Wednesday's Keywords of the Week

Okay, the title says it all. It's Wednesday. It's the middle of this week, nearing the end of the third of three very long and painful weeks. And it's not over, yet.

Stays....My daughter says I take in strays. I guess she's right. It seems all her friends, and most of Dusty's tend to gravitate to my house, call me Mama and eat right out of the pickle jar. My home is never quiet, rarely straight, and always full. This can be a good thing. For one, I only had to go through labor twice and I have lots of kids. And sometimes those strays will include their parents.

Bittersweet...I've spent the better part of the last three weeks worried to death and trying to provide what comfort I could to Courtney's best friend and her family. Holly's twin baby brothers were born three months early, two weeks ago tomorrow. One of them, Vincent, died the following Monday, and was buried last Tuesday. Funerals are never easy, but when it's a baby's funeral, any strength you think you have...well, you quickly learn you don't. Whatever you have left, you spend on hugs and listening. Strange tho, afterwards, you feel stronger with each smile and bit of good news. The remaining twin, whom I hope will be another of my strays someday, is holding his own quite well. He's off most of his meds, off the ventilator and breathing on his own, and taking small amounts of breast milk. Because of his bigger(2.4 lbs) brother's sacrifice, Little David (1lb 14 oz) has a very good chance.

Perspective...Two days after the funeral, my husband was rushed to the hospital in horrible pain. They couldn't tell me as I was driving like a mad woman the 30 miles to the hospital exactly what it was...could be a stroke or heart episode or a blood clot. Turned out to be kidney stones. Now, I thank God constantly that he's okay. I've never seen him in that kind of pain before...never want to see him like that again...but I did show him the difference between that smaller-than-a-bb stone and our son's watermellon head.

Blessings...Yesterday, my stepfather (hate that word...he's my mother's second husband and just our Dad) had laser eye surgery. He's without glasses for the first time in his life, yes, Dad, you're pretty. He tickles my mother by walking thru the rooms and batting his eyes at her until she tells him how beautiful he is. These are the two youngest people I know. They're always talking about how "old people bug" them. LOL My son argued me down in the floor until he was 12 because they weren't old, so they couldn't be grandparents.

Typical...Now, my edits will be done and turned in by 10 tonight...can't miss Project Runway...best comedy on tv. LOL Before that, I have to pick up the kids from school, drop one off here to get the pet "stuff" ready, while Dusty and I take my 3-year old Beagle/French Charles Spaniel puppy, Auggie, to the vet. Then we come home, collect Courtney, Dargo and the "stuff" and haul it all to my sister's for the weekend. Then we come home, I make dinner...tuna something...help Courtney with her book binding for Art, get everyone to gather what extra stuff they want to take to New Orleans. Tomorrow I spend cleaning, shopping, washing, ironing and packing.

Legacies...We're going to New Orleans. We've not been since Katrina, and on one hand, my husband is dreading the trip like a tooth ache. But we need to take care of some business for Mark's grandmother who is showing signs of Alzheimer's. Last time we went as a family, his grandfather, Felician, first generation American citizen from Madrid, had had a stroke. Shortly after that, he died. It was the first time in their married life they had spent the night apart. She refuses to move to Florida to be with Mark's brother's family, or here to GA with us. She won't leave him. She won't ever be able to sign herself out, call a taxi and go to her house for the weekend, or meet up with her girlfriends to go juking. She won't ever get to go home to Italy. But she knows she'll be buried beside the man she's loved for the better part of her life. While we're there, we're collecting the irreplacable things, the family Bibles, photo albums, scrap books, and GrandPapa's paintings, proof of the source of my kids' artistic talent. The things of our childrens' and my niece's heritage.

So, if I forget to blog next Wednesday, consider the word of the day to be...Exhaustion.

Stay Safe,
Sher