1. It's been a very full week and I'm having difficulty summing everything up in a few short paragraphs. Perhaps I should work through the week day by day, but I'm going to start with yesterday, since that is the freshest in my mind.
Marshall took Thursday off of work to put in a new laminate floor in Miranda's room. It really looks lovely even though it took him longer than anticipated and he would tell you it's not perfect. I can't tell; it looks great to me. You can see some progress pictures here but I'll post some finished pictures here:
Doesn't it look wonderful!
So, since we had everything out of Miranda's room to put the floor in, I spent some time sorting through Miranda's toys and books and throwing away anything broken or unused, which meant I dumped her toy boxes on the floor in the front room. I didn't get it all finished, though, because by 6 pm I was tired (I spent the afternoon running around with my mother doing errands and buying groceries), which meant I left this mess on the floor:
Miranda came stomping in to me a little while later announcing that since I'd made the mess, I had to clean it up and do it right now! (Apparently, she listens to me when I tell her this, even if she rarely follows my edict.) I gave her back her usual response: I'll do it later.
2. Wednesday was our big dentist adventure. Alex had an appointment with our family dentist two weeks ago that went badly and she recommended we make appointments with Children's Dental Care Associates. They were able to book the children back to back, starting at 11 am. (To give our children the best care, they clear out the office of other patients, just in case.) Miranda went first and sailed through with flying colors: x-rays, teeth cleaned, no cavities, adult teeth visible and should be popping up soon. Alex was a different matter.
We knew from our other visit that Alex had a cavity in one of his back molars that would need filling and he had another adult tooth moving up in the front of his mouth that would probably necessitate at least one baby tooth being pulled. (Poor boy, he seems to have my problem of baby teeth falling out later than usual.) Well, they were able to do these things (after the usual x-rays and cleaning) but when it was all done, he didn't know what to do when he felt his cheek numb and so he chomped on it and it bled everywhere. And he howled and we were distressed. It's still swollen but healing. He still looks chipmunk-like, though.
My car is still at the shop, so my mother-in-law graciously came and played chauffeur, driving us to and from and dropping Miranda off at school after we were all done. In recompense for his trauma, Alex got the whole day off of school and a white Angry Bird plush toy (from the Tooth Fairy, officially).
2. Tuesday my mother came over so that I could take her car to my PT appointment while she stayed and put Miranda on the bus at the appropriate time. Last Friday, when my ankle was examined, my therapist estimated I should need only about 3 more weeks of therapy and devised a whole new, more difficult exercise program for me to complete during my office visits. So I was very stiff and sore last Friday after my new program but on Tuesday I didn't feel quite so worn out, in terms of muscle use, so I must be getting better! The thing that hurts the most, strangely, is not walking or driving but sitting with my legs down, so when I sit, I'm still sitting around the house with my foot up.
3. Monday is rather blurry in my memory because I was recovering from the HS Winter Retreat from the past weekend. I shuffled the children along to their regular things, did a little laundry, tried to take a nap and took a long shower. And, I'm sure, played Words with Friends.
4. Sunday was rather full. Since, as I am reminded every year, HS students don't sleep much at these events, I didn't get much sleep the night before, but was able to get up and function for our last large group session and get all packed up again for our trip home. We left right after lunch and arrived back at the church, as Dave promised, at 2:30. Since my car was in the shop, I hitched a ride home with a friend to her house (halfway between our house and the church) where Marshall picked me up to bring me home to a lovely family dinner with my parents and visiting aunt and uncle. (I'm not sure I was very gracious at the table, however, since all I wanted was to sleep or shower or both at the same time.) But my children were happy to see me and everyone did eventually go to bed. I was so grateful for my soft, warm, fluffy bed, as the bunk beds at the retreat center were rather hard and stacked so close together you couldn't sit up while in the actual bed. Since I had the bottom bunk, though, I could just roll out onto the floor, and did so.
5. Saturday I was up early to breakfast with our students and then we had a morning session together, and then after lunch, I took a long, leisurely nap, the kind that only get interrupted by dinner, which never happens at home. I know the students ran around outside, played with the outdoor cats at the facility, played soccer in the gym, played card games and banana-grams in our rec. room, but I stayed in bed. That's my idea of free time! Then we had dinner, games (where the boys actually won 4 on a couch!) and another large group session, followed by Smores at a campfire and more games before we finally sent the students to bed, after midnight, and turned the lights out even later than that! Man, hanging out with youths is not for the faint of heart.
6. Friday was spent writing last week's blog post, running around the house trying to have everything ready for Marshall to be home alone with the kids and then to my PT appointment, after which I was understandably sore. And then off to the retreat! It was a very full day.
7. Life is very full right now, keeping everyone moving forward with everything that needs doing. We're going to try to prep the front room for its new floor this weekend, which will mean finding all the packing boxes for the china (somewhere in the attic, I think) so that we can carefully put all that stuff away before ripping up that ugly, awful carpet. If only my brain can keep up and remember all this stuff that needs doing. Marshall actually writes it all down but I'm afraid to; the list would be too long.
And here's Jen!
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