Love/Hate relationship

I absolutely love clean sheets. On the flip side, I hate how bad my back hurts after I change the sheets on the bed. It would seem to me that breaking your back 14 years ago, by now you would not still be feeling repercussions from it. I love the jersey knit sheets and pillow cases. I used to put flannel sheets on in the wintertime but now I simply use knit ones all year long. I even talked my DIL and daughter into using them.

I love how excited Matt gets when we cook and bake. I was never a great cook and baking was minimal. Now before you gasp, you have to realize that my mother rarely cooked and when she did she would never have let us help her. In fact, a lot of what I learned now was by trial and error as my mother never showed me how to cook (or clean or take care of a house, or even be a mother) It was easier for her to do it herself than to have the mess we would make if she allowed us to help. So even now for me, cooking and baking is more of a challenge than a joy.

Right now, the biggest challenge for me is trying to cook gluten free. Now, Wm. has been on this diet before and we managed to get by. Honestly, Betsy always made Wm. pies, cakes, biscuits at the same time she made goodies for the rest of us for Thurs. and Sun. night fellowship. Well, we are down here, Betsy gave me her gluten free cookbooks (I gave mine to Stephanie who was recently diagnosed with celiacs also) so if I don't step up to the plate and bake, there will not be anything. I am OK with brownies, and cake; we are still at a loss for bread. Stephanie borrowed a bread machine from her neighbor and tried a bread machine mix from Wegman's. She said it was not too bad, so maybe Jackie will make Papa a loaf in her machine if we bring up some mix when we come for Grandparent's Day at CFA. (actually, she said she would when we talked about it when we were up for Lauren's b'day) Heath food store gluten free bread has a texture not unlike cardboard, in fact, it has that cardboard taste as well.

I absolutely love all six of my grandchildren. I hate that 5 of them live far enough away that I can only see them periodically. I love, love, love being a grandmother. I love having Matt here all day while Susan works. I love teahing him to cook, bake, paint, etc. Being with my grandchildren is a joy for me. My doctor asked me a few weeks ago if my grandchildren were my hobby. I told him they were not a hobby, that I enjoyed my time with them. He suggested I get a new hobby. (maybe I should consider a new doctor)