When Does Itching Signify Danger?

Published by CAstfalk on 06/08/2015

During the third trimester of my first pregnancy, the soles of my feet began to itch. In frustration, I would rub my bare feet over the claw feet of our dining room table during meals. I scrubbed them over bristling carpet. Finally, my husband bought me a foot massage tool that I could rub my feet over, offering some relief from the relentless itch.

I consulted my pregnancy books, which told me itching during pregnancy was normal. Dry skin, various rashes. Just another one of the many weird side effects of pregnancy. Labor was induced at 38 weeks due to pre-eclampsia, and I delivered a healthy, baby boy.

My second full-term pregnancy passed with nary an itch.

During my third full-term pregnancy, the itching came at night. On my hands and on my soles.

About Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy

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Favorite Picnic Recipes – Spicy Black-Eyed Pea Salad

Published by CAstfalk on 06/05/2015

It’s time to move eating outdoors! Here is an old favorite of hours. It’s got fresh veggies, protein, and a little zing. I think I…

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Why I Remain Catholic. . .

Published by CAstfalk on 06/04/2015

Over at Patheos, Elizabeth Scalia has put out a call to answer the question “Why Do YOU Remain a Catholic?” I’ve mulled over whether I have anything new to say or whether I should say anything at all.

I spent ten years being a public voice for the Church. In some ways, I’m happy to be done with that. For an introvert that dislikes controversy, it can be exhausting. I’m happy to care for my little family, write my little stories, and discover my little niche of readers. But the niggling desire to skip this exercise felt too much like a cowardly cop-out.

Top 10 Tuesday: 10 Signs You Might Live In A Tourist Town

Published by CAstfalk on 06/02/2015

The home I grew up in sat on a dead-end road. It was once a main thoroughfare leading west from Pittsburgh, but in the 1960s, it was cut off by the development of Interstate 79. Where my Italian immigrant grandfather once had a wholesale whiskey business and then a gas station, businesses died and homes were moved – literally. In our little town, multiple homes, including the home in which my husband was raised, were picked up and moved. My father kept his property and his business, as did my uncle. A lone home remained as well. Our buildings were the last in a road that circled in on itself, deadening at a macaroni company. If tourists came through, they were most assuredly lost. WAY lost.

For the past seventeen years, we have lived in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Well, technically there is no town of Hershey. Hershey lies within the bounds of Derry Township, and that’s where we live. Derry Township is home to HersheyPark, among other attractions, including a natural limestone cavern right across the street. Things are. . . different.

In case you’re unsure, here are ten signs you may live in a tourist town.

People pose with the “Welcome to. . .” signs. Many a summer day, I can ride down the highway and see one or more vehicles pulled onto the berm and a family huddled underneath the welcome billboard.

Stay With Me: The Recipes, Part I

Published by CAstfalk on 06/01/2015

Today marks four months until the release of Stay With Me. Last month, I wrote about the music that inspired the book, and in April, I blogged about the settings. This month and next, I’ll highlight several of the recipes for the delicious treats mentioned in the book.

Fudge-Full Peanut Butter Bars

Early in the story, Rebecca bakes a batch of these Fudge-Full Peanut Butter Bars for Chris. The recipe is one my husband asked me to recreate – a favorite from his childhood. I got the recipe from his mother more than a decade ago only to find that it included an ingredient – Pillsbury Coconut Pecan Frosting Mix – that is no longer produced. It was several years until I found a substitute recipe for the frosting mix on the Internet. As everyone in my family will attest, these chewy, gooey, delicious bars are well worth the trouble to recreate them!

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Five Favorites: Trader Joe’s Products

Published by CAstfalk on 05/27/2015

The closest Trader Joe’s is more than sixty miles from our home, so I have only visited the store a handful of times. (I’m so desperate for a local store that I started this.) BUT, for several weeks out of the year, my husband works nearby one of the Pennsylvania locations, and he stocks ups. I mean, STOCKS UP. With my limited ability to peruse the available products, these five stand out as among my favorites. By necessity, they are items that travel well.

Stocking Up at Trader Joe's — Stocking Up

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Memorial Day: Remembering Dad and His Service

Published by CAstfalk on 05/25/2015

In the past weeks, for reasons unclear to me, my thoughts have turned again and again to my dad, who has been deceased nearly eleven years. Again they turn to him on Memorial Day.

It is hard for us, as children especially, to fathom that our parents had lives before we came along. More than half of my father’s life was over before I was born, putting his military service more than twenty-five years before my birth. It was a part of his life I never knew and one about which he seldom spoke.

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Seven Quick Takes Friday

Published by CAstfalk on 05/22/2015

Girls Road Trip Edition

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I did something I’ve never done before – gone away overnight with only my girls. I borrowed an electronic audiobook from the library for this trip and was able to listen to most of it on the way to our destination and back, either with the girls or while they watched a movie. I seldom listen to audiobooks because never-ending interruptions require constant, clumsy backing up and repeating on my iPod Nano. I’m still not sure whether audiobooks enhance or diminish my enjoyment of novels (I tend to prefer to listen to nonfiction books).

This particular story was narrated by a woman, but only one of the main characters was female – a Southerner. Nearly all the other characters were male, a few Southern, but most from a fictional European island in the North Sea. For those, she adopted a quasi-British, snooty-sounding accent. While the quality of the writing and the narration were both very good, I was underwhelmed by the story and never connected with any of the characters, most of whom bordered on unlikable. Was it the book? The narration? Both? What do you think of audiobook adaptions of fiction?

Category: My Scribbler’s Heart

Fudge-Full Peanut Butter Bars

Girls Road Trip Edition