Pain is an Excellent Teacher

1. I haven't really blogged much this summer (No, really?!). Since we returned from California, I've been focused on finishing a bunch of other, energy draining projects like Physical Therapy for my ankle (graduated from Strive Physical Therapy for the second time in 2 years) or my laptop, which I share with both children, has been regularly occupied by one of them. My phone can do a lot of things, but blogging isn't one of them. Not practically, anyway.

So I've finished the PT that was ordered after my car accident in December and have a pretty poor opinion of the Procura Healthcare System (Moral of the story is: Never get in a car accident.) which was responsible for paying (Ha!) for the care I received as a result of my injuries. I do have pain free moments, but to maintain them requires lots of stretching and exercise. Daily. This is a new thing for me. I'd rather sit on the couch and read a book or watch a movie than do anything else. But if I don't, my lower back and my ankle ache interminably. So I am trying to rearrange my life to accommodate daily exercise which, while the children were in school, was a lot simpler. Put the kids on their buses, go for a walk. But Miranda's last day of summer school was yesterday. I'm going to have to be a lot more creative in the upcoming weeks. Today that might mean mowing the back yard, because it's something I can do with the kids in the house that counts as exercise.

2. I've had other persistent, annoying health issues recently. My IBS flared up in April which has caused me to drastically change my diet, taking out as much sugar as possible, as well as anything acidic (which includes most fruits and, sadly, tea.) Since the result of ingesting any of these substances is almost instant pain (the acid burns while the sugar makes it feel like balloons are being inflated in my gut), it has been easy to refuse foods I would have previously fallen upon with a ravenous appetite. One happy result is gradual weight loss, but I still miss my tea.

Right before we left for San Diego, I had a sore throat for about a week. Then half-way through our vacation, the soreness went away and I developed laryngitis, which I still have. 2 weeks ago, I went to my doctor who ran a huge pile of blood tests to check for happy things like mononucleosis. All the blood work came back clean, so I'm chalking it up to stress and moving on.

3. I haven't stitched in months, mostly because Celestial Dragon is such a large undertaking, that it's difficult to pick up for a casual moment of stitching. So, several weeks ago I kitted up Day Lily from the Connections series by John Clayton of Heritage Stitchcraft. Here's what the finished product will look like:

Here's attempt number one:

This is 6-7 hours of stitching that then had to be frogged because I had the material (which is rectangular because of the patterns dimensions) turned the wrong way. Sigh. Using scissors and a seam ripper, it took nearly two hours to pull out. Ugh.

Here's where I am now:

I love Heritage Stitchcrafts designs because, for the most part, they are small and elegant and only take a few months of dedicated stitching to finish. Of course, this is part of a 4 panel series I've wanted to make for myself for about 10 years now. You can see them here. I let Miranda choose which one to start first; I myself might have chosen the tulip. Or not. I also love Clayton's International series; I've previously stitched Greek Steps and Venice.

4. I went to my first Phillies game last night. It was a rather ho hum game until the last inning, when the Phillies lost dramatically to the Giants, 2-1. Still, the tickets were great (gift from a friend) and the scoreboard was so beautiful it was hard not to stare at it incessantly. I don't think I want to know how many pixels is shows.

Picture by Marshall:

Even though thunderstorms were in the forecast, all we had were a few sprinkles.

5. I haven't managed to see all the movies I wanted lately, but I saw a few:

• Pacific Rim was awesome. I took my mother and even she liked it. Marshall and I will see it again on Wednesday.
• Despicable Me 2 was really cute. Miranda and I went with the cousins and grandma's and had a good time. 
• R.I.P.D. was okay. Ryan Reynolds is always good though, even in a bad movie. 
• Wolverine was good, as Jackman is always good, but I found the competing loyalties and plot twists a little confusing. 

Yes, I know, I need to update my 2013 movies list.

6. I am making strides in watching what I call "Autism Television" in that I've been watching The Big Bang Theory this summer, which is easy since it's all over the television schedule and my DVR currently has 14 episodes for me to watch. Of course, this means I'm watching it all out of order, but it is funny enough to stand the disorder. I'm also enjoying King & Maxwell, which also has a main character with ASD, although, like Sheldon, he's a savant. The savantism helps with the plot because it allows the character to be extremely useful in certain situations but there's enough that's familiar to strike a chord with me, like this:

Well, I can't manage to insert the video, so here's the link.

By the way, "Autism Television" is what I call any show with an element of ASD. I have previously avoided them all because it was too painful to watch.

7. Okay, it's time for lunch and Alex wants to use my computer, so I guess I'm done.

Here's Jen.