to my seat (we get up and take our offering to the platform) and whispered "Thanks, that was so awesome!" She whispered back "I'm so glad you were here! I was going to call you and ask if you were coming." That was wonderful to hear. "I'll be here as much as I can on Wednesdays," I responded. The worship was wonderful, she went off and sang new words from her heart (we call it singing in the spirit) as the instrumentalists continued to play beyond our regular 'set' and I just kept a melody in vowel tones going to 'float' the groove. I love it when things come about spontaneously like that. We had a great team with Pastor Jeff on drums, Pastor Andrew on guitar, Brandon S. on keys, and the righteous Philbert on guitar.--
I did get to sub on Thursday in the computer lab. It was pretty mellow since they had Free Choice before the holiday except for a group of 4th graders that came in to work on math. Apparently this is a fairly new system and only the second time they came in to do this. She had
a game on fractions picked out but it was waaaayyyy beyond their comprehension since they had barely even been introduced to fractions other than knowing which number was the denominator and which was the numerator let alone which were equal or not equal! So I punted and had everyone go to FunBrain Math Arcade and see how far they could get through the game before our time was up. If they were comfortable with math I said to set the level at 4, if they were really good then challenge themselves with level 5, if they struggled with math then go on level 3. This is a great game that uses different techo games to reinforce math concepts and push speed on basic rout functions. At the end of the day I decided to take initiative and leave the room better than I found it taking time to delouse ALL keyboards, mouses, monitors, and terminals, plus dust the desk tops and shelving to remove an infiltration of dust bunnies. I made Ben and Ethan give me a hand when they got to the room at the end of the school day. I saw the teacher today and she was quite thankful for the effort.--
Over the week I worked on painting some ceramic heart jewelry boxes for 
people for Valentine's Day, something I haven't done in a while and found very cathartic. Saturday the boys and I headed down to my mom's to spend the weekend. My brother orchestrated some Valentine's Day fun for his favorite ladies complete with massage, facial, manicures, and pedicures. Wow. While we got pampered the boys had a gameboy fest and played on the computer.--
Sunday we went to church with mother. The boys haven't had much experience with the Catholic church but they found it to be a tolerable experience, much more subdued than our spirit-filled Word church. We even arrived before the 8:15am mass began so mother could show them around the sanctuary and introduce them to her friends. Since mom sold her Saturn I had my big red Rosie van this time which proved to be extremely challenging since our princess was experiencing major muscle weakness. Thankfully an angel was sent in the form of Jim (a medic no less) who saw us having difficulty loading her back in the van at St. Ambrose. I asked if she'd rather head back home after the rig-a-ma-roll but she was determined to go out to breakfast, so over to the
Clairpointe we went. We made it through it all but after she was tucked safely in bed for the night I was prompted to do some research on the newest medication they had prescribed for her. Her first week home from the hospital she was showing signs of improved strength and even had several days of not using her walking stick all the time. The second week they put her on a new 'anti-seizure' medication which was now built up several weeks into her blood stream. Come to find out a side effect of this drug is weakness, sleepiness (she could barely get off the couch last week and kept saying she was so sleepy), and dry stuffy nose which has also been a drag lately. Another angel arrived on Monday in the form of a new hospice nurse Caprice. We had some discussion with her about what was happening, she consulted the hospice doc and a new script was written. This made mother feel a lot better just to have some sort of understanding as to why she 'suddenly' was not able to do what she had a week before. Details were discussed regarding other meds and a new plan of attack was put in place. I love my mom's attitude when weird things start happening, "It was not fun, but now we learned a new thing about what to do. We're always learning as we go." She also had bright idea to have a Wright & Fillipis representative come out and consult about installing grab bars at the bottom and top of the stairs and in the shower. Part of the challenge was when she got to the top of her stairs to go to her bedroom there was no good place for her to get a hold for leverage and her knees would betray her. Monday morning I made it so and the workman was out today. I called when I got home from subbing today and she sounded very up beat and excited about these new developments. The workman (aptly named John) even fixed a couple other things he noticed that could be a hazard. Another angel I dare say.
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Clairpointe we went. We made it through it all but after she was tucked safely in bed for the night I was prompted to do some research on the newest medication they had prescribed for her. Her first week home from the hospital she was showing signs of improved strength and even had several days of not using her walking stick all the time. The second week they put her on a new 'anti-seizure' medication which was now built up several weeks into her blood stream. Come to find out a side effect of this drug is weakness, sleepiness (she could barely get off the couch last week and kept saying she was so sleepy), and dry stuffy nose which has also been a drag lately. Another angel arrived on Monday in the form of a new hospice nurse Caprice. We had some discussion with her about what was happening, she consulted the hospice doc and a new script was written. This made mother feel a lot better just to have some sort of understanding as to why she 'suddenly' was not able to do what she had a week before. Details were discussed regarding other meds and a new plan of attack was put in place. I love my mom's attitude when weird things start happening, "It was not fun, but now we learned a new thing about what to do. We're always learning as we go." She also had bright idea to have a Wright & Fillipis representative come out and consult about installing grab bars at the bottom and top of the stairs and in the shower. Part of the challenge was when she got to the top of her stairs to go to her bedroom there was no good place for her to get a hold for leverage and her knees would betray her. Monday morning I made it so and the workman was out today. I called when I got home from subbing today and she sounded very up beat and excited about these new developments. The workman (aptly named John) even fixed a couple other things he noticed that could be a hazard. Another angel I dare say.Sunday afternoon after a good nap on the couch some of mom's friends stopped by for a visit and the boys and I shared our Valentine's Day present - more of our choir songs. The boys got a little shy having the extra audience but it was worth it just to see Princess Judi waving a banner of praise along with us.
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Monday was Ben's birthday celebration with gramma, he had his own vision for a television cake with Pokemon on the screen. We ran out to the grocery store for supplies while the home health aide was getting the princess washed and dressed and later a fabulously inspired cake was created. Rob took Alex down to the shop with him Monday since she didn't have school and she earned a few bucks by cleaning the shop bathrooms and offices. Woot! The dynamic duo to round out our Parton half dozen arrived in the evening for dinner and we all had a great time catching up about our weekend.
My other Valentine's surprise was new Team Judi t-shirts! The boys and I showed up in ours when we arrived Saturday, then Rob and Alex had theirs on when they showed up Monday. Mom loved them. Not only are we standing on the Word, we're wearing the Word! Blessings to all, keep fightin' the good fight!
1 comment:
awww! I don't know the whole story with your mom, but it must be a challenge for everyone. May God bless you all during this time. By sharing your positive attitude & triumphs, you are proclaiming Christ the victor! How awesome! ...No wonder the school loves you - good job changing things up in the computer lab & then cleaning afterward:)
Sarah
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