Strange ideas...

Recently, I drove by a home with a full basketball court in the back yard and besides drool, I wondered why anyone would need a full court.  Two hoops seemed a little excessive.  Well a few days later, I passed the same house and noticed the hoops were adjustable.  Meaning the hoop's height can be changed depending on the height and/or talent level of the players.  This is a GREAT idea.  We are currently in the "growth" stage of our family.  Each player, aka child, is of different height and ability and being able to level the playing field with two different sized hoops would make playing basketball much "easier."   Anyway, yet another reminder for me that just because something looks initial strange, doesn't meant that it wasn't a good and creative solution to a common situation.

Life at the Morin's has hit the summer time craziness that I always like to avoid and the kids aren't doing anything but playing.  Joel and I are working furiously and are using the "down" time to work with clients and get in some extra time working. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

Joel's health is better than it has ever been and I am enjoying his new found energy level and help.  He has been doing laundry, dishes, watching the kiddos while I am at work, all while working his real estate business like never before.  It is like watching a new Joel. He has always been helpful but in the months before his surgery he did everything with pain in his eye.  Now he has more of a glimmer.  He has a brain scan and surgery follow up next Monday and I am sure that they are going to tell us what we already know: Joel is doing great!!!


 

School's Out For Summer...

Please feel free to sing the title of this post.  That is how I wrote it.

The kids have been out of school for 2 hours and my new first grader told me "I can't play now, I have homework."   She obviously didn't get the procrastination gene that I passed on to her.  Although she is starting to read and as with my older son, once she hit a point, she just wants to read EVERYTHING!!! It is really exciting.

So every summer we create a list of things we want to do.  This year, much like every year, our list is pretty much the same: zoo, children's museum, library summer reading program, grandma's house, dentist, 1/2 birthday celebrations, lots of swimming, etc.  However, this year I am going to try to implement "quiet time" every afternoon.  I have created a list of activities that they can "pull out of a hat" during that time like reading, writing letters, math flash cards, finishing school workbooks, etc.  I am hoping with our youngest still having afternoon nap time, I can keep the quiet time sacred.  It will probably last two days but at least we can try.

I am hoping this afternoon quiet time will help me get some quiet time too.  I have a huge pile of books which I would like to read and during the school year, it seems I end up passing out and/or crashing in front of the TV instead of reading.  Joel and I are going to try to turn off the TV for the entire summer except for occasional movie nights.  Another thing we are going to try which will probably last 2 days.

Speaking of easy, we were so blessed with a generous abundance of meals after Joel's surgery.  Honestly, it was so nice and now I have a much bigger repertoire of meals that my kids will eat.  But it also means, meal planning is back on the to-do list.  Why is this so hard for me?  I don't mind shopping. I don't even mind cooking.  I just hate deciding and finding good quality choices for the whole family.  It is time to stop procrastinating and start deciding.   Yet another goal for the summer that will last 2 days.

By the way, I had my last Pepsi of my life this morning too.  I  have to get caffeine and sugar out of my life.  It is weighing me down in more ways than I can count.  

Obviously, I have a very addicted and lazy lifestyle.  I am afraid summer is not the best time to change my life but there is no time like the present.  Plus the kids are around all the time now to hold me accountable.  They really do keep me honest.

Not funny...

Do you know that my husband doesn't think I am funny?  In fact, he claims that my sense of humor was not one of things that attracted him to me.  My question is "what the heck?"  I don't think I am funny but I do think I have a fairly decent sense of humor and he has yet to see it.  I am going to have to keep working at it.  Maybe I should start pulling some practical jokes.  Some of my college favorites were putting Vaseline on the toilet seat and short sheeting beds.  Somehow I think he wouldn't appreciate those things and they would seem far less funny since we share both the toilet seat and the bed.

Things are going well.  Joel is doing better and better and the hardest part is keeping him from being too active.  I have caught him playing catcher for our son's baseball team and picking up our niece (she is over 15 pounds).   I have been blown away by how much he has improved and changed in such a short time.   He quickly volunteers for "fun" jobs but I have yet to catch him vacuuming and dusting.  There must be another surgery to help with those things.  I am patient.  Doctors are amazing.  Some female/wife doc out there is bound to come up with some fix soon.

Exhausted...

Some weekends I feel relief when they end.  As this weekend comes to a close, I feel a satisfied exhaustion.  I am not going to lie, I don't think we could have fit anything more into the weekend without collapsing.  Now, I am worried that Joel might hit a recovery relapse because he was feeling so good and did so much that even in his pre-pre-surgery state, he would need a few days to recover.  Hopefully, this weekend is the post-surgery "normal" Joel.  If this is the new normal, then I may need to undergo the Chiari surgery to increase my energy level.  

I think I am feeling a pain in my neck which might lead to arm numbness.

The weight of a laundry basket...

When first discussing the recovery of the Chiari surgery with the nurse, she was telling us that after the surgery Joel could fix light easy meals but needed to stay away from housework such as vacuuming and laundry.  Light dusting as on the ok list but we only dust twice a year and his surgery didn't fall during one of those times.  The doctors recommend that after surgery people seriously limit their lifting.  When necessary the weight limit for lifting is 5 pounds.  After a month they could start doing more activity and increase the weight limit 5 pounds per week.

Yesterday marked the one month or four week anniversary of Joel's surgery.  Do you know what that means?  Joel can start lifting again!!!  His weight limit can go up 5 pounds.  Today begins the week he can lift 10 pounds.  Now, 5 pounds is about a gallon of milk.  This is a fairly easy comparison.  Ten pounds, is a little harder so there is room for subjective interpretation bearing there is no scale around.

So as Joel and I were discussing his increased ability today his inference was that a load of laundry weighs more that 10 pounds.  Tonight he was corrected.  One of our full laundry baskets weighs 8.4 pounds.  I think laundry is a great place for Joel to try out his new weight limit!!

The call to change....

After trying to limit my readers to people I know, I decided that it wasn't worth the headache.  I am a public blogger once again...enjoy!

Warning: This will make you gag....

When Joel and I first met, one of thing that attracted me to him was his sense of humor.  He loved to laugh and in time, he has learned to laugh when he is at the butt of my jokes as well.  Since he started having symptoms several years ago, he has suppressed his laughter or stayed away from things and people that might be funny for fear of having his head feel like it might explode.   I did not understand the extent of this pain until this weekend when I again was able to watch Joel laugh hysterically without holding back.  Now, he has been laughing in the last few years but nothing like the uncontrollable laughter he participated in on Friday night.  It was awesome!! 

Recently, I read another person's blog about the positive affects of laughter and how important it is for our overall health.  Do you know four year olds on average laugh 300 times per day and adults laugh as few as 15?  Amazing. 

Our goal: Laugh more!