TTC T: National Infertility Awareness Week

It is rough being infertile.

Second only to the pain caused to both me and my husband when we are sans baby is the feeling of being totally and utterly alone.

"Oh, you're not alone."

Of course I know we're not actually alone, but try to comfortably explain your feelings to a room of beaming new moms.  That's what alone feels like, to be sure, regardless of your or anyone else's intentions.

Try explaining your feelings if you're in a room of beaming new and 2nd-or-more time moms, especially if you've already had one baby, and boy oh boy, prepare for looks of total confusion!

But check this out, it's National Infertility Awareness Week.

Call me a hermit when it comes to publicly talking about this, but I had no clue that
this whole kind of week existed.

So, if you're out there, and I do mean this to
the few people who stumble upon this blog by habit,
let me know if what you think about this week, if you know anything about it at all!

And no - that is not some idle invitation.  :)  Say something if you want! 
 

Yum 1 - Baked Eggs

Baked Eggs.  It's savory, simple, and scrumptious. 















Before I post this recipe, I just wanted to say that I'm considering shifting completely back to Feisty - Like I ought to be.  My blog isn't uploading to other people's lists so easily, as far as I can tell from the bit of research I've done.  Additionally, there is already another "warrior wives" blog, and while they do not talk at all about military things, fighting against the hurt cause by experiencing infertility, or most of which I want to write about, I know that our blogs could get confused and I want to find a respectful way to make us distinct.  Also, I'm going through a lot of "blogger's block" right now, so that doesn't help. 

Anyway, here goes this recipe!

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, because I didn't have enough people for the full recipe (4-6) or leafy greens (1.5 pounds!).

Baked Eggs with Hollandaise Sauce - Serves 2

This is super easy, guys, and even if you've never maid hollandaise (I hadn't!), you will be able to whip this up, no problem. 

Baked Eggs

• 3 oz or a half-bag of baby spinach

• 1 small onion
• 1 T. of Butter, plus more for baking dishes
• 1 clove minced garlic
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• Dash of nutmeg
• 1/4 c. 2% or whole milk, or 2 T. of half & half or heavy cream

• 4 eggs

Hollandaise Sauce

• 5 Tb melted (but not very hot) butter
• 1 egg yolk
• 1-2 t. lemon juice
• a little salt and pepper (not sure if this is usually included, but it happened)
• Dash of hot sauce, or, if you don't have that, a good pinch of cayenne if you don't have

1. Chop the spinach into "ribbons," as in vertical strips.
2. Rinse the spinach and then throw half of it it into a pan, wet, on medium-high to wilt it.   If you use baby spinach, this will take about 2 minutes, 4 or 5 with regular.
3. Once it's wilted, take it off the heat and get rid of the excess liquid that is in the spinach.  I did this by putting it into a small strainer and pressed it with a spatula.
4. Chop the onion, melt the 1 Tb. of butter in a pan on medium, and sautee the onions until they are soft and golden brown, stirring frequently.
5. Add the garlic to the onions and stir for just under a minute, then add the salt, pepper, and nutmeg and stir again until all incorporated.
6. Add the spinach and mix it with the onions, et. al.  Add the milk/cream and mix together completely. Remove from the heat.
Note - if you're using milk, let it thicken.
7.Heat your oven to 375.
8. Put half of your mix into one buttered baking dish.  This could be a ramekin, but I also have some high-lipped, flat bottom bowls that I used.  After the mix is in the two ramekins and flattened out, crack 1 or 2 eggs over each.  My bowls are pretty wide and flat, so 2 worked perfectly. 
9. Add a little salt and pepper to the top if you like.
10. Put these both into the oven on the middle rack for 15-18 minutes until the whites are just set but the yokes are still soft.

Hollandaise
1. While the eggs bake, melt the butter for about 20 seconds on full power in the microwave (I did this in a small liquid measuring cup for easy pouring).  When the time is up, take the butter out and stir it until it is all melted.  Don't let this boil.
2. Crack 1 egg and separate it from the yoke.  Put the yoke in a blender with the lemon juice.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper and a dash of hot sauce.
3. Start the blender on the lowest speed.  Slowly pour in a teaspoon of butter, then a little more than that, and then a steady stream until the sauce is thick and creamy.
4. Pour the sauce into a serving dish and keep warm.  I did this by putting the serving dish into a little water bath.  No worries if it gets a little solid - just stir it again.
5. As soon as the eggs are done, pour about half of the sauce onto each egg dish, or as much as you would like.

Serve with toasted bread (I toasted a sliced-up bun in the oven while the eggs were baking).

Enjoy! 

TTC T - Wheatgrass

from: Wikipedia Commons

Trying to Conceive (TTC) Tuesday (T):
Wheatgrass - 
a super food and fertility booster?

Ah, super foods.

Really, what is a superfood, anyway?
and who decides what foods get the elevation to the status of "super?"

While you go and Wikipedia that for me,
let's consider wheatgrass.


For someone trying to conceive (TTC), there are likely no shortage of suggestions you've heard before.

I have a natural-food, natural-meds, natural-almost-everything-loving mom-in-law. 
She read once that wheatgrass may help boost fertility, and I paid attention to the suggestion but never acted on it. 

It's pretty clear that a plant so pungent, brightly green, and...interesting-tasting must be good for you, right?  That, and all of the nutrients in it must help with overall health, including restoring the body's pH balance.  For more information, check out the two articles below:

Live Strong Article | E-How Article

I'm thinking of taking the plunge myself, particularly because it is so good for you more so that it might boost fertility.  I say that because I think that it may be better to approach this with overall health in mind rather than some kind of quick-cure for the mystery that is infertility. 

So here's my question to all you google-searching people who've landed here:
If you've tried wheatgrass before, what was your experience?  Would you ever try it?

TTC T: Why can't I get pregnant?

When you search the words
"Why can't I" in a
Google search bar,
the first completed sentence that comes up is
"Why can't I get pregnant?"


Such a painful, piercing question.

It almost left my vocabulary entirely, that is
until I was a week late.

Once you allow the thermometer to accompany you
an the charting to measure you
and the cycles to define you (or, really, your uterus -
but sometimes,
you),
you tend to know what's happening when and
what shouldn't
happen.

Instead of dealing with the same pain the same way each month,
I developed a numbness,
a denial, in a way, that allowed me to
acknowledge that something I have
is the signal for
something I do not, but that it is
a normal,
expected,
unfortunate,
yet simple thing.

Well, when the unexpected happens and they
signal a
confusion, then
          concern, then
                      fear, then
                        wonder, then
                           anticipation, then
                                               Hope!

I haven't tangibly felt hope in a very long time,
and it was fleeting. 
                            
The old questions crept back,
                         Why
                          can't
                          I
                          get
                          pregnant?

It doesn't feel that great to hear one big
empty, silent answer.
Regardless how that feels,
I have faith
and plenty of reason to believe,
as hard and sometimes impossible as it is,
that there's hope. 

Fixing Skinny Fat

I hope you all enjoy this little venture into and out of the
confusing thoughts I tend to have
when it comes to health.

I'm all about healthy eating, and I'm
all about being active and working out,
and I'm all about maintaining a positive outlook on life.

Yes, I'm all about those things, except for when it comes to myself.


I'm about the same weight I've been for the last 5 years,
the same size in outer- and under-garments, and
pretty much look about the same in the face.

Well, I'll tell you what (and it takes a lot for me to put this out here):
skinny-fat is what I am, and it's been taking the effort
to move a mountain to get me from being that way.

What's skinny-fat?  Well, while most people would find my
height, weight, size, stature desirable (except for when it comes to clothes shopping),
my health is probably worse than many of those who outweigh me by 20 or 30 lbs
yet possess strength and muscle development.


It's hard for some people to understand why
being the size I am isn't always a "godsend,"
and it's also hard for some people
(some of whom have practically called me a liar!)
to believe that I did struggle with weight at one point in my life.

Please note that I am sensitive to those with
genetic difficulties and food additions and physical limitations. 
This is not a comparison to those who are in a medically difficult situation.  

Freshmen year of college did me many favors -
great friends, a great school, great college ministry.
Where I screwed up immensely was with my eating habits.
Long story short, I worked that following summer to get back to my
pre-college size and health.
Longer story short, I've learned that calories in + calories out = weight maintenance.

What has taken me longer (much, much longer) to do is to actually
change my eating and working-out lifestyle to one that helps my
overall health, not just my weight.  You'd think I'd learn that given
my dad's struggle with health during the last 21 years of his life,
but food has become something I only wanted to eat in the easiest way possible. 

I'll tell ya - I'd have 100+ more posts about food on here if I
actually cooked as much as I need to, but when I don't want to cook,
we - me and my hubs - go for something easy, cheap(ish...not really), and typically crappy.
Granted, we do make good choices from time to time, but
being lethargic about food has usurped all of that.

SO, that was the round-about-way of letting you all know how
I've come to this place in my life where I know I need to make
a change for my health.  Oh, but one more detail:

my jeans are getting annoyingly tight, and I hate it.

No, I don't have as far to go as someone on "The Biggest Loser,"
but my life has all the makings for ending up on that show
5, 10, 20 years down the road.
I don't want that to happen, so I'm using these
tight jeans of mine that weren't tight when I bought them
as a sign.  It's a sign, simple and "minor" as it is, that I need
to get my butt into gear (literally) and
make a permanent change in my life. 

So, instead of going to the cafeteria and buying something that's
crappy for me, I am going to say no to my lazy self and
yes to eating these clementines I brought to work.

Yes, this post was inspired by that - choosing to eat clementines, a very easy thing to eat,
when I'd rather just eat a bagel.  Hopefully these incredibly
simple steps along with developing a sustainable work-out plan
will help me make bigger, more
important commitments for future steps toward a healthier life.

funny -

I just looked at my Google Reader's suggested items to read. 

Guess who showed up?

Me.

Sometimes I wonder what these people on Google and Facebook are doing when they make their search engine logarithms.

TTC Tuesdays - An Opener

This is a new series for a new blog of mine that will post on all or most Tuesdays -
Trying to Conceive Tuesdays -TTC Tuesdays for short.

It will ramble through the many questions, frustrations, irony, and sarcastic/dry/dark/light/ridiculous humor that comes with living in the world of infertility.

Today's topic - An Opener

If you have told your family, friends, and
maybe the world
                (if you blog)
that you are trying to have a baby,
then any announcement comes with an assumption of
"You're pregnant!

So, when you have been going through infertility and
start a conversation with a friend by saying "I've got some news -"
be sure to say "and I'm not pregnant" as
quickly as you can.  

No need to have your friend to spread
fake news,
false hope,
or fantasy-ful ideas about how to get an in on the middle name of your future kid.

This is a re-post from the trial version of this blog.  If you're read it before, thanks for checking back in. :)

The land.

It's an interesting thing,
having grown up in a small town that was
very much tied to the country
                       (that is, rural-land-country)
and
being brought up by parents
who were from a town of less than 300,
my entire sense of balance is completely off when
it just isn't quite right -
"it" being "the land."

It wasn't until snow came back this past month that
I started to feel any sense of normalcy with
how the weather has been.

When global warming was the pre-climate change
and people actually were a little ok with
El Nino
making winters tolerable
and early March balmy,
it didn't bother me that the snow
wasn't falling and the
robins came back earlier.

But this past winter, where we've received almost
no snow
and the drought that started two years ago
kept going
and the ground was dusty from brown dirt
instead of
white snow...
it felt wrong.

Yes, I hate how winter drags on, and
yes, I much, much prefer spring to fall
                                  (sorry, but autumn is a distinct #2 on my list),
but if there isn't snow in winter,
then it's just not right.

So thankfully I now have some snow.
And it will be gone (mostly) with tomorrow's sun, and
back (mostly) with
the next five day's predicted snowfall.

I feel right, now,
that I can be officially and
appropriately
sick of
winter,
and that's because
it's a little bit more right
with
the land.  

Welcome [again]

Welcome [again]:

I'm a
warrior in christ
and a warrior's wife
and a warrior, who's a wife.

My name, Laura, means victory.

I am victorious in Christ, and hope to,
                                                 somehow,
                                                         be victorious in life. 


Here is a blog that I'm [re-]starting, which will be about many, many things,
but I hope it can be both a place just to write and,
primarily, an encouragement to those out there who are
Christians,
and non-Christians,
Women,
Wives,
Military,
Creatives,
Food-fans,
Drink-fans,
Teachers,
Students,
and
people just trying to fight the good fight.

Welcome to
                   The Warrior Wife.

New Name

My blog has a new name.

I'll explain more later, but here I am

feisty like i ought to be - adieu.

the warrior wife - for life.