Phyiscal and Emotional Exhaustion

I’ve been dragging all day.  I’m pretty sure I got enough sleep last night, but yesterday was too exhausting for even “enough” sleep.  Yesterday was the first Monday at the Oswego Farmers Market.  They’ve been busy enough on Thursdays to open a second day, and it was busier than one might expect for a first day.  After groceries, I made about $50, which I wouldn’t say is terrible.  I had a lot of fun, and I have a better idea of what to do next week.  I made Cheddar Garlic and Cinnamon Apple yeast breads, and I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip, Poppy Seed, Banana Nut breads and muffins, and Blueberry Muffins.  Yeast breads sold way better than sweet breads. This is probably because yeast breads seem more intimidating. Next week I’ll make more than 2 kinds, and we’ll see how it goes.   

For my Denver friends reading this, farmers markets out here are really different.  In Denver, you had to have a ton of paper work showing you were a licensed kitchen and you had to pay “rent” to whoever ran the market.  Rent over there is usually a minimum of $25 a week. Down here, Oswego and Altamont don’t require any paper work or rent money.  You just show up and sell your stuff.  It takes a lot of the pressure off of markets and everyone is really relaxed.  Yesterday, the only other people selling things were a family of friendly Amish people selling their produce and a few baked goods. I enjoyed talking to them and they even traded with me!  I got  a little watermelon and a cantaloupe in exchange for a loaf of bread.  They also gave me a cup of yellow pear tomatoes.  They’re tasty!

The farmers market  was somewhere above 100 degrees, making for a physically exhausting day.  I forgot to bring water with me (well, I remembered to bring water, but I had nothing to put it in, so I skipped it), and by the end of the day I was really thirsty!  The Amish family had brought two jugs of water with them, and the dad had gone to the grocery store and brought back cans of pop for the kids.   They gave me the last glass of water from their jugs.  They were a very friendly family!

The other half of the exhaustion was brought on by a phone call while I was baking.  My Aunt Joneke down in Texas called to tell me mom was in the hospital.  Mom has been doing her chemo treatments in the same town where my Aunt and Uncle are temporarily staying (my Uncle is an engineer for Ball Can Companies--the guys who make pop cans--and he’s working at a new plant I think).  Aunt Joneke has been helping mom during her treatments and giving her rides to the doctor, airport, and wherever else.  Apparently, mom was reacting weird to fluids and insulin before her chemo treatment and her Dr. realized something was wrong.  They found out she had an infection and they admitted her to the hospital.  That’s all she knew when she called me.  She said depending on what kind of infection it was, it could possibly be pretty dangerous.  Waiting to find out if your mom is going to live or not is a horrible thing.  I guess we’ve been doing that for a while now, but it always seemed so far off.   There has always been another treatment to try, another doctor to visit, but this was just right in front of me.  

I finished baking, took the stuff to the market, and had my phone sitting with the volume turned up as loud as it would go so when there was news, I would hear it.  Finally it came.  Mom send a text message to say she was feeling better and that the antibiotics were working.  “Keep praying, but don’t worry,” She said.  “God has my back.”  Apparently she had sepsis, but it hadn’t damaged any organs yet.  If her Dr. hadn’t caught that something was wrong, she probably wouldn’t have made it through the chemo treatment.  She would have gone into septic shock.   It sounds like she’s in a very good hospital, surrounded by people who know what they’re doing.  Hearing how God is protecting her over and over again, I think He probably has more in store for her than just dying of cancer.  It is scary to go through this, though, even with faith that God “has her back.”  If you’re the praying type, keep my mom in your prayers.  We would all appreciate it a lot.

So, today I’ve been resting, mostly.  I did get the laundry done and I did some cleaning around the house, though, so I haven’t been totally useless.  Tonight we’re going to dinner with Sam’s old friends.  It should be a good evening.  I guess I’ll leave you with something I was pretty excited about yesterday.  I found/changed a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread that rivals the deliciousness of the Great Harvest recipe I’m not allowed to use.  So, enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

3 cups white sugar
1 large can pumpkin puree (24 oz maybe?)
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips

I mix the dry ingredients together first (minus chocolate chips), then add wet ingredients and mix well.  Mix until you don’t see any more globs of flour.  If you don’t get those totally mixed in, you’ll find white chunks of flour/baking soda in your bread and that doesn’t taste very good or look very good.  Once you’ve got it all mixed well, add your chocolate chips.  Pour into three 9x5 inch loaf pans. (or 4 smaller loaf pans and make some muffins with the left over batter. That’s what I did!)  Bake at 350 for an hour (or less if you’re using smaller pans).  It turned out really good! I was excited.  Here’s how it turned out.  (Lets be honest... I mostly cut this piece so I could eat it, not so you could see how it turned out!)