Weekly recap: 11/12/2018

Monday morning and time to start another week! Hopefully I'll make it through typing all of this- you'll see why in a little bit. Ouch!

It's been what felt like a quiet week around here, mostly due to my procedure in the middle of the week; that broke the week up in a weird way. Hopefully more will get done this upcoming week! The cold weather has arrived here with a vengeance, and I'm really thankful for the heated throw my mother gave to me. It's been really nice snuggling under it (and the cats love it too!).

Let's get started recapping the week. :)


MONDAY

I started off doing my basement chores (scooping the litterbox and refilling our Air Washer), then attempted to schedule flu shots for the kids and me. Our medical practice is seriously strange when it comes to this; they want everyone to get their flu shots, obviously, but there are never any appointments for this! I spent ages on hold, only to have the nurse sigh in exasperation over the system and let me know that someone would call me back when they figured everything out (which I was trying to avoid in the first place). Alrighty then!

I emptied the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen, and took out the trash and recycling, and then it was time to take my daughter to her dentist check-up. Everything looks good; we need to floss her molars, and we'll be back in six months. Hurray! Back at home, I unloaded the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen again, then prepared a cauliflower/tofu/green bean/carrot/potato curry dish with rice for dinner. I did two yoga videos, and afterwards the doctor's office called me back. I scheduled a check-up with my regular doctor for me (where I'll get my flu shot), scheduled my daughter's flu shot for right afterwards, and then they said they'd call me back- again- to schedule my son's. Told you it's a weird system.

I picked up my son from his Monday a capella group practice and read my Kindle book before picking up my husband from the train. I ended up dozing on the chair before putting my daughter to bed, did my PT exercises, then watched two episodes of Supernatural with my husband before going to bed. :)


TUESDAY

NOT a great pain day.

Over the past two years especially, I've developed a deep dislike for pants, especially jeans (and if you remember where the pain comes from with sacroiliac joint dysfunction, you probably understand why!). And dressing for the pain helps. Some days that means sweatpants; in warmer weather, long skirts are nice. Other days, I can pull off something a little cuter:

Basic? Yup. Comfortable? Also yup.

The pillow on the floor in the above picture? It was slated to be thrown out, and then the cat started sleeping on it, so I felt bad and just left it there for him to nap on. I had to move the mirror onto it to get a better picture, but it's back in place now (on top of the box of replacement ceiling fan, which has been slated to be replaced for...two years now? Not my job, so not my problem!) and the cat has resumed napping on the old pillow. :D

I had already voted by mail a few weeks ago, so there was no need to run out and do that. I started a load of laundry, ran the dishwasher, tidied the kitchen, and then my daughter and I ran errands. We stopped by the grocery store to pick up a bag of cheese (their prices beat Aldi this week and this was the last day of the sale), and then we stopped by the thrift store and their election day sale, where I purchased some books- mostly for the kids, but a few for me- and a long gray cardigan and a dark green sweater dress. I don't often buy clothes for myself, so this felt pretty nice!

At home, I switched the laundry and started a second load, which included those thrift store clothes. During naptime, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and prepared dinner, a delicious lentil loaf and oven roasted garlic Brussels sprouts. The sprouts I'd bought last week were so large as to be ridiculous:

Quarter for reference. Isn't that nuts???

I switched the laundry, then grabbed the blankets off the couch and chair and threw those in the wash. We picked my son up from school, I switched the laundry again, roasted the sprouts (I waited to do this until closer to dinnertime so they'd be crispy!), rescheduled flu shots for my son and daughter for the next day (FINALLY!!!!), picked my husband up from the train, ran the dishwasher again, and finished a book from my Goodreads list. I put the blankets back on the couch, did my PT exercises, and watched two episodes of Supernatural with my husband before going to bed.

WEDNESDAY

I scooped the litterbox, then got all the ingredients for French bread into the bread machine for my son, who needed to take something to his school's World Language Night dinner. I then spent the rest of my free time deleting a bunch of unnecessary pictures from my phone- you know the kind. Blurry shots, things I'd taken a picture of as a reminder but no longer needed, etc. At just before 9, I left to drop my daughter off at school, then drove to Aldi. I didn't need much (but I *did* find a drawer knife holder, which frees up some much needed counter space!) and I got through the store quickly enough that  I was able to run to a second grocery store. I didn't need much at all at either and I was able to get home with just enough time to put the groceries away, including out in the garage freezer, and then I had to pic my daughter up. At home, I got the bread rising on the stove top, and during naptime, I made a vegetarian cabbage roll soup at my daughter's request. I cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, and baked the bread. 

And then it was time to take the kids for flu shots. My son was fine; my daughter, who has usually been pretty stoic about it, burst into tears and wailed. Poor kid. :( But it's much better than getting the flu, or giving the flu to someone else. My son has asthma, so we do what we can to minimize risk to him, along with risk to my parents, who are getting older and my father's already immunocompromised, so it's important.

We picked my husband up, and then I had to drop my son and his friend (and the bread!) off at World Language Night. At home, I had just enough time to shower and put dinner away before needing to pick my son and his friend up again. I was in enough pain that I skipped my PT exercises for the night, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before bed.


THURSDAY

THE DAY!!!!

My husband had the day off, so we took my daughter to school and stopped by the library afterwards, where I picked up some light reading.

Light. Heh. Already finished one of them!

I started reading but dozed off in the chair until it was time to pick my daughter up. I visited with my mom for a bit until it was time to leave, and then it was off to get my SI joint injections.

To say I was nervous was an understatement. Painwise, I was around a 3-4 level, depending on what I was doing. My entire right side hurt with a burning and deep aching pain, which traveled down my right leg to my foot, and that was when I was just sitting there- so, a pretty normal day for me. They took me back and I changed into the peekaboo gown,but got to keep my sweatpants on, and then they started the IV. My veins are tiny and they roll, so it took two tries, because the first...didn't work out so well.

Ouch.

Once it was my turn, I walked back to the surgery room, where I had to climb onto this kind of narrow table and lay on my belly, and the nurse yanked my pants down. AWKWARD. Over the table was a moving x-ray device; they would use this to locate my SI joint and inject the meds (which contain a steroid) directly into the joint. Fortunately, they knocked me out first! I woke up in a different area- a totally jarring feeling!- and was able to go home soon afterwards with instructions to take it easy for the rest of the day. The office said they'd call the next day to check on me and schedule the second series of injections.

At home, still woozy from the anesthesia, I napped on the chair for a bit, then read my library book and relaxed.That evening, I cleaned the kitchen (because THAT never ends!), tidied the living room, and watched two episodes of Supernatural with my husband before bed.

FRIDAY

There was a definite reduction in all-over pain when I woke up this morning, and it was our first snow of the season!

So pretty!

Due to a busted pipe at the school, neither kid had school today (it would've been a make-up day for my daughter, but nope!). We attempted to go to a church yard sale, but I learned later that the newspaper had misprinted the start time, and no one was there when we got there. HUGE disappointment, but oh well. We stopped by Mariano's to pick up the past two weeks of Free Friday Downloads (yogurt and dried potatoes), dropped my son off at his friend's, and then came home so my daughter and I could play outside. BRRRR. I don't mind the cold all that much, but this was a windy, bitter cold, and fortunately she was okay with not spending a ton of time outside. But while we were out there, I talked with my pain doctor's office and scheduled the second series of injections for the end of November. 

I was bitterly cold when we came inside and I snuggled under the heated blanket until I'd warmed up sufficiently. I closed about half of the storm windows- the other half were too difficult for me to get down, and I ended up kind of wrenching something in the upper part of my back's right side, because hey, what's a day without back pain, right??? I ran the dishwasher, made guacamole, cooked the topping for bruschetta (since I had leftover bread slices from the bread for my son's World Languages dinner!), put an eggplant in the Instant Pot, and unloaded the dishwasher.

When the eggplant had cooked and cooled, I made baba ganoush, cleaned the kitchen, and took a phone call where I had to reschedule my next appointment with my spine doc (fortunately, this actually works out really well and makes next Friday WAY less complicated for me). Afterwards, my daughter and I went to the library and picked up my husband. I baked the bruschetta at home and did my PT exercises (slowly and carefully!). My husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before bed.

SATURDAY

My daughter had gymnastics, so I read my library book while she did that, finishing it later on that day. We went out for ice cream as a family, and then I got ready for the evening in my new thrift store sweater dress. I emptied and refilled the dishwasher and tidied the kitchen and living room. My mom showed up, and she and I went for dinner at a local restaurant, then picked up my son and his friend to attend a performance of the musical All Shook Up at their high school. The school's Fine Arts department is superb and every performance we go to there is fabulous. We had a great time and didn't get home until after 10 pm, when I came home to clean up the dinner dishes my husband left strewn all over the kitchen!


SUNDAY

My mom had spent the night, so we got up, got ready, and grabbed coffee at a local coffee shop. And afterwards, we went to a... It's kind of a combination craft show/Scandinavian festival/housewalk kind of festival at a local...it's not exactly a campground, but it's a campground/park that's home to all these little privately owned cabins, which was originally owned and populated by the local Scandinavian community. They hold this event every year where you can visit many of the tiny cabins, which are filled with vendors selling Christmas and Scandinavian themed wares. I picked up a copy of Eventyr For De Minste for a dollar, which made me really happy!

My daughter was getting hangry (she does that!), so we stopped for lunch at Olive Garden, then came home. I was exhausted; the campground is located in a really hilly area and the ground is intensely uneven. I wasn't in severe pain, but standing long amounts of time is still difficult for me, and my hips were just tired, so I read my library book while my daughter and husband played and watched Frozen. I cleaned up some of the kitchen that evening- I'm going to have to bleach the dishwasher and we're out of bleach, so that'll be on Monday's list of Things to Do, so I couldn't run it- and did my PT exercises, slowly and carefully. My husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before bed. :)

And that was my week! Not a fantastic one in terms of getting things accomplished, I feel. We'll see what this week brings. I've got two doctor appointments- spine doc on Tuesday, regular doc for a checkup on Friday- and we're going to an amphibian show at the library on Friday night. I've got a LOT of cleaning to do, though, and my left hand is really sore from that IV that didn't take, so it's going to be interesting. Hopefully it'll feel better in the next day or two; I have a lot of stuff that I want to get done that I haven't had a chance to do at all lately!!!

How was your week?