Blanks on Repeat.

Blanks on Repeat.

 

Sometimes getting sleep is almost impossible. Used to think that these little ol’ ladies who just fell asleep in their chairs with their lower lip drooling on their sleeves were the epitome of resting. Well, my oh my! How our ideas do change! Rest is what a kitten does after chasing sunbeams; rest is what a full-tummies ball of puppies get when they pass out from overeating and playing so hard! These little drool sessions are merely practice for falling asleep in the middle of any and everything. Whatever works, huh?

 

Jennifer has been trying to tell the old woman that she is sitting wrong and that is what is causing the pain. Trying to sit differently after nearly 74 years of whichever Indian squaw pose suits a body—well, it is just difficult to change. This belt that is supposed to remind me not to reach, bend, twist, or otherwise do disco dancing has a tendency to wake Jennifer up whenever it has to be opened and pulled up to my Adam’s apple. She keeps telling me that this Velcro is the greatest thing since razor blades. Before they used Velcro, they had to put folks in body casts. Talk about most uncomfortable! When a kid does a header on a skateboard now, he or she can wear a molded splint type thing that can be readjusted. Remembering when the two oldest children decided to make a wishbone out of Hanan. One pulled one arm and the other had him by a wrist. He cried. Dr. Schaffner shook his head and told Hanan he had to wear this warrior garb. Hanan was NOT impressed by the idea of warrior wear. If Lance and Jenn had been wearing something like that, he would have loved it.

 

Jennifer is in my office working online. SO glad that this makes it possible for her to stay with me and take care of all the critters. Imagine taking care of small children and their messes. Well, that is just the dogs and the living room. She and Lance went out and cleaned out the big coop while he was here. Now it may not be perfectly neat and nice and in need of coop clean odor, but it is getting all the dust rearranged every time the girls fly off the roosts. The kids spread more of the diatomaceous on the floors, so that also keeps odors under control.

 

Jenn just brought me a plate of fruit. Yum! Never realized that blueberries were so very good! Funny, but the old woman was a grown person before a blueberry ever found its way into a fruit salad around here. Made some chicken salad once for a teacher’s meeting and used pecans and halved grapes. The speaker said he would love to come back any time if he knew he would get that kind of reward. Not making tasty foods for one’s self is the height of silliness. Food should keep the body in good condition, but the presentation of colors, textures, and flavors also takes the joy of living right to the top of what food should be doing for us.

 

Cari Guidry’s mom brought a big sack of green tomatoes to drop off one day this past fall. It was fun to just walk out to the coop and rustle around in the layers of hay to find a ripe tomato to be eaten right then and there! When we were teenagers, my brother’s friend Jim spent a couple of weeks in Arkansas on Granddad’s farm with us. The two boys worked their back legs off cleaning out the brooders where a thousand chicks had deposited their gleanings from tons of feed. One day Jim came back toward the house and stopped to speak to Granddad Kennedy. He asked it he could have some of the tomatoes growing along the driveway just past the house. Granddad’s face lit up, and he exclaimed, “Get in the house and get the salt shaker, Son. Sit down between a couple of those rows and enjoy every bite!” Yes, the old man really enjoyed growing things. He also knew what good food was supposed to taste like. Father-in-law Garland and Granddad Kennedy were both true dirt farmers. They both claimed that no king or president ever ate better than they did!

 

Finally got an account set up with Walgreens. The lady who spoke with Jennifer said that they would text me when my pain meds were ready. Because it is a controlled substance, they cannot call me or something. Weird. 

 

Just about everyone is a tiny bit OCD about something. Mom taught us to make our bed as soon as we stepped out of it. Not being able to sleep has caused my side of the bed to look like a buffalo wallow. The pillows to lift my knees tend to go all the way to the end of the bed. The white lifty things for my back and head may end up just about across the top of the bed—doing absolutely no good whatsoever. At least the mattress is soft and the distance to the bathroom is the length of three walker bodies. You would think that should be about perfect. And yet, she gripes, natters, moans, and groans. Such is life.

 

Watched a movie with Jennifer yesterday. “And So It Goes” was an old one, but the actors and actresses back then were a pleasant bunch. The world has certainly changed. Just hope Jenn can manage to deal with me until the dance classes with “Matilda” have come to an end. She asks me questions that don’t make sense to me, but my non-answers seem to really bug her.

 

Have not seen any posts from the Jarlsberg family. Karen S, Nate’s mom, is exhausted and really needs some physical and emotional comforting. Let’s remember that caregivers usually need more care than just a normal working nurse. Let us ask God to relieve the stressors involved. Then we have the usual springtime mess—winds that can take one single tree and use it like a powder puff on the face of every allergy out there. And the clocks: are you ready to gripe some more? We might as well just leave them on old time. Last month it finally was apparent that the one in the office was not going to get changed.

 

Despite my lack of sleep, this day looks as if it might just be a beauty! Too early to think about planting flowers, but probably won’t do that this year unless Jenn finds some huge container and stuffs it full of everything in the green house over at Sutherland’s. She plans to go to a neat place this next weekend. Maybe a certain mother will remember to give her some fun money for lunch or something. She and Andrea have been doing this shopping weekend for years now.

 

Nothing is going to settle our minds and spirits without God’s help right now. Sadness and disappointment with men and their governments is not going to change until God Himself changes mankind. May we who know Him remember to show love in any manner we can.

 

Rest and stay warm. You are loved.