It is time for another Everyday Adventures! I have not shared an Everyday Adventures post since April. It is now the end of July, so it is time to catch you up on our crazy summer adventures!
If you are a newer reader, Everyday Adventures is where I share a little bit of our life outside of food and what I normally share here on my site.
I started sharing these posts weekly years ago. Then I switched to once a month, and lately, it has just been more like a couple a year.
My goal is to get back to sharing them once a month.
The first part of our summer was fairly calm. I took this picture after our field was cut for hay.
Years ago, my son and I started riding four-wheelers through the hay field right after it was cut. He is in college and I am close to fifty, but it is a tradition we still enjoy.
In June we had some family from Oregon visit Oklahoma. Oregon is known for a lot of great food. BBQ is not one of them.
When family from Oregon visits, Oklahoma BBQ is a must. We bought BBQ from a local place that does amazing BBQ. We had it for lunch and dinner. Everyone loved it!
And yes that is bologna aka Oklahoma Prime Rib. It is the only way I will eat bologna. 🙂
I got new running shoes. New running shoes mean that I am finally running again. The last three years have involved one health issue after another. The latest issue involves four different things going on with my hips. The physical therapist finally gave me the okay to start running again.
However, I have to basically start all over again. Run a little, walk a little, run a little walk a little. It feels like I have so far to go, but at the same time, I am so thankful to at least be running again.
I have lots of PT ahead, and my hips will probably never be normal, but I am so thankful for even a short run/walk. A few lessons I have learned while dealing with my hip issues.
- PT works if you actually do it.
- Running is a stress release for me. A run clears my mind and I miss it.
- Old-fashioned NIKE Air shoes are not the best running shoes because they are heavy and clunky, but that air cushion really works and my hip feels so much better when I wear them for exercise and every day.
- And most importantly if you or your kids are hypermobile/ double jointed/ can do weird tricks with your fingers, legs, and joints don’t do the weird tricks. Seriously the weird joint things are bad for your joints. Don’t encourage your kids or friends to do them. They might seem funny, but they aren’t. Joints aren’t made to do that and you will probably pay for it. I am very much regretting all those times I put my feet behind my head, yes I could do that, and lots of other weird things with my super long hypermobile/ double jointed hips and legs.
I bought a new microwave vegetable steamer. Honestly is not something I ever thought I would love, but I do.
I got this one on Amazon and I have been impressed with it. Yes, I know it is probably not the best way to cook vegetables, but I am eating way more vegetables since I bought it because it is so quick and easy to cook vegetables this way.
I also bought these…
My son saw these toaster bags and asked me to buy some. I did not even know they made such a thing. Those targeted ads must work because he insisted we try them.
My son has put up with a lot when it comes to our food allergies and gluten free eating. I did some research and decided to get some for him to try.
I decided to share them with you in case anyone else had a teen or college kid that might find these useful.
I can not give a full review because I have not used them, but my college son loves them and thinks they work great.
There are quite a few different kinds out there, we just picked these brand we did based on reviews.
Have you tried toaster bags?
And then our family got C*VID. I am not going to say a lot about our experience, because it is not just my story to share, but I will say that it is such a strange and nasty sickness.
One in the family avoided it. I am not sure how, but he did. The other four of us were not so lucky. Two had fairly mild cases and two were hit pretty hard. As in, a month later they are still not feeling great, hard.
My taste is still not back to normal. I never lost it completely, but some things didn’t taste right, and they still don’t.
All that to say that our vacation this year did not go at all as planned. My husband and I had planned a trip to Oregon the first week of July. It was going to include visiting some family and spending a few days relaxing at the beach.
Instead at the last minute, we had to cancel our trip.
In the end, though my husband and I were able to go on a quick trip to Colorado this month. That means we didn’t get to visit family, but we did have a few days of hiking and relaxing.
It wasn’t the vacation we planned or hoped for, but the last two and a half years have reminded us that often things don’t go as planned. It is best to pivot and see the good when you can.
The mountains, trees, and views in Colorado made it easy to see the beauty and the good. Colorado was beautiful and reminded me a lot of Central Oregon.
Between sickness and vacation, I was able to get quite a bit of reading done. I shared what I have been reading and a fun bookstore that we visited in Colorado over on From Our Bookshelf.
From Our Bookshelf the book site that my daughter and I have. If you love reading we would love for you to follow us on our reading adventures.
And with all that has been going on, I killed my gluten free sourdough starter. I am not sure it was totally gone, but it was moldy, so I tossed it.
Part of doing the gluten free sourdough starter was to see if I could start it from scratch and I did.
I did sourdough starter and bread years ago long before I was gluten free. Like twenty years ago, long before it was popular, so I know how to make sourdough and bake all kinds of things with it, but I wanted to give it a try gluten free.
I was sad that I had to toss it, but I had fun experimenting with it for a few months and I will definitely give it a try again.
One more quick note is that I have started sharing my weekly gluten free menu plans with those that are signed up for my gluten free newsletter instead of sharing them here on my site.
I know that is a big change, but after over ten years of posting both menu plans and gluten free menu plans I had to simplify some things. I might bring them back, but for now the gluten free menu plans will be shared that way.
If you would like to sign up for my gluten free email list you can do so here. It is free and easy to do.
That was a long update! I really need to start doing these more often.
Leave a Reply