Protein Gummies: easy, quality protein when all I want is carbs.
Grasping for Objectivity
by Rachel Callahan
1M ago
When I eat, I want carbs. Especially when I just want a snack or I’m in a hurry. Carbs are delicious, are the easiest things to eat, and are the easiest things to find to eat. I struggle to get enough protein on a daily basis because protein is high-maintenance and usually just too dense for my tastes – since I have EOE (a throat allergy disorder that narrows my throat over time), traditional proteins are often literally difficult to swallow. I’ve tried many strategies, but usually fake carbs-that-are-actually-protein (like those peanut butter cups they always fool me into buying at Costco) ha ..read more
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The Things that Stick With Us.
Grasping for Objectivity
by Rachel Callahan
3M ago
Every Christmas around this time, I remember and appreciate a girl that I actually don’t remember at all.  It was my first semester in college, I was a measly 17 years old (incidentally, the age my oldest will be in just a few weeks, and who just finished her first dual enrollment class on the very same campus). My favorite class that semester was Speech 107 with Mrs. Dudchock. One of our assignments was to give an informative speech, teaching the class about something on which we were an expert, or at least competent.  I remember that I informed the class about my twelve years of b ..read more
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The Lady’s Handbook for her Mysterious Illness, and the path to JERFing.
Grasping for Objectivity
by Rachel Callahan
1y ago
This summer will mark 10 years since I very suddenly began my journey with dysautonomia. Although I try not to think about all of the symptoms all at once, it has and continues to change my life in drastic ways. Some of those ways are good, like my illness being the impetus for starting Picture Birmingham, which has now donated nearly $60,000 to The WellHouse. Also, dysautonomia is what forced me to become a runner, because running helps with my symptoms a good deal, and on most days, running feels like a positive change. But of course, living with a chronic illness has changed my life in a lo ..read more
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Bird Brain.
Grasping for Objectivity
by Rachel Callahan
1y ago
I was at church, and my phone and Fitbit had SOS alarms going off. Loud, repetitive, chirping, SOS alarms. Clearly they were automatically set up to notify local emergency response crews, as I could hear sirens in the background, growing closer to church. I frantically hurried through the hallways, looking for somewhere to sit down and fix the problem. I tried turning them off. Resetting them. Switching off the SOS alarm. Nothing would stop the repetition. Nothing would stop the DANG CHIRPING that was about to drive me insane and crack my head open. Nothing would stop the oncoming slaught of ..read more
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Book Recommendations For Your Winter.
Grasping for Objectivity
by Rachel Callahan
1y ago
Whether you need last-minute Christmas gifts or some fantastic books to curl up with on rainy (or snowy, depending on where you are – you lucky, lucky person) winter days, here are my latest favorite books. To check out my past recommendations, click here. Current Favorite Author: Kate Milford. She has written 8 (or 9, if you count the one you can only get in .pdf format) books for middle grade, but in my opinion, her books should be adult books – mostly because of their complexity. Her novels aren’t all meant to read in a specific order, and happen in different places, times, and with differi ..read more
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The Slippery Slope of SCOBIES.
Grasping for Objectivity
by Rachel Callahan
1y ago
I never envisioned my life to include caring deeply about a giant slab of living snot. But here we are. Not only do I have one pet giant slab of living snot, but I actually have five adorable pets. And I do care for them very deeply. A SCOBY is the stuff of my children’s nightmares. Literally. When I first mentioned that I was going to attempt to make kombucha at home, one of them gasped and the other squealed. “That doesn’t mean you’re going to have a SCOBY – IN OUR HOUSE – does it?!?” It does indeed. SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. And it’s just as nasty lookin ..read more
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What the Pinhoti.
Grasping for Objectivity
by Rachel Callahan
1y ago
Guest Post by Chris the Husband. There we were, the five of us, unlikely comrades in an unlikely place – a dry-heaving, lost, and injured party – with one unlikely hero to save us all. ****** 12 Hours Earlier: I stood at the start line in the early dark. It wasn’t very cold – 60 degrees – but the wet blanket of humidity made steam out my breath anyway. I had trained for 9 months on hard terrain with a comprehensive strategy of speed, weight loss, elevation, heat, distance, equipment, nutrition, hydration, and preparation. I’d woken up almost yesterday, ridden a school bus 90 minutes from the f ..read more
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The Summer Fun Machine.
Grasping for Objectivity
by Rachel Callahan
1y ago
For every summer since first grade (except for 2020 … which as an aside, the phrase “except for 2020” should be a given addendum to nearly any sentence about anything), Noah has attended two weeks of day camp at our church, Camp Adventure. It is the most exciting, fun, delightful 70 hours of Noah’s entire year. Camp Adventure regularly wins “Best Summer Camp” ratings in Birmingham because of the incredible amount of work and creativity put into it to make it the dreamy camp that it is. Every week has a different theme such as Spy Camp, Creative Camp, Build Camp and more, each having its own un ..read more
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Finding Millie: The Diary Project.
Grasping for Objectivity
by Rachel Callahan
2y ago
Chris’ Grandmother, Millie, was a tiny precious woman that I met when she was already quite advanced in age. She was always kind to me, and I liked her very much. I think she liked me, too, as I provided her, at 90 years old, with her first great-grandchild. She met Ali just a couple of times before she passed away 15 years ago. One of my favorite pictures is from her 90th birthday, the first time she got to meet Ali. I heard a couple of stories here and there about Millie’s early years, and particularly the incredibly romantic and farfetched way she’d met her husband Roy, Chris’ granddad, but ..read more
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The Great Husband Match.
Grasping for Objectivity
by Rachel Callahan
2y ago
The thing is, I’ve always been mostly against matching. I have written about it here. Multiple times. Sure, Ali and her best friend had matching pjs when they were toddlers – but match my husband and my son? Never would I ever. My family knows this. My family has watched me agonize over wardrobes for family photos – my circular thoughts spinning out on “how can we NOT clash, coordinate-but-not-cheesily, but DEFINITELY NOT MATCH?” I have lived my life by these principles. So they should have suspected something when I got Chris and Noah matching shirts for Easter. They should have known. But ap ..read more
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