the upper right-hand corner. I used 4 variegated yarns (Lion Brand Homespun), so there are subtle variations from square to square, and I'm looking forward to figuring out how to show off those variations.

As of yesterday I'm also teaching myself how to make granny hexagons. Granny squares and hexagons are small pieces which are sewn together to make bags, afghans, scarves, etc. Traditionally they are a "beginner's" project" and are used to use up yarn remnants. Despite learning how to crochet at age 12, I had never attempted to make one, but I found some cheap navy acrylic yarn near our cat toy stash (go figure) and decided - why not?

Hope to post pictures of my projects soon.

* For years, I almost exclusively drank tea. Coffee was something I drank when no acceptable tea was available, or as an energy drink before class. I guess now I am joining the millions of 20-somethings who throw money at Starbucks for premium espresso drinks.

4th of July 2012

A recap of how I spent the 4th. Click the link to read more.

Summer Goals for Med Surg

I just started my Medical Surgical Nursing class today. Unlike the 3 previous classes I've had, this one will last 7 weeks and will be very, very content-dense. The basic schedule is class 2 days a week (9-5 or so) and 24 hours of clinical. I got assigned 12-hour shifts, so it might be more intense but I'm sure I will learn a lot.

This class will definitely require more study time, but I am continuing to focus my summer goals on my personal life. The times that school has become miserable for me have been when my personal life is overtaken by classwork and stress. Right now, I am focusing on eating well, working on my novel, and practicing my drawing.

Jeans Success

As I posted/ranted about last week, one of my summer challenges had been finding new jeans. The Ann Taylor petite skinny jeans that I wore about 3 times/week were veering dangerously close to the stage where they would get holes in embarrassing places, and one of my pairs of Chico's jeans had faded from dark navy to light/medium blue, gotten baggy-ish, and had paint stains.

Before I went to Macy's today, I had tried on jeans at Gap, Chico's, Sears (including Kardashian jeans), Old Navy, Nordstrom Rack, and even K-Mart.

At Macy's, I tried on stuff from Levi's, Not Your Daughter's Jeans, Else, and one other brand. For a while, I had avoided the NYDJ brand out of principle. Perhaps it was ageist of me, but since I'm too young to have a teenage daughter, the thought of owning NYDJ jeans was more embarrassing than having Kardashian jeans. But my mom thought that the NYDJ jeans would fit me, and since she is the sewing/clothing expert in the family, I decided to try them out.

Shopping as a Teen and as a 20-Something

I have many alternately fond and terrifying memories of experimenting with fashion and makeup as a teenager. My best friends in middle school, who were far ahead of me at this, were always letting me in on the unknown (to me) rules of Girl World. One of these rules was that you could not "preview" an outfit at school the day of a dance. Your dance outfits were apparently supposed to be kept secret until sundown. But they gave me these tidbits of advice, most of the time, in a supportive manner. At least as supportive as 13-year-old girls are capable of being.

Unpacking at the House

 By the time I arrived at the house on Friday, the movers were almost done loading the boxes in the house. This meant I got to help my sister-in-law unpack the kitchen stuff, so I organized the dishes and mugs on the table and let her decide where to put them. The house has a huge amount of cabinet space compared to the old apartment, so fortunately we weren’t worried about having enough space, just how to use it best.

            By the end of the evening, we were sitting around the table with a friend of my brother and SIL’s, drinking beer and alternately discussing the fate of the world and what show(s) Big Bro and SIL should start watching (Mad Men, and possibly Game of Thrones).

Halfway Through Class #3!

(Warning to the squeamish – includes my account of placing a catheter in a mannequin for the first time).

            Friday was a very big day for the family. My brother and SIL moved into the new house. They hired movers, which took away one of the most difficult pieces of moving, remarking that this was an important new level of adulthood: hiring movers instead of asking friends to help in exchange for pizza.

            While Big Bro and SIL oversaw the moving process, I took my first closed-book exam at Villanova. It was going to happen soon enough, but it ended up being a lot less stressful than I thought it would be.

            Right now I’m taking Nursing Process, which covers a lot of basic nursing skills, like giving medications, bed baths, transfers, and urinary catheters. Yes, catheters.

Physical Assessment Lab Final/Uniforms

This week was the second week of Physical Assessment. We spent Monday-Wednesday learning pulmonary and cardiovascular assessment, and musculoskeletal/neurological assessment. So far, so good. I keep reminding myself that listening to heart/lung sounds on a (very) healthy 20-something is very different from hearing them on a very large, or very old person. (The more tissue you have around your chest, the fainter your heart/lung sounds).

Today was the lab final, which went well in the end (got 48/50 points), even though I was nervous about it going in. The way it worked is that my lab partner and I went into an exam room, and I logged into the computer in the exam room. Our lab instructor, who was in another room, told us she was ready. Through a loudspeaker. Depending on your metaphor preference, it was like the G-d voice or Big Brother. Instead of watching over my shoulder, she watched me via two cameras in the ceiling. What was odd was that I didn't feel self-conscious about being watched during the exam itself; hearing the G-d voice was a little startling.

After the lab final, I went into another room in the lab/clinical practice floor to buy my student uniform. The pictures of nursing students on my school's website featured people in pinstripe oxford shirts and navy slacks. I was less than thrilled. I didn't want to press slacks or wear a button-down shirt tucked into slacks. Button-down shirts, especially unisex ones, just don't work for my body type.

But the uniform has apparently been updated. Now we wear navy scrub pants, a navy t-shirt with our school's seal on the sleeve, and a white short-sleeved jacket with the school seal that looks like a less formal lab coat. I was pleased, once I finally found pieces in my size to try on. The uniform people brought a range of sizes (XS-XXXL), but most of the girls who came from the morning lab section were sizes XS-M, and some were XXS, so trying to find a small in anything was chaotic. But I ordered two elastic-waist cargo scrub pants (I have a drawstring pair of scrub pants from Brandeis Chabad, and think the elastic waist fit me better), two t-shirts, the white jacket, and two name pins (in case one gets lost/broken. And in a few weeks, I'll be signing my name with VUSN (Villanova U. Student Nurse) after it, which is pretty exciting.

House Weekend

In terms of nursing school news, my Physical Assessment class is going very smoothly. My lab partner and I aced our vitals midterm (we had to take each other's vitals - temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and respirations). The next day, I aced my lecture midterm and then had lunch with a dear aunt. Brother and I had dinner at a charming bar a few hundred feet away from the apartment. I was told that Magners cider is a "girly" drink. I reminded Big Bro of one of my favorite mixed drinks, Cranberry Vodkas, which I think are clearly in the top five of girly drinks.

Moving day is fast approaching, so I helped my brother with some packing Friday night, and Saturday we put down primer in my future room (he did the tape and tarp). Brother, SIL, and I went to Lowe's to get some more painting supplies and pick window treatments (there are lots of windows in the house, and many of them are very tall). My favorite quote of the evening: "we will keep the blinds [in the basement windows] closed FOREVER." (Emphasis added).

This morning through this afternoon, the three of us primed the guest room (on the same floor as my future room), and then painted my room and the guest room.* The paint for my room looked light, light blue on the chip, but ended up a darker cooler than expected. But it was a beautiful color, so I don't care. Likewise, the light green for the guest room looks more yellow on the walls than on the chip, but not in a bad way, so we are considering both paint jobs done.

Tonight, we're getting falafel and frozen yogurt for dinner, and then watching Coming to America at the apartment. I'm excited.

* = To be accurate, Bro and I painted my room; Bro and SIL painted the guest room while I ran out to get my groceries.

Week 2 of Nursing School: Keep Calm and Carry On

When I started nursing school, I certainly expected long class hours and to go through the material very quickly, and prepared myself for an increased level of stress from my event coordinator job at a church. But I also make a conscious effort to focus on what I am learning in the present, and to not overthink future events, such as exams.
This does not mean that I slack off on my readings or studying. Rather, I try to focus on what I am learning each day, and not to worry about the exact composition of each exam. When I get a written assignment, I read the question and the paper's requirements, and proceed.

What bugs me about my program is the amount of class time in which people ask professors about what they need to study for each exam, what the exam questions are like, and how they should write a paper whose grade counts for 5% of the total class grade. As a detail-oriented person, I understand where these questions are coming from. I have always been very picky about my writing. What I don't get is why 30 minutes of class time is spent on these questions. Listening to people agonize over these things puts me on edge, and makes it harder to keep myself cool and collected.

When I go home, I look over my task list for the day, and sit down in the living room to do my work. Today, I punched out my 1-2 page assignment on patient learning while watching Parks & Recreation with my sister-in-law. It was incredible how much easier it felt to write that paper in a relaxed environment than when I was listening to people analyzing the rubric letter by letter. Likewise, I practice doing my blood pressure at home so that I'm not distracted by other people talking about how stressed they are about taking vitals.

Tomorrow is my lab midterm (doing vitals) and learning how to do an abdominal exam. Hopefully I can follow my stress-reduction mindset tomorrow morning and ignore other people's pre-midterm jitters.

Summer 2012 Resolutions - Food

As part of my pre-nursing school physical and lab work (CBC, titers for measles, mumps, and rubella, etc), my doctor had my cholesterol checked. The total (non-fasting) was high, so she had me do a fasting lipids test. My good cholesterol was very high, but my bad cholesterol was also high, so I saw a nutritionist before moving to Philadelphia.

Since I only ate meat about 1-2 times a week in Boston (because I only eat kosher meat) and I will only rarely eat meat in Philly (my SIL is vegetarian so there is never meat in the house), the main things I have to cut down on are cheese and eggs. In addition, I am trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, as well as "good" fats, such as olive oil.

To help keep myself on track, I am going to make myself a list of foods to stock up on:

Friday Night at the Appliance Store

My first "official" day in the nursing school building, and my brother and SIL's adventures in home improvement. 

First Day in Philly

Tuesday morning, I somehow woke up at 6 AM, which startled my brother. For years he made fun of me for sleeping in on non-school/work days, and apparently expected me not to be up until much later. But I think the thrill of being in a new city and the large amount of sunlight that comes through my window gave me the inspiration to get out and explore. I had spent a week in Philly during February break my senior year at Brandeis, so I had already seen the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Franklin Institute, and the new American Jewish history museum. It seemed appropriate to go to a place off the "standard" list.
Having read Swallow by Mary Cappello, which discusses the life of Dr. Chevalier Jackson, who developed nonsurgical techniques for extracting swallowed objects, I filed the Mütter Museum away as a potential destination. The Mütter has a set of drawers with all of the objects Jackson extracted, along with shelves of skulls, wax models of organs, and skeletons highlighting the effects of disease and trauma. For a nursing student who spent hours skimming Wikipedia pages on surgeries and diseases while working in a preoperative clinic, I had to see the Mütter.

The first takeaway I had from the museum was how much has changed in medicine and health (in the U.S.). Most of the full skeletons on display, which had been prepared in the mid-to-late 1800s were around my height (5' 2"). There were also a remarkable number of people in their 20s (and much younger) who died from now treatable infections, such as TB, and also several disturbing examples of rickets and osteomalacia (bone diseases caused by lack of vitamin D). At the same time, there was a display of spines curved abnormally from osteoporosis, and an exhibit on gunshot wounds during the Civil War. Though we have better treatments for gunshot wounds (particularly to prevent infection), there are still obviously many people who are permanently disabled or killed by guns, and the guns we have now are more destructive than those in the Civil War. My reflections at the museum, though, were lightened by the middle school group that was present. It was difficult to think too long about current medical and societal issues when there were fifteen preteen girls periodically commenting, "EW, GROSS" at the tissue samples and wax models.

After the museum, I had sushi for lunch, treating myself to some Philly rolls. Authentic Japanese sushi? Of course not. But cream cheese and smoked salmon with wasabi and soy sauce is a pleasant mixture of flavors and textures. On the way back to my brother's apartment, I stopped at the Superfresh in Society Hill to stock up on groceries. I was surprised to find that a lot of the produce was not fresh, to the point where I could detect the smell of turning lettuce, and stuck to non-produce. During my time at Brandeis, I used to complain to my mother that the produce section at the Waltham Hannaford was inadequate compared to the farmstand/grocery where she got our fruits and vegetables. Now I see that Hannaford was just fine, but there is hope in the form of a Whole Foods that is also within reasonable walking distance.

 I am surprised at how quickly I am starting to feel settled in, but I think a large part of it was this walking adventure - it was a good 1.5 miles or so walk each way, long enough to see changes from neighborhood to neighborhood but short enough that it didn't feel like something from Oregon Trail.

Today, I slept in, hung out with the cats*, and was introduced to Parks and Recreation by my SIL. Tomorrow, I get to familiarize myself with SEPTA by taking my first trip on the regional rail to Villanova. Classes haven't started yet, but tomorrow is Laptop Distribution day. I am not super excited about the computer itself (it's going to be a Dell, and I'm a Mac person), but I think it will be useful to have a school computer and a fun computer. As long as it stays alive, it'll be fine.

* = Brother and SIL have two cats, a compact, rounded tabby and a black cat. Both have taken to me pretty quickly, perhaps because my room has one of their food dishes.
More info on Swallow: http://www.swallowthebook.com/book.html