(Day 37) without Cleo: part 2 ~ eye health, dinner and beauty

I do love breakfasts! And jams, and natural (nothing but perhaps salt added)

peanut butter and nice hot cup of tea!

This (above) was really poignant.  Still thinking on it.

Changed my table cloth!!! 

My writing desk :)  I really do love it!!!

 I got beautiful 1 ounce glass tubes with roller balls to use to make

essential oil rollers... I am excited about that!

Went to my eye doctor... getting these glasses...nearly identical to the ones I have now,

same colour slightly different shape!  We have really good vision insurance, which is a 

HUGE blessing... so that's the good news... the not so good news... 

That is a picture of my eye, I think the right eye. 

The big white part is fine but in the middle of the picture is some white parts

and that is NOT good.  It shows some degeneration within my retina. 

We looked at scans from 3 years ago verses ones taken today and the changes

in both retina and a bit in the periphery both show that my eyes are getting worse.

While this is really not new information, it was still hard to hear and see.

And I need a stronger prescription again and that means that my eyes 

are even MORE myopic which means more myopic degeneration is possible.

A simple explanation is that as the eye becomes more myopic, it is stretched thin

and if it becomes too thin, it begins breaking down, and that is what we don't want,

as it can lead, eventually, if it continues, to severe vision loss.

So I continue to walk this journey...

***

I was feeling a bit "hard hit" by this and my sweet Husband had already 

planned on us eating out today and we did so and I had a really nice salad

and he had mussels and that was really nice.

And things I enjoy I am still looking forward to,

like breakfast tomorrow.  

I just love breakfast and that first pot of tea.

***

And so it goes, beauty, worries and caring for each other.

I know, no matter what, that I have a lot to be thankful for.

***

Lord have mercy on us all!

Saturday, looking towards next week

As promised, I wrote up the recipe and how GOOD these cookies are 

on my All the Ribbons blog earlier today!

They have this wonderful understated lemony tang,

the sweetness of the cookie is blissfully understated and the balance of 

flavours is lovely.  The cookie is soft, tender, chewy but crisp enough

that it clatters perfectly on the plate when serving the cookies.

I call it a cookie with an old soul, one that feels linked to the generations

before who have baked this cookie from Patrick's stash of recipes

handwritten on index cards.

For more, please read my blog post:

Lemon Crinkle Cookies!

I can't wait to have more of them tomorrow,

they are the understated type of cookie that wows you more mid-bite than immediately

but that you find yourself thinking about later, and wishing for another,

and then another.... 

 Breakfast was indeed decadent.

First the lemon crinkle cookies,

then a lovely biscuit with jam,

then a bit of the plum torte. 

(I still mean to blog this plum torte!)

Lunch was beef stroganoff, biscuits and sides of fruit salad and a green salad.

As you can see, I had a third lemon crinkle cookie with my fruit salad.... so good!

I walked by our laundry room and who did I see? Silly Cleo! :)

Finished my doughnut today too.

Pretty but I have had better...

We were really blessed to share vespers with friends from our other (far-away) church tonight

and go out to dinner with them.

It was a blessing to be with friends.

Also a blessing to have so much good food to eat.

***

We were not able to be in Michigan for Uncle Hank's funeral, which was today.

Three family members took pictures of the flowers we sent.

I am really sad we were not able to be there.

As my Mom would say,

It is what it is. 

***

So.  I am officially in countdown mode. 

Next Friday I go to Philly for the eye appointment that 

could take up to FIVE hours. 

I am going to need to leave the house before 8 AM.

My appointment is at 11:30 but I need to give myself a bit of

leeway for unexpected things, which from what my friend who lives in Philly

has told me, I will need. 

I will be lucky if I am home by 8 PM or so.

So I am planning my food, drink (including tea), snacks, 

knitting, book/s to ready, headphones to take, cell phone

battery to re-charge my phone, writing (paper, pens), prayer rope...

not to mention my medical papers/research, folders, notebook...and 

lots and lots of eye drops...

Mr Husband is not going with but he is only a phone call/email/text/chat away.

The trains there + uber are not hard.  

It's more that it will be 1) a long day 2) eye appointments of this nature and tests I find

difficult, I often feel overwhelmed and afraid... but who would not be if there 

is a possibility of severe vision loss?  Or even not fully severe (i.e. blindness) but totally unknown.

I keep clinging to 2 things: 1. God 2. No one that we know of in my family lines

has gone blind.  Of course I don't think we know more than 4 generations back but STILL.

It's really something to hold on to, based on what I know and what my

 friends and research show. 

***

Well.  That's about all for me.

I could use another cookie...

***

May God bless, help and save us!