More Rain!

We have had rain off and on most of the day...sometimes just a drizzle and at others downpours!  This  robin may look rather spring-like, but if what I heard a few minutes ago, we are heading back down to cold temperatures once again.  I figured that we were just getting spoiled with spring-like temps.  Oh, well, this is typical pre-spring see-sawing back and forth between really pleasant days and then days that are downright cold.  I guess we just have to brace ourselves!

Woody did a little of our grocery shopping this morning.  I had a regular Thursday of school with most of the children.  After lunch, Donna and I worked in the church library for a while...doing maintenance and getting a new book order through the first steps of processing.  Woody had PT this afternoon...I think that next week they will be wrapping up his PT time and his rehab will be put solely on his shoulders.  We're both ready.

Kitchen plans may be getting closer to getting underway.  I think that I actually just printed off a contract to be signed by us and the contractor.  Still don't know when it will actually get underway, but things seem to be heading in the right direction.

Happy 17th, Graham!

With Days Like Today...

With days like today the promise of Spring seems very real.  It was a really pretty day!  I finally got a picture of our little miniature Dutch Iris and our mini jonquils...and, yes, they have finally seen their shadow!  It's so good to now had several days in a row without rain.

Woody walked outside for part of his PT today.  He went to the prayer room at church after we had supper and is now home.  I had a usual Tuesday school day, Esther "painted" with her water color pencils... a blue bird in a nest...I guess Esther is thinking Spring, too!  After school, I headed off to get my hair cut.  On the way home I stopped and bought some thread and some machine needles.  After the PT person left, I fixed out supper and we are a bit early since Woody was going to the prayer room.

Sunshine for a Change!

Tonight's photo is one that I took when I headed off with Nathan and family to check out the flooded areas.  I decided to try a panorama photo to show the ball field where Elijah played his Fall Ball games all the way back to the bridge that goes over Rock Creek.  The bridge is in the middle of the photo on the far right.  You can get a better feel for the picture if you click on it and make it bigger.  We are standing on the sidewalk that leads to the bridge...but we are as far as you could go at that time as the rest of the sidewalk was under water.  The yellow and black is the top of the baseball outfield fence.  All the outfield was under water...the water stopped at the infield when we were there.

At least it didn't rain yesterday or today.  But the flood waters are still rising.  Mudslides are happening and roads have washed out.  I'm glad that I can stay at home and not have to do much traveling on the back roads especially...though the worst mudslide happened on one of our interstates to the north of Nashville.

I had a normal day of school.  Joy painted during her long time.  She is painting with watercolors and likes to paint birds...or at least today's painting was of a bird.  Woody's home health nurse paid him a visit today.  Since he doesn't have the picc line, it was a pretty quick visit.  Things are starting to wind down with the home health folk.  By the second week in March, I think that he will be finished with nurse and PT visits.  We are both ready for those visits to stop!

This evening Woody went to the church for the Furnace Room Prayer meeting.  He is now home so I guess we are settling in for a quiet rest of the evening.

Should We Buy A Boat?

Here are pictures that Kathy took out her upstairs windows of our front and back yards this morning during one of the hard downpours that we have had today.  She posted them on FaceBook and someone tabbed them "Lake Dorrell!"  This afternoon I joined most of the neighbor Dorrell's in their van and headed out to see some of the nearby flooding.  I took a few pictures!  But I decided to use Kathy's for tonight's blog since it shows what it has looked like here.  I will say that it does sink into the ground once the rain ceases for a time...so it isn't standing water at the moment.  Boy is our ground saturated.  It feels all squishy when you walk on it.

Woody chose to stay in and keep dry today.  Not a lot of activity at our house today...a pretty quiet Saturday except for the sound of rain on our roof!  It's not raining at the moment, but there are still supposed to be some strong storms blow through tonight...then maybe by morning we will have a break in the rain for at least a couple of days.  Till then..."Glub! Glub!"

Friday Ins and Outs

These little dwarf irises are in full bloom at the moment...BUT...this is not a photo of the current blooms...and, I can tell without knowing when the photo was taken.  There has been no sun to produce shadows since these bloomed!

Woody's first trip out was to Kroger to get the rest of our groceries.  Then he came home and we both brought the groceries in.  I put them away and after Woody rested a couple of minutes he headed out again this time to take his friend shopping.  Abigail came over for her home ec time with me.  She worked some more on her quilt.  When Woody got home, I left and delivered some groceries that we had gotten for a friend.  After I got back, I got busy making a soup recipe.  While I was cooking, Woody's PT person came and put him through his paces.  When the soup was finished, Woody and I headed to the hospital to visit with friends at the hospital.  We came home and had supper and I have cleaned up the kitchen.  And, I think that there are no more "outs" for this day...that we are "in" for
the evening!

It has rained some today, but nothing like the last few days.  I think that it was just a respite for what is in store for us tomorrow...supposed to be some heavy storms tomorrow.

Do You Think It Will Rain?

I just made screen shots of the WeatherBug current radar (top photo...Tullahoma is the bottom red pin) and then took a picture of the estimated rainfall that we have had today, this month, and this year!  Talk about a wet year...I'm not sure how accurate these numbers are as they are estimated from the radar.  But I do know that we have had a lot.  Woody made the comment this morning that he bet our rain gauge was overflowing...I'm sure it is since we haven't made many trips out there to check on it...a bit too boggy underfoot!

I had school this morning.  Woody went to Aldis to knock that stop off his grocery shopping list tomorrow.  He made his Apple Zucchini bread after lunch.  I headed off after lunch to work in the library for a little while.  Donna and I did maintenance.  When I got home I made a book order and plan to make another one.  Just before I headed out the door to go to the library, the phone rang and Woody's PT person called to say she was coming.  She is a new face amongst the care givers that we have seen over the last weeks. She is coming back tomorrow...guess they have to get in their two times in the week!  Till tomorrow...unless we float away!

An Inside View

Here is a photo of the copy of the X-Ray that the doctor gave Woody yesterday.  Seems like this should hold him together at least for a while!

It has been a VERY rainy day today.  At the moment no rain is coming down...but more is on its way for tomorrow and on into the weekend.  I had a rainy day of school with children shod in various ways from rain boots to flip flops.  Some of the stepping stones between their house and ours were under water.  I stayed in to keep dry.  Woody had to venture out after lunch to go for his anemia shot, a B-12 shot, and to see the doctor who is watching over Woody's anemia.  Woody thinks that the doctor was pleased with how Woody is doing.

Water's Rising On An Eventful Day

It has been a rather full day...with lots of rain!  We left the house at 6am to get to Nashville by 8am for the first of Woody's Vanderbilt appointments.  He was called back fairly quickly and taken for an X-Ray.  After he got back to the room from X-Ray we waited quit na while for the doctor to come in. We had a different doctor, which I had realized when I checked something the other day on Woody's online health summary, and noticed that Dr. Holt's name was no longer down for Woody's appointment.  We found out that Dr. Holt was out on a medical leave till next month.  And, the doctor we wer seeing was taking her place while she was off.  In that conversation with one of Dr. Holt's assistants that we see each time, we found out that Dr. Holt has 4-year-old twin boys.  We had no idea.  That appointment went well.  The X-Ray looks good.  Woody goes back toned Dr. Holt in three 

months.

We then walked to the infectious disease clinic.  We still got there a bit early, but not as early as I thought that we might.  Again, we were called right in and this time it didn't take long for Dr. Allos to come in.  She made decisions as to the two oral antibiotics that she wants Woody to take for two months and wrote orders for a blood draw and then removal of the picc line.  So another hurdle cleared...no more picc line.  Woody goes back to infectious disease clinic in two months.  So the calendar remains pretty full of Vandy appts. He also has appointments to go back to Dr. Wyman in the not too distant future.  

At this point...a little after 11am...we had avoided the rain.  It didn't start raining on us till we got to Murfreesboro.  Woody made the decision to go the back road and avoid the semi truck splashes of a rainy day.  That is the reason that I got tonight's blog photos.  The Duck River was definitely up...and 

I'm guessing that after all the rain that we have gotten this afternoon and evening that it is probably running over the road at the place we stopped on the one-way bridge for me to take these pics.

On the way home, I realized that things were not going to end as smoothly as they had gone so far.  I realized that I forgot to transfer my keys to the bag that I carried to Vanderbilt.  And, I realized that probably the extra key wasn't outside where it was supposed to be...that it was in the kitchen where I had put it when the neighbors returned it after using it a while back.  Oops!  We pulled into the garage and I discovered that I could get the Internet on my iPad when in the garage (we do't have a smart phone).  I found a locksmith's phone number and called.  He came quite quickly.  He had trouble getting in as our locks had been installed upside down on two of the doorknobs that he tried.  He finally was successful.  We got home a little after 1pm and were in the house around 2pm!  

I found in email that our kitchen estimate had been sent earlier in the day.  So I am going that with a fine toothed comb.  Woody rested for a few ipminutes and then went to the pharmacy to get his new antibiotics.  I fixed supper.  Now we are ready to sit back and collapse!  Woody has another appointment tomorrow...for his anemia shot and to see that doctor.  No rest from the medical field around here!  Oh, yes, the PT person called while we were away.  She was a different one and didn't know that we would be away.  She called back a little while ago and we will reschedule...sometime!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Here's how our little hydroponic garden grows.  And, to tell the truth, it has grown even more since I took this picture on Saturday.  The tallest plant is dill.  There is also curly parsley, thyme, mint, and two kinds of basil. The clay bird houses our daughter, Melany, made.  They will find a spot out in the yard come Spring.

We have had a fairly quiet Presidents' Day.  I guess that is getting us ready for a full morning of appointments at Vanderbilt tomorrow and his appointment with the oconology folk here in town on Wednesday.  I just got the confirmation call from the TN Oncology folk a few minutes ago.  The oncology appointment is for his anemia shot and I think that he sees a doctor there this time.

This morning I had a usual day of school.  The home health nurse came to draw blood and change the dressing on his picc line.  His PR guy didn't come today, though he told him the last time he was here that he would be here today.  Hope he doesn't try to come tomorrow since we won't be here.  Woody did tell him that he has appointments tomorrow so we should be good.

At the moment Woody is at the Furnace Room Prayer meeting.  After he gets home, we will be all settled in for the evening.  Hopefully he will get a good night's sleep.  We will be heading off early in the morning...the good Lord willing!

Throwing in the Towels

I guess the title of tonight's blog should really be "Sewing on the Towels."  That's pretty much what I have done most of the day.  I have put an initials or names on towels that Kathy had gotten for the neighbor grandchildren.  So they have new personalized towels.  Since Esther and Elijah have the amen first initial, I put their second initial, too...at their request.  I decided to put the little boys' names on theirs since they are just beginning to read.  Anyway, job is done!

It has been a cloudy, rather dreary day...but no rain once the sun came up that I am are of.  I hear that we are due for a lot of rain in a couple of days...I'm thinking that it might be on the day we are due to go back to Nashville.  Woody has appointments with Dr. Holt and with the infectious disease clinic on Tuesday morning.

We have had a fairly quiet day.  Woody went to the library and made a trip out to the mail box.  Those were his two times out of the house.  He has done crossword puzzles, read, and watched TV while I sewed.  That about sums up our exciting Saturday!

Rainy Friday

We are once again having rain.  It has certainly been a rainy year so far.  Woody was able to get all his running around today done when it was dry.  He did our grocery shopping and took his friend shopping and also visited with a couple from church.  He is now ensconced in his recliner in the family room...having "earned" some down time!  He even emptied the dishwasher and then washed the dishes that I had waiting to put into the dishwasher.

I made some chicken noodle soup this afternoon.  Now we are settling in for another quiet Friday evening on the home front!

Happy Valentine's Day 2019

Does this look yummy...or what!!  This is the creation of Abigail (15).  She was asked/hired to make some surprise cheesecakes as Valentine's presents.  This one is a Reese's cheese cake and another one was a carrot cake cheesecake.  I know that she also made a plain cheesecake to share with her fellow teachers at Montessori...and she may have made one other...I'm not sure!  But she was kept very busy the last several days getting them all made!  Tonight Abigail and Graham are "babysitting" so a couple can go out for a Valentine date.

Speaking of going on a date...I heard from Isaac this afternoon that his mommy and daddy are going out on an "ultimate date!" Woody is next door keeping an eye on five of their seven.  We knew for a while that this date was going happen, but the details were kept a secret...I just know that tickets were involved and that it was happening in the Nashville a area.  I guess that I will go over and be a reinforcement when it comes time to get most into bed at a decent hour, since tomorrow is a school
day.

We had a usual school day. Isaac had his long time today.  He decided to build with K'nex since they were all organized again!  He is quite the builder...he now likes to follow the directions in the many K'nex instructions books that we have, but he still likes to create his own structures....usually quite large structures that he can get inside of...which means that the living room might look like a construction zone when he gets to building.

 I am going to personalize some towels for the neighbor grandchildren at Kathy's request.  I have been hunting out appropriate embroidery fonts to use,  I'm just putting first initials on the older children's towels, but decided that I would write the names of the two youngest boys since they are young readers.  I think that I have found fonts that are pleasing for each of the children's initials...nothing fancy...but each will be a different style of lettering.  Now to get my machine cranked up and get it stitching!

Woody had physical therapy this morning.  It was nice enough that they walked outside...down the street a little ways, up Nathan's driveway and then back by way of Nathan's front walkway and the stepping stones between our houses.  Woody has had a sinus headache for several days.  He thought that it was some better today.

Word of the Day

Woody receive a call this morning from the infectious disease doctor's office telling him to STOP all three of his antibiotics because his creatinine level was continuing to rise.  He is only five days out from completing the 42 days of antibiotics.  I figure they will decide next week when/if they want him to continue with the one and add the new one in.  The new one he will supposedly take for the rest of his life.  But at the moment he has been freed from taking antibiotics. 

Other than that our day was pretty ordinary.  I did run a couple of errands and stopped at the church to pick up something for Woody and decided to do library maintenance while there.  We had school this morning.  Elijah invited Esther to join him for his long time.  He wanted to do science experiments.  They ended up making a sun dial.  It was a good day to make that as the sun was shining...and their sundials did work.  As soon as I hit publish for this blog, I am heading downstairs to mop the kitchen floor.  I have been telling myself for a while that I needed to do that task.  I guess I finally talked myself into doing it!

Still Looking Back

Here's a photo when I went to Ocean City, New Jersey for a sewing retreat back in 2001 (one month to the date after 9/11/01).  I call this one Sunrise Fishermen.  I had planned to go on this trip months before September 11th.  The transportation got a bit changed around due to that infamous day.  I had a ticket to fly into Atlantic City, but arrivals there had all been cancelled.  In the end I flew into Philadelphia, PA and then took a train to Atlantic City.  It was quite an adventure.  But we had a wonderful time in a beach house just a block away from the ocean.  The morning I took this, I happened to wake up early and looked out the window and could see that the sunrise was going to be beautiful.  So dressed quickly and slipped out of the house without disturbing the others and enjoyed taking the sunrise from various points on the beach.  I thoroughly enjoyed capturing this trip on my digital camera that I had had for less than a year.  I was sort of the official photographer of the group...snapping happily all the fun things that we did on this long weekend.

We have had a fairly "normal" day...school, no PT, no nurse...only folk in the house today were we and the neighbor grandchildren and their parents occasionally popping in.  This evening Woody drove to the church for his time in the prayer room.  He has just returned.  So I guess I can say that we are settling in for a quiet evening.

My How Times Change!

I was looking through pictures the other day and came across some scans of photos taken in 1957, when Mother, Cheryl, and I spent some time in Massachusetts with her sister and family.  The photo at the start of the blog was taken on the day we were leaving to get on a train to head back to Arizona. Can you imagine dressing like this in this day and age?  Note that Cheryl even has on little white gloves!  At the end of the blog is a photo of my Uncle Don, Aunt Lois, Grandpa, and me at the train station. They dressed to the nines to see us off too!  Cheryl is two and I'm nine.  We didn't get to travel the way folk do today and we didn't make the trip from AZ to MA very often.  When we did go we stayed for quite a few weeks...probably close to a month.  Since we stayed so long Daddy didn't go with us, but stayed at home and held the fort down...as I'm sure he would have said!  We spent time at the beach in New Hampshire for several days and also spent time visiting with Mother's aunts and uncles while we were there.  I remember the first time I tasted blueberry pie was on one of these trips. They had a front screened in piazza where I loved to sit and read...especially on rainy days.  They had a cellar...I can still remember that peculiar musty smell.  They also had stairs on the second floor that led up to an attic that you could stand up in.  And, there were toys and games that Mother and Aunt Lois played with as children...there was even a set of blocks that had been Grandpa's when he was a little boy,  I have that set of blocks and some of the card games and books that were stored in the attic in our home now. We had fun times when we got that special time to visit.

Today has been a busy day for the comings and goings of health folk for Woody.  First his PT guy came.  Then not long after his nurse came for a blood draw and to change the dressing on his picc line site.  He also had an antibiotic infusion today.  That only takes five minutes now.  And, I think that he will have less than a week of those infusions now.  I think that the last one will be on Sunday.  And, I think that he will get his picc line out on Tuesday when he goes back to Vanderbilt to see both Dr. Holt and the infectious disease doctor.  Things are winding down.

This afternoon I made chicken stock and also some cabbage soup.  This evening Woody went to the Monday night Furnace Room prayer meeting.  We are both home now and settling in for the evening. Hope you enjoy my little bit of nostalgia in this blog.  Fond memories of days gone by...very different than today...I am glad that I have enjoyed both "Leave It To Beaver" times and modern times!

Taxing Saturday

Woody ended up going to the library twice today.  The second time was to get the 1040 tax form that he had meant to get before he left the first time.  He had been attempting to print off the forms he needed but they seemed to be printing off incorrectly.  When he got the actual form he found out that they had changed the forms after all these years and that they had printed out correctly after all.  He got everything filled out and had me sign a while ago.  So I guess they are ready to put into the mail.

I have been catching up on our wash and attempting to finish a book before it is wooshed off into cyberspace in another day. I had left it "sitting" in my iPad and had been reading some other "real" books and neglected to read it.  But got an email warning me that it would be leaving my library reading app shortly so I am trying to finish it before that fateful hour!

I planned to do some sewing, but reading preempted that...but I still may work on my top this evening.  It is almost finished...just need to put bands on the sleeves and do the hem.  I had to set it aside at the end of the week because my eyes were bothering me and just haven't found the impetus to pick it back up to finish it!

Woody got another shipment of medicine for his infusions today...might be the last...but he might still have to have just one more sent.  There are expiration dates on them for a week so guess they couldn't send the very last one as it would be a little over a week.  You should see all the boxes that we have gotten from the infusion folk...have them all stacked up to use when packing up my kitchen!  But the end of his infusions is in sight.

Friday Adventures

Most of our daffodils look like these...thinking about opening before too long despite the fact that cold temperatures have returned...they still think that Spring is right around the corner.  I noticed when I was bringing in the groceries today that we even had some of our miniature jonquils in bloom.  I was going to go back and take a picture, but I forgot.

Woody left a little after nine for his "adventure" of the day...grocery shopping for us and taking his friend to do errands.  He was gone an awfully long time and I even mentioned it to my sister when I talked with her that he had been gone a really long time.  Well, not long after I made that comment to Cheryl, I had a call come in on my cell phone that I didn't recognize...and then the land line rang.  I didn't get to it in time to answer...just had to listen to the message.  It was Woody's friend telling me that they were stranded at a grocery store and would I go see if Nathan could come with jumper cables.  Nathan and family weren't home, but I called their cell phones and "found" them at the library.  They came home, Nathan got the jumpers and headed off to rescue his daddy!  But in that time someone had offered to jump the car and Woody was pulling away when Nathan arrived...they waved at each other and Nathan came home and Woody headed off to drop his friend off.  

My new experience of the day was teaching high school sewing home ec to Abigail!  She is going to learn about quilting and some sewing and quilting history.  She got underway with her quilt today.  Abigail has already got sewing basics under her belt so we are branching out into a sewing genre that she hasn't done in the past.  This is a pretty easy top to piece so I even think that she will be able to do  the quilting on the machine...we will see.

I will put a picture from another year of our miniature jonquils here at the bottom of tonight's blog.

Thursday Epistle

We had another unusually warm day for February...but it was very windy.  I guess the wind is blowing in the cold front that is approaching.  A few minutes ago, we had a really hard rain...it wasn't raining one minute and then pouring and blowing up against the house the next minute.  I think that was the front edge of the front that will be passing through during the night.  I understand that by the morning it will be once again in the 30's.

Woody even worked a little in one of the gardens today.  He was expecting only the PT person today, but in the end the nurse showed up too.  He was evaluated by the main PT person today and everything is going great.  He thinks that Woody will only need about two more weeks of therapy!  That is when he will be finished with his picc line and the antibiotic that is put in through the picc line.  So there is a light at the end of the tunnel of putting a lot of this behind us!  He goes back to the
infectious disease doctor and his surgeon the week after next.  Hopefully good words from both.  His
home health nurse called around 3:30 saying that she had been called and told to come do another blood draw to check Woody's creatinine level.  I don't know if this is because of what the one on Monday showed or if it is just that it is time for them to send new syringes of antibiotic and they want to be sure of dosage. I'm guessing the latter...or perhaps a combination of the two reasons...or perhaps a totally different reason!  May never know!

I had school this morning.  Joseph did his reading and some math work and then had "Osmo Day."  Of course, unbeknownst to him he did more math work when he was doing his choice of Osmo "games!"  Isaac joined him toward the end of his time with me and helped Joseph with the coding game.  Coding just isn't part of my wheel house!  They are stuck on part of it and I have not a clue as to how to get them unstuck.  They probably need Graham or Elijah!

I forgot to mention yesterday that we heard from our contractor for the kitchen renovation yesterday.
They sent the latest changes to the plans.  They look good to me and I had friends look them over, too.  So I think that I can get back with him and say "move on with the plans!"  I still don't know when "things" will get started...but at least moving in the right direction.  I'm rather glad that he had been too busy to get back with us before this as there has just been too much to think about with Woody's surgery and recovery to think about the kitchen.

We got a nice letter today from friends who lived here many years ago in our early married lives.  They were in Tullahoma due to being stationed at Arnold Air Force Base.  They attended our church and we were in Sunday School together.  Now the early years mean close to 50 years ago because they celebrated their 50th this past year and we are about to celebrate our 50th.  It was good to hear from them.  We have kept in touch at Christmas over the years.  The other day I was looking at the
map of where all you, my blog readers, are...there is a list of places that folk check in from below the map...and I noticed their town mentioned...the first time that I had seen their town and state there and
I thought about them...and then today we get their letter and they mentioned reading our blog (we share our blog address in our Christmas letters).  Guess we were both thinking about each other!  One of their granddaughters is attending college in Nashville...maybe we will get to see one another one of these days when they are in the area.  (Clue for the Hastys...R & C W...if you hadn't guessed!)

Wednesday Doings

If the warm weather continues, it won't be long till we see daffodils blooming.  Their leaves are up and you can see the buds on some of them.  It definitely has seemed like Spring the last few days.  There are rumors of 70's tomorrow and maybe even the next day...but then...the cold will be back!  We have had rain off and on today.

I had school this morning.  It was Elijah's long time today and we worked on the back pack that Joy designed.  Joy finished hers on Monday and today Elijah and I finished his.

No nurses, PT, or antibiotics through his picc line today...pretty much a "free" day!  I sewed this afternoon.  Woody went to visit one of his Deacon family care members.  The church has revamped the families and reassigned members to different deacons.  Woody wrote lettrrs to his families and I guess the letter got to at least one of them as Woody got a call today.  This member will be 100 later in the year.  He wanted to talk to Woody about his war experiences.

I sewed for a while this afternoon.  My top is coming along nicely.  I am top stitching some of the seams at the moment...well, was before I started tonight's blog.  Then I will just have side seams and hems left to do.

Woody helped me with supper tonight.  He cut peppers and onions for philly sandwiches.  We have eaten and I have cleaned up the kitchen. I will sew a little more and then retire to my chair.  Woody is downstairs in his chair watching TV and/or reading.

Normal Tuesday

Today was actually a normal Tuesday for us.  I had school with the children this morning.  Esther had her long time.  She painted so I worked on putting some things away in the school room while she painted.

Before we had lunch I gave Woody his antibiotic.  This is much faster...around five minutes compared to thirty minutes to an hour.

Woody ran an errand for his friend later in the afternoon.  On his way home he stopped and spent time in the prayer room.  He also emptied wastebaskets and took the trash can out to the road.  "Things" really are getting back to normal!

While he ran the errand and was at the prayer room at church, I made our supper.  It was ready just about at the same time as he came back in the door.

We are now settled in for the evening.  I am planning to do some sewing.  I got my top cut out last night before I went to bed.  I'm looking forward to doing some sewing for a change...there just hasn't been a lot a of time to sit at my machine in the last weeks.  Or, if there was time, I was too tired to sew.

Busy Monday Morning

                                                        

This morning was a bit confusing as we had to fit in two home visits...both the nurse needed to come and also the  PT guy.  The nurse usually comes on Wednesday, but the infectious disease folk wanted to check his creatinine level today to make sure that it was coming down so she did the blood draw and the picc dressing change so she won't be coming on Wednesday.  When I asked her if she would be coming on Monday next week, she said that she didn't want to say for sure since they were always changing something in the orders for Woody.  She hardly got out the door and PT arrived.  They are really pleased with how Woody is improving.  Woody was left with the impression that the main PT person was going to come back on Thursday and evaluate him.  I'm guessing that he will graduate from PT coming to the house and he will just do it on his own.  Guess we will find out on Thursday.

I'm pretty sure that he will only have nurses for another week.  Once his picc line is taken out, they won't be coming.  And, that should happen when he goes back to the infectious disease doctors on February 19th.  His 42 days of antibiotics through the picc line ends on the 18th.  He will also see Dr. Holt, his surgeon, on the 19th.  She plans to take X-rays that day.  It has been a month since his surgery.  

I had a usual Monday school morning.  Joy had her long time and finished up the project that she had 

been working on.  She designed a backpack and figured out how to make it on her own.  I helped by doing some serging on it, but she did the rest.  She was pleased with the outcome and that is what counts!

Woody returned a little while ago from the Monday night Furnace Room Prayer Meeting.  Once again, he didn't take his walker. 

Tonight's photos are not of my favorite bird.  But I had to snap a few pictures this afternoon, when we had a huge flock of starlings invade our neighborhood.  The trees were full of them as were the yards.  They were making quite a racket and got my attention.  It looked like they were eating the early growth on the oak trees...at least something drew them to this area.  

It was overcast today and a bit rainy for a little while.  But on the whole, it was another spring-like day.  We are getting spoiled.  We have heard that it will near 70 before the week is out...BUT then it will turn back cold. 

 

Ground Hog Day 2019 = Very Spring-Like

It has been a beautiful second day of February.  No need for coats or jackets for a change!  Woody spread his wings a little farther this morning and decided to do our grocery shopping...and, he went without his walker.  He is using the walker less and less these last few days...a good sign!

I stayed home and did things around the house.  I decided to do some cooking so I won't have to do as much cooking on the week days.  I made a meatloaf at Woody's request...made it so he could eat it.  I know it was hard for him, but he ate it without catsup (not supposed to eat catsup because it is a tomato product and due to salt content).  Even he said that it tasted pretty good...I really doctored it up with green, yellow, and red sweet peppers and onions.  I even chopped up a sprig of basil that we are growing in a little hydroponic inside garden that Melany and family gave me for Christmas.  That was the first time that we ate any of the herbs that we are growing...most aren't big enough to use yet, but all are growing...two kinds of basil, thyme, mint, dill, and curly parsley.  I made two meat loads and put one in the freezer.  I'm just glad that he is eating some meat once again.  It helps with the variety of what I can cook for him! This afternoon I made myself some New England clam chowder.  I had milk that needed to be used and had most of the ingredients to make it so put the rest on Woody's grocery list.  It tasted pretty good even though today wasn't as much of a "soup day" due to temps being warmer...it still hit the spot.

We have both been reading.  Of course, Woody has been doing his crossword puzzles daily.  He has watched some basketball this afternoon.  I still haven't gotten underway with my sewing project.  The fabrics are just laying there on my cutting table...just waiting for me to get up the energy to place pattern pieces on them and then lifting up a pair of scissors to cut the pieces out...one of these days.

I just realized that I haven't changed my calendars for the new month...something to do after I blog!

We got our FedEx delivery of Woody's new antibiotic so I guess we are ready to give the first dose to him tomorrow at noon.  He won't be tied down as long with this new medicine.  It is in a syringe and it just has to be slowly given over a three to five minute time period.

Coming or Going?

Sort of like this truck...we're not sure if we are coming or going.  How would you like to meet this truck on an interstate? It sort of makes you look twice!  And, this wasn't the only one we saw like this on our way home today.  We saw three.

We left the house at 7:30 this morning and pulled back into our driveway at noon.  He got called back quite quickly and the nurse came in and explained the new medicine, Daptomycin, and how I would be administering it.  It doesn't come in the ball pump infusion bags, but will be in a syringe.  And, I will be giving it to him like I do when I am flushing his line.  It will be a larger syringe and I am to take from three to five minutes to empty the syringe.  Today he was given it by infusion that took thirty minutes.  That way they could monitor him and see if he had any negative reaction to the new drug.  He didn't so we wee on our merry way shortly after they unhooked him. He will have this antibiotic every 48 hours...so every other day.  His next dose is Sunday.  At this point we haven't heard from the infusion folk, but they have always come through for us so I am sure that they will this time.  They seem very connected to the infectious disease clinic and communicate with each other frequently.  We've never had so many overnighted-refrigerated packages arrive at our house before.  I'm guessing we will be getting one again tomorrow.

This has definitely been a busy "medical" week.  On Monday, he had PT at our house.  On Tuesday, he had four appointments at Vanderbilt.  On Wednesday, the home health nurse came for a blood draw and picc line dressing change.  On Thursday, he had PT at the house and got the call telling him to come to Vanderbilt again today.  So that means he has had some medical attention either here at
home or at Vandy each week day this week. And, I guess it will start all over again on Monday.  We were told today that the nurse will be coming on Monday to do a blood draw as they want to be sure that his creatinine level is coming down.  So Monday will be a home health nurse and PT.

Now, Woody just seems to plug along with all this extra activity. He came home, sat for a while, and then left to go run errands with his friend who has no transportation.  Me?  Well, I "thought" that I was going to start a sewing project.  I did look at a couoke of patterns and "perhaps" settled on the one I plan to make.  But, that is about where I ended my attempt to get back to sewing.  I was ready to rest after the initial sewing effort! Woody's "treatments" seem to be wearing on me more than on him!  I found my heating pad and my comfy throw and retreated to "my recliner" and dozed off and on most of the rest of the afternoon.  I heated up some leftovers for supper and that is about the extent of what I have done since getting
home!