There are so many things I plan to do when I get this cast off next Tuesday.
1. Stand in the shower for as long as I want to and just enjoy not having to hold some extremity in crazy positions to keep dry.
2. Wash my hair in the normal way.
3. Open bottles and jars.
4. Put on all my long-sleeved shirts without struggling.
5. Type.
6. Prepare a meal and wash dishes without making such a mess stirring and dipping with my left hand and getting my hands down in soapy water and washing up. I never new how much I would miss that.
7. Dressing in general.
8. Cleaning the litter box. I don't really look forward to that, but since it has to be done, it's quicker with the right hand.
9. Fastening my seat belt. My huge right hand won't fit between the seats to allow me to hold one end of the seat belt and fasten the other. Therefore, I drive only in my neighborhood and only when necessary.
I'm thankful that this was such a minor break though, and I'm working on balance and strength, if that's what caused this last fall. I'm still walking in fear when I'm outside, but inside I don't give it a thought. I feel very steady and sure. It's just seeing curbs and sidewalk unevenness that bothers me.
October has not been a great month for several reasons, but I have to say I've enjoyed the beauty of the area. I got out yesterday and realized how much I've stayed home and not driven around to enjoy the colors of fall.
My sweet girls are delightful at this age. They are such good friends and chatter like little birds whenever they're together, but they also enjoy playing with their friends and the kids in the neighborhood. They are pursuing their own interests but still seem to enjoy spending time with me, and I'll never get tired of seeing them drive up and jump out of the car yelling MIMI, MIMI and telling me their latest news.
Graysen was so excited at learning how to change her school computer profile and insisted on doing mine for me. She offered me bunches of cute little anime cats and girls, but we decided on something more appropriate:
I allowed her to change my color scheme to Creamsicle orange - for now. I hope they can teach me a lot of things as they learn them.
Some pictures lately.
As we passed through the park on the way home from school, two older boys - but not that much older - were just knocking rocks out of the brick wall to see them crash on the sidewalk. I yelled "Hey" at them, and they ran off, and I made the girls promise me they would take care of the parks and landscape, even when they got older. They were mad too and promised very solemnly. Then they did some jumping.
PopPop sent us a feather by way of a crow. Katherine kept it safe.
I think they enjoyed cheering in the Homecoming game Friday night. It was a good experience for them. They watch games on TV, but there's something about the sounds and the excitement. Katherine was caught on the high school's video, and I took this pretty bad picture.
I have been so bad about going to their activities this year - soccer, cheering, pumpkin patch. Between the weather and just feeling unsteady with no energy, I have tended to stay home and go to bed early. I've seen my friends very little this month too. We all have things we are taking care of or healing from, but I texted this morning to see if anyone wanted to pop in for coffee one day this week. Maybe we can laugh at our problems!
We worked on a Spooky Gingerbread house with Carly and her dad last week. It was fun and messy, and we never got the walls to stand up. It didn't matter. They sneaked enough nibbles and bites to make them happy and did a lot of laughing and shreiking when it fell down.
I took these on my walk home last Friday afternoon.
The Win-Bin's garden. The pumpkins were perfect this year. They picked them and cleaned out the garden area Saturday morning but left the kale and other greens for the winter.
I think this is my favorite video from Mike's collection. Graysen was 3 years old, and this shows the love those two had for each other. Those voices - both of them - how I miss them.
I hope this works. Getting videos to work here is hit or miss for me. It may be a quilting video or something else I've never seen. I never know.
