Day 543

When my daughter called last night she told me I was putting too much food on the blog. She's right, but I just can't get out of that rut. Can't get myself to the sewing room to start (or finish) any projects, can't even step foot into the rose garden to snap some blooms.

Right now life is about just getting by. Getting the proper meals cooked, getting the dude fed, cleaning up. Keeping up with the house, delivering every thing he needs, keeping on top of multiple medications and multiple blood pressure readings each day. Going to therapy, going to work for a few minutes while he's at therapy, getting work done from home. The merry-go-round just keeps going. But it's better than when he was in the hospital. At least my home base is my actual home.

So kiddo, I will work on finding some non-food pictures. But for today I have to go with this one. I was digging red potatoes and picking tomatoes for my mom and for folks at work (hubby can't have either so we might as well share) and came across this red tater who must have thought he had a different purpose in life. And yep, that's all one potato sitting next to the regular-sized potato.

Day 542

I get lots of questions about how hubby is doing, so here's the scoop.

Not much has changed. He's weak, he's tired, he's using a cane. His blood pressure is running very low and his heart rate is running high. He spends most of his day in bed, but does get out for physical therapy three times a week. I realized how weak he is when I bought him an ice cream cone yesterday. Just holding up his arm long enough to eat the cone made him shake. A lot. He had to prop his elbow to help support the arm (and the cone). He's got a long way to go.

His hunger gets away from him and I find him going over his restrictive diet in all three categories - potassium, protein, and sodium. He's probably going over in the sugar department, too. I made another batch of cookies today.

This time it was gingersnaps. And this time I bagged them up and put them in the freezer. Maybe out of sight, out of mind will keep him (and me) from dipping into them so much.

 

Day 541

Of the pictures I took today, I can't decide which is the most interesting.

It might be the one I took on our way back from physical therapy when the UPS truck was parked in front of the USPS.

 

It could be the picture I took of the friendly carrots I found while cleaning out my vegetable drawer.

Or it could be the one I took after having shut myself in the den for a couple hours doing school work. When I left the den, the house was as quiet as could be. And guess who was taking a nap on the edge the couch? (Hint: It wasn't hubby - he was sleeping in the bedroom.)

Day 540

It seems so counter intuitive that someone who has been as sick as my husband is being limited on good, healthy foods. To protect and strengthen his kidneys he has a pretty restrictive diet - particularly restrictive on the healthy foods.

When he gets up in the middle of the night to eat I have to keep him away from the cantaloupe and tell him to stay out of the carrots, but I have to let him have cookies. Today's batch was homemade chocolate chip/butterscotch chip.

Apologies for all the food pictures over these last few weeks...food seems to be consuming our lives right now.

Day 539

In October last year, on Day 218, I posted this picture of kale from our garden.

On that day I talked about happiness. And I lamented: But being happy when my husband wants me to eat some freshly picked-from-the-garden kale? I'm trying to be happy on that one, but I'm not sure I can get there.

Obviously my ideas about kale have changed. As I was picking kale this morning I kept talking to myself about how good the kale looked. Even when I brought it in, I kept talking about how good it was. Go figure! Sure is gonna be tasty in my juice tomorrow morning.