Today, I pulled out my ancient stash of material, cut some strips, tied some knots and…
Voila'!
Dog toys!!!
True – they last mere minutes with our two mutts tugging and chewing on them, but they were free! The dogs enjoyed them so much, and for those few minutes I wasn't saying
"No chewing the furniture, Kepler!"
or
"No, Kepler, no chewing the electrical chords!"
or
"Kepler, stop jumping up and biting Isaac's toes!"
So, for me, totally worth the effort!
🙂
Happy Weekend, y'all!
Alesha
Doug started his new job yesterday…which gives us a lovely, slower-paced morning schedule. Yesterday he was able to take a walk, then when he returned, I was able to go out.
I only managed about 20 minutes, but it was already hot by 7 a.m.!
When I had almost reached my limit, I walked over to the lake to take a few minutes to cool down, think a few deep thoughts and enjoy the beauty.
Of course, I thought of you! I knew you would appreciate the beauty too. 🙂
Our pastor made a slightly humorour/slightly serious comment Sunday night about using lily pads for an alternative fuel source here in Floriday.
So, of course, that's what I thought of when I saw these stretched out in front of me! 🙂
I will definitely be rewarding myself with this view at the ends of walks this fall. 🙂
I am so thankful for God's beauty!
Well, Ike and I (and Newton and Kepler) made it through the day yesterday – barely. 🙂
I was dozing in my chair (a straight, Queen Anne-style chair, not a recliner – HA!) well before Doug got home at 5:30. I was in bed by 6 and read until I fell asleep.
My back has been hurting quite a lot, and at least it eased up after I didn't have to wrestle with changing Isaac. It is amazing how strong he is…he is deceptively puny- and sickly-looking; but to try to change his clothes or keep him from interfering with his feeds is quite a feat of agility, strength and avoidance!
This morning we were all awake by 6:30. While changing Ike's first diaper, I pulled a muscle in my back (the one that wraps around the ribs.) I was able to finish his change, turn on the dvd player and make it back to my bed.
Doug came and fed Isaac at 9, dressed him and took him to work with him.
I feel like such a failure when I can't even care for my own child. It is hard on the ego (that Doug's co-workers have to be inconvenienced by Doug's attention to his work being diminished) but it's also hard on the heart and emotions – I want to be able to meet my child's needs. It is a difficult place to be comfortable – literally and emotionally.
So, I'll try to keep the dogs from making too big of a mess today, sit on the heating pad, drink my barley and carrot juice and try to rest.
That's it for today's update. Hopefully, tomorrow's post will be more upbeat. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Alesha
Doug and Ike stayed home from therapy yesterday, as they had just been over on Saturday to get Ike's new boots (orthopedic braces).
Blue camo, no less!!!
So I was able to sneak away for a quick lunch with my friend, Mrs. C. It was nice to have grown up conversation with a gal-pal. 🙂
Ike's caregiver is still home with shingles, but she is healing and finding some relief from the pain with the medication. Thank the Lord for giving people wisdom and understanding to come up with these meds to help us in our time of need!
The Lord was also merciful in that Isaac slept ALL night last night, and even slept IN this morning until after 11 a.m. Can I get an "amen", my friends?!! That is wonderful! 🙂
AND Kepler is sleeping all night too! Yipee!!! She is doing SO MUCH BETTER in the kennel now. We can pick her up after she goes to sleep during the day, put her in the kennel and she sleeps for an hour or so. She also does not wail and howl anymore when we put her in there at night. Yay!
The puppy potty training is coming along, too. Virtually no #2 accidents in the house now! Plenty of #1s, even though it feels like I take her out constantly. She is growing so much, and learning new things every day. She already knows to "sit" to get her treats; and last night, I told her "Go to your room," and she headed straight for the bedroom.
Well, Ike may have given me a quiet morning, because he slept late, but he is more than making up for that by his noisiness this afternoon. So…let me go see if I can meet his need.
I'll talk to y'all later.
Alesha
Bright and early on Tuesday morning, we loaded up Isaac (in a borrowed vehicle – more on that later), and headed to O-town. We had many doctor's appointments lined up for the day!
Last month, I managed somehow to schedule 3 doctor's visits on a single day! Now you may think that it was a mistake or an oversight on my part; but not at all.
It was a major coup!!!
Two of the doctor's offices are in the same building, and the third was just about 4 blocks away.
The receptionist that I talked to on the day I managed this incredible feat suggested that my next task be to buy a lottery ticket! (If I did such things…) That's how incredible it was to schedule all 3 appointments for the same day.
We saw our pulmonologist first. He was quite pleased with Isaac, mentioned how much he had grown, asked how he had been during the last year, and how we used his treatments when he was sick. Evidently he had no complaints, and we were soon on our way out the door, while our medication refills were being sent by email to our pharmacy. Toooooo cool, huh?
We headed up to the third floor to give Isaac his breakfast while we waited for our next appointemnt. We met with the surgeon who performed Ike's last surgery. Dr. Rich was super-pleased with Isaac's insicion site, and said it was healing perfectly. Yay!
While we were there, we obtained the name of one of the doctors we encountered during his last surgery. This is the doctor about whom we will be making a formal complaint to Arnold Palmer Hospital. When the situation is resolved, I may share that story here.
After that visit, we took our time heading back down to our vehicle, since we had some time to kill before the next appointment with Isaac's orthopedic surgeon.
This visit was the one we were dreading. Isaac's left hip is basically out of socket. By that, I do not mean that Isaac has this beautifully shaped hip socket and the ball of the femur has been knocked out of place.
Instead Isaac has a very shallow, almost non-existent hip socket (due to the fact that he has never done much standing), and the head of the femur has had increased friction because of this.
So, after looking at new x-rays, we could see that the head of the femur is beginning to be misshapened, and the surgeon says that usually this means that the cartiledge is worn thin too. (Think: arthritis)
The bottom line is pain management. We are to try to figure out how much pain Isaac is having in the next few months. After that, we will meet with the surgeon again to decide which surgical procedure we want to have done.
I did some research on our options today, but I'll tell you – I can only read about incisions, cutting bone, inserting pieces of metal and body casts in regard to my child, for so long. Then I have to stop. It becomes overwhelming.
After that third visit, we went to Jason's Deli for lunch. I had a yummy (totally forbidden on our eating plan) roast beef sub. The sub rolls at Jason's deli are "to die for" – flakey crispy on the outside, nice and soft on the inside. That was the best part of my meal. Doug had one of their mammoth baked potatoes. I really should have snapped a picture of that – it was easily 6-7 inches long and 4-5 inches across – before they cut it open and filled it with cheddar and broccoli!
OH – and as to our using a borrowed vehicle for our busy day out – our truck died earlier this week. Grammy and Papa were kind enough to allow us to use their Expedition – which was a pretty smooth ride!!! (We did get our truck to the mechanic yesterday, and we need a new radiator. Doug jokingly says we aren't buying a new vehicle. We're just replacing our truck one piece at a time!)
Well, here's some pics – Enjoy!
A sunshine-y morning, complete with hot air balloons on the horizon
Isaac enjoying the ride.
Utterly captived by the traffic…he doesn't get such a grand view in our truck.
Check out that beautiful summer sky!
Finally – a little grin for the camera!
His feet actually touched the floor!
Happy, happy little man!
We reached home late in the afternoon, and crashed into our respective chairs for the rest of the evening! 😉
I told Doug that hopefully (prayerfully) we won't need to schedule that many visits again in one day. Isaac manages the trip just fine, but Doug and I are exhausted by the time the day is over.
(If Doug were writing this, he would break out in song ju-u-u-u-ust about here: "The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be….ain't what she used to be…ain't what she used to be…")
(You know you've been together quite a long time when you can anticipate the jokes!!! Next Friday will mark 23 years of married life for us! We hope to have the day off alone together, leaving Isaac with his caregiver. I am really looking forward to it!)
Until next post,
Alesha
Today, I'm thinking about the different seasons of life. Not necessarily those seasons of time – childhood, motherhood, empty nest; but rather the seasons of God's work in our life.
I've had seasons of pain, seasons of loneliness, seasons of joy, seasons of blessings…lots of different seasons we could mention.
I told Doug this week that I think – right now – we are in a season of confrontation.
And all I can say to that is "grrrrrrrrr…"!
I hate confrontation.
I hate it SO much.
I avoid it like the plague that it is!
I will let you walk all over me…
I will take it on the chin…
I will turn the other cheek…
I will suffer myself to be defrauded (I Corinthians 6:7)…
And then I will just let it go…
before I will engage you in a confrontation!
I've also learned that if I am not willing to confront you and accept all the risks that the confrontation brings, then I'd better forgive you quickly, because unforgiveness only hurts me.
So I have spent a great deal of effort, time and prayer learning to forgive those who have offended me.
So that's what I do in most cases.
Lately, though, our family has just had a season of offenses:
No matter what the situation, though, they all dealt with some sort of confrontation…which I hate, in case you didn't catch it the first time I said it!
1. Some of these things I have confronted immediately.
The financial one comes to mind – I was buying another set of frames for my glasses and the tech scratched a huge gouge in one of my lens! I could not walk away from that. I had to deal with it right away. Afterwards, I replayed the situation over and over in my mind, wondering how I could have handled it differently, wondering if I handled it correctly.
2. Some of the situations I did not confront at the time.
There was a more important focus for me right then – my child's wellbeing. I cannot verbally attack a medical worker when my child is in pain in the middle of a procedure. I have to stay calm to keep Isaac calm. His peace of mind trumps my anger every time. Afterwards, though, my anger dissipates, and I am tempted to let the situation slide. However, I know that if I do, there is a good chance that this "doctor" will do the same thing again. If I don't speak up – by writing a formal letter of complaint – I am endangering other children. Can I really have that on my conscience?
3. One of the situations, I have decided to confront by resolving the situation on my own.
Yes, someone else is supposed to do it. Someone else will be reaping the benefit of it being done. Most likely, someone else will get paid for the time I take to do the job. But if I don't do the job, it won't get done, and the result will be money out of my pocket. So, to save my family money, I will do the thing myself. Eventually, the truth will be known and that is enough for me.
4. Then there is another situation where someone put my child's health at risk by not disclosing their family member's extremely contagious infection. I can't confront these people.
I don't even know them. We are only connected by our mutual acquaintances, but the danger for Isaac's health is very real. There's nothing I can do about it, either, except to put up additional safeguards for Isaac here in our home. How dare they value their privacy above their responsibility to those involved? I really, really, really want to confront them; but it really is not my place to do so.
All of these situations have occurred in the last 3 weeks. It just seems to be coming from everywhere.
I don't know whether the Lord is trying to teach me to speak up or to shut up!!!
(On second thought, perhaps it's a bit of both.)
I do know that in nearly every instance, neither fear nor anger will help resolve the situation.
I also know that I will not have a clue how to act in any situation unless I have a moment-by-moment relationship with my Heavenly Father. If I am not spending time in His Word each day, to get my daily manna, I will be empty; and I will default to emotions that are neither healthy nor helpful.
So…I'm wondering what the next confrontation will be. Will I get better at handling them as they come, if I keep practicing? How many confrontations does it take until I'm a pro??? (If it's anything like the licks that it takes to get to the center of the tootsie role pop, I might be in trouble here!)
I sure could use some extra prayer for ME during this season. 🙂
Are YOU in a particular season?
Can I help you pray about it?
Please feel free to leave me a comment here or on Facebook,if you'd like me to pray with you about the season you are facing.
(I will pray that you become a "PRO" in your season really quickly, too!)
;o)
Blessings to you,
Alesha
These are some of the reasons that I love my Daddy:
My Daddy is the best dad in the world. I am thankful for him, and I love him very much.
HAPPY FATHERS DAY, DADDY!!!
Love,
Isaac
Obtaining Mercy 