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!