Hot Bread on a Cold, Rainy Day

It was a cold, rainy day, so Michael spent the afternoon beating on bread dough,

then baking in a loaf pan, the old fashioned way.

The kneading was really good therapy for his hand.

This bread is so pretty and tastes so good that I could eat an entire loaf tonight!

Minneapolis Trip

 We finally got to drive to Minneapolis in nice weather for our March Wholesale Gift Show!

 The Mackinac Bridge was beautiful, Mackinac Island was still surrounded by ice

and the Upper Peninsula had gorgeous views of ice diamonds on Lake Michigan. 

 The only difficult part of the trip was dragging luggage, the mixer, baking pans, a full cooler, and crates full of mixes up sixteen stairs to our hotel room. Michael was able to carry the light loads, so he was a big help.

We always choose the second floor because it is quieter, so I got a good workout lifting the heavy loads!

Michael's Accident

For those of you who have not heard the news, I stayed off the blog for the past seven weeks because of Michael's accident. We needed this time to work through the healing process.
On Christmas Day, while he was cutting wood on a table saw, Michael severed his left index finger, shattered the bones in his baby finger and severed the tendons in the other two fingers. His thumb was cut, but survived extreme damage.
After 2.5 hours in surgery, his childhood friend, Dr. Leslie, repaired as much as he could.
Michael's x ray tech said that table saws are the #1 hand shredder. Snow blowers are next. 
We are extremely thankful. One half inch any way and Michael would have lost all fingers and/or his hand.
Healing will be five more weeks before the fingers might be able to move on their own. Right now, the prognosis is not good for recovery. Michael will need to have two more surgeries to help straighten and strengthen the remaining fingers.

Michael is showing off his new "tool holder" that he invented and has mounted on his cast. The eraser gives him traction to turn pages, hold the shift key and deal with all kinds of things. The pencil is removed for sleeping at night.

90% of his pain is gone now. He still has little "lightning bolts" as nerve tissue is trying to regenerate. There is a lot of numbness that will probably always be there. He spends hours every day doing his exercises and is hopeful for more progress. We are dealing with PTSD but the power of prayer is winning that fight.