Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Daddy and Isaac went to therapy today, both sporting new hair cuts.

Isaac was having an "I don't want to open my eyes or smile at you" Day.
 

Ok, maybe just a small smirk will suffice Mommy and she'll leave me be!

Oh, good grief!  I'd better give her a smile or she's never going to get that camera out of my face!

All buckled in and ready to go…

My two handsome men…hitting the road.

And
for Mommy…a nice peaceful, quiet day to do the things that need to be
done:  laundry, dishes, jewelry making, email, blog reading, picking
veggies from our "5-gallon bucket garden"…same stuff as usual, only
at an easier pace.

Soon they will be home, and the quiet will be over, but the house will be much more joyful and certainly a lot more interesting!

Alesha

A Day Out

The scales were kind to me; but they were downright extravagant to Doug!   I am down 3 more pounds, giving me a total of 26 pounds lost. 

Doug is down 13 more pounds, with a total of 64 pounds lost!!!

I
told him I wanted to poke him in the eye for that; but not really.  I
am so happy for him that he is feeling better and getting healthy.

Isaac's
blood work went fine, although they did have to poke him twice.  The
nurse apologized profusely, as she works with children all the time,
and really tries to make that first needle count.  Isaac didn't cry
though.  Daddy was holding him, and he knew all was well.

I
visited a new bead shop today, and oh wow!  I was impressed!  And they
do classes!!!   I am contemplating one near the end of the month that
teaches soldering of sterling silver.  Wouldn't that be fun????  Yep,
definitely going to pray about that class.

That's it for today. 

Blessings to you and yours,
Alesha

Finally…An Update

Hmmm…I have a few minutes this morning to give ya'll an update on things here at the hacienda.

Isaac
is doing fine, although his seizures have been on an upswing last week
and this week.  We had that one week of relatively few seizures and it
was wonderful.  That has been followed by our seeing an increase in
them.  We are planning to have blood work done next week.  Perhaps that
will give us a clue to the extra activity we've been seeing.

Doug
is doing well.  He goes in to work really early and stays really late;
and 2-3 times a day comes home to feed Isaac and change him if he needs
it.  I don't know how he gets everything done at work; but I am so
grateful and amazed and overwhelmed by the kindnesses that have been
shown him there.  Not one of his bosses has questioned his time or
schedule, and none have fussed about his time spent here.  That is to
be appreciated at any time, but most especially during our current
economy. 

Believe me, I am so thankful!

I am doing…as well as can be expected, I guess.  I don't want to say "fine".  That's so
not true.  But I don't want to bore you with what my level of pain is
for each day either.  I was able to go 2 days without taking the
prescription pain meds.  I just took OTC stuff. 

Yesterday I stayed alone with Isaac for a few hours, and changed 2 diapers (and they were not
the easy ones, either!).  I walked more yesterday, too, than I have for
a while.  So last night I tossed and turned most of the night, trying
to find a comfortable position that didn't hurt, but not able to wake
up enough to realize I needed to take some medicine. 

Finally,
shortly after 6 a.m., I was able to wake up enough to take some pain
meds and that helped quite a bit.  I didn't go back to bed, though.  I
want to be good and tired for tonight, so that I will sleep more
soundly. 

I guess I am going to have to carefully gauge my
activity for the day, then decided whether or not to take the
medication.  As much as I want to be off of it permanently, I cannot
heal properly with improper sleep.  I end up defeating my purpose.  I
will be paying better attention to that at night when I head to bed.

Yesterday I received a sweet card from a sweet friend:

It
just made my day to know that she was thinking of me, praying for me,
and then took the time to send me a card to let me know.  Thank you, my "west coast friend"!!!

Nearly
every day I have received emails, messages, or e-cards from kind,
praying friends.  I appreciate that so much.  Some of my friends have
even forwarded my prayer request to other friends or prayer lists.  I
was really touched to have one of my friends' friends send me an email
of her prayer for my family.  Such kindness from strangers truly
touches my heart, too.

The sweetest thing, though, has been
having my mom here.  She has swept; mopped; washed and folded laundry;
washed and put away dishes; changed Isaac's videos and diapers, pad and
sheets; cleaned the bathroom; cleaned ceiling fans; took the dog out;
emptied trash cans; peeled carrots; and shook out rugs.

Not that she had
to do those things!  She could've just sat and visited with me until
Isaac needed her; but she likes to be busy, and doesn't care to sit for
very long.  Every day she tried to leave the house spotless and in
order for Doug, so that when he came in, he only had to fix us supper
and care for Isaac.  She accomplished her goal every day, let me assure you!

It
has not been easy to be in need.  It goes against my very nature.  I
like to be a need-meeter.  That's just the way God made me.  So this
has been a learning time for me.  And a humbling time. 

I just
pray that I can get better, continue to lose weight, and be able to
minister to my parents, especially to my mom, the way that she has done
for me the past 2 weeks.  My two main motivations for become healthy
are to be able to care for Isaac as he grows, and to be able to care
for those in my family who need me now, or will need me in the future. 
God willing, Doug and I will continue on our path to health!

Thanks
for dropping by and taking the time to read this post.  I think I have
lost many readers during this season of not having much to say.  
However, it is usually not a bad thing to go through a quiet season
with few words.  You usually end up hearing so much more than when you
have so many of your own words to speak.

May God continue to mold us all to His image,
Alesha

Isaac’s Happy Day

 


Isaac and Grammy certainly had a happy day together!  

He
loves having her here at his beck and call.  She keeps him occupied and
content.  Today she sat reading in his room for a while, while I napped
the pain away.  He just loved having her camped out in his room. 

Aren't we so glad we followed the Lord's leading and moved here next door to Grammy and Papa??? 
You bet we are! 
God knew what was ahead for us, and made provision for such a time as this. 
He is a good God to us, amen?

How has He provided for you today?  I would love to hear about it.

Birthday Boy

I
know I've mentioned before how difficult it is to photograph Isaac. 
These are the only ones I could salvage from the nearly one hundred
that we took.  
He is totally worth the extra effort!
Of course, we aren't eating cake, but Papa insisted Isaac have one and they even provided the candles!
We each had a tiny sliver of the Publix carrot cake, then Doug took the rest over to Papa!!!
I
think Isaac had a wonderful day.  He had therapy yesterday, so we did
his cake and pictures today.  He didn't seem to mind.  Doug said
everybody kept singing to him at therapy yesterday.  He loves the
"Happy Birthday" song.
Praise the Lord for nine years of my precious boy's life!!!

I Think We Accidently Threw “Normal” Out With The Trash

Hey, could you all pray for me?  My back is out again, and this cold
has turned into a major sinus infection, cough, etc.  I have been in
the bed and miserable since Friday. 

Doug had to miss 1/2 day's work on Friday and almost the whole day today. 

I am going to the doctor today.  I have never, in my whole life, been so tired of sneezing!!!

Isaac still has a slight cough but is feeling all better and back to his happy self. 

Alesha

I Was Hoping for “Normal”

There are some beautiful things happening in my backyard:

My
gardenia bush has 2 blossoms and is full of buds.  I can't wait until
it is in full bloom.  It is in a pot right outside Isaac's window, so
that we can count the blossoms every morning.

Our
pepper plant has blossoms, too.  This is either a red bell pepper or
the sweet banana pepper plant.  I forgot to look at the label.  We
almost lost these to a 2-day storm system.  We are very pleased to see
them growing so nicely.

These are the  "miracle tomato plants"…well, the two in the 5-gallon buckets are anyways.  We did lose
them to the storm.  Their leaves drooped and died, but we left the
plants sitting in the warm sun, and about a week later, new leaves
started to appear.  As you can see, they are not as full as their
little brother in the bubble gum bucket, but they are filling out more
every day. 
(Only a retired Sunday School bus captain would have enough bubble gum buckets in which to start all of his tomato plants!!!    My dad has always grown tomatoes in buckets, and the little bucket seemed a perfect place to start them.)

I
was hoping that Isaac and I would be back to our normal schedules
today; but we are still dealing with this cold that we both succumbed
to.  He had a low-grade fever today, and I am dealing with sinus
troubles.  I'm thankful for my NetiPot, and have been using it
regularly.

So, not very "normal" again today with a grumpy boy and a tired achy mama. 

Maybe we'll find "normal" tomorrow.  I'm sure it's around here somewhere!

Blessings to you today,
Alesha
P.S.  Oh, my split pea soup turned out to be really yummy.  We'll be making it again!