Weekly recap: 10/22/2018

Oof.

(That's not a good way to start a post, is it?)

This has been a week of ups and downs here, ending with the downs, for reasons I'll get to in a bit. Hopefully your week has been a little less painful than mine!

Let's get started in recapping the week, shall we? :)


MONDAY

I started the day with my basement chores (dumping out/refilling the Air Washer and scooping the litterbox. Always a fun time). I started a load of dishes and a load of laundry (which my mother generously folded for me while I was gone later on!), took the garbage out, and put a batch of white beans in the Instant Pot. I cleaned the kitchen, made a batch of guacamole from last Wednesday's on-sale avocados, and threw my daughter in the tub. While she splashed and soaked, I swept the upstairs hallway and wiped down the bathroom sink and mirror (my husband most often bathes her at night, but when I do it on non-school days during the morning, it's always a really convenient time to get cleaning done!).

Thanks, Mom!

After she was all bathed, I swept and mopped the living room floor, then did a brief piano practice before it was off to physical therapy.

Where I got yelled at for doing too much.

Oops.

What do I do, though? With the exception of direct care of my daughter (like bathing), no one else is going to do all the rest of this stuff for me. I promised I'd try to take it a little easier (even though I knew that that wouldn't happen until at least the next day), then went home and made an Instant Pot full of vegetable soup for dinner (sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, onion, garlic, tomatoes, white beans, spinach, noodles. My daughter's second favorite soup!). 

Halloween decorations on my way home. My physical therapist would definitely approve of the zombies planking!

After my daughter woke up from her nap, we did her reading lesson, I read a little of a book from my Goodreads Want to Read list, then we picked my husband up. 

And after dinner, I almost fell in the shower.

*sigh* This is not the first time this has happened, but it was the worst. I came dangerously close to a bad, bad fall. I managed to catch myself (tweaking some muscles on my right side, and possibly more, as you'll see later on, in the process), but it really shook me up and I cried. I asked my husband to order a non-skid mat for the tub immediately after, which he did.

Despite that, I still took the garbage to the curb, then spent the rest of the evening icing my back while we watched two episodes of Supernatural.



TUESDAY

I was pretty sore waking up; that near-fall in the shower did me absolutely no favors. I cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, then took my daughter to school. From there, I drove to GFS (a bulk food store, if you're not familiar), where I purchased a 50lb sack of bread flour (oof), a large jar of peanut butter (for baking), and a huge bottle of imitation vanilla- the real stuff is so expensive right now due to crop failure that I'm just going with the fake. Then I stopped by Mariano's (our local Kroger affiliate) to pick up what I'd downloaded a coupon for for free on Friday, a packet of Uncle Ben's pre-cooked, pre-seasoned rice (not something we normally eat, but it was free) and some frozen pizza for dinner, in an attempt to actually take it a little easier on this day. I had about twenty minutes to kill before picking my daughter up, so I ended up just reading my Goodreads book in the parking lot before getting her from school. 

At home, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, then did a lovely, slow yoga video. I really enjoyed this one, despite my being as flexible as a cement post. Afterwards, I read a bit from my Goodreads book, then napped a little on the couch until my son got home.

My son needed a ride back to school for a French club field trip, so my daughter and I dropped him off, then waited for my husband at the library, where she played, and I read my book and had a lovely conversation about it with a dad who was there with his daughter. After dinner, I did my PT exercises, read more of my book, and watched an episode of Supernatural with my husband.

My PT assistant. He thinks exercises time is Free Petting Time.

 And then it was time to pick my son up, but of course, the second I pulled into the parking lot, I got the message that they wouldn't be back for another half an hour! Good thing I had my book with me. It was after 11 pm when they finally got back, so we all went to bed as soon as we got home.

That was kind of busy for a supposed-to-be-taking-it-easy day, huh?


WEDNESDAY

First thing, I browsed the ads and made out a grocery list, then did my basement chores. My daughter and I got through most of her reading lesson- she's supposed to read through the story twice, but we didn't get through the second run due to time. I dropped her off at school, then drove to Aldi to pick up what I needed there. After that, it was home to put the groceries away (and I usually do a quick clean-out of the fridge as I'm doing this as well, getting rid of anything that isn't good to eat anymore. Fortunately, most of what we eat is compostable, so in the event that leftovers get away from us, they'll eventually be feeding our garden, so yay for that). That left me with just a few minutes to spare, so then it was off to pick my daughter up again, and from there, we ran to a second grocery store. I was thrilled to find three packages of Field Roast meatless hot dogs for $1.19 each in their refrigerated markdown section. I snatched those up right away (and tossed them in the freezer to enjoy at a later date); they're not cheap, so it's awesome to find them at a great price!

At home, I put the groceries away and put a batch of black beans in the Instant Pot and started the dishwasher. While the beans cooked, I sauteed some mushrooms and garlic, and then when the beans were ready, I used all those items to prepare a batch of black bean burgers (I didn't have any bread crumbs, so I subbed ground up dry oatmeal, which worked just fine). After dinner was cooked, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, did the same yoga video I did the day before, then dozed off in my chair for a bit!

My daughter and I picked my husband up, and after dinner, I mowed the front half of the lawn. It was pretty dark by the time I finished. I did my PT exercises and watched a bit of Supernatural with my husband before bed.


THURSDAY

Oof. 

This was the day things started going wrong.

I dropped my daughter off at school, then drove home and did a bit of piano practice before my mom arrived, and then I was off to physical therapy.

Since I was doing a lot better, we started changing things up this day, working a little more on different kinds of strengthening so that I can do things like more comfortably lift 50 pound bags of flour and 35 pound boxes of cat litter (which I'd done- not comfortably at all- earlier in the week). Unfortunately, my back did NOT like switching things up.

AT ALL.

I was okay driving home, but as the day went on, it became more and more obvious that this was Really. Not. Good.

I iced my back as much as I could, but it wasn't doing anything. Wasn't even touching it. And I was starting to have trouble walking. If you've ever seen a slow, shuffling elderly person creeping along, walking with a cane- that's what I look like when I'm in this kind of pain. I move at a sloth-like pace, and every step hurts. 

That doesn't mean I get out of doing stuff though, especially since my son's girlfriend was coming over for dinner on this night, so I threw together a veggie-filled breakfast casserole (she's a lovely girl, just not an adventurous eater, and I was worried this was even pushing it, but she ate it!), with frozen shredded potatoes, onion, orange pepper, sliced portabella mushrooms, broccoli, spinach, and eggs and cheese. It turned out really good, for something I just kind of winged because it was easy and guest-acceptable! Afterwards, I cleaned the kitchen and ran the dishwasher.

When my son and his girlfriend arrived home, I helped her with her French homework (one of the purposes of her visit, and I'm ALWAYS happy to help!!!), then hung out with them and my daughter until it was time to go pick up my husband. I was in too much pain to do my exercises that night. :(


FRIDAY

Oof.

Again.

Not any better today. I slowly did my basement chores (is it comfortable doing these when I'm in that much pain? No, no it is not), and then my daughter and I ran a ton of errands. We first went to Joann's so I could buy fabric and materials for her Halloween costume, and then we swung by the Dollar Tree for toothpaste for her. On our way there, I got a phone call from my medical group, whom I'd called the day before about getting some records for a new doctor I'm supposed to go to. They're pretty backed up right now and suggested it would just be easier if I could come by and pick the records up myself. Cool, two more errands to run, so we did medical record pick up and drop off, too. My daughter was NOT happy about any of these and let me know it. Oy.

At home, after a very quick lunch, I got started on the costume. She wanted to be Nature Cat, from the PBS Kids cartoon (a fantastic show; if you have little kids, I highly recommend it. It's both funny and educational and provides us with some great conversation topics here). He wears a kind of Robin Hood-style tunic and hat, and I wanted the tunic to be able to fit over my daughter's coat, so I grabbed a shirt of hers that's still a little too big (my son used to wear this; now she wears it as pajamas) and used that as a pattern (since I had no other pattern!).

Here goes nothing...

I have no formal sewing training, so this was all winging it and hoping that it worked out. More than a bit nerve wracking! (And all the bending over and chalking and pinning and constant ups and downs did my back zero favors, either.) But after about an hour and fifteen minutes, I had most of it cut and pinned.

It's a start! Those collar pieces were THE WORST.

What took me the longest was winding bobbins and threading the machine (and picking up the bobbin thread). I'm SO terrible at those things; something always seems to go wrong. But I finally got everything set up...

Here goes nothing...

This?

Took all afternoon. It's not a hugely involved costume, but there were quite a few pieces of it, and they needed to go on in a specific order, and again, I have no clue what I'm doing.

But it all seemed to work out in the end.

Tada!

By far, not my best work- there's a LOT I'm not happy with, but I was pressed for time and I had no pattern, so it was all guesswork. It'll do, though, and she's happy with it, so that's all that matters. :)

We picked my husband up from the train (which was late), ran home, scarfed down some leftovers for dinner, then ran back to the library for the Halloween balloon show for kids. After my daughter went to bed, my husband and I watched a few episodes of Supernatural (no PT exercises, I was in too much pain and was worried about making things worse).

SATURDAY

My husband took my daughter to gymnastics; I stayed home sewing her a tail (which we safety-pinned onto the costume, in case she ever wants to NOT have a tail for this, or we give it to someone else when she outgrows it and they don't want a tail), sewing the brown cuffs onto the sleeves, and making a few other minor improvements. When I finished, I cleaned the kitchen, and after lunch, it was time for our town's annual trick-or-treating at the downtown businesses (and now you see why I was pressed for time!).

Action shot! :)

Not long after we got home, it actually SNOWED where I'm at! So early for snow this year. It's going to be a long winter if it's starting this early!

And okay, I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty jazzed that whoever runs the Nature Cat Twitter account retweeted my costume-photo-tweet. Doesn't take a whole lot to make me happy. ;)

During my daughter's naptime, I finished a book from my Goodreads Want to Read list, then did some research and notetaking for my writing. When my daughter woke up, her choice of activity for the rest of the day was...to go to Ikea?

Totally normal thing for a four year old, right?

So we went (I went very slowly) and we had a delicious dinner in their cafe. 

I had the veggie ball plate. SO SO SO good!!!

I was still in a lot of pain that night, like hard-to-switch-positions-on-the-couch kind of pain. My husband and I watched several episodes of Supernatural before going to bed (where I didn't sleep very well thanks to my stupid back).


SUNDAY

So, I woke up on this day feeling *marginally* better. Still not great, but the slicing pain in my SI joint and the feeling that my pelvis was entirely made of lead had diminished, so that was my cue to get stuff done- otherwise, the entire house was going to descend into madness, because there were so many things that I needed to do (and honestly, I would've done them today even if I'd been in terrible pain, because they just needed to get done). So don't think I felt great doing any of this- I was still very slow, and absolutely none of this felt good whatsoever.

Ready?

I started off doing my basement chores. I ran the dishwasher, started a load of my laundry, then finally put away that load of laundry my mother had so nicely folded for me. I unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded it, switched the laundry, refilled my giant flour container, then made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies for my son's lunches and family snacks (I used canned pumpkin instead of applesauce; if I don't throw the pumpkin in something else this week, I'll freeze it for later use) and put the dough in the fridge to cool. And then I gathered up all the bread ends that I'd been saving (mostly in the freezer, some in my bread holder on my kitchen island) and made a huge batch of breadcrumbs.

Only part of what I made.

I'd needed to make these for a while, but just hadn't had the time. In between toasting batches of bread in the oven and grinding up what came out, I swept and tidied the living room and stairs, and flipped a shelf from the bookshelf- it was so warped that the brackets couldn't quite keep it up anymore. It's holding fine now, but I'm going to be on the lookout for an entire new-to-us shelf, I think. After that, I baked tray after tray of chocolate chip cookies.

Yum! Not pictured: the cookies I took out to freeze for my son's lunches.

In between baking the cookies, I took the garbage out, then took everything out of the tiny, windowless storage room in the basement where we keep the litterbox (including the three, very full almost 5 gallon containers of driveway sealant left here by the previous inhabitant. Were they extremely heavy? YES. Should I have been lifting them? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Ow), swept the room out, then sprayed it with Rocco & Roxie enzyme spray (affiliate link. The cats are perfectly fine about using the box, but it occasionally needs a deep cleaning, because cats). The spray smells oddly like whatever they used to clean the locker rooms at my hometown's public pool when I was a kid, so that brought back memories. 

I restarted the dryer, then wiped down the litterbox room and moved everything back (ow), tidied up the kitchen, put the cooled breadcrumbs and lunch cookies in the freezer, started a load of my son's laundry, then folded my laundry and put it away. 

I then deep-cleaned the entire bathroom, taking everything out and scrubbing it down hardcore. My husband started some work on the shower in July and just finished it last week (at least I think he's finished. He, uh, doesn't quite feel my urgency in getting things done around the house; his tools are still lingering in the hallway, where they've been sitting since July; there's been at least one bandage-necessary tripping incident involving them), and there were a lot of dried grout bits and dust in all the corners of the bathroom (which I hadn't wanted to deep clean until he was finished, because why bother if he was just going to dump stuff all over it again? I've done little cleans- scrubbing out the tub and toilet, wiping the sink, etc., but not a take-everything-out-of-the-room-and-go-to-town like this). After that, I switched my son's laundry and started another load, then unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher (AGAIN). I wiped down our stairway railing (which gets grimy and gross with disgusting regularity), then sat down to start work on this post. ;)

After my daughter woke up, I took my son's laundry out of the dryer, emptied my steeping orange peel vinegar cleaner into the appropriate containers (vinegar into the vinegar cleaner container- I now have an entire gallon of the stuff- and orange peels into the compost), then deep cleaned the kitchen, getting into all the nooks and crannies and scrubbing off the stovetop. And then, everyone's favorite: Mowing the Lawn, Part 2. Should I have been mowing the lawn? Probably not. Would the lawn otherwise peek out at least three inches over the deepest winter snow and wave embarrassingly in the wind at knee length all season long if I didn't? If the past three years are anything to go on, absolutely. So onward I mowed.

After I finished with that, my son and I went out for dinner at Noodles & Company, and then I came home, showered, and folded more laundry. And then I checked out the disc the medical people sent home with me on Friday.

When I stopped by the office to drop it off, despite asking for MRI images, they only wanted the paper report, so I kept the CD. My MRI images are weirdly not as clear as the ones I had in 2012, but the x-rays they took in the office show the narrowed disc space in my lower back. (My apologies; it's a picture of the picture on my computer screen.)

Ow.

The report says that's mild disc space narrowing and disc dessication; I'd hate to feel what anything more than mild would feel like, because this really stinks.

After putting my daughter to bed, my husband and I watched an episode of Supernatural, and that was it for the week. :)

The weird thing is, I'm actually feeling pretty good this morning. Super strange, considering I was finding it difficult to get around at all on Friday and Saturday. I don't understand my back; it makes no sense whatsoever.

It's a busy week coming up- I visit a new pain doctor on Wednesday, I have physical therapy twice, a possible school thing with my son tonight, and who knows what else. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak a nap in there somewhere. ;) And I hope you have a great week, too!


How did you do this week?