I get mad at fruit sometimes. It's deceptive. It looks sweet, and happy, but then I take a bite. So many times, I've been disappointed by the lack of sweet. If given the choice between a bowl of vegetables or a bowl of fruit, I'd take the veggies, hands down. No contest. Unless the fruit was dipped in chocolate. Even then, I sometimes suck the chocolate off and leave the fruit.
Unless it's pineapple in Maui. I'd take that stuff over candy.
One of our favorite summer treats is the fruit smoothie. It's one way I can guarantee to get my fruit intake in. I don't add sugar, either. I suppose it's a psychological thing. I don't expect the smoothie to be sweet like a milkshake, so I accept that it's kind of tart. It's the real deal, raw fruit, and all of the nutritional benefits.
Yesterday Hugo and I took the kids to see my ex-mother-in-law. She was released to go home from the one hospital, only to have to go back to a better hospital within the next week or so. Her brother is friends with the former head of Neurosurgery at Loma Linda University Hospital, and he is helping to direct the family toward the best options for Mary.
She looked great. We sat outside in the back yard while Hugo swam in the pool with Lee, Abi, and Adam. She enjoyed seeing the kids play. She talked a lot about her ordeal in the hospital. She is aware that she was extremely disoriented while she was there, but she still doesn't have everything sorted in her mind. She is trying so hard to hold onto the ability to keep everything straight, but her brain is a stubborn adversary. I listened to her, and simply walked along her memories with her, doing my best to keep it all sorted, and to help her make sense of everything. Things like talking it through with her when she says she was in a trailer...when she was in the hospital. It was a smaller hospital, yes, but it wasn't in a trailer. So we sort through the logic, working on the parts that seem to stress or confuse her the most. And then we do it again. Her short-term memory is challenged.
None of her disorientation has been caused by medication. One hundred percent of this is the tumor and swelling around the tumor on her brain stem. As the tumor and swelling subsides, the confusion should go away. It will be interesting to see what the doctors at her new hospital say. As of right now, they are deciding between Cedar Sinai and City of Hope...both very good hospitals.
I got to harvest and bring home peaches and strawberries from their yard before we left. Six pounds of peaches, and two pints of strawberries, to be exact.
So as I blanched and put up those peaches last night, I learned something about myself. California Kristi is far more picky than Nebraska Kristi. There were 2 peaches that each had a worm residing within. Nebraska Kristi would have salvaged the part of the peach the worm hadn't visited--no waste. California Kristi threw the whole thing away. California Hugo thanked me.
They were otherwise great, as far as fruit go, and yes, as I nibbled the peaches and strawberries, testing for sweetness, I was my usual mad-at-fruit self. But once I add all that sugar to the peaches when I make the cobblers, it'll be fabulous. The rest will undoubtedly be turned into smoothies.
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