Another Summer Wondering What to Do

For the last few weeks, I've been searching around our area looking for a camper van (conversion done) so we can travel a bit this summer and at least get out once in a while, hopefully into some wilderness areas where there aren't a lot of people nearby.  

Most are in a price range we aren't willing to pay, but a few were within reason ... the problem is, the ones with reasonable prices in decent condition (I'm not looking for perfect at a lower price range, just something we can work with if need be) sell within a day of hitting the market.

Researching Covid Vaccines

As someone who received every childhood vaccine, and someone who ensured her kids got every necessary childhood vaccine, I find myself at odds with the newest vaccines in the world. 

For several reasons ... I have allergies to several types of medications, and I have (currently) 4 autoimmune diseases. 

Either of those things would give me pause when it comes to a new vaccine, but with both of those things, my hesitancy outweighs my desire to have myself injected with a vaccine that (by most governmental statements) is "safe", yet ... some doctors have disagreed with.  The doctors in disagreement are often labelled as anti-vaxxers, but not all of them are. That makes me wonder about the huge push for this vaccine ... yes, I know, covid is a very real disease that has some very dire outcomes for some people, like many other diseases do.

By the Numbers

I like facts, and I like the numbers because when designated authorities provide the numbers, it's easy to see that all the hyperbole is a little off the mark for some areas. Like the one I live in. We are currently designated in the "orange" zone, but I can see our county heading to the red or grey zone because of larger places like the "top-four" part of our county.

This page for Simcoe-Muskoka heath unit has a wealth of information (see: Simcoe-Muskoka Health Stats), but the majority of cases are pegged mostly in the southern area of the county - Barrie, Bradford West-Gwillimbury, New Tecumseth, Innisfill, Essa ... areas in the more northern part of the county (like Orillia, Oro-Medonte, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Huntsville, etc.) have fairly small numbers of cases, and even less numbers of hospitalized cases.

What's Missing in Utopia?

In the province I live in, there's a little place called Utopia. A cute little place where people, live, love, work, and visit.  They worked hard to get there. BUT, if you wait 10 years or so (2030),  you can live in Utopia for free, all over Canada.  Or so the World Economic Forum says.

Wait ... back in March and April of 2020 people were saying the government will own everything and people will own nothing. You won't need to own anything because products (like homes, cars, clothing and other items you currently buy) will become a service, sort of like health care I suppose.  And weren't those same people being called "conspiracy theorists"?  Yep, indeed they were.

For any of you thinking utopia sounds pretty good ... maybe.  I don't know what other people think, but that kind of utopian life just doesn't exist and if it did ... I'd be bored out of my mind. 

Finding Gluten Free Products

Bought these in Florida, but you can buy
cauliflower crackers at Costco in Orillia.

In Ontario it isn't always easy to find really good gluten free products ... at least not where I live. In Orillia, there aren't the same amount of choices available in the grocery stores, and we don't have a lot of specialty shops to find special dietary products.

In town, there are a few places that are beginning to carry more gluten free products, including one of my favourites - M&M Foods. Because we have local access, and they have good quality foods, I was really happy to find that they have a selection of some of my favourites that are now gluten free, including the delicious breaded chicken breasts (yes, real meat, not processed meat), the fish as well, and their chicken burgers. Now they also have some of the dessert bars in gluten free and all of this only discovered after we got back from Florida. Last year before we left, we didn't have any of those options available in gluten free.

A Surprising Kitchen Gadget

I bought this little gadget as joke for my husband. Have you figured out what it is yet?  It looks a little bit like an old-fashioned egg slicer, but it isn't.

My husband loves strawberries ... but me, not so much. In fact, not at all. He buys them at home (in Canada) in those little 1 pint packs, but then he sticks them in the fridge and won't eat them unless I clean them for him.  I don't eat them, nor use them so after a week or so, they go in the compost bin. It's supposed to be his job to clean and cut them, but never gets around to doing it.

Hillbilly Farms Gluten Free Bakery

While on our way to Dade City (from Lakeland, FL) one day we chanced a stop at this little gluten free bakery we found along the highway ... next to nothing really. There's a nice lot with grass, and a little outdoor patio, but the fact that it was gluten free is what made us stop. I'd been trying to find a bread that was moist, and not dry like most in the stores.

Hillbilly Farms Bakery - our fave place to stop.

Overdue Reviews - Gluten Free at Aldi's

Last year in November (2018) I had a few appointments set with my naturopathic doctor to see if she could offer any suggestions or help with an issue I was having with my thyroid. I was diagnosed with a non-functioning thyroid (hypothyroidism) the year before, and each time I went for blood work, my family doctor had to change the dosage. It never seemed to hit the right dose to keep my numbers where they should be.

Delicious Gluten Free Granola from Aldi's

The naturopath thought there might be a chance that I had Hashimoto's because I had several auto-immune diseases. There's really no simple test for Hashimoto's, but one of the things most sufferers seem to have found is that being on a totally gluten free diet helped them, a lot.  My naturopath suggested that I try that for a month.

The other thought was that sometimes a total diet change like that can kick start your metabolism, and I'd also complained about gaining a little weight that I now couldn't seem to lose. She said I wasn't eating enough calories (I was dubious about that), and that my body wouldn't burn them because it thought I was starving it (I wasn't.)

The Hot Dog Scramble

Hot Dog Scramble Recipe - download and print.

Yesterday I wrote about making menu and food choice changes in our household because of health issues. When you start doing that, it's tough to just prepare dinner using all your old recipes without giving much thought to the food you are using. Now, instead of tossing a bunch of left-overs into a frying pan or pot, I have to think about the carbohydrate values in each bit of left over, carefully measuring or weighing everything to get it right.

The Diabetes Dilemma

Early in September my husband was diagnosed with Type2 Diabetes (like he doesn't have enough health issues already), and we've been scrambling to adjust our eating patterns to fit each meal's carbohydrate counts into his "per meal" allowance.

His doctor wasn't much help. He tells him he has diabetes and hands him a prescription. And that's it. That's all he bothered to do. If I hadn't already been through a bunch of research to help my cousin out a couple of years ago, we'd still be floating on little raft without paddles on huge sea called "lack of knowledge". I went back and looked up my previous research, explained the carbs per meal to the hubby and adjusted my own cooking habits and meal choices to ensure what I fed him (and me) fit within that. He's getting better at it, but after years of counting calories he had a hard time getting used to looking at carbs rather than calories.