Next Excuse!

As you can see, (well, I guess you really don't know when this picture was taken...but it was taken just moments ago) I still don't have our Christmas decorations down. As a matter of fact I haven't even started taking them down. A week ago I decided that I wouldn't take them down till after Isaac was born. What is my excuse now? I'm blaming it on my medical insurance this time! When Woody went on Medicare, the policy that we had had rolled over to a single policy for me. Well, rolled over and played dead...I am thinking! They are now denying any of my non-generic medications which means my arthritis med (which also helps with my Transverse Myelitis pain also). We/the pharmacy/doctor's office have been working on getting this resolved for over a week. The insurance company has fallen from my favor, since in the meantime I have run out of my medication and am going without...have gone without for four days now...and I know it in just about every bone and joint in my body. So newest reason for not undecorating is that I'm hurting and just can't go up and down the stairs the number of times that I need to when undecorating. So this morning I sat and drank a cup of tea and enjoyed looking at the Christmas tree with the sun shining in on it (the sun hasn't shone on it many days this Christmas season as we have had so much rain). Didn't really want to undecorate anyway...but really don't want the delay to be for the reason that it is!

Despite being in pain, I did manage with Woody's help to make a new soup today. Woody brought home a cookbook from the library a week or so ago and wanted to try this soup. The cookbook is "The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen." One of the goals of this cookbook is to help make things palatable for those who have undergone chemo and things just don't taste good. Another thing that the recipes in this book attempt to do is use ingredients that will help stave off cancer. So Woody's choice of the recipes was "Ma's Mushroom Barley Soup." We asked Melany to stop and buy us some shiiitake mushrooms on her way here yesterday so we could make the recipe according to ingredients called for (no shiitake mushrooms to be found in Tullahoma...at least not when Woody looked for them). It is really quite tasty. It has parsnips in it...a first for me to cook. Mother used to cook parsnips for my father...but they never interested my taste buds (not sure that I ever even tried them!). So this week we have had parsnips, turnips, and rhutabaga...again, all three on a like list for my father, but never for me. But in soup, I will admit they taste quite good (well, really one doesn't know that they are in it once all the ingredients blend all together). I just read about some of the ingredients the we used at the front of this cookbook and many of them have anti inflamatory properties...I'm still waiting for that property to kick in for me! Here is a note from the book: "Science has discovered that many edible mushrooms have potent anticancer properties. Take shiitakes, which have anti-tumor, cholesterol-lowering, and virus-inhibiting effects. And one of those active ingredient, lentinan, is part of a larger family of complex sugar molecules known as beta-glucans, which may also kick-start the immune system. " This book has lots of interesting notes throughout the book about the positive aspects of ingredients called for in the recipes. Like I said...this one is quite tasty. It is just a little close to the soup that I made last week (Ham and Barley Soup)...I like a variety in my soups and am not one to make the same soup too close together. I had also not ever cooked with shiitake mushrooms before...so several new items for me to cook with and also to eat.

We were out of "Liquid Gold" (homemade broth) and I decided the other day that I would make vegetable broth this weekend. So I did manage to plop the vegetables into some water and let them cook all afternoon. Now to go strain the veggies out of the broth...the timer just rang a few minutes ago.

Woody did the grocery shopping this morning and went to the library. After lunch of Ma's Mushroom Barley Soup he took a walk. Today the temperature actually warmed up to 51F...much better than the last couple of days and it wasn't raining...another big plus! This afternoon and evening he has been reading and watching football.