I had been on such a great roll this week… fantastic news at my pharmacy doc appointment (A1C of 5.1! Officially in the normal range!), feeling stronger and more active all the time – just very much on an upswing in all the ways. Filled with gratitude and exuberance and health, I hit the ground running on Wednesday – prep day for Thanksgiving.
The plan was to have Paul pick up Ana and bring her back mid-day to begin cooking the beef birria for our Thanksgiving day feast. But before that, I took a look at the great job that Geneva, Natalie and Jacob had mostly finished the day before – clearing out the pantry/pan shelves, washing all the pans, and reorganizing – and decided to see how far I could get in finishing the job. There were still several piles of cookware to puzzle into place, and the whole third shelf had to be cleared, washed, and all the bottles sorted. And to my everlasting astonishment, I actually got the whole job done. I mean, I was clocking my stamina and back pain threshold and assuming I’d max out at 15-20 minutes at the most – which would have been stellar in my book – but I kept on and on until I’d gotten it finished – an hour and a half standing, sorting, bending and scrubbing. I right blew my own mind!
I had a bit of a sit down for a while then. Ana arrived, and over the course of the next several hours, she and Natalie performed some epic culinary magic, producing a giant pot of Birria, while also making both Horchata and Jamaica, salsa verde, Mexican rice and beans. After she’d gone home, and I’d gone to the store and back again, I stayed up late and made a triple batch of southwestern corn mini-loaves. Again – an effort that would have been far beyond my strength just a few months ago.
I went into Thursday feeling tremendous gratitude.
You know how you do a big workout, and then the next day is your recovery day? Yeah…. I timed it wrong. Woke up Thanksgiving morning with a L-O-T of pain. I took some pain meds and rested for awhile in the morning, and then tried to be “up” and “on” for the day, but it was more than I’d bargained for. I was in pain; I was overstimulated; I was not in control of anything going on in the kitchen and everything was too much for me. I hate it when my autism hits me over the head like it did today. I couldn’t even take sumptuous photos of the delectable buffet and my beautiful people the way I wanted to – Birria, beans, rice, tortillas and toppings, the Macaroni & Cheese Geneva brought, Grandma’s Wild Rice and 7-Layer Salad (which she sent, even though she was not able to make it to our side of town for the day), Laurent’s Elote Salad and Pumpkin-Cheesecake, and of course my fabulous corn cakes. You’ll just have to imagine them. And next year, I plan to have more stamina. And I plan to plan my energy better!
For now, I can at least share a few shots from Wednesday when the kitchen was a hive of activity; and the last few pics were from today – at least I got one shot of happy faces around the laden table. Even though I had a rough day of it today, I know it was a great time of fellowship for the rest of the family and that means the world to me. I am blessed with so many helping hands, and Ana’s cooking made this Thanksgiving a very, very special one for the kids and especially Natalie, who was the mover-and-shaker behind the menu decisions – on account of this being her 18th birthday week!
