It has been a beautiful summer in Tennessee. It has been a very different summer, weather-wise. We have had our sweltering moments, but we have not had the 10-day runs of temperatures over 100 like we have in years past. In fact, in the afternoon, sometimes it feels like a fall day.
Tim and the kids and I had a ball this week getting out in the yard and playing Frisbee! All 6 of us were out there, spread over the front yard, throwing it as far ,as we could. Our Frisbee was not the greatest, and we decided it was such fun, that we simply have to go invest in a better one for future afternoons of fun. Hannah did a great job of retrieving all the badly thrown discs, and Sarah was funny putting her "lefty" slant on things. I cannot get used to having a left-hander in the family. My dad and grandfather were lefties, but for some reason that never seemed strange. When it is a child, it suddenly seems strange! Go figure!
However, the next day, as I was going about my chores, I noticed that I had a lot of pain under my right arm. I kind of got worried, because we have been watching some swollen lymph nodes in that area, as well as a spot on the right side of the mammogram. So, you know how the mind starts wandering, and the worrying begins. It took me a full hour to remember that I had been outside acting like a kid playing Frisbee for an hour, and I was paying for it. I told Tim that it was really sad to be so out of shape that Frisbee challenged you!
Tim is still going strong with his low-carb diet. He had really started to slow on his loss, which is around 100 pounds gone now, so he adjusted his carb intake yet again so that he could start the downward trend again. Instead of picking up a low-carb bowl at Hardees in the morning, he got a scale and is weighing anything he is not sure of, and he is tracking every carb. It is a lot of work, but I know the payoff will be great for him.
I think we are going to have to start walking religiously. I need it, and I believe it will take him to a new level with his weight loss. The kids will be happy to break out the bikes and come along. And then there are the two Wal-Mart Mutts in the back yard who need to be walked.
The weather is certainly conducive right now for late-afternoon family interaction. I simply have never seen weather like we have had in Tennessee this year. The drought has been terrible, but I believe that these times have a purpose in the cycle of nature. We have had some drenching rains and even a little thunder and lightning this week. This is the first year in many, many years that I do not recall piling mattresses in the hall nearly every week because of a tornado warning. We just have not had the bad storms at all this year.
Well, it is back to the clothes-sorting for me. It will soon be time to start the home-schooling again, and I would like to have a lot of these little sorting chores out of the way so that I can devote my energies to teaching. It is hard to believe that Sarah is a second-grader, Micah is an eighth-grader, and Hannah is ready to start reading and writing. I think Sam and Dan are set with their college preparation for this year, although a few things with Sam are still up in the air, and we won't have some final answers until 8/15!
Lastly, please keep my grandfather in Sarasota, FL in your prayers. He is not doing well at all at this time. He has a blockage in his bladder, and for some reason, they do not think he could withstand surgery. He had a valve put in his heart back in 1976 or so that was only supposed to last 10 years. It is still there and was going fine. But he is 87 now, and everything, including his mind, is failing. It's so hard when they say they cannot do any more. My dad, an only child, is very sad right now.
1 comment:
such a sweet picture.
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