SHEs Organized

Take care of yourselves.

Work the homemaking system you use.

Thrive.

It is amazing how two things have combined to make things feel more in control here.

1. I don't have to preach until June 14 (and again on the 21) so I don't have to work 15 extra hours into my week in order to prepare a service and write a sermon. I'm using some of those hours to do things related to my housekeeping and bookkeeping. So I feel more in control.

2. I'm still fitting in up to an hour a day to do physio exercises and am moving much more easily. Literally it takes half as long to walk across the apartment because I'm no longer shuffling along. That makes housework less time consuming. And because I'm no longer in pain, my brain is clearer and I'm more efficient. Plus I don't have to take time to rest, ice and elevate.

Part of that is also due to taking ibuprofen all day, every day. And with increased movement, I had to raise it to a total of 800 mg a day (at 8, 1, 6 and bedtime.) I tried 600 mg but found I noticed discomfort creeping back into life. I'll give it another week and try and cut back again but given the condition of my knees that may not be possible. There's only so much physio can do. The knee replacement will always be in my future, the only question is when. And I'll always have bad times like I did a month ago since my physio therapist says going 'backwards' is common and there will be peaks and troughs.

I need to consider my preaching schedule and decide if I need to cut it back further. Considering this is effectively volunteer (I get $75 for the 32 hours I work each month at this), it won't affect me financially. So the question is how much I really want to do this. Is a 2 week break every month, sufficient to help me recover from the stress of working flat out for 2 - 3 weeks a month.

Hi everyone!!

Kathryn I don't know if you should put off the knee replacement surgery too long. I have seen numerous (hundreds) of people deal with this as I drive them back and forth to physio, but the bad knee makes the other knee over work and then you end up needing both knees replaced. Usually one year apart. The second knee replacement always causes the clients more pain, longer recovery time and the general consensus of "Why did I put it off for so long?"

I have 2 different options with my meds. Yesterday I did the one pill 3 times and today I am doing the 1 1/2 pills twice.


Yesterday I made beef ribs in the crock pot. They were really good. We have decided yet again that we need a larger crock pot.

I plan to thrive today with 11:30 body work, i.e. a massage. Also will p/u meals and see dmom and do (at least) three errands.

Yesterday I just got lost and overwhelmed dealing with dd and just never got back. We got her room mucked out and then I bogged down. I still have laundry to deal with, give away stuff still in great room and garbage still upstairs. We went on to C abela's afterward and got her lightweight boots for the middle east trip. I was so stressed by then I left her alone (and a sales gal came over to commiserate and help find boots thankfully) and I bought myself a pair of sandals . She wanted to help me by cooking dinner so we went to grocery (third time in three days!) and dh ended up grilling the chicken and she made lasagne rolls with a spinach and ricotta filling. Then dinner all together, clean up and I was exhausted and it was 8:30. I guess I got used to the simple life as an empty nester, huh?

Speaking of Emptynester, I'm missing her - no activity from her on Facebook since May 4, altho her dd has posted to her. Hoping all is well there.

Need to get rolling - was up around 7.
-breakfast/meds
-empty dishwasher, kitchen and breakfast counters clear (mostly done last night, just a little clean up)
-start a lol - towels - that came out of dd's room
-walk
-s2s

Cathy: already both knees need to be done. So I won't damage the other any more than it is already damaged. My physio therapist has seen enough unsuccessful knee replacements that she says to wait as long as possible. The doctor said the same thing. Since pain is no longer an issue at this point, I'm going to wait with her and the doctor monitoring me. Of course, somewhere along the line, I have to figure out a year ahead of time that the pain will be so bad that I need the replacement. My issue is that I'm young enough a replacement now won't last the rest of my life. And second joint replacement technology is not ready for prime-time according to my physio therapist.

I'm done breakfast but still haven't got dressed. The plan for today is a major bike ride. First to the minister's house to drop off something, then visit a senior in the hospital 2 blocks from the minister, then to the main hospital to do a blood draw (both dh and I), and finally dh will visit his choir president at the same hospital. We'll probably have lunch at the bagel place since it is between the two hospitals.

Dh is on a conference call right now.

Kitchen is all cleaned up, bedroom is tidied. I made the spare bed up (ds never remakes it right after napping here) but the living room is a bit of a paperwork mess right now. I hope to clean the bathrooms but am not sure I can do the office bathroom while dh is on his call. I should be quiet enough.

I miss you, too, MT! Hope you pop in soon and let us know what's going on, and how you and Mr. MT are doing.

Was out running errands by bike for over 3 hours.

Biked to lunch first, then to the minister's house. Turns out my senior wasn't in either hospital so now I need to track her down. Blood draw at the second hospital went very well. Dh visited his friend and I biked to the local pharmacist and left my prescription. I'll go back tomorrow to pick it up. We got home within 10 minutes of each other.

I left my bike computer downstairs so need to go back down and see how far I went. My guess is about 10 miles. All the routes we took were fairly quiet, just one stressful area (which included a big hill that I walked up.) I'm getting much stronger on the bike, making it up some hills. I could also put my left foot down on the ground when stopped at a light. Last time I did that it was excruciatingly painful.

Dh needs to work now and into the evening so I'll cook up some dinner rather than us going out. We'll probably go out tomorrow night since we have the theatre as well. We can go down early, park and have dinner out. Or walk to a restaurant closer to here and then bus the rest of the way.

Edited to add: Tracked down my senior. She died last Thursday. Sigh... It was wonderful to see her looking so well when we visited her May 18. She was dead 10 days later.

Hi everyone! Last night I got some major church webwork out of the way. I am waiting on approval from the minister and youth director (it was the youth page and the childrens page that got combined). Foster cat Keesha does not appear to be coming back, so I have a slot open for another cat. However, the foster coordinator is waffling on which cat to send over. There are three potentials. I will take any of them. I cannot take babycats, because I am not home enough anymore. However, I will take an adult from another foster and let them get babycats. I wish SOMEONE would bring babies to the adoption clinic, because it makes my foster, Briggs, come out from under his blanket and be social. Last time, they tried so hard to play together, I put the babies in WITH him. They played until they fell asleep and it looked like momcat and kittens, except that Briggs is a TOMCAT not a momcat. He is not the first big brother tom I have fostered.

Today, I have DD13, but she will be bored, because the x is coming to help with my swamp cooler. The motor didn't turn on Saturday. It is hot as blazes in my house. I am also planning on getting his advice on my failed door fix. After that I want to put away all the tools that are cluttering up the kitchen. I am hoping to publish the web changes. If there is time, I want to get the animal org meeting minutes typed up and sent, but that will take a while.

I finished a rather complex task at payroll and am taking a short break. I should get back to it now.