As Summer progresses, I am enjoying the results of my gardening, with handfuls of blueberries to harvest every day, fresh herbs and soon, peppers. It's been a wonderful summer, and a good break from my drawing for a bit. Sometimes I just need to get away from it all and be in Nature. My metabolism is all jazzed up, and it's making me lose weight. My health has been shaky due to the infection in my system from a tooth abcess. It's been nothing short of Hell so I've been on a kick to improve my wellbeing, to help fight it. It's a slow process but is going in the right direction.
Dad has been doing steadily better after having his gall bladder removed. He's getting his energy back slowly and his blood is better oxygenated. It's wonderful that his home nurse comes and checks him every week, and the doctor checks in with him, too. Mom is busy with her garden and whenever we can, we go greenhouse hopping, to see what's on sale or what the latest plants are. It's soo nice in the country, where fashion isn't important. Gone are the days of dressing up, but keep it casual/classic to very casual, depending on what's going on. I have nice clothes in my closets but rarely need them. I'd rather spend time and money on plants or books (my two weaknesses). Mom is the same, we love our gardening, cats and being in Nature. Dad isn't much for going out except to the store or bank, so it's good for mom to be busy with her gardens or go with me here and there (as long as we get along).
It's 11pm and I just got finished making Refrigerator Yeast Roll dough, a recipe my family has used all of my life. It came from an old Pepperidge Farm Cookbook, and mom taught me to make them when I was a kid. Breadmaking is very therapeutic to me, and it's fun to experiment. I can make cinnamon rolls out of the same dough, or a loaf of bread but the usual rolls are the best. Mom's cookbook collection is immense, she has all the classic ones and keeps detailed notes on what recipes were good and what wasn't. She's an amazing cook. I remember as a little kid being with her when she watched Julia Child's shows, along with the Galloping Gourmet, Graham Kerr. Mom got into French cooking mostly but has tried just about every recipe around. As for me, I go for a variety of styles from Mexican, Chinese, Indian and of course, American home cooking. Baking has been my thing. In college I used to make homemade apple strudel in the dorms, which requires pounding the strudel dough on the table fifty times (at least) to make it stretch across the table, to be then topped with filling then rolled up. My friends used to line up for a piece of it, so much fun. My men friends called me "Betty Crocker",some even helped me pound the dough on the table.. lol. Those were the days.
This week I'm finally breaking down and getting my hair cut (trimmed/shaped). It's been on the "to do" list forever so I'm finally doing it. Another task needing to be done is working on my new clothing store. I worked on it yesterday for awhile and will do more of it tomorrow, onwards. I got a request from a customer to do certain types of shirts so I added them to my inventory, and will do more, too. Zazzle has stressed me out with all its changes lately, so I'm doing things on a slower pace so my brain doesn't explode with stress. Change is no fun, and when they do a lot of it all at once, it's enough to be frustrating..hence, the breaks. Resting has helped but it's time to gear back up..the Fall season (and my fiftieth birthday!!) are approaching. It's all good.
