Year 6, January 11th-14th, 2020: Gallbladder Removal Surgery Week

 That's all I can really think about it. Wednesday. Jared's gallbladder removal surgery. I don't like it when they wheel him back to the OR. This time, I can only drop him off at the outpatient door. I won't be happy until he's back home and in our bed again. It's not a very risky surgery, just like mine wasn't that risky 18 months ago. And he's going to feel soooooo much better. We know he'll be sore from the surgery itself, but it won't be the same kind of nagging pain every time he eats. And he can then slowly branch out to other foods again. Thankfully, his weight loss has stopped. I've got a few more things on my plate, but really, it's the surgery that it is on my mind.

It was a Monday. Not horrible, but I was getting pretty irritated as well. The lack of focus and Abishai being loud during read aloud time was getting on my nerves. Keturah was interpreting and getting into it with Abishai and Justin both. Justin just didn't want to sit there any longer. It's PMS week, too. Plus, I had one group of women trying to decide on postponing Mom's Night Out on Friday and I have a little bit of responsibility with IAHE to get involved in for the next month. Just a part of our now all virtual Homeschool Day at the Capital, but I've been asked to help with a couple of things and I need to flesh that out with two other ladies. Not a huge deal, and I had some great idea and/or questions this morning that I threw at them that we will discuss tomorrow. I'm not great in committees though, but compared to a lot of things I could be involved in, this is a fairly small part to play and doesn't require many phone calls. We'll see. I don't know the ladies that well, but just enough to know it will be ok. 

I was a bit frustrated at the kids because I gave them 3-4 songs a piece to work on on the piano over the last 3-4 weeks and they didn't practice. They've had zero excuses except for the one week in TN. They've been bored and wandering the house. Justin has had way too much screen time. He hasn't read enough for school in the last 10 days. Keturah didn't bother look up the answers to her science study guide. It was an easy chapter on tissues and muscles, some terms even that we've gone over before. Not complex systems, really, just a bit more of an understanding and easier than other chapters I had assumed. Nope. And she didn't get her math done as well as I had hoped either. And she got done "early" today. Sigh. Justin's math was pitiful, but it was a brand new concept and we saw where he needed help on, so I fully expect him to get it right tomorrow. Adding and subtracting radicals is oh so much fun! At least Abishai whizzed through his reading just fine today, as long as he get his eyes on the page! You can't read the letters if your eyes are looking out the window. Sigh.

Jared had a staff meeting via zoom today, but at least he could sit upright for that. Everybody else was at home and an order just HAD to get out today, so he went to the office to do that, breaking quarantine in my book. Actually, he started the day picking up a pick up order at the grocery store. They forgot his papaya so he ended up in the grocery store, too. Sigh. And then he had to drop the package off at the post office! Dude! Triple break in quarantine! I can only write this because this won't post until after surgery. Remember, his Covid test was negative, but the doctors wanted him to be extra cautious so he wasn't fighting a virus, and/or bringing it into the hospital, and healing from surgery. Oh well, whatever, bend the rules. Either they are for everyone or they are not. I'm tired of that debate and the debate on whether or not President Trump should be impeached in his last week in office. Good grief, what good will that do? It will prevent him from running again in 2024. I think life will look vastly different and Trump will go back to Trump tower and back to his businesses. He isn't going quietly, but I can't keep track of all of that, so I don't. Jared does and since he has so much time on his hands, he's reading a lot of Twitter. Drives me nuts to see him repost all these political things, but what can I do, right? Not much.

So, after read aloud time, I literally did nothing for 2 hrs but breathe. I caught up on my email and games, and then tried to listen to my audio book. That's where my brain was at. I did have a shower today, that's always a good thing. And Abishai was up and "guarding" the house at 7am. He closed all our doors, and then turned on EVERY SINGLE LIGHT in the house to keep the ghosts away. Oh boy. Kid, what have you been watching? He played with the nerf guns and his barricade most of the day. He did get frustrated at the light weight boxes he was using, even after putting some heavier objects in them. He didn't want help. I just called it STEM educaiton. We put him to bed early because he looked so tired and was on the verge of tears. Oh, and Daddy said he would take him to the office with him today, but Daddy left while we were doing our read alouds. When Abishai finally noticed he said, "Daddy left me behind. He tricked me. He said I could go to the office with him." Well, what happened was Mrs. Ellen said that Abishai should come to the office (sometime) and he interpreted that it should happen today. Jared was gone for 4 hrs, so Abishai wouldn't have done so well anyway. But the sad face was pitiful.

Bruises Day 3. Eek! Much darker. I think those darker spots are where the felt the most pain when the laser genesis was being used. It doesn't hurt that much at all. (This photo was done in selfie mode).

From my point of view.

Um, I don't think this is supposed to happen. Was the water too hot and heated up the plastic? And the funny thing is, the k-cup I used today, a different brand, was fine. Weird! And I did have a K-cup blew up on me as well this weekend. Hm,....

When I did use one today, I went to look in my cup and saw an unused k-cup floating in it! Did the k-cup somehow fall through the coffee machine? (Yes, that was my first thought). Oh, I had used a different coffee mug and I had put a k-cup in it that somehow had given to me! Whoops! I must not have noticed when I put it under the coffee machine.

Mom, guards guard in the middle of buildings. I can stand in the kitchen in the corner and guard like this. He was getting underfoot at breakfast. He's ready for anything! And I don't think he picked up on the violence last week at the Capitol Building. Perhaps he did when I told the others that following morning. Or, he saw it on a video. I don't know. But he was super serious about guarding the family today.

Super serious. This is just the start of his fortification. Note that Baby Grogu is back there behind the fortification, too.

Hm, what can I use next?

He fussed at and fixed this all day.

Intruder alert! Abishai breeched the Zoom meeting! He wanted to tell Mrs. Ellen, Mrs. Debbie, and Grandpa all about his guns. He even counted them to see if he had enough for everyone to have them in the office so they could have a Nerf gun battle.

When we went to do school work together, I saw that Abishai had turned off the lamp and put on the battery operated candle. Was he setting the mood?! Is he going to be a romantic?! He also accidentally unscrewed the lamp switches by turning them the wrong way. Oh boy.

This is what I have to contend with during read aloud time. No, your brother can't be a permanent wall for your fort. He doesn't even fit on this couch anymore!

Abishai's fort, including his musical piano toy that he put on super low so I couldn't hear it as I read.

And he set up all kinds of stuff for his amusement.

Oh all the work this kid did all day! No wonder he's exhausted!

Lonely shoes. I haven't worn my dress boots but once this year. I just haven't thought about which pants to wear with them. I really should. But then again, I gained weight and those pants don't fit the best anymore, so, here they sit. So much quarantine. So much less wear and tear on shoes.

It's Tuesday, the day before surgery, and I'm getting a bit nervous. And way more clingy. And Jared said this evening that I can come inside the hospital. I don't remember him telling me that. I think he actually wants me to, so I'll make the decision after my IAHE rep meeting. The kids and Jared are watching the "slavery" movie, as Abishai calls it. He wanted to watch it more than he wanted to watch Paddington 2. It's about the English abolitionist, William Willbeforce, and it's called, "Amazing Grace." I have them watching it while I'm going to be listening to the meeting. We've had a long day. With Abishai going to bed early last night, he was up early, like 6:30am early, rebuilding his barricade in the hallway, and then coming in and out of our room. We finally got up at 8:30am, and got going. I was going to meet with another volunteer working on the IAHE virtual Homeschool Day at the Capitol in  the late morning, so I needed to be ready for that. That means, I had to rush Abishia's lessons and that's never a good thing. We got it done, but not that well. The other kids did ok. Keturah was done early again because she didn't know what to do or study. We did get her science experiments done and found out what Justin needs for his, radish seeds and soil, so he can see how genetics works. I'm using you dye the water and see if it change the leaves of the radishes. I didn't read the whole thing.  We did do our read alouds, with a little less bickering. And then screen time.

During screen time, I made progress on getting myself an appointment with the gyno to go over my ultrasound results of my ovarian cyst It's with Dr. Seitz and not Dr. Durfee, but at least I have something on the calendar in the next week and a half. Then I made a bunch of phone calls for finding out about local psychiatrists, who needs a referral, who can fully diagnose us, and thankfully, all of them take both of our insurances. It's just a matter of doing it the right way, which requires more phone calls. But at least I made a step forward. And, I tried to get Benaiah to commit to a time to take care of the passports, but he's "slammed" over the weekend. With what? Who knows. He's a young adult now. Oh, speaking of that household, Gary lost his sense of taste on Sunday and now Mrs. Ellen has Covid, too! So far, Grandma is ok. Good grief!

 As of today, Jared has been home for 4 weeks. I said it on my Facebook page, but I'm grateful that we know his boss and that he is a salaried employee and he can do a lot of things from home. We haven't lost any money in this whole year long ordeal. Praise the Lord! Being financial stable is an incredible thing and we have been that way for most of our 20 years together. Crazy, huh? God has blessed us richly in giving us just enough and sometimes a tad bit more to have fun with. Yeah!

Short meeting but interesting developments. IAHE has worked with one legislator on his bill, someone that loves homeschooling and just needed some help on some wording, but then, not a few hours later, another bill is quickly coming down the pike and it's not something we want at all, so off the team goes to tackle that one that I think is going to committee on Thursday. The virtual Capitol Day is slowly coming together. I need to trust the process and just do my little part. I'm working with a new volunteer, Kristin, and she seems to be handling it well. Lots of moving bits, but if we can pull off a fully virtual conference in just two weeks, we can do this smaller event. Fun times!

Abishai seemed to understand the movie, although it didn't "move" Keturah much. Justin remembers watching it 4 years ago. Oh well. I can only do so much. But I LOVE LOVE LOVE history videos, even if they aren't 100% accurate. Just seeing and hearing some of the language and the costumes (even if they are way off base) and hearing the famous names over and over just adds an incredible layer to the black and white text. It puts "teeth" into the lessons. Abishai was asking why the people were in chains, too. I don't want to expose him to too much too fast, so that's why Jared watched with him, but he gets it. And his mind is very impressionable right now and he remembers a lot of what he sees and hears. Oh Abishai, what else can we do for you? Sigh. Now, those other two, the two bickering teenagers. I want to just box their ears sometimes! Good thing they both have in person worship and small group time starting on Sunday! Oh, and Gary just texted that he canceled all his events through January 23rd. Not sure why so long, but he said he is tired of doing the Zoom meetings, so he just canceled everything. Maybe the illness is taking a toll on him, too. Hard to tell since I don't talk to him much. One way or another, everyone will either have had Covid-19 or will get the vaccine, and maybe, just maybe, all of this quarantining will die down. Until a new strain pops up. Now, onward to gallbladder surgery! Who knows what our co pay for that will be! 12 hrs to go, yippee!

The boys' lights are usually turned on red by the time I go to bed. Justin had just gotten into bed (he was up too late) and he and I heard Abishai make a noise. I was in the bathroom, but Justin said it sounded like a laugh! Abishai must be partying hard in his dreams!

The last of my babies to grow up.

Go to bed, Justin! It's midnight! You need to be asleep before me for many reasons!

All of this was done between 6:30am and 8:30am while we were snoozing. The hallway was clear when we went to bed. Abishai is determined to be the protector! Even Grogu is protected. Grogu slept in our bed, so he must have gotten it while we were snoozing.

I can't get this boy to smile nicely! It's always that scrunched up smirk!

Dudes! Time to get up! This dog sleeps SOOOO much! And he just rotates between their mattresses and in the hallway in front of the heater. He leads the best life, I tell ya! So spoiled and loved!

Playing with his TMNT guys. They are in a training session so they are fighting each other. He had a whole thing going on using Daddy's medicine bottles. We use toilet paper as kleenix, that's why it was on the table.

Reminds of the jousting blow up things at fairs or at indoor trampoline parks.

Apparently, Jared lines up his tums to take during the night in a colorful, and specific pattern. He takes one every time he wakes up, which is still pretty often, like 5-6 times a night. It cracked me up to see them evenly spaced and lined up like this!

Science experiement about axons and the myhelin (sp?) layer that allows the signal to "jump" from one end of the axon to the other? I'm not completely clear on it. She's learning about nerves and tissues.

This on was about the mucus that covers the lining of the stomach. You dissolve one antacid in vinegar by itself and you coat a second one in vaseline and then put the vinegar in. The second one doesn't dissolve because of the coating. It reminded me of when we've been talking about Jared's stomach and if he had an ulcer or something. You definitely need that mucus in your stomach for protection!

Keturah's Antacid and Vaseline and Vinegar Science Experiment

Another tweak to Abishai's barricade was putting some Incredibles figurines on the top as some of his soldiers.

A few hours later, the antacids looked like this. That layer of vaseline really helped!

Surgery day! Woot! Woot! Jared said he woke up before his 5am alarm and thinks it was God who nudged him. I also had my alarm set for 5am. Jared showered and was ready to go before I could even make and drink my tea. But, I made a decision that required me to bring along a couple of extra things, and I needed to drink that tea. It was a quiet, dark ride to the hospital and we got a premium parking spot in the outpatient lot. Actually, the lot wasn't very full when we left 6 hours left, and the outpatient wing was very quiet. I'm guessing some are not doing elective surgeries because of Covid-19 stuff. But anyway, we are pretty quiet when we are together sometimes just processing our own thoughts, so that's no big deal. We were both ready and confident about this surgery, almost excited about it. Let's get that thing out!

Everything was like clockwork. Temperature check and hand sanitizer once we walked into the building. Get registered and shown upstairs to the surgery waiting room. They take him back and get him ready, and I wait for a bit. Then I was allowed to sit with him in his pre op room. I got to meet the doctor, Mr. Mandlebalm (or however you spell it) and the anesthesiologist. Everybody was kind, confident, methodical, and some of the same instructions about outpatient care were given by each person, which was kind of interesting. We were one of the first patients of the day so everybody was bright and cheerful, but still, great staff. We really don't come into contact with bad staff at any of the hospitals here. Jared made a point to learn the nurses' names and remembered them to thank them in  tweet he made when he got home. He also chit chatted with them. He's such a great patient! I, however, don't do any of that. I'm  good patient and nod my head, but I don't speak much. So, we had some time alone before surgery, which was calming.

I did finally tell him about my decision to cancel our dentist appointments and stay for the duration and get him home. It was the best decision I could have made. I was thinking late last night when I couldn't fall asleep, "This is ridiculous. I'm trading taking care of my husband for dental cleanings. Dental cleanings can wait." So yes, I canceled 4 dental appointments. Sorry dentist's office! I'm just a little slow on these things! Jared had been so good to arrange a friend to take him home, but I could tell from his eyes and his demeanor that he was relieved when I told him I would walk in with him, and that I would stay and come backs to sit with him before surgery, and finally when I told him I would stay the whole time. I was just being stubborn and trying to keep a prior commitment. I'm just dumb sometimes.

We held hands a ton today! I don't think we've done that in a long, long time. Just the tenderness we felt towards each other the last 24 hrs has been marvelous. I don't think we realized how much this stuff can affect us, like how afraid we can be of the other one being sick and not being able to help. I consider this a huge step in our marriage, that unspoken tenderness and love. He needed me today. And, despite my little bits of whining about being hungry and thirsty and hurting from sitting in the chair and being bored, I was there for him. In sickness and in health, right? We just didn't know the sickness would be for most of our lives.

I left the pre op room as he went the other direction for the OR. I had NO feelings of fear. Maybe because I was anxious to make the phone calls to the dentist and the friend who was going to pick him up. Maybe because I was hungry and wanted my breakfast bar. I don't know. The surgery was done in less than an hour, which was great. I listened to my audiobook and kept up on my emails and phone games. I had several texts back and forth with family. And not once did have to charge my phone even with that heavy use and THAT in itself was heavenly! Of course I had a charger with me, but I'm glad the battery lasted. I talked with the doctor went Jared went to the recovery room and he said everything went great. There was probably 100 or so of the teeny tiny gallbladder stones that are smaller than the tip of a pen cap. Yikes! They had been building up for some time, thus the gallbladder attack in August and again in November when some of them passed through. Ouch! And then, since he's a family friend, I mentioned how sick Gary was, and he started telling me to tell Gary to get an antibody infusion that anyone over the age of 65 can have. But then he said he would just tell Gary himself because he was going to probably call him later to update him on Jared. You see, the doctor told us the story that as he was getting ready for work at 5:30am this morning, he gets a text. He never gets texts that early in the morning unless a patient is having an emergency. Well, guess who it was? Gary. Gary was just saying that he was praying and all of that. But of course it was Gary! Believe me, it's not the first time that happened either. Gary's always got people's individual phone numbers and makes use of them. It comes from being a minister for 30 plus years so a lot of people who say, "If you need anything, here's my personal number." It's come in handy many times.

Gary hasn't been feeling great and canceled all his appointments for the next couple of weeks. Cousin Donna suggested he keep getting up and moving so that his lungs can fully expand and not fill up with fluid that can cause pneumonia. She's a respiratory therapist, so she's been right in the thick of things. You know Gary is feeling absolutely awful because he has never done this before, canceled things. He's done a lot of virtual meetings and he'll power through most normal flus and colds. But to outright say, "I'm tired." Wow, that means it's a doozy for him. Not to the point of the hospital, but pretty exhausting. And days 8 and 9 are usually the worst and they are coming up this weekend. So, there's that. And because of Gary having Covid, we didn't have any help today with the kids. I was supposed to just drop Jared off and go home, put meat in the crockpot and take the kids to the dental appointments. That obviously changed quickly this morning. I was hoping to get home a bit sooner than we did, but oh well. Let's continue the timeline, shall we?

I had to wait another 90 minutes before the nurse came out to tell me Jared was fully awake. I guess he started to wake up earlier, but it took awhile to become coherent. At first he seemed fine and eager to go home. But then the nausea hit. He ended up taking a zofran and staying another 45 minutes to let that take affect. The zofran made him really sleepy and I had to rub and shake his hand to try to keep him from going into a deeper sleep. We know that after being in a deep sleep, nausea can hit like a ton of breaks. Plus, "if it's round and comes in a bottle, it will put me to sleep," Jared likes to say, and it's so true! So I knew we had just a little window of opportunity while the nausea was at bay and when he would knock out. Discharge was already done and we had gone through the home care. So, we just had to wait on Jared. But, the roads were quiet and clear. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up his pain medication and get him some more fish and saltine crackers. He didn't realize the fat content in the saltine crackers, so he doesn't really want to eat too many of them right now, so, I guess those will sit on the shelf for a while. I got him a little balloon that said, "Get Well." I was going to sneak out during the surgery, but there really wasn't a big window of  time then. I was going to run to a Kroger that is even closer to the hospital to drop off that recycling but oh well. And we didn't do it when we stopped on the way home because I was hangry and he needed to sleep. So, I'll handle it another day. He can't drive for 3 days anyway. And no lifting more than 20lbs for 4 weeks. And don't go back to work for 7-10 days. So, I told the text message string, especially his boss (Gary), that he can't lift book boxes and it's iffy if he makes the drive out to the videographer's office for the virtual e2 conference on Saturday. I told them IF I let him leave. Health first. And then during one of his dozing moments he said something about giving a password to someone so they could get in. Otherwise, he didn't have any funny sayings as he woke up. I obviously think it's silly to think he'll go on Saturday to the office on the west side. He can log in from home, and that's what he will probably do.

So, I got him home, put him to bed, and got his water and crackers and pain pills set up. He actually didn't take another pain pill until 5 hrs after he could have had one, so that's good. His pain isn't too bad, yet, but the pain blocks haven't worn off yet. Lots of ice packs. Incisions are very small, so it's like he cut himself or something. Dissoluble stitches, and special protector glue on top, so no dressings to change. Then I fed and watered and medicated myself. I ended up not even looking at the kids' schoolwork today. They got it done and I had them check their own math. They did a great job reporting back to me how many they got wrong and if they understood the problems. And Abishai didn't have any official school today, except for finishing the movie on the English slave trade. He came running in here and said, "They won! No more slave trade! And they did it without William Pitt! (Who had died from sickness before the vote in parliament, which Abishai also had ran into the sunroom to tell me)." He gets it. The 6 yr old understands slavery is a bad thing. Prejudice is taught/caught, friends, so be careful what you say with young ears around. Even if it is about an outgoing or incoming President. The House of Representatives did impeach President Trump today, but the Senate still has to convict him. The only president in the history of the USA that has been impeached twice. Last time was for dishonesty, this time, it's for inciting the violence last week. I think it's silly to do this one week out from the inauguration, but it prevents him from running for president in 2024 or I think from any national office really. I just don't care at this point.

So, I got everyone settled, it was time for screen time at this point, so off they went. I had talked with my sister about some things, and I wasn't in a bad mood at all, and wasn't really that exhausted mentally/emotionally, but just didn't want to try and do schoolwork today. So we didn't. Instead, I crawled into bed with Jared and we just snuggled. I was a little bit sleepy but I had had my coffee. He had had a nap, but wasn't ready to get up yet. I got him a new ice pack. Then he played some of his Bible reading, some songs he's been listening to, and we talked here and there. And that's all we wanted and needed. Just time together and to be tender with one another and do nothing else. And it was glorious and luxurious. Just to be still for about 90 minutes. And then duty called and I had to make supper and he needed to get up and see where he was at pain wise and nausea wise. He wasn't too bad, but did take his norco med at supper time. He was able to eat some fruits, veggies, potatoes, and fish over the course of 3 hrs. He only felt surgery soreness, not "ugh, my gallbladder hurts." Yeah! Mission accomplished! He did feel some weird pain/sensations in his shoulder, but that's because they blow some air into you so they can get to the organs more easily. Some air gets trapped, so it is looking for an escape route. It should go away overnight. He as well enough to sit in his easy chair, finish the movie with the kids, and yell at a video game with Abishai. So, overall not to bad and better than his arm surgeries. But he's also 40 lbs lighter than he was for those surgeries. So, that could be the major difference.

Oh, I had facetimed Abishai mid morning and he was so adorable on the phone and wanted to show me the fort he had made bewteen his Lego table and the couch, where Daddy had told him to put it so he could leave it up. He had gotten up right after Keturah did at 8. She made sure he had a little bit of something to eat, "a white stripped thing" aka a breakfast honey bun. Abishai then said he was being good and staying out of Keturah and Justin's way while they did homework. Justin said they fed Abishai a little bit more over the course of the morning. I even fed him more at 2pm. Not perfect but he got something into his belly.  He also asked what time we left in the morning and when I said, 5:30, he clasped his hand over his mouth as he gasped! Cutest thing ever! 

Yup, that's pretty much it. Surgery went well. I stayed the whole time. The kids survived on their own because the other Johnsons are in quarantine. And Nora scored some points in her and Aaron's basketball game! Cute! We survived the day, now time to crash!

Talking to Abishai on FaceTime. He looks so grown up!

Leah was asking...so I looked it up. I think Jared's looked more like little pieces of gravel. How awful do these look?!

Not the best of food choices today, but not bad on calories either, for breakfast and lunch.

Abishai's fort.

Got the spare pork ribs into the crockpot in just enough time to set it to high and cook on it's own.  Jared was jealous. He loves ribs. But it had to be cooked!

Rice and quinoa.

Lazy mommy/genius Aldis veggies.

Wow! 30 baptisms?! How did that happen?! Must have been some great sermons and move of the Holy Spirit the last few weeks. Yeah!

Nice score in Yahtzee, eh? I've played this one on and off for years (thus my nice badge and high level), but my old phone was too small for the latest updated version, so I couldn't play it on their anymore. Well, the new phone cal handle it, so let's try it again. Ok, it's doable. And wow, that's a high score for me! Nice!

Time to round the week! Well, the week is ending in a not so fun way. I have a bad menstrual migraine because I didn't take preventive medication yesterday (although I had some in my purse, whoops). And, come to find out, Leah has Covid as well! She had a fever on Sunday, took a test on Monday, and it came back positive on Wednesday (yesterday). So far, she doesn't have any symptoms. Gary is still napping several times a day, can't taste anything so he hasn't bothered to drink coffee for 4 days, has had fevers off and on, and the chills, brain fog, and lots fatigue. Fun times over there!

Meanwhile, Jared is doing really, really well! He's eating more fruits and vegetables and things with a tad more fat in them like oatmeal and saltines. But he's had 2-3 meals today and drank tea for most of the day. He was awake and sitting upright for most of the day, with a good nap this afternoon, on his stomach! He said it didn't make him hurt anything. I'm actually very surprised that his pain level is so low. But compared to what kind of pain he was in, there's no comparison. He has taken some pain medication today just so that he could keep breathing deep with too much pain. He's got a tiny bit of sharp pain just now, but he ate a huge supper so maybe things are shifting around a bit. And he has some soreness in his shoulder which could be the rest of the extra air they put in him, or maybe getting him on and off the operating table. He's still icing his abdomen every few hours and he says that helps. He has been able to work on emails and have long phone conversations with co-workers. Debbie won't return to the office until Tuesday, but Ellen will stay home all of next week because of Covid. It sounded like Gary wanted to return to work on Monday, but with Leah sick, it might not be a wise idea. And it might be awhile before he's well enough anyway. I'm pretty sure now that Jared will be able to return to work on Monday, and if it's too much, he can always come home. The next couple of days will tell how this will all play out.

And now I don't have any excuse to contact people I've been procrastinating on contacting. The excuse was "let's get through this surgery first and all my appointments in the first week of January." Well, that's over. So, I guess I need to make some playdates and coffee dates. Sigh. I'd rather sit home and read history to my kids. But, we all need human interaction, or so they tell me in all the blogs and books. Some days, I'm not so sure. I was the same way in high school. Sigh. 

We did our normal routine today, what more is there to say? We introduced Karl Marx and Communism. They studied for their science tests. Abishai told us all about the vampire bat, the tarantula, and how the turkey vulture was a good bird because it eats the carcass and stops  the spread of disease. Thank you Kratt's Kreatures! This is EXACTLY why I bought this tablet with the apps that easily go to videos like these that I know and trust. I simply can't read to the little guy all day. And if he spends some of his screen time watching science videos, that's great! We did read a book about Brazil today, he and I, and talked about some of the animals. And then we looked up how bananas are grown on YouTube and came across a video from the Dole plantations in South America.  It was quite interesting to see the whole production line! It takes 2-3 hours to go through the whole process of harvesting, cleaning, packaging, and putting on skids ready to ship. Pretty cool! 

That's all folks. My head hurts. People are sick, people are mending. Nothing big planned for the weekend. Dental appointments and church stuff. And another week is over. Sigh. Back to my new TV show Grandchester, where a lonely priest, who loves solving mysteries, helps the police, almost by accident. He's a bachelor and it's set in the 1950's I think. Kind of interesting. Better than other stuff I looked up. Headaches make me tired. And so does looking at the chaos of toys that are out right now. But, I can't interrupt Abishai's imaginative play. So, I'll just go look at my own messy desk instead. And the piles of things "I'll do someday." Yup. I'm glad there's no deadlines because it would be difficult to do them in the next few days. Rest up!

My morning concoction of pills reminds me of the pills presented to Neo in "The Matrix." Yellow pill, blue pill, brown pill. I don't mind colorful pills because then I can tell which is which!

I didn't notice he was replying to a former student of his, but yes, the year was 2015 and it was CRAZY snowy!

Daddy, what is that? It's an exercise machine for the lungs to help patients remember to take deep breaths, especially if they are not getting up enough to let their lungs expand. I asked Cousin Donna, the respiratory therapist, if Jared really needed to us it because he was struggling knowing how. She said as long as he's taking deep breaths a few times every hour, it would be fine.

Abishai said, "Oh, Daddy doesn't have his crackers!" So he got out the saltine box, only to discover a whole sleeve of crackers were gone. Oh well, we'll open another sleeve. I wasn't sure how Jared was tolerating them, so we put 5 crackers in a bowl of Abishai's choosing and took the bowl to him. And lo and behold, there was the open sleeve nearly gone! But how thoughtful that Abishai remembered what Daddy needed in order to get better.

Abishai leaves his slippers at the "entrance" to his hideout.

Then he puts them on before he comes out.

What a goof.

Abishai was up at 6:15am this morning. So, he did his usual close every day and turn on every light routine, and then found a blanket and pillow to snuggle with until it was closer to daylight. Why he can't stay in his bed, I don't know. But this getting up earlier and earlier isn't good. His eyes look so tired by the end of the day. Putting him to bed earlier only causes him to get up earlier.

Lying in wait for Justin to come out.

So, this is the plan, Mom, I'm going to put these boxes here and these guns here.....

Barricade the door, now Justin can't get out!

Justin was NOT amused although I warned him to "play along."

Justin escaped his prison!

At least they did play together for a little bit this evening. Abishai must have picked up his big laugh from the internet because it's starting to change a bit. His big laugh shows off his big personality though.

The End