Living Vegan: shower and skin care

I've been a vegan for over 20 years. All of my close friends are vegan (with a handful of vegetarians in the group), and I don't remember what it's not to NOT be vegan. It's the only normal I know.  I routinely get asked the same series of questions by those starting out on their vegan path, and each time I type up long, detailed diatribes in response to the email or IM, I tell myself that I should get organized and save my responses, so I don't have to keep typing out the same things.  One slight problem with that is that products and ingredients change quite often, so that what might have been a great vegan guide in 2015 no longer works in 2017.  For example, a few years ago, Mary Kay and Avon both had some vegan-friendly products, but both have since resumed animal testing, rendering all of their products cruel and non-vegan.  Some of the products I loved years ago, I've tried to move away from, because though they are still technically vegan, the once small ethical companies get purchased by the big conglomerates, and I try to keep my money from supporting them.

On the one hand, I can see why people find moving to a vegan lifestyle intimidating--all the label reading, things constantly changing, so you have to stay up on what's ethical and what's not.  On the other hand, even if you're not vegan, surely you already read labels with an eye for your health and/or the environment. If not, you should be! Your body and long-term health are far too important to blindly consume products without a full understanding of where and how they are made, what they are made of, and the various social/health/environmental implications involved. If you knew when you purchased your first car that it would be the only care you would ever be allowed to have for the rest of your life, I'm confident that most of us would be quite faithful about maintenance and the quality of the fuel and other fluids added. We have one body.  One. What you put into it and one it is vitally important to the long-term quality of life that you do (or do not) enjoy.  Read labels and shop wisely!
 

This says "NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS", which is helpful,
but doesn't necessarily mean vegan.
You still have to read ingredients on this one.

The Leaping Bunny logo (right below recycle logo)

I appreciate the vegan labels that make life a little easier. You don't have to read through all of the ingredients if you see either the leaping bunny logo or the V/Vegan logo. I know I have products with the vegan logo, but I just don't feel like searching all of my bottles and jars at the moment. 

In this country, money has become the only thing that matters or confers any power or authority.  The only power or vote you have in this world is how and where you spend your money.  Use your very limited power and vote on the world you want with your shopping habits.

Part of being vegan, perhaps the biggest part, is not consuming any animal products.  That's probably a little more straightforward that the rest of being vegan.  We don't use any products that contribute in any way to animal suffering or exploitation.  Since most of the major drug store/grocery store brands do  a significant amount of animal testing, those are all off the table.  After eliminating the animal tested products, then it's time to check ingredients. There are a lot of ingredients to watch for, and don't burn yourself out trying to go from 0 to perfect in a week.  Start by eliminating the big, obvious, non-vegan ingredients:  gelatin, honey, beeswax, lanolin, etc.  Once you're feeling confident with that, and it starts to feel easy, then you can dig into the less obvious stuff:  carmine/cochineal, collagen, etc.

I'll start with highlighting some of the products we use.

I use the empty container to mix the  "shampoo".
First 2 TBSP of baking soda with water;
then with about 6 TBSP of red vinegar with water to wash my hair.

Large jar in the back is coconut oil. I buy in bulk and fill
smaller containers.
The Marrakesh and Zoe oils are from VC.
routine deodorant rocks!

HAIR:  I haven't used shampoo for many, many years.  I switched to the no 'poo (baking soda and vinegar) method a long time ago and will never go back to shampoo. I spent my entire life trying to get rid of split ends (I don't treat or style my hair, so it drove me nuts that I always had split ends!), and nothing worked until I quit shampoo.  I do still use conditioner, but I've been looking into trying to get away from that (switching to various oil treatments instead).  My hair is very dry (VERY!), curly, with a tendency to frizz, so I've been wimpy about trying to move away from conditioner. I've used Jason's brand primarily for years, though I think the quality has degraded in the last decade.  I get a nice variety of hair products through my Vegan Cuts box, so I usually have a variety of hair oils, masques, conditioners, etc., that I really enjoy using. If they're fantastic, I order them on my own. I really enjoy getting to try a variety of good quality vegan products.  I don't enjoy shopping or wandering through stores, so I would never be exposed to or try many of the new vegan brands that I've been exposed to through VC.  (Not paid or compensated in any way. I just really like their boxes.)

Because I do have long, curly, dry hair, the only product I use for stying is coconut oil (or any of the VC hair oil products).  On occasion, I get other hair styling products from them, and my daughters are happy to use them up.  If my hair lays okay, I leave it down. If it lays strangely or looks too big, it goes into a pony tail. That's the extent of my hair efforts.

I have tried perhaps all of the natural deodorants through the years and found most of them (just like the non-natural deodorants) to be fairly ineffective. I finally found one that works for me, and it was through my Vegan Cuts box. I fell in love with the Routine brand deodorant that they sent me, and ordered more as soon as it ran out. It seems quite expensive for deodorant, but it takes a very tiny amount to do the job, so it lasts for a very long time. 

CLEANSING:  I've enjoyed a huge variety of Vegan Cuts skin care products, and I'm glad to see such a variety of quality products available. My go-to cleanser is Say Yes to Coconuts (my daughter uses Say Yes to Carrots). I use a night cream and a day cream with sunscreen, and those brands change constantly. I like to experiment.  I use coconut oil for makeup remover.

I have dry, sensitive skin, which is prone to eczema, so I have always used very gentle cleansing products. I always have Dr. Bronner's soaps in the shower, but also tend to rotate through a variety of other gentle, soap-free cleansers (many of the from VC).  Despite having incredibly dry skin, I quit using traditional lotions many years ago and switched to coconut oil as my moisturizer.  My skin is less dry than it's ever been. My eczema breakouts are now extremely rare, and I no longer have those nasty bumps on the backs of my arms.

Any minor skin wounds or pimples get treated first with Tea Tree Oil (either the plain oil or the antiseptic ointment).

I think the product we've had the hardest time with is toothpaste. Each of us has had our preferences, and up until recently, we haven't agreed on the same brand.  Luciana is extremely picky about toothpaste and always has been. She used only baking soda for a couple of years, because she didn't like any of the brands that we were using.  Though I can buy different brands for each of us, life is a lot easier if we stick with one. We all agree on the Hello brand toothpaste. I really wish it didn't have fluoride. That is my only complaint. I'm still on the lookout for the perfect fluoride-free vegan toothpaste.

House updates

the new kitchen floor

We've had several projects done in the house over the last few months. After 20 years here, we had built up quite a long list of home improvement projects. Unfortunately, neither of us has the skills to complete any of the projects, leaving us at the brutal vagaries of working with contractors. We have a guy we love, and he's done most of our work here over the last five years.

matching bookshelves

The quality is untouchable. Our animals love him, and our kids call him "Uncle Mark", but like many contractors, he has some issues with deadlines and showing up reliably.  He's been on a tear for the last few months, so we've finally made some headway on our projects.  He's wrapping up the little details on the current group of projects (new windows throughout the house, new bookshelves in the front entryway, refurbish first-floor bathroom, new floors in kitchen, back entryway, bathroom, and basement family room and office area), though we've been sitting at around a 95% completion for almost three weeks now. I find the whole process

photo albums and fiction

incredibly stressful--rushing home and arranging to be here anytime he's able to work on something (only to be stood up routinely), picking out materials (so many decisions and research), making mistakes because I don't really know what I'm doing, living with constant messes, equipment, unusable areas in the house, etc.  I will be SO HAPPY when things are 100% done. That said, I have a whole new round of big projects to start as soon as he wraps up the little details and can commit to giving me some time again.

The number of animals we have definitely takes a toll on the house--floors, furniture--everything has to be able to take heavy, regular cleaning and gets pretty beat up.  We have lots of little repairs and maintenance work done regularly here, but we haven't done anything big since the second-floor bathroom remodel we did a few years ago. I love when the work is done, but the chaos of the work in process leaves me pretty crabby.

Our original windows were a mess. They were quite drafty and tough to open and close. We love the ease of the new windows, and I'm looking forward to the energy savings.

We are most happy with the new family room. We did not have enough seating to accommodate

non-fiction

having friends over (ours or our childrens'), and the seating we had was not very comfortable. The floor was a mess.  After the big flood a few years ago, the flooring was damaged, but I couldn't decide what I wanted to replace it, so I duct taped (duct tape fixes everything in my world) down the damaged seams and edges and tried not to look at it. It has been hideously ugly and unsuitable for our needs for years, but all the decisions, chaos, and stress kept me from doing anything. Finally, Luce complained about having friends over with a duct-taped floor. I felt so bad for putting it off this long. It's easy for Mark and I to not really notice or care, but kids don't like their friends to see things like that.  That comment was enough to get me moving!

One office area; there is another office area/sewing desk, but it's among
 the 5% in progress and not shown here yet.

We had floor to ceiling cabinets built in the office area, so all of the computer, office, and craft supplies can be stored dust-free and without the animals getting into things.  We needed new additional seating but also guest beds for when we or the kids have company, and it had to be inexpensive, easy to maintain, and able to take regular abuse. Instead of couches, I ordered two twin beds (steel frame and memory foam mattresses), which we arranged in an L-shape. They work perfectly as comfy, room sectional-type couch with lots of room for all of the humans and animals to spread out. The mattresses are phenomenally comfortable (they've already seen lots of sleepovers, including Mark and I spending a date night on them to assess the comfort level); so much so, that we will soon replace our mattress with a king-size version of these (really affordable, light, easy to set up, absolutely perfect).  The new mattress will cost 1/5 what our current mattress cost, and it's at least as comfortable as our mattress when we bought it (it hasn't been comfortable for years), and we will be able to carry it upstairs all by ourselves.

This is the same floor as the kitchen, but this photo makes it look darker.

w i d e s p r e a d

I learned that there are not just one-hole or three-hole sinks.  There are also widespread three-hole sinks.  There are fewer faucet options for the widespread sinks, and they all cost more than the standard. I learned this after purchasing a widespread three-hole sink, and a regular faucet. I had to switch to a different model, because the one I loved and picked out didn't come in a the widespread version. It also left us without a functional bathroom for an extra five days.  I will never make that mistake again.  I'm really happy with how the bathroom turned out in the end.

Lila's favorite spot in the world

Hail seitan

I have a different schedule this semester, which allows me to be home on Thursdays. Since I had finished my grading for the week earlier than expected, I had the afternoon to myself and decided to get a jump on some of my weekend kitchen chores. I needed to make dog food and seitan--neither of which I really enjoy making, so I planned to get a big batch of each made yesterday.


We've been having a lot of work done on the house for the last couple of months (everything takes FOREVER, because contractors--UGH!), so generally when I'm home during the day, he's either here working, or I'm expecting him (I'm often stood up). I knew I was going to be alone in the house (love that!), so I took some caffeine (a rare treat for me these days), played my Pandora Prince station way too loud, and spent the afternoon cooking, dancing, and singing badly.

I use the seitan recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. Isa has another seitan recipe posted on PPK here, but this is not the same as the one in the book that I use. I've found that for me the trick to making seitan is making sure I always keep prepared veggie broth in the fridge. The broth needs to be cold, or the gluten gets far too sticky, and it's quite frustrating to get started and then realize that you have to halt everything, because you don't have cold veggie broth. After I get the seitan prepared and simmering, I make up the veggie broth for the next batch, and seal and refrigerate. Then I always have it on hand and ready to go. I make a big batch of it--one bag of Bob's VWG makes 2.5 batches of the recipe, which is almost six pounds (14 cups). I package it up in 1, 2, and 3-cup containers and freeze it. There's a pretty strong expectation that once I make a new batch of seitan, shepherd's pie (my husband's favorite dish) with spicy cashew gravy will follow within the week. I've been craving jerk, so that will be coming soon, too.  

Kneaded, forming equal size pieces to simmer

Seitan (front) and dog food done cooking. Seitan has to stay in pot until it cools.

Seitan chopped, measured, and ready to freeze.

Dog food ready to freeze/refrigerate.

The very helpful cleanup crew

Veggie broth; ready to refrigerate for the next batch of seitan.

As I was snapping pictures, I took a quick shot of my very favorite kitchen tool--this little Ninja chopper. I picked it up a very long time ago at Target, and they still sell them for under $20. I use this every single day. It's powerful, easy to clean up, and has saved me so much time. Almost every dish I make starts out with finely chopped onions, garlic, and/or ginger. Though I have a big food processor (the Ninja blender/processor system, which is also fantastic), it's a real pain to get that out to mince a few cloves of garlic or an onion. This little thing sits on my counter, and I can do a 30-second rinse, and re-use for the next item. It's powerful enough that I often use it to make oat and almond flours as well as to completely pulverize the very crunchy cat kibble (for our toothless cat Daffy). It is seriously the best $20 I've spent.

I should add that I'm not compensated in any way by Ninja. I don't blog reliably enough to roll that way, nor could I live with myself if I sold out like that. I just really love the product and think for anyone who cooks, it's invaluable. When my last blender died (A KitchenAid, who I contacted to get it repaired but got no response from the company at all. They don't support their products, I don't buy them any more). I did a ton of research and went with the Ninja system for the following reasons: their chopper is awesome; we have a Shark Ninja vacuum that has put our old Dyson to shame (will never buy another--the parts are poor quality that need constant replacement), and they offered a lifetime warranty on their products if purchased through the website. I've been so happy with all of their products and customer support, that I purchase the Ninja duo system for my daughter for Xmas. They now only offer a five-year warranty rather than lifetime, but that's still quite impressive.

Poppy in Proximity

Franklin

We lost our beloved cockatiel Franklin several weeks ago.  He was an old guy when we adopted him several years back, and this wasn't a surprise, but nonetheless a heartbreaking loss. While we've all grown attached to him, Poppy was his best friend and has suffered the greatest loss.  Poppy's parents, aunts, uncles, and Franklin were all quite old, and Franklin was the last of Poppy's flock.  We've had Max and Elvis (I have to point out that they came with these names--not my choice) for a couple of  years, and they came older and very pair bonded. They kept to themselves and didn't really mix into the existing flock. They never fought--just lived separate lives and spoke different dialects. I knew Poppy was going to take that last loss hard.  I've worried quite a bit over the last few months as I've seen the inevitable signs that Franklin was getting older and weaker. We went to the vet a couple of times, as he was losing weight, and each time, there was nothing wrong other than he was too thin and an old guy. Cockatiels can take loss so hard, that I really worry whenever one of them goes that the others will become depressed and/or ill.

Poppy and Franklin

 I was very concerned that without Franklin, Poppy would fall into loneliness and despair. He never seemed to like Max and Elvis, based on the disdain he showed them, so I didn't really see him integrating with them.

Elvis and Max

I have curiously observed Poppy's overtures at friendship over the last couple of weeks.  The first couple of weeks after his loss, he was quite depressed and stared at the wall a lot. He completely ignored Max & Elvis. I started spending a lot of time with him--singing and playing (which is mostly letting him pull on my nose ring or assault my face in various other ways) to cheer him up.  He started by watching them intently, sticking about three feet away from them (they previously usually stayed on different sides of the room).  He has progressively edged closer and now hangs within about a foot, sometimes less, of them.  Max & Elvis are rather strange, and they hang out in spots

Elvis, Max, Poppy (far right)

in the room that the other cockatiels never went.  Despite living in that room his whole life, Poppy has never played in the rabbit/guinea pig hay or the rabbits' box village, but suddenly he's just casually "hanging out" there by Max & Elvis.  They aren't yet including him, but they don't chase him away either, so the relationship is progressing slowly but positively. I've noticed a few times in the last week, that Poppy has made some slightly bolder advances--joining in when Max & Elvis "sing" with me (which is a different dialect from Poppy's repertoire) and even eating greens from the same plate as them.

I find this most interesting, because Poppy is a very confident, arrogant bird. He was raised with a loving flock that all took good care of him. He's always been cage free and feels like he owns the room.  The other cockatiels always catered to him ("the baby") and let him be the boss; he was a spoiled brat.  I didn't think he would humble himself to try to ingratiate himself into the other flock, but he most certainly is doing so. He's going about it in a very deliberate, conservative manner, and it's quite impressive. His need for connection is apparently more important than his need to be the boss, and he's playing a very different role than he has in the five+ years he's been alive.

I am planning to adopt some cockatiels, as soon as the right ones come into rescue.  It's rare that I only have three cockatiels.  They seem to prefer being in groups of 6-8.  I didn't want to take any chances on stressing Franklin, so I couldn't adopt anyone while Franklin was getting weaker.

For now, I've been spending extra time singing with Poppy. He really enjoys singing loud duets and taking turns repeating each other's tunes.  He is a little rude and domineering about it, frequently cutting me off in the middle of my turn, but in fairness, I'm a pretty awful singer. We both prefer his voice.

Sharing a photo of Sophie...

Dej took this photo this morning.  Sophie looks quite angelic.

There's no sunshine when he's gone

Ivan, the cat who started it all, died very unexpectedly Wednesday. We did not know he was sick until I came downstairs Weds. morning to find him lying in his box, looking "off".  I picked him up and he was limp with some yellow fluid around his mouth. My mom came to get us and rush us off to the vet, as I was too upset to drive safely and really needed to hold my baby.

His blood work was good and his heart was good, so it was tough to determine the cause of his obviously critical condition.  Our option at that point was to drive him to Madison for an ultrasound, which was not an option for me. He was in absolute agony, stressed, and I couldn't leave him like that for several more hours. My primary vet was not in, as he had been in the hospital the previous week and was still home recovering.

  They called him, though, and he volunteered to come in, and do surgery on Ivan. It was the best option for quickly figuring out what was going on and potentially repairing it. I will forever be grateful to him for coming in when he was feeling so poorly. I have serious trust issues and was falling apart over my baby, and I trust Dr. Mark implicitly. He is the only one who could have given me the comfort and assurance I needed to survive this without second guessing myself for the rest of my life. I'm fine with all the vets at the clinic, but he's been with me through so much for more than twenty years. I can count on one hand the number of people who I trust to that level. He's been with Ivan since the beginning, and even my grouchy Ivan trusted him and allowed him "touch privileges" which were accorded to very few people.

He had been given pain meds, so we had lots of time to snuggle and cuddle before the doctor arrived. I gave him hundreds of kisses on his little face (one of his favorite things since he was a kitten--he'd close his eyes and lean into the kisses; he even used to approach me and make a kiss noise, requesting his face kisses) and left him on the surgical table.

I had convinced myself that Dr. Nelson would repair him--after all he was healthy, with good blood work, and only turned 12 last month.  They quickly found the problem. Ivan had colon cancer, and one of the tumors had burst, leaving the colon wall open. There was nothing in the world that could be done to fix my little boy.  They did offer to bring him out of anesthetic, so we could say a final goodbye, but I couldn't even consider putting him through that terror, pain, and confusion, only to euthanize him after. While every fiber in my body ached for one more round of snuggles and kisses, it would have been supremely selfish.

I've loved Ivan since the day he was found newborn, abandoned in a driveway, on May 9, 2004.  He was my first cat, and the bond we shared was profound. Ivan always kept me in sight. Wherever I was, I could almost always count on finding Ivan somewhere within range--he may be hiding, but he was always close and watching. He had intense needs for cuddles, and if given the option, would be touching me 24 hours a day.  As long as he was touching me, he couldn't be happier.  He spent most of the rest of the time being grouchy and complaining. He loved his sisters and Mark and was extremely affectionate with them too.  Being the center of someone's universe is a huge responsibility and could be exhausting and even frustrating at times. It also means that he was a huge part of every second of my existence, and I'm absolutely lost with him. I look for him 100 times a day and am currently on my third day of a cry-induced migraine.

At this moment, life without him seems unfathomable. I will adjust eventually, but he's been my faithful shadow for 12 years, and I feel incredibly incomplete without him.

He always held my hand while he slept.

Happy birthday; "love's too weak to define just what you mean to me"

The semester is officially wrapped up and done, both for my classes and the high school classes I was working with.  I do have one remaining high school student who is "flexing" her semester through the summer to finish up some work and her project.  That's only one student, though, so it's not a ton of work for me.  I do have to finish up the website my college students started but couldn't find time to finish. It's very needed and for a local non-profit, so I don't want to leave them hanging. Right now, that and gardening are my top priorities.  I'll be really glad when that's wrapped up, so I can focus more on the garden, and a couple of classes I purchased but haven't yet had time to take.

We're in the midst of several painting projects in the house, and we have several more large repair projects that we need done over the summer, but are unqualified to do the work. We had a really good guy for a couple of years, but though the quality of his work is still outstanding, he flakes and can't be counted on at all anymore. I'm not sure what happened to him, but it's really a bummer.  I have a couple of numbers to call, but I haven't been able to make myself do so yet. I really need these projects done, but I hate phone calls and I hate start out with new people. Every day I try to make myself call, but the last couple I tried didn't turn out well, and it's just so incredibly stressful to interact with new people and to allow new people (non veg.!) in our home.  I would pay so much for a reliable vegan carpenter/handyperson! I anticipate this whole situation will be my "fly in the ointment" all summer.  It's so annoying to have a long list of jobs (at least three weeks of work), money to pay, and be unable to find appropriate help.

Over my long blogging absence, our Fergus bunny finally succumbed to one of many ailments he was getting pounded with. He was quite old and as often happens with the very aged, he started to get one illness after another.  We thought he would pull through the last one like he had all the others, but the little guy was just done. Fiona, his loving partner of 7 years, and I cared for him until the end. He was such a fun little guy and a great partner to Fiona. She lived without a partner, for the first time, for about a month.

I'm lucky to have a close friend with a rabbit sanctuary, so Fiona had a series of dates with some dapper rabbits of a variety of ages and sizes, and we were able to find a partner that was a good match.  Ferrero was her last of four or five dates, and they definitely had the best chemistry. I think she would have been happy with any of them.  She's a very chill rabbit and seems to be quite social with other animals of all species, and I've never seen any sign of aggression from her.  However, when the intent is to keep the rabbits in the same room for the rest of their lives, I'd like the rabbits to actually enjoy and not simply tolerate one another.

It took a little longer to get Ferrero moved in than we initially anticipated. We knew he had some health issues (neutering! and an ear amputation), but there were some complications/infections, and that added a little time to his recovery period. It was rough seeing her so lonely during those weeks. Her activity level dropped, and she was definitely depressed.  I gave her a large stuffed teddy bear, hoping at least having a soft body to sleep next to would help.  Finally Ferrero moved in, so we split the room in half, and let them interact that way while I was not in the room, with free access when I was there to observe.  After a several days of watching closely, I slowly extended their time out to include unsupervised time.  After a week, it was clear that they were not having any issues at all and really, really wanted to be together, so we removed the barrier, and they've been happy together since.

They both enjoy working on their bunny construction projects--putting doors and windows in very specific arrangements in a series of cardboard boxes and tubes, and then arranging the boxes and tubes in very specific ways that I don't really understand.  There is apparently a system, though, because if I move something, they make a point to hop over and rather rudely slam the box back into its designated spot. I swear there's a bit of an eye roll when they do it  ("Fucking dumb human. Clearly the Amazon box should be next to the Shark box, not the small box!").

Fiona has always had a raging sweet tooth.  They both loved their sweets (fruit and the sweeter veggies).  You could use Fiona to accurately rank the glycemic index of a grouping of fruits and veggies.  She will eat them always in order of most sweet to least.  While Fergus enjoyed his strawberry tops as much as Fi, he would mix up the order a bit--some strawberry tops, some greens, more strawberry tops, more greens, etc.  Not Fi. She eats from sweet to bitter--she even eats her mixed greens in this order, picking out the purples first, then moving to spinach, etc.  All that is to say that I think she's been a bad influence on Ferrero.  When he first came, he ate his greens, then his strawberry tops. I've noticed a gradual change, and the last couple of weeks, he eats all his strawberry tops before the greens now.

He's a sweet little guy, and I love him, but he's still warming up to me.  When he arrived, he had been through so much--brought into a shelter as a stray with a host of physical injuries, surgeries, medications, transferring homes--he's had a rough time.  He moved into yet another new environment, with a new person, and I had to give him antibiotic injections. He had no trust in me, so it was pretty brutal. He would run and try to hide in the corner, while I had to grab him and inject him between the shoulder blades.  He would cower and lean away like I was abusing him. I felt awful.  The injections are long since done, but now I have to build trust, as I violated it right off the bat.  He likes my feet, and headbutts my feet and legs a lot. I talk to him and and am slowly earning his trust as the food lady.  He's not really excited about my hands, yet.  We'll get there.  Slowly.

6/7/58-4/21/16

...And now you're gone and I just want to be still

So silent, I'll just let my senses sleep

It's gonna be so hard to hear my voice

If I ever learn once more to speak

I'm so lost, no one can find me

And I've been looking for so long

But now I'm done

I'm so low, solo, my name is No One
(Prince)

2016!

Obviously, I've continued to struggle with keeping up my blogging.  In the three months since my last post, the husband and I have each had a birthday, we survived another holiday season, one daughter graduated from college, and the other turned 16.  I'm on the second day of the new semester and thought I better blog now before the homework starts rolling in and I am snowed under with grading.

Breanna (Brea) the puppy:

Brea is seven months old now.  She was spayed at the end of December, and we enjoyed one night where she was exceptionally quiet and mellow.  She rebounded from the surgery quickly, and by the next day was already tearing around like the insane little pup she is. She and Froggie have continued their very sweet relationship.  They are inseparable.  She's grown quite a bit (we had to move her up to a larger collar and a larger diaper size) but is still much smaller than we had expected her to be.  She won't grow much more at this point.  We have gotten really good at changing diapers on a constantly moving puppy!

Sophie, Brea, Froggie

I am trying to train her to use potty bells, as she is able to hold it somewhat, but to a very limited extent.  It would be nice if she could let us know when she needs to go, rather than sticking to an schedule of putting her out every 90 minutes or so to try to catch it.  She was initially quite afraid of the bells, but after two months, she is no longer afraid, so I'm trying to get her to interact with them. She doesn't really like the idea at this point, but I think she'll catch on eventually.

Graduation:

Finally!

Dej's graduation was long awaited, and we're very proud of her. She ended college on a very high note--good grades, a strong work ethic, a completed internship, good connections, a love of learning, and a passion for her future career.  Now she's working on the very difficult task of finding employment.  It's a rough time of year, but she's committed and will find something.

Sadly, we have discussed changing her name on her application materials.  We still live in a world in which her (ethnic-sounding) name significantly impacts her ability to find a job.  I hate giving in to that, and I'm glad the final decision is hers. I wouldn't want to have to make that decision.

Dej's boyfriend got her this sweater for Xmas.

Another reason I have a hard time blogging is that some stories are not my own to tell, even though they may monopolize my life, thoughts, and energy.  One of those stories has been behind significant changes in our lives.  Dej and her long-term partner split up earlier last year.  He has been part of our family for a long time, and this has been a difficult adjustment for all of us.  They continued living together until her college graduation. It made more sense to share expenses and keep the animals intact until we reached a point where they could deal with moving and selling the house.  The split was hard on everybody, though at this point, they have both moved on and are involved with other people, M & I (and my parents) are still kind of sad and struggling with it.

Until she finds a permanent job and knows where she will be geographically, it doesn't make much sense to get her set up somewhere with her dog and four cats, only to have to move again when she gets a job.  So, she moved back home right before the holidays.  I spent a few months in extreme stress over the chaos of fitting all of her stuff, her animals, and all of our very big personalities and moods into our house.  It has turned out so much better than I had anticipated.

We're really enjoying having her back home. It was great to have so much time together over the holidays.  Integrating the animals hasn't been nearly as painful as I thought it would be either. There have been some spats and a little more territory urination, but it's been shockingly smooth for the most part.

The biggest loss for me has been my workout room.  That has been my joy, my sanctuary, and now it's her bedroom.  I now work out in the living room.  I miss the padded floor, the privacy, the neatly organized weights/videos/etc.--my little sanctuary.  It's not the end of the world, though, and when Dej is home (she's spends a lot of time in Michigan with her partner), she works out with me, which is really cool!

Back to School:

Still inseparable.

Today is the first day of the third week of my semester. Typically I hit my groove and settle into the semester around the third week, but the flu hit our household last week (horrible timing!), and I had to cancel a day of classes and spend a few days in bed.  This has kind of thrown me off, and I feel a little behind and out of sorts yet.  I think once I get through next week, I should be settled into the routine nicely. All three of us got it (Dej was in MI with her boyfriend, so she missed it), so I'm hoping we have our major illness out of the way for this year.

Campus is very different, with about 1/3 of our already very small staff gone.  It's still rather depressing and hard to come in.  Everyone is still walking around looking/feeling rather shell shocked.  It's such a tragedy to see first hand the devastation that Walker has inflicted on the state's educational system.  

In addition to my full-time teaching, and the local high school class I'm working with (I did give in and agree to do the grading as a volunteer; there's just no one else to do it.), I agreed to help out with two online computer science classes for another high school in the state.  With all of the teacher cuts throughout the state, many districts have been forced to purchase online curriculum from virtual schools in other states (mostly Florida, which explains the nauseatingly poor quality of these courses).  Many schools have no computer science or foreign language teachers, so to fill in the curriculum gaps, they bought these really bad courses, enrolled students, and then subsequently realized that the courses are not good at all; there are underlying technology problems; the students still need a human to answer questions (especially in a programming class!), grade their work, and provide feedback.  This is the role I've taken on.  I truly don't have time, but I know that I was their very last hope, and I couldn't walk away from the poor kids, who are stuck in a class they've put so much time into.  It's created a lot of stress, because it's one more thing that I'm perpetually behind on.