Alzheimer's, Reality and Hope

 

 June is Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness month. I'm recognizing this month in memory of two people I've lost. Not both of them to the Alzheimer's.

We lost my dad in 2015. Yes, to Alzheimer's. We lost Rena just a few months ago. Not to the disease. Both, to me, personify the struggles on both sides of the Alzheimer's fence. Both had to navigate daily life with the condition, even though both did not have it.

I write to process. And then to vent. It's a coping mechanism for me, a catharsis of sorts. In cases like this, not so much to get over it, but to take the first step, actively acknowledging the reality of it. Although we lost dad in December of 2015, it took me 4 months to be able to write about it, to make it real through words of my own. It was a raw, emotional piece, not about the disease itself, but the aftermath, facing the reality.

I call that first piece Daddy's Girl, and I hope you'll click over and read it. A piece of my heart sits on that page. 

We lost Rena this past March. And yet again, it took months to write about it. Just a month ago, I wrote Rena: Mourning to Missing. The reason Rena is part of this post is because she saw this disease from the other side. She was a caregiver. Not only a caregiver, but a fierce, tireless, vocal advocate for Alzheimer's awareness, for caregiver support, and an endless source of information. Her site, The Diary of An Alzheimer's Caregiver remains available, and if you're looking for facts, and hope, Rena left that behind as a gift to us all. 

In fact, it was at Rena's urging that I finally, in 2020, wrote a broader piece about the disease called Alzheimer's, the Battle and the War. For that piece, as I always do, I created a graphic. To my surprise, this graphic has been re-pinned on Pinterest more times than I ever could imagine. Making me both happy that people are interested, and sad, knowing how many people are affected.

I want to end on an up-note, with a few sweet thoughts. Reality intertwined with hope.

Strawberry Brownie Cupcakes

 

First, I wrote in my piece about the individual battles of the Alzheimer's war, that I had hope that I lived to see the day that the disease is eradicated. That hasn't yet happened, but there has been progress. Scientists now made some progress in identifying a cause of the disease, and there is an approved drug that could slow its progression. And with progress, there is hope.

And second, I want to leave you with Rena's words, those she lived by every day as she dealt with Alzheimer's in one way or another:

"Appreciate the good, laugh with the crazy, and deal with the rest."

Strawberry Brownie Cupcakes       

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 box (18.3 oz) fudge brownie mix

1/4 cup water

2/3 cup oil

3 eggs

1 box (15.25 oz) strawberry cake mix

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

3 eggs

1/4 cup strawberry jam

OPT: powdered sugar, chocolate frosting, strawberry frosting and/or fresh strawberries for garnish 

Directions:

*Grease 18 cupcake wells. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*In a bowl, whisk together the brownie mix, water, 2/3 cup of oil, and three eggs. Set aside about 1/3 cup of the mix and divide the rest fairly evenly into the 18 greased wells. It doesn't have to be exact.

*Beat the strawberry cake mix, milk, remaining 1/2 cup of oil, remaining 3 eggs, and strawberry jam for 2 minutes. Fill the wells the rest of the way with the cake batter. Drizzle the reserved brownie batter over the top.

*Bake for 20 - 30 minutes, until the centers spring back to the touch. Allow to sit in the cupcake pans for 5 minutes before running a knife around the edges and removing. Cool completely.

*OPT: once completely cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar or top with chocolate or strawberry frosting and/or top with strawberries.

Wordle, Nerdle, Curdle: Use Your Words

 

 

 

 

Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. All of the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s  participating knows who got their words and in what direction the recipient will take them. Until now.

At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.
I'm using:  deported ~ joker ~ soluble ~ Wordle ~ out of line ~ controversy
They were submitted by Tamara of Part-time Working Hockey Mom.

                           

Yes, I play Wordle. I've played every one of the original games, as a matter of fact. The game is the kind I like to play, thoughtful games in which you challenge yourself. Like the daily Sudoku I play. 

When the boys were little, we used to play Master Mind. It's what Wordle seems to be based on, but instead of letters, Master Mind is played with colored pegs. It's a great game for kids, I loved how it engaged their minds, encouraged them to come up with a strategy, then learn to make adjustments based on the clues they got along the way.

What I think is out of line are the people who made fun Wordle when it was first "discovered" in the social media world, posted memes mocking people who play, then all of a sudden started posting their own scores. I mean, I get that people don't want to seem like sheeple, joining a fad just because others are. It's a bit of a "wag the dog," if you ask me, trying to create a controversy where there is none. Seriously, not only is ridicule never necessary, imagine actually trying something before you make fun of it? Turns out, others aren't so much focused on doing the cool thing, they just gave it a shot and found out they liked it.

 

 

There are others, of course, offshoots. Once the original creators sold Wordle, they started Wordle2. Six letters instead of 5 and 2 new puzzles every day. I play those too. And then, of course, there are the jokers who take it a step over to the dark side. Heard of Lewdle? I think you can guess what it is. Those words don't bother me at all, but I tried and I couldn't play, turns out I don't know enough of those words. Maybe they'll use that as my epitaph: "In her later years, she actually deported herself with a level of dignity."

I've now taken to posting my results on the Baking In A Tornado FB page. There's a core group of people there who read and support my blog, and interact regularly with the content on that page. I started posting my Wordle results there daily, and many others added theirs to the thread. It was in one of those threads that a regular reader challenged me to play Nerdle. Nerdle, if you don't know, is Wordle using math instead of words and it is hard. HARD. My second try it took me an hour to figure it out. But now that I've got the hang of it, I average 3 - 4 tries and just like Wordle, I'm addicted. 

The Nerdle daily puzzle doesn't post until 7pm Eastern time, which is perfect. Once my day has started to wind down, I can sit down with a piece of cake and attack that Nerdle challenge.

 

Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

And then there's Quordle. Another reader challenged me to that one. That's when I realized that Nerdle isn't so hard at all. Four words, 9 total tries to come up with all of them. I scored 6, 7, 4, 5 the first time, swore I would never darken the door of that game again for fear of over exercising my brain (don't want to strain something), then scored 5, 6, 8, 7 the next day {{sigh}}.

At one point I wanted to create my own game. It would be food related, and I even had a fun name, Curdle (get it, lol??). I even talked to PurDude (and Tamara) about it. PurDude could do all the back end coding for me, but I would need a dictionary API, and a data collection system, both of which could be monetarily prohibitive, as they charge per use, the scope of which is (in)soluble up front. 

 

Although I didn't end up starting my own site, I do now create a daily food based Wordle. And guess what? People are playing. Regularly. They tell me it's fun, but I'm willing to bet it's nowhere near the enjoyment I get from seeing their results.

So, I now post 3 Wordle based FB posts a day. The first is a link to my original Baking In A Tornado game of the day (today is our 20th game), the second is my results of the Wordle, Quordel, and first Wordle2 of the day, and then in the evening I share my Nerdle and second Wordle2 results. Phew!

 

What adds to the excitement is when everyone posts their results in the threads of all of 3 of those daily posts. Some of us are competitive, some just relieved to have solved the puzzles, and some just curious as to how others do. And you know what? No controversy here. It's just plain fun.

 

Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:

On the Border 

The Diary of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver 

Climaxed

Part-time Working Hockey Mom

Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup crushed Biscoff cookies

1 TBSP brown sugar

4 TBSP melted butter

2 1/2 bars (20 oz total) cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup cookie butter (speculoos)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream, room temperature

1/4 cup sour cream, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips, divided 

4 Biscoff cookies

2 TBSP cinnamon baking chips

Directions:
*Lightly grease a springform pan and wrap the bottom with tin foil. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

*Mix the graham cracker crumbs and Biscoff crumbs with 1 TBSP brown sugar. Add the melted butter and stir. Press into the bottom and partially up the sides of the prepared pan.

*Beat together the cream cheese, cookie butter, sugar, and the remaining brown sugar. Once incorporated, beat in the heavy cream, sour cream, and vanilla, then finally, the eggs, one at a time. Mix in 1/2 cup of the mini chocolate chips.

*Place the cookies and cinnamon baking chips in a food processor and crush completely. Sprinkle over the top of the cheesecake.

*Pour into the prepared crust and bake for 70 - 85 minutes, until the center is just set. Allow to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least one hour before sprinkling the edges with the remaining mini chocolate chips and releasing from the pan.

*Store, covered, in the refrigerator.