Here are a couple pictures of the pirog from my last post, with some matryoshki (nesting dolls) in one of them.
One of the recipes I used for my corn on the cob was taken from a culinary magazine I used to pick up sometimes when I lived in Austria, but I didn't note the name of the magazine when I cut out the recipe. This recipe is "Mais-Scheibchen auf Dillsahne." Of course, the dill caught my eye immediately, because my dill plant needs using. I had never made, nor eaten cut up corn on the cob, but I found that it really does work pretty well. The corn on the cob is simmered and then cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces and served with a sauce, in this case a dill cream sauce. Using a sharp knife, it was actually pretty easy to cut the corn off the cob piece, and so to have corn on the cob without resorting to it being a finger food. Very nice.
I had recently bought some steak on a 2 for 1 sale, and I wanted to make fajitas, but I decided to try to use things I had on hand, so I used more of the corn, and some other things for the filling and marinated the steak and fried it today. So I'll be freezing that up in portions for meals later on.
I still have one cantaloupe to prepare and I was half thinking to just cut it up and freeze it for use in future smoothies, but I came across a recipe for cantaloupe muffins, which sound intriguing.
I've also been trying to deal with this car insurance thing, because my 6 month premium is due and they raised the rates (across the board), so I'm working with them to figure out how to bring it down, I may have to drive to the agent's office tomorrow because mileage is one of the possibilities, but I'll find out for sure tomorrow. I also need to work with Medicaid regarding some issues, but I've had to put that on a back burner for now as I'm limited on how much I can do at one time.
Regarding health, which is why I'm so limited on how much I can do, I'm going through a bit of a time now that I'm off of all my antihistimine medications. My face is still puffy and my rash appears to be coming back, but it's not bad yet. I have almost 3 days more to go of this though until I can get back on the antihistimines. My weakness is also increasing and I decided to use a cane to go to the doctor today because I'd have a bit of walking to do between the car and the office. The rheumatologist yesterday said that the weakness I'm having is not from fibromyalgia, but he thinks it's neurological, so he said he'd talk to my neurologist. Today when I saw my primary care doctor (she's now back from her personal leave) and she suggested getting an x-ray of my spine since I have a history of that (had back surgery). We decided to wait and see how things went with the physical therapy and also if I improve again after returning to the antihistimines. I hope it'll just resolve itself after I get over this allergy thing, but I'm sure that the weakness problem is unusual for just allergies.
Today in going over my medicines and supplements with the nurse I remembered that I had some lidoderm patches for use when I have fibromyalgia flares, so I decided to make use of them now since I'm having extra pain in the neck and upper back. It's amazing really how once you get multiple conditions they all feed on each other and limitations are just compounded and magnified. Even my IBS acting up means I have put forth some effort to keep that part of my body functioning okay. On days like today I feel like I'm 80, but I'm really just 50 and when I'm doing okay people usually think I'm much younger than I am. Not today, though.
I must admit that it would be nice to have more of a support network in times like that. It's been nice that people in the church here have asked how I'm doing, either by phone or e-mail, which is nice, especially since they don't know me that well even. But I think too of my nor fairly estranged family. I'd like to call mom, and I know she's going through her issues too, but I'm afraid that it's a bit of a power play where whoever gives in first loses the power battle, and she and my brothers are betting on my just letting things blow over and eventually needing them and giving in, especially about what happened prior to my coming back here. But I've learned that in this family given half a chance and a reason for doing so, they'll quite gladly dredge up things from the past, almost like a kind of emotional blackmail. I don't think in my family (siblings, mom) it's possible to have egalitarian relationships; one person always has to be on top and the other on the losing end of a relationship.
Now I know that ours isn't the only dysfunctional family around, but I want to believe that somewhere out there there are fairly "normal" families. I'm also curious about what psychologists and family counselors have to say about that. I mean, certainly the/a purpose of family counseling is to develop healthy family relationships, so there must be an assumption that it's possible to have a family with healthy relationships. Unless, of course, psychologists just want us to believe that this is possible, when all the while they themselves don't believe that it is. Somehow I find it hard to believe that there is such a professional conspiracy, which means that they must think that it's indeed realistically possible to have healthy functioning families. Okay, all you psychologist types out there, what does a healthy, functioning family look like?
I'm tired, so I'm going to start my bedtime routine. Good night?
~Meg
