Week away

I have just spent the most delightful week away from home. It was jammed full of fun and different adventures for me.

• Blueberry picking with my sisters, mom, and nieces. Grand total of 50 lbs. Les and I nabbed 25 of those for our baking pleasure.
• Movie out w/ Kyle: Star Wars (awesome).
• Cook out at the farm with the nieces, sisters, mom and dad. Complete with watching the girls chase chickens for a very long time.
• A baby shower for my sister-in-law. Being a part of the production team for something like this at the Gottschalk house is always a treat. This year's main event: The 11-hour cake.
  
  
  
• A boat ride in extremely windy conditions, but fun nonetheless as the 2 littles got to swim in the lake with their life jackets and noodle-chairs.
• Finally today, a completely NEW experience: the Indianapolis Indians. Leslie, Kyle and I headed down this afternoon for a game. It was the most perfect baseball day -- puffy, billowing clouds and blue, blue sky. We sat in the sun, which was fun and drenching at the same time. My only sun from this past week came from today. It was pretty fun, despite the sad showing of the Indy Indians.
  
  
  Having WAY too much fun.
  

Now, I'm back to work for two weeks before my next vacation starts off with a bang: Margaret's wedding. :o) Very exciting. Then, the Upland Trio is off to the Carolinas. Oh, dear Sun, I can't wait to feel your southern rays and sandy beaches. As well as the Edwards', of course. Seeing them is always the best treat of my summer.

Who wouldn't love this sweet little face?

A new hobby?

I've discovered that I love creating things in the kitchen. I won't do it blindly, but if I have a recipe, it's inevitable that I'll follow most of it and then do my own thing towards the end.

Last weekend we had friends over for dinner. I wanted to make something new--which seems uncharacteristic, but I was getting really tired of the old standbys.

I found a recipe for spinach and ham lasagna with white sauce and I knew that was the dish. As Les and I had been talking about what veggies were available on the farm, I gave her a call about some basil (for something else) and asked about spinach. Turned out, she had beet greens, which taste exactly the same.

I made the lasagna according to the recipe, substituting beet greens for spinach, and then adding in some broccoli and mushrooms for substance. It was a hit.

Since Leslie has been talking about basil so much these days (the farm is overflowing, apparently), we both wondered about making pesto. I love pesto, but hadn't had it in a long time and found out in my research that nearly ALL pesto has some sort of nut. That, in and of itself, excludes it from my diet. Unless we start messing with the recipes.

Les tried her hand at it today -- making two batches -- one for me, nutless, and one for her, with nuts. She also brought over some zucchini and a tiny misshapen yellow squash. As the pasta was cooking for dinner, I decided to saute some onion with the zucchini and squash. When it was almost done, I threw in some leftover mushrooms. I tossed the pesto with the veggies and pasta and voila! a new dish was born. It was GOOO-OOOD.

I never would have guessed myself a cook-type. I never had any interest. But it turns out, it's really fun and making stuff up is phenomenal!
Tomorrow I get to try my hand at the Amish Friendship bread. I've had it stewing on my counter for 10 days. I found a blog that listed the innumerable varieties that you can make, simply by changing the flavor of pudding, or adding cream cheese, different spices or fruits or toppings. Sounds awesome. I'm so glad it's the gift that keeps on giving, so that I can try out as many different kinds as possible. Sweet!

Let me know if you want some. It'll be in my freezer.

Hope...

Hope: to not give in to despair and cling to a dream

Since I was probably 12 years old, I have had one particular dream that has gotten me through a lot of discouraging times.

You see, I have terrible vision. I got glasses for the first time in second grade and my eyes continued progressing into myopia at such a steep rate that by the next year I had hard contacts. The goal was to allow the hard contacts to prevent such quick myopic transitions. If it worked, it was hard to tell. Today, my vision is a -13.5 in one eye and -11.5 in the other, both with increasing astigmatism. That makes me substantially more legally blind than most. My eye Dr. used to try to encourage me by saying that contacts can correct up to -20, but that isn't so encouraging anymore, considering my eyes just changed a whole number in one year.

The dream, a gift really, to a visually impaired little girl, was given to me by my eye Dr. "You can have LASIK. It can fix your vision, even vision as bad as yours." At the time, my vision was bad, but not terrible. I was thrilled and began saving for this procedure from that day on.

Well, things got in the way, of course. College and grad school. I had to use money for those things. But, after I got my first real job, I continued building my savings for one ultimate purpose--not a house, not a vacation, but to SEE. To finally see the clock when I wake up, or through the window, or, more recently, the face of my husband in the morning.

A few years ago, I had my first consultation. I knew I couldn't get the consult without having the money in hand to continue with the surgery. But I received devastating news that day. My vision was too advanced and my corneas too thin for the surgery. "You are not a good candidate for LASIK," he told me. I thought I would faint.

I cried all the way home. I cried all day. It was the death of a dream. I know this may seem dramatic, but I haven't been able to see since I was 7. That'll be 20 years this September.

In a cruel twist of fate, Kyle, the man I married, had bad vision too. But he was able to have LASIK and has been known to make comments about how life-changing it has been for him. Sometimes just knowing that is so frustrating. My dream didn't seem insurmountable, originally, and yet now...

The only possibility of corrected vision, for me, is a more intensive surgery--the implantation of a contact lens. Sounds insane, but could be awesome. Kyle has encouraged me to pursue it, and so after two years of nursing my heartbreak at the death of my dream, there is a little hope. They told me two years ago the surgery would cost $10,000, money that I did NOT have in hand. But the information I received today says it is only $7,000 (for both eyes).

There are two different types of ICL (implantable contact lens) surgeries. One puts the lens between your cornea and iris. This is a rigid lens that can be seen from the outside, if you look hard enough. The other surgery puts the lens behind your iris and the lens is more flexible and not detectable, except during an eye exam when they look back into your eye with the bright and painful yellow-blue light.

Whereas LASIK is a very quick procedure and recovery can be nearly instantaneous, the implanted lens, as you can imagine, takes more time to complete and recover from. However, I have a first-hand success story from which to glean information. A woman I work with had this surgery done several years ago, and, in her words, "it has changed my life".

I needed this hope to continue, since sight is such a precious gift. I have prayed since I was young for a day when I can wake up and see without glasses or contacts. Maybe in a few years, maybe in a decade, but I once again believe it could happen.

I think I'll start saving up my pennies again.