Tag: baking

baking, writing, and banana loaf!!

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The daily prompt from the 17/08/10:

Scribble down the first ten words that come to mind.

baking, hoovering, cleaning, ironing. shopping, money, benefits, banana loaf, writing.

Pick three of them as your blog title. Now write!!

My ‘ten words’ are my rather hotch-potch to-do list for Friday, just gone. Not being very together in recent days due to a medication increase, I have to be kind to myself and take things one day at a time, while sleeping lots and trying to handle whatever the day throws at me. It’s fitting that there was a ‘daily prompt’ to match my mood.

I love baking. It is a hobby that lifts my mood, however I am feeling, and there is something delicious to eat at the end of it. It also makes me feel ‘normal’, connects me to the side of the family who bakes, and uses leftovers! What’s not to love?!

On Friday, I made banana loaf, which I have made many times before. It is one of the foods on my ‘snack list’ from my dietician. I adapt it to have half wholemeal, half white flour in and use buttermilk to give it a unique taste. I do follow a recipe to make it though. Today I made soda bread and rock cakes with cranberries instead of raisins, and half a teaspoon of jam in the middle.

I was supposed to do lots of writing to do this weekend, as I think I explained in my previous post. Firstly this blog post, a competition entry for Tearfund’s magazine, a testimony piece, and a blog post for ‘Big Bible’.  Instead, I did lots of sleeping. I wish I could say I felt better for it, but this morning, it took me  a long time to wake up and every part of my body ached. Over the course of the day, it has eased a little, meaning I can get on with the writing, but I may just eat a couple of jammy buns to ease the rest of the aches and pains, and keep me on task!

Zoning out…

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A recent ‘daily prompt’ asks about getting ‘lost’ in activities. My favourite hobbies are baking, reading or card-making, and I can easily get lost in any of these. For me, it is about occupying my time in a productive way, but also allows me to forget about the ‘daily-ness’ of my life for a while. For the most part each day is the same, unless I have any appointments at the doctor or the hospital, or physiotherapy. Even these are ‘routine’ to me though as I have done them so often. I am a young ‘old-pro’. I crave variety and spontaneity. Having hobbies is one simple way of trying to vary my day as much as possible. Of course, having care/assistance to go out and about is another way of varying my routine, but sometimes, it”s not quite the same, as it can remind me of the very situation I can need to escape from. For me, this is the whole point of being so ‘in the zone’, completely focussed on what I am making or reading. It is ‘headspace’ away from everything, and time for myself, when I can be so used to having others around. Of course, I can be in the zone when i am writing too. In my opinion, this is when I have written some of my best posts, or articles, depending on what I am writing for.  What is your favourite way to escape from routine for a while? Knitting seems to be very popular these days! I’ve tried, but I am left-handed, and lack the necessary co-ordination. Just have to leave it to those who excel in it. I forget what covering objects in woollen creatures is called, so I am off to google it!!

Anyone for coffee?

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A time to rest…

This week has certainly been quieter. I can’t even remember what Monday was as it feels so long ago. Tuesday also passed quietly. I was unable to go horse-riding, as the main person who is teaching me was on holiday. It was good to rest as I knew the remainder of this week would be busy. I guess for once I’ve been fairly successful in pacing myself, as I am encouraged to do in order to reduce my levels of fatigue.

More trying times

Wednesday was another story however as I had to trek into town to collect my new glasses. Given what had happened last week, I was somewhat dreading it. However, I am relieved to say it passed without much incident. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the rest of the day. I had my Electric Wheelchair with me which severely limited the the number of places I could meet a lovely friend for coffee. We ended up at one of the branches of a major chain. I’m fairly sure the disabled access for this building was added on later, rather than being purpose built which meant access was via the fire door. The staff had left this open, so far so good. We managed to find a table I could use, Jo found us, and we settled in for a good catch up. Two coffees later, I needed to make use of the facilities. I’d remembered from previous visits that these were upstairs but knew there was a lift. I’d forgotten how small said lift was though. If my chair was a millimetre longer I wouldn’t have fitted into it. I lifted my feet so as they didn’t scrape the side of the lift but fortunately there were no injures, and later I left the building unscathed. It brought back memories of a lift I used at Stirling Uni years ago which I and my friends christened ‘scary orange.’ It was a tiny, noisy platform lift which often broke down and we all hated it so much we mentioned it at disability access meetings. People were queuing up to say it wasn’t them who’d put the lift in, and no one would take responsibility for replacing it. I hope it’s not still in existence!

On Thursday, I needed a break to recover. Between Twitter and Facebook I asked people to vote on what I should do with my afternoon; bake a cake or head to the gym! The answer to unamimous, cake won! These days it is much easier to delegate and supervise… deciding when the mixture had been beaten enough, and when it was ready to go in the tin. I was rather impressed with the results! The contained I needed to store the cake in was miles above my head. I hadn’t remembered that till I was on my own. I tried climbing on a chair to retrieve it to no avail, much to my night carers disgust. She got the container with help from the mop handle and safely stored it away for Saturday.

Good Chaos!

Friday morning was rather chaotic, but definately good chaos. I have writing about the decking out of the flat here. Along with my friend Bryony, my friend Emma was also visiting with a young charge. As with the cake making, I whizzed about supervising another friend who was filling the UFO with medication, making sure everyone had drinks and London 2012 cakes! The morning was so much fun, the best in ages. It is so lovely to have those normal times with friends. It makes such a difference. Friday afternoon was back to normal with yet another appointment, however this one was fine. I have more changes to make to my ever expanding list of medication, but hopefully will have less pain at the end of the experiment.

Saturday morning, and a friend I haven’t seen in years arrived with her baby daughter for hours of chat, tea and cake, and more chaos. It’s always lovely when you can pick up where you left off as those we’d seen each other recently, rather than only keeping in touch over facebook, as we had done. I guess the jury is out as to whether online or offline friendships are the most beneficial. Have read, and written a couple of different posts, and am still thinking about it. Was great to see my friend and meet her lovely daughter. These visits make my week. If it wasn’t for loyal friends my social life would be so much more limited. I spent the rest of the day finishing my latest post for The Bible Bible Project. Not sure yet when it’ll be published.

 

Today has been one of those days when I found it difficult to be motivated, arriving late for church. I had managed a decent quiet time this morning, and am greatful that semons appear online later in the week. It helps make up for not concentrating this morning. Have spent the rest of the day catching up with coverage of the Olympics and writing. Is lovely to feel so peaceful and am hoping this will be a good start to the week. Definitely time for coffee tho…!