In Sickness and Health

After a week of a head splitting earache and sore throat, I am finally feeling a little more like myself. This is a good thing because I am a very grumpy, impatient sick person.

I had huge plans after my trip to New York City with my friend, Nancy and my sister, Brenda. It was a blast, by the way!  Nancy was a wonderful tour guide and the 3 of us had so much fun laughing and seeing all the sights. 

 

I was going to eat right, start exercising religiously and jump back on the health wagon when I returned, but the powers that be had other plans. Enter sore throat and earache.  I made a huge pot of chicken vegetable soup and ate it for every meal while I sat on my rear whining to anyone who would listen.  I'm sick of soup, by the way.  JR had his own illness that caused him to cough and cough and cough some more.  Luckily I didn't pick that one up from him although it almost drove me out of my mind.

I did accomplish some things: I almost finished a book called Foodist by Darya Rose. She is a scientist who balances healthy eating and exercise using common sense and psychology.  It was OK, but not a mind blowing revelation or anything.  I did like her and thought she had a great sense of humor tho. 

I have a cookbook I add to with my favorite recipes throughout the years and I revised my index. This was long overdue.  I also moved a zillion pictures to Snapfish off my thumb drives.

I was always a loyal Shutterfly user, but for some reason the uploading of my photos quit working. I was beginning to feel frantic because I take a LOT of pictures and use the internet as my back up to my back up. I share pictures, order books and photos and gifts from there as well.

I perused the internet looking for a substitution and found a site where a photographer had rated all of the online photo sites.  She ordered a picture she took with her camera from each of the sites including Wal-Mart, Walgreens and CVS and rated the quality.  MPix rated extremely high, along with Snapfish. Shutterfly was near the bottom, by the way.  Who knew?  Snapfish seemed a little more user friendly to me, so I went with them.   It is a slow process, adding photos, but I feel so much safer knowing my photos are all downloaded.  What would I do without them?  lol

  

This morning I woke, ear tender, but not screaming at me, feeling MUCH better with more energy.  I had put almonds to soak in water the evening before to try my hand at making almond milk.  I have bought it from the store many times, cooked with it and used it in my cereal and liked it.  My stomach can tolerate a little dairy milk, but if I have a full glass, I start feeling ill.  Multiple recipes for almond milk are on the internet and it looked fairly easy.  It was easy, although my kitchen looks like there was an explosion, but that's nothing new when I cook. 

Since I had a mess already, I also tried my hand at Almond Flour Pancakes.  They were good!  I'm sure there are a gazillion calories in them, but if ever there were an apocalypse, I know now I can cook with the crazy amount of bags of almonds I have, making milk and bready products for us.  :)

 

I'm not sure if my drive towards self-sufficiency comes from all the time I spent with my Depression Era Grandma growing up, or what. 

But anything we can do towards caring or providing for my family and friends by ourselves, on our property, completely fills me with satisfaction.  Hanging the clothes on the line, growing our own food, planting fruit trees, composting our scraps, ordering medications for us and the animals for future use, cutting firewood, decorating with cedar branches, it all makes me so happy. 

Self-sufficiency.  Simplicity.  Health.  Love. It's where it's at.

Next stop:  Mini Donkeys!!!