Kind of a tiring day.

I had to get up early (for me) and work 2 hours, then take my mom to the pain clinic and wait there with her for 3 hours and then come home and work 2 more hours.  The pain clinic has been good for my mom's back but I so, so hate going in there.  The waiting is just mentally exhausting for some reason.  Knowing that we will be there several hours for a 2 minute talk with a doctor and a 2 minute procedure, just makes me mad.  If I could just let go of my annoyed-ness and calmly wait, it would be better.  Fortunately, I was reading a book and had another one ready for when I finished the first one, so I had something to do.  I was really tired and cranky when I got home though.  I took a nap and now I feel better. 

The kids were pretty much done with all their schoolwork when I got home, even the youngest, which was a nice surprise. 

Ahead?!

I've been marking the school days down in my calendar, but when strep, the flu, the other virus and the colds hit, I would just make a note of who was doing school and who wasn't due to illness and I didn't count/total up the days until yesterday.  I went through and counted up how many days each kid had off and then the one spring break day and figured out that we are actually doing quite well.  If we don't take a longer spring break, we'll be done before the end of May.  Cool. 


Now we need to decide whether to have a graduation party for the oldest.  It is traditional in our extended family to have a big party but he's not sure he wants all that attention.  He has already said that he does not want a graduation ceremony.  I know for sure that my daughter is way too shy for a big party and she's a freshman right now, so her graduation will be here before we know it!  I'd like to do the same thing for all of them, but I don't know what to do.  I really need to decide soon.

My work.

The patient presents with range of motion as follows.  For active range of motion right, shoulder flexion 65 degrees versus left of 120 degrees.  Shoulder abduction right of 59 degrees versus left of 81 degrees.  The patient also presents with wrist flexion right of 55 degrees and wrist extension right of 35 degrees.  The patient presents with wrist flexion left 55 degrees and extension 55 degrees left.  The patient presents with finger active range of motion as follows for right index finger MCP 68 degrees, PIP 94 degrees, DIP 64 degrees.  Middle finger MCP 70 degrees, PIP 85 degrees, DIP 62 degrees.  Ring finger MCP 61 degrees, PIP joint 86 degrees, DIP 62 degrees.  Small finger MCP 76 degrees, PIP 68 degrees, DIP 70 degrees.  Left index finger MCP 80 degrees, PIP 84 degrees, DIP 54 degrees.  Middle finger MCP 81 degrees, PIP 95 degrees, DIP 75 degrees.  Ring finger MCP 82 degrees, PIP 90 degrees, DIP 70 degrees.  Small finger MCP 95 degrees, PIP 85 degrees, DIP 75 degrees.  

 My work is so boring today as to be coma-inducing.  I miss when I could type ER reports. Apparently, I passed that skill level some time back and now they won't let me do them anymore so I've been promoted to this kind of work.  This is an excerpt from an occupational therapy note that went on like this for 14 minutes.

Ugh.

I got up this morning

in a good mood, but as I've been sitting here drinking my coffee, I've started to get a little bit overwhelmed with the things I need to get done this week.  I shouldn't.  Really it's not that bad.  I guess I just need to make a list and start crossing things off.  It's really just a bunch of little things that won't take long.  It's just really a lot of  them. Maybe if I had another cup of coffee I'd feel more like tackling them?   

Anyway,  this weekend the kids and I got a project done I've been wanting to do for a long time.  We put up the faux board and batten treatment in the dining room. It needs 1 more coat of paint, but otherwise it is done and it looks really good.  I'll share a picture ... you know, if I ever find my camera cord.  :-)

My youngest son told me to wake him up with Veggie Tales this morning and I put in the DVD and heard one of my favorite Veggie Tales quotes.


"I don't think that's possible and this is coming from a guy who just swam 92 miles without arms or legs!"  Pa Grape

The local kids are on spring break this week but we're not. School is going really well right now and I do not want to break the momentum with a week off.  The kids can just deal with it.  They'll be happy when they get out earlier than the PS kids.  It's so weird to think about my oldest graduating this year.  I can't wrap my mind around it!  I guess I should just stop trying and do the next thing on my list.  

Much better.

I took the boy driving again yesterday and he did much better.  I think he's doing good and I think I am too.  I haven't yelled other than that one tiny scream.  :-)  I just keep saying things calmly like "get in your lane" and "put on the brake", "signal" etc.  and there was no hysterical giggling this time either.  We took the car to the edge of town, drove down some residential streets and then washed and vacuumed the car.  I find it interesting that the boy who pretty much listens to music all the time while doing everything, can't listen to it when he's concentrating on driving. 

We came home and watched "America, The Story of Us", which is pretty interesting, although the civil war amputation stories were kind of too graphic for some of us.   We are all enjoying that part of our history education.  We're still listening to "A Wind in the Door" by Madeline L'Engle at night.  This is a very interesting book and a little difficult to wrap one's head around.  I need to go and look up some of the vocabulary.  I'm trying to figure out what's real and what's not in the story of traveling inside Meg's little brother's mitochondria, inside one of his cells.

Yesterday turned out fine.

I ended up getting quite a bit of stuff done.  I took Max to the vet and got him some medications for his kennel cough.  I took the garbage out and cleaned the bathrooms and the kids and I worked on the faux board and batten wall treatment we're doing in the dining room.  That was woodworking class because no one wanted to go outside, it was too cold! It went from the 80s to the 40s in one day here in Kentucky.  Later on in the afternoon, I took my oldest son driving.  He's 18 and hasn't got his license yet because of the whole broken right ankle that went on forever and then if he'd gotten his permit when he was 17, he'd have had to wait a year to get his driver's license and if he waited until after his 18th birthday, he'd only have to wait 6 months.  It is quicker doing it this way, even though it seems long and he can go for his license next month.  So I took him driving.  He has not been wanting to go but finally agreed.  Oh.  My.  Goodness. It was interesting.  Kind of scary.  I'm proud to say that I only screamed once.  I did giggle kind of hysterically for a little bit, but anyway, we got through it and after the first 15 minutes, it wasn't quite as terrifying ... :-)    Whew.

So far, this Thursday,

is not going all that well.  I guess we'll see how it turns out.  We were later than usual going to bed and then I couldn't go to sleep and I think I finally drifted off around 1:00 only to be wakened by a child who had heard a noise and wanted to sleep in my room but apparently only after I was completely awake and she had discussed it with me thoroughly.  Finally, I went back to sleep only to be awakened again at 6:00 by Max, the dog, coughing.  He has a terrible cough and probably will have to go to the vet today.  As soon as they open, I'll call.   So now I'm up and trying to decide whether to go back to sleep or just make some coffee and stay up.  I'm kind of leaning towards going back to bed. 

Feels like spring.

The daffodils and peach trees are blooming, the weather is warm and sunny and, unfortunately, the mosquitoes are out and biting.  I took the younger kids down to the creek yesterday and they saw tadpoles and got all wet and while they were exploring, the mosquitoes were making a feast of my ankles.   So I'm itchy today.  Still, I enjoy these kind of outings and the promise of getting to go to the creek was enough to get my youngest in gear on his schoolwork so that he wasn't trying to finish it up before bed last night.

I tried another easy stew/soup for the crockpot yesterday. It's an enchilada chili.  My oldest son said he likes it even better than regular chili, but I just thought it was okay.  You put in  2 cans of beans, 2 cans of  tomatoes, a teaspoon of dried onion, a chopped up stalk of celery, a can of red enchilada sauce and some meat.  It's supposed to be chicken, but I put in some hamburger meat that I had previously cooked, drained and frozen.













I haven't done any more work on my book or on the house.  I've re-discovered my love of reading and I have been reading a ton of stuff.  Right now I'm reading Bidding for Love by Katie Fforde which is a fun book, although I definitely feel that I need a British English to American English translator sometimes. 






I did change the kid's schedules somewhat although not as much as I was going to because my daughter was sitting beside me saying "Oh no, don't change that!" every couple minutes.  I changed the chores a little to make them more specific and hopefully that will help.  The chores are always a battle.  I didn't really make any academic changes.  I'm still mulling that one over.  Let's see, is there anything I need to squeeze in before my oldest graduates in May?  That is an important question!