The View from my Hilltop
Tuesday April 27, 2010
Life is busy! Between health issues, basement renovations, life with Baby Breeze - who now not only crawls but can walk pushing a bin or chair at 8 months- and Storm who just turned 4 years and has her first dance recital coming up (which means weekly practice, photo shoots, dress rehearsals, searching stores for leotards and makeup!!), yard and garden work, long-distance learning, not to mention daily household chores and trying to come up with 3 healthy meals a day, I am exhausted! I used to get sooo many things done in one day (before kids), now I have to pick and choose what I do while the baby sleeps - working on my blog right now is at the expense of organizing the hall closet or completing the setup of the office (now that we have walls and a floor). Every day I choose a project and focus on that - laundry, vacuuming, baking, organizing, picking up toys, (where did they all come from? I think some asexual reproduction is going on while I sleep), etc, etc, etc.We still do not have the full use of the basement which we so desperately need - we are awaiting our tile. Once the floor is in we will have much needed closet and storage space which means everything that's laid out in our rec room right now will be put away and we can start using it as a rec room! Hurray, it's only been 3 years! Then we need to focus on the bathrooms. Renovating this house has been one of the slowest processes, how can that be when the world is spinning so fast and everyone, including me, complains how hurried life has become?
Spring is in the air - March 24, 2010
We have had an amazing last few weeks here - an early spring that is especially sweet after the last two winters that seemed unending. The daffodils are poking through as are a few other perennials. We've been sitting on the deck for the last several weeks with temperatures of +5 C and up to +12 C of late! And what does that make me want to do? get out in the garden and spring clean the house. The spring air has bewitched me though and left me feeling stronger than I really am. Can I lift a couch with one hand and vacuum underneath it with the other? of course I can. NOT. It has been one week since I thought I could and even now I dropped the laundry basket like a hot potato after carrying it a few feet down the hall. Nothing like a sharp muscle spasm to remind me to take it easy and now I am back to scuttling about like a hermit crab.
What I wanted to do well over a week ago was post some photos of the garden as the first plants began to poke tentatively through the earth, a celebration of this early and long awaited spring (Baby Breeze's very first spring!) but my back didn't cooperate. Finally this morning I was able to take some pictures. Below are daffodils, irises and one lone poppy (thankfully I raked the day before I hurt myself but as you can see there is a lot more work that needs to be done). I intend to post photos of the garden as itchanges flourishes over the next few months (if it gets the TLC it needs). For a sneak peek of what's ahead see my post from Jan 19th below.
What I wanted to do well over a week ago was post some photos of the garden as the first plants began to poke tentatively through the earth, a celebration of this early and long awaited spring (Baby Breeze's very first spring!) but my back didn't cooperate. Finally this morning I was able to take some pictures. Below are daffodils, irises and one lone poppy (thankfully I raked the day before I hurt myself but as you can see there is a lot more work that needs to be done). I intend to post photos of the garden as it
The Month of Love - February 2010
February is considered Heart Month here by the Heart and Stroke Foundation, I never really thought too much about that until this year. Just before Valentine's Day my husband woke up with chest and (left) arm pain; he's only in his mid-30s.
Heart disease does run in his family - both his father and younger brother have had issues with their hearts, needless to say the warning bells were sounding loudly (or was that just my heart pounding?). He wanted to drive Storm to daycare before getting checked out at the hospital. Ummm, no way Jose, you go directly to the hospital now, do not pass go, do not collect $200! Unfortunately he had to drive himself there. Three hours later I reached him on his cell, he had had an EKG, blood work, and a few other tests. "I'll be home in half an hour" he said, "just waiting for the doc". Somehow I knew I wouldn't be seeing him in 30 minutes. Sure enough, the doc later told him he had had a "cardiac event" and would not let him leave the hospital to return the vehicle to me. We decided to wait until the next day before trying to find a way to get myself to the hospital. He spent the night in the ER and was transferred to one of the city hospitals the next morning for an angiogram. It was a restless night at home (and no doubt for him at the hospital too).
He called me the next morning to say the cardiologist informed him he could drive a truck through his arteries they were so clear. That was the good news, the bad news was the diagnosis of myocarditis - a infection of the heart muscle, most likely from a virus (but parasites and bacteria are also known culprits). He'd would spend the next 3 days in the ER. His heart had suffered some damage from the inflammation caused by his body's immune response to the virus whether this is permanent or not only time will tell. As the second day wore on so did my anxiety until at last I was able to reach someone to take me to the hospital to see him and pick up the vehicle. I told our friend just drop me off at the door (with the girls!) but thankfully he came in with me. No children under 12 allowed in the ER so he waited and watched the kids while I had a quick visit with Hunter. I had a few minutes with him before I had to run back to my children in the waiting room especially once Baby Breeze realized she was being left with someone she had never seen before! A few more back and forths and then, with a heavy heart, I left my husband in the ER to bring the girls home. One of the downsides of living away from family is having no one to back you up in a situation like this.
It has also put things in perspective for me. You can have all the plans in the world, for yourself, your family, your home, and then bam! a sucker punch out of the blue. Our biggest decisions of late have been focused on paint color and flooring type. Suddenly, I found myself thinking about the possibility of having to raise two little girls on my own - how? where? why?? I thought we were in control of our lives but we aren't, we are at the mercy of the unknown, and that scares me.
Heart disease does run in his family - both his father and younger brother have had issues with their hearts, needless to say the warning bells were sounding loudly (or was that just my heart pounding?). He wanted to drive Storm to daycare before getting checked out at the hospital. Ummm, no way Jose, you go directly to the hospital now, do not pass go, do not collect $200! Unfortunately he had to drive himself there. Three hours later I reached him on his cell, he had had an EKG, blood work, and a few other tests. "I'll be home in half an hour" he said, "just waiting for the doc". Somehow I knew I wouldn't be seeing him in 30 minutes. Sure enough, the doc later told him he had had a "cardiac event" and would not let him leave the hospital to return the vehicle to me. We decided to wait until the next day before trying to find a way to get myself to the hospital. He spent the night in the ER and was transferred to one of the city hospitals the next morning for an angiogram. It was a restless night at home (and no doubt for him at the hospital too).
He called me the next morning to say the cardiologist informed him he could drive a truck through his arteries they were so clear. That was the good news, the bad news was the diagnosis of myocarditis - a infection of the heart muscle, most likely from a virus (but parasites and bacteria are also known culprits). He'd would spend the next 3 days in the ER. His heart had suffered some damage from the inflammation caused by his body's immune response to the virus whether this is permanent or not only time will tell. As the second day wore on so did my anxiety until at last I was able to reach someone to take me to the hospital to see him and pick up the vehicle. I told our friend just drop me off at the door (with the girls!) but thankfully he came in with me. No children under 12 allowed in the ER so he waited and watched the kids while I had a quick visit with Hunter. I had a few minutes with him before I had to run back to my children in the waiting room especially once Baby Breeze realized she was being left with someone she had never seen before! A few more back and forths and then, with a heavy heart, I left my husband in the ER to bring the girls home. One of the downsides of living away from family is having no one to back you up in a situation like this.
It has also put things in perspective for me. You can have all the plans in the world, for yourself, your family, your home, and then bam! a sucker punch out of the blue. Our biggest decisions of late have been focused on paint color and flooring type. Suddenly, I found myself thinking about the possibility of having to raise two little girls on my own - how? where? why?? I thought we were in control of our lives but we aren't, we are at the mercy of the unknown, and that scares me.
Grandma's Apron - Jan 20, 2010
I've received handmade aprons from my husband's grandmother as birthday gifts in previous years. Now I admit I don't often use them but I have always appreciated them, there is something very special about a homemade gift and something endearingly old-fashioned about aprons. I never thought too much about the uses of an apron beyond the obvious until I came across Grandma's Apron. Makes me wish I had lived in a simpler time:The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears…
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.
And when the weather was cold grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.
After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men-folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.
Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool.
Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.
They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.
I never caught anything from an apron…but Love.
(Author Unknown)
(Author Unknown)
Counting the days until spring - Jan 19, 2010
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