Thankful

My Aunt uses the month of November as gratitude month on her blog. Each day she posts something she is thankful for. I've followed her example in the past couple of years, but this year I have let my busy schedule stop me from keeping up with my blog. But since today Adam and I had an early Thanksgiving with Mom and Jay, his kids, sister, and her husband, I figured I could use the excuse to say a few thank yous. What food I was able to eat was delicious and the company was tons of fun.

Adam had asked that we spend Thanksgiving day with his family. I was grateful to be invited, but a little bummed that I would be missing my Mom's fabulous turkey, so I was excited when Mom suggested an early Thanksgiving. I was very careful about the foods I chose to eat, hoping to minimize their impact. I ate very little mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and skipped the green beans and stuffing (made from scratch-even the bread!!! It's Mom's specialty-that was a tough decision to not eat it...), and mostly ate turkey and salad. I decided it would be okay to try Mom's pumpkin pie (also made from scratch) as long as I didn't eat the crust. BAD idea. I'm not sure what got to me, but it was not much fun. I watched the gang play UNO, which was fun, then laid out on the couch until I just couldn't take it anymore; I had to go home.

Before I left, Mom let me wash a couple loads of laundry (thanks Mom!), and showed me how to care for and wear my new contacts. I am grateful she would let me use her washer and dryer and especially that she would take the time to show me how to care for my contacts. Getting them in was pretty easy. Getting them back out was another story...

I am also grateful that Adam would take the time to come with me to "Thanksgiving" dinner. It is really nice to have someone special around for the holidays. Plus he was super sweet to take me home and make sure I was okay.

I started feeling better a couple of hours ago and realized I was pretty hungry. I hadn't eaten much at dinner because of my food allergies, and had not eaten prior to dinner since I'm used to stuffing myself silly at Thanksgiving. It's a little chilly down here, so I thought a bowl of chili sounded nice, and figured if I made some tonight, I would have enough for lunch tomorrow (and maybe the next day.) I had bought some of my favorite beans and a can of tomatoes last week at the grocery store with the intent of making a chili I could eat without getting sick. Tonight was the night. It was a complete experiment since I had no recipe to follow. I used spices that I generally like and tons of chili powder and hot sauce. It's a little different without beef, but I like how it turned out. I'm just hoping the high fructose corn syrup the beans were stored in (and drained out before cooking) won't kill me. (Yeah, I know, shame on me for forgetting to check the ingredients before buying the product...) So far so good... Hopefully this new recipe will be a winner!

I actually want to thank my dad for that one. When I was a teenager, he insisted that cook dinner one night a week so I could learn how to not only take care of myself, but my future family as well. I had to make something different every week, so I would have a handful of recipes. Once I learned how to follow a recipe, I started tweaking them. Adding a dash of this and that, or holding back an ingredient altogether. I learned to enjoy cooking because I felt like it was my own creation, and it makes me feel so good to know others are enjoying something I made for them. Well, tonight I was able to put my kitchen experimenting skills to the test and it worked! I'm really enjoying this chili. I'll know within the next hour if I can make it again. Keep your fingers crossed for me!! :) There's not much out there I can eat anymore. I mostly survive on fruit smoothies right now. My freezer is full of frozen fruit, while my refrigerator remains nearly bare. On the plus side, I think I'm losing weight, which is always good.

Anyway, I have tons to be grateful for, but I will save the rest for later. Life may be hard sometimes, but it's an adventure. I'm so grateful I have such a loving family. And amazing boyfriend. They make the trials a little easier. My sister is especially good at finding the silver lining in any struggle. I texted her a list of my food allergies and within half an hour she had sent me several helpful links to food allergy websites. I don't know how she found them so fast, but I'm grateful she's looking out for me. I was just wallowing in self-pity when I sent her that text, but she wouldn't let me waste away in misery. Thanks Karen.

And thanks to everyone else who is watching out for me. I know I have a lot of prayers out there on my behalf, and everyone's kind comments always lift me up.