At the Races

Bath in a Bucket

Out of Commission

So I decided to end my knee problems once and for all. Therapy in November and December hadn't helped. Only surgery, I was assured, would fix my torn meniscus.
On Thursday, I had the surgery. Only the doctor found more problems that the MRI had shown. He had to fiddle with my knee cap as well as to trim the meniscus, which I tore while running. In recovery, I could feel nothing. I thought, hey, this is a piece o'cake, just as other friends described who have also had arthroscopic surgery. On Thursday evening, the numbing wore off and my knee woke up, and it wasn't happy.
On a pain scale of one to ten, the pain was about eight and a half.
But the girls don't understand why Mama has to be in the bed. Clara climbed in beside me, pointed to her own knee and said, "Me got owie. Me get better. Mama get better." She then handed me a plastic bag and said, "Get up, Mama. All better."
Would that it were so!
I figured I would be back to work on Monday. Wrong. The physical therapist I visited on Friday said I needed to be off all next week, and maybe the following week. So all my sick leave will vanish at once, which is what it's for, I think.
It's so frustrating not to be able to get up and tend to Clara and Margaret. Gene will hold down the fort with them, but he will find it hard to cook and care for them and keep the house straight. I think women are better at multi-tasking. So I called someone in our church and they're organizing food for us, which is a blessing.
Babies don't understand Mama being sick. I remember telling someone as a teenager that my mother had never been sick when I was little. From the next room, Mother laughed and said, "Of course, I was sick.It just didn't matter. I had to keep going."
The therapist doesn't have to worry about my being motivated to do my exercises. I want to get all of this over with and get back to normal. No, better than normal. Both Margaret and Clara understand Mama has a big owie....they have both kissed my knee.

Bucket brigade

There's a serious drought going on in Georgia. To save water, we have started bathing the girls in sheet rock buckets. We fill them halfway and they get in and soak, much like a Japanese tub. The water goes over their shoulders so they're warm. Margaret likes to hold a bath toy under the water and then produce it, with a smile of Ta, Da! Clara is more interested in having more and more soap squirted out into her hand. We know Margaret is happier with this arrangement because she is secure and mostly out of reach from Clara. She will happily sit in the warm water until she's a little white prune. Though Clara does still try to wash Margaret. Gene bought a windup fish for the bath, but Clara is afraid of it, so she likes it mostly in Margaret's bucket. Clara is also afraid of a small remote controlled car that Margaret loves. "Tiene miedo," Clara says, speaking of herself in the third person as she often does. Both girls look so funny in their buckets, like they are adorable home improvement products you can purchase at Lowe's. The sad thing is that Margaret is growing so tall that soon she won't be able to fit into her bucket!

Cat Chase

Clara in the Wagon

In the Closet