Pancakes (high-protein pancakes) for breakfast are generally a must on school days. The first day of school allows for whipped cream and sprinkles on top!
Same backpack as last year. Same running shoes (purchased last spring) as last year too:
Same first-day-of-school photo on the front porch in front of the front door as always:
Love him so much! He was eagerly looking forward to school and I was excited for him as well. But a bit sad. Sad that those hazy lazy days of summer togetherness are all over with for another year. It's always a bit of an adjustment not having my little shadow with me during the day. But doesn't he look happy and excited? I hope he is always that excited about school in the years to come!
Sooooo....as soon as the Maxter was off to school, I hopped into my trust trailblazer and buzzed over to my mama's house. Our annual pasta sauce making day usually happens to fall on the first day of school. As soon as I arrived, we put the coffee on and got to work. I cut up the tomatoes and my mama-bear does the blending:
We go through cases and boxes and baskets and dishes of tomatoes. All different kinds and colours. I think this year we made 5 batches:
We chop up a gazillion mushrooms and peppers.....also onions and garlic, carrots, beets, fresh basil....dried oregano, salt, pepper, fennel, anise, olive oil....all kinds of things go into our mixture. It's yummy. Truthfully. Waaaaaay better than the store bought stuff. I'm not a canning type of girl. But I will do it for this sauce.
We had two big pots of sauce boiling down on the stove and a third big pot out on the bbq burner. (Until we ran out of propane.)
Why the sad face and the showing of hands? Well....now that's a story....
At least I'm smiling here....that doesn't last for long!
Pasta Sauce Day 2012 Story:
Mom and I were chop chop chopping up SWEET peppers.
We made sure to put the little hot peppers aside with a pair of gloves to do at the very end.
So we were chopping away. Both of us, gloveless. They were sweet peppers after all.
All of a sudden it was 2:00pm and I had to drive to pickup Max at school with the promise I'd be back shortly.
As I started driving the 25 minute drive I noticed my fingertips were tingling. Odd.
By the time I got to the school, I had the whole flaming tingling sensation thing going on, on the tops of both my hands.
Texted mama and said "Yikes!! There must have been some hot peppers in that mix...I have burning hands."
She texted back and said that her fingers had been tingling a bit but that was all.
(She promptly threw out the peppers we had cut up (they hadn't been added yet) so that we did not ruin our sauce.)
By the time I got back with Max, I def had a burning sensation over my hands. I couldn't help with anything heat related (water, or steam) as it hurt too much.
So we took a few photos (where I'm smiling above) and I went home.
Wish that was the end of the story.
It isn't.
The pain got worse. During the night (Tuesday) it moved into my palms and fingers...
The next day (Wednesday) it didn't get better. It was gradually getting worse. By the evening, the firey burning sensation was everywhere in my hands. EVERYWHERE. The only thing that made it bearable was keeping both hands doused in bowls/sinks of ice water. (Thankyou Keith for making that ice run last night to get me more.)
Wednesday night was BRUTAL. By 2:00am I almost couldn't bear it anymore. I somehow managed to fall asleep holding onto chunks of ice with both hands in ice water, sitting up in a chair in the living room. When I woke up at 6:30am I noticed my palms weren't hurting anymore. But my fingertips....oh my poor fingertips. They were swollen and on fire. I fell back to sleep. At 7:30am when I got up....they were still swollen but the raging fire burning feeling was leaving them. I could feel it leave (weird!) and I was able to get up and get Max's breakfast and lunch together and didn't have to jam my hands into ice water at all.
And so far today....it's been good. My hands are tender. A bit puffy. Still red. My fingers are stiff and swollen and I'm not using much pressure on them as I don't want to trigger anything...I can feel a bit of tinglyness if I do.
But I'm so thankful that the pain as gone away. About as fast as it came.
I had googled online about it...there are millions of remedies you can try. I found it just as easy to use ice water rather then sour cream and it dulled the pain so I just stuck with ice. The word out there was it takes about 24 hours to go away. It took me almost 48 hours. Mom and I are thinking/wondering if I had an allergic reaction - we were both chopping peppers....she only had tingling and I had this massive reaction. Which I never ever ever ever would like to repeat. If I never see a pepper in my life again, it will not be long enough!!
I'm feeling very grateful and thankful right now....thankful for my cool, (not hot fire burning raging stinging burning burning burning) hands...that I can use. And for my dear Keith and Max who looked after me so well.
I'm sure that pasta sauce will taste good this winter when I've put this experience behind me. Right now...I have no desire to eat or make anything remotely pasta sauce related!
Vanessa - Grade Twelve
Max - Grade Four
Everyone needs a little cake to celebrate that first day of school. Thankyou Sobeys! ;)
Yum!!
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