Currently {April 2021 Edition}

 Reading:

This is our book club selection for this month. 

Watching: Inception and The Big Year. I can never watch an entire movie all at once, so I'm about mid-way through both. 

I haven't had time to dive into The Chosen Season 2, but that's high on the list. 

Buying: birthday presents for Eva. Her birthday is on Thursday, and she picked out all her own presents, so there will be no surprises. She told me she is going to act like a queen on her birthday, and I have to be her butler. So... ya know... pretty much like every other day of the year.

Craving: water. And not because I'm a noble and devoted water drinker. I'm just legit craving a big glass of water. 

Trying: to use my energy wisely. I don't have very much, so I have to budget it. 

Singing: "Boom Clap." I hadn't heard that song in years, but it came on the radio the other day, and it's been stuck in my head ever since. I'm indifferent about the song - I neither love nor hate it - but it's one that just sticks! 

Listening to: 

This audiobook is read in a lovely Irish accent, but it has quite a few swears. 

Needing: to vacuum my van, which happens to be what I wrote in this same spot last month. I've been pretty good about keeping my van vacuumed since I got a car wash membership last year. I vacuum at least once a week - usually on Mondays, but I haven't gone this week yet. 

Annoyed by: Smith's never having cucumbers. Has anyone else noticed this? 

Playing: Wingspan on the Nintendo Switch. We haven't had game night in a while, so I've been playing a lot on the Nintendo. I win 9/10 times, and I have it set to "hard." I can't say it's because of my awesome Wingpspan skills. I think it's more that my AI opponent just isn't that great. 

Working on: moving our garden boxes. We've been "remodeling" our garden for like... four years now. Maybe this year we'll actually finish... maybe...

Struggling with: Eva and Zoe. Ok, that's a pretty standard answer, but seriously, those two are giving us such a hard time lately. In sacrament meeting on Sunday, they were fighting like feral cats - trying to claw each other by diving across Scotty's and my laps, all fingernails and teeth! At home, they scream at each other routinely and call each other "idiot" and "moron." Today I found the wad of hair that Zoe ripped out of Eva's head last night. They're just delightful! Absolutely delightful! 

Eating: a chocolate chocolate chip bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes. I had a BOGO coupon, so Eva and I went on a little date to get bundtlets before I took her to school today. 

Looking forward to: going to see Les Mis at Hale Theater in a few weeks. I've missed live theater and performances, so I'm really excited!

Worried about: the usuals... my kids... their friends, their education, their mental health, their safety, their development, their habits... am I doing enough? Am I good enough? 

That.

Enjoying: KIDS AT SCHOOL!

I can't believe how fast summer break is coming. I've had two other moms tell me this week that they're so excited school is almost out. Meanwhile, I'm hyperventilating in a corner because I don't know how to function with school out. I feel like this school year never really got going, and with distance learning Fridays and multiple quarantines, my kids were home ALL. THE. TIME. and I don't know what to do with them being home for summer when I haven't even recovered from them being home for SIX MONTHS STRAIGHT. I'm still completely depleted from that. How do I do summer??? I can't entertain them anymore. We've done EVERYTHING. I have no creativity or energy left. We will watch TV for three months because that's all I can handle. 

Wearing: a black shirt that I refer to as my "flu shot shirt" because it has slits in the sleeves, and I wore it for my flu shot once. 

Grateful for: books. 

Sigh.

I just love them.

Feeling: dang good. 

My Mystery Condition has much improved over the past week. I don't know why it has improved, but I'll take it! I'm feeling 90% better. I can get out of bed, I can dress myself, and I can move from standing to sitting and vice versa. For a few weeks, I couldn't do those things until I'd had 800 mg of Ibuprofen in my system for two hours, and even then, it was very painful. I would have to wake up at 4:00 or 5:00 every morning and take meds from my nightstand so I could get out of bed at 6:00-7:00. 

Now I'm able to move pretty easily, and I am so grateful! I thank Heavenly Father multiple times throughout the day that I can move. I hope it stays this way, but since I don't know what caused it, I don't know what to expect. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I am healing and not just in some form of remission with something that will flare up again. One of my doctor's theories is that it could be a post-viral myalgia. In other words, I may have had a virus back in February that made my body go wiggety whack. There were a few things going on that indicated this may be the case, but it held on a little longer than the anticipated time frame of 4-6 weeks. So we'll see what happens from here. 

At this point, I am comfortable. I still have some pain in my ankles and feet. My leg muscles are still struggling - I can go up and down stairs, but I can feel pain in my legs when I do, and I can't squat. I keep learning this the hard way because I feel pretty good, so I forget that my legs are still having issues, and I'll do something like squat down to look at the bottom shelf at the library, and then have to use the shelves to pull myself up and think, "Oh gosh! Please don't fall over! Please don't fall over!" (meaning myself and the bookshelf). I also have some weakness in my wrists, so I have a hard time doing anything that requires me to put any weight on my arms (there won't be push-ups anytime soon), and sometimes my hands don't want to work (I can't open a new jar of anything). 

But like I said... I'LL TAKE IT!

A week and a half ago, I would stand at the edge of a curb and have to take a deep breath and brace myself for excruciating pain just to take a step down onto the street - something I've never experienced in my life (and now a permanent bad memory of a vacation in San Francisco). 

I am so very thankful to be able to move.