Sunday, January 21, 2018

SL Core 100 Week 3C Jan. 14-20, 2018 Sick & Surgery

SL Core 100 Week 3C : Early American History
Jan. 14-20, 2018 
Sickness & My Surgery


Zeus---who has been a pill, just ask the bruises on my leg!

Hello, Friends!
Dd's bug and brain fog made for a very unusual week; as did my gallbladder surgery.  To begin the week, we all stayed home from church on the 14th.  I canceled Dd's violin lesson on Monday (15th) as well as her various music lessons/classes normally held on Wednesday (17th).  My surgery to remove my faulty gallbladder was scheduled for Friday and although I had started getting Dd's illness I still felt good enough to go ahead with the procedure. I had felt okay up until Wednesday evening; I had tried to get out of volunteering for WMHFA Intermediate Band, teacher's helper, but couldn't get out of it.  I think that is where my immune system finally fell over!  All those kids and germs was just too much for my weakened system.  I really kick myself for not standing up for myself better and telling them I wasn't coming in to "volunteer."  I had already contacted WMHFA to tell them Dd was sick and wouldn't be coming into classes.  Friday while I was having my surgery  Dd had her Grace classes, with her friend, Lexi.  I asked Lexi's mom if Dd could spend Thursday night with them and then go with Lexi to her classes on Friday; which she agreed to.  Then on Friday afternnon, after my surgery, Dh picked Dd up and brought her home.  
By Saturday the weather changed, from cold and snowy to warm and breezy!  The chickens were so glad to get outside again.  I'm so happy to have a break from the snowblower after using it almost daily!  Yay, for the second January Thaw!


Dd was sick the entire week, and still sick as I type. Finally, on Thursday she said she began to feel a little better, at least not continuing to feel worse.  What a long bug (illness) this has been.  It feels like, with her weakened immune system, she has had two or three things evolve.  Hopefully next week we will be able to get back to more actual learning.  This week, what little mental power she had she used on her math lessons.  


Dd has been working on her oil painting while sick.

My Add-In: Not Sonlight Of Mice and Men and Guests: Completed
We completed the extra resources for dissecting Of Mice and Men and then spent the rest of the week reading Guests by Michael Dorris; which was supposed to be a Reader, but I turned it into a Read Aloud.  I haven't decided what book I am going to start, from my list of books--not part of the Core 100--so I chose this short book as we would finish it in one week.  


Agnes is really owning the kittens climbing thing!

Guests by Michael Dorris: Completed
Sonlight Reader, I turned into a Read Aloud:
Guests Review:
A fictional story about the relationship between the new European arrivals to North America and the already surviving Native Americans, told from the point of view of a teenage Native American boy named, Moss, and his friend, Trouble.  Easy reading, good writing, and shared a unique perspective from the Native American point of view when European settlers arrived.  One funny bit that struck me was how the Native American's invited them to come over for a meal and were insulted by the fact that the Europeans came to the meal without bringing their own bowl or dish with which to eat from!    Another point of the book was how the Native Americans probably didn't really want to feed and/or help the Europeans, but having known hungry times they might have felt it was only right to offer to help them.  Helping others, even though often uncomfortable, is the right thing to do.  Another interesting point in the book is how one character, a young female, was feeling how it would be better to be a male, for various reasons.  The main character, Moss, gets to know, Trouble, a fellow teen that is a female and wanting to buck the traditions of their gender roles.



Church offers for food and Surgery:
I am now living without a gallbladder.  I had the nicest nurses and doctors, which was such a blessing.  Two of my church friends texted me before my surgery to let me know they were praying for a successful surgery; which was really, really kind of them.  Plus, Doris called me the night before to ask if I needed meals brought to us---wasn't that SO kind?!  I declined the offer, but, was really impressed that they offered.  In all my years of church no one has ever offered to bring us a meal during all the various medical events.  I really do appreciate the kind hearts of our church.  I am so thankful, so very thankful for being apart of a loving church!  I can't express how difficult it has been to find a congregation with such a good heart; indeed very rare, which is disappointing, but we are all humans after all.  I do still struggle with how our sermons include political commentary; I've never had a church that openly discussed their political opinions during the sermons before and definitely feel like that isn't the time or place due to wanting to remain united in Christ and not divided by politics.  Fortunately, this doesn't happen every week, but last week it did and so I'm still smarting from that, I don't like divisiveness to separate our congregation.  Anyway, I do love our church and am so impressed by the kind hearts of the congregation; so in line with Jesus' message of putting love first.


Surgery:
My surgery went well.  I have four holes that are healing in my abdomen and I am missing my gallbladder.  Before taking me into surgery, the nurse reiterated that they were going to remove my gallbladder, to which I replied,: "and put in a new and improved one, right?!!!"  She laughed!  I don't think she had heard that response before! The biggest surprise is that I really expected to have a LOT of pain afterward, but that hasn't been the case.  I took Tramadol (twice) after the procedure and by the day after the surgery, I didn't need anything for the pain.  They offered major pain pills but I didn't want anything to do with that potential stumbling block.  Compared to having migraines, this level of pain is nothing.  Thanks to all who prayed for my surgery recovery.  The worst part is having my head and chest full of mucus and coughing all the time with my abdomen all swollen and sore.  If only I could get over this bug it would be easier to recover, all this coughing is driving me crazy.


Chickens:
Dd helped me clean out the chicken coop again this week by carrying the five buckets of dirty straw up and out to the compost heap.  I wanted to be sure to get that chore done before my surgery, as I will need a few days to heal before I'll be able to clean it again.    Then after my surgery, she went ahead and cleaned out the coop, all by herself, without me even asking!  What a pleasant surprise!!!


The cats have been loving the dishwasher box, seen here behind Agnes.  They have spent hours in it!


Dishwasher:
Dh hooked up the dishwasher he bought for my Christmas gift, as it was delivered at the end of last week.  For the first time in our marriage, I have a working dishwasher!!!  We had one in our Brownsburg home but did a such a bad job that we always just washed our dishes by hand.  Now, I have a dishwasher!!  The ironic part is I went from spending 1-2 hours on dishes each day to spending 1-2 hours snow blowing and snow shoveling!! 






Felt Christmas Birds:



Knowing I was having surgery, and going under anesthesia, I decided I better finish up my birds and start getting them mailed out as there is always a chance, in my mind, that one might not wake back up!  A little morbid, I know, but it did drive me to finish up my Christmas things.  I also found a small stack of Christmas cards in a corner of my table that had about 10 cards that I hadn't seen...or mailed out yet!  So, I mailed those cards out this week too!!!  I hope my friends don't mind my tardiness, but the week before Christmas I had 4-5 days, in a row, with a migraine that kept me down and unable to finish up my Christmas things.  Luckily, I had wrapped all of Dd and Dh's gifts back in November as I have had migraines ruin my plans before on Christmas and so had learned this lesson years ago.  I guess that can be seen as one of the blessings I've learned from having migraines---don't procrastinate as you might literally not be able to get things done later!  I made a post of all the birds I did this year: http://fleurdelisacademy.blogspot.com/2018/01/christmas-birds-2017-felt-and-lavender.html


Dd's Baking:
Dd made a batch of Shortbread, from scratch, and melted special dark chocolate on top as a birthday gift for Joy, a church friend.





Art:
Dd has been working away with her art, even when she isn't feeling good.  She made Joy a birthday card with some of the things she's learned from her Botany class.


Due to Illness:
No music practice of any kind.


Grace Classes:
Saxon Geometry class:
 Math class and homework went fine.  She has a lot of math to do each day and is preparing for her mid-term test this Friday.  Dd's brain has just had enough strength to keep up with her class, but that hasn't left much energy for her other subjects.

Studio Painting: Going well!
Botany Watercolor class: Going well!

Music:
No music lessons, classes, or practicing while sick this week.
..........

SL Core 100 Week 3B Jan. 7-13, 2017 Sick

SL Core 100 Week 3B (Not an academic week.)
Jan. 7-13, 2017 
Sickness Arrives Again


Hello, Friends!

Ah, the misery of winter illnesses.  Dd had spent the weekend at her friend's house, returning home on Sunday, Jan. 7th, we picked her up after our church.  She went to church with her friends and got to experience a different church. Her friends sang during the service, Down to the River to Pray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSif77IVQdY , here is a link to YouTube if you are unfamiliar with the song that became popular when it was in the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou. 
Sleep Over:Dd had a great time with her friends and came home with a second bug; her immune system is shot right now!!!  She got worse each day this week as her tonsils got redder and more swollen as the days went by.  By the end of the week, her cough and mucus got worse.  I had migraines or headaches from Thursday on and gradually picked up her bug.  This wasn't a great week for us academically and started our longest illness so far this winter.  We are just plodding through right now.  What a doozy this bug is!


  Felt Birds:
While sitting and being brain-dead, I brought out the felt birds I started this winter and added lots of finishing touches.  I specifically worked on the wings and attaching the hoops to hang them from a tree, if desired, and some eyes too.  Dd and I both had waning brain power this week.

A Dark-Eyed Junco at our feeder


SNOW!
This week's weather went back and forth between snowing and then another "January Thaw" and back to snow again!  Last year we bought a new snowblower and finally this year I've fully figured it out!  It is great to finally have figured out all the shortcuts and I can get everything cleaned off in about an hour of work, whereas it used to take me much longer. 

Our garden is under snow.


Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
We had finished this book, but I had also bought a book, like Cliff Notes, to help us dissect and analyze the book and we read parts of that this week.  Also, the edition we had of the book has an Introduction, about 25 pages long, that we read in its entirety.  I'm liking taking extra time to discuss the book and figure out as much as we can.



Chickens:
Since the chickens are spending much of their time in the coop, I am having to clean the coop at least once a week.  I've persuaded Dd to carry the buckets of dirty straw out and to our compost pile to make this chore shorter for me to complete.  She really hasn't ever embraced having chickens and her interactions are few and far between. 

The chickens haven't been out here in months!


Chickens:
All our chickens are doing fine, though I can see they are getting skinnier each week, nothing major, but, they truly don't seem to like their pellets very much and preferred the wild greens I had supplied them last spring, summer, and fall.  I've tried to surprise them with black sunflower seeds, whole dried corn, cracked corn, table scraps, hard boiled eggs and lots of cooked egg shells, and anything I can think of!  I'm still hand-feeding Ms. Lemon each day and she seems a bit better this week.  I always bring her at least on chopped up hard boiled egg and shell; she also really likes bananas!  It is the highlight of my day to feed her!  This week I gave them a big bag of organic peas from Costo, and they loved it!



Chickens Outside!
Tuesday Larkin and I shoveled out the snow from the top two outdoor chicken runs and they all (except Ms. Lemon) spent most of the day outside!!! They spent Tuesday-Thursday outside; which greatly improved their disposition!  Zeus, our Buff Orpington rooster attacked my left leg this week, and left bruises!  He really went for me, more aggressively than ever before. 



Migraines & Illness:
I'm afraid I've had a string of migraines starting on Wednesday and lasting, off and on, for the next eight days.  I'm sure the crazy weather has something to do with it!  We went from 58 degrees to 18 degrees in the span of two days.  Both Dd and I were not in top form this week!!!



Dd very sick:
 We both had some super-cold-bug, red throats, swollen tonsils.  Dd had major coughing throughout and more mucus than I did. I was watching her fever to see if I needed to bring her into the doctor, as each day she got a little worse.  Locally our area has been hit hard with a really bad flu, so I wanted to avoid taking her to the doctors or ER for fear she would come home with the killer flu bug and take her from bad to worse.  Though she had a fever, it wasn't high.  The worst part of Dd being sick was that this made her "Brain Dead!" She went through an entire box of tissues! Often times I can squeeze homework into her sick days, but she couldn't focus her brain very well or for very long, so I kept my expectation to math and our study of, Of Mice and Men, and kept things under two hours, though spread out.  I believe she was able to read her Fun Book without trouble!  Isn't that always the way! 



Grace Classes:
Dd was too sick to go to her Grace classes; Painting Studio, Botany Watercolor class, and her Geometry math class on Friday.



Surgeon Appointment: Scheduled Surgery
My gastroenterologist referred me to a surgeon and he highly recommended that I get my gallbladder removed.  The surgery (laparoscopic) will be next Friday, Jan. 19th.  Dh will take off that day from work to bring me. I'm glad to get the appointment so quickly so I won't have too much time to fuss and worry about it.



Music Lessons:
Violin Lesson with Christie: 30 min.
Intermediate Orchestra (violin) 1:30 hours
Intermediate Band: 1:30 hours
Piano Lesson with Wendy: 30 min.



Music Practice:
Not much practicing going on with Dd having a cold, sore throat, coughing....



Fun Reading:
Cress by Marissa Meyer (In Process)


Grace Art Classes:
Painting Studio: 1:30 oil painting
Botany: 1:30 watercolor painting

One of Dd's watercolors this week--Groot.


Art:
Dd has been working on her painting and photography each day this week.  She is really enjoying both outlets. 



Math:
Saxon Geometry lessons 51-55



Bible:
Church, Sunday School, Volunteering at Olympians-Games.
Why Pray? (for SL) by John DeVries



Stink Alley by Jamie Gilson: Dropped
Dd decided to drop Stink Alley this week.  She just wasn't impressed with it.

For the first time, Agnes has decided she is a cat and jumped up on their cat climbing thing!  It is nice to see her finally adjusting to fit in with the new kittens.


Next Week:
We are no closer to feeling better; actually continuing to feel worse as each day goes by!  My surgery is scheduled for Friday and Dh will take the day off to take me.
..........