Your questions, my answers
Time for another episode of me answering questions from the comment section!
Kim said:
I'd love to hear about the plexiglass stand you have above your PC keyboard. I would assume it's very helpful in keeping dust and debris off your keyboard. And makes a great stand for food and drink, obviously. 😉 But how much does it get in the way of your hands when you're typing?
That is actually a product designed to cat-proof a keyboard. As any cat-owner knows, keyboards are irresistible, and Chiquita had stepped on my "delete" and "backspace" buttons one too many times. 😉
So, I reluctantly plunked down over $50 for what is essentially a small plexiglass table. My hands fit under it just fine, and it doesn't hinder my typing at all; it is just mildly annoying when I want to reach for the mouse.
However, that is not nearly as annoying as having your keys stepped on.
Chiquita does sometimes use this as a lying-down spot, which is actually pretty inconvenient because then I can't see my keys at all. I mostly touch-type, but when I'm doing a bunch of keyboard shortcuts and moving off of the alphabet keys, I do like to be able to see what I am doing!
Also, if it's getting close to time for pate, she stands on the plexiglass and swishes her tail in my face, and this is 0% helpful. Sometimes I just have to kick her out of the office and shut the door.
So, I don't know...I'd say this product is helpful, but it doesn't entirely solve cat/keyboard problems.
Speaking of cats, Anita asked for a photo of Miss Shelley:
Next! Dori asked:
So, what did you think about how the polenta leftovers did traveling to your work for your lunch that day? Did that work well for you? It certainly sounded delicious!
Yes! It worked surprisingly well, and I will add this into my rotation.
Next time, I will cook the polenta until it is extra firm, though, because the sausage and tomato sauce on top adds a fair amount of moisture.
Joyce said:
I've never tried kombucha but I know some people swear by it and even make their own. I'd be interested to know if you feel any difference in your gut health. And how often do you drink it?
During normal times, I drink kombucha very sporadically. But right now I'm drinking a bottle maybe every other day, because I was recently sick with a slow-to-leave GI bug.
My digestive system feels 99% back to normal now, but of course, I do not have data to compare how I would have fared without the kombucha!
However...there is some data showing that it is beneficial for the human gut, and there's also a pretty well-established benefit to consuming probiotics, which are in kombucha, yogurt, and other fermented foods.
It's not as well-studied as one would hope, but I figure that it's a pretty low-risk thing to try. Maybe it won't be a magic bullet, but at bare minimum, it's not going to hurt me.
Jan said:
I'm curious if you feel that the courses you are taking to get your degree are useful at all, or are they mostly busywork. What has been the most valuable to you and what has been the least valuable so far?
Welllllllll.....I would say it's been about 95% busy work.
I have gotten faster at APA formatting, searching and skimming journal articles, and making PowerPoint presentations, but those are mainly just busy-work survival skills.
A lot of the nursing-related topics we are covering are areas I am not faintly interested in pursuing. For instance, we learned about nursing management, but I don't want to be a manager. We covered nursing informatics, but that kind of work is my idea of hell.
Some of the topics are just repeats of what I already covered in my RN program too; for instance, we had an extensive social determinants of health project at the community college, where I researched and presented on the resources in my county. And this week in my current class, I had to write a discussion post outlining the resources in my county. I'M BORED. I ALREADY DID THIS!
Almost none of my classes are on topics that directly impact bedside patient care. Since bedside patient care is what I like, these BSN classes feel irrelevant. My RN classes? Totally different! I needed those to help prepare me for nursing.
I haven't yet met an RN-to-BSN student who felt the classes were interesting or useful, so my experience seems pretty typical. It's just a hoop we have to jump through to be considered more valuable and competent.
(And it is also necessary so that down the road, I can get a master's degree for teaching at a nursing school.)
Ok! I think I'm caught up now, except for one about my blogging routine, and I think I'll just answer that one in a separate post.
The Shelley pucture was wirth waiting for! Cute.
Just wonde4ing if tou already fiund a concert to go to once you hit week zero?
Have a good week ahead everyone!
Note to self: don't try to write in the middle of a hot and busy day.
I can! spell!
When I was looking after my friend's cat last week, the cat would sit on the side of the sofa and swish her tail when she wanted some food. It was ticklish but less annoying than when she woke me up at 5 for her breakfast haha! Of course, I forgave her because she was so utterly adorable and purred on my lap. I know I've made this pun before, but Chiquita wants to keep an eye on the mouse!
I hope you can take a small trip or do something with friends once this busy stretch is over!
I drink occasional kombuchas too, with the same idea in mind - low-stakes probiotics opportunity with a zippy taste. But I'm with you thinking it would be nice if there was more research, specifically into the commercially prepared booch. Some of them have so much sugar relative to what they offer, for those of us who have keep an eye on sugar. I used to make my own water kefir and it was nice to be able to have a sense of the amount of sugar that was consumed by the yeast and bacteria (producing carbonation) instead of me.
But on a hot summer day, I do love a little ginger kombucha : )
For a while I was making my own kombucha. I looked through the shelves of commercial kombucha for one with a scoby in it, and then propagated it to make my own in a "continuous brewer" (essentially a large dispenser where you drew kombucha off the bottom and fed the top with sweet tea and flavoring--I used dried cherries for flavor.
While you use a lot of sugar in the tea, my husband was working at the time as an assistant wine maker in a commercial winery, and he ran the labs for my homemade brew. I drew off every 7 days and there was only about 2% residual sugar in the final brew. The sugar feeds the scoby, not the drinker.
I did this for a couple of years, but got tired of the routine, and having to deal with the scoby that might weigh a pound or more when I did my semi-annual separation. But I enjoyed it for a long time (my kids thought it looked disgusting!).
Our three shelter boys (adopted all a once, having shared the same kennel for two years) came with a nailed on 4:30 AM breakfast time. Our best guess is that that's when a shelter volunteer swung by to feed everyone before heading to work. There's no getting back to sleep when a full trio is taking turns sitting on your chest and pawing your face! 😛 It's a good thing I was already a morning person. *
*My husband is a non-morning person who can sleep through ANYTHING. Storms severe enough to down trees, hungry cats, every alarm known to man, you name it. Lucky! ;P
Oh my! 4:30 is a very early breakfast time.
My Betty, also a shelter cat, thinks nothing of asking for breakfast at 3 am. And Betty and I also want to know this: When Kristen starts teaching Chiquita to play the piano, will her first tune be "Kitten on the Keys"? (OK, everyone can groan now. 😛 )
My sister's cat wakes her up at 4 for breakfast, which seems like a lie-in compared to Betty!
I personally hope Chiquita and Shelley do something akin to this on the piano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khvaIwonxUk
Also, Madame from that film has been life goals since I was approximately four years old!
Our sweet Dora jumps on DH at 5:30 am to order her breakfast. It's hard to sleep through 15 pounds of cat hitting you at high velocity. 😀
I get a pass because she sleeps most of the night right next to me. On my foot if she can manage it, which is not too comfortable.
A born-deaf relative had an alarm that would give small pats on the cheek. I am not sure if you increase the impact of the pat, similar to increasing the volume for hearing people.
My kids might need the equivalent of a punch. Hehe. I wish I slept as deeply as they do!
Thanks so much for answering my question, Kristen!! And I learned just how "helpful" a cat can try to be when we're on a P.C. 😅
I LOVE that you adopted all three cats together, N!!! Awwwww... 🥰
We went to meet ONE cat that I spotted on the shelter website, but immediately realized upon entering the kennel that we were dealing with a bonded trio. We're very happy suckers. ;P Since the last member of our original feline trio (my husband had two cats when we first met, I had one) had recently passed, we just hit "reset" all at once!
I adopted siblings (two). Better half gets up earlier than I do and does *not* feed them. They and the established cat (as well as her late buddy) learned no food until I get up. I do often have three of them waiting for me when I come out of the bathroom.
I will say I go to bed later than better half. Most of the time there is some dry food still in their bowls.
LOL, you said "boys" and "kennel" and I was picturing you keeping children in a kennel. I had to read further to figure out these were ---cats????
Oh, I forgot my question!
You've mentioned adding a lawn service to make life easier (as you should and deserve!). Are there any other services/costs you've added OR decreased/cut while nursing to simplify life? (Example: A streaming service you never have time to watch, etc.) If so, which ones have made the biggest difference?
Kristin, I have a question. We've recently left a church we'd been at for over 15 years, and knowing the bits you've shared here on your blog (and maybe reading between the lines), I'm wondering about your church insights. When we left our church (due to what we believed were some very unhealthy leadership frameworks), we were looking for some key things that would be different in whatever new church we visited and/or transplanted to. These were informed by our painful experiences in our old church. It seems like you were equally rooted in your church community, but that their views of women/marriage were unhealthy to the extent that it encouraged you to stay in an unhealthy/emotionally abusive marriage for far longer than was good for you/your family. If you were searching for a new church, what top characteristics would you look for? Sometimes it's difficult to know unless you know. A church community can be really warm and inviting and make you feel at home right away but display subtle indicators that there are some practices that are harmful when seen in the right circumstances. What are those indicators/red flags that you can see, having lived in/through it?
I'm also curious if you've ever listened to the podcast series "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill"? It was tremendously helpful for us as we made sense of our concerns/hurt. Since I've seen you mention extreme complementarianism hurting women, I thought there would be aspects of Mark Driscoll/Mars Hill that might be relatable to your experiences.
Oh yes, I listened to that series and I am horrified that Mark still has a church and a following after his behavior.
I personally would not ever go to a church with complementarian teaching, and honestly, I don't think I'd consider one that limits the roles of women either. I have seen far too many abuses happen when only men have a say in how a church is set up and run. Women need representation if a community is going to be safe and healthy for them.
I also would never go to a church that shuns evidence-based care, such as a church that thinks you can solve every problem with the Bible alone, and that psychological research is useless.
I haven't gone through the same experience as Kristin, but we were involved in a church that was basically a cult.
Our main qualifications for a new church was one that allowed women to serve/be ordained in all aspects of ministry, and had total transparency of finances/budget. You would be surprised (or maybe not!) on how many churches that knocked out of consideration.
These seem like wise guidelines! And I've recommended that podcast to anyone who has left a church because of unhealthy leadership/frameworks. It's crazy how alone you can feel when you're going through those things. Hearing about others' experiences can help you feel sane. Agreed. Clearly Marc Driscoll's actions so show that he is not eligible for pastoring a church any longer. It saddens me how people are influenced by personality rather than character.
omg thanks for all the cat photos. love them and love you too. i am pretty happy despite have to go to irvington. five weeks in a row. i think that is a record. the great thing about coming home is that i am so grateful to be home my tiny apt 750 sq ft seems like a castle. so glad your slog of bsn classes are almost dunzo. yay you. so cool to see my name mentioned on your blog. i gotta get crackiong on the meet a reader..... noah is just too busy to help with photos.
Oof, so sorry you had to go to Irvington, but I'm glad you are back home now!
thanks.
Anita, I'm glad you're going to do a meet-a-reader!
So am I, BJS.
And, Anita, I do hope you don't give in on moving to Irvington permanently, since that is so much what you don't want. I, for one, am in your corner.
One of my kiddos helps with a refugee group. The "husband" (I use that term loosely, he gets a D- at best) is thinking about moving the family closer to "his" family. The wife does not want to move as she'll lose her support group, including my kiddo. Kiddo, through an interpreter, discussed the option of the wife getting her tubes tied after the fifth kid. She did. The wife wants to improve on her ESL and be able to get a job (likely part-time at first).
Approach any move with caution, do your homework, and follow your gut.
I'm a big fan of keyboards and not a big fan of cats. I can imagine that combination is pretty bad. LOL
I worked with ChatGPT to develop some basic coding so that I can lock and unlock the keyboard with a simple key combo. This works great when I'm mostly just scrolling though email or social media, not so great if I'm actually working. My cat invariably sits her bony butt (she's 18) on the power key!
agree on the administrative BSN classes - but they prepare you for general workforce communication and secondary learning. Not everyone has the background of homeschooling and/or life experience so I think the BSN accounts for that in a way. Also - planting the seed now- honing those research skills are super useful when you go back for your masters (can be NP or nursing instructor if management doesn't interest you - just saying!) Keep it up - you are getting there!!!!
I enjoy drinking kombucha and the process of making it. It's much easier than making yogurt, no heating ingredients or tracking temperatures. My grown kids love making comments about how ugly SCOBY is. This may be TMI, but I started making kombucha to combat UTIs at the suggestion of a friend. It works! I love having a glass everyday but it is a lot of sugar (unless you let it sit long enough to basically be vinegar) so I take breaks. Interestingly, I had my first commercial bottle of kombucha last month and I was surprised that one of the ingredients was fizzy water (I forgot exactly how it was worded), so I am curious exactly how healthful it was. I've made better.
I don't have a cat. I sympathize with busywork classes. They sound ridiculously similar to beginning teacher paper shuffles. Since the onset on online institutions to check these boxes, the curriculum and methodology of input has sunk in the toilet. I use to do new teacher training and I always made sure the teachers came away with life long techniques and lessons.
As for Kambucha, I need to remind anybody who is newly sober ( or has years and years like me) that it has alcohol in it. I pick one up thinking it was tea and spit it out in a dining establishment. I learned my lesson the hard way
I have avoided kombucha because of the sugar, but now there are 2 reasons to avoid it. Thank you for the warning!
I looked it up to understand better and found this: "Yes, kombucha does contain some alcohol, typically less than 0.5% alcohol by volume, due to the fermentation process. However, it is generally classified as a non-alcoholic beverage in the U.S."
Unless you are very strict no-alcohol, the amount of alcohol in grocery store kombucha is very very minimal. You don't need to be of age to buy it, and it's almost nothing. If you are okay taking a standard dose of NyQuil, for example, store kombucha shouldn't bother you. (I'm very strict but these two things are still fine by me.)
That said, as someone with alcohol issues, I tried a home brewed kombucha a friend made, and it contained a not-insignificant amount of alcohol and I wish I had known so that I wouldn't have tried it!
Here is enough alcohol in store bought kombucha to test positive in an urine alcohol test.
Some orange juices test around 0.5% alcohol too. But some commercial kombucha makers got in trouble because their kombucha tested higher than 0.5% alcohol.
Alcohol is more likely to form when you "brew" Kombucha in a closed container (anaerobic fermentation). When I brewed at home I had a cloth cap on my container so it was aerobic--the fermentation was acetic-- more like making vinegar. And when my winemaker husband tested it, alcohol was negligible.
The best part of making my own was it was frugal. I think it used to cost me around 40 - 47 cents per bottle to make and at the time commercial Kombucha was a couple of dollars per bottle (I refilled commercial Kombucha bottles because they are made for the internal pressure the carbonation creates).
Love the kitty pics!
In my family there are 8 nurses. My cousin and I went to nursing school after 20 years of working in the business world. After the bsn, I went on to NP, my cousin went on to get her nurse anesthetist. I stayed in the hospital, hoping one day to start a community clinic. Cousin contracted with 3 metro hospitals and made very good wages for a decade. Now she is contracting with a laser surgery center, working part time instead of emergency on call. The possibilities are wide open for you Kristen! One of my sons, got his bsn and went into research. He is painfully introverted, so it is perfect for his personality.
The kombucha that my friend makes is not sweet at all. I think my Apple cider vinegar is sweeter. I drink 4 oz in the a.m., 8 oz at lunch and another 4 oz at bedtime. Her recipe has a ginger-y zip to it.
Will you share your recipe? I am so curious about this magic elixir, despite avoiding it due to sugar (and not wanting another project in the kitchen).
P.S. I love the name you use here and it makes me want to see photos. Have you considered doing Meet A Reader? (You can avoid the too-personal questions and remain mostly anonymous, for example, like our WilliamB who keeps us all guessing about much but fully participates on the commentariat.)
Thanks so much for answering my question, Kristen!! And I learned just how "helpful" a cat can try to be when we're on a P.C. 😅
Hi Shelley! Lookin good! 🙂
Hey, thanks for answering my question about the polenta meal portability! Sounds like an excellent addition to your meals rotation.
I'm encouraging you to keep working towards your BSN degree, Kristen! I've always assumed that a BSN course would include more hands-on, bedside work. I guess that it's geared towards administrative roles?
I'm just curious-have you ever considered becoming a Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner, as a future possibility, in a field that you are particularly interested in? I think you would be an excellent provider!
I have a question for everyone, please. If I don't have Kombucha; is a probiotic capsule a good alternative?
Lots of people have suggested that to me, but honestly, I don't think I would enjoy that as much because you don't get as much time with each patient as I do as a nurse. NPs have way more than five patients, so they can't possibly see them as much as I do in a shift. 🙂
Frankly I think some classes exist to see if you can put up with the non-essential BS.
Boundaries - cats need boundaries. I have a not-on-the-desk policy at my house. Two of the three "get it". The third is almost there.