Perking Up a Standby Meal

French Toast has always been a super quick and easy supper for me. It was the perfect thing to eat before running off for the evening shift at my part-time job, and even nowadays when time is aplenty, but energy is lacking.

In my 20's, I loved it when I learned to add vanilla and cinnamon to the egg mixture - what a difference it makes! And now, in my 30's, I learned to add syrup to the mixture! Eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and syrup!

To see the full recipe for the above pictured French Toast, click here.

The other "new tip" that I discovered in this recipe (that I tried since the oven was on anyway) is to brown the egg soaked bread in the frying pan, and then transfer it to the oven to warm the rest of the way through. I did this, but I think I left the bread pieces in the frying pan for too long, as it was a bit tough.

I'm Scared For My Brain

My brain is often the butt of family jokes. I even make them myself. Generally, the jokes come about after I have done something strange or said something strange. Or better yet, when I do math in my head faster than anyone else in the room (pre-MS, math was NOT one of my strengths)
But sometimes I worry about it. I have noticed lately that I am processing written words incorrectly (and seeing words that aren't there). Last night, I saw the word "should" and I read it as "shold" (rhymes with cold) and I didn't understand it. I read it a couple of times before I realized my mistake. This is only one example of something that has happened to me a few times in the past week.

Tonight, while making dinner, I had another "moment". I got out a regular frying pan (not the one we usually use), chosen for size and flatness. Cooking something new, I had to read the instructions, which said to use a non-stick frying pan. "Perfect", I thought, I picked the right frying pan without even knowing.

Olive oil in, Chinese dumplings in, just add water and cover. So easy!

Until I had to turn the dumplings over. They were stuck to the pan - stuck. That's when it dawned on me: the instructions said to use a non-stick frying pan. Not a pan that doesn't have a non-stick coating (which I selected) but a pan WITH a non-stick coating. I processed it incorrectly and was confident enough in my processing that I mentally patted myself on the back when I did read the instructions because I was one-up, so to speak.

Early on in my diagnosis, I didn't trust myself when reading instructions, in particular recipes. Not that there had been an event to give me pause, I just wasn't confident.  I needed to read and re-read. Well now I have an event - and it scares me.

Making Room

In the previous post, I mentioned that Jason and I are moving forward. But for myself, I started to move forward back in the fall. Maybe it wasn't so much of a moving forward action, but it definitely was a "this is no longer where I am and I accept it" action. I cleared out clutter from the previous stage of my life, in order to make room for things in this new stage.

Sounds a bit dramatic, doesn't it.

I purged the basement of pounds and pounds of design magazines, counter top samples, paint chips, and product catalogs.

In life before MS, I used design magazines for my own inspiration and to help clients visualize an idea. I could never have enough samples and paint chips for when people came here to ask me for decorating advice, or for when I was doing in-home visits.

I don't need those things anymore.

Now, in life with MS, I need space for zippers!




And that, is a recipe for lemonade.

New Year

My word, it's been a long time since I was here. It isn't that I haven't thought about saying "Hey", I just couldn't seem to put the words together. And when I finally decided I had the brain power to put some pictures together for you, I discovered that I deleted the photos from my computer (the next time we make Cowboy Spaghetti, I'll take photos again).

So here I am now, at the beginning of a new year...may 2012 be a wonderful year, in particular for Jason and I. We wish it for you as well, but we really NEED this.

For all of 2011, Jason battled anxiety. Eventually, the other shoe dropped: he was out of sick days and spent three months off work. Now in a new role within Transit, Jason is back to work and things are looking up - and we want to move forward.


I'll see you again soon :)



Little bits about my life with MS

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