Life in pictures this past week

#1 Cream of Wheat -

When I was a kid my mother made Cream of Wheat almost every winter morning. It was not my favorite, but it was the chosen one's my brother's favorite.  Some time she mixed it up and added some Cocoa Wheat in and I really didn't care for that flavor.  But eat it we did.  We had it with a pat of butter in the middle and honey.  While it was hot and warmed you from top to toes it never had enough honey in it for me.  Back in those days you didn't whine and/or get more sugar.  My mother was so good at cooking it that she would dump the wheats into a pan the night before and leave on the stove so that all she had to do was add the milk.  It seemed like she stirred it twice and it was done and ready for us to eat.  While it wasn't my favorite it is one of those childhood memories that I wanted to pass down to my daughters. 

Madison likes Cream of Wheat, and Darcy likes it with tons of honey, but I am the worst cook of Cream of Wheat.  I tried buying the instant in a package, but it was awful, so I went back to the two minute kind and tried to master it.  I rarely offer it up as a breakfast option.  Now it is on my list of breakfast foods on my diet (which I keep starting over on) and when I read it my mouth began watering so I bought a box of it and fixed it.  The first time I made it I ate it plain with a dab of butter.

The second time I made it I added blueberries.  It was delicious and so filling with my toast and juice.  Of course, the bottom of the pan was scorched and it took a few hours of soaking to come clean, but I'm sure when I whip it up for Madison at six in the morning I will be better at it.

#2 Connie in rehab

I don't recognize my mother in rehab because she is so positive.  She has really embraced this chance to gain strength and has been quite quiet and gone with the flow, something she isn't always willing to do.  When I visited her for the first time she was on her way to occupational therapy with a nice, timid, serious girl who wanted her to do some therapy in the house setting.

There is always a "house" setting in rehab places that simulate a real house.  This one had a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen with a bar and small seating area.  This way the therapist can see how a patient will manage at home.  This young girl wanted Connie to stand up out of her wheelchair and take out plates and cups from the cabinet.  Once those were removed she had to stack cones into the cabinet in the place of the plates and cups and then take them back out again.  She did this without complaining, although she did comment that she didn't think the cones were good for anything with a hole in the bottom.

Next up was cooking.  The therapist asked Connie to make a grilled cheese sandwich, and I thought, "Oh, boy, here we go.  She will complain at this activity."  But I was wrong.  She pulled open drawers and cabinets and got out all the things she needed.  The only comment she made was that the skillet was too large for one little grilled cheese sandwich and that perhaps she would need to donate a smaller one to the facility.

She kept calm even when the stove didn't work and she had to be wheeled upstairs to another kitchen to finish the job, the skilled and buttered cheese bread in her lap.  Instead she cooked and cooked until the sandwich was done.  I got to eat it.  It was delicious.

#3 New keyboard

My wireless keyboard died on me a few weeks ago and my husband hooked me up a back-up that had to be plugged into my monitor.  It was small and the buttons very large, but I didn't complain.  I did mention that Amazon sold a Steelers keyboard, but I got this new one instead.

It is really nice and clean.  The buttons are so firm, yet seem to move so smoothly no matter how light I touch it.  It is a bit different then my old one so I have to learn the different locations for certain buttons, but I'm enjoying it even though it isn't the Steelers keyboard.

Tom:  "Put stickers on it."

So I did.