The Kelsey's

I’ve had weeks like this before.  Some of them in the hospital, some of them on a couch with crutches.  I’ve been put under and cut on 6 times now.  That’s probably a little above average.  And this time it wasn’t a medical emergency.  I could still walk, I didn’t have to limp.  I could still go to work and about my business, I wasn’t doubled over in pain.  But I had hernias.

I checked the Internet and studied up, were there exercises I could do, was there dietary changes I could make to reverse or affect this?  All sources indicated no.  They would either stay the same or get worse.

With our current health insurance we have an annual deductible, so doing something early in the year made sense.  The question was whether it would be this year or some future year.  No one knows what the future holds, and we had started to rebuild our savings, so we went forward.

The recovery has been coming along.  I found out that the only thing keeping me from being able to drive or go back to work was the use of the prescribed pain meds.  I stopped taking those on Thursday.  It hasn’t been unbearable (not like getting my wisdom teeth pulled – saying no to pain killers there was a big mistake), but little pulls here and there are always a surprise.

I’ve also read and heard a lot about people not being satisfied with mesh installation.  Recurrent pains, mesh that rolls up or balls up and creates pain or numbness.  So I was torn (no pun intended) about going ahead with it, but I opted to.  Now every time I feel a sharp pull or tug I wonder if it’s just healing happening or if the mesh is messing up.  It’s going to take time to know for sure.

The Kelsey homeschool has been on spring break to “celebrate” dad being “in the way.”  So I don’t think that things have been too disrupted.  I did have to request an early exit from church as I was feeling pretty worn down.  But I can’t think of anything else that’s been a challenge.  I’m sure I could interview everyone and get some more examples, but they aren’t up so – it’s just me!

The debate is continuing on whether I will start back to work early (i.e. on Monday) or if I’ll wait all the way until Wednesday when I told my employer that I would return.  I guess it just depends on how the healing process goes.

We have more birthday’s in March than in any other month of the year.  We are also entering into the summer months, this is the only time of the year when I can actually remember all my children’s ages 🙂

This week will also be spring break around the Kelsey homeschool.  The weather has cooperated, and it didn’t snow like the weather intelligentsia were prognosticating.  The week can only be more spring-like ahead.  So the kids will be taking some time off as I take the week off to recuperate from surgery.  There will probably be much more to say in our next installment.

I would say that not much happened this week around the Kelsey’s. But things did happen. The kids got out their bikes and rode around a bit – a sure sign that summer’s coming. Hannah got to ride Laura’s bike. We need to look into bike upgrades.

Hannah’s been asked to play something for church in about 2 weeks. She hasn’t been on the piano in any serious way for months. This is going to be a challenge – we’ll see how it goes.

There’s been talk about travel and vacations… We will be headed to camp meeting without Laura and Nathan for a second year in a row. Laura had committed to a friend to help with her daughter’s wedding at the same time. I’ve been invited to take a trip to Billings MT at the end of June – this will be the furthest west I’ve ever traveled. Then there may be a trip to CO for a weekend in August and the Annual Peacemaker Conference is in Washington D.C. this September. For our family this is considered some serious jet-setting! Oh and this doesn’t include Laura’s new dream to follow Michael Buble’s concert tour as a crazed groupie. Check and see if she’ll be hanging out at a town near you soon.  Just kidding, OK, not really.

The time still needs to be firmed up, but we will be having a visit from one of the administrators of the academy (no, not that – the Oscars are over) from a boarding school we’ll be sending Hannah to.  In case you’re wondering, she didn’t do anything bad or illegal – she is actually excited about going off to school.

I guess one last tidbit – I’ve talked to the kids and we are planning to take up our summer walking again.  We’ll start this Tuesday.  I’ll report back on the number of side aches we manage and how many oz. of sweat we produce.

Of course it ain’t over yet. But this weekend is as frenetic as our weekends are ‘wont to be.’ We have been off in all directions. Hannah attended a teen honors weekend away at the camp. She headed off on Friday before I got home from work, so we said our good-byes on Thursday night. We haven’t heard from her since (as far as I know).

Now even if she would’ve been leaving later on Friday, I wouldn’t have seen her. Why, because last Sunday I got a call from the pastor of a sister church. He said, “Hey, you remember that meeting back last November where we compared calendars and this coming weekend you scheduled for a Peacemaker series at the church?” “Oh, sure, I’ll be ready.” Then I got busy planning and preparing. And when Friday came around, I got off work I ran through Taco Bell and had dinner in the car as I dashed home. I got changed, gathered all my stuff and headed off with Joshua. Caleb was going to go, but there was a last minute change of heart. The kids have flashbacks of loooong days sitting around out of town while the folks taught peacemaking. Caleb wasn’t ready for anything go. But Joshua faithfully came along to take some video footage. The idea was to video the next day too, but that was just too much to ask.

So I spent all day yesterday speaking – well for 6-7 hours or so. My voice actually feels a little scratchy (I have never lost my voice…) and for some reason all the standing had all my feet really hurting. So when I got home I just crashed. Saturday night is usually my one late night of the week – but not last night. I think in my half-sleepiness I saw Nathan for a few minutes. And I’ve seen Caleb in passing and while he was passed out on the couch or in his bed. Scattered.

Today, I’ve committed to helping deliver fruit which will take me through noon. The rest of the day will be spent trying to pull it all together to get ready for another week of working / schooling / living.

I wonder how many weekends we have like this in a given year? How about you, do you ever feel like the pieces of your life are scattered all over the place?