I am right on track in my recovery from surgery. I have another three weeks to heal before I can resume my former activity level. It has been interesting for me to discover how restless I can become in a fairly stress-free, exercise-free environment, so today I gave myself a list of low-key, 15-minute-or-less tasks to keep me energized and engaged. One of the tasks was to create something cool from a remarkable-looking leaf that my 9-year-old son Scott found yesterday. I had fun thinking about where to take the pic and imagining the possible sources of quotes that might fit how I'm feeling and that would work with the leaf. I settled on a brick background and a Richard Bach quote. He was a big favorite with my dad, and thus a big favorite of mine.
Below is my creation. I share it with you for a couple of reasons. 1) Why not? It's kinda fun and I offer the sentiment to you as you need to hear it. It's from Bach's book Illusions. I wrote a paper about it (and Jonathan Livingston Seagull and A Gift of Wings) for my high school AP English class, and I re-read it every couple of years. 2) Steal the idea! Keep an eye out for hidden treasures and photograph them. I pretty much guarantee that if you look for cool stuff, you will find it. (That's the "allowing" part.) Share your creations with others. It'll make you happy. Or at least, happier. My older son Corley recently described August as the Sunday night of the summer. I tend to agree, but I'm determined to stay low-key and content as long as I can. Even though I have had to go to my Day Job more days than not, I have arranged my time off in July and August to maximize good fun with my family. That in itself isn't unusual, but this year, I have "bonus" days off as a result of five furloughed Fridays. This last Friday we piled in the van and day-tripped to Island Beach State Park in New Jersey. No boardwalk. No arcade. No shops of beachwear or gifts. Just the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Barnegat Bay to the west. Plenty of gluten-free food because I packed it and put it in the cooler. It was a beautiful day and it had many parts: Boogie boarding, walking along the beach, spotting dolphins in the distance, and constructing sand castle engineering projects. We were treated to a gorgeous sunset on the bay on our way out of the park. I violated one small no-trespassing suggestion to find the amazing view in the pic below.
Some days I have to bring more intention to finding my happy place than others. As the Sunday night feeling of the nearing end of summer sneaks up on me a little more, I'm appreciating the low-key glide that I've had the last couple of months. I'm especially rejoicing that between now and Labor Day, I'm actually off from work more than I have to go. By a lot. I am definitely appreciating that. And I will do my best to be centered in the moment, be open to the gifts that present themselves, and will milk the end of the season for all it's worth. In the science of happiness, it has been demonstrated that creating enjoyable and memorable experiences keeps us happy into our old age way better than spending money on stuff. I'm all about creating excellent experiences. Jenn and I went to Paris last October and the boys stayed with their aunt and uncle at home. Summer is our time for all of us, and when it's a family vacation, we gear activities toward what we think our 9 and 11 year old sons will enjoy. That leaves out a lot of stuff -- most museums, lots of walking in hot cities. Come to think of it, my tastes tend to skew the same way. They also aren't keen on taking many hours to get there, wherever there is.
To maximize everyone's potential for a good time, we decided to stay sort-of local for our vacation this year. We are less than 2 hours from home, but other than the travel time being brief, we might as well be a thousand miles away from our suburban Philadelphia home. Our vacation strategy? Go far enough away that we don't have to call it a "stay-cation," skip the plane fare for a family of four, go during the week to avoid the crowds, and stay away from checking work email at least 90% of the time. Our destination? Jim Thorpe, PA, population 4,774. Why? Rafting, biking on converted railways, excellent state parks, caverns an hour away (in case it rains), and a waterpark not too far to cap off the trip. As always, we are staying at a place with at least minimal food storage and prep facilities. We nearly rented a house through VRBO.com, but because of an iffy forecast, we decided instead on a Hampton Suites because of the indoor pool in case we get rained in. I packed accordingly and, at least until the refrigerator got overly excited and froze all my vegetables, I was in pretty good shape. Breakfast is included with the hotel, so when I don't want to have my protein shake in the blender I brought, I am enjoying fruit and individually packaged yogurts. I packed lunches for our two day-long outings so far: Salad during our rafting lunch stop, PB&J on an Udi's bagel for our 15 mile bike ride. I have plenty of snacks on hand too -- homemade oaty protein bars, granola circles, gf Oreos from Trader Joe's, Xocai healthy dark chocolate, veggies and hummus, raisins, trail mix, etc. A couple of shops in town have boasted gluten-free ice cream and desserts. We have spotted a couple of places in town through Urban Spoon that sound like they can accommodate a gluten free dinner, but so far we've not had a big dinner out. Jenn and the boys have been happy with pizza or sandwiches by the pool while I have eaten provisions I brought. Maybe we'll venture out for dinner tomorrow. Maybe not. Doesn't matter really. It doesn't matter because I didn't come to Jim Thorpe for the food. My main goal is to stay healthy and unglutened so that I can enjoy the journey of making happy memories. We chose to stay in this small town in Pennsylvania for the opportunities for family fun and adventure. So far, so good. I know that the memories of our excursions together will far outlast any recollection of meals eaten or not eaten, as the case may be. I am from Oklahoma. In the 22 years I lived there, I spent my share of time taking cover in the designated room in our house or hallway at school as big storms rolled through. I don't know if I ever saw a tornado really in all that time. Tornadoes are capricious. They take funny twists and turns. And after living through a few dozen of them when nothing bad happens to your own little piece of the world, you get a little immune to the worry of it. I did, anyway. And then tornadoes tore through Moore again a couple of weeks ago. That's pretty close to where my brother Glen and sister-in-law Kim and nieces Patricia and Alyssa live. But they were fine. And then last Friday I got a push notification on my iPhone from CNN that a tornado emergency (a designation that didn't even exist when I lived there, which means "Holy crap, there is a tornado right on top of you and you are in grave danger") was issued for El Reno, where Kim and Glen live. In previous storms, Kim has posted regular updates on Facebook during storms from the storm cellar. (They built their house maybe 12 years ago and had a storm cellar installed. Most people don't have them. It's very difficult and expensive to dig down in Oklahoma.) During this storm, Kim was not on-line. Thankfully, Kim had gotten word out to my niece Alyssa who was out of town, that she, Glen, and Patricia were safely in the cellar, drinking wine, eating gluten-free snacks, and riding out the storm. That is their house. Behind the house is a humongous freaking tornado. This picture was captured from video taken from a storm chaser news team immediately before their back window was broken out by flying debris. Amazingly, the house and barn survived though they did suffer some significant damage. The cows and horse survived. Two dogs were missing. One has found his way home. Everyone still holds out hope for pup #2, a friendly canine named Cinco. If you are in or near El Reno and see this dog, let me know. I am grateful that my family is safe. I am grateful they have a storm cellar. I am grateful that Alyssa kept us up-to-date. I'm even grateful for this visual proof of how close a call they had. Please hold a thought for those that were not so lucky. Send love and light and prayers to their families and to the survivors of the storms that lost everything. Try to remember to work some gratitude into your everyday routine. Everything can change in an instant. Miracle of all miracles, Cinco was returned to the family alive and well a few days after the tornado. These are definitely treats for a long holiday weekend. They violate my usual code of fast, easy, and few dishes. They were none of the above. But because Jenn specifically asked for a coffee cake-like treat, how could I say, "Nah. Too much of a bother."? She makes very few culinary requests. Luckily they turned out great and thus, blog-worthy on the first try. They are very moist, probably because I went ahead and used a full stick of butter rather than cutting it in half and adding applesauce. The butter was probably also the reason they didn't stick to the muffin papers. So, once in awhile, maybe it's okay to stress the "happy" and "gluten-free" part of Happy Healthy Gluten-free and know that "healthy" is found both in eating these in moderation and at your next meal in the form of a nice salad or plate of greens. These muffins DO have two advantages: 1) because they are muffins, the portion control is built right in, and 2) they have the benefit of Xocai healthy dark chocolate which boosts your antioxidant intake and adds a nice sophistication, making them a little less than over-the-top sweet. The creation of these muffins has a number of steps, and my younger son Scott had a great time helping out. He measured, mixed, scooped batter into the muffin tins, unwrapped and inserted the chocolate squares, spread and patted down the topping, and more. So though they weren't particularly fast to make, it was good quality time in the kitchen. Ingredients: For the cake part: 1 3/4 gluten-free flour blend (I used Arrowhead Mills, which has xanthan gum built in. If your favorite gf flour blend does not, add 1 ¼ teaspoons of it for this recipe.) 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda ¼ teaspoon salt 1 cup plain unsweetened almond milk (or the milk-like product of your choice) 3/4 cup sugar 1 stick of melted butter 2 eggs 12 Xocai Power Squares or other dark chocolate squares For the topping: 1/2 stick of butter 1/2 cup gluten-free flour blend 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon Cocoa Powder Preheat the oven to 350. Thoroughly combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside. Combine the milk, sugar, butter and eggs in a big bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the milk-sugar-eggs and mix well. Spoon the rather sticky batter into a lined muffin tin. Worry that it may be too dry. Insert the chocolate squares upright in the middle of the muffin batter. For the topping, combine the flour, sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl. Cut the chilled butter into small pieces and combine it with the dry ingredients. Use a pastry blender, two knives or your fingers (I used my fingers) to mix until course and crumbly. Spread it evenly over the muffins and pat them down a little. Bake for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted (but not in the middle of the chocolate stripe) comes out clean. Eat them warm! Though room temperature was good too. We froze some of them to keep us from devouring the whole pan in one day. Keep your face over your plate. Oh wait, that's what I say to Scott. |
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