spring and not parmesan

I was at my Dad's again.  Lots of rain, some sun shine.  It was very much spring in the Pacific Northwest.

More doctor appointments.  There was good news.  His heart is healing from the COVID created congestive heart disease.  But it appears something flipped in his genetic code and he now has a very slow chronic leukemia.  He is stage 0 and caught very early.  The treatment is currently no treatment and it can be that way for years.  It is just a watch and see.  He has to go to the doctor's office every three months for a blood draw which he groans about but it is what it is.

Construction has started on the display room.  And the remodel of the house.  My Beloved said he wanted a kitchen remodel.  I said yes if he took care of it all.  Somehow, that project grew and I keep getting asked to make decisions.  It is not the small cabin I really want so I do not really care.  It is surprising how often I say I want this and someone else says I do not think this is a good idea.  Even down to colors.

I have been eating much more vegan and I find my inflammation has gone down so much.  One of those things that I did miss was parmesan.  I found a recipe for not parmesan that satisfies even though it is not parmesan.  I have used this multiple times now and it is wonderful with sauce or without sauce on pasta.

not parmesan (vegan parmesan)

Note:  This is from the Minimalist Baker website.  I have not even modified the recipe which is so not me!  (laughter)

3/4 cup raw cashews

3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

Put all the ingredients in a food processor.  Pulse until a fine grind.  Like the horrible can parmesan.  This is better!

soul walking

I read the title of my last post and laughed.  The end of January and the beginning of February were more of the same.  My Dad caught COVID and then turned to me saying his legs were very swollen.  Congestive heart failure.

I have spent a lot of time at my Dad's.  He is actually doing well.  I took him to the doctor as soon as he mentioned his legs were swollen.  It was one of the symptoms my Mom had that all was not right.  I do not take that symptom lightly.  He was still coughing last week and tired but the swelling had gone way down.  The diuretic they put him on is also helping to break up the crud in his chest from COVID.  Hopefully, his heart will heal some.  I truly think COVID may have triggered the congestive heart failure.

I have been treating my eye.  During all the health concerns with my Dad, I saw my opthomaligist again.  I am now seeing a cornea specialist.  My eye was healing and now it is not.  It got worse.  They do not know if it is an allergic reaction, a bacterial infection, viral infection, or fungal.  Right now, I am being weaned of the sterioid drops before I see the cornea specialist again.

During all of this, I was reading a book about New Orleans.  I texted my Beloved and said I wanted to go visit again.  He said when?  And that was how hard it was to make it happen.  My soul needed the visit.

We stayed at the French Market Inn on Decatur.  Other then pricey parking, it was a really great location for all we wished to do.  We ate at the Gumbo Shop in the Quarter both nights because they were just that good.  Plus they had gluten free and vegan options.  We drove Uptown and at breakfast at Surrey's.  Another great experience.  Then we walked the neighborhoods.  Fifteen miles later.

I took pictures of houses because we are remodeling.  We are expanding the shop and remodeling the house.  The house needs tender loving care after all these years.  There are colors on houses in New Olreans.  We walked past House Floats.  Something that has happened in the city since COVID.  We eventually ended up back in the Quarter.

We walked and shopped a little bit in the Quarter.  Found some photography in the French Market we loved.  I splurged on myself and bought handcrafted hats from Fluer De Paris.  Since I am supposed to wear a hat every time I go outside, it was a practical indulgence even though it was very much an indulge.  I tried a dress on and, if I have a formal event to go to, I will either go shopping again there or make myself something similar.

It was a lovely time.  No worries about my Dad.  No children included.  We will go back soon with the boys.  We have a couple places we wish to go back too.  We will go camping first though.  That is if my life does not go sidewise again.  Then I will need another long walking day in the Crescent City.

I made it to 2022

I made it to 2022.  That is about how I feel right now.  The month of December was mad when it came to the business.  Which was a good thing when it came to the business but not a great thing when it came to things like remembering to wrap presents.  

Myself and my Beloved went to my Dad's for Christmas and the week after.  Snohomish and Bellingham got more snow that stayed longer then has happened since the 1960's.  My brother and sister with their families were also at Dad's for that week so it was interesting.  The main roads were clear but none of the side roads.  My Dad's four wheel drive truck was wonderful.  It also means I am starting to think about a four wheel drive truck for my next truck.

When I was up there, I went and saw my morphologist.  The axe head to the face caused my left eye to be inflamed.  I was telling them in ER that I was not seeing as well from my left eye but it was not as important as my laceration and slight TBI.  Nothing was healing with my eye and I even felt like it was getting worse.  Diagnosed as an inflamed eye.  There are currently drops going on and there have been three visits so far.  There is healing but we will see what my next appointment brings.  I may need to see a corneal specialist.

After the snow.  After one of the best meals out I have ever had at El Gaucho's for my Dad's birthday, time to head back to Texas.

We actually did not get all the way back to Texas.  Our second flight was cancelled and we spent the night in Las Vegas.  We just took it as a grand adventure.  I found a great last minute rate at the Bellagio.  We had dinner at Spago's on their deck.  We watched the fountain show.  It was lovely.  The Spago dinner was lovely but it was too close to the El Gaucho dinner to judge it fairly.  I would have dinner there again with out a qualm!  The only thing was that in less then 24 hours back to Texas, I was back to Washington. 

I think busy, maybe even manic busy, is how my year is going to go.  We are going to try to be better about camping.  I want more beach time.  More surf time.  More walking time.  I want to time to play outside.

I hope your holiday went well and the start of 2022 is going well.

And back to my happy place

We went back to my Dad's, mostly to go to our mountain.

We went to work.  The field needs to be cut this time of year to get it ready for winter.  The blackberries are not as overwhelming as lower down the mountain but they are still a force to be reckoned with.

The colors!  The temperatures!  We actually stayed in the machine shed one night.  Small boys, Tall Short Person, my Beloved, and myself.  We had forgotten our gear in the madness of packing for a plane ride and we just did not have the right anything.  We went back to my Dad's afterwards and came back up to work.  But during the day it was so nice to wear a sweater.

We have been back a week and I have been trying to play catch up since.  I will say that it was wonderful and I need to go up there more often when I am at my Dad's.  It is just for soul healing.  We are considering getting a kit cabin to put up on the mountain.  Something that we can put up quickly and maybe heat.

The next two months are going to be crazy for work and travel.  We have been invited to a few holiday markets but it does usually end up being a six to seven hour day for me.  I will be traveling to  my Dad's at least once before Christmas.  And the healing continues.  The endurance is sslloowwllyy coming back and I get dizzy less often.

needle book

I travel a lot.  Mostly because of my Dad but when I can I like road trips and camping.  I also like to take classes and learn.  When I do, I always carry a sewing kit and my crochet hook.  I usually have at least one project with me too.

I really like this fancy hand needle brand from Japan, Tulip.  I find they work best for me.  They come in a plastic test tube with a cork stopper.  Because I travel with one of those, I find the plastic cracking.

I took the time to create a needle book from the supplies I had in the house.  I took the time to hand sew it. Partially because it is so small.  A big part of it is I am trying to take longer with projects because then I change the length of time I create and I slow how much I create.  Even though I use  a treadle sewing machine, I am going to slow the process down of the next dress I make by hand sewing it.  Presents I will still probably stitch on a machine.  I got teased that a treadle sewing machine is fast fashion for me. 

I also seem to do a lot of mending.  It is surprising how much mending I do at my Dad's!  Whether it is for him or me.  It fits into the little pocket bag I have well and I won't have anymore breaking plastic.

I am healing. The stitches are out.  The bruising is slowly subsiding.  I am still swollen and I tire easily.  I walked two miles yesterday and that was very much my limit.  I am going to either walk the two miles again today or walk to the library.  The rock gym and skating for myself is not going to happen this week.  In conclusion, I am doing scar maintenance and resting.  Everyone is surprised how well the largest scar is looking.  I am also still so pleased with the Harris County Health System.  A MD/PhD took out my stitches and my chart is really well documented.  Yes, I am the person who reads all the pages of the charts and discharge papers I have access too.

More healing to come.