Coffee? Tea? Serenity?

Several years ago, a friend of mine who was on a difficult journey in her life shared with me that sometimes the only thing that she could be grateful for was the fact that mornings came because with morning meant the end of the previous day.  I feel that way today, though my journey is nowhere near what she endured.  Yesterday was NOT one to fit into the category of good.  When the alarm clock rang this morning, I praised God for this new day - glad that yesterday had passed.

Often on Mondays, because they follow the serene days of Sunday, when hubby asks how my day was, I will say that I hate Mondays.  The gone Sunday serenity seems to be overcome with the chaos of Monday.  This past Monday was actually a good one.  Yesterday felt like Monday.  My day started with a call from my mother-in-law who told me that my father-in-law would need to return to the urologist.  She had several other things to be done which I normally would have offered to help with.  Because of my own circumstances, I felt helpless because I could not offer that help and my heart was filled with concern.  The next thing that happened was Scott woke, lightly blew his nose, and approached me with a bloody tissue - A NOSEBLEED!  It lasted only moments, but my heart was saddened to see that reoccur.  The rest of the day was just one of those that makes you feel like you should have stayed in bed.  Homeschooling lessons were like trying to build a house without a hammer, too much soap into the washer made me have to rinse twice, my computer was not cooperative, and everything that I touched seemed to make me stumble in patience.  When Hubby arrived home from work, one topic of conversation trickled into another ending with one on a recent offer made to him.  That offer was relating to a job.  Someone whom he had previously worked with who now works at a different company called him to offer him a position.  This position would mean a promotion as well as an increase in pay.  As the two discussed this, it was also mentioned that IF he took the offer, the first thing that he'd have to do is attend classes in order to speak another language.  This, apparently, is something required because of the influx of workers who cannot speak English.  With that information, my husband turned down the offer.  That topic of converstation started a snow ball effect in my own thoughts.......do we still live in AMERICA? ... did someone uproot us without my knowing and we now live in a foreign country required to speak and read a new language?....here I am banging my head against a brick wall in an effort to educate my son so that he can be a productive citizen in society and the work force while others are welcomed into our country, hired, and are making a living without being able to speak English!....do they have to have ''HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA" checked on their application in order to be hired?....are they required to know how to solve algebraic equations in order to posess their diploma?.....must they know the eight parts of speech, diagram sentences, and be able to write in the correct order of events?......ALL of these are skills required for our son to be able to acquire his diploma.....all of these are skills that we are tackling as monsters with a TEENage son who thinks they are not necessary.......notice the all caps on TEEN.....did I say TEEN?....TEENage son.........  Praise God for mornings.

On this morning, as hubby and I watched the morning news and enjoyed our coffee, I was able to begin my day in praises to our Lord.  The news story was of a woman who found an alligator in her kitchen.  YES, you read that correctly - an ALLIGATOR in her kitchen.  You can read the story and view photos at this site:  http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23585378-13762,00.html.  Hubby's sense of humor allowed me to begin my day with laughter.  When the news story ended, he said, "Well that's nothing!  They worry too much!  At least it wasn't carrying a gun..................."  That's all I heard - laughter drowned out the remainder of his comments.  The thought of him taking the circumstances of an alligator in HIS kitchen as lightly as he took the news of this poor woman's caused my eruption of laughter.  This coming from him who wrestles with the voice box of ALL drive thru burger joints - thinking of this causes me to laugh more!

Praise God for my hubby - his sense of humor, his buger joint wrestlings, and his abiltiy to see the silver lining in all clouds.  Praise God for mornings that begin new with sunshine, with new attitudes, with new chaos, and with new serenity.  Praise God for my TEENage son whom I would not trade for any other!  Praise God for all the blessings that were present in my day, yesterday, but were clouded by me seeing only the chaos. 

Psalm 150:6 - "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!" NKJV

All is well for Scott's nose following the cauterization.  As difficult as it was, he has for the most part followed all directions given by the doctor.  Remaining indoors and away from the pollen filled wind was the most difficult, but he has survived.  Today, he will begin to follow additional instructions using an antibiotic ointment and saline nasal spray.  This will continue for seven days.  He will return for a follow-up exam two weeks after the cauterization.

This morning, he woke VERY early.  As I was having my coffee, he entered the kitchen to ask me if sinus could effect teeth.  WHAT?!?!?!?!  TEETH?!?!?!??! ....why are you asking THAT????  We finally have the bleeding nose under control and now you want to talk TEETH????  He explained that the gum area directly behind his last back tooth (opposite the side of cauterization) began bothering him yesterday afternoon.  We discussed the possibilities, had him rinse with warm salt water, and  he returned to bed.  Oh, Dear Lord, please let us fix one problem before another appears!!!!

What is that saying? ....  God doesn't send to you more than you can handle....hmmm......I have often said that God has more confidence in me than I in myself.  He continues to prove that thought OVER AND OVER AND OVER.  Thank you, God for the vote of confidence, but my checkbook could sure use some relief right about now.

Have a GREAT day!

Scott was apprehensive about the process.  The physician's assistant, Mr. S., was great.  When Scott asked if there would be pain, Mr. S. responded with, "OH, YEAH - It's gonna hurt reeeeeeeal bad - It's gonna send a reeeeeeal bad pain all the way to your brain!"  With that, we all laughed.

The cauterization caused no pain, but the instructions given for the next three days is about to break Scott.  He cannot be around dusty situations, he cannot bend for more than a minute or so, and he cannot strain or lift.  Well, for a country, out-doorsy boy, what does that leave him to do?  He cannot even feed his horses - which produces hay dust.  All afternoon, he has been saying, "Man, I can't do ANYTHING."  Hhhmm.......I can think of many things, but he likes none of my ideas.  He will survive.  Will I?

We return in two weeks for a check up.  At that time, the nose will be examined and we will discuss the allergy symptoms and medications that he is currently on for those.  We may be looking at allergy testing.  Did that when he was three.  We'll have to see what happens.

I will end my day in praises to our Lord for having ordered the appointment in a way that He knew would work well for Scott, and for me too. 

Scott started having nose bleeds shortly after getting better from his bout with flu like symptoms a couple of months ago.  We saw our family phyician who prescribed medications to subdue the allergy symptoms he was having.  Although those meds did reduce the length of time of the bleeding, the bleeding is still occuring almost daily.  The meds did help with reducing the allergy symptoms, but they are being persistant.  We returned to our family physician who has referred us to an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist.  We got the call yesterday - the appt is today at 10 am.  Scott was rather disappointed in the fact that we will not see the specialist himself, but we will see his phycisians assistant.  I must say that I was disappointed as well because I have visited with the specialist relating to Dad's tongue surgeries and was well pleased with his manners and treatment plans.  Because I placed the nosebleeds into God's hands early on, I am trusting that we are being guided by Him into seeing the assistant.  I am also trusting that God will grant us peace as we follow His lead toward the healing that we have prayed for.  I ask that you pray along with us.

Have you ever entered the highways and felt like you were playing ROULETTE?

My sixteen year old, Scott, has driving priviledges that go along with posessing a permit.  Along with posessing that permit comes the goal of posessing a license in the future.  As time goes by, my thoughts continue to repeat, "NOT in MY future!"  My son is normally a good driver considering he has the lesser experience of our family.  He makes the effort to learn the rules of the road and with all that a teenager can muster, he really does try to do the right things behind that wheel - aside from the cell phone and radio buttons.  My larger concern stems from what I witness from other travelers on the highways.

Rarely can we travel the main highway near our home without someone FLYING by as though we were sitting still.  Rarely can we travel without experiencing some kind of near-miss situation commonly due to the other drivers.  Yesterday was like all others.  My son and I had errands to run.  I avoid driving due to my back problems - applying pressure to the brakes effects my tailbone symptoms.  Although this is quite frustrating for me, it does provide him the opportunity to be the driver while gaining the experience needed to aquire the license which he dreams to have.  He faced several circumstances yesterday which provided learning experiences but me with near cardiac failure.

The scariest of those circumstances were where we were nearly hit from behind.  We traveled a four lane road in the left lane.  The vehicle in front of us signaled and stopped to make a left turn.  Scott stopped as well to wait for the opportunity of an appropriate lane change.  An eighteen wheeler was coming from behind in the right lane, so he felt it best to stay put.  The eighteen wheeler driver appeared to be one that was very cautious.  He was taking his time in the busy traffic.  The busy people behind him were not.  As they approached the slow moving trucker, they passed him which meant that they were coming into the left lane that we were stopped in.  Several vehicles did this and FLEW by us.  As the trucker came closer to us, the passing distance shortened.  That did not stop the busy drivers.  They continued to pass him while nearly missing us.  As I watched the side mirror, my heart stopped.  A small car whizzed by the eighteen wheeler, but apparantly didn't realize that we were stopped.  It approached us without slowing.  I said NOTHING.  I couldn't speak - nor did I want to frighten Scott into sudden, dangerous movement.  I watched this small car SQUEEZE between our rear end and the truck's front end without slowing down.  The trucker again proved his caution because he had pulled way over in order for this crazy to not hit us.  After it had passed, I asked Scott if he had noticed the car and what had nearly happened.  He had not noticed - had I not been the passenger, I may not have either.

What is it?  Are drivers distracted?  Are drivers in such a hurry that they endanger themselves and all others in their path?  Do they care?  Are they on drugs?  Are they drunk?  Again - WHAT IS IT?

When we got our horses, we joked that riding them would be cheaper than paying the price of gas.  Riding them instead of driving might be the safer way to go as long as we can ride AWAY from the roadways.

I praise God that we were not hit.  I pray each time we enter the highways.  Both of these are good practices, but it is very disappointing to see the lack of respect for others upon our roadways.

Drive safely and encourage others to do the same. 

Because I haven't posted in a while, I thought I would come to share an update on how my back situation is going.  It's still going.  I am still going to the chiropractor and the massage therapist.  My visits are now once every other week.  With each visit, I do see slight improvements.  With those slight improvements come slight changes in the symptoms.

The original symptoms that brought me to the chiropractor are far and few between, but do still make themselves known from time to time.  The newer symptoms that I have are those caused by the disc problems.  The symptoms are new, but the problems are not.  The problem has been there for quite some time, I believe, because as I look back into the past and the varying aches and symptoms that have been present all along indicate they were related to the discs.  With the massage therapy and the chiropractor care, it seems that those symptoms have become more isolated.  What I mean by that is the symptoms are not so vague; they are now very indicative of the disc problems detected by the MRI.

Pains?  Well, I call them discomforts.  Sometimes they are simply slight reminders to help me maintain correct posture, movements, and spinal health.  Sometimes they rise to a level of my having to retreat to a resting position.  Because I can almost always respond to what my discomforts command, I rarely have to take any medication for pain.  When I do, over the counter ibuprofen has done the trick. 

I have begun to slowly work up to doing my daily chores and activities.  After being placed on complete rest, that is a therapy in itself.  The blessing in that is the fact that with each try, my body tells me what is OK to do and what is a no-no.  I can mop and vacuum, but in a stance that takes some concentration.  I can load and unload the washer, dryer, and dishwasher - again in awkward stances and bending motions.  I can sit at my computer for longer periods - as long as I maintain correct posture.  I have been able to do some sewing - small projects with very careful posture.  Sitting and rising from the seated position are two things that continue to be a challenge.  The seat has to be one that assists me with proper posture.  Plush furniture is a big no-no.  Entering, exiting, and riding in a vehicle is the most challenging of all.  I have tried truck and car.  Neither is easy.  Neither is comfortable.  The car seems to be the better because I can adjust the seat to sit straight up, or recline if needed.  I must have the lumbar cushion at all time while riding in a vehicle.  I recently tried a ride in my mother-in-laws truck.  I really didn't expect it to be worse than any other, but I think the climb in was the trigger - she has a higher model.  That night, I did have to take ibuprofen.

With the spring weather, I would normally be in my flower beds and garden.  I cannot do these.  I cannot bend to pull weeds - the bending hurts the back and the pulling hurts the neck.  Instead, I planted some vegetable plants in large flower pots.  Hopefully, I will be successful with them.  My flower bed was breaking my heart.  For as long as I have lived here, I have dreamed of having a flower bed across the front of our house.  Last year, I finally was able to see my dream come true.  I cannot tend to it.  That broke my heart and my dream crumbled.  Mike purchased mulch and has been doing a little each day.  Hopefully the hard work that he is doing will allow me to maintain it through the year.  There, too, I will put the flowers into pots so that I can better keep up the entire bedding.

I may never do all that I was doing before in the short time line that I did, but hopefully I will be able to do most of them in wiser timing.  Some things I will never be able to do -  like using the post hole digger while building fence - but you can bet that I will be doing whatever I can in the projects that we plan to do.  I refuse to give up and stop living.  I can adjust.  I can be wiser.  I can still enjoy each day that I wake to - and I plan to.

I ask that you continue praying with me.  Without my faith, my spirit would be herniated far more seriously than the discs in my spine.

Have a blessed day!

Our administrator for the blog site has been doing some upgrading.  In doing so, some temporary changes to the way my blog looks had to be made. 

I am hoping to make a post to my blog soon with updates on my back and such. 

Check back soon.