Thursday, August 14, 2014

Return home....

Our oldest son returned from his Mission in Los Angeles, California Friday so it has been 7 days now. How grateful I am to have him home (and so are his brothers and sister). I have watched him take the outdoor responsibilities in hand and make things look like his dad has been home for a few days.

It is amazing just how much he is like his Father. He is selfless and always willing to serve. Now I am not saying my other children are not-they are. But my other children are different. Some are more adventurous and willing to take risks. Some talk more than most people want to tolerate. Some are quiet and shy, but have rich relationships. Some have chosen a different path and used their free agency to follow that path.

Joseph has always had a caring nature about him. Granted it is geek oriented-that is not a bad thing. He knows what to do with a computer better than anyone I know. My husband has missed his home coming and Skyped for a bit with him the night he came home. WE moved his date to accommodate my husbands Annual Training and my trip to Missouri. Only to have my husband go out on another Evaluation exercise for a month. What really was not happy was the fact we needed to make a month with minimal trips to the store and conserve on our trips outside. Not really that hard being as we had only one car from mid-January to late April. Most people were not aware of this around me. We would work it for him going to work. If I needed the car, I would take him to work and pick him up when he got off. Which most people still do not get his schedule. HE DOES NOT HAVE A SCHEDULE.

Yes it can make life difficult for planning, the railroad has supported us for over 15+ years now through 5+ different deployments varying in lengths from 6 months to a year. Those have been some of the hardest times and a lot of growth occurred in our relationship. For him the saving grace has been I understand , because before he was deployed those times. I had done it while he supported me on Active duty. The one thing I really missed while being deployed was him and I only allowed to have one 15 min phone call once a month while I was gone to Saudi Arabia.

This month means we eat more food from our storage have some very simple meals. More beans and rice. That is ok, cause now Joseph eats beans, if they are fixed 'right'. I found a crock pot refried beans recipe that we tried when he came home it tasted right to him. Give him some Tortillas and these beans and he is good to go. Eggs are still an iffy subject but french toast is acceptable. The only complaint about the beans was that I needed to use Pintos versus black beans. Edwards says that the Black beans are 'sweeter'. Our next batch will be pintos. Do we still have variety? yes we do.

I have an assortment of dried Veggies in the cupboard and frozen veggies in the freezer. We have meat that we buy in bulk and freeze. We buy some canned meats. I have numerous recipe book pertaining to food storage recipes just for this purpose. For the most part simple meals are best. Meat or protein source, veggies, fruit, and starch of some sort (bread or potato or sweet potato). I keep a large assortment of spices and ingredients to marinade on hand.

For me this makes things easier. Some feel this is very bland. Being gluten-free is not easy, but add Potato-free and corn-free to that mix. People always ask after hearing that, 'what do you eat'? My response -steak and lots of veggies. This has been a really good thing for me because it has made me more aware of others and their dietary needs. I honestly feel very frustrated when I go to an event and I am unable to eat because of cross contamination or food with off limits ingredients or mystery ingredients. BUT it is not worth being sick for week. It is better to go without or eat minimally than to have that result. I keep ready quick foods on hand at home so even if I am a bit hungry I can eat quickly and go to sleep.

Most of the doctors I deal with have gotten used to the fact that we have to discuss ingredients in medication, which means really I take no Rx medications unless their is dire need-and then the added fun of compounding. But the real deal is that the Doc cannot keep up with all of his patients needs totally and I as the patient must be proactive in that course. I have switched doctors because they have minimized my needs or reactions. The 'I am the doctor. Do what I tell you, because I know your body better than you do' attitude. I believe that a doctor is a partner on my healthcare team. He needs to consider my needs, feelings and should never minimize those because he has the training. He would need a kick in his bedside manner for sure. I will elaborate more on this later in another post.

Back to Home. Just before we left for Missouri Dorothy our daughter got her mission call to Spokane Washington leaving the end of October. Another shopping trip to our favorite store Holmes clothing in Brigham City.


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