On the Road Again

I may not have mentioned that it's a 90-minute drive to the hospital where Adam is being treated, so I'm on the road each day for about 3 hours. Which is okay -- gives me time to pray and thing and settle down. It's a nice drive through the country. He finally had his surgery yesterday morning to repair the bone in his knee with pins and plates. He looked pretty pathetic when he came out of surgery, but he asked for his "old-guy" hat. My friend Jeannie who lives in France said, "He looks like a Frenchman who has lost his camembert." And that made me laugh pretty hard!

I found his leg situation so interesting! Usually when you break a leg, they put it in a very hard cast and send you home. But Adam has all that metal in his knee now, and it's basically the cast, or the strengthener, for his leg. This contraption you see below is called a knee immobilizer, and it does just what its name says. But under that are only a couple of ace bandages. No cast. No splint of any kind. And the nurse said that since they didn't splint it after surgery, they probably won't. The goal, after all, is to get that knee mobile and bending ASAP. So Adam will come home, most likely, with only an ace bandage on his knee, which is rather bizarre to me, after such a severe injury.

He was in desperate need of this:

I attempted my first loaf of Adam's delicious cast iron bread. I'll give the recipe below. So easy! My loaf is not as good as his, but it's enough to keep us from starving :)

He was looking and feeling better last night when I left. Julia and I will go again today, and Adam begins his physical therapy this morning. He gets to wear clothes!! He's been in a modesty-slaying hospital gown since Thursday.

I think I'm doing better now. I was a bit rough over the weekend, especially when surgery was delayed. Incidents like this blind-side you, and it's hard to cope. At first you just function, and a mental cruise-control kicks in, because you have to do what's needed. But those long drives gave me time to think, which can be wearying and dangerous. We've had so much trouble in our lives over the years that I'm rather sensitive to it; I have "disaster radar," I guess, and can detect that black hole of crisis a mile off! Adam tries to calm me and keep me from over-reacting, which is good. But it doesn't still my heart; there's an underlying fear that oppresses those of us who've lived with lots of constant trouble. It's a condition you try to cope with and conquer, but it never quite leaves. So please pray for me to have trust and a positive outlook, and pray for Adam's knee to heal without any latent infection attacking the wound. Many thanks.

Cast Iron Loaf

In a stand mixer with a dough hook:
3 cups flour
1 tsp. yeast
1 tsp. salt
1.5 cups water

Mix well but do not overmix.
Turn dough into a sealable plastic container. It will be moist. Allow to sit at room temperature for about 12 hours. Then sprinkle some flour on top, and gently pull the very-moist dough away from the sides with a plastic spatula, allowing the flour to dust the sides. Your goal is to gently work and lift the dough from the container into the cast iron, without deflating the dough. This is its only rise, and the loft is what will give you a nice loaf.
The cast iron should have been heated in a 450º F oven. Place the dough in it, and cover it and bake for 45 minutes. I use a chicken fryer with a nice, tight lid. Then remove the lid and bake an additional 12 minutes.