An October Day

Good morning! Obviously, I did not write yesterday. I decided to take the day off from such endeavors. Was it worth it? I’m not sure.

I had an appointment with the nurse practitioner yesterday and ended up seeing the doctor instead; not sure why. She says that my ankles are still swollen. If so, they are in a constant state of being that way. Actually, I still do have a couple of knots on my left ankle and they do still swell up a bit distally but otherwise, we’re good. She should have seen them when I went in the first time. Anyway, she said that because my rheumatoid factor was up, she wanted to retest it. She also said to limit my salt intake to 2 grams or less. Seriously? Contrary to popular belief, I do not overly salt my food. I am not going to change my diet to restrict the amount of sodium I am eating. Hmmm, just did a quick check because I wasn’t sure if she said salt or sodium because they are not the same. One teaspoon of salt, which is about 5 grams, contains about 2 grams of sodium. So, in order to limit my intake to 2 grams of salt per day, that would be less than half a teaspoon and I’m pretty sure if I ate a completely raw food diet, I would probably get more than that. Just doing a very little bit of research on the amounts of sodium in the various raw foods that I have on hand and would be most likely to eat confirms that I would indeed be consuming more than the allotted amount. What does this mean? I’m going to pretty much do what I do.

Back to the retesting of my blood. I went straight from the doctor to the lab. I shouldn’t have done that; I should have gone home (or to Armstrong’s but that’s another story) and loaded up on the water for a day or so and then gone to have my blood drawn. Anyway, I went straight to the lab. I got poked in the right arm. Nothing. I got poked in the left arm. Nothing. I could feel veins there (I felt after she applied the tourniquet and before she did the alcohol). I guess she could too, but between the time she felt and the time the needle got there, there was nothing. She even used a butterfly on the left arm and told me a semi-fallacy in that it’s a smaller needle. The length of the needle is indeed smaller but the diameter is not. I learned that from Joe at Reliant. Anyway, she used a butterfly on the back of my right hand and finally got something. Butterflies are a lot slower than regular needles so she got about the bare minimum needed for the test and called it good. I would have done the same thing. Anyway, that was my blood drawing experience for the day.

After that, I went to the Armstrong’s to get the letter that Margaret had for me for the doula program at Heywood. I needed two letters of reference and was told Tuesday that I needed them by Thursday. That’s not a lot of time so I did what I could. By the way, Diane, you wrote one for me as well. Modern technology is a wonderful thing and I know that you would have had I had known sooner; I just hope you don’t mind that I did it without talking to you about it first. 

When I got home, it was time for lunch. I did some dishes and washed another shelf from the refrigerator. I think there are two left and then the door. Zack was here and because he has a truck, Paul asked if he might help Joanna get the wood from the bottom of the hill where he cut some a week or two ago. They didn’t do it. I guess getting food for lunch and watching a movie was more important to Joanna. It’s a pain not having the truck here and a pain that the back hoe won’t go forward. Kind of makes life difficult in some ways. Joanna did go pick Seth and Joseph up from school.

Seth and Joseph had soccer practice yesterday. I made soup for supper before we left so that it would be ready when we got home. We dropped Cedric off at Ryan’s house on the way to practice. Seth’s practice starts at 5:00 so between then and the time Joseph’s started at 5:30, I walked around the trail three times. Then I walked another three times while their practices overlapped. Then I walked another three during the last half hour of Joseph’s. Worked out pretty well, I think. Nine times around is approximately 4.05 miles. It took an hour and a half but I had to take a break to get Joseph up to the right field for his practice and at the end of Seth’s I had a few words with him. Straight through would have taken probably an hour and 15 minutes which is not bad considering I used to do 4 miles in an hour at the gym. I think I’ve already mentioned that it’s easier to do that when you can set the speed to what you want because it just goes.

This morning I have an appointment with the chiropractor. That is at 9:00 so I need to leave by 8:30. A bit earlier would probably be better; we’ll see how it goes. I am going to forgo a shower before I go because I need to do some things when I get back that will probably require getting dirty and I don’t want more than one shower although I have to admit that the warm water does feel nice sometimes. Today likely will be some of those times because it’s not terribly warm in the house.

I forgot to mention the wonderful day that yesterday got off to. I went out to milk and fed Kitty like a normally do. Before that, I had gotten Amena a lunch ready. When I got back in, it was 6:25 and she was still upstairs doing whatever. Five minutes later, she was still upstairs and the bus was at the end of the driveway. She still didn’t appear. The bus makes another stop not far beyond the other end of the driveway but she didn’t make it out in time for that either. She missed the bus. She almost missed it once before but yesterday she well and truly accomplished it. I had to get lunches ready for the boys and make sure they were up and getting ready before I could take her, nevermind that school starts at 7:05. It takes almost half an hour to get there, a few minutes to drop off and another almost half an hour to get back home. That does not leave any time for supervising boys and getting lunches ready. Joanna did jump in to the rescue and took her. That was great because I was able to do what needed to be done.

That was the beginning. The ending was similar in a different way. I don’t think Seth had a particularly great time at practice; he was grumpy afterward. His behavior during prayer and scripture reading was not good but neither was Joseph’s particularly stellar. They got to bed, Cedric finished the homework that he had almost none of but still should have finished before going to Ryan’s and went to bed. Amena went to her room but not bed. Paul got home and must not have had a very good day at work because he wasn’t in the greatest mood and complained about the tires on Laura’s car and the wood not getting done as well as a few other things. I bit my tongue because nothing I had to say would have improved the situation. He went up to his office for a while before going to bed and I went up to bed to work on a talk for Sunday. That was my salvation; working on it kind of melted away all of my irritation and my mood was greatly improved by the time I turned out the light. I even read two chapters of Revelation before.

And now for another day. I hope that you all have a fantabulous one