Musings

I’m loving…

• Eric FINALLY feeling better.
• Conference phone calls with friends and family that make you feel like you are in the chaos and there.
• Getting over the crud being passed from student to student at school.
• This little cheetah meowing.
• Spring break in a few weeks.
• Baylor Men’s in the Sweet Sixteen. 2nd time ever!
• Unexpected visits from my mom and Eric’s mom.
• Visiting Australia and hanging out with koalas.

I could live without…

• laundry
• dishes
• the icy wind that comes with the rain

Wow. It is funny to think that last time I wrote, I thought all would be well in a week. How very wrong I was. The role of the caregiver is fickle–and stressful.

An ER visit, surgery, and unexpected hospital admit. Followed a week later by another surgery and unplanned hospital stay. Wow. I hope this is all of the excitement we get this year. I’m hoping for some very boring days ahead.

Eric is sick. He’s been sick for 102 days. Fortunately, or not, it seems to be unrelated to his leukemia. His first illness started to clear up after the new year. Then, without a day of break, he immediately got sick with an entirely new, entirely unrelated illness. Today while we were out running an errand I asked him, “Can you just tell me something I can do to help. I am tired of feeling so helpless.”

He calmly responds, “Just drive me home. That’s how you can help.”

Immediately my brain said, “No, no, no. That’s not what I had in mind…” Then I realized, I wanted to help in “my way.” Instead, I drove him home.

It definitely made me think.

Enjoy these videos.

This is funny because it is about everyone else–not me.

More in the same genre.

Ikea Heights.

This post could also be called Tunnel Vision, Pessimistic Patty, or Deep in a Funk.

You know how when you get a new car, everywhere you look you see that car? My week has been like this. I’ve decided it is a cruddy week and everything I experience proves that it is a cruddy week.

I see and re-play my imperfections and mis-steps: coming up a little short on planning Easter lunch, forgetting to do something I said I would, focusing on what someone else might do to make me happy.

In reality it hasn’t been so bad. Instead I should be thankful for a fabulous Easter lunch that others super-graciously helped out with, that the thing I forgot was super tiny and it worked out just fine, and acknowledging the ways others are loving me in their own way.

Sometimes I find calling a spade a spade helps things turn around. Other times I realize I just need to walk through the funk. Here’s hoping it comes to an end soon.

…that my sewing room doesn’t look like this.

…Whole Foods salad bar. It makes eating healthy super-easy, though expensive.

…the gentle rain at noon that waters our growing garden.

…sparkling water in champagne flutes and seeing a classic movie, The Graduate, for the first time.

…finding a dive bar that friends play at and realizing a horse is tied to a tree outside of it when we leave.

…pushing myself to get back on my bike and going for a long, challenging ride.

…an impromptu dinner party.

…finding the perfect present for a love one, more than once!

…celebrating a friend’s transition from contract to full-time employee–it has been a year in coming.

…Eric’s new recliner. He’s wanted a recliner for years now. This was one someone purchased and decided they didn’t like. It has heated back, heated seat, massage, and a remote for going back and pushing you up to standing. It is major overkill, but Eric loves it.

I’m not loving…

…seeing friends very sick and close to death.

…figuring out internet and phone plans.

…the incredible amount our cats are shedding.

What about you?

Wow, what a week. So far, I’ve…

• Made a large pot of coffee but forgot to put the grounds in the filter and instead put them directly in the coffee maker.
• Forgot about the hole in my pocket and had my cell phone fall through my pants and bash my big toe. [I went back and forth between "whole" and "hole" way too many times.]
• Been a tad bit late to work just about every day.
• Gained a 1.2 pounds, while attempting to eat well.
• Laughed a ton.

I don’t do well with the time change. However, it is nice to see these situations as things that I can laugh about. I haven’t always been this way. Maybe I’m losing some of my “seriousness” after all. It’s only taken 29 and a half years to get here.

Peace,

^-^

We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have, ~ Frederick Keonig

Quote copied from a post by Gussy Sews.

I’m grateful for:

• A husband who offers to make me pancakes and coffee before he heads off to shoot zombies with his buddy all day.
• My parents’ safety in the crazy flooding in Brisbane.
• A new midday yoga class at our gym.
• A last minute ski trip with a friend.
• Cocoa mixed with decaf coffee and ice after yoga at the gym.
• Gorgeous weather.
• Calling my parents’ old phone number and being able to talk to them half-way around the world.
• A letter in the mail from a friend, right after hearing some frustrating news.
• A husband who can and is willing to fix my serger, even though he has no idea what it is used for.
• An entire day spent chatting with a friend.
• Finding a project half-finished that is perfect for finishing right now.
• Cute gifts for little ones.
• Gorgeous sun-shiny days.
• And photos like this

What are you grateful for?

Peace,

^-^

Skiing is always pretty, but in California is breath-taking.

Just like riding a bike–I didn’t forget a thing. Except when I was going through the rental line and a very nice man asked me if I needed help trying on the boots. Yes, please. I didn’t see the gizmo in the back that would help me slip my long-underweared leg and foot in. Whoopsie. And when I picked out my poles–my snowboard riding buddy suggested the poles that I originally selected were a tad long–they were at least five feet tall. Once that was figured out though, I was good to go.

I also forgot you don’t put your lift ticket on your jacket pull. When it is zipped up tight it beats you in the face as you fly down the mountain. It didn’t matter that I forgot so many little things, skiing was AMAZING. As my buddy said over and over, “It doesn’t get much better than this.” I hope I don’t have to wait 10 more years to say that again. But if I do, I hope my ski pants from high school still fit!

Peace,

^-^

Textiles and textile treatments have always fascinated me. This is a bit disturbing, though. Funny how solving one problem often causes another one. Reminds me of my favorite children’s book growing up, Hiram’s Red Shirt.