RE: Goreans with Disabilities- Support, Advice, Info, V... - 4/26/2008 10:56:33 AM
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Karynn
Posts: 773
Joined: 6/8/2007
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Tal Phoenix,
Thank you for your kind words. Your note pointing out my very good advice to someone else applies to me - well that's just very good, and I'm appreciative. I often find that I'm the best at council to others but don't take my own advice.
Tal Camille,
I loved your words too and advice about once a month cooking. I agree that home cooked meals and prepared foods like home soup vs. canned, etc. are better for the body. Over the long term, I think if we can somehow strike a balance, its better than not trying at all. What I've begun doing is a multi-shop. I go to the store and I think first I need ingredients to make three meals from scratch. I generally get to 3 meals in 10 days, that I prepare from fresh meats and veggies, and very little processed or canned at all. I prefer to cook potatoes with skin on, boil then whip with a bit of whole milk and salt/butter to taste. Then I think, okay I need 3 meals that I can put together easily. That might include a meatloaf pre-cooked at the deli and some stir fry veggies. I still make them, but some of it comes from a can and/or someone else's cooking. Then I have a section of food shopping that is for Himself to cook. He'll put meat, starch, veggies and fruits on the table, but they have to be easily handled, not too complicated, and then he hollers down the stairs to me every five minutes about it. He learned to cook the basic necessities like canned soup and grilled cheese, but not much in the chef lane. Another thing he loves to make are things like pancakes and omelettes. So once in a while, instead of making dinner, he'll do breakfast for dinner. It makes everyone happy and minus the sausage/bacon, the food settles better than anything else on my stomach. Lastly, I purchase a few very easy foods or even prepackaged freezer dinners that the guys will make for themselves. Himself comes home from work exhausted, goes upstairs and warms up miso soup (his favorite foreign soup). I'll eat pudding or applesauce. Neither of those are really anywhere close to filling up a 17/16 year old pair of monsters. By shopping with layers, I prepare for every contingency and generally need to restock every 10-14 days. The only odd things come along are milk and bread, and any of us can grab those while doing other things.
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Gardening-
I woke this morning with the enthusiasm of fresh spring air just beckoning to me. I was far more excited though than energized. I could tell before I ever got out of bed at 6 that I was going to end up doing a bit less than I had hoped. By the time I read your note Phoenix, I had already shaved a lot off my list, just because I literally couldn't do it.
What I ended up doing was working on graphic arts for a few hours this morning while I watched Himself sleep. It was the first time in months he seemed comfortable enough to sleep in, and 10 a.m. came and went and he was still asleep. I don't think I've seen him sleep past 7 in a year or more, so that was a blessing of an odd and immeasureable kind. When he finally started stirring, the Yorkies and I all three were bouncing, bouncing, get up get up, let's goooo. So he got up, and we left.
My goal was supplies at Lowes, plants at Lowes, a nice light early lunch out, then home to plant and play in dirt. Well we didn't get to Lowes till 11 and well, so did the other 99% of the people in Charlotte. He HATES crowds, so we didn't do Lowes. I was slightly disappointed but more glad to have him out with me then out with a specific purpose so I took a deep breath and suggested we go by a mattress/bed store. He's been asking me to go with him to look at styles of king beds. We did that and for once, not a single vulture sales person pounced. That was a blessing. Put him in a better mood. We headed off to Showmars and got stalled because we passed a Chinese place on the left and ended up making a U-turn. He's been craving Chinese take out for weeks. I've not felt well enough to get out and explore to find a local restaurant. Well, it wasn't open yet! So we'd already made a U-turn and decided to explore behind it, to see what else was there, and we found a Home Depot with plants everywhere and not a planter in sight. Yay! So I got out of the car, took my little buggy off to hunt, and realized GOSH I'm really tuckered, so we droove the little buggy all the way to the back corner, picked out 6 tomatoes, 4 pepper plants, and 6 different herbs for my herb garden. No flowers. No new roses. No mulch. No new soil. Nothing for the ground. Nothing complicated. LOL It was a very very modified mini-shop. -deep breath- Then we found a very new, just opened 2 weeks ago, Indian foods shop, India as in near Pakistan, and I'd never had Indian food. Himself loves it, and told the fella to go easy on the spices for mine, and ordered for us. We had the entire place to ourselves, private dining. Our own waiter. He educated us about what we tried. We got a sampler, and I loved it.
Now, I'm home, plants are in the wheelbarrow, and I'm not even going to think about trying to put them in the ground today. The magic barrels and pots that I inherited from my mother will wait and bake in the sun one more day. I told you all about my magic pots sometime last summer. For those who don't know, my mother was an incredible gardener. When she was very sick, she had a motorized wheelchair and the spirit of the woman who'd always been so full of life. Daddy helped her modify gardening by putting pots at wheelchair level, she could use for tomatoes, flowers, cucumbers, whatever her green thumb desired. I inherited them. I am NOT a gardener. I grow wilted little sickly things. They eventually cease to resemble a plant. Except now... that I have her pots. I keep saying that she blows on them from heaven and smiles on them and cries on them, just as she always did here when she was with us, and her energy resides in the pots. I now have had 2 seasons of really beautiful flowers, tomatoes, herbs, peppers, and really anything I find that I love to try, quite happily grows in her pots. An amusing side note. We tried to get two smaller pots, for a couple of other uses, adding to my array of planters on the porch. They did not originate at her house. They did not work! I had a real chuckle at that, and continue to just use mother's pots. One exception is my roses. I loved them and grew them in Florida. They were not really happy or healthy for much of the spring/summer season there, but when I began planting roses here, they were heartier and happier. I think it is the heat difference. I love roses. I'll just get my monsters to do the weeding there and maybe do that in exchange for a new Wii controller. Everyone's happy and I don't overdo.
It's really difficult to slow down and change pace. It's difficult to have that sensation of knowing I could have done so much more in a day before being tired in the past. I want that same level of output but just-- well just not possible most times now. Acceptance came up a few pages ago from one of our participants and to me, it is something that takes negotiations even now. I think I've accepted limits, and then spring rolls round and I think, okay I have to accept this and this and this now.
I hope you all are enjoying your Saturday. I'm plum tuckered, and going to rest a while.
My best,
K
_____________________________
In all things, to thine own self be true.
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This thread... has made me smile & made me cry.
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