Slow Progress

Hello :)

There's been a bit of progress since my last report. Tom's had the drains & stitches out, and has stopped using the major pain med. He doesn't seem to need the antibiotics now or much bandaging. Even better, no one has gotten that rotten bug back that induces major headaches (literally!). William's health has also stabilized. If this holds, I won't need to spend so much time living like a home-care nurse. (Yay!)

Hopefully this will be the week I start 'taking stock' and getting life back on some kind of even keel - hopefully. Yeah, seems like I live on hope sometimes. But should that be odd for a Christian? We are supposed to live by faith in God - which is the way we receive what is not seen. I've had plenty of practice over the years, and - since I have been walking in faith, hope, and charity/generosity, my own life has gotten steadily better in many ways - though not all. I find have plenty to thank God for at the end of every day, and a heart to enjoy the blessings in my life, though I shouldn't mind seeing an expansion of things & people for (& to) which I can show gratitude. I wish I could thank some people I wanted to feel grateful to and happy with - but right now even attempting it would be sarcastic in the extreme - which is a bummer every time I think of them. Several keep coming to mind, which probably means they've been thinking of me too. But never mind. That's enough grousing from someone whose day started pretty decently. They aren't all that's been in my life.

Been very blessed lately to receive a collection of Ravi Zacharias lectures/sermons. I have read several of his books and thought highly of them. Its very cool to finally hear his voice. & It was especially uplifting to be blessed by another believer.

Main thought on my mind this morning was how uneven my reading habits have become. I've always read more than one book at time - something light, something non-fiction/serious, something with short bits, something Christian etc. for the different moods and times I have to read. I usually read short, happy books at a gulp. All others are in danger of being lost before I finish them. Shelfari gives me a way to keep track of the book titles I set aside midway - but does not, of course, give me any hints as to where I sat them down. I can't find the Neil Gaiman short story collection I was reading, for example. I was sure I sat on my end table a month or two ago, but it isn't there now.

On a brighter note, I have rarely had so many fun, light books to enjoy at a go. So thank you, Lord for today's sunshine!

Grey, quiet dusky day

Which is still much nicer than the forecast said it would be. The 'severe thunderstorm' missed us entirely, the bit of rain was fairly light, and the winds are only up a little bit this time. OTOH The warm temps and heavy clouds have kept us company all day. Been listening to the frogs singing away into the wind's accompaniment, an orchestra of peace.

Too bad its supposed to be chilly again for the next few days. They won't like that.

Happy Valentine's Day Everybody!

Can't stay on long, but I wanted to mention Becka's cute homemade Valentine card on her blog & wish you all the wonder your heart can hold.

Note:: Some security suites may need to have the 'ad protection' lowered temporarily to see the image on her page.

Blessings,
Susan

And now for something completely different...

or so I hope.

Its been a busy month since I blogged - longer still since I *really* blogged. Just as well, the youtube links seem to slow loading this page rather badly- and I had several more bands to share with you! Best wait until a few of them scroll off the page methinks.

The news has been crazy lately, hasn't it? Very grieved to hear of all the tornado and flooding victims in recent weeks. Also puzzled to hear caucus/primary results for locations where the polling places were reported as destroyed on the same day. Rooting for Huckabee & Obama here. Have to see if one of our favorite candidates makes it. [McCain & Clinton are a little too experienced imho ] Honestly, though, we've been too busy to do more than follow the updates.

Tom has finally had that last surgery and it went very well - though it took every bit as long as the Doctor guessed to even to be able to come home from the hospital. Tom was in at 5:30 am, and spent as long waking up as he did in the surgery itself (3-5 hours) - didn't even get in his room until nearly 10pm on the day of surgery though that was partly do to a last minute change of rooms. He had good roomies this time, with similar tv interests - which does make life a little better. The hospital set was on documentaries, funny videos, or news almost the whole time. Sure hope Orlando and Garrett both heal well. They'd had a rough time with traffic accidents. Hope the nurses have gotten over their colds by now. We felt for them. He had nice ones, fantastic care the first couple of days especially. Was very glad we remembered the jar of individually wrapped treats for those giving him care. They earned them, though we were just thinking how this was only a few weeks from Valentine's Day - and how nice a few of them had been before.

Now that my beloved is home again, he's still healing slowly but steadily.



We'll go in for another checkup next week. He's finally at that breakpoint where the surgery hurts less than the condition that sent him in. If he continues to do well, the last tubes get removed and then he's done! We may finally be at the end of waiting from one appointment for him to another.

We had some happy moments prior to surgery itself. Tom had a series of checkups and this meant we had time to see a couple more museums before the day. We worked in the Valentine Museum/Wickham House, and the Edgar Allen Poe museum (finally! been trying to get there awhile now). We ate a delicious lamb giro platter for one lunch, and even a light Chinese buffet. Almost made up for eating soup for the rest of the week ;-) Thanks to volunteers who brought soup lunches I more or less kept Tom company in that bill of fare for awhile. They were good though. I especially enjoyed the potato/veg.

Both before and after the surgery weeks, we had to tend to our son's health as well. We've not had severe trouble with colds this winter, though small ones assailed us often (the last one triggered headaches in everyone who had it - along with the usual messiness. yucka) No reason it should be too bad. Its been fairly mild around our the house, staying in the 50's-70's most days for weeks. It was in the 60's today. Its like we just skipped from late fall to early spring after a week or so. We've had exactly one snowfall of 2-3 inches- and, who knows, maybe the extra pollen is part of it- but Wm's at that age when we were warned some of his babyhood problems might flare again - and one did. Thankfully all he has needed to deal with it is a little medicine, and everyone is quite hopeful this too may soon prove unnecessary- but we'll remain vigilant for awhile. Had to reorganize several rooms since I've gotten back, replacing flattened pillows, passing out the clementines (we've eaten a ton of them this winter) and doling out the vitamin C 'just to be sure.' I've definitely felt like 'mom to the rescue' of late. (whether they need it or not- lol)

Add in a need to both prepare for and recover from the latest hospital adventure, as well as the usual paperwork and studies, and you now know why you haven't heard much from me lately, but its been good. I haven't done much with computers, but I'm cross-stitching a pillowcase and I've read a few more of the fun mysteries I received as Christmas presents. Its now official - Donna Andrews is a new favorite. I love humorous mysteries - and you'll hardly find better than Murder with Peacocks or We'll Always Have Parrots. I just received "The Penguin Who Knew Too Much" as an early Valentine's Day present. With a name like that, I'm loving it already. Yay! Penguins! :-D

So that's all the good news from me for now, but here's a another free ebook site or two or three or four or even five (but thats the limit) to brighten your day.