Weekend Plans, or lack thereof

This weekend I have three of my favorite munchkins staying at the Homestead while my sister heads a couple hours north to be in a friend’s wedding. I’m always happy to get to spend some good quality time with great munchkins, and even more so now since these guys will be moving across the country in a few short weeks. My coworker asked me yesterday if I have the whole visit planned out. Um... What do you mean “planned out”? Yes, I’m a planner, I plan. But a weekend with the munchkins? Nope. Not a plan in sight. The plan is to hang out, to keep them fed, happy, and enjoy our time together. The plan is to put some water in the baby pool and spend some time in the yard. The plan is to not count on getting anything done around the house, so if I manage to get anything done, it’s a bonus.

There are a few set things in the weekend of variables: I will sacristan for the Saturday evening Mass at Church (with munchkins). I will have Andrew down for naps at the appropriate times. Hmmm. Yeah, I think that’s it. The rest of the plan is to not plan. To revel in the joy of the moment, of childhood, of being together.

Happy weekend, friends.

The new boy

I meant to post this earlier but kept having computer / photo issues. Here he is, little David, the latest and greatest Christian in my life (as of July 4th anyway). And somehow I am blessed to be his Godmother. Clearly I'm pretty mush over him. He's such a sweet boy and such a snuggler. So July 4th was great, Mass, baptism, hanging out with a lot of friends and snuggling a boy that smells like chrism oil, does it get better than that? I think not.

Living it up

Yes friends, I am living it up in this newly found freedom, this new phase of recovery. I haven't had to take pain killers all week (even over the counter ones). I am back to my usual productive / power walk with no pain. I weeded last night for a bit, between rain storms- no pain. I carried heavy trash to the curb, by myself. And now my head is spinning to figure out what I should tackle first this weekend... oh a weekend! A real for real productive weekend. So. Excited.

I know, I'm a little out of control. And loving my "normalness." (Thanks to Alexis for telling me to enjoy my normalness, no one has ever said that to me before ;)

All Clear!!

Today was the day I went back to the doctor's for the 4-weeks post surgery check up. Everything looked just fine and he gave me the all clear on doing whatever I want. Did you hear that? The all clear!! He said I can play softball- as long as I try to not slide into home on my stomach or head (no problem). I can lift people and things that weigh more than a gallon of milk. Basically, I can now go back to overdoing it to my heart's content. Yippeeeee!!!

Now I just have a ton of catch up to do... and I think I'll start by hauling some heavy trash out to the curb. Hooray!

On recovery... and patience...

So... I must say, this recovery thing is still not my cup of tea, despite good progress as far as I can tell. Here's the thing, the inability to be super productive (particularly on Saturdays) really does kill me. Kills. Me. I am still trying very hard to be good because I really don't want to drag this out any longer than necessary, but wow, it is definitely a lesson in patience. I assume all my mommy friends out there know this - I know you've experienced this in lots of ways, that everything takes 12 times longer than it should. However, there is one notable difference, you all have really cute (and needy) reasons for this. Me? I've got a 6" incision in my stomach. Not nearly so cute. I am ready to walk at my ridiculously productive pace again, work as long as I decide to, and just get back to my full energy insanity. aaahhhh. Patience. Still working on the patience thing. One day at a time.

On a positive note, today I weeded a lot, probably 3 hours total, with breaks in between, and I'm finally beginning to see progress (and yes, I am sore right now). I also watered the poor parched garden and managed to thread my soaker hoses through the tomato half of the garden to give them a good drink too. I think I can say I've gotten about 75% of the vegetable garden at least under control. Not perfect. Not weed free, but at least to the point that you can see what is actually growing there. Just 25% to go and then weaving soaker hoses through the rest of the garden and putting down straw for mulch. Though it wasn't nearly what I'd like to have accomplished, I think it was a decent amount for a three weeks post-surgery Reenie. I also managed to grocery shop, talk to my BFF on the phone for an hour, look up chicken coop plans (on one of those between weeding breaks), and am considering a shower at some point. I know. Look at me go :)

And now it is time to end this very trivial blog post.

Off to a good start?

By the time I finally left work on Friday, an hour after I'd started leaving, I didn't think the long weekend was going well. I missed my hair appointment. I was sore from being at work all day. I was kind of cranky. And traffic was bad. Sigh.

But sometimes the little things have an amazing ability to turn things around. I sat on the patio and read the town newsletter with my feet up in this fabulous chair that I don't typically spend much time actually sitting in (thanks Kara). I made a batch of sangria (yay for summer sangria). I threw the ball for an attention-starved, ball-starved mutt. I wandered to the berry corner and found a whole bowl full of ripe raspberries!! This is my third year with the raspberries bushes and the first time I've found more than 6 ripe at the same time. True, it is a tiny bowl, but these little jewels definitely made my day.

Then Jenny Pink came over and we drank some sangria together. And she's just terrific in general and fun to hang out with. Definitely a kindred spirit. And she's thinking about moving in, which I'm very excited for. Better yet, the move in conditions include finishing the cabinet doors (covering her bedroom to be) and painting the bedroom! Two projects I desperately want to finish but, thanks to this whole recovery thing, have made no progress on. Woo hoo!!

I would have to say, I did get off to a good start after all, even after the work and haircut fiasco. Today I slept in, visited with Susy (a friend who is visiting for the weekend and making it very confusing having a dog by the same name), drank some great coffee, and now I'm determined to make some progress on that weed patch that has some vegetables hiding in it somewhere. Maybe before it gets horribly hot....

Happy Independence Day, friends. Happy long weekend. Happy July!