Katiebird's Garden & Wildcraft

So after the scary appointment and hours in the L&D triage on Tuesday, I had my normally scheduled BPP appt on Thursday.  My hubby met me at the front of my office building as usual at 2-ish and we went to my appt.  Well, my blood pressure was in the 150s...which is bad.  So they let me sit and rest a bit and did the other normal appt. things like measure my belly, etc.  and then at the end it was even higher.   My OB was not smiling or sugar-coating anything when she said we need to go to the hospital ASAP and get monitored for 24 hours and I am in no way going back to work.  Bedrest for sure.  We were a little freaked out, as she said if my BP didn't go down and stayed around 160 as it was, they may have to induce!  Eek, I was only at 34 weeks!  We went quickly back to my office so I could grab my laptop, cords and clean my space up a bit, since I probably wouldn't be back until April!  Also told everyone that I wouldn't be back for a while either, which surprised e

As I read over my last post back in mid-November...I was happy to have no BP issues or protein in the urine...blah blah blah.  Well, the shit hit the fan, starting on my birthday (the 27th) of all days!  I was 33w5d. I had a regularly scheduled endo appointment and my blood pressure was elevated, which it had been just a couple random times at previous appts.  But never continuous.  I thought it was from the longer hike from the parking garage to the office, but guess not.  We then were looking at my insulin dosages and told my Dr. that the total daily dosage had gone waaay down the past couple days.  That worried her.  Other than that, my BG numbers had been pretty darn perfect the past months.  A1c was still at a 6.  She said she'll send an IM to my OB doc to discuss me.  I went on my merry way to head home around 4:00 pm.   Then, I had a thought to check my work voicemail   just in case  I had any messages.  I did.  It was my endo telling me I need to go to the L&D triag

Sorry I've been gone!  We've been working on getting lots of projects done around the house and my pregnancy brain is trying to stay focused on working, house stuff and cooking a healthy baby!   The diabetes has been terrific still, the A1c was a 6 at my last appt and my BG averages for 7-14-30 days have been in the 120s.  I am poofing up though and my cankles are disgusting!  No BP issues  or protein, just poof!  I will start my NSTs (non-stress tests) twice a week with an u/s thrown in each week for good measure, on the 15th.  So things will really start moving along!  Baby is doing wonderfully and at our growth scan he was at the 60th percentile.  I'm happy with that!   The nursery is getting gorgeous, the crib was put together the other night.  I will be posting pictures when we are done with the room.  Shouldn't be too long!  My Hoosier cabinet is also finally in the kitchen!  We're using it without the doors, as I still have to finish those.  But it is so

I'm 26 weeks today!  Baby boy is a kicking fool. After about a month and 1/2 of wrangling my boluses and basals I FINALLY have them working for me!  My averages, courtesy of the Ping meter are a doctor's dream, or at least not a nightmare.   7 Day: 122 14 Day: 128 30 Day: 135 60 Day: 146 I'm happy with these as they're pretty REAL, with hardly any highs or lows to skew the numbers.  But, as everyone says...don't expect to rest on my diabetic laurels when pregnant, I'll probably have to change everything again next week.   My Thyroid TSH levels are also in perfect order.   ***Fun braggy note, my wonderful husband bought a Cuisinart Food Processor today!  I'm slightly geeked up about that :)  I'm hoping it matches the toaster...otherwise they can't live next to each other.   I'll be making homemade baby food for the boy, so this monster will come in handy!  I still have a bucket of tomatoes to process into a salsa so it will be broken

The cabinet is painted...yes painted.  No stain for that little puppy made out of different types of wood, of different eras, and some old paint that just wouldn't come off without gouging out the areas.  So paint it is.  I chose a Valspar National Trust Historic color (a creamy color, can't remember the name off hand.)   This weekend I plan on rubbing off the edges and wearing some areas down and apply furniture wax to get that vintage look.  Pictures next week!   Instead of the original ceramic-metal, slider counter top, we're going to add a butcher block counter.  My husband hates the metal top for some reason, it grosses him out.  I think butcher block will be lovely and will help it match whatever our kitchen looks like in our future house.   I really would like a Boos counter with the name showing on a side!

I was low at 62 after dinner...due to busy-work painting my cabinet and climbing around on a table and stools like a pregnant monkey-mama.  So, in we go to have a delicious Little Debbie Nutty Bar (my fave) and I eat both bars in the pack, which have 30-odd carbs in it.  Sorta assuming that the rest of my work would take care of the little extra I ate.  Well, after cleaning up after myself and coming inside about an hour later, I feel a little crabby and can't-pay-attention-ish, so I test again and it's 64.  Hmm.  That's weird. Where'd that Nutty Bar go?  I think the baby ate it before I could have any.  

So we've made the official announcement, we're going to have a baby boy in January!  Hence the reason I've been MIA lately, besides having my surgery, then going to Flagstaff, AZ for the Labor Day weekend.  But the topic of this post is diabetes-related.  The dreaded insulin resistance in 2nd-3rd trimester has started... In the past 2 weeks I have continually increased my basals at all hours to at least double what they were pre-pregnancy.  My carb ratios have also almost doubled at all times.  Today was the last straw though, I had about 50 carbs for breakfast and actually bolused for 60, just to be safe, and 1 1/2 hours later, a damn 300 blood sugar!!  WTF?  I'm just tired of chasing the numbers...so low carb we will go! My husband has done the Adkins/low carb thing before and liked it because of course, he loves meat.  I'm slightly "meh" about eating meat, etc. all the time, but feel that high protein/low carb to be the best choice right now in

I've been laying low for a while, as I had my carpal tunnel and trigger finger release surgeries last week.  It's been a week and I'm still pretty limited on my right hand use.  The surgery itself wasn't bad; I had a nerve block on my arm, which is a big, bad tourniquet on my shoulder, they sqeeze all the blood from your arm, and then they numb the arm with a local anesthetic.  I chose to forego the anesthesia to knock me out, which all of the nurses were quite impressed with me.  It was very weird feeling things, but not quite feeling things.  Slowly it's getting less swollen and more mobile, but the stitches will be in until the 5th.  I'm also proud that my blood sugar was 143 pre-surgery and was 139 post-surgery.  Usually it freaks out if my body is freaking out, but it stayed put!   Speaking of body parts, remember in biology class the critters and bits and pieces that were in glass jars filled with formaldehyde?   I attempted to pickle my pepperoncini..

I still sometimes forget that I pretty much need to bolus for most things over 5 carbs that go in my mouth.  Every once in a while I'll regress to the old Lantus safety-zone thoughts of, "oh a little bite here and there won't matter, it will be absorbed and covered magically."  Nope.  I was making refried beans last night and a Tequila-Lime cake (more on that later!) for my husband's birthday party tomorrow and couldn't resist taste-testing the beans, well maybe more like eating 4-5 big spoonfuls because they were so damn delish.  And had to have one of the shortbread cookies I made the other night (pure buttery goodness) and later tested to see a crappy 197 on my meter.  Blah.  Here's my new mantra: MUST-REMEMBER-TO-ALWAYS-BOLUS-WHEN-BAKING-COOKING-TASTE-TESTING!  I do have a collection of rolling pins, just like JC.   

First batch of big jalapenos are ready to go!  We usually make turkey-bacon-wrapped, cream cheese stuffed, grilled peppers, but didn't have time last week, so I tried some pickles.  Plastic gloves were a must, they were super hot! An awful lot of mustard seed in this recipe, but hopefully they taste delish!   My beautiful Trionfo Violetto beans, or as I have come to call them camo-beans and when they're steamed just to heated, they start to lose the purple coloring and look like camouflage.  We had some for dinner last night and they were nice and full-flavored. Leeks!  They will be used to make potato soup with my potatoes I have growing in pots. Pepperoncini!  Next to be pickled after the party this weekend.  I didn't realize the plant got so big!  It's nearing 3 1/2' and doesn't look like it's stopping soon.

These are the invites that I made for my husband's Birthday Fiesta in August.  His birthday is actually (one of) the dates that is said to be the BEGINNING of the Mayan calendar!  I chose the serpent motif from the Chichen Itza pyramid .  Just so happens I found the perfect paper at Archiver's that had the blue waves on the back and the fun zigzag on the front.  Of course, the fun stickers had to be added too.  Menu: A Taco and Nacho Bar Tomatillo Enchiladas Homemade Refried Beans An assortment of homemade FRESH salsas-my jalapenos and habaneros are growing insanely well-I think I have to pickle some just to save them we have so many! Tequilas and margaritas will also be served The piece De resistance: A Twinkie-pyramid-inspired cake-playing on the notion that Twinkies will survive the end of the world/nuclear holocaust/etc.  Not fully Twinkified, as to make it to scale (9 steps) with solid Twinkies would create a 16"-high and 14"-wide cake!  Who knows w

My carrots are ready for picking!  They are very delicious and most are nice and straight-which was questionable in the shallow garden area they were in.  I'm going to be blanching and freezing a bunch tonight to get a head start on my veggie supply for homemade soups and stews.  Another bunch will make its way to my sister's house for her and almost 1-yr. old nephew if she's willing to share!  It's not a good harvest until you get that mutant carrot with too many appendages! 

Finally here it is!  These are super easy, quite quick and don't cost much at all.  Things you'll need: Foam board (use your Micheal's coupons!) Cotton batting-I bought the crib-size and still have leftovers Fabric Glue gun and glue sticks-I used 2 long ones Duct tape Picture hangers or small brackets of your choice Step 1: Measure your window width and cut or tape more than one piece of foam board together to fit the space if needed.  I made sure it was at least 1" beyond each side of the wood moulding.  Remember you'll add thickness and need to attach brackets.  Mine were 64" long, 9" tall and the sides were 2" wide, your proportions may be different depending on the window size and style.  Duck tape holds it all together nicely.  I did add wooden chopsticks to the middle where I taped two long pieces together so it didn't bend.  You won't have to do this if your window is smaller.  Be creative if you need to

I found this awesome highboy (or chest-on-chest,)  FREE on the side of the road.  Not kidding.  The owner was just putting the drawers in it at the end of her driveway when I screeched to a halt and told her I want it!  This piece is for my hubby and it turned out amazingly masculine-looking, yet still coordinates with my pretty little vanity.  I decided to get big clear bulbs for this one and then traditional Victorian crystal knobs for my vanity.  We still need a couple more for the bottom drawers, but I have to go to a different store to get them :)    Thanks for all the sanding work done by my dear hubby  I'm still finishing the mirror for the vanity and will post final pictures of that project when I put it back together and have the hardware on.  Last left on the bedroom fix list is painting the walls, hanging some new curtains and art.  My big girl room is almost finished!

If I seem happy about it, no but I've never had one!  If you don't know, an occlusion is a blockage in the tubing or flexible catheter (needle part) of your insulin pump.  Doesn't happen often for most people, but the pumps are so sensitive they will let you know if it does!  I woke at 4:00 am as usual to feed the cat and test my blood (it's become an agreed upon habit between us)  but the inset was in my thigh and the adhesive was lifted up on one side and it felt like it was popped out a little so I pushed it back in and put a piece of tape over it-not really thinking that clearly at this time in the morning  and my BG was 103, good.   So back to bed I went.  Woke up for real and BG was 193-not normal, I bolused for that number and the warning bells went off!  Occlusion!  Occlusion!  Hmm, not so smart to have shoved it back in earlier...after taking it out to put a new site in, here's what I saw: Ouch!

Has anyone noticed that it's damn hot in Minnesota?  My cat Stickee, hogging the fan this morning I've been fighting with my One-Touch Ping meter remote for the past 2 mos.  It had "Ping-ed" out.  The thing didn't seem to read or sense the strips when inserted or when blood was added.  I finally got fed up with swearing and throwing strips around and called One-Touch and they promptly sent me a new one!  Awesome customer service they have.  How nice it is not to waste 3-4 strips per test!  Back on track with my awesome testing schedule.  As for the home front: Too hot to paint right now... The garden is going insane with this humidity and heat!  I have to take pictures this week.  We've been eating snow peas regularly for a couple weeks and I've already harvested my first 1 1/2 cups of garden peas.  I really enjoyed sitting on the stoop shelling them :)  I quick-blanched and froze them.  I'm hoping to have at least one ziplock bag of fr

My rhubarb recipe blog from a couple weeks ago is featured on Chickens in the Road Blog today!  If you haven't checked out this hilarious and informative website about Susan McMinn's independently-woman-owned and worked farm and animal friends, please do so.  You can check out my recipe feature and see tons of other delicious ideas,  HERE .

Here's an almost-done shot of the dresser...don't mind the sawdust...my hubby was sanding the other cabinet in the garage.  I'm thinking we won't antique the edges...it looks so nice and clean as it is.  We'll see after the hardware gets put on.  We might re-sand the top and repaint it, as I didn't like how the third coat looks.  Maybe I was just too picky that day!  Any opinions on whether to antique the edges with Briwax or not? 

I started cleaning up my little Hoosier cabinet last summer.  I discovered under gobs and gobs of paint, a nicely-made piece of furniture with beautiful etched glass cabinet doors (under horrid red paint.)  Worth the work so far and the near two gallons of stripper!  My husband has taken over the finishing of the project this summer, as my wonky elbows/wrists can't handle the scraping and the sander for too long.   We have been hemming and hawing about what color to paint it.  Neither of us really wanted to do it in "just" white, so a white-ish green or blue were going to be the finalists.  But then he finished cleaning up the front of the drawers and we saw these... Gorgeous drawer fronts! So we have decided to TOTALLY strip every little bit of paint off and stain it!!!  EEK!  The wood is just too pretty to cover up.  I think it's going to be a beautiful, crazy mix of colors.  But, something you can't replicate.   Here are some pictures to keep you curiou

My momma, sister and I went to our local pick your own strawberry-blueberry-raspberry-corn farm on Saturday.  Bright and early, 8:30 it was already in the mid-eighties.  We parked our vehicle and walked right into the field. They take great care at this field and do not use any pesticides.  The ground is also covered in straw, so that you can just sit or crawl on your hands and knees to pick.  This also keeps the berries clean, so very little if any, washing is needed.  I didn't wash any of them.  These were giant, delicious and prolific!        My sister said the weigh/pay booth looked like an international border crossing... We each picked near 10 lbs. of berries!  My mom made a pie and some jam, my sister froze a ton for smoothies and daiquiris, and I used most of mine to make 6 half-pints of no-sugar strawberry jam, 3 half-pints of no-sugar strawberry-peach jam, and then had leftover peaches so I made peach-lemon thyme jam.  I think I'll whip up some strawberry qu

I successfully made a pelmet box!  Finally after my second purchase of fabric-the first was a little "loud" and my husband said it looked like an apron.  So that is EXACTLY what I'm making out of it!  He's always right about things... So, my second purchase of fabric turned up a lovely turquoise Moroccan-Ikat print.  He liked this one.  The first box was for the window over the kitchen sink, which was 40 inches.  Here's a picture-don't mind the icky blinds, I hope to find something to replace them... I learned how to make this HERE   I'll be showing a step-by-step story with the big, 64" box that is just started.  I ran out of steam this weekend!  It was hot, hot hot!  Hopefully I'll work on it this week.  I guess I have to, as I've taken over 1/2 of the kitchen floor and the kitchen table.  JB has declared that he's building me a little counter/worktable someday in there to do my "projects."  He's so nice.  

I am finally redoing our bedroom.  It is currently the ugly, rental-house beige that was badly applied.  I have decided to use a all-over wall stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils to highlight one wall. This is the one I ordered!   I have decided on the paint colors, a pale fleshy-mauve color and the stencil is a darker mauve color.  There are splotches on every wall.  I'm hoping to buy the gallons in the next week or so. This weekend I am re-painting our dresser (my Grandmother's Minneapolis Lugar Furniture Company , circa early 1900's-though not as fancy as the ones shown on the website) BLACK with worn edges and I'm going to use Briwax to antique it.  I hope to get some vintage hardware too-maybe some crystal knobs to add to it.  I'm not usually one to cover nice wood pieces, as it does have a nice grain, but the top is missing most of the stain due to my sisters and I spilling nail polish remover all over it and covering it with stickers and more nail polis

My momma has a patch of rhubarb that is very ready to use this week.  I actually picked a stalk that had a leaf over 3 feet across!  Who needs an umbrella?  My mom said there's an old picture that shows my aunties wearing jungle outfits made out of rhubarb leaves when they were little!  Super cute. I had been craving a rhubarb dessert ever since she had made one a couple weeks ago and I scarfed down a huge piece of it, chased with a large bolus.  She put almond extract in it...heavenly.  But I wanted cherries too.  So I took the basic recipe and of course I had to change it...  Notice the ever-present glucose tabs to remind me I'm diabetic and shouldn't eat the whole pan at once...  Cherry-Rhubarb Crisp (lower sugar) Filling: 1/3 cup white sugar 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoons cornstarch 1/2 cup cold water 1/2 (21 ounce) can light/sugar free cherry pie filling  (Walmart has a great one w/ only 8 carbs per 1/3 c.) 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 2 1/3 c

My little blog that could has hit over a 1000 views today!  Thanks everybody, it makes it so much more fun to know that people are actually looking at it and reading :)  There will be some more exciting things to talk about this summer, here's a short sneak peek list: Bedroom makeover Office makeover Gardens galore The story of a farm stand AND some other exciting things to come in the future :)

I had promised my hubby some baked treats recently and I had a desperate craving for chocolate cake so I had to make some cupcakes.  But not just any cupcakes...Chocolate with a surprise of Cheesecake Filling, topped with Caramelized Walnuts.  How to create these lovelies: Make it easy on yourself and buy a box of chocolate cake mix.  Mix it up.  Cheesecake filling: 1 pkg of light cream cheese 1 egg 1/3 c. sugar 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract (or both!) Keep cool, so it stays firm.  Fill paper-lined muffin cups 1/2 full with the chocolate cake.  Add 1-2 tsp of the cream cheese mix, or more if you want more.  It cooks up cake-like, so don't worry.  Cover the cream cheese with chocolate cake mix until the cups are 3/4 full.  Bake as directed on the box, mine took around 18 mins I think.  Before, During or After, make the walnuts. Caramelized Walnuts: (I made this up as I went, so just trust your candy thermometer!) 1/3 stick of real, unsalted butter 1/4-1/

After all the crazy rain yesterday and all of last night, I walk out this morning on my way to work during a moment of no rain and walk towards the patio garden to see if anything popped up with the warm rain.  Well, what popped out was that little sh*# of a rabbit, whom I call Bun-Bun.  I was hoping the human-scented and noisy cement patio would keep him in the back yard but to no avail.  More ugly fencing to come to the patio now and some blood meal.   Another curious thing, I planted a whole packet of Lima Beans and only one has shown itself after about 3 weeks.  I thought Burpee was better than that.  That's what I'll be re-planting this weekend.  Of course I threw away the receipt.

Yesterday after work (BG was 145 with a little insulin on-board, but nothing to worry about) I sauntered over to Micheal's to grab some foam boards for my pelmet boxes I'm making for the kitchen windows.  What's a pelmet box, you ask?  Check out this tutorial at Little Green Notebook .  Cheap and awesome decoration!   So, after leaving Micheal's, Lowe's is right next door, so I went over there to check on some brackets for hanging said pelmets and after having a helpful worker make a couple suggestions that just weren't working at all in my head, I thanked him and he left on his merry way.  I was still pondering the brackets and noticed it was really hot in there, like they didn't have the AC on all day.  So I'm fanning my face with my papers and I just start sweating all over.  My back was sweating, my face had beads of sweat rolling down.  And only after noticing that noone else was hot or sweating and that I couldn't pay attention to what the h

As promised the other day...I finally have some pictures of my herb spiral and my patio garden.   New Herb Spiral So far I have two basils, rosemary, an interesting fuzzy oregano, cilantro (coriander,) and lemon thyme.  I will be adding a Greek oregano and possibly a nice plain chive to fill the bottom space.  I haven't quite thought of what to fill the surrounding area with yet.  I am leaning towards some bright flowers since there's so much green! Patio Garden  The above is my patio garden, which this year is mostly vegetables.  I will be filling in all the empty space with annual flowers though, as I can't NOT have color!!!  Who loves that ugly fence as much as me?   The far corner is the catnip grove as I call it, it has 6-8 bushes that will grow about 3-4 ft. each.  The stuff is very potent, according to my cat, Stickee.  Our mild winter had a couple little volunteer bushes that grew near the steps and my cat escaped one day and we found him 6 ft. fro

Check out my blog post at the Farm Bell Recipes forum at the Chickens in the Road site today! My herb spiral is in and looks amazing!  Photos to follow, tonight.  Thank you to my hubby for helping me build and re-build it many times :)   The gardens are flourishing with this week of close-to 80 degree weather and so is that pesky toddler-age rabbit that has now discovered my garden!  So far the carnage:  one cucumber plant (totally gone, not a bit left) and a large marigold plant chopped in half!  Didn't even bother eating it!  Little sh*!  I think I'll be installing some fencing tonight...though I hate how it looks!  See you later with pictures.

My post about Micro Greens is being featured on the Chickens in the Road Blog and Website  in the Farm Bell Recipe section!  If you haven't come across this blog/website/forum yet, it is a must read.  Susan McMinn (yes, she used to write romance novels too!) posts hilarious stories and pictures from her farm and funny little animal-inhabitants.  There is also a recipe forum and lots of other reader advice areas.  My little story is going to be featured on May 16th, so go, my 7 followers and check it out next week! 

My hubby, JB and I have been very busy this past week and this weekend!  He has been extra productive, leveling some spots in our yard and throwing down some grass seed.  The gardens were also all tilled, compost added, seedlings and seeds planted, my herb spiral has started to take shape but needs lots more dirt and filler.  JB also mowed the vacant house next to us, since the lawn was looking pretty bad and the landlord was very appreciative.  We also decided we'd donate some Hostas to their front area as well, because our previous neighbors weren't that into keeping up there yard.  Hopefully this brings in some decent people to fill the space.  I'll be taking some pictures of my gardens so I can have some decent before and after photos for this year, as I think it will be a good one! This week's list of to-do's: 1.  Finish planting all of my seedlings and seeds 2.  Finish the herb spiral and start purchasing the plants 3.  Get a bird feeder 4.  Purchase mor