Lots of reading

It’s been kind of strange, but I’ve been in such a reading mood lately.  I usually don’t read a lot in the fall and winter, I read more in the summer.  I think it’s because I have more time in the summer and I really enjoy sitting outside reading.  But lately I’ve been getting some good Christian fiction books from the library.  I really need to control my time better though.  Because I start reading the book and I just can’t put it down.  So my time that I might work on my crafts or even a blog post I have been reading instead.  I really need to learn to only pick up a book in the late evening after I’ve gotten some other things accomplished.  For those who are interested I have been reading books by T. Davis Bunn.  He’s a very good writer, and his action books really get me hooked.  But a friend of mine from the woman’s bible study I’m going to has loaned me some other books.  So I might start one of them soon, once I’m sure I will only read when I’ve accomplished other things.  🙂

I’m feeling better, though not 100% yet.  I still have a cough and I still get a bit run down some times.  I went to the doctor on Monday to have my blood checked again.  I talked about my original doctor appointment here.   I needed to have my blood checked again because of the viral thing they noticed.  I obviously couldn’t get it checked the past couple of weeks because of my sinus infection, so I went on Monday.  It was a quick check.  I walked in, they took some blood from my finger and ran it through a machine to test it while I waited.  I was chatting with the nurse and I asked her what exactly they were looking at that they wanted to keep checking.  She said my white blood count was on the low side, which usually means I’m fighting a viral thing.  Well I will say, the minute I heard white blood count I did freak a little.  My sister’s husband died about 9 years ago from the effects of leukemia.  And the one thing I remember is issues with the white blood count.  She asked me how I was feeling while the machine was checking my blood.  I told her I still had a cough, but that my sinus infection was gone.  The results were quick, and though my counts were higher than before, they were still on the low side, which she said was probably because I was still fighting the cough and such.  She spoke with the doctor and said that things were fine, but they wanted me back in a month to get it checked again.  As I was leaving I asked the nurse if this was something I should be worried about.  She immediately said, no, not at all.  I was still a bit nervous and called my sister to see what it was with Dave.  She too said it’s not the same and that they are just seeing the virus that I’ve been fighting.  So I’ve given my nervousness to the Lord and I’m trusting that it will all be ok.  I do know that I am still fighting something because I’m still stuffy at times, coughing at times and I even lost my voice again last week for a day.  So again, I am trying to rest more.  I do sleep well at night, so that’s good.  And I am trying to do more things that I can accomplish while resting.

One cool thing is that I did a Leslie Sansone walking DVD on Tuesday.  It’s a 3 mile one that has some jogging and working with bands in it.  I haven’t done it since the spring time.  And I certainly haven’t done a complete, hard workout since I hurt my hip about 4 or 5 weeks ago.  When I first started the workout, I could feel my hip a bit, nothing bad, so I kept going.  By the end of the workout my hip actually felt better.  The tightness I was feeling in it was gone.  That has really been encouraging.  It felt good to do a full workout again.  I’ve mainly been walking outside, but not pushing myself too hard.  I did my first 30 minute fast walk last week, and felt pretty good afterward.  But since then we have gotten our fall weather, wet and cold.  It’s been raining in the morning, so I needed to do something indoors, which is why I tried the DVD.  I’m so glad I did.

Oh, even with all my reading I did finally finish a pretzel magnet I’m making.  I guess it turned out ok, but truthfully, I don’t like the ‘salt’ I put on it.  Not quite sure what I want to do, but I didn’t really like this look too much.  But my family said it turned out great, what do you think?

I’ve also been wanting to get some zucchini from someone’s garden, because usually my friends have too much and want to get rid of it.  Our favorite brownies are made with shredded zucchini in it.  Our church does the coolest outreach.  To help raise money for missions in Uganda a group of people started a garden on the church’s property.  All the vegetables are then put on a table in the hallway at our church free for the taking.  All they ask is for a donation of whatever amount you want to give, then all the donations go to Uganda.  I wish I had my camera with me to take a picture of the table with all the vegetables.  I did find a big zucchini there, plus some smaller ones for stir fry and some nice size potatoes.  I really enjoy fresh from the ground potatoes.

We got 6 cups of shredded zucchini from that big thing.  That is 3 batches of brownies.  We shredded it all and froze it in 2 cup portions.  So now all we have to do is pull it out of the freezer when we want fresh brownies.  While we were at it we had some carrots left after Sarah made carrot cake.  We shredded the rest of those, also getting 6 cups worth, or two batches of carrot cake.  So now we have fixins for some yummy desserts in the freezer.   And I used the potatoes in a potato corn chowder I made yesterday, yum.  With the fall weather, having some warm chowder was nice.  Today with the same yucky weather and our weekend, I pulled some frozen chili out of the freezer and warmed that up.  I really like having freezer meals, but I just don’t like doing the once a month cooking.  When I think of it I try to freeze extra meals when I’m making them, but truthfully we usually finish whatever I make.  But it is nice to have one or two meals frozen.  I think I’ll make some stuffed potatoes soon.  Those are so yummy and easy to freeze for future dinners.

Well that’s about it.  I should get going as it’s getting late and I’m getting tired.  I’m taking a girlfriend out for her birthday tomorrow for lunch, and I don’t want to be dragging from staying up too late.  I might try to get another workout in tomorrow morning.  I didn’t do any today, so it would be good to do something tomorrow, maybe.  Plus I also have those books my friend gave me to read, and I’ve accomplished quite a bit today.  Yes, I think I will go start another book.  🙂

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