Well, that quickly another entire month has passed! Whew!
I was still pretty traumatized when I wrote the last set of blog posts. To be honest, I felt stuck inside the trauma of a never-ending medical cycle. Praise be to the Lord, my final (Lord willing!) drain was removed on the 30th. I won't lie to you, when the doctor said it could come out that day, I covered my face with my hands and cried! He stood up, came over, and grabbed me in a hug. "You poor thing! It's okay!" lol In all of the experiences, that was the best. Dr. Gupta, you completely and totally rock!
From that day on, I have been determined to get my life and my joy back. April was a full month, oh my! So full! Or, it felt that way to one who has been locked into the sick bed for three months. I was surprised to learn how weak I was. Even small, simple things took effort that I did not have the strength for. Ack! Still, I was so happy, so excited!
The first thing I did after getting my drain removed was, of course - go to church!! :) :) :) It felt so very good to be there! I was in a ton of pain, but in spite of that I was chatty and joking all the way home. Hubs looked at me and commented at what good mood I was in. I felt so free!!
I renewed effort into keeping the produce for my bail garden growing. I had something like eighteen plants? When the pay hit, I bought up a bunch of fertilizer and started on the bales again... just in time for a cold snap! My stars, it felt like winter had only just hit - and hard!
The snap took out most of my starts, in spite of them being in the greenhouse by the window (on the inside of the house)! Giraffe had taken responsibility for watering the plants. I asked every day to make sure. Every day she told me yes. However, like all littles, she sometimes only 'thought' she'd watered them. So, between the cold coming in from the window and the lack of attention, many of my plants began to die. :/ Every time it warmed up, we set them out for a little bit.
I tried so hard to come to their rescue! I gave them gentle doses of fertilizer. I watered them, I talked to them... *sigh* Sadly, today I only have five or six plants left and they are still struggling. Urf.
My green pepper - the late germination crew - are doing beautifully. They are tiny, healthy, and happy.
My basil is hanging in there, yesss!!! :)
My lettuce (black seeded simpson) was doing beautifully until little Koala picked them up roughly, smacking it up against the top of the shelf above and snapping it in half. I have re-seeded these in a pot and am currently watching the wee sprouts.
The pumpkin (jack o lantern) was doing great! We even planted him out in the far back of the yard in a mound of straw from last year. He did GREAT until it rained just too many days in a row. Poo! We'll have to re-seed him, too.
My red cherry tomatoes all gave up the ghost. I am hoping to buy some starts since I am so far behind the block now.
My brandywine tomatoes lost some leaves and look a skinny, bedraggled mess. I will more than likely end up buying some other proper tomato starts to replace them. Nevertheless, I will try to plant them when I can.
My cilantro and mint gave up the ghost. :/ I will have to try them over again, as well.
My cabbage continued to do well - three little plants - and then Katniss ATE their tender leaves in the wee hours of one morning! I found her walking among my plants, switching her long bushy tail with delight. Ack! Cat!!! In spite of this, one plant remains and is trying so hard to keep it up.
The carrots were placed outside to stay after the two-week freeze was over with. A rain turned into hailstorm wiped out most of them. Still, a few carrots are hanging on and we are rooting for them so hard!!
The garlic chives are small, but hanging on as well. I purchased some regular chive seeds so that we can try again. (The garlic chives were picked up by hubs when I said 'chives' but did not specify. They have a really intense garlic flavor that is going to come in handy down the road!)
The cucumber breaks my heart. I cannot even tell you. I feel so bad for this little guy! No kidding! He's trying SO hard to hang in there! We've got to get him planted soon. I'm not certain that he'll have what it takes to make it, but we'll see. Fingers' crossed!!
The cantaloupe did not make it. One more that I will have to either plant from seeds again or find a start to use.
The strawberries were doing beautifully, but the cold snap took them. I've not had that happen before. I feel seriously guilty about being so sick, so weak, and so distracted this year. My garden has clearly suffered for it. :(
I am missing some, and that is driving me nuts. I need to go back through my seed packets and see what else I've forgotten.
Anyway, a month spent trying to salvage my produce, working on school work so we can still end the year in good time, chasing around my ever-more-destructive little Koala, and everything else that's gone on has gotten me back to myself more every day.
We've also had a job change. Three weeks ago on a Monday, hubs stopped working for LRPH. The next day he began working for BMC. His new job promised five 12-hour days with two day weekends, but the occasional 6/1 ratio. As it happens, the reality is that he is working no fewer than fourteen hours on the occasional short day, and pulling no less than two 20 or 21 hour days each week. Most days seem to average around eighteen hours from leaving home to returning.
This seems awful, right? In reality, he loves the new job! He's exhausted and I feel like a single mom five days a week, but it is still better than working for PH. Go figure! The new job promises better pay, so here's hoping! In the meantime, I am just happy to have my husband back. He was so downtrodden by the last work place that he never seemed happy, and actually was quite aged by it. Suddenly, the man I married is back in my life. Yay!! :) :)
This week hubs takes over his truck/route on his own, so I will now have the family vehicle at my disposal. It needs a new fuel pump and I'm not sure when I can get it, but I won't be out 'too' much until we do.
Being able to take the girls out into the world on my own feels really daunting for me. Chris has had sole access to the only vehicle we own for so many years that I'm going to have to very cautiously dip my toe back into this driving thing slowly. That's what I told myself, anyway. As it happens, I ended up driving the last couple of hours to my sister's house out of state at midnight to two in the morning. Ha! Highway driving in the dark after not having gone past 35 miles an hour once a year for the last several years! Oh my! lol
Oddly, the whole experience helped me to have some confidence. :) :) Now I just need to keep working up my strength and stamina. The more I do, the more pain I am in with my back. I am not old yet, but I am apparently getting 'older' thanks to the scoliosis and arthritis. When it rained so much this week, it put me straight out. I couldn't use my right hand and arm hardly at all and now my body snaps and pops in places it didn't used to.
I'm accustomed to cracking in my hands, fingers, toes, ankles, knees, shoulders, elbows... joints everywhere, you know. Now I also snap up in my ribs and breastbone under my collarbone. I even put out my back right under my cervical spine. What in the world? lol I'm also back to having the sensation that my spine is shattering in a million tiny cracks from my tailbone up into the bottom of my skull whenever I sit or lie down anywhere. That is the hardest thing to live with, but oh well. What can be done, right? I'm already just shy of the 100k mark with hospital bills as it is. I'm hoping and praying so hard that my application for assistance goes through. I have peace about it. I'm not too concerned. :)
Anyway, it is waaaay past time for me to wrap up the longest blog post ever! If you read this, kudos! lol Koala is sick right now, or I'd be in church this morning. Lord willing, she picks up quickly. In the meantime, this has been one crazy year so far. Hopefully, it will shape up to be a really good one from here forward! I also have to figure out my camera situation. My laptop died and I cannot find an sd card anywhere. Blogs are better with pics, aren't they?
The Lord is good. :)
