This is one of my favourite recipes from one of my many foodie friends.
Simple.
Delicious.
Perfect autumn day food.
I have been told to rest by my doctor or the next step will be a reservation at the hospital down the road. Just a little pneumonia brewing in there. Amazing what stress will do to our bodies.
Note to self: notice my body. Thank you God for the reminder.
Rest my body.
Good food.
Time to heal.
Here’s the recipe:
Pre-blended:
Ready to eat!
Four weeks of coughing.
Two, two hour trips to the Walk-In Clinic. (We are definitely in the big city now!)
Two rounds of antibiotics.
One song that made me laugh out loud while waiting. Thank U Alanis.
Thank you walk-in clinic.
Here’s the first line of the song:
“how bout getting off all these antibiotics”
I love coincidences. Thanks God for the laugh.
Last night Sexy Neck and I started a twelve week challenge to try to get a tad more healthy and “move or lose it”.
I have gained thirty pounds in the last five months. Sexy Neck has been nursing a sore back and trying to recover from Achilles surgery. Here is the story. It is time. The clock is ticking.
Back in May, the New York Times picked up a story from a health journal talking about the benefits of a structured seven minute workout. You do each exercise for thirty seconds, you don’t needs any fancy equipment and after seven minutes of pain um hard work, you are done!
Sounds good? I will let you know.
Here we are last night after day one:
Summary: There was a lot of groaning, sweat and muscular fatigue. Today, I am having difficulty lifting my tea mug and walking up stairs. It was incredible to workout with my man, like the ‘olden’ days. It was worth every one of those seven minutes.
*We decided to do it twice! Who’s idea was that? We also included a warm-up, stretching and some kegels and Achilles exercises for each of our individual programs.
Here’s the boys working out with dada doing squats. CC exclaimed: “Look at my muscles I just got!”
My counsellor has been working with me to let go of the Western ideal that we move from point A to point B never to return to ‘old stuff’.
When I continue to go over this old ground in my mind, I feel like a failure, I feel shame and I feel mad.
My inner dialogue goes something like this:
“What this again? Seriously Joanna. Are you really going to have this same conversation again? Are we really going down this path? How could this happen again?”
Thanks to my counsellor, I have shifted this A to B mentally to be more of a deepening spiral. Like a tornado funnel.
Oh I like this analogy because sometimes I have me some wind blowing around me!
Yes, I am going to go over the same road again but I am going to be in a different place on my path, a deeper place. (I am almost 40 you know!).
Last night, was a huge mental shift downward into my deepening spiral.
For weeks I have looked for a once per week hockey program that we could do in Ktown. Do you think I could find one? Nope! Minor hockey, that wants to devour families lives with their three times per week practices/games, is the show in this town.
Sooo….
We decided to take JC out of Grade One forty-five minutes early and drive the boys sixty kilometres back to the town we just moved from so that the boys could play hockey.
They are back at the rink they know.
CC has the same coach he had last year.
Papa was on the ice with CC.
JC got to move up a level.
He gets his own jersey this year.
I get to see old friends each week.
AND THE VERY BEST PART, NANA CAME TO WATCH. Can you see me up and jumping around?
It was amazing night of going backwards. JC’s teacher was supportive of our idea, dad laced up his skates and even went for a morning skate to get ready, lastly mom looked me square in the eyes and said, “I am really glad that you are coming here for hockey!”
Anything for you Mama! Now if only I could meet your request for a new body!
JC waiting to give his brother a high five before his turn on the ice.
Papa and CC working together.
OC watching the action.
Nana is on the right in the toque.
Sometimes you need to go backwards to move forward. Lesson learned. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Deeper. Deeper. Deeper.
We have three very active boys. Hmmm… I wonder where they get that from?
In our new house, we have been eating dinner around 5:30pm as Sexy Neck is home a whole hour earlier.
After dinner we have gotten into the habit of going outside to either swim or bike
Tonight we opted for both. The big boys, ages four and six, rode their bikes 3.9 kilometres all the way from our house to City Park. We rode about ninety percent of the way on a bike path or shared path. We didn’t run into any poles tonight. Poor JC did last week!
They even had time for a sunset dip in the lake.
I think I really like this town!
Cancer, I have a few questions for you that I want to ask you:
Why can’t the doctors find your origin?
Why are you wreaking havoc on my mom’s body?
The bloating. Pain. Discomfort. Hardness in her belly. The new aches and pains. The sleeplessness. Pain.
I am mad! If only they could find the origin they could then treat the cancer. Did you know that if you have cancer that began in the uterus that is also in the lung that the cancer in your lung is not lung cancer? Nope that cancer in there would be uterine cancer cells.
These are the little tidbits that I am finding out as we wait and wait and wait to find out where this cancer started. It is only when we know where it begun that treatment can begin.
Now what am I taking from all this? My life has become very small. My husband, my boys, my parents and a few very close friends.
Sorry new neighbours I will have to get to know you when this is all over. Sorry friends on the fringe, you fell off my rattley old turnip truck. Sorry relatives that I infrequently talk to, you too will have to wait.
What else can I take from this, every day is important! I love sitting by my mom in her bed while she rests. I love seeing my boys there too! I love hearing her laugh and man do I love to tease her. Every moment is special. Every moment has meaning. Every breath has hope. With God anything is possible.
May The Lord bless and keep my mama in this time of pain.
Hands up (or hands down depending what time of girl you are!) the best cookies I have had in a long time!
My neighbour brought over some freshly made cookies and the recipe. I love this as you get to see and taste the finished product, plus see how it was made.
Chocolate Chip Seed Cookies
(From Betty/Lizzie, my tea drinking neighbour)
These are big and yummy and freeze well, if they last that long!
Back at 350 degrees for 15 minutes (mine were smaller and only took about 12 minutes)
1 1/2 cups of butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 egss
then add 2 cups of cold water
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour (I used 2 1/2 cups of spelt flour)
1/2 tsp soda
3 cups chocolate chips
1 cup raisins
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
5 cups quick oats
*You can also add sesame seeds/millet/poppy/flax seeds or whatever you wish.
This is a stiff dough that needs good mixing and makes lots of cookies. Some people make them large. I don’t… plop them on the cookie sheets… you can flatten them, but I don’t.
Thanks neighbour. I have made them twice in the last week to share with people. YUM!
One day our five year old decided he didn’t like bananas anymore, another day it was meat. Now it is hit or miss if he will eat the meal put in front of him.
Our youngest will eat anything that you put on his plate, as long as it isn’t a vegetable. The vegetables get thrown on the floor for the dog. Seriously, baby OC has quite an arm!
Our middle guy, he only eats fruits and veggies, pasta “naaaah”, meat “sometimes”. He is the easiest to cook for at the moment as I think he is growing and hungry.
The one never fail snack that I can put in front of everyone is a smoothie. Today it was a can of coconut milk, banana, frozen local blueberries and peaches. That’s it, that’s all. And you throw in a cool twisting straw and they are all slurped up! Vit C, D, B and all!
Now I just have to get up the guts to throw some kale in there. Would they know?
"Be" ENOUGH 