Hopeful Homemaker

nurturing hope in family life

April 23, 2012
by jennifer
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Ankle Update

He’s home from the hospital in a cast that reminds me of moon boots because it’s so thick.

The surgery went well.   We have a picture of his foot cut open to the joint as proof that this really happened.   The discharge orders are much more restrictive than I anticipated…. he can only get up to use the bathroom for several days and can’t even sit up for meals until the end of the week.  He’s confined to the house for 7-9 days.

At the moment he’s sleeping peacefully, thanks to pain medication and the lingering traces of anesthetic.  I hope this week goes well.  Keeping him off the ankle proved to be increasingly difficult leading up to the surgery and the stakes are even higher now.  If he puts any weight on it the screw will snap and the surgery will be a failure.  I wonder how we’ll keep him from going crazy so he doesn’t make all of us crazy….

I confess I’d convinced myself that the screw would be pretty small.  This x-ray kind of makes me cringe.

I feel so bad for him.  It’s definitely not fun.
At least it will heal (if he’s responsible).  That’s the good news.  And I’m a fan of good news.

Jennifer

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April 22, 2012
by jennifer
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Joy, week 16

I had a quiet pause in the car on Friday afternoon while I waited for my children to exit their school.  I thumbed through my 2012 notebook to review my goals for the year and see where I really stand.  It was revealing.

I’ve accomplished some specific things that I set out to do, such as an overnight trip to do some sewing with my sister.  There are a great many specific things I haven’t touched yet.  The goals for implementing certain changes or habits in my life/home are more humbling because it’s difficult to change.  I would like to regroup a little, get back on track.  All I need to do that is some quiet time.  Anybody have some quiet time for sale?

Seriously, I do feel like I need to refocus, but I’m in the sprinting stage.  Life from here to summer will be a blur and I want to do a good job.  I’m going to do my very best and remember that in a few weeks we’ll have a major shift in schedule and I can start over in those areas that are lacking.

The week was a good one.  I’d sum it up in two words:  doctor, soccer.  Tonight we had a little birthday party for a friend of mine and the children enjoyed themselves immensely.  We laughed and shared stories and enjoyed the utterly perfect weather.  A wonderful evening, making me sigh with gratitude for the gift of friendship.  Last night we spent an equally enjoyable evening with some old friends.  I feel so blessed to know these remarkable people.

I have so much more to say, things that have been floating around in my head all day, but I just dozed off for the 3rd time.  We have to get our son to the hospital super early in the morning for his ankle surgery so I think I’d better call it a night.

Have a great week!

Jennifer

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April 21, 2012
by jennifer
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My very own lilacs

Today I smelled the heavenly scent of lilacs from my own yard for the first time in my life.

I’ve loved their scent as long as I can remember, but have always had to enjoy it away from home.

My little bush survived the winter.  Oh happy day!

 

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April 20, 2012
by jennifer
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What a week!

It’s Friday and I’m tired, but I’m also a bit giddy.

You see, the sun is shining and I love it.  I walk around the corner of my house and can hardly believe how fortunate I am to enjoy so many flowers in my own yard.  It makes me smile with joy.

I spent an hour or more this morning visiting with an old friend who lives far away.  OH, it is wonderful to just sit and talk with people I love.  I find myself treasuring these experiences more and more.

Today is the first day this week that I haven’t spent considerable time in a doctor’s office.  We’ve been in medical offices every consecutive business day since last Friday, and I’m thrilled to have a reprieve (for 3 days, barring any emergencies)!  What a ride this broken ankle has been in just one week.  We’ve gone from a doctor to another doctor to a surgeon to another surgeon.  We’ve had two sets of x-rays and a CT scan.  We’ve gone back and forth between crutches and wheelchair.  Yesterday morning found us in the office of the ankle specialist who will perform surgery next Monday.  They cut off his cast and put him back in a boot, so we’ve gone from boot to cast to boot again.  After the surgery he’ll go back to a cast, then back to a boot.  Crazy stuff, this broken ankle business.

Our evenings have been full of activity.  Wednesday night found us at BYU for the Hope of America performance which our 5th grader was involved in.  When did this kid get so big and handsome?

Last night I had eight children at two soccer games.  I spent the evening trying to watch both games and keep track of five children running around (the one in a wheelchair was easy to spot, especially because pushing yourself through tall grass in a wheelchair is slow work).  My four year old needed to use the restroom so I took her and the two year old with me on the walk across the park to use their facilities, thinking the others would be fine.  I returned to find a crowd gathered around my seven year old, who sliced her foot open in my absence.  She was sobbing, there was blood all over her foot, and I couldn’t help but marvel at what a spectacle we were as people started asking me if the boy in the wheelchair was mine as well.  I took a deep breath and wondered silently if we’re just weird or if our drama is simply a matter of odds.  The more people in your care, the more life there is to be lived, I suppose.  It seems we’re doing a lot of living right now.  Tears pricked at my eyes, not so much because of the cut or anything specific.  I just felt worn out.

I suppose I’m learning.  I felt that feeling of stress, tension, embarrassment at all the attention, and then I let it go.  It was time to smile and enjoy what we were doing.  I turned and surveyed this beautiful view and concluded that all will be well.  I am so fortunate to be alive and experiencing so very much.

On our way home I bought some steri strips and we doctored the gash ourselves.  Because I couldn’t bear to sit in another doctor’s office.

You know, I really wouldn’t mind a boring week or two.  Do you think it’s possible?

Smiling,
Jennifer

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April 18, 2012
by jennifer
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Because it’s been raining…

I started a new project.

Too much rain and gray skies can do this to me.  Somehow the blah outside makes me feel blah inside too, and something new is in order to bring a bit of cheer.  I should have been basting and quilting the Little Man quilt top, but instead I cut lots of 3.5 inch squares and had fun laying them out.  I’d been looking at this yummy stack of fabric long enough.

More soon!

Hopeful Homemaker

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April 16, 2012
by jennifer
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Homework

This stack of books is my homework.   I’m on a mission to understand some things I’ve never needed to know, as well as to re-learn some things that have become ruts for me and my family.  The desire has been spurred by some specific needs in our home we’ve recently learned about.  I’m going about this stack a little strangely, I suppose, for I’m reading four of these books at the same time.  Not sure why, exactly.  Perhaps I find them all so urgent and interesting that I couldn’t resist starting more than one.  Either way, it’s  helping me see some common threads between all these doctors, experts, etc. and I think I might be defining my priorities faster because of the simultaneous study.  It reminds me of my college days, studying material from various classes at the same time.  One of my favorite memories of that stage in my life was the feeling of being so mentally alive; the joy of making connections I didn’t see coming and starting a new treasure hunt for knowledge down a path I hadn’t previously known existed.  I find myself experiencing this again to a small degree and it is bringing me joy.

The smaller stack holds my journal for recording daily progress on my goals, eight small joy journals for each of my kids (which I fell behind on when we had the flu and I haven’t yet caught up), a notebook for recording thoughts and ideas as I study my tall stack of books, and Middlemarch, a classic that I’m working through much too slowly.

I like this project.  I know it will take me time to read all this literature, and even more time to digest it and apply it in our home but I’m going to do it.  I took a little break while the kids were home and now I’m back to the books!

Thought for the day:

“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth.  We are happy when we are growing.”  -William Butler Yeats

Wishing you a week of growth,
Jennifer

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April 15, 2012
by jennifer
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Joy, week 15

Spring break is over and we’re working on an early bedtime tonight.  It’s so hard to give up my kids for another seven weeks!  Our little taste of freedom has yielded some good ideas and observations from which to plan the summer and I’m excited to change gears for more than a week.

It was a fantastic week.  I’m so thankful for the things we were able to do, for the time the children spent playing outside, for time with my sister, time as a family, time in the temple, and a hundred other little things.

I definitely felt joy this week.  Joy in my children, joy in my relationship with my sister, joy in watching my son handle his new challenge with such humor.  I have felt joy in the flowers blooming all over my yard and joy in the blossoms on my trees.  Joy in laughing with my husband at the non-stop narrative of our two year old this afternoon, laughing until my eyes were filled with tears.  Joy in time spent talking with friends.  Lots and lots of joy.  It was certainly not a week without difficulty, but it was a joyful week.  Yesterday my husband walked through the kitchen and said to me, “Aren’t you so glad we’re not all sick to our stomachs right now?”  Yes, we found joy in healthy appetites and no illness in our home.

As far as my goals go, I was happy to spend some time sewing.  I also reached a goal I’d set to go spend time in Logan – just me, without kids – with my sister.  It feels good to have made that a priority.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours working on our summer calendar and hope I’ve got some things figured out.  I feel like I’ve got a good handle on the next couple of weeks and I really hope to make it through the end of May in good form.  It’s the busiest time of the year for me, but I’m starting to feel like I just might be finding my stride.  Lots of little things are still falling by the wayside but they’re little things, things I cannot sacrifice to the big things, so I’m learning to let them go and with them, let go of the self-criticism I usually give in to as I watch them litter the path behind me.  That’s easily said after a simple week.  The test comes as we dive in tomorrow morning and sprint through the week.

And so I’m going to leave this post on the lighter side in order to enjoy some quiet time in bed with a good book before I attempt to get a full night’s sleep.  I am grateful to be alive, grateful to have this loud, messy, happy, fun family, grateful for my husband who makes things much more fun than I do, grateful for my Heavenly Father who makes everything work out.  Life is joyful!

Jennifer

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April 14, 2012
by jennifer
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Broken

He went snowboarding with his dad on Thursday morning.  They had about 14 inches of fresh powder and loved every minute of it.  He landed a front flip.  An awesome, memorable day.

Then he came home and went to a friend’s house.  They took turns filming each other doing tricks on the trampoline.  After landing a front flip on a snowy mountain, a trampoline sounds rather benign, doesn’t it?

Well, it isn’t.   He was practicing a cork7 when he landed on his ankle, which was almost instantly swollen, bright red, and hot to the touch.

Yesterday’s x-rays confirmed what we had already guessed.  He has a broken ankle.  Broken through the growth plate, to be exact.  Funny how life can take such sudden turns.  It’s merely a speed bump in the long run, but feels more like a course change right now.

He’s being such a good sport about it, laughing and smiling and we’re laughing along with him when he says things like “I guess I just became the most boring person I know.  Let’s see…. we could play thumb wars!  Or tic-tac-toe.”  I remember his spring break two years ago when his week took a similar turn.  His last broken bone (wrist) was in December of 2010.  He made it 15.5 months without a break.  It was so nice of him to save this until we had health insurance again!

So we’re laughing as he adjusts to his new boot and crutches, but inside part of me is crying for all he’s lost, even if it’s just in the short run.  He’s done snowboarding.  His lacrosse season just ended, although it really just began.  The rest of his school year will probably be spent on crutches.   We hope this will heal well so he won’t have problems with it for the rest of his life.  That’s really all that matters.

New item on next week’s to-do list:  visit orthopedic surgeon.

Should be fun!  {Poor guy.}

Hopeful Homemaker

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April 13, 2012
by jennifer
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We Made a Memory

I arrived home from Logan in time to eat pizza with my family and jump in the car for a night in Provo at a BYU Men’s Lacrosse game.

It was cloudy and sprinkling on our way down, and turned into a downpour for much of the game.  We were all soaked through, the little ones ended up watching most of the game in the car, and it could have been a miserable night.  It wasn’t.  We laughed as we played in the car, laughed at our dripping wet clothing, laughed as I drove the little ones around in search of a bathroom, and laughed at BYU’s 27-2 win over Utah State.  We watched some amazing shots on goal!

It was a great night, and we made a great memory.  We came home to revel in hot chocolate and dry pajamas.  After 70-80 degree weather for the past week it was funny that the downpour happened during the only planned outdoor outing of the week.  The weather has since cooled, the boys have gone snowboarding on fresh powder and I’m glad the children spent Monday through Wednesday running outdoors as much as possible.  It’s been a great spring break!

 

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