Farewell, November!

I'm not sure where this day has gone, but we have been pretty busy.  I attempted to start out the morning sewing, but didn't get very far.  Woody chose to do our grocery shopping and run errands with his friend.  He was pretty done in by the time he got back home and has stuck pretty close to his couch and recliner for the rest of the day.  I decided yesterday that I was ready for some chili so I made a pot of chili just for me!  Woody finished up the couple of items of leftovers of "his food."  I guess someone will be cooking tomorrow so he will have something to eat!

Nathan came over and helped me choose a Christmas present for Woody and me to give to Graham.  We've almost got gifts either bought or decided upon...which we need to order or purchase.

Isaac spent a long time over here again today building with K'nex.  He is making all kinds of buildings for a town.  He built a barn to go with his windmill and also a silo.  Then he built heliports for the helicopter and airplane he built yesterday and also one for the helicopter that Elijah built.  I think the last thing that he added to his town was an igloo!  He is having fun.  Joseph tagged along today and has enjoyed playing with the things that Isaac built.  Our living room is turning into a K'nex room...which brings back memories of Graham as he always wanted it to become a K'nex room!  I guess it is good that I'm not decorating for Christmas this year since this new interest in K'nex has popped to the surface for Isaac.  When I decorate the K'nex move from the room and find a corner in the guest room and usually get forgotten about till after I undecorate.

The best part of my day came when I opened up email late this afternoon and found the first "blue" prints for our kitchen.  We (mainly me) will be studying them this weekend and hopefully will get back with the contractor the first of the week.  I'm pretty pleased with what I see and I can see more clearly his vision and mine melding together!

A K'nex Kind of Day!

I had an abbreviated school day.  Joseph had his time with me.  He read and then had an Osmo Day.  Isaac came over and he read and then he had his long time early as his siblings were waiting for friends to come over to spend the day with them.  Also the leaf truck was in the neighborhood and some of them got busy blowing leaves out to the road in our yard and theirs.  Isaac decided that he wanted to build with K'nex and this time he decided that he would do some of the builds in the various K'nex instruction books that we have.  During his long time he made an airplane.  He went home for a little while and then came back and made a helicopter.  At some point he went home and had lunch and then he came back and ended up building a windmill that had a wind-up motor...the first build that he has done with a motor.  Anyway, in the end he spent most of the day over here.  Part of the time I helped him do a little reorganizing of the building pieces.  We started doing that when he couldn't find one part for the airplane.  With perseverance, we did finally find the elusive part.  He really had a lot of fun.

Woody ran two errands today and did them quite quickly.  I decided that he must be walking a bit faster!  He did tell me that he doesn't feel as tired today as he has lately.  So perhaps the shots and infusion he got yesterday added to his transfusion he got last week are starting to build him up again. I did check out his leg today and the infected area was less red...more pink today. Progress...I think!

Thanksgiving Lunch With the Neighbors

We had school this morning per usual for a Wednesday.  I got an invitation for a Thanksgiving lunch next door.  So after Elijah's long time, he and I headed over for lunch.  Woody stayed and ate some of "his food" here at the house.  Everyone was concerned that I hadn't gotten any turkey and fixings on Turkey Day!  I can now say I have had Thanksgiving! Gobble! Gobble!

Woody had quite a long appointment...anyway he left around 2pm and didn't get home till after 5pm.  He did stop and get gas on the way home, but still gone a long time at doctor...I thought that it was supposed to be a quick appointment.  He got the shot for anemia. He will get another next week. He also got a B-12 shot. The doctor told Woody that he had the lowest B-12 of anyone he had ever treated...not a good thing!  He also got an iron infusion.  I guess all should help with what is ailing him!!!  We hope!  The doctor said that he should start to perk up!  We think that his leg is better today.  I feel that we made the right decision about making sure that he get the treatments today rather than heading to Vanderbilt to have his leg looked at.  We will let the antibiotic continue its work!  We never did hear back from the orthopedic clinic after we returned their call.

I had my initial meeting with the contractor for remodeling the kitchen.  My head is still in a bit of spin...not exactly sure what all we talked about or where anything will be!  Will now wait to see his drawn plans for it.  He's supposed to email those to me. I'm happy that it is underway...glad that the planning has begun! After I blog, I am going to try to look online at the appliances that he
recommended.

An Addition to the Roads of TN!

Congratulations to Graham.  He took the driving part of the test today and is now the proud displayer of a temporary TN driver's license.  The man who rode with Graham said that he had only had one driver test in a larger vehicle than Graham drove.  Graham drove their 15-passenger van for his test.  Good going Graham.  I know he will be a big help to his parents.

School, cleaning, and I don't know what all I have done today.  But the day has passed all too quickly and I have more to do...but my back doth protest when I tell it that it needs to do some more work!  So recliner it is for me for a while.

Woody said that he feels like he is some better today.  I haven't looked at his leg yet this evening.  I'll do that just before he heads to bed.  It was still red when I looked this morning...it was filling up the mark that the doctor drew just before Woody came home from the hospital.  The orthopedic clinic never did get back in touch with us. Woody hopefully gets his shot for anemia tomorrow.  After that takes place, we'll decide if we need to get back in touch with the orthopedic and/or infectious disease teams at Vanderbilt.

Tomorrow is the day that the contractor is supposed to come for a consultation about kitchen renovations.  Wonder what I'll know tomorrow night...or if I'll just be confused about details!?!

Boxing Cats!

Literally we are boxing cats!  I was cleaning out a closet the other night and I was going to throw this box away, but decided to see if Georgia would enjoy it before it went into the trash.  After I took off both ends, she loved it and enjoys shooting through it.  I managed to catch her just looking out...most of the time my pictures showed a streak!  Her favorite toys = empty thread spools and now this box.  She doesn't cost much to keep her entertained!

Woody has attempted to be fairly good today and has stayed on the couch most of the day with his leg propped on pillows so it is above his heart.  The way he was told when he was in the hospital.  He says that the part that is hurting has shifted. Not sure if that is good or bad!  We got a call from the orthopedic clinic at Vanderbilt today, but missed the call.  I returned the call, but they never called back...I dislike "Doctor phone tag!" I'm sure that they were just checking on him since I had been in touch with Dr. Holt over the Thanksgiving weekend.  He did go to the Furnace Room Prayer meeting tonight...hopefully it wasn't too much for him.  I think that he overdid by going to both Sunday School and church yesterday.  He was walking on it too much.  We may end up having to go to Vanderbilt to get it checked, but we are hoping for him to get his shot for anemia on Wednesday before we have to go back.  I don't want to get to Vanderbilt, say tomorrow, and have them decide to put him back in the hospital and have him miss the shot that has taken so long to get scheduled!  The oncology clinic where he will get the shot just called with the appointment reminder.

I just got finished putting boxes back in the Christmas closet after pulling things out to find the children's Fisher Price nativity sets and our Precious Moments Nativity set.  I think that those will pretty much be our decorations this year.  I still haven't put away Fall decorations yet in the dining room so haven't put out the Precious Moments set yet.  The above pictured cat had better stay off the buffet if I do put them out!  I haven't seen her get up there...but that doesn't mean that she hasn't!  She is a very curious cat!  I have been planning in my head and on my iPad...about my meeting with the contractor who may be going to remodel our kitchen...that meeting is set up for Wednesday also...another reason I want us to be home on Wednesday...another long awaited meeting!

Back to the cat...I think that she is finally healing from her wounds...but still not completely. She is also settling in more as an inside kitty!  She is starting to be more of a lap cat.  She took a nap on my lap this afternoon and she just jumped up in my lap and started purring and settled right down on my lap while I am typing the blog...and not trying to get my fingers as I type!  She's not quite as claw swiping and biting as she once was.  I am determined to tame her if she is going to be inside.  Today she tapped at me as she walked by...but no claws out!  Good for her...and for me! Of course, I don't get as much done this way because I hate to boost her out of my lap once she settles down!  I like lap kitties and I can get more reading (or napping) this way!

The Lost is Found: A Cat Tale

This is Peaches...Esther's outside cat and Georgia's sister.  Esther left Grammy in charge of both kitties while she went with her family to visit with relatives for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Peaches usually stays very close to her back yard...once in a while she goes over to Grammy and Goosey's and they let her in for a while.  This morning when Grammy went over to feed Peaches, Peaches was no where to be found.  Grammy left a little food in her bowl and then kept checking to see if she had come back to her back porch.  But no Peaches!  Grammy called and called while she was outside.  She even walked around both houses to see if she was close but just couldn't hear her calling.  Grammy even thought that Peaches might be in her garage since it had rained in the night.  But Peaches didn't ever come.  Grammy went to check about every hour to see if the little food she had left had been eaten or if Peaches had made it back home.  Late afternoon Grammy was really getting worried about where she could be and why she had been gone so long.  Esther and her family would be getting back home and there would be no Peaches to greet Esther.  Grammy went on doing things around the house.  After she baked some pita bread and was cleaning up the kitchen she decided to empty the compost bucket.  She called while she was walking out to the compost pile.  Once again, she stopped at her garage and called...and what should she see but a frantic kitty in the back window of her car!  Last night Goosey (Woody) went out to put the car in the garage since it was going to rain.  Goosey takes his time getting in and out of the car...probably Peaches decided to explore and Goosey didn't see her get in.  Peaches had a dry night and a good part of the day in the car.  She was pretty happy to be let out and even happier to get fed for the first time today.  She went in Grammy's house with her to get the cat food and forgot to hiss at Georgia because she was so hungry!  Grammy is glad she was found before Esther returned so Esther wouldn't have to be sad that Peaches was missing! Peaches got to go in to visit with Grammy and Goosey and Georgia this evening so Grammy could get these pictures for the blog when she told Peaches' cat tale.  And, now Snip, snap, snout...this tale is told out!

It's Baaaaack!!

And, it being back is not a "good thing!"  His cellulitis has reared it's ugly head again.  The dark marks are the remains of the Sharpie marks that the doctor put on his leg in the hospital...so still within those lines.  But his leg had been all calm and here it is again!  After Woody showed me this morning that it was back.  I immediately emailed his Vanderbilt orthopedist.  She answered within 15 minutes.  She wanted me to get in touch with the infectious disease doctors that were listed on our dismissal sheet from the hospital...unfortunately they were not listed on the sheet only the orthopedist and her clinic were listed.  So she emailed someone at the infectious disease clinic and he got back to us very quickly, too.  He immediately phoned in a prescription for the antibiotic to our local pharmacy.  All this in a little over an hour!  Woody left to run errands with his friend who has no transportation.  Not long after he left, I got a call from our pharmacy and they don't have that antibiotic as it is not a common one.  But they had checked around and found that the Kroger pharmacy had it.n they were calling for permission to pass the prescription along to them along with insurance information.  I gave them permission and picked up the medicine when I did our grocery shopping this afternoon.  Hopefully we will get this infection nipped in the bud and have it gone quickly!  All I can say is..."if it isn't one thing it is another!"  It definitely covers a lot smaller area than before so hopefully we can keep it from spreading to as large an area as before.

Since cellulitis is an infection that is a deep skin infection, it can go as deep as the muscle.  And,
there is a chance that the metal plate and "loose" screws could be causing irritation that is causing the infection.  But the infection has to be cleared up before surgery to fix what's broken can be done.  Hope we don't go around in circles for too long!

Happy Thanksgiving 2018 from Woody and Lois

Cranberry & Cardamom Upside-Down Cake

Thankful for a Day of "No Feasting" Tomorrow!

About now I would be going out of my mind, if we were going to have our usual family Thanksgiving feast tomorrow!  Today has not been a day when cooking could have happened.  Woody and I headed out the door around 7:30 this morning going to the oncology clinic here in town.  We were gone for two hours for that appointment and he didn't get the shot for anemia.  He is supposed to get it next week.  But he did get orders for a blood transfusion.  We went home for a few minutes and collected our thoughts and I ate a little breakfast.  Woody ate before his appointment.  He did have a slice of his Apple Zucchini bread before we headed back out the door. So we got to the hospital sometime between 10 and 11am.  He got signed in pretty quickly and it wasn't long till they called him back to the outpatient area.  And, then it took a while to get his unit of blood.  When it finally got to his room, it took more than two hours for the transfusion.  We didn't get to leave till a little after 4pm.  A pretty long day.  He did do some snoozing during all that wait time.  He does feel a little stronger than he did yesterday.  He was really getting weak.  I'm glad that something was finally done to help him some.  They said that he will feel even better tomorrow...hoping that they are right!  I think that he is less pale and definitely he was able to walk out of the hospital easier than he walked  in...he did use his walker both times, but still...a marked improvement over yesterday.  So hopefully this transfusion will help him feel stronger and more like himself.

He is all snuggled up in a quilt on the couch in the family room.  I think that he is tired after his long day.  I know that I am tired!  While sitting in the hospital room, I kept thinking how thankful I was that I wasn't stressed out because I "should" have been home cooking!  It was a good decision to not feast with family this year!

I was planning to make a pie or some kind of dessert today...but that can be done tomorrow!  Haven't sewn any today, either.  But I did finish two more gifts last night...so the "pile" is growing.  We came home to another gift we had ordered, delivered, and waiting on our front porch. So one gift closer to Christmas...quite a few more to come and/or to be ordered!

Hope all have a very thankful Thanksgiving tomorrow! Eat a bite of turkey and trimmings for Woody and me!!!

Not the Best of Days

Our Japanese Maple is once again ablaze with color.  This photo was taken another year, but it is looking just like this right now.  This is just a beautiful tree fall-color wise!

Woody hasn't had the best of days.  He has been very "sleepy" all day and cold all day. He has the heat cranked up (and, for those of you who know Woody this is not a norm for him).  I'm hoping that the shot that he gets tomorrow for anemia will boost him back to having some more energy and that it works miraculously and he feels better quickly.  He had been planning all along to go on his own to the oncology office to get the anemia shot, but told me a little while ago that he thought that he wanted me to go with him.  He has struggled getting the amount of water that he is supposed to drink as drinking water makes him feel colder!  I suggested I could heat his water..."no!"  Then I suggested that he could get part of his liquid with cranberry juice and that he could have that warmed too...but again, "no!"  So he is a couple of glasses short of his supposed quota for the day.

He got a call from the oncology office asking him questions...most of which he answered in the packet of papers that he received in the mail yesterday.  I wonder how many of those same questions he will be asked tomorrow!

We had a nice surprise this afternoon when Nathan and a friend came over to see Woody.  It was our church's former minister to students.  He and his wife and seven children (soon to be eight children) had stopped by to see Nathan and Kathy and family while they were in town visiting family.  I went next door to say hi to his wife and we visited for a few minutes as Kathy had to take Abigail to the dentist.  It was very good to see them again.  They now live in East Tennessee.

I had school with Joseph...he read and then he worked on counting to 100 by 10's.  After that he had free time to use the Osmo apps on my iPad.  Isaac joined him and they worked on it together for a while.  They had to leave early as their family had a show to do at a local assisted living facility. As they left, my Thanksgiving break from school began! Abigail brought me over her favorite jacket that had lining problems (I would rather construct a whole garment than to mend...just saying!).  I was able to fix all the places that had frayed so she can get a little more wear out of it.  After doing that sewing job, I attempted to work some more on sewing Christmas gifts.  I got a little farther, but not much.  Maybe I will get a little more done this evening.  A couple of gifts that I had ordered online arrived today...that is a good thing...that is if the grandchildren want gifts this year!  Do you think them wanting gifts could even be questioned!

Woody is definitely settled in for the night...he is lying on the couch covered in a quilt and a fleece throw.  I hope that he has found some warmth!  He is watching TV unless he is snoozing.  I guess I will report of tomorrow's adventure at the Tullahoma Oncology office.

Some Traditions Continue!

Today after Joseph had his preschool time with me and after Isaac read to me, we decided to get out the Fisher Price Nativity.  We usually get it out and the children set it up on Thanksgiving, but this year Thanksgiving is being "skipped" here at our house!  At least the feasting part of Thanksgiving is being skipped...we will continue to be thankful!  Melany and family are going to one of Wade's brother's for Thanksgiving.  Nathan and family are going to be with Kathy's family.  We often just have our Thanksgiving family feast on another day.  But this year due to Woody's restricted diet, we are choosing to skip the feasting part with family.

Also I have pretty much decided that we won't do much decorating this year due to several reasons.  The first one was that we had been told that our kitchen renovation couldn't happen till after the first of the year.  If it should start in January (probably doubtful...but don't want anything to hinder it from starting), I don't want to have to take decorations down in a rush while I am trying to empty out everything from the kitchen.  Even though we don't have a date for the start of the kitchen, I decided that I would stick to not decorating.  With Woody not feeling the greatest and us not knowing what is facing him with repair to his leg bone, it is best to not have extra things happening.  Also these last few days with "the cat" I'm rather glad that I have been thinking that I'm not sure how our decorations would fare with her curiosity!  So this year we will have the children's nativity set out and I think that I will put our Precious Moments in the dining room.  I managed to find both sets when I rummaged around in the Christmas closet this morning.  Have several boxes to get stuffed back into that closet and then the rest will be out of sight...out of mind!  The cat has decided that it is a great adventure to explore in the Christmas closet!  She can only get so far so I don't think that I have anything to fear that she will get lost in there!  I'm sure if she gets stuck she will let us know! Today she opened up my sewing cabinet door...she managed to get her claws into a tassel that was hanging from the handle...well, of course she invited herself right in and explored the bottom shelf...once again knocking out several things onto the floor!  I have a roll of fabric through the handles so she can't open the doors again...or course it makes it hard for me to open the doors too! She is definitely not the graceful cat that can go anywhere, but never knocks anything off!!! And, if "curiosity kills the cat"...then it is a good thing "that satisfaction brings it back!"  I guess in a few minutes I will go tackle the bookshelf that she cleared the other day!  I am straightening some things up before I get back to my sewing.

I do have good news about the kitchen renovation.  I did get a call from the contractor's office this afternoon and they set up an appointment for the contractor to come here next Wednesday to talk through possibilities.  So maybe...this long-awaited job will actually happen sometime in the not too far off future!

Woody has stuck pretty close to home today.  He did go out and get the mail and has now gone to the Monday night Furnace Room Prayer meeting.  Woody received a packet in the mail from the doctor's office where he is to get his shot for anemia on Wednesday.  Looks like he is having to sign his life away!  He is getting this shot at an oncology office here in town.  Oh, the most interesting thing in the packet is that he is supposed to arrive 115 minutes prior to his scheduled appointment time.  His appointment is at 8am!  So if this isn't a typo then he will have to be up and out of here quite early!  We're guessing that one of those 1's isn't supposed to be there!  We will assume! We also got a strange phone reminder from their office...a recording reminding him...they go on to tell when his appointment is and then talk about where the office is and mention after April 23 they are back in their regular office.  I have no idea what that was about...rather confusing.  But I'm pretty sure that they are where we think they are! I guess time will tell!

I sewed some more yesterday and again this afternoon.  I have several more items ready for Christmas gifts. A little while ago I finished the last of the items that I had ready to take with me to the Sew Super Saturday...took me longer than an eight-hour sewing day!  I think that I will go back to sewing.

Saturday

I am laughing about Esther's/our cat!  I thought that cats were supposed to be able to jump and roam around places and not knock things down...not this one.  She decided to explore the shelves here in the sewing room.  She got on one shelf and went back behind the books...then she decided to turn around...well, she knocked off most of the books that were on said shelf as she got herself turned around and knocked a few more off when she turned in a different direction...then it was a bit of a precarious path down from the shelf.  She finally jumped over the mess that she created and found herself on the floor once again.  I guess she wanted me to dust the shelf!  Not tonight!  The books can stay where they are till another day!

I decided that I was going to stew a chicken and make "liquid gold" aka chicken stock.  When I was getting things out of the refrigerator that I needed for stewing the chicken, I came across the ball of pie crust dough that I had stored in the refrigerator.  I decided that I had better make Woody another pie before the pie crust wasn't any good.  So undertook that job too.  I backed myself into a corner with my cooking as I had planned to join friends along with Melany and Wade for lunch.  But my cooking took longer than I had  planned.  I do have chicken stock in the refrigerator and a pie on the counter.  I made another French Cranberry Apple pie.  It took quite a while to get the greasy dishes from the chicken stock cleaned up.  The rest of the dishes are in the dishwasher awaiting me to turn it on after I blog.

Woody did venture out for a short jaunt today.  He went to the public library for the first time in several weeks.  He didn't stay long, but did get several books.  He had finished the two that I checked out for him from our church library. It seems that most of my day has been spent in the kitchen or separating cats.  Peaches came in for a while today and still the sisters haven't made up.  They still don't like each other very much.  We hope that introducing them to each this way that eventually they will be friends again.  They did go nose to nose for a few seconds...but Peaches starts a low growling and then hisses.  Georgia doesn't do much but switch her tail back and forth (not a good sign!).  Georgia is the more aggressive one.  But I don't want them to tangle at this point since Georgia still isn't healed from her battle when she was out on her own in the cruel world for four months. Maybe one day they will like one another again?!?

The neighbors (Nathan and Kathy and some of the children) made a good dent in the leaves in our back yard using leaf blower and rakes.  We appreciate them doing this as neither of us are up to doing it!

I guess I'll go turn on the dishwasher and see if Georgia is ready to go into her room for the night.  Then Woody and I will both settle in for another quiet Saturday evening...Woody reading and watching TV and me...well, not sure yet...maybe read...or maybe work on another Christmas present.

Kitty Capers!

Georgia says "hi!"  The top photo was taken during one of her sunbathing moments.  She moves around the house looking for patches of sun.  This time she found a patch of sunlight on our bed.

And, here she is up on the bookcase in our bedroom.  She is after one of the little sheep that I have there...she leaves the other two alone that are in front of the little house...but this one she thinks is hers to play with.  She knocks it around until she knocks it off onto the floor.  Then she bats it around and plays with it for a while till she decides that it is time for another nap.  And, I rescue the sheep and put it back till she climbs/jumps up to get another time!  I figure one of these times it will go missing and I will find it under a chair or dresser or...when I am cleaning.

Speaking of cleaning that is what I did most of the morning.  I told myself that if Woody decided to do our grocery shopping today that I would clean while he was gone.  He stayed gone forever.  I had to stop and rest before he got back.  He ran our errands (even though I suggested that he let me do them again) and he ran errands with his friend.  I think that he was gone for four hours.  He was pretty "done in" by the time that he got back. He said that he realizes that he is anemic when he attempts to do things that take a long time.  Hopefully his anemia will get better after he gets some sort of shot for anemia this coming week.

I really cleaned in the kitchen (still need to work on the stove top, but other than that things are pretty clean).  I even managed to mop the floor. I also cleaned the downstairs bathroom.  I got a load of wash done and put away while he was gone, too.  I did another load later this afternoon.

Last night I did go to the sewing machine after I blogged and have another Christmas present finished.  I'm not sure that I have anything left in me tonight to be able to sew in a little while.  I have the next item that I'm going to make all ready to sew together. So it should be easy enough to get started on it, but I think that my recliner is calling louder to me than the sewing machine tonight.


Mmmmmmm!  Abigail is a good cook!  Nathan just brought me a slice of Carrot Cake Cheesecake that she made!  Yummmmmm!  Maybe that will give me the energy to head to the sewing machine?!?  Either that or put me in a sugar stupor!!!!

A Light Dusting

We woke up to light snow flurries and it sticking to roof tops, cars, and leaves...just dry fine powder...but snow before Thanksgiving.  It has really been cold all day too.  I about froze when I emptied the compost bucket and got the mail.  I stayed in except for that "excursion" and when I "saw" Joseph home after his school time.  I literally told him to run ahead and that I would watch him go into his house!  I usually walk him back to his front porch...but didn't today!  Brrrrrrrrrrr!

This is the first evening this season that I have thought that it would be worth the effort of closing all our curtains...we have tie back curtains that I usually leave tied back except for our bedroom.  I still need to go into the school room and the guest room and close those curtains.  I even got out the draft dodger for the door in the family room that goes out to the sun/laundry rooms.  The kitty wasn't too sure of that "snake" at the bottom of "her" door!  Woody said that at first she was afraid of it, but will now go up to it and check it out.

Woody got up enough energy to make his Apple Zucchini Bread today.  We hadn't had it in a while and it really does taste good.  For supper I fried (in a small amount of olive oil) eggplant slices that I dipped in flour, then egg, and finally in Panko bread crumbs.  They tasted really good...nice and crunchy.  I had thought about making myself some Eggplant Parmesan, but in the end just ate several of the slices by themselves.  Maybe with the leftover sliices I will crisp them up and make me a serving of Eggplant Parm tomorrow.

I did manage to work some more on Christmas sewing last night after I blogged.  I hope to do a little more tonight.  I had a nap after I finished cleaning up the kitchen after our supper so I should have enough energy to do a little sewing for a little while.  The kitty is running around getting some energy run off before it is time for her to go to "her room" for the night.  Her wounds do seem to be healing up with this second round of antibiotics.  She is off exploring at the moment. I hear things clinking on a table somewhere up here...she is into something...she is very curious!  Just went to check.  She had gone up on the top of the bookcase in our bedroom and knocked off a tiny sheep (one of three) that "was" on the top.  She is batting it around on the floor in the bedroom.  I will have to keep my eye on it or it will disappear...she did this once the other night and I managed to rescue the sheep after she lost interest!  She is "some cat!"

Drippy Wednesday

It has drizzled off and on all day.  At the moment it is raining hard enough to hear it on the roof.  Today we rearranged school just a bit so I could leave a little early to get to my hair appointment at noon.  Joseph and Isaac came at their regular times.  Then we skipped Elijah and the rest of the readers moved up a slot which made it work out for Elijah to get his whole hour for Grammy long time. We read first and he finished a chapter in the book we are reading.  Then he decided that he wanted to do science experiments again.  So today he made a bubble blowing "machine" (Styrofoam cup, drinking straws, dishwashing liquid, and water).  He had fun making quite a lot of bubbles and controlled their size by how how hard he blew.  Then he made a tornado in a jar...a mason jar, water, and liquid dishwashing soap.  He also watched a video on how tornadoes form.  He had a good time and learned several things and I was able to be on my way in time to get to my appointment on time!

After my haircut, I headed straight to the church to work.  I got there and found out that the heating hadn't been fixed and it was freezing in the library.  I tried to text Donna not to come, but I was too late as she was on her way when I texted.  So we did maintenance and didn't stick around too long.  It was good to come home to my toasty warm house!

Woody's main activity today was bathing and washing his hair!  He is still having difficulty getting around.  His knee is bothering him.  Wondering just exactly what it is...he wonders about a torn meniscus which he had several years back...and I'm wondering if it could have to do with the fractured plate/broken screws/fractured bone cement.  He is staying pretty close to his chair, though he did make a pasta salad while I napped this afternoon (after my busy morning and early afternoon).

A while after I got home from the library, Isaac and Joseph came over to the house.  Isaac was huffing and puffing and groaning as if he was carrying something heavy.  Come to find out he had a HUGE stack of church library books.  He and the rest of the family were at church for juggling practice.  As I was leaving the church, Isaac came up and said that he might like to get some more books.  We had already checked out four books for them to take home.  So I told him that if he found something that he wanted to check out that he just needed to take the card out of the back of the book and write "Isaac" on it.  He brightened up and headed back to the library as I headed out the door.  Well, he checked out MANY books!  He was so proud of himself.  He discovered today how to check out books by himself and he took advantage of this new knowledge!  He brought them all over here and put them on our stairs (where library books for the children are kept!).  He then went through them and chose seven to take back over to their house for their daddy to read to them.  We ended up sitting down and reading two of them while they were here.  Joseph fell asleep!  AND...Isaac increased the church library's circulation exponentially for today!!!!  He also told me that he had signed all the cards and left them on the desk like I told him and that he had stacked them up so the counter was still neat!  He was so excited that he had done all this on his own!

Tuesday Tuesday!

Another busy day just staying at home!  I had school.  Joseph finished the third Bob Book...so he has read through what is considered the first set of  Bob Books. Esther decided to continue to do art work during her long time, but switched to using her Prisma colored pencils.  She tried out various techniques with them.  And, then we found some neat designs to color and then fold up into a shape.  She wants to make them into Christmas ornaments.

Woody decided to cut up the cauliflower for Italian Cauliflower and I steamed the florets and then made the oil, vinegar, and garlic concoction to pour over them.  I had thought of making a batch of cookies, but my cooking efforts went toward cauliflower today.  I got a load of wash going and got it into the dryer...guess I will need to get the clothes out of the dryer when I finish blogging and also get the kitchen the rest of the way cleaned up.  The dishwasher is going so now I have to do the dishes that didn't fit in.  At some point I needed to sit and rest and the rest turned into a nap.  I felt better after the nap and came down and ended up making a pot of potato soup (for me).  That is part of the reason that there are more dishes than would fit into the dishwasher.  I had been wanting potato soup and got the ingredients when I was at the store on Saturday.  Potato soup isn't Woody's favorite so he doesn't feel deprived at not being able to eat it...at least I don't think he does! Oh, my other effort of the day was emptying the waste baskets in the house and getting them out to the trash can and the trash can out to the road.  I, at least, thought to do it before it got dark!  It gets dark so early these days!  It seems like night by 5pm.

I did manage to make another Christmas present last night after I blogged.  I'm not sure that the energy to make another is in me tonight...we'll see after I get the kitchen cleaned and the load of wash folded and put away!

I've got tomorrow's school schedule rearranged slightly as I am going  to get the hair cut that I missed two weeks ago...with my hair two weeks over due is way too long over due.  I will be so glad to have it really short once again!

Rainy Fall Monday

It rained for a good part of the morning. Before school started I managed to do some vacuuming upstairs.  The rain on the roof made for a nice relaxing morning for school.  Isaac came over when Joseph did.  He worked with the 200 pennies that I had gotten for him at the Credit Union...he opened up the penny rolls and looked through them and separated out the new ones from the old ones and then looked through the old ones to see if there were any wheat pennies. Joseph read to me while Isaac did that.  Joseph is now reading lists of three letter phonetic words and continues to read the Bob Books.  He will finish the third hardback Bob Book tomorrow.  He's doing a very good job of remembering the sight words that are contained in those books.  It was a nice morning to read.  We turned on all the lights in the living room and enjoyed the dark rainy day. Joseph stayed and listened to Isaac read and then the two of them went home when it was time for Elijah to come over to read.  The rest read and then Joy enjoyed painting while it rained.  She is working with water colors and doing calligraphy. She loves making pretty swirly letters and other curlicue shapes.

After I got through with lunch, I got back to "work" on trying to figure out what is going on with the pricing of one of my medications.  I called the pharmacist at our independent drugstore to see if the pricing had gone up for them the way it seems to have gone up for me since moving to another pharmacy.  Her prices have not gone up and she questioned the explanation of the manufacturer's price having gone up.  She felt that it was a contract change for the Part D company.  Next I emailed the insurance agent who helped me find a new Part D plan to see what he thought and if there was anything else that I could do to check about this price rise or if I should report it to some insurance "police" in TN.  Who knows...I figure that I will be paying the price quoted and then get out of Dodge come January 1.  I appreciate my independent drugstore working with me even though I transferred my prescriptions away from them.  They know that I will be back to them soon!

After messing with medicine prices and Part D plans, I did a little ordering of Christmas presents online...so we are a little more ready for Christmas.  I "thought" that I was going to do a little sewing...but ended up finding myself asleep in my chair.  Maybe I got a bit of rest and can sew a bit after I blog. Something tells me that not as much is going to get as much sewing done for Christmas as I had hoped..."things/life" keeps getting in the way of sewing time!

Woody ran errands with his friend this morning.  Once again he didn't have to get out of the car...just take him to several places in town.  This evening he headed off to Monday night Furnace Room Prayer meeting.  He made it there and back on his own and didn't take his walker.  He is downstairs now eating the last piece of the French Cranberry Apple pie.  I have to empty the dishwasher so I can load it up with tonight's supper dishes.  We had Philly Steak sandwiches for lunch...Woody's one exception to his "no meat" rule. And, I think that he enjoyed breaking the rule!

Guess I will head off and get the kitchen cleaned up and then see about doing a little sewing before I drift off to sleep...again!

Want a Piece?

Looks pretty good doesn't it!  My late afternoon and into the evening baking produced one French Cranberry Apple Pie.  Yummy!  The funny thing about Woody's limited diet is that he can have sweets...processed white sugar...white flour...specific fruits...no dairy...very low salt (I did put a smidgen in the crust...less than half called for...crust just NEEDS at least a little salt!)...used coconut oil rather than butter or Crisco...anyway...a pretty yummy dessert resulted for his rather limited diet. One other change was that I put oats in the crumble topping instead of nuts (no nuts on his diet). There is one thing would have made it better: vanilla ice cream!  But that is a "no-no" on his strict kidney diet.

Today has been busy for both of us.  I did the weekly grocery shopping...three hours later I arrived home to put the groceries away!  Woody did venture out and drive for the first time.  He took groceries over to his friend who has no transportation (nor much of anything else, either...he mainly just has a roof over his head).  Woody didn't have to get out of the car.  His friend spotted him and he came out and got the groceries that Woody had for him and took them into his home.  Then Woody drove him to a couple places to get some things that he needed.  And, his friend got out and pumped the gas for Woody so Woody didn't even have to get out of the car till he got home!  He seemed to manage pretty well.  He is still keeping his walker close and is using it till his leg gets stronger.  He is being very careful.

I spent a looooooooooong time on the phone with my Part D prescription folk this afternoon...when I went to pick up my prescription today...they had two ready for me...and I had only phoned in one...that was just the start of things "not being right."  I will need that prescription in a week or so, but couldn't understand why it got filled when I had called and specifically asked for just one to be filled.  The pharmacist said that sometimes doctors just phone them in!  Really?!?  My doctor doesn't even know that I am using this pharmacy.  The next problem came when she told me how much I owed...four times + a little more than what I paid last month at the pharmacy that we have used for 50 years.  She couldn't explain why it was so expensive after I had met my deductible so she suggested that I call the Part D company...which I did...I was on the phone for more than 45 minutes...on hold a lot of the time...as the person on the phone tried to find out an answer to my question...why so much more than last month?...as I had met my deductible some time ago. The final answer after the third time of being put on hold was that the manufacturer had raised the price!  Now in all my years of getting medicine I have never had such a drastic change in a prescription price from one month to the next...except prior to meeting deductible.  While I was on hold I called "my pharmacy" (I still consider them "my pharmacy" and they will be again come January 1!) and asked the pharmacist to check to see what I had paid last month for this prescription and I had remembered correctly.  I told her what they were charging me at the "temporary pharmacy" and she couldn't believe it.  I plan to ask "my pharmacist" a few questions on Monday before I go pay the big price jump.  I want to find out from them if their price for this drug has risen due to manufacturer!   I wish that I could skip filling it till after the first of the year...but doubt that I will be able to stop taking it as it deals with both my arthritis and my transverse myelitis.  Oh, well, at the moment it is the principle of the thing!

I have the dishes in the dishwasher, but decided that I needed to relax and eat a piece of pie and drink a cup of Lipton Green Tea with Mandarin Orange before I bent down to put the dishwasher detergent in and close the door and run it.  I will do that after I finish tonight's blog.  My back is protesting my busy day!  I am heading to my recliner and heating pad as soon as I hit publish and go start the dishwasher.  Looking like another quiet Saturday night in this Dorrell household.  The neighbors (Nathan and Kathy and family) have put up their Christmas tree.  I'm not sure that ours is going up this year.  I was told "after the first of the year" for kitchen renovations to begin so I would just as soon not have to put away Christmas...but I haven't heard from the contractor so who knows when "after the first of the year" really is! Guess I should call him...but every time I tell myself that I will call "something" happens that keeps me from making the call.

Free and Clear!

 Woody is free of his splint and the place on his leg that

had the infection looks clear.  He is to finish taking the antibiotic and hopefully the infection will stay away.

Dr. Holt will see him in a month and then will discuss what needs to be done about the plate that has a fracture in it.  She said that she thought about him when she was doing surgery this morning (took longer than planned and we sat for a loooooong time waiting for her to come see Woody).  The reason that she thought about Woody was that the lady that she was operating on had a lot of damage to her bone and in the end Dr. Holt had to make her a new bone.  Not sure if she is thinking that she may have to do this for Woody or not!  She wants him completely free of the infection before she will even consider what to do next for his leg!  She was very pleased when she took off the wrapping and the hard part of the splint to see that the infected area looked soooo very much better.  The only thing that looked bad was all the sharpie marks on his leg.  The nurse/tech who wiped off his leg wanted to know what all the blue on his leg was...the last mark that the doctor made just prior to us leaving Vanderbilt last Thursday to mark where the infection
still remained..

We left the house at 8am...Nathan driving and pulled back into our driveway a little after 3pm...another long Vanderbilt day!

Tonight's photos show a few scenes along the street that leads us to Vanderbilt.  Last week was the peak for leaf color, but they were still quite pretty today.  This is the first time that I had noticed the motorized scooters that now are seen along city streets...somehow the person who needs to use them pays (Nathan figures with a credit card) and they ride so far before they have to pay some more.  We saw a lot of them along the way.  On the way home we saw quite a few people riding them along the sidewalks.  The company that owns this one is "Bird."  We also saw one from another company, too.  There was a new bike path along this road too that we hadn't seen before...and we were just here last week.  Always something new or some changes.  I had read a while back about these scooters...for a time downtown Nashville banned them, but have since lifter the ban...I guess!

I don't know about Woody but today tired me out.  I am ready to sit in my chair and rest for the rest of the evening.  He is able to put weight back on his leg, but he is going about it cautiously.  He is still using his walker, but now putting both feet on the ground.  They told him that just a week of not using it that the muscle would not be as strong as last week.  He says that what he notices mostly is that it is a bit stiff.  We had pasta for supper.  I made two different sauces: a red clam sauce for me and a white sauce for Woody.  The kitchen is cleaned up.  The dishwasher has run.  The kitten is in "her room" for the night.  Woody is reading and watching TV.  I'm going to go read.  So it looks like we are settled in for another quiet Friday evening!

A Window on Our World

This is about all I saw of the outside world today.  It has been a pretty busy day.  School was a bit different day as Joseph had brought a shirt over yesterday and wanted to put a machine embroidered design on it.  So that took all of his time and a little of  Isaac's reading time.Joseph put a monkey on his shirt.  The moment that it was finished he took the shirt he had been wearing and popped his new shirt on.  Isaac decided that he wanted to do a design on one of his shirts so he went home and got his shirt and during the rest of his reading time he hunted for the design that he wanted on his shirt.  He chose a mama penguin with a baby penguin sitting on her feet.  He found the thread colors that he wanted and he was ready to machine embroider it during his long time.  Esther and Elijah came over early and got busy on Snap Circuits building their own.  I didn't hear anyone get shocked so I guess that they managed to complete their circuits correctly or at least such that they worked one way of another.  Because they did that during Joseph's long time.  They worked on their school work during their reading times.  They came over here this morning to do school as their daddy was occupied doing something and their mother had gone to Bible study.  Joy came over to read during her time and then Isaac got busy on embroidering his design on his shirt during his long time with me.  By the time I got through, I was exhausted...change of routine gets my head in a spin!

Woody had lunch after I got finished with school.  There were two half bowls of soup left...one of cabbage and the other apple barley.  I let him have both of those to give him a whole bowl of soup!  Then I got busy ad made another pot of cabbage soup...this time he didn't want any of the other veggies that I had been adding into the cabbage...he wanted it just like the original recipe minus the Polish sausage.  He had that for supper.  I had meat and potatoes!  I was ready for a "regular" meal!  After I made the soup, I came upstairs and took a little nap.  Georgia Kitty joined me.  I guess she might be becoming a lap kitty after all! After supper, I got the kitchen cleaned up and then came up to blog. And, that about sums up the day.

Tomorrow we will be heading Vanderbilt way once again.  Nathan will be driving us.  Hopefully Woody will get the splint off and be able to put some weight on that leg!  I am hoping to see the infection about gone.  Time will tell!  He says that it doesn't hurt except for one place towards the top of the infection...hoping that the cast hasn't rubbed on it too much...again...time will tell. We are all (kitty included) settling in for another quiet evening in this Dorrell household.    

Cooler Wednesday

The temperatures are starting to go down once again.  I guess by the weekend it may be cold rather than cool.  Woody has had a stay close to home kind of day...which is what the doctor ordered...resting his leg as much as possible.  I had a normal school day, except that Esther didn't read with me today because she and her mom took Georgia back to the vet to have her wounds checked.  The vet prescribed another stronger antibiotic since she still hasn't healed. Elijah had his long time.  Today he worked on electric circuits using the Snap Circuit sets that we have.  After school, I grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to the library.  Donna, Fran, and I worked on a new book order so we will soon have a few more books in circulation.  I came home and plopped in a chair in the family room and Georgia joined me and slept on my lap for a little while.  She isn't the cuddliest of cats so I hated to disrupt her lap sitting time...good excuse to rest for a while! We have had supper and I cleaned up the kitchen.  I have a load of wash going as Joseph is wanting to put a machine embroidered design on a shirt and it needs to be washed and dried before we put the design on it.  He plans to do that during his time with me tomorrow instead of having Osmo time.  I need to get it ready tonight and have the threads chosen or we won't have time to get it done in the time that he is here.  I got a couple of books for Woody at the library and he has already started one.

Tonight's photo I took yesterday when the sun was shining on our little Tulip Poplar (TN's state tree).  This is taken down the side of our house between our house and Nathan's and into the back yard...so pretty with yellows and oranges right now.  The storm the night before last did blow down a lot of leaves and branches, but pretty leaves still remain.  The tornado sirens did go off for us which  means a "tornado warning" = tornado on the ground.  But it went off after the radar showed it was all clear for us...once this storm passed it was gone and wasn't going to have another to follow.  It went through quickly.  I'm pretty sure that the siren went off because there was a tornado sighted in our county...but not our part of the county.  There was a tornado that touched down and caused damage in a little town down the road from us in Decherd, TN.  And, there was one that touched down and caused a lot of damage including killing one 42-year-old lady and injured two or three others.  That tornado was very close to where our daughter lives.  So sad.  The people who were injured lived in a trailer that was flipped over several times.  But the lady who was killed lived in a large two-story house.  The roof collapsed in on her.  Two suggestions--always--that the weather folk tell their viewing audience:1. Go to the lower floor of your house to an inside room with no windows. 2. If you live in a trailer go to a safer place.  They had been repeating that over and over that night for a long time before the storm actually hit.  One of the problems with that storm was it came in the middle of the night...but we had all been warned from early in the week that we were going to have bad storms that night so this one didn't sneak up on anyone...but when it arrived, it did arrive quickly and left about as quickly.  I heard the rain hit the side of our house with quite a force.  I gathered up a folding chair and my iPad and cell phone and headed downstairs.  I hated to wake up Woody, but I knew that if it was necessary for him to get situated in our safe place--the downstairs bathroom--that it would take a few minutes to get in there.  When I got downstairs and woke him up, he turned on a Huntsville TV channel (we only get Alabama TV stations on our antenna) and I had a Nashville channel live streaming.  Huntsville was focused on the one close to us and the Nashville was focused on the one near Mealny and mentioned us every so often.  So we were covered with what was happening weather wise for us and all areas surrounding us.  We knew by the radar when the cold front got through and we were in the clear.  Woody went back to sleep and I went upstairs to try to go to sleep!  And, then the phone went off as did our warning siren...but we knew that all was clear and the siren went off pretty quickly.  So that was our exciting night the night before last! Today we have had a little rain off and on...no storms...thank goodness!

Fall Leaves by Esther

 

Esther has been inspired by all the pretty fall leaves to attempt to paint them.  I think that she did a pretty good job!  The top leaf Isaac chose for her to paint because it was such a big leaf.  Esther told him that she would paint it, but wouldn't paint it brown like the leaf really was so she put her own interpretation on what colors to paint it.  The next one Isaac and Joseph pointed out to Esther that there were green hearts at the bottom of the leaf.  So Esther painted green hearts on it.  Once again she had fun with the water colors that she got for her birthday.  She is becoming quite a little artist.  She has picked up water color painting quite easily and enjoys blending the colors together. We had a usual Tuesday school.
day.  Everyone who was supposed to read to me did and those who had other lessons with me had those.

Woody and I had lunch and not long after eating, we headed off to Woody's nephrologist appointment.  One more doctor visit under his belt...at least we didn't have two more today!  We're tired as it is, I can't imagine having attempted to go to all that were originally on the calendar for today! Dr. O. addressed Woody's anemia today and is going to set up an appointment for him to get a shot that is sometimes needed when kidneys are failing. He probably won't be able to get that shot till his cellulitis infection is gone.  Hopefully he will find that it is much better when the splint is taken off on Friday.


                                                                           



 

One Ringy Dingy! Two Ringy Dingy!

Today has been a day that belonged to the phones.  I armed Woody with one of our wireless phones before school started for me and the children.  That way he could handle any appointments that we got calls about.  When we started out the day, I had one appointment scheduled for early tomorrow morning 45 minutes away.  Woody had two appointments scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.  One about ten minutes away and the other 1-1/2 hours away.  We knew that a couple of those had to be rearranged.  The first call that he got was the reminder call from my doctor's office.  It was a recording so I had to call them to reschedule for another day.  We took a shot at putting my appointment (only for 6-month labs and to see the doctor for a quick check-in).  So I got that one put off till December.  Then Woody got another call that he thought was Vanderbilt, but it was his nephologist's office...so that was a bit confusing until he got it straightened out that which office was calling.  By 2pm we still hadn't heard from Vanderbilt.  Dr. Holt had told me in an email that she would have her nurse/assistant call us this morning.  I told Woody that I would call them if we hadn't heard by 2pm.  I did have to call and managed to get put into a 3-way call with the appointment scheduler and Dr. Holt's nurse.  They had been extra busy today and she hadn't gotten a chance to call us, but she knew that Dr. Holt had said that Woody could be seen on Friday.  That is a surgery day for her, but she will see him between surgeries...should be interesting.  We have been told a time in the morning to be there.  We will be taken into a room and Dr. Holt will be notified that he is there and she will come between surgeries.  We'd probably better be sure to each take a book to while away the time!  And, then when you add in all the calls from politicians, our phone had lots of "ringy dingies" today!

I spent more time cooking this afternoon.  I tried a kidney friendly recipe for Soft Ginger Cookies.  Woody approved that recipe to be made again in the future.  I also made another kidney friendly recipe for Pasta Primavera.  It's one of the recipes that we have had from the first that Woody made several times when he first started on this diet.  I changed the ingredients in the sauce and made it more kidney friendly as the original recipe called for half-and-half cream...which is dairy and Woody isn't supposed to have dairy so I substituted rice milk which seemed to work fine.  It also has some of my homemade chicken stock in it.  The kitchen is cleaned except for the big pots and I'm not sure that I am up to doing those tonight.  The dishwasher has run so most of the dishes are clean...only the big pot that I cooked the pasta in and a couple of utensils that I don't put in the dishwasher.  I'm not used to this routine of having to do three meals a day for him.  He is usually on his own for breakfast and lunch.  But these days when it is difficult to balance while walking with a walker, it's more like juggling if he adds in the cooking that he usually does!  By the end of the day I am very ready for "my recliner!"

A week ago, Woody had just entered into the hospital at Vanderbilt.  His main concern was who would open up and lead the Furnace Room Prayer meeting.  Tonight he was back home, hobbled, but ready to be back in the Furnace Room Prayer meeting.  Kathy drove him so he was able to go.  He is now back home and was pretty when he got back to his recliner in the family room.  Hopping is for the birds...I'm sure he will tell you!  Hopefully the half-leg splint will come off and stay off on Friday. I'm just hoping that the hard part of the splint isn't rubbing the area at the top of the cellulitis.  He says that it isn't hurting now except towards the top...of course the way it was going away was from the bottom to the top...so maybe it is still hurting there because the infection still hasn't gone away in that spot.  We will see on Friday!

Bad storms are predicted to come through sometime in the night/wee hours of the morning.  All should be over by the time we get up in the morning.  Hoping not to be awakened by tornado sirens!  We are in a tornado watch which means that conditions are right for tornadoes.

Tomorrow is Election Day.  We are so glad that we early voted! The day we voted the week before last, we never dreamed that he would be in a non-weight bearing splint on election day!

Started Changing Clocks!

This little bird (a brown thrush) is hopping to tell most of you that it is time to get ready to turn your clocks back an hour and IF you go to bed at your normal time you will get an extra hour of sleep.  Now...my Arizona family and friends don't heed my advice or you will probably be the only ones who change your clocks and will be totally messed up!  I started changing clocks a little while ago and I will admit that it is confusing.  I keep thinking that it is later than what the clock reads...and it is...at least for a few more hours!  But I really don't want to get up at 2am to change the clocks when the time actually changes!  I haven't changed my watch yet so that lets me know what time it "really" is for the next few hours!

Woody has stayed quiet and rested his leg for most of the day.  He has moved from the couch to his recliner.  He is supposed to have his leg raised above his heart and that is hard to do except when he is lying down on the couch with it propped on around three pillows.

I didn't go anywhere today except to take Graham to an event and then pick him up.  He stayed home because he had plans with Civil Air Patrol today and his family had a gig out of town.  So I provided him transportation to and from. He has decided that he will get his driver's license soon...hasn't really wanted to get it until recently.  This morning I made Woody a pot of cabbage soup minus any Polish sausage, instead added quite a few more kinds of veggies.  Then this afternoon I made him cookies.  I bought coconut oil yesterday for a Snickerdoodle recipe.  Surprisingly enough they turned out quite well.  The next time that I make pie crust, I am going to try using coconut oil.  Woody was pleased to have an approved sweet.  Things that you don't think about that are in recipes are no-no's...like baking powder...so have to find baked goods that have no milk products (butter) and no baking powder plus usually something else is in recipes that he shouldn't have.  Baking soda is okay and Snickerdoodles have baking soda and cream of tartar...both okay...the coconut oil substituted for the butter.  This recipe didn't even call for salt so that was good.  In between cooking and cleaning up the kitchen and making sure that Woody's water glass was full, I rested in my recliner.  I didn't go to the library for him today.  Instead a book order came for the church library and I gave him a book from it to read.  He finished it just before I came upstairs.  He has had one football game or another on this afternoon.  And, he has done a little dozing and of course he has worked his cross word puzzles. By the way his nurse was able to get the crossword puzzle printed off for him the day before we came home.

We have the best ortho doctor for being able to communicate with her, among other reasons like she is a very good doctor!  I emailed her a little before noon about our being unable to go to the appointment on Tuesday and within 20 minutes she had emailed back.  She is going to have her nurse call Monday morning and reschedule the appointment for later in the week.  Woody wanted it later anyway because he wanted to do as he had been told and leave the splint on for a week to rest his leg.  I really didn't want him to miss his nephrologist's appointment here in town so it is all going to work out...at least as things stand at the moment!  I plan to reschedule my appointment that I have that morning, so we will be down to just one appointment and it will be in Tullahoma...no traveling except for a short distance on Tuesday.

Woody plans to only teach Sunday School in the morning.  Nathan is going to come over and turn the car around so it will be easier for Woody to get in.  The front seat is easier for him to get into because it can slide back far, but the driveway is so narrow and the garden is on that side and so easy for a tumble to happen.  So Nathan will turn the car around so there is access to passenger side of car from our front walkway.  I will drive him to right in front of the building where he teaches, get his walker out for him, and then he will hobble into the building to teach Sunday School.  I will go across the street where my Sunday School class is located, go to my class, and then drive the car right up close again to his building, and whisk him safely back home!  And, when he is on his own...he will go "hop, hop, hoppin' along like this little bird...except the bird has two good legs!"

The leaves were beautiful as I drove through town!

Busy Friday...At Least for Me!

As you can see from tonight's photos, the leaves are getting to their prettiest.  I took these pictures from the backseat of the car, yesterday on our way home from Vanderbilt.  Such a pretty drive even though part of it was in the rain.

Woody seems to be surviving being hobbled.  He stays put as much as possible and I try to get things that he needs for him so he doesn't have to get up.

I left him for several hours today to do what Woody usually does on Friday = grocery shop and run errands.  Nathan helped out and took Woody's friend to run his errands.  I got the fun of going to a new grocery store that opened while we were at Vanderbilt: Publix.  I have always liked this store when we have stopped at them in other cities. I went in to check it out and get a few things.  Then I went to WalMart to pick up a few items for the house.  Then it was on to Kroger and that was the last stop on my Friday store tour!  I did manage to transfer my prescriptions over to the Kroger pharmacy as my insurance stopped mid year having our local pharmacy as part of their preferred drugstores.  I have signed up for a new drug plan so will be transferring my prescriptions back to the local pharmacy after the first of the year, but till then I will have to get them filled at Kroger.  I got all the groceries put away and then rested or a little while before getting started on our supper.  We had something new: Chimichurri on bowtie pasta.  Woody and I watched a couple of cooking shows on Food Network while he was in the hospital and one of the people cooking made chimichurri and we realized that the ingredients were all things he could have except for salt.  So I told him that I would find a recipe and make it for him sometime.  So I have made it.  I used parsley and oregano from our herb garden--it was pretty chilly out there cutting what I needed!  Quite a chilly day!  We both liked it so I will add it to the cookbook notebook that has recipes that Woody can eat at the moment.  I also found rice milk and coconut oil today.  Both of those I can use when making recipes that are okay for Woody to eat.  I found a dairy-free recipe for Snickerdoodles.  Woody is in the mood for some sweets!  And, a good portion of sweets he can have...as long as no dairy in them.  So I am trying to find acceptable substitutes.

Woody said that he had a pretty good night's sleep last night.  But he has been pretty sleepy today...lots of dozing in his chair and stretched out on the couch.  He is trying to keep his leg elevated above his heart.  He was told that his leg would heal more quickly if he keeps his leg elevated. I'm sure that he is more sleepy due to his days in the hospital catching up with him or due to his new antibiotic or just due to pushing the walker and hopping on one leg...not easy.  I am a bit concerned that the top of the splint (which is a lot like a cast at the top) may be rubbing on the top of the infected part of his leg.  I hope that the splint doesn't irritate the place and not let it heal!  We have to decide about the appointment that it looks like has been made for him.  It is happening sooner than a week...as on this coming Tuesday.  If that is right, (we haven't been told, but I found it listed on the Vandy MyHealth app for Woody then that could be a busy day of appointments for us.  I am supposed to have one 45 min. away in McMinnville at 8:20 that morning, and Woody has his nephrologist appointment at 1:20pm in the afternoon in Tullahoma and then if this one is scheduled as I , saw he has one in Nashville at 3:20pm.  There is no way that all these can happen on that day!  I hate for him to miss his nephrolgist appointment as he hasn't seen him in several months.  I did stop at the nephrologist's office today when running errands and drop off all the lab records that Woody had done this week so he can see them before the appointment.  Woody missed his lab appointment for the nephrologist due to being in the hospital, but since the hospital was keeping a good watch on everything that the nephrologist keeps watch on these should work and Woody won't have to give up any more blood for these tests!  If the nephrologist, needs something else then he can order it for Woody to have done at a later date!  I'm hoping that Vanderbilt can move their appointment to another time.

I guess I had better go check on Woody and finish cleaning up the kitchen.  It seems like it has been a long day and it isn't over yet!