The Finish Line…

Although I’m still recovering from surgery, I am happy to say that I’m getting more mobile with every day that passes.  I am now able to fix most of our (simple) meals, wash dishes, and fold laundry.  Poor Charming had been performing all of these tasks, plus the other chores that I would have normally handled such as feeding and watering the cats and dog, cleaning the litter box, laundry, sweeping, and taking out the trash as well as cooking.  He does all of this in addition to grocery shopping, keeping the woodstove stocked with wood, packing for the upcoming move to the farm, and small renovation projects.  Most importantly, he is responsible for keeping my tomato seedlings alive and watered.  He has performed admirably and simply says that it’s just part of living up to the “in sickness and in health” part of our marriage vows.  (He really is such a good guy.)

I’ve spent most of this past week finishing up the sweater that I’ve been knitting.  I have to say that I’m really happy with the way it turned out.  It fits like it’s supposed to and will look really nice with a turtleneck shirt and jeans.  The pattern that I used is knit from the top down, which means that I start knitting at the collar, work the shoulders, body, and finally the sleeves.  When you knit a top down sweater, there is very little sewing to do because there are no seams in the sweater.  The body is knitted in one piece and the sleeves are knitted onto the body of the sweater.  The stitches for the button bands on the front of the sweater are simply picked up and knitted, not sewn on separately.  This is my absolute favorite type of sweater to knit because, unlike a regular sweater that is knit in several different pieces and then sewn together, you don’t end up having a gazillion threads to weave in at the end.  It’s really a marvelous way to knit a sweater!

In addition to knitting, I fill my waking hours with playing spider solitaire on the computer, reading magazines, checking out recipes on my favorite recipe websites (bettycrocker.com, allrecipes.com, pamperedchef.com, bobsredmill.com and kingarthurflours.com).  Although this may seem like a life of leisure to most people, it’s pretty tough for someone who really prefers to move around and actually “do” things. 

I have to admit that this temporary sedentary lifestyle has made me realize how fortunate I am to be in good health (normally).  I have great sympathy for those who are unable to get up and move around freely.  After the memory of this surgery fades, I need to make myself remember how lucky I am to be able to get out of bed every day and do the things I love to do like working outside in the garden, taking a walk in the fresh air, and even just walking up or down stairs.  A healthy, working body is a wonderful thing!

My sweater.  Looks like it's on a mannequin, but it's me holding onto my "scooter".

I'm ashamed to say that Charming's shorts actually fit me...uggghh!

The back side is definitely not my best side.  (I do love the colors in this yarn!)

A length of knitted cord, doubled into two loops form this button closure.

An Idle Mind…

For the past three weeks I’ve divided my time between sitting in my recliner in the living room and sleeping in the bedroom.  If I sit too long in the recliner, my left shoulder-blade starts to ache.  Sleeping in bed presents its own problems as well because I do not sleep well on my back so I awkwardly shift from one side to the other many times during the night.  The side shifting is necessary because the weight and size of this honking-big foot cast makes it necessary for one leg to be positioned away from the other, in scissor-like fashion.  This causes my hips to ache, so sleep is elusive for the most part.  However, looking on the bright side, I only have three more weeks to go with the cast.  On my next doctor visit on the 28^th, I should get a “walking cast”.  I’m hoping it will be the kind that I can remove while I’m sitting and sleeping.  I shouldn’t whine, though, because I know life could be much worse.  I’m thankful that I did not have a lot of pain from the surgery.  I don’t work, so there was no need to take time off from work.  AND…I should have better balance and no (or substantially less) foot pain after this is all over.

I do have to admit that the surgery has allowed me plenty of time for knitting and crocheting.  I’ve completed several projects already and when I’m not knitting or crocheting, I keep occupied with designing new patterns.  Before surgery, I loaded up a box with a fair amount of yarn and brought it up from my basement craft room because I didn’t want Charming to have to root through my stash to bring me what I needed.  (I think Charming’s sense of “manliness” would definitely have taken a hit if he had to sort through my yarn on a daily basis.) 

In addition, I have managed to fix a basic supper a couple of times…really just spaghetti and meatballs that I had made pre-surgery with store-bought sauce.  With Charming putting the pot of water on the stove and draining the spaghetti after it was cooked, we managed to have some semblance of a regular meal. 

I’ve also spent quite a bit of time surfing the internet.  It was on the internet that I found instructions to make “energy balls”.  These are protein-rich, bite-sized pieces of goodness that taste a lot like candy.   There are many different recipes, using many different ingredients to make these.  They are great when you feel that you need just a little something to eat, but you don’t necessarily want a full meal.  I don’t like to take any medicine on an empty stomach, so I find that a couple of these are just the thing to prevent any associated stomach discomfort.  I don’t really even measure the ingredients when I make these.  The objective is to end up with a really thick mixture that you can fashion into small mounds.  So I combine:  peanut butter, oatmeal, finely chopped raisins and prunes, honey, cocoa powder, vanilla, a little flax meal, and a little protein powder (Charming buys protein powder in big containers from Costco and uses the Nutri-Bullet given to us by my sister, Joyce, to whip up a shake on days when we do not eat meat).  After I make these, I store them in a lidded Pyrex container in the freezer so they keep their shape.  I stack them within the Pyrex container in layers, separated by parchment paper.  (Oddly enough, they don’t seem to freeze into hard chunks…they are soft and chewy, which makes them simply scrumptious!)  You could also add other nut butters, chopped nuts, other dried fruits, coconut, etc. and/or roll them in confectioner’s sugar or cocoa powder.  Depending on the protein and fiber content of the ingredients that you use, these could be especially helpful to the elderly or those who are “sickly”, as my Momma would say.  A few of these are much tastier than those expensive pre-packaged liquid protein shakes that you buy in the store.  Try whipping them up sometime…you might never be tempted to buy store-bought candy again!

Charming came up with this fix for my cold toes.  Warm, but...

My "idle mind" came up with this design to keep my toes warm.

It also sends a message to those who may come too close.

This sweater is my current knitted project.

The yarn is called "Fruit Cake"...quite appropriate for me!

My energy bites...rolling took too much time, so used a small scoop.

A close-up shows the oatmeal and chopped prunes & raisins.  Yum!!