Folding bike!

I've wanted a folding bike for a while. It's fairly common, I think, among cargo bike lovers to also want a bike that you can take anywhere (including in the cargo bike itself). So I was doing some freelance gigs and writing, saving my money, and watching for a good deal.

The thing about folding bikes is that good ones tend to cost a good amount of money. For example, a Brompton  like the one above (quite possibly the sexiest folding bike on the market) will run a cool $1800 with the options that I would want on it.

A Dahon, also an excellent folding bike company, was a more reasonable option, but new they cost $700 and up. I had my eyes open for a used one, but many were single or 3 speeds, 30 years old, and in iffy condition for $100 - $150... or were newer, but 100 miles away and were priced somewhat out of my budget at $350 - $500.


So I had made up my mind to order a nice, entry-level folding bike from Citizen Bikes.

This model was the one I was thinking of - for only $300 plus $30 shipping, I could have a 26 lb alloy folding bike with 6 speeds. Pretty cool.

THEN. One amazing day (Monday) I decided to check craigslist yet again, just to see if there was anything new.

A scant mile away from my house was a used Dahon, maybe 6 - 8 years old, for $75. The owner said a friend had given it to him about 5 years ago, and the first time he had unfolded it was to take pictures for craigslist. I couldn't see any gears in the picture, so I figured it was probably a 3 speed internal hub. The owner didn't know enough about it to tell me, but he said he thought it was a 3 speed. At that price, I was willing to drop a few speeds - I asked if I could come take a look. After all, it's not like it was far at all.

Oh. Man. It wasn't a 3 speed. It was an internal EIGHT speed with a chain guard, an aluminum frame, and a hub dynamo light on the front! The rear light still had the 5 year old batteries in it, so it was sadly corroded out, but the (flat) tires took and held air like they had been waiting for the opportunity! The brakes didn't even need to be adjusted, though the handlebars did. It had a spring-loaded, two-footed kickstand, perfect for holding the bike up either folded or unfolded. I hopped on, rode for about 15 feet, and realized that if I didn't put money in that guy's hand and get the bike in my car NOW, someone else would... or he would figure out what the bike was really worth and raise the price! I paid him the $75 and waltzed home!

<<<UPDATE>>>>

I wanted to update this before, but the website wouldn't let me - now I know it was because there was more to add to the story!

So I bought the super sweet aluminum Dahon, but there was only one thing that I would have changed - it had 24" tires. Obviously on a deal like this, it wasn't going to stop me from buying and enjoying the bike, but it would have been nice to have a bike that folded up a little smaller.

2 days later, I was still flying high and feeling smug about that find, when my husband turned to me and said "There's another Dahon for sale 30 minutes from here - a 7 speed with 16" wheels for $80. ".

I stared for a second and said "My freelance account can cover that."

So now we have two folding Dahons!

Potty training (at last!)

I have to say, I thought I'd have this done a long time ago. I did Elimination Communication with Tristan from when he was about 4 months old, and was inordinately proud that I almost never had to change a poopy diaper... up until he started eating more solids than breastmilk and became more mobile at the same time. The combination of the firmer stools with the knowledge that he could take off at any time worked against me, and EC went by the wayside.

Meanwhile, I've bought piles of underwear, training pants, and various potties, all hoping to get the magic combo that would make him use the potty. And you know what? None of it helped.

What finally helped was a book called "Oh Crap! Potty Training", by Jamie Glowacki. I'd heard great things about this book, but I resisted buying it for ages. By the time I broke down and bought it, Tristan was well past her "ideal training window" age between 20 and 30 months old, but her principles still worked - she has sections in the book about how to potty train older kids, dealing with special circumstances, and how to deal with day care.

For me, the big mental shifts were not ASKING Tristan if he had to go potty, but telling him very matter-of-fact-ly that it was time to go sit on the potty for a minute. And the other was asking myself "What is your child capable of?" - he can run, climb, talk rings around people, and likes being a big helper. Of course he was capable of understanding that poop and pee go in the potty, and doing it himself! And because I have a little guy who loves to mess with me, none of the potties or inserts would do for him - he had to sit on the REAL toilet to do his stuff. Because of COURSE he would do that. <eyeroll>

The other quirk is that to do this for real, you have to commit. Clear the schedule, stay home for a few days, and for the first few days the trainee is supposed to be bare-bottomed so you can see what little body clues they give you before they go. That was old hat for me, since we had done the EC thing before, so we pretty much skipped to step 2, commando in pants. Yeah. None of those fancy training pants I've been so excited about, no undies. Just pants. The reason? Underwear and trainers feel snug around the butt, just like a diaper. There's no motivation to go, because it feels about the same as a diaper. Commando feels a lot more gross to a little kid - the poop and pee slides down the leg, and... ewwww. Much more motivating. (It should go without saying, but I will anyway - Pull-Ups do not work - they are diapers that slide a little easier, not a potty training aid. They must be ditched if you're using disposables and potty training - the only exceptions are nap and bedtimes.)

The whole potty continuum goes from clueless to "I peed" to "I'm peeing" to "I'm about to pee!". Tristan had been telling me for the past few weeks when his diaper was wet, so I knew he was very close here - it can take a lot longer than this for some kids. We're on day 5 of training, and we've had a few mishaps - a poop on the floor while I was still in the shower, another in a pair of very loose waterproof training pants (we had to go to an appointment, and I wasn't confident). But today and yesterday he was dry all his waking hours! and today he even got himself onto the potty before I could get there, and did a great poop all by himself! Last night was funny as we were trying to get settled for bed and he was already in his cloth diaper, he sat up in bed and said "You gotta be kidding me - I gotta go again!". Sure enough, he held it until we got to the potty.

At this stage, the only thing I'm thinking we need is a pair or three of Super Undies Bedwetter pants. Daniel has used them with a great deal of success, they're very well made and pull up and down easily, and unlike the rest of the training pants I have around, they'll stand up to a whole night of use. And I won't have to worry if I have enough cloth diapers between the new baby (her name will be Charlotte Elizabeth) and Tristan - what a relief!

Politics and other options

I'm not a very political person. I've been waiting this primary season out, hoping it would all blow over. But here it is - Trump is the nominee (or as good as) for the Republican Party, and it looks like Hillary will likely take the Democratic nomination.

I refuse to vote for either of them.

That doesn't mean I won't be voting.

It's funny how we can get so sucked into the either/or mentality - and the media doesn't do anything to help us come up with other ideas, either.

But I'm a person who looks for other options. Huggies, Pampers, or Luvs? How about cloth? Enfamil or Similac? How about breastmilk? Take the car downtown? Why not get the bike set up to ride with the kids?

So when I'm told that it's a Trump/Hillary race, I say "What about the Libertarian candidate?" Gary Johnson actually seems like a reasonable candidate. Of course, I know that the last third party candidate who made a splash (Ross Perot) didn't get a single electoral vote, but he wasn't up against such disliked candidates as these two. I have hope.

What's more, I'm a dreamer. I know people aren't going to drop disposables for cloth or switch to bike riding tomorrow, and the two party system is deeply ingrained. But I can choose where my vote will go, and as a matter of principle it will not go to either of the two big candidates.

Living life by the numbers, and a recipe

So, last time I mentioned that I'd have to start daily blood sugar testing for gestational diabetes. I went off to diabetic education, which actually helped me a lot. I was given some guidelines on what foods to eat. (Thankfully I may not have to continue all this later after the baby comes, but my risk for type 2 diabetes is now higher.)

Essentially, I'm limited to 30 grams of carbohydrates for breakfast, 15 - 20 for snacks, and 40 - 50 for lunch and dinner. I test my blood sugar when I wake up, and then an hour after each meal. (Thankfully the little lancet I use to draw my blood is so tiny it barely hurts. I've done worse with a sheet of paper or a loose staple.) My numbers need to be below 95 first thing in the morning, and below 140 an hour after eating. I'm encouraged to continue exercising in whatever form I can manage, and to take a little walk if my sugar reads high.

Now, the human body is an amazing thing. I could start the day with the same reading, eat the same breakfast all week (which I did - eggs and two slices of gluten free toast, 30 grams of carbs exactly), and come up with radically different readings based on my stress level alone. If I sat down for a cuddle with Tristan after breakfast, my sugar level might be only 115 an hour after my eggs. If I ate my eggs and hopped in the car and drove for an hour in stressful conditions (happened) my sugar level might be 155! How is that fair?

Not to mention we've been continuing to deal with very heavy, stressful, difficult problems around here, and it came to a head the same week I got my monitor and had to start testing. I begged my doctor not to hold that week's numbers against me, since we were barely home and my stress level was through the roof.

I got tired very quickly of eggs for breakfast - anyone who's done a low-carb diet for long will understand - so I started seeking out high fiber, low carb, gluten free baked good recipes. Who knew that would be so tough?  ;)  Actually, it was pretty simple - baking with almond and coconut flours is pretty easy, and stevia is an acceptable sweetener. The trick is the consistency - I made some excellent, high protein, high fiber, low carb, gluten free blueberry muffins. The only issue is that they don't hold together as well as "standard" muffins. Maybe they need more eggs? But they taste SO good, and I don't feel like I'm gagging down dry, rubbery, or greasy food to fuel my body. And unlike other gluten free muffins, I don't eat one and say "hmm, maybe I'd better eat something... oh yeah" - these are pretty satisfying.


I used this recipe if anyone wants to try it!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of almond flour, 1 1/2 cups coconut flour (or 3 cups almond flour)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
• 8 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups water (less if using only almond flour)
• Sweetener to taste -- I used 20 packets of stevia (not the baking mix, the straight stevia. The baking mix is half sugar and will double the carb count)
  

Preparation

1) Preheat oven to 350 F.

2) Grease your muffin tins. This recipe makes 2 dozen, because with my family making less is just a waste of time. I freeze some to make sure I have breakfast all week.

3) Mix dry ingredients together well.

4) Add wet ingredients and mix thoroughly (You don't want strings of egg white in there and you don't have to worry about "tunnels" when you are using almond meal).

5) Put in muffin tins (about 1/2 to 2/3 full) and bake for about 25 minutes or until firm and golden brown. They don't rise a whole lot, so don't worry if they seem small.

Variations: Add 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries for blueberry muffins.

3 grams effective carbohydrate plus 2 grams fiber, 6 grams protein, and 185 calories per muffin. It's less carbs if you use only almond flour, but coconut flour is slightly cheaper, so I'm trying to make it stretch. If you use only almond flour, you can use less water - coconut flour is very thirsty and absorbs a lot of liquid.

Sugar is sweet...

And very bad for me, apparently.

First, yeah, I haven't posted very frequently. I think I've been saying all I had to say on my personal facebook page, and then I'm all "wrote out".

So, here's what's going on. When I started this pregnancy, I was already taking 2000 mg of Metformin, a medicine that helps me regulate my insulin levels and my blood sugar. Insulin is a hormone, and when it gets out of whack, it throws off all the other hormones, such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Without that medication, my body gets so messed up that I miss periods and can't get pregnant, and it could be dicey for me STAYING pregnant.

During the first few months, I noticed my blood sugar was dropping like a stone out of nowhere. Fairly common in early pregnancy, but it seemed extra severe this time around, so I called my doctor and asked if I could back down my dose to 1500 mg. They agreed that sounded like a good idea. In fact, they told me to go as far as 1000 mg, but my energy levels crashed then, so 1500 was where I stayed.

Fast forward to last week. I've been getting progressively more tired, and found myself snacking to boost my energy, which is what I used to do before Metformin, but I attributed it to the advancing pregnancy. Last week was the 1 hour glucose screening, and I flunked it by 30 points.  :( 

Hang on - I've been at a lower dose this whole time! I've gained weight, and the hormone levels have shifted. Maybe it's time to increase my dose back to 2000 mg!

My doctor agreed and increased it, but unfortunately with one failed test under my belt, I had to either go in for a FASTING 3 hour glucose challenge (something I did when being diagnosed for PCOS, and it set me up on a sugar spike/crash cycle that left me sick for 2 days) OR go to diabetic education, learn to count my carbs and keep a food diary, and test my sugar levels 4 times a day.

Guess who's going to have to get over her aversion to poking her finger! If I can demonstrate that my sugar levels are under control for a few weeks, I might get to test less frequently. Whoo hoo.


For now, I still get to avoid insulin injections, so I've got that going for me.

Consignment sales, leftover wizardry, and fix-ups

If you don't have kids consignment sales in your area, I'm so sorry. Around here in the fall and spring, we get these 2 -3 day monstrous sales of kids clothing, baby gear, toys, books, games, and maternity goodies. The way they work is people sign up ahead of time to participate, tag their own clothes with prices they set, and if they sell they get as much as a 70% cut of the price. That's a better deal than most consignment stores can offer, which makes these sales really popular.

I stopped at one of the first sales of the season (The Keystone Moms of Multiples sale) this past weekend, and got a light jacket for Tristan, a baby bouncy seat, a very nice black diaper bag that doubles as a bike pannier bag, and a Potette potty that fits in any diaper bag, all for $19! I'm honestly the most excited about the diaper bag - it's styled like a messenger bag, has all the pockets and insulated spots you'd expect from a diaper bag, and has the straps to attach to the back rack of a bike! (Or a stroller handle, I guess.) It's not like I don't have the room in the box bike, but the diaper bag has a tendency to slide around, and it's nice to keep that space free for the kids and other cargo. As for the folding potty, I've been wanting one of them for ages because they double as a portable seat for over a big toilet. The only downside is this one came with disposable bags to use when it's in freestanding potty mode, and I'd really rather have the foldable silicone "bowl", which I'll have to order online.

On Monday night Jake roasted a whole chicken for dinner, and picked the carcass afterward for the leftovers. I wasn't really sure what to do with them, but I had a busy day yesterday and wound up tired and out of inspiration at dinner time. Rustling through my cupboards, I came across a soup "kit" with seasonings, rice and gluten free noodles - just add chicken, broth, and frozen peas! I had all those things, so I tossed it all in the pot and whipped up some gluten free garlic biscuits from my ever-handy Aldi GF baking mix. Dinner, no sweat. It matched the general appetite of the family, too - we weren't in the mood for anything very heavy.

After dinner we went to Dairy Queen - they were offering free ice cream cones! We did have to pay for Catie's and my treats, since we couldn't eat the cones, but dessert for $6.89 for a family of five wasn't too bad, and a nice treat. Then we swung by a used bookstore to use Catie's free birthday book coupon (it's a nice shop that way!).

As for fix-ups, I've been using a free curriculum for Daniel this year called discoveryk12.com  (not to be confused with the cyber charter program K12). I was pleased initially that the program tracked attendance and had weekly spelling lists, but other subjects have left Daniel and I cold. For example, history is usually "read this wikipedia page", math is "watch this demonstration video, then maybe do 5 problems" - not enough practice time on anything. So I was searching for some complementary activities for Daniel to do, and stumbled onto mrnussbaum.com ! It's packed with printables, games, activities, and interactive models, for grades pre-K through 6th - much more fun, more interesting, and I was able to get some reading comprehension pages on history printed and worked on. That's been a weak point for Daniel, since he just breezes through the reading and says "I'm done!". Really? What did you just read about? Uhhhh....

I just wish I had checked into this earlier in the year - now we have to fight some learned laziness to get him working.

Baby bonanza!

I know it's been quiet here. Our family has been dealing with some heavy stuff that's not really mine to write about, and because it was heavy I haven't had any motivation to write about anything else... until today!

Yesterday my dear husband was scouting on craigslist (like you do) and found a nice looking lot of baby girl clothes in the right seasons. (Oh yeah, did I tell you all we're having a girl?) He contacted the guy (a stay-at-home-dad, whoo hoo!) and finagled a deal where we got four garbage bags worth of clothes, blankets and towels for $100.

Wow. we got all those clothes home and started the washing and sorting process, and found that we now most likely have enough for the new baby's first year! There might end up being a few holes in the wardrobe that we discover later on, but for now my nesting mama, what are we going to put the baby in worries are soothed. And what's more, I'm going down to a friends house tomorrow, and she has a batch of baby girl clothes she wants to pass on as well!

The funny thing - after we washed, sorted by size, and put everything in recently emptied bins, my husband was asking me "will we have room to store all this?". Heh. That's why I went so nuts with the cleaning and purging process last month, honey! This fits in all the space I just cleared, because I knew that we'd need the room soon. Foresight!

The weather here just turned beautiful this week - low to mid 70s all week - so I'm trying to wash one load of laundry and line dry it each day. Yes, i could go nuts and do several, but I'm trying to pace myself and rest. I'm barreling right into my third trimester, and I'm FEELING it. The second trimester was so easy I was thinking "wow, this is a breeze! I should do this more often!". Ha!