Not painting...

This was the view from my airing porch last night.  I was too exhausted from the joy of visiting with Emily, finally getting a good match of the house red paint, and saving a bundle on my purchases.  Oh, yes, and the news that my beloved Taco Bell is dropping artificial colors and flavorings from its food!

I get too tired to watch television or read, but also too tired to sleep, especially when I am sore from walking extra that day.  So, I went up on the airing porch, sipped cold ginger tea (I am very, very, very thankful I found that tea), and listened to music whilst watching, first, the sun set and, second, the night clouds pass by.

Sometimes, I look around at this house and I honestly cannot believe that it is mine, that I get to live here.  Never more than when ensconced up on the airing porch and just savoring such a wonderful place to rest.  As I have written before, I have spent more time outdoors since moving here than I have since being diagnosed with MS in 1994.  I absolutely believe that is nowhere near a case of exaggeration.  And, now, with three porches on which to enjoy the out of doors, I am triply blessed with fresh air.

The great part was that although yesterday was STINKING HOT—in fact, it was 74 degrees when I first went outside—with the sun going down and being up high where every breeze possible could surround me, I was comfortable, even covered from head to toe (I had my hoodie up and wool socks on my feet) and beneath my lightest old quilt.  Odd that I can have a cold spell in the heat, which I did last night.  Basically, I had all my skin save for my face covered in the lightest cloth possible (except for my blue feet) because of the heat outside and could do so because of the height that afforded such lovely breezes.

Do you think I like the airing porch so much because I used to climb atop the roof of our house in Dallas and read??????

Thankfully, rain was predicted today.  Thus, it would not have been prudent for me to paint or stain or seal or do any sort of work out of doors.  The prediction came true with the most loveliest of painting-prevention downpours.  I do have a prodigious amount of dust building up and silver that is starting to condemn me with its dullness, but I managed to ignore both and just rest.  Rest and eat small things.

The eating of small things was not hard, because I awoke around 4:00, once more, violently nauseous.  Again, around 9:00, which was a little soon for more Zofran, but I couldn't make it until the last hour passed (should be 6 hours between doses).  Amos then let me toss and turn until 1:00-ish, when we dragged my wretched self out of bed.  Amos tended to his business.  And shortly after that came the rain.

I did discover something odd:  Honey peanut butter is quite tasty on carrots!  I would have thought only regular peanut butter would be good, but I was wrong. I was so tired last night when I made a small custard cup of a spoonful of peanut butter and 8 baby carrots that I grabbed the wrong peanut butter. I have honey peanut butter for toast, crunchy peanut butter for the Thai Honey Peanut Chicken, and smooth peanut butter for most recipes and for carrots.  I grabbed the wrong container and didn't even notice until the first bite.

Mmmmmmm........  So, today, I purposely grabbed the honey peanut butter again.

Did I mention that I finally found a recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala that looks doable to me (though less authentic).  I've been working up the courage to try it.  I've learned to be more kind to myself when recipes do not work, but I really, really, really want to learn how to make a few Indian dishes, Chicken Tikka Masala and Murgh Makhani chief amongst them.  Of course, I also need to learn to make saag, too, since my most favorite Indian bite is a bit of murgh makhani and saag paneer atop a piece of naan.  The latter is the only Indian item yet in my culinary repertoire.

This, by the way, I believe would be a most authentic murgh makhani.  But if you manage to read the recipe through without having a culinary anxiety attack, I would be impressed.  Making it?  Well, then, you would be Queen/King of the Kitchen forever in my mind.

If I could learn to  make beef shawarma (Lebanese) and murgh makhani, I think I could die happy.