Good Friday afternoon on this “Good Friday”. Two more days until Easter. Are you busy dying eggs for little ones or maybe out gettin candy for Easter baskets? Those days are long gone for Ms. Kate and I. Even the great-grandchildren are past all of that. As neighbor Dan said, The only way his grandkids would come to hunt eggs is if he told them they were plastic and had money in them. 

Ms. Kate is doing well, we are counting down the days until the 11th of April and her surgery. Her ‘open wound is healing nicely and I hope it will be fully closed by the 11th. But the surgery will proceed either way. Only 13 more days. 

My tomato plants are growing very well. I did “reduce the number of plants” per cup to one. Then I added some used coffee grounds to each cup and more potting soil, and the watered. I may have to move them down one level on the shelves so they don’t get too close to my grow light. In fact, I need to pull up a video and see how long I have to keep them under a grow light. It won’t be time to plant them for maybe another three weeks and they are already quite tall. I intend to share some of my plants with a couple of people. If all of these produce fruit like they are growing, I’ll be sharing tomatoes too. LOL

Julie and the pups are coming over this weekend, they should be arriving some time in the next hour. I plan to go to the Germania Manichor and pick up fish dinner for our supper tonight in celebration of Good Friday. I have done this inn years past and the food is delicious. I need to get there as they open because it is going to be crowded, and the line will probably be long. 

I pray you have a most blessed Easter. As Christians, this is our most holy season. It is important that we take time to worship our God in gratitude for the sacrifice of His Son. Peace. 

 A blessed Monday to you. I hope you enjoyed your Palm Sunday. Of course, as I have mentioned, we are still attending "Recliner Church". We watched our Zoar Church service which is our "home church" and then we watched the St. Lucas service. Both were good services. Our pastor at Zoar does a good job and preaches a good sermon. His preaching method is to basically walk through the Bible, a book at a time. I reckon by the time he has been there 66 years he will have made it all the way through. LOL The interim pastor at the Ft. Branch parish is doing a good job of keeping the parish running until they find a permanent pastor. I wish I knew how their search is going but it isn't appropriate for me to ask. 

As I told you Friday, we have a surgery date for Ms. Kate to have her resection done. Believe me, we are counting down the days. Our care for her has become very much a routine. But we will both be glad to be able to get out of those routines. I change her wound bandage twice a day and she manages her own stoma bag emptying. When necessary I change that for her, generally about every third day. The hardest part has been getting the right supplies. Our Home Health nurse, Melinda, has been extremely helpful with that. She generally comes once a week. Kate isn't having physical therapy this week; her therapist is on vacation. Then next week they will evaluate her to see if she still needs more therapy. I'm doubting they will continue. Kate gets around pretty well, although she needs to get up out of her chair more and do some walking around the house or maybe even get on the recumbent bike for a few minutes each day to increase her strength. What is really wonderful news though is that as discomforting as the daily routine of care is; ---- not once in the now six weeks since her surgery has she been bothered by any of the "pre-surgery" stomach and intestine pain of the diverticulitis. Who knows --- after this next surgery, she might be able to actually say -- "I feel great".

My tomato plants are really doing well. This week I am going to "thin them". When I planted them, I put two and sometimes three seeds in each cup. They have grown enough now that it is time to cut them back to one plant per cup and add soil to each cup. My videos that I watch say to not pull out the extra plants in each cup but to cut the extras off. I have also been saving my coffee grounds and will add a few coffee grounds to each cup. That adds acid to the soil. I don't know why I'm so hot on growing these things but I am having a ball with this process. I can hardly wait until they get a little taller and we get past last frost of the season and I can plant them out in my raised bed. It is my desire to have more tomatoes than I know what to do with. Silly me!!!

That's it for today. I hope it warms up. The forecast says it will warm and then tonight and tomorrow we get a bunch of rain. 

Have a blessed week. This week takes us to the cross of Jesus Christ. For me and my fellow Christians, this is a most Holy week. May God bring you peace. 

 

 Happy Friday!. It’s still chilly out so winter is clinging on by it’s fingernails. 

I was gong to write this morning but Ms. Kate had an appointment with her surgeon at 1:30 today and I wanted to wait until after we saw him so I could catch you all up on her progress. We have a surgery date!!! April 11th, @ 8:00 am.   We are thrilled. The surgeon also said that the wound that we have been treating looks very good and there is no infection. He said that it is possible that it will be to small to pack anymore by the time we have the surgery. So, all of this may be coming to a close. At this point al I can do is give thanks to a powerful and loving God for all of the blessings. 

That’s it for today simply because I don’t any news that is more wonderful than this. 

Peace. 

 Well, I woke up this morning not a multi-millionaire. I didn’t get a single number of the ones picked for the winning ticket. But then, 290 million other people didn’t win it either so the prize will just climb some more. I don’t buy a lottery ticket very often but when it gets up to numbers like 900 million, I buy one “just because I certainly can’t win if I don’t buy one”. I don’t have any “magic numbers” like so many people do; I just buy a “quick pick” and imagine what I might be able to do with the money. Frankly, that kind of money is so far beyond my ability to imagine that I have no idea. I don’t try to make any “bargains with God” or any “I promise I will” statements. So, back to reading my book. LOL

The Home Health nurse was here this morning for Kate. She examined Kate’s open wound and said it is a lot smaller but she does not think that Dr. Roberts will “okay” surgery yet. That’s a real bummer. But, we will see. I’m really hoping he will. As I have said, dealing with this isn’t a big deal. I change her bag on a routine basis and I change her would dressing twice a day. But, I know she is really tired of it. Having said that though, we are so blessed that this is a temporary thing. Her surgery was only five weeks ago today even though it might feel like five months or maybe five years some days. He doctor had said maybe six weeks so we are actually on schedule. “Lord, give me patience.”

Her physical therapist just arrived and will spend about 30 minutes with her. I don’t know that it is helping her any but maybe it is. Her therapy isn’t painful for her although it does make her tired. I suspect they may not continue her PT much longer. She’s doing well enough. 

So, I guess I will jump off and watch Kate go through her routine. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Monday, March 18th, allegedly the last day of Winter, and it is a chilly one for sure. It was 28 degrees this morning when I got up and it hasn’t gone up much since then. The thermometer says 37 but the real feel is 32. I went out to pick up some branches that had come off of the trees and I got pretty chilled. Hopefully when spring kicks in at 2230 tonight, the wonderful temperatures that we have had the past couple of weeks will return. Some of my peonies were not happy with last night’s temperature and they are a little curled up this morning. But —- if the sun would just pop out, they would unfurl themselves and be well. 

How was your weekend? Our weekend was spent just like every other day since I have retired. The exception is that we attended two versions of “Recliner Church” yesterday. First we watched our home church and then we pulled up the St. Lucas service and watched that. And, we watch some Gaither music video in between the two. I just can’t believe that this coming Sunday will be Palm Sunday. I have really missed attending “in-person” worship, especially during a holy season like Lent and Easter. I know I could leave Kate alone for that couple of hours that I’d be gone to church; but —— I just won’t. I also know that she “could” go with me —— but as long as she is having to use the ostomy bag, that isn’t going to happen. It only took one disastrous accident at the doctor’s office to make that decision. So, the only place we go is to doctor’s appointments. I do go to the grocery store but my grocery trips are no more than 45 minutes. We will be so very thankful when life returns to “normal”; although who is to say we lived a “normal” life before all of this??? LOLOL. 

I had to water all of my seedling cups this morning. My little tomato plants are doing very well. I need to take the tiller or the hoe to my raised bed and get the weeds out of it. There aren’t many but I don’t want them to get a foothold either. My little garden tiller has quit so I need to borrow Karin’s. She has an electric one and says it really works well. I could get mine repaired but I have no doubt that it would cost me about as much to have it fixed as I would pay for a new one. And neither she nor I need one to do that much. So, she I and I will just share hers. 

That’s about all I have for this cloudy day. I pray you will have a blessed week. Peace. 

 It was just Monday. I know this because my last blog said Monday. How the heck is it Friday already and why do I keep trying to make it a Saturday??? I swear, if I didn’t have Google Calendar to keep me caught up, I’d lost in the desert someplace, just wandering around wondering what was next on my schedule. 

So —— Happy FRIDAY!!! 

It has been a busy week as usual, with doctors’s appointment, Home Health Nurse and Physical Therapy visits for Kate. Our visit with her surgeon was unremarkable this week. I was really hoping that he would possibly steri-strip her open wound closed so we would not have to change the packing on it everyday. But no, he wants it to close on its own. And he wants to not do her resection until it has closed more. I understand the reasoning, he doesn’t want to take any chance with further infection. I said that I didn’t understand how it could get smaller and close if I keep having to put packing in it. I was assured that it will happen naturally, and I have to admit that it seems to be happening. So, we have another appointment with him a week from today. 

Wednesday she had to have a barium enema to make sure everything was clear for him to go ahead with the resection internally. From what we see and interpret on My Chart report, it looks good to go. So, Hopefully, next Friday the surgeon will set a date for reconnection. We are so looking forward to all of this being over. 

I’m doing laundry this morning. I only have one load and it isn’t a big one but I like to keep it caught up. 

Did I tell you that my tomato seeds are all up in their cups? I have them under a grow light out in the sunporch. When they get a little bigger, I will have to eliminate half of them. I planted two seeds per cup and they all sprouted. When they get a little farther along I’m supposed to eliminate the smallest so the other will do well. 

I have to figure out what we are going to do for supper. We had a late breakfast so probably will only have one more meal today. 

That’s it for today. I pray your weekend will be blessed. Don’t forget to spend sometime in worship this weekend. God has provided more blessings then you know this week. Give Him honor and praise. Peace. 

 Happy Monday, happy new week. We have a bright sunny day so far. It has been a nice morning to get a few errands done. Right now though we are waiting on Kate’s Home Health nurse to arrive  for her weekly visit. 

I think I told you that I had planted my tomato seeds in their cups while Lisa was here. Well, I checked them yesterday and I have seedlings up in almost every cup. So, I took the sandwich baggies off of them and have set them out in the sunporch under a grow light. They will stay there for several weeks and continue to grow until I think the last frost possibility is over. I have to say, that grow light at night looks like a landing zone for UFO’s on Devil’s Tower. Anyway, I think it will be mid April before they are ready to plant. 

I got the JD out and rode around in the front yard this morning cutting all of the onions off. It now smells like spring! And, the yard was looking shaggy, but now it looks like it is loved. The back yard is a long was off from needing mowing. All of the shade back there makes the grass grow exceptionally slow. All of our daffodils and hyacinths, spirea, and crocus are blooming and the yard really looks great. The peonies are coming up really well too. It was certainly an early spring and a beautiful one too. 

Wednesday, we take Kate for her barium exam and then we wait for another week to see the surgeon again. I’m beginning to offer up prayers for patience because it seems like the process just keeps extending itself out. 

Okay, the nurse is here so I’ll wrap this up. Have a blessed week. Peace. 

 It’s been five days since my last post. (I sound like a parishioner in confession, don’t I?) I don’t know where the time goes but I do stay busy with Kate and I’m still doing most of the cooking, all of the grocery shopping, and laundry. But —- I don’t mind it at all. It’s good that husbands learn how to do the things that our wives have done for us all of our marriages. Far too many husbands lose their wives and they are lost because they never learned to do the “domestics”. And far too many start looking for another wife right away because they can’t handle their own affairs. I learned routine housekeeping as a child to include laundry, dusting and other stuff that were my “chores”. But I never learned to cook which is a good thing because my mother was not a good cook. 

We’re having another visit with Kate’s surgeon today. Hoping for good words and plans. She is scheduled a Barium exam on Wednesday which will hopefully provide the final “go” for her surgeon to do the resection. We know we have to put her on Lovenox injections for four days prior to surgery, so hopefully we can get that started right away. 

We woke up to a non responsive furnace this morning. So, I called our HVAC company, Schneider Heating and Air and luckily they were able to send a technician out first thing. The igniter had gone out on the furnace. So, $211.00 later, we have heat. Our system is now 20 years old. Hopefully it will hang in there for a few more years. 

That’s it for today. It’s a dreary rainy & chilly day. Stay warm and safe. Peace. 

 I’m back once again. I know it has been awhile, a week I guess. But it has been a busy week with Ms. Kate. So, let me catch you up right quick. As you know, Monday was our anniversary and it was about as exciting as we didn’t want it to be. For whatever reason we had a lot of problems with the ostomy bag and went through seven changes. That gets very frustrating when I’m doing everything that I think I need to do and it still doesn’t hold. 

Wednesday we met with the Ostomy clinic folks and they were wonderful to work with. They told me that I was doing all the right things but I didn’t have the right products with which to work. She ordered me the right stuff and sent me home with some good supplies to get me by. 

Friday we had an appointment with he surgeon and he removed all 32 of her staples. They had begun to bother her a lot. Unfortunately she had a two inch place that had become infected so now we are addressing that issue. I have dressed it yesterday and this morning and it is already looking tremendously better. The good news is that we see the surgeon again this coming Friday, and he hopes to do her resection in three weeks which should be somewhere around the 21st of March. That will be a wonderful thing. 

I am so happy to report that Kate is feeling so very much better. God is the ultimate designer and creator and the human body is a such a marvelous thing. I continue to be amazed at the complexity of the design. But — the insertion of prayer into the equation does so much to enhance our healing on every level. And I can tell you that I believe that we can feel the prayers of others as they pray for us and that too enhances our healing. 

That catches you up on our very exciting life. I pray you have a blessed week.     Peace.