Woodstone Prairie

FOR TODAY

February 8, 2010

Outside my window… the sky is dove gray and there is a lovely soft snow falling. I don’t know if it will last, but it’s really beautiful out there right now…

I am thinking… about the last few things I need to do to get ready for M’s surgery next week.

I am thankful for…  so many things right now. For everything falling into place for the surgery, especially after it came so close to blowing up last week, for things going well while S was here, for E (dd#1) and the grandkids getting safely through the snowy weather on their trip east, for the pharmacist letting me know we are going to have to go back to weekly blood draws… BEFORE I missed one, and it was too late, and I ran out of the medication M takes that requires the blood work (the new pdoc should have told me this but didn’t…) not doing the required blood work on time could have been really bad!

From the learning rooms…I’m going to get things somewhat wrapped up this week in preparation for not being able to get much done school for the next couple of weeks. We’ll finish up as much as possible, and hopefully even get ahead a bit.

From the kitchen… the cookie jar is empty and I have a craving for peanut butter cookies. Guess what I’ll be doing this morning?

I am creating… R and I have been enjoying the new drawing book I bought, so we’ve been drawing more. I’ve also been working on a guitar strum I’m trying to get down.

I am going… nowhere today, tomorrow we have the pre-surgery tour at the hospital, and Friday we work at the library.

  I am reading… The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss, it’s a novel  but it’s good and was written by someone who seems to really knows horses. We’re still reading The Cricket in Time’s Square for our read aloud, and should finish this week.

I am hoping… that this week is easy and calm, with no surprises.

I am hearing… the rumbling and gurgling of the boiler, otherwise all is quiet.

Around the house… nothing much going on, just waiting for the new floor to be installed in the living room.

One of my favorite things… the it’s-a-staying-home-day feeling. We’ve got nowhere to go today, it’s nice not to have to schedule our day around whatever errands need to be run.

A few plans for the rest of the week… finish up the pre-surgery stuff; take the tour, get the equipment delivered (wheelchair, etc), find out for sure if M needs to donate blood in case he needs any during surgery, make a list of instructions (for the animals) for while I’m gone, get the month’s shopping done (a little early, but I won’t be able to go for awhile so it has to be now), draw blood (today! don’t forget…), work at the library, make sure the home health people are arranged, call the CNA and makes sure she knows what’s going on and that we’ll probably need her for more hours for awhile, make sure the pdoc on the CL team knows to include M in their rounds each day… riding lessons (another one I’m in danger of forgetting!). Hmm, I think that’s it. (This will make a good reminder list for me this week.)

A picture I am sharing…

Snowy Emma, in the gray of early dawn, after keeping me company while I did the barn work.

Visit Peggy’s blog  for more about The Simple Woman’s Daybook

The highlight of the kid’s social calendar each year is the big “Night to Remember” dance put on through our Special Olympic team… It’s a family event, and our SO team coordinator goes ALL out for it… It starts with dinner, and the opportunity to have professional family portraits taken and wander around the Wings Over the Rockies Museum where the dance is held each year. Then the dance (complete with DJ and disco ball), starts…

The dance is, of course, the highlight of the evening for the kids.

When we found out a few weeks ago that M needed surgery, I told the surgeon we could do it anytime… after Feb 6th. There was no way M was going to miss this party just to get his hip fixed… the hip can wait… this party only comes once a year!

Here are a few pictures…

R, M and S at the house, ready to leave for the party

S and R at dinner…

…and later, dancing.

M dancing with his friend E..

S, a friend from both our homeschool group and Special Olympics came, he and R and S hung out together a lot…

S seems to “channel” Michael Jackson…

M’s girlfriend R got there, and, to his delight, he got to dance his first “slow dance” with someone other than mom. (poor R, I think I caught her in mid-sentence).

They all had such a good time…

~

One last slow dance… on stage!… before it was time to head for home.

Many thanks to Rocky Mtn Team Special Olympics for creating such a wonderful evening for us…

7 Quick Takes

~1~

I’ve spend the whole week “putting out fires” at Children’s Hospital. From the way this is going you’d think nobody with schizophrenia had never needed surgery before. I like the way the kid’s pediatrician put it… “If M was injured while skiing or something and needed his hip repaired, there would be no discussion… they’d just get in there and do it. This shouldn’t be any different…”

~2~

She’s right, it shouldn’t be… but it is.

~3~

Earlier this week, I thought I was going to have to postpone the surgery until after M turns 18 in August (to work around one of Children’s Hospital’s policies), but it’s looking like we’re set to go as scheduled on the 16th. I’ll find out either today or Tuesday what the plan is…

~4~

Children’s Hospital made me so angry yesterday, that I had all kinds of extra energy…

~5~

… energy that got the taxes done!

~6~

We also picked up the wood for the new floor in the living room this week. It ended up being about 30 boxes, with a total weight of  just over 1,400 lbs. (I had to find out the weight, so I would know if we could take it in one load without flattening our little light duty truck.) I learned that it only takes about 30 minutes for the kids and I to unload, move into the house,  and stack 1,400 lbs of wood. My legs were TIRED afterwards!

~

This is what that much wood looks like… It takes up a lot of floor space in the living room.            

~7~

We’re off today for lunch with friends and then the homeschool group ice cream social. Tomorrow is the big once-a-year Special Olympics party and dance… The kids can’t wait!

This post about donkeys made me smile…

Go check it out.

Last summer was short and cool here, and the fall… my favorite season… was definitely abbreviated.

 Our first snow came in September.

Which meant moving all my outside pots of flowers inside for the winter. In my sunroom I have geraniums, impatiens, and one little rose bush I rescued a few years ago from the middle of a bunch of prairie grass that had grown up around it. It’s blooms are a dazzling pink, but it only produces one bloom once a year or so. (Which makes each flower especially important, you know…)

I keep it in a pot because each time I’ve planted it in the ground the deer find and eat it. In a pot it can spend the summer on the relative safety of the front porch.

I’ve also got a couple of tiny blue spruce trees wintering in the sunroom. The kids got them at the town fair last year and they were so tiny I wasn’t sure they’d live (especially after being carried around the fair all afternoon… no pots… just roots and a little dirt in a plastic bag!), but they are growing well. I can’t decide if I should put them in the ground this year or not. (Deer like to eat little evergreen trees too… )

One of my favorites is this little plant that a neighbor (and good friend) who moved away last year gave me. During the summer it was pretty much lost in the shuffle of all the bigger, showier plants..

But it was small enough to earn a spot in the kitchen window for the winter,  and it’s been a lovely little splash of color during what’s been a long and (except for the past couple of weeks) cold winter.

It just happily blooms all the time, and if it starts to get too leggy, I trim it off and within days it’s blooming again.  (I think there might be a lesson for me in there somewhere…)

I’m already making plans for the summer gardens… I didn’t get much done last year because M needed such close supervision that it was hard to get outside to work. I’m hoping he will be in a better spot this year… I’ve got big plans for this year’s gardens.

Lili the chicken has the run of my kitchen garden area right now.

She’s going to have to relocate, I think…

I’m so looking forward to the spring… 

FOR TODAY

February 1, 2010 (February already?!)

Outside my window… the sun is up, the sky is clear, and it looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day

I am thinking… that I should get up and get moving

I am thankful for… the direction I feel in terms of getting the loose ends connected to M’s surgery tied up. Oh, and for the pediatrician who called and gave me some help in figuring out how to coordinate everything.

From the learning rooms… school is going well, the kids are getting a lot done. I think I’ll run down to town to get a few supplies for a drawing “center” (for lack of a better word) I’m putting together to go with this book that I just bought.

From the kitchen… I made pizza last night and with the leftover bread dough I made some rolls. I think I’ll make a pot of stew for dinner to go with…

I am wearing… jeans, black henley, red button down shirt, lambswool slippers

I am creating… not working on much of anything crafty right now. I did spend hours yesterday trying to get a bug off the kid’s computer… does that count?

I am going… to town in a little bit. I need to pick up some prescriptions for M, and thought we’d stop at the library and Hobby Lobby too.

I am reading… Around the Next Corner by Elizabeth Wrenn… so far I’m really enjoying it. The kids and I are still reading A Cricket in Times Square as our read aloud.

I am hoping… M’s mood settles back down again. If it doesn’t I’ll have to increase the medication that is making his TD worse… something I really hate to do, but his mood needs to be steady going into surgery.

I am hearing… M is watching Pokemon on TV, but otherwise the house is quiet

Around the house… the next big project is the living room floor, but it will probably be a couple of weeks before it gets done.

One of my favorite things… the morning sun streaming in the kitchen window.

A few plans for the rest of the week… I need to call the CCB and fire our support coordinator (long story, but he’s NOT someone I want to have access to M’s confidential information!), call several different departments at Children’s Hospital (where M’s surgery will be) to get a bunch of questions answered, and finally… I need to do the taxes and get them mailed off.

A picture I am sharing…

the morning sun in my kitchen window

Visit Peggy’s blog for more about The Simple Woman’s Daybook

I’ve been stealing a little time here and there lately to go out and work with Tucker.

I have so much fun working with him. Not only is he smart, but I think he’s just the cutest little guy. In some ways he’s like a giant fuzzy stuffed animal… His coat is thick and fluffy, and the snow white fur on his chest and belly is especially soft. He’s finally grown calm enough to allow some hugs, which is nice… he’s an animal that just looks huggable.

It’s hard to believe how well he’s been doing lately. Even when I don’t get out to work with him as often as I’d like, he remembers so much of what we’ve done in the past that we can just pick up where we left off. 

He’s starting to show affection now too. Sometimes when I’m giving him a good scratch on the neck he’ll stretch that huge head of his up to mine and nibble on my hair, or on the collar of my coat. The first time he did it I wasn’t sure it he was being nice or trying to bite me, but I decided to trust him and discovered that he isn’t trying to bite… just doing some friendly nibbling. I wonder if he sees it as some kind of donkey/human mutual grooming.

I’m still working on getting him used to having weight on his back, and am starting to think I should direct his training towards the idea of him being a pack burro some day. Donkeys live so long (30-35 years easily) that most of them have several homes during their lifespans, so it’s important for them to be the kind of animal that CAN find a new home… Tucker’s wildness (when we got him) seriously limited his chances for a good home. A trained donkey is MUCH more desirable than a wild one.

So I worked more today on leading him around with a little weight on his back, and he did really well. He tried to pull away a couple of times but his pulls are more tentative now than they used to be, and if I catch him quickly, and pull him back around firmly saying “no!” he’ll stop. This is a great improvement over his former habit of jerking away so suddenly, and with so much force that he’d leave rope burns on my hands (through my gloves!) as I tried, usually unsuccessfully, to stop him…

He did so well today, working in the small pen, that I took him out (still all “tacked up”) into the main pasture where R was riding Murphy. I decided to see how Tucker would do following Murphy (like a pack burro would follow the lead horse). Tucker was amazing! He followed Murphy without pulling away once, and even let me lead him back into the small pen while R took Murphy in a different direction. What an awesome little donkey…

He still has a long way to go (at some point I MUST teach him to load into a horse trailer… ), but it’s great to see progress…

Maybe this will be Tucker’s job some day…

I’ve really enjoyed the Simple Woman’s Daybook I’ve been doing each Monday. It seems like a nice way to start the week… both looking ahead to what the new week will bring, and keeping a record of many of the little moments that are all too quickly forgotten…

I’ve decided to try ending the week with “7 Quick Takes Friday”… a listing of 7 short bits and pieces from the week…. I see it as a nice way of reflecting back upon the week.

So, with that thought in my mind, here’s my first

7  Quick  Takes

~1~

M had a good week, he even commented on how well he’s doing. It’s wonderful when he’s in a good spot mentally… I enjoy his company so much.

~2~

We had drop in company this week, A.M. (the farmer we got Tilly, Tucker and Lili from) was in the neighborhood and stopped in for a visit. We always love seeing A… He’s a big rough teddy bear kind of guy, in his 70’s now, and struggled through the fall and winter with some serious health problems. It was good to see him up and around and feeling pretty good.  He was happy to see how big Lili is, and when we told him we were going to get a few more hens in the spring to keep her company, said he had some silkies he’d give us, and we could have some fertilized eggs too if we wanted to let Lili hatch them. R is excited about getting the silkies… 

~3~

My youngest grandson turned 3 yesterday… We celebrated with a pancake dinner with his family and friends. Three is such a great age!   Here’s the birthday boy back in November “helping” to make pies for Thanksgiving…

~4~

 We have a lot of January birthdays… Counting the birthday party we have on Saturday for Joe’s dad, we’ve had 5 birthday celebrations in two weeks! Once February gets here we’ll be done with birthdays for awhile…

~5~

 The kids had a pretty good week with school. They’ve both settled easily back into our regular curriculum, and we’re still doing some FIAR in the evenings as we read A Cricket in Times Square… It seems to be a combination that’s working well right now.

~6~

 I bought the new wood floor for the living room this week.  (HURRAY!!)  This house was built by a young couple back in the 70’s… It took them years to build and is an awesome house (in a quirky sort of way), but for various reasons it wasn’t really finished the way they had planned. For example, the chimneys were finished with wood because they couldn’t afford the stone they had intended to use (we tore down the old chimneys and had them rebuilt with stone in 2006)… and the house was originally heated with a big wood burning stove, because they couldn’t get propane or natural gas out here then (a previous owner converted to natural gas, hot water heat back in the 80’s). They also carpeted the whole house, because they couldn’t afford wood floors. We’re not going to put hardwood throughout the whole house, but we are going to pull up the carpet in the living room and put wood down. Our SIL is going to install it for us, and I think it’s going to be beautiful… I can’t wait!

~7~

The farrier is coming this afternoon to trim hooves… It will be good to get it done, Tilly’s back hooves are looking long… hopefully she’ll feel better once they’re trimmed. M always loves visiting with Raul, the farrier… Raul is a character and always asks M to find him a girlfriend, so each time he comes he asks M where the girlfriend is… The same little joke has been going on between them for well over a year now, but it still cracks M up.  

Raul

… working on shoes (Murphy and the donkeys go barefoot, but Grant had to have special corrective shoeing). That’s M standing in the background…

M never does anything in an easy or predictable way… 

He’s been that way his entire life.

Whether it was learning to talk (took forever, years of speech therapy, spoke clearly for 7 years or so but is now barely understandable), or walk (he careened around crashing into everything in sight for years, was a mass of bruises for those same years, and still has a tendency to trip over his own feet).

Or more recently, having schizophrenia (having every medication side effect known to man, and symptoms that never go away despite the “best” medication), or… even more recently (like right now)… having an “enhanced” MRI prior to surgery (and ending up with some weird, no-one’s-ever-heard-of-it complication… one that even after a trip to the ER and another to the pediatrician, is not going away and no one can figure out).

But I’m not going to blog about that.

I’m tired of talking, thinking, or writing about pediatricians, psychiatrists, orthopedists, ER docs, psych nurses, regular nurses, physical therapists, and/or hospitals or anything else even remotely related to the medical field… because at this point in time they seem to be greedily gobbling up great chunks of my life. (I’m thinking this probably doesn’t bode well for my state of mind when M’s surgery date rolls around in a few weeks!)

So I’ve decided to blog about squirrels instead.

I can think of no direct connection between squrrels and the medical field… This earns them a spot on my very short list of acceptable blog topics.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I looked out the window yesterday and saw a thief in my bird feeder…

He’d taken the top off the feeder and climbed inside for a bite of lunch…

When we lived in the city, we were absolutely overrun with squirrels. They were pests…

But we probably lived out here three years before we saw even a single squirrel (something that lives out here must like to eat them…)

(like maybe this coyote just outside the pasture fence?)

So now squirrels are kind of a novelty to us. 

Mule deer in the front yard are commonplace… but a squirrel is something a little different!

I chased him off anyway…

I love the birds that come to the feeder, and didn’t want him to eat all the birdseed.

He ran up the window, then stopped and peeked to see if I was still there.

I was, but he came back a moment later anyway… and even brought a friend with him.

I like this picture… see the squirrel all the way down inside the bird feeder?

I gave up then on trying to run them off…

If they are tough enough to survive out here, they can have my birdseed… they probably deserve it.

FOR TODAY

January 25, 2010

Outside my window… it’s still dark, with just a few lights twinkling on the hill in the distance.

I am thinking… about the calls I need to make this week to get things into place for M’s surgery.

I am thankful for… good friends, the early morning quiet, and a week without a bunch of doctor’s appointments.

From the learning rooms… it looks like we are shifting gears. R is struggling more with her OCD and thinks it would help her to go back to our regular “school at home” type of school day. So… A Cricket in Times Square will become an “enhanced” read along, and we’ll head back to the classroom for a more structured school day.

From the kitchen… after finding the most marvelous popcorn popping pot (say that fast three times!) we are eating lots of popcorn! I do love warm salty popcorn…

my popcorn popping pot…

… the inside stirring mechanism.

I am creating… no projects in the works right now, although I need to find a pattern to make with the yarn E (dd#1) got me for Christmas. Something not too challenging would be good… It will be nice to have some knitting to work on when M’s in the hospital.

I am going… to try to get the dog house/chicken coop moved into Lili’s pen this week. I think I’ll finish working on it in there. It doesn’t need much, just some trim and inside stuff done. It will be so nice when she’s no longer sleeping in a box in the classroom!

 I am reading… The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book my daughter lent me. For our read aloud we are reading A Cricket in Times Square, and Secret Subway.

 I am hoping… the kids have a good day.

I am hearing… the boiler making very strange noises in the basement… I hope it’s ok.

Around the house… I think I’ve got the flooring picked out for the living room. We are replacing the carpet in that room with hardwood. I may even run out today and buy the wood we’ve picked out, then I’ll just need to find someone to install it.

One of my favorite things… this crazy, crooked, drafty, impractical old house.

A few plans for the rest of the week… I’ve got phone calls to make for M’s surgery, but no appointments. I think we’ll be home most of the week except for the kid’s riding lessons.

A picture I’m sharing…

a barn still life

Visit Peggy’s blog for more about The Simple Woman’s Daybook