March 2015 | Page 2 of 2 | Kate's Point of View

Month: March 2015

Snow. Snow. And more Snow.

On March 5, 2015

This hasn’t been a bad winter. Truly, it hasn’t. But these last couple of weeks have been trying to prove otherwise!Right now I am sitting inside while Wonder Boy is outside using the snow blower to clear our driveway and sidewalks (and maybe taking care of our neighbors’ sidewalks as well). Last week I spent a lot of time doing the same.

Snow blowers are amazing! I should have invested in one of these years ago!

I’m grateful I have the option of working form home, but we’ve still spent a lot of time having to make it on poorly salted and cleared roads, dodging other cars. Also some mini bikes??? Here’s a picture I took of a guy drying his best to make it down a fairly busy road on a mini bike. FAIL.

Sorry for the poor photo quality. This was taken from inside the car.
He knows he looks like a fool. See the smile on his face?

I’m hoping late today I can have a little more fun with the snow. There are two sleds sitting in my basement and they need to be used!

Keeping Everything in Working Order, Plus a Chance to Win Free Probiotics!

By Kate

On March 4, 2015

In reviews

It’s been almost four months since I had my hysterectomy and I would say things are mostly back to normal, but not quite 100%. I’m trying to give my body all the time it needs to heal itself, but I’ve also been turning to natural remedies for things that have come up. Primarily, I’ve been focusing on my hair, skin and gut. (Actually, the gut gets a lot of focus because I’m at the gym trying to remedy 6 weeks of bed rest and also focused on the stuff inside my gut.)

I took a lot of medicine to manage pain before surgery and then took crazy amounts of pain medication afterwards. It did the trick – it helped keep the pain manageable. But one side effect to lots of medicines is what happens inside your gut. Not to mention that having someone slice into your lower abdomen and remove some bits comes with its own baggage. Trust me, after a surgery like that you want to keep everything in your gut in working order. If you know what I mean.

I started taking probiotics to help keep all of my good bacteria in check. I can’t say for sure if it was because of the probiotics or just because of time, but I feel like they worked. I didn’t have issues in my gut area and was grateful for that. It was one less thing to worry about during my recovery so I could focus on the rest of me.

The probiotic I took was Microbiome Plus + Gastrointestinal. The package comes with four boxes filled with blister cards. I took two pills twice a day. I tried taking them with food, but even when that wasn’t an option they didn’t upset my stomach. It was easy and did the trick!

I was very pleased with this product and am even more pleased at the chance to give you an opportunity to win one month’s supply for FREE! You can enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. The contest runs through the end of March 2015 and there will be three winners. Good luck!

Enter to Win Free Probiotics!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
This post was sponsored by Microbiome Plus. I received a sample of this product to try for free.
All opinions are my own.

Congratulations to the Winners!

Congrats to Arielle, Lisa and Jennifer who won this giveaway! All winners have been contacted and put in touch with ishopnutrition.com, the sponsor of this giveaway.

March is Reading Month!

By Kate

On March 3, 2015

In books, reviews

My Weeks in Books

March is National Reading Month, which means it’s basically the Month of Kate. I’m taking the theme as a reminder to kick it into gear with reading, but also to share out some of the books I’ve been reading recently.

Son by Lois Lowry

I finally finished Lois Lowery’s series that begins with The Giver. I’ve had Son sitting in my To Read pile for months but something just made me stall. I can’t quite explain it. But, I’m so happy I did delay! The main character undergoes what I think is a hysterectomy, though that’s not verified, and reading about that while recovering from a hysterectomy… Well, that would have just been too much. With a little time having passed since surgery, I was able to immerse myself in this book, which was a lovely ending to a great series.

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

The second in a trilogy about magic, The Magician King was about a quest, adventure and what is necessary to be a hero. While I wasn’t quite as fond of this as I was the first book, The Magicians, I still adore Grossman for making such blatant references to all of the important fiction novels that precede his about magic, wizards, other worlds, quests and heroes. It made me recall what it was like reading The Narnia Chronicles for the first time, and that memory alone made the book a worthwhile read.

The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham

I feel like I should be gushing about The Snow Queen. And yet. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mental space for this book. it felt so heavy and contemplative and ending each day by reading was sort of like ensuring my day ended poorly. What is the good in that?!

The Haven by Carol Lynch Williams

I learned about this book on some online list of Best YA Books of 2014. I can’t find the exact link, but here’s one to prove I’m not making it up. I wish I were! This is one of very few book that I gave only one star to in Goodreads. One star! If this is the best stuff out there for YA (and I know it’s not), then young adults are in a sorry state.