Favorite Season

Ever since I was able to understand anything about the joys of November and December, well, I have loved it.  LOVED.  With lots of capital letters and exclamation points - which is a lot of love for a season.  As a child, my most beautiful mother would tell people "Do not sing even one NOTE of a Christmas song before November, because sweet Betsy will sing carols until January!"  Ha.  I love, love that about me AND about my mother.  How well she knew us!  

It's true.  I started listening to carols long before many of you did.  They just make me happy, and I like that.

As I grew older, Thanksgiving almost took the title of "favorite holiday." The family that would gather and traditions we would engage in, without fail, made it such a grand event.  Absolutely nothing could measure up to the fun we had hiding the mashed potatoes from uncles, opening Christmas crackers, and wearing paper crowns proudly while telling British jokes.  Truly, it was great fun (and the food was DE-licious.)  Ohhh how I cherish these memories with my whole heart!

Christmas, too, was full of one weird tradition after another, but nevertheless right on cue.  Surely we weren't the only ones to act out the entire "Twelve Days of Christmas?"  

And it's all different now.  It's like a band-aid was ripped right off of me, and I'm left wounded and in pain.  Maybe not physical, but certainly mental and emotional.  Sometimes I think "I just don't want to grow up anymore!  I would like to be a kid again.  Yep."  This season is by far the happiest-hardest of all, and when I most loathe change.  On one happy note (well, two) I perfected the once-to-me-dreaded art of whole roasting turkey and making bourbon balls.  Exciting news, friends.  And tasty.    

BUT (there is always something more to add, right??)  I started my own Betsy-tradition this year!  Yes.  I decided I would bake a new cookie recipe a day from this old, weathered 1986 Southern Living Christmas Cookie book.  The rules (for me) were to only bake, make and shape recipes in said book.  I did well - though I had to stop making so many cookies, as I completely ran out of counter space and cookie tins!  I oh-so-kindly left the cookies with others while visiting family this past weekend/week.  

It was great fun, though, to try so MANY new things!  Ohhh, and they were so SO good.  I had to literally walk briskly away from one sugar cookie recipe I'd made.  I could not, for the life of me, stop eating them.  Maybe it was the lemon zest... or the soft texture... or Christmas shape... or Royal Icing-Cookie combination.  I don't know, but it was truly addicting.  As were the chocolate peppermint brownie bars.  Whatever!  So good.  Sweet as anything, but I did not care.  That combination, well, is what Kryptonite is to Superman.  Seriously.

I have so very many pictures to share with you!  Maybe I'm not so great and getting them off my camera, but I will.  Sooner than later :)  Happy, happy.  

Oh!  I have new job!  It's just wonderful and I'm excited to share more about what I'm doing in Austin soon. 

Have a perfect Saturday, friends!

Love, Betsy

The Heart of the Matter

I wonder what that phrase truly means.  If I took a moment to look, I'm more than certain I could find it out quickly through Google (I don't want to "take a moment," so I'll just guess by process of reading between the lines.)

What is the heart of the matter in regards to my particular eating disorder and the stress I find myself under each day?  I cannot for the life of me put a finger on it, which is even more irritating.  Like an itch you just can't seem to reach.  OH.  That is terrible!

Some days I can paint beautiful pictures for you, and make life seem so happy and lovely and wonderful.  Today is not that day.  If anything I'm writing solely because it seems I'm losing my mind!  I feel numb, emotionless (even though I know KNOW that I have plenty of emotions, due to the tear-spotted key-board on which I type!)  I struggle with wondering what my worth is currently.  Why is it that we seem to place our worth on our job or marital status or collegiate achievements?  Maybe it's just me.  But I have a feeling there are multitudes of others who do just the same.

Obviously I'm not in a great place, though I'm told things will get better.  

But, when is that day?  When is the grand "all better" day?  I cannot wait to share, in the most unbiased way possible, the ridiculous twistings my family has gone through over the past two years.  I won't even go into the years prior to that.  Unless you have time to read a long, long book - think, hmmm, Harry Potter Anne of Green Gables Gone with the Wind length.  Yes, that will work.)

I am POSITIVE I will have a happier story to tell later in the day.  I did manage to make a successful Thanksgiving turkey this year!  I would love to share the recipe and pictures and see what you might have ventured into attempting :)

So, I suppose I'll talk to you (or ya'll or you two.. or to whomever might glance at this) later.  Happy Monday to you.

Love, Betsy

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Change.

Happy Day!  It's becoming more and more all about pumpkin and lovely Thanksgiving dishes to prepare in advance.  And pie after pie after pie recipes in every other email.  And magazine article.  AND this makes me SO joyful.  The ability to eat one or two slices will be the biggest feat for me, but at least I can maintain a reallllllllllllllllly excited attitude and passion about it all!  

What is YOUR favorite pie?  Or fall treat?  Or, well, anything from your past that will always bring a smile to your face and happy feelings to your tummy?

I can list many, and all have Da's name in front of them... Da's Pecan Pie, Da's Date Loaf Candy, Da's Fudge, Da's Mashed Potatoes, Da's Chicken and Dumplings.  Yep.  All things Da during Christmas makes my heart fill with vivid memories of the sights, sounds, and smells of many happy years spent with her and Dado.  

Change.  I realize it's inevitable, but each year I find the holiday season becomes a bit more difficult to endure.  I love it and become depressed over it at the same time more often than I would like.  It's the oddest things that cause me to smile/cry - like a dish towel with a leaping reindeer sweetly sewn upon it at Kohl's.  I don't know.  Does a dish towel cause the same emotions to well up and spill over in you?  I would love it if you said yes, because then we could go and cry over the dish towels together.  And don't even take me to the ornaments.  It's over in half a minute, and the store manager would be kindly escorting me to a "safer" and less memory-filled area.  Perfumes, perhaps. Or men's shoes.  Hahaha!  Oh, I love to make myself laugh.  

I have to find some sort of comical something in just being so very Betsy.

Treatment news... I'm truly doing better.  That is TERRIFYING.  Really.  I have been in a "I'm freaking out!" state for the past week, but I know I'm becoming healthier.  And I ate lasagna roll-ups I made.  I don't know the last time I ate two helpings of lasagna roll-ups.  Granted, I health-ified them, but whatever.  I do not care, and others liked them, too!

You want the recipe.  I know you do, and this has a close version of mine.

Of course, life without bits of pumpkin during the fall days just isn't right.  So I made...

...which I found here.

I do wish mine would have turned out better, but that just means trial two will be coming soon!  I loved the cakey texture, however, which probably came from me making them perfectly the first time taking them out of the oven wayyyy too early.  Most likely the cause of a non-fluffy creamy filling.  Don't care, still delightful :)

These were insanely good, and especially with the addition of maple syrup in the cream cheese filling.  I'll be honest - it was fat free cream cheese.  I can hear many of you saying "oh, the real stuff is so much better!"  I know this.  I genuinely know this.  I still, however, opted for lower calories; the guilt in eating these is enough to send me into a tail-spin (imagine me actually spinning around chasing my tail... I just did.  That's ridiculous and most comical!)  Each time I had one I vowed to not eat another.

I've had one every day, despite said vow.  YES.  I'll take mine warmed up, with a drizzle of powdered sugar glaze (just sugar and milk, as thick as you like.)  Please and thank you SO much.

Lovely friends, have a perfect evening.  Enjoy the remainder of your Sunday and the extra hour you so kindly received today!  I think I've done enough random writings for one post...

Love, Betsy

And then came FALL!

When fall comes, I find myself a bit more excited about life.  A lot more, actually!

And when I'm more excited, I tend to bake and cook a LOT more.  Especially when I find recipes like this...

That turn into delicious breakfasts looking something like this...

And in those brief moments of sheer pancake bliss (covered in a maple-apple-butter-syrupy-mess,) I forget about Chaz and his thoughts on food.  It's in those moments, I realize recovery might MIGHT be possible.

Food, if you didn't know, is energy!  Have you seen the video from Parks and Rec?  I love it.  I could watch it 231 times a day.  I would love it, and then be able to reenact it!  "Pow!"  "That's spaghetti!"  Watch it.  Hilarious.  Well, to me.

I hate how fleeting joy-filled moments are these days; most unfortunately, they've become few and far between.  I suppose, however, that's better than never having said moments!

What else is new besides my strange breakfast addiction?  Hmmm.  I live in Katy, and am seeing a fun, quirky therapist.  I like her.  She reminds me of ME!  Hence the reason behind calling her quirky - I would never dare say someone was so, unless I truly felt it.  Do feel free to tell  me I am; I will totally claim it, wear a "I'm quirky" sash, and fulfill all roles of the being "Miss Quirky of America."  Not that we've had that contest yet, but with allllllllll the new realities shows coming out hourly, I'm certain this will be one.  Please put my name in the drawing for contestants, should it occur.  Thank you in advance.

Ok, so in therapy the other day I was asked one of the most thought-provoking questions.  "Betsy, have you ever considered that there might be a day when you will be well.  When you won't have one thing after another go wrong?  You've been through a lot of hell in your life, BUT there will be a day when things will be brighter.  Anorexia won't be a title you hold.  And you'll be able to have more than one good day in a row."  

Think...think...think...answer.  "No.  No, I haven't.  There's always been one twist after another.  To imagine a day like that is incredible."

That is my new goal in therapy.  I love it.  Is it not so very lovely and grand?  Perhaps there is someone out there who has never been asked this.  And if that's so, does it inspire anything in you to change and move forward in whatever area of life might be causing you distress?  Ponder it.  It's most ponderable.  

A digression for a minute - I want "ponderable"to be a real word.  I see the mean red line under it, but I.  Don't.  Care.  I like it.  My good friend Kat would totally understand.  She's just as quirky as me and would also claim it.  End digression.

Oh!!  So, I've been scouring blogs in search of cookie recipes (you're in a state of shock, right?  Probably not.  SO Betsy of me to do!) I found this one and totally love it.  LOVE love it (which means a lot in Betsy-lingo.)  It doesn't even need refrigerating!  HELLO SIMPLE.  

Roll it out.  Cut into happy fall shapes.  Bake.  You get something like this...

...and then you eat.  Or frost them and eat them.  Or put them in a cookie jar.  Close the lid.  Open the lid and eat one.  Or two.  Or even three.  I can never eat just one cookie.  

Progress.  I know I'm making progress if I can bake AND eat.  Happy Dance!

Happy Tuesday, friends :)  I hope it's filled with lovely pumpkin carving, fall baking, friend calling, and other enjoyable things.

Love, Betsy

A Yellow Zone

"In his heart a man plans his steps, but the Lord determines his path."

Yes.  That is true.  For both man and woman - and for me in my current situation.

I had everything perfectly planned and in place.  I really thought I did!  I was going to transfer smoothly and swiftly to an IOP (Intensive Outpatient Program) in Houston.  Everything was going along, well, swimmingly.  My therapist had spoken with the new facility several times. My discharge paperwork and other documents requiring my apparently-impressive-since-I'd-signed-so-many signature had been, well, signed...then sealed, and delivered probably put in a manilla folder marked "Herrington."  Hopefully they use fun colors on the tabs.  I'm sure my folder is now sitting in a fancy, tan filing cabinet, too.  Paper has such a great life after being used.  If the files could talk, wouldn't they have THE most interesting things to share!  I actually am laughing out loud at the thought.  Ha!

Moving on to why I'm in a "Yellow Zone."

Not a hard analogy to figure out - Green is great, yellow is caution, and red screams stop!  Go back! 

Yellow.  I'm in a yellow zone of life, especially this week.  Many caution lights seem to be flashing in my face as I strive to fight against the eating disorder way of thinking.  No, not in the red yet, and I'm so frightful of entering that zone.  I've been there one too many times, and am really not intrigued by anything "red" has to offer; it's certainly a lonely, dark, dungeon cell there.

So, all would have worked out completely fine with the transfer EXCEPT FOR INSURANCE.  Of course.  Why not?  Insurance has become the bane of my existence - a miserable part of any treatment.  Rather hindering, really, and insurance companies have obviously mastered in the field of "Hard to Deal With," as a dearly treasured friend of mine put it yesterday.  A disturbing thing to find out, especially since I was told prior to leaving Renfrew that: 

1. I was not in a safe place within the recovery process yet, 

2. Austin would be detrimental to moving in a positive direction, and 

3. Hopefully this new center would work out better. 

Structure.  I need such ridiculous structure in avoiding a relapse, and it's been so hard.  I wish you could hear me say that - because it's just hard.  Sure, I eat three meals a day now.  Wow, huh?  Food is not enthralling at this moment, I have no hunger cues most days, and I can't seem to stop wanting the same foods. Again.  I can see the cycle starting, and I am anxious to get the help I need.  There's no other way to be but completely honest while typing... I have made progress in contacting therapists and nutritionists in the Katy area, and hope to meet with them early next week.  Oh how lovely, lovely, lovely and FUN this all is!  

I attempted to plan my steps, but it seems God has a different plan.  I have such head knowledge that His plan is greater, and higher, and perfect!  I desire for this to become heart knowledge - for my entire being to KNOW that HE is LORD.  To not doubt, and be tossed about like a wave in the sea.  The scripture above is so fitting for me today, as it seems it's exactly what has occurred within 7 days time.  How interesting.  

I will wait.  I will try my best.  And I will not quit fighting and moving forward.  I've come so far, fear going back, and want to be "Happy Betsy who is Randomly Exciting and Passionate about Life!" again.

James and I are off to meet Austin-locals for coffee or tea.  Friends, have a happy-football-day (any Saturday in fall has been renamed this now,) I hope your team of choice wins, and take time to enjoy the fabulous cooler weather.

Love, Betsy 
     

My Brush (I was sure) with Death on Tuesday

It started at 2 pm Tuesday.  Nap time for Betsy... it's one of my favorite things to do.  I wish children knew what they were missing out on!  Oh, the loveliness of a nap!  

But, not this Tuesday.  No, no, no my body was not ABOUT to allow me to lay still and quite and at rest for awhile.  It was at this time that the strange aching all over started.  It did!  And so, being Betsy, I thought "surely it's my back.  I will lay on the floor."  Obviously that worsened the pain.  "I will try to sit this way... and that way... and now I will just cry and beg for the pain to stop!"  And I did.  On the floor.  Moving ever-so-slowly as to not exacerbate the sharp, stabbing sensations.  

And THEN began the heart pounding and clammy-all-feeling.  Death, is that you at my door?

I was certain it was bone marrow cancer.  Or a sudden onset of Osteoporosis.  Or, worse, I was having a stroke.  Yes.  I was sure it was all these things (because OF COURSE I'm going to think of the worst diseases possible to explain why I have pain.)  

I called James, who is only three hours away, and cried, cried, cried.  And asked what to do (because apparently, in that state, I have no possible way of thinking rationally.  I was ready to admit myself to the hospital.  Truly!)  Being the logical James that he is, he recommends a clinic (novel idea and MUCH less expensive than mine.)  So, off I go to the nearby clinic.  Thankfully (and graciously) James's best friend took me.  

We were hopeful I would be seen soon, since the parking lot looked a bit sparse (not that clinics are known for having patients wait hours on end, or anything.)  I got checked in, (probably looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  The whole standing up, appearing to be healthy and happy thing... not working) and sat with Dan while waiting.  And waiting.  Midst the waiting, we entertained ourselves by creating new names for the restaurants across the street, and deciding that Dan should open a clinic titled "The Quickest Clinic," or something like that.  In and out in 20 minutes would be the motto.  The conversation drifted to how odd some of the patients ALSO waiting were acting.   

But listen, you can only create so much to do while sitting in plastic chairs waiting.  

I was told "You'll be next, Ms. Herrington."  High fives all around!  Lovely news!  

And out comes the nurse.. "Mrs. Smith?"  and then, "Mr. Jones?"  and how about, "Mr. and Mrs. Lee?"  Seriously.  I was growing so extremely impatient, as my name was not coming up.  I was staring so hard at the door where the nurse came out I am sure a hole was about to be burned right through it.  

Suddenly, out comes the polite lady who entered me in the computer system.  "Ms. Herrington, I'm so sorry we laid your paperwork down and they neglected to add you to the list.  You are next, for sure."  GRAND.  I'm so excited to keep waiting!

They did call me back, and I was seen by a lady I could not understand very well... and if it hadn't been for allllll the signs in the examining room saying "please wait to be discharged by staff" I would have run - or hobbled - out much faster than I went in.  Of course, they take my blood, and I swear I'm so tired of giving blood.  I feel like I could have saved many people by now... and goodnight above the world that lady made the needle do something awfully terrible and pain shot to my finger tips!  THEN a urine sample, and I told the lab examiner, "I think I'm just going to go now, but thank you for your help."  

" Oh, but miss, do you want any medicine or antibiotics?"  

"I am much better (not really) and am actually running very, VERY late."  

"At least let the doctor read your tests."  

Fine.  

And then they couldn't find the doctor.  Tell me, how do you suddenly lose the doctor?  She was right there not one minute ago.  

They find her... I talk with her... and I decline some strange pain reliever, which caused her to get tight-lipped and frowny-faced at me.  "Well, if you don't want what is going to make you feel better, please sign here."  I signed so fast the pen just about flew out of my hand, and I limped out the door.  

Honestly, it had taken so long to be seen that a lot of the pain had subsided.  I still felt strange the next day, but better.  I was so curious as to what was ailing me!  

Then came Thursday.  That's when I discovered the real reason... peanut butter.  

To think how well I had always treated my friend (or so I thought!) peanut butter all these years, and he dares to give me a hint of Salmonella poisoning.  Ohhh yes.  Horrifying news.

I was meandering through Kroger last night, and noticed a "We are sorry to report this, but any peanut butter made by this brand through these dates has been recalled due to several reports of Salmonella-like illnesses."  

Oh my!  That was the brand I used!  That was what I had thrown out, due to not having a clue how I was sick!  Not you, please not you!  It just can't be so!

It was so.  And I got a refund.  I can report to you, most happily, that I do not have any of the first mentioned diseases today.  I'm close to being Salmonella-free, now, and that makes me glad.  

Tell me, dear readers, have you had any such experience?  I would love to hear!

Love, Betsy