Kory finally had a pain free week and even got a few things done at our apartment building in Seattle and at home, too. He’s sure a lot more pleasant when he feels good and is able to do things. I’m now preparing for the calm before the storm as we count down the days to his angiogram on Friday. Lord only knows what life will be like after that. Hopefully better than ever, but I’m preparing for the worst, just so I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Last Sunday a friend invited me to her family reunion. I’ve know her so long she considers me family. We’ve been friends since 1972 and I met all her extended family back in the 70s so it was fun to see them all now, many years later. As I was talking with her one brother-in-law it seems we both had ancestors that homesteaded near the same small town in North Dakota and also came from the same area in Norway when they emigrated. I’m sure we are related, probably eighth cousins or something. I spent some time researching it this week but haven’t found an obvious direct link. It was too funny to think someone I’ve know for so long could possible share some DNA with me. It’s such a small world.
Our week has been the usual treadmill routine again but with only a few blips around Kaleb’s attitude toward me. He was very disrespectful a few times which escalated into some pretty big consequences for him. I hated that he lost the ability to attend a Harvest Party this weekend, but it sure stopped his unacceptable behavior. He’s being so challenged in math, piano and science that he’s now at a stage where none of it comes easy –he has to actually WORK at it a little and he doesn’t want to. He’s used to flying through all his schoolwork quickly without checking for accuracy and doing okay, but now he needs to slow down and double check things. He pulled his first 100% on a test in chemistry as a result of slowing down, so he saw my reasoning after that. He’s an A student, but often gets Cs because he’s sloppy. I hate that. He hates learning to be disciplined but if he doesn’t get it down now, the sloppy habits will be hard to break.
I’ll be so thankful when this election is over. I’m almost to the point of not caring who wins or what initiatives get passed or not, I just want our phone to stop ringing. We can go weeks around here without a single phone call, but it’s been dozens of calls each day and I’m about to go crazy for all the interruptions. It gave me great pleasure though to hang up on Barak Obama and James Dobson, even if they were just recorded messages.
There was some good this week, too. I took Kaleb trick-or-treating today to all the businesses in downtown Mount Vernon with his buddy Spencer and family. Spencer’s dad is a doctor so we talked as we walked around downtown and he asked me who the cardiologist is that is doing Kory’s work on Friday. I told him and he assured me there is no better doctor for the job, so that was comforting. He suspects, as do I, that Kory’s mercury toxicity has played a key role in his artery problems. He also told me a lot of things that were very helpful to know going in to this so I’m thanking God tonight for all the information he shared. It was very confirming that we are on the right path.
We had to say goodbye today to the two loveable yellow labs we’ve been dogsitting for two weeks. I can’t wait to have a clean house again, but it is rather quiet around here now. Kaleb is grieving their loss. Kory enjoyed his afternoon walks with them. Nothing gets us out of the house more than having a big dog around. They will be missed.
Emotionally this has been a tough week since JaRon, the daughter of our beloved Grammy J, was sent home from the hospital with hospice care. She’s been fighting bone cancer for the last two years and it’s not going well. She’s my age, married, and has three kids. We spend our holidays with them so they are our “family of choice” and I hate to see her suffer. I went down last Sunday to pray with her and she was pretty out of it but when I prayed that the Holy Spirit would show up and comfort her, she opened her eyes, sat up in bed and clearly said, “What was that?” then went right back to her groggy state. It was comforting in a way to think that God is being very real to her right now. I asked her what she saw, but she was unable to respond. I’ve been a wreck all week just thinking about her. Actually, I’ve been a wreck worrying about Kaleb’s disrespectful behavior and about Kory’s upcoming heart procedure but I try to keep thinking about what JaRon said to me a few weeks ago when I was there visiting her. “Today is all we have,” she said, “What are you doin’ goin’ around worryin’ about tomorrow? None of us have tomorrow. We only have today.” So, so true.
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