I used to always say no one would ever know when alzheimers attacks my body.  Or my mind.  I still maintain that. Somewhat. This morning has me wondering if it will be as difficult as I’ve always imagined it.

Tonight we host our third annual Church Staff Christmas party, I know it’s January 7, but work with me. Have you ever tried to get a church staff together for anything on time? Yeah, I thought not.  We have hosted it the previous two years. Why, you ask? It’s simple. I had the idea.  I thought it was horrible that our church did nothing Christmas related for the staff. So I worked to change it. I lobbied long and hard to get a staff get-together.

Okay so I asked the senior pastor why we couldn’t have one and he saw no real reason. Hence began the FullCup family hosting the shindig. And I LOVE it.

The first year I got all fancy and cooked from my Julia Child‘s, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It was divine. Dee-Vine I tell you. I made pumpkin, or was it mocha? I can’t remember now but I do know it was either pumpkin or mocha cheesecake. And that was divine too! Last year I popped a roast in the crock pot, made bread and had other families each bring a dish. It worked and was Divine!

This year I had the brilliant idea to go simple and make a comfort food. So on the menu is spaghetti, homemade french/garlic bread. Each of the other families is bringing something. I know we’ll have a green tossed salad, corn and peanut butter cheesecake.

Okay so I’m not positive about the cheesecake. My friend, the pastor’s wife, said if she felt strong and courageous she would make it. Apparently it’s a new recipe. I took the opportunity to be completely spiritual and quote scripture to her, in the face of her fear and trepidation, by saying “Be strong and courageous!”

Anyway back to my demented self. I actually thought of telling our family doctor on facebook today that I thought I was demented. I decided not when I realized he would ask what took me so long to figure that out.

This morning I took my yeast out of the freezer to warm to room temperature and kept forgetting I had to make the bread for french/garlic bread. I kept walking past it and I would think, “I really should put that awa….NO! You need to make the bread.”  The bread is now rising  and I experimented. It seems if someone is coming over I can’t just cook like a normal person. (Okay that is really funny since I’m talking about my demented self.) I have try new things. This time I added some minced garlic, oregano and some Italian herbs to the bread dough. I hope it tastes okay.

I knew I also wanted to get the spaghetti sauce started early so it can cook low and slow all day. I defrosted some hamburger last night and when it was completely defrosted, or actually when I was finished enough with the bread, I turned on the burner on the stove to brown it.

Only I got started doing something else. I can’t remember what. I completely forgot I was going to brown the meat. Oh I remember! I had washed some dishes, the large skillet being one of them, this morning so I was putting them away so I could use the skillet. I got side-tracked by who knows what and was only jolted back to reality when I nearly burned my hand off on the hot burner.  I knew I was in trouble when I could not for the life of me remember turning on the burner or why I might have turned it on in the first place.

So I guess I will be able to tell when I have alzheimers/dementia. But then again, if I’m doing this at my age (which if you add the two numbers together I’m almost 9), will we really be able to tell?