This has been my world of late. Except the rice. I never ate the rice but did instant mashed potatoes instead. I have had to revisit the way that I look at and eat food. And I think I am going to have to make a permanent change. There are some common threads to this happening: stress, being busy, eating out a lot, eating pizza and burgers – things with lots of bread, sausages and pepperonis. Probably just the entire western diet!! Many other countries do not have such a problem with diverticulitis. I probably need to do another research project. But for now, I have vowed to eating less bread, less enriched flour, fried foods, fatty foods, too much starch and sugar and surprisingly – less salads, and more of a sedentary life style. I think this issue had something to do with some type of lettuce in the spring mix that I could not digest, mixed in with too much pizza and burgers, aka too much bread and when things got inflamed it got rock solid and nothing could go anywhere. So likely it is more of a “perfect storm” scenario. So my goal was to give the colon a rest and “get things moving”.
I had severe pains last Wednesday in my lower gut, but then slicing pain in a particular area of my colon that had to heal. I’ve since added some new things. Aloe water for one, and banana milk, which is surprisingly good. I’ve never liked drinking milk, but having a small glass of this a day has been good.
I’m still not totally out of the woods or at normal, but I have started eating more. So far successfully.
So a LOT OF liquids, a lot of oatmeal, instant Mac and cheese cups, and instant potatoes in the last few days. Again, things are not quite back to normal so keep praying that I can pull out of this without having to be seen. I’ve done it before. I think I’m getting there. Not much pain, some itching and that is good. I probably DID eat a full meal or two before I should have, but we went to a wedding this weekend. I ate small bites and was careful to not eat too much fatty items.
Saturday Morning Christmas Shopping and Errands
We went to a place called “The Basement” that had a pop up market going on outside (it was rainy) so we headed in after a brief walk thru of the vendors outside. I was not in the “mood” to Christmas shop. I was stressed over not having time this weekend, needing to get our laundry done, stressed over my stomach issue, and it was rainy and I was just not in the frame of mind to think or shop. But this was important to George so I complied. Any other day…..would have been so much better. I was so rushed Saturday.
There were so many cute things. I could have gone totally bonkers in here! It was overwhelmingly charming. I could have bought the store out if we’d had enough $ and space! Maybe we can go back to this place later….when I’m able to focus on shopping. I’m usually the one to want to get things done early. But I’d rather do it when I was well and feeling good.
We went to Tractor Supply to get big dog Pee pads. They are cheaper there. And there were lots of cute things there as well.
Then we came home and I rushed to get the laundry done and get ready. We had to leave at 2 to get to Cookeville to ride a shuttle bus to the wedding venue in Sparta TN at a place called River Cliff. We were so excited though to see our Juliana get married. She is the daughter of Lisa and Don that we hang out with and sometimes travel with. Our forever foodie friends.
Weekend Wedding
We had very heavy rain for a chunk of the way, making me uneasy. I asked George to please slow down, remembering images of cars upside down on the side of the road from hydroplaning across my 60 years of living. I vow not to be one of them.
The area was very pretty. Look at this view. But the wedding took place up above the river and there was a tractor pulled trolley that took us down to it. I can’t wait to put together the footage for this video!
Here’s our precious bride and groom. I promised no peeps but I’m sneaking this one in! I want you to see how beautiful it was! But I won’t be putting people in my video. We are so happy for this couple. I laughed and said getting to the wedding was like the “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” movie with John Candy and Steve Martin. But we got there.
All of the wedding was wonderful. And we had a lovely dinner and then George and I split the wonderfully tasting cake and got on the early 8:30 shuttle bus back to Cookeville. The wedding was free from rain, but once we were about to leave, the rain began again. The shuttle bus lady was having trouble with the defrost. It wasn’t working and her window kept clouding up on these windy country roads. Yikes. She had to call her boss I think who said to keep heat and cold both on somehow. We got to the interstate and all was well. That was a 45 min drive from Sparta where the venue was, to Cookeville and then from Cookeville it took an hour to get home. We got home by 10:30 or 11:00 or so.
Then we had to be up for church at 6:00. I was with Mom until mid afternoon. I got home about 3:30. I took her to church, out to eat with a very long wait at Cracker Barrel. And then a very long grocery trip to a place called Mike’s (formerly Al’s). We both like it. I ended up buying more than I meant to as I needed to buy some healthier things to eat. Bought chicken tender strips to fix in the George Foreman, lots of green veggies, veggies for soup, pork meat for stew.
Mom bought a lot too. I hauled all her groceries in. And thankfully she was feeling like putting them up as I had meat and things in the car that I didn’t want getting hot. So I got home late afternoon with laundry to finish – about 4 loads, and kitchen to clean, unpacking of some box orders (Dexter’s dogwood mainly). I had to iron and get ready for the work week. I did not get much done other than that.
I’m probably going to be late this morning, trying to get this blog finished and get video footage set up. But I didn’t get time to do that yesterday. So that means I may have to work longer today. Robbing Peter to Pay Paul with Time! lol. It just sucks everything around the clock at being behind. I have to have some down time. So it has to be forced in. One way or the other.
When I got home I had flowers in the fridge so I arranged them into two vases. It’s our anniversary today. We have two outings this week. I’m going to try to eat Greek food tonight. That is the first outing. The other one is a French restaurant this weekend. Flowers are beautiful and much appreciated. I love them. We have been married 32 years!
Over and out for a busy week. But I have a special plan! I’ll have to tell you later!
Also we will find out gender of the grand baby coming in March this week. Everyone have a good week! What do you have going on?