Kidney Stone Update

     This morning I had my follow-up visit with my urologist to discuss the kidney stone I had a month ago.  I'm doing well, and the visit was quick.  I'll share what he told me in the visit in case anyone wants to know how to prevent kidney stones.

     He told me that for first-time kidney stones he doesn't recommend diet changes regarding food.  What he does recommend is drinking lots more fluids.  Fluids are almost always the key to kidney stone prevention.

     Everyone has crystals in their urine.  Drinking enough fluids keeps the urine diluted and the kidneys well-flushed so that the crystals aren't as concentrated and they won't have a chance to stick together to form a stone.  The question is: how do you know what's considered "enough" fluids for your body?  And the answer is: it's not how much fluid you take into your body that matters, but what your body flushes out.  To prevent the kidneys from creating stones, we need to be peeing out approximately 2 liters of urine in a 24-hour period.

     Our body uses what it needs from the food and drink we intake, and then it eliminates from our body the solid waste and the liquid that it doesn't use.  So the amount of liquid that our body doesn't use is what has to be measured if we're to see if our urine is diluted enough.  For example, two people can drink 8 8-oz. glasses of water a day, but the amount that their bodies need to absorb and how much urine they eliminate will be different.  If one or both of them aren't reaching the 2-liter mark, then more liquid intake is required, and how much more will depend on the person.

     The doctor said that after consistently peeing 2 liters' worth of urine in a 24-hour period, if I still get another kidney stone, then that's when it's time to look at a diet change to see what foods I need to cut back on and what foods to increase in my diet.  I'm pretty healthy in general.  I'm overweight, but that's due mostly to eating too close to bedtime and eating more bread than I should.  But I stay away from junk food for the most part (kit kats and my homemade chocolate chip cookies are my weaknesses), and Mc and I will not buy food that has hydrogenated oil or high fructose corn syrup in it, and we stay away from soda all together.  My kidney stone was absolutely due to not drinking enough water; I know this about myself.  So I've upped my water intake and I'm confident that I won't get another kidney stone as long as I keep that up.

     And I hope this helps all of you to prevent getting kidney stones, too.  They hurt like crazy, and the hospital bills are very expensive.  If you don't have good insurance, then you'll be paying a lot of money out-of-pocket.  Prevent the pain and the medical expenses all together: drink enough water so that you're urinating the proper amount.  We have extremely easy access to fresh water-- take advantage of it.  :)

First Day of School

     Today was Little One's first day of school.  And since I'm homeschooling Baby Girl, then today was her first day of school as well.  :)

     Here's Little One before we left for school.

     We actually missed the school bus this morning.  He takes a long time to get out of bed in the morning.  I thought that the cat walking into his room and today being his first day of school and of riding the bus would be exciting enough to get him out of bed, but nope, he smiled and then rolled over and went right back to sleep.  So yeah, we missed the bus.  I'll have to wake him up earlier tomorrow.

     Baby Girl was excited to start our school today.  This week we're working on a story book that she and my sister started when my sister was here for a week.  The two of them played a make-believe game outside in the back yard, and they had a lot of fun.  Baby Girl started writing and illustrating little books at my parents' house, and she loves doing it here, too.  So I thought of having her write down this story in one of her books.  They started that while my sister was here but they didn't finish, and so I want to take this week to finish their progress in their story so far.

     She likes working on the floor, but I'll have to see if a table and chair would work better for her.  I'm wondering if the floor will be enough (since she likes to move around when she's working and the floor is certainly conducive to that) or if I should buy a few furniture pieces to turn this area into more of a classroom setting.  We'll see; I'll experiment.


     With Little One not around, Obsidian feels safer and so he came downstairs to check out what we were doing.

     And then he fell asleep on the cat bed sill thing I installed downstairs for him.

     This afternoon after Little One got home and Quiet Time was over, Baby Girl wanted to ride their tricycles in the garage, so I said sure.  This is a great way to let them get some exercise on those rainy days (and the kids are still small enough that a mostly-empty two-car garage is big enough to play in).

     We had a good day today.  Little One liked school and the bus, and Baby Girl is excited to learn things and have school with me.  I'll start off next Monday with a more set schedule that will include visiting places like the library and the beach, and I'll have her start doing some workbook stuff, too.  This feels totally doable, and I think we'll all have fun and learn lots, too.

Cat Furniture I Want

     As I mentioned in my last post, I really love the idea of utilizing the high vaulted ceiling in our living room to build some cat furniture.  I want to give our new cat Obsidian a place to be up high so he can be near us but also feel safe, and have his own territory.

     There was a TV show I used to watch on the Animal Planet called "My Cat From Hell", where a cat behavior specialist named Jackson Galaxy comes to people's homes to meet their cat and to help the owners achieve a good relationship with their cat and to help them understand their cat better.  It's really a great show; I highly recommend it!  You can find full episodes on YouTube or on Amazon.  Anyway, this show is where I first heard of a "catio" (a cat patio), and where I first saw the idea of putting wall shelves up so the cat can access high areas.  I want that for our cat.

     Also in his show, Jackson explained that some cats are tree-dwellers who prefer to be high up, and some are bush-dwellers who prefer to be at ground level.  I'm not yet sure which one Obsidian is because right now he's in "keep me away from that kid" mode, so he looks for various hiding places to get away from our son, most of which are down low.  But he likes being up on window sills, so I think what I have in mind for him will be to his liking.

     I've looked on the internet for ideas, and here's what I want (sorry about the big spacing between the pictures; it's because I copied them from the internet and so I can't fix it).

 Here's the picture of our living room and the space I want to use:

The cat tree arrived yesterday.  I put it upstairs by the railing, and it was pretty wobbly so I bolted it to the pantry so that it won't tip over when the cat's on the top landing.  That big long wall above the tropical picture is where I want all these goodies to be (and I'll have to relocate the picture).

 I want very simple sturdy wall shelves that will go along the wall in two directions from the cat tree: two or three shelves going down to the mantle above the fireplace, and then three or four shelves going up the wall, like this:

The ones going up the wall will lead to an overhead walkway like this one, which will extend 3-4 feet out from the wall into the living room: 

 

And the walkway will lead to a cat loft like this:

 

From down below it'll look something like this:

 

     That's what I'd like to have for our cat.   The guy who came up with this ceiling setup lives in Germany, and you can buy these things from his company but it'll cost over $500 to make and ship them.  Plus, since our ceiling is vaulted and at a fairly steep slant, I'd need it to be custom-made for my specific house anyway.  So I'm going to tackle this project myself.

     The problem is that I've never done something like this before.  Yesterday I went to Home Depot and picked out the wood and the rope I thought I would need.  But as I was standing in the reciprocating saw section I felt overwhelmed and I called Mc on the phone and said with dismay, "I don't know what I'm doing!"  I figured out a chainsaw easily enough a couple of years ago, but I've never used a reciprocating saw before, and learning a new power tool with sharp blades makes me nervous.  I suppose I could pay someone to come do this project for me, but I don't know anyone around here who does this kind of thing.

     Besides, I want to do it.  I like working with my hands and I like the feeling of seeing a project completed that I've worked on.  Like when I chainsawed our oleander bushes a couple of years ago-- that was gratifying.  But I don't have the skills to do something like this cat project.  I took a close look at the pictures online and I can guess at how these were assembled, and I watched a few videos online to see how cat trees are made, but I don't know exactly how this guy did this particular project.  And our cat's safety will depend on my building and installing this thing correctly!

     Basically, I know what I want and I also want to be the one to do it, but I can't do it alone.  I will need to find someone who's done woodwork and installation like this before who can show me how it should be assembled and secured to the ceiling.  I want it to look good and I need it to be secure and safe for Obsidian.  The last thing I want is for the whole thing to come loose from the ceiling and crash to the floor and injure the cat and anyone who happens to be under it at the time, you know what I mean?

     So yeah, this is what I want to do.  :)  And I need to do it sooner than later so Obsidian can feel secure and he can observe Little One from a safe and unreachable distance.  He hasn't hissed or bitten Little One, which is a good sign that he'll be a great pet for our whole family.  They'll get used to each other soon, but in the meantime I need to constantly keep Little One from seeking and bothering Obsidian, and I need to keep Obsidian's stress levels down; I think this completed project will help a lot.

We Adopted a Cat!

     This past Saturday we adopted a cat from a local animal shelter.  :)  I've wanted a cat for years, and now felt like a good time to get one.

     We considered getting a dog because the kids would love one, but Mc predicted that a dog would stress me out, and he's probably right.  Dogs require a lot of attention and they're more needy, and in that sense they're like little kids.  I need ways to de-stress, and a couple of weeks ago I realized that a cat would likely help in that regard.  I've always loved cats; I grew up with dogs, but I consider myself a cat person.  A cat is different enough from a dog and from little kids that it would relax me rather than stress me out.  Plus, both Mc and I would rather live with a cat than a dog; just personal preference.  A few friends and family members are unfortunately allergic to cats, and so we first looked into getting a hypoallergenic breed (listed here: http://www.petmd.com/cat/wellness/evr_ct_hypoallergenic_cat_breeds# ), but those loved ones aren't at our house often enough to sway us against getting a cat.  So I did a lot of research on cats to see what they need to be healthy and happy, and last week we went to a few animal shelters to look for our new pet.

     The ASPCA has created something they call "Meet Your Match", where they've broken down the personalities of dogs and cats into categories, and then based on what you're looking for in a dog or cat, you're more likely to be paired up with one that will fit your personality and your lifestyle (and thus you're more likely to keep the pet and not return it to the shelter or abandon it or have both you and the cat/dog be miserable with each other).  Here's the link:  http://www.aspca.org/adopt/meet-your-match 

     The sex and age of the cat didn't matter to me.  We had two main requirements: the cat must be in good health and it must be good with little kids.  We went to two shelters with no luck, and then at the third one on Saturday afternoon we found one that will be wonderful for our family.

     He had been abandoned by his previous owner.  A neighbor found him and named him Buddy Black Cat and took care of him until the shelter could take him and put him up for adoption.  He's one-and-a-half years old and he's a sweetheart.  He definitely has a Sidekick personality.  He doesn't like to be picked up and held, but he loves to be around people, he loves to be petted, and he's a purring machine!  I briefly considered naming him Harley because his constant deep purring reminds me of a Harley Davidson motorcycle off in the distance, but he has too sweet of a personality to be named after a Harley motorcycle.  ;)  We know from the gal who took care of him that he doesn't like catnip but he loves string, and he was a very good mouser.  And I've seen that with the string toys I've given him to play with-- he has strong hunting instincts (unlike Garfield and older cats).  ;)



     When we first brought him home we put him in our room away from the kids.  When we let him out of the crate he went straight under our bed, but within 10 minutes he was out and exploring, and 10 minutes after that he wanted to leave the room and look around the house.  We put the kids in bed first and then we let him roam.  He warmed up to Mc and me right away.  He explored cautiously but bravely, and he loved to stay right by Mc and me as we walked and as we sat at the table reading books (our power was out for 26 hours thanks to a big wind storm that day, and so Mc and I were reading books by flashlight that night).

     I ordered some cat shelves and a cat tree, and those should be coming today and tomorrow.  I looked at our local PetSmart first, but I didn't see any wall- or window-shelves, and every one of those cat trees were twice as expensive as the comparable ones I found on Amazon.com.  As soon as they arrive I'll set them up so the cat will have places up high to go so he can feel safe and he can be around us while getting used to us, all while being out of Little One's reach.  He's still scared of our son because both kids are very excited about the cat but they also just spent 6 weeks around my parents' two dogs, and our son doesn't yet understand that cats are very different from dogs.  So we're keeping them away from each other and letting our son see the cat in short intervals until the cat is comfortable around him.  The cat has adjusted very quickly to our house and to us so far, so I think it'll happen quickly.

     I'm excited about creating a cat-friendly house.  Cats in general don't like being on the ground; they prefer to be up high so they can see everything around them and so they can feel safe.  The vaulted ceiling in our living room has so much potential!  I want to create a really enjoyable space up there for the cat, and it'll be high enough that it won't make the room look cluttered at all.

     I already love our cat.  We're naming him Obsidian, and he will have a good home with us.