I’m beginning to wonder if I’m ever going to have a week that’s not fraught with emotional turmoil! Such a rollercoaster, this life. This past week started out so great. Well, technically, one of my children was once again losing it, so I decided to just not be stressed about it for once and focus on the child who is desperately looking for more attention and adventure and fun. We whisked away to my parents’ house last Sunday morning and spent a good few hours out with the puppies.
Shepard actually spent most of time helping my dad chalk up a tree for cutting and then loading branches and logs into the trailer to bring out to the burn pile. He was so eager to help and seemed to genuinely be enjoying himself. He NEVER wants to do any kind of work, so it was somewhat miraculous! He told me on the drive home how much fun it was!
While we were there we borrowed some very old tennis rackets and later in the day went over to the tennis courts to try them out. We were honestly horrible at it, but we had so much fun! I loved tennis as a kid, but haven’t played since. It was kind of a shock to my body to have to actually run a little bit, but we were having such a good time that I didn’t even care. It really was a fantastic day.
But – story of my life – I can’t seem to have something good without immediately something bad happening. On Monday afternoon Shepard came running into the house crying and kind of hyperventilating because he was doing a flip on the trampoline and landed wrong on his extended arm. He thought it felt broken so Greg rushed him to the ER and yep, broken. I think I was more devastated by this than he was. With just a few weeks left of summer now he can’t trampoline anymore, can’t swim, can’t bike, can’t properly hold a controller to play video games, can’t do ANYTHING easily because it’s his right arm that broke. And no tennis, after just one day of finding out how much we liked it (and ordering new rackets!). I’m so sad for him and how life is messed up enough already and now he can’t even do the things that have been keeping him happy the last five months? It sucks SO MUCH.
The first day was pretty rough. Not because his arm hurt, but because the splint was wrapped so tightly around his hand, crushing his fingers into unnatural positions. It was bothering him so much that he started thinking his wrist might actually be broken too. We waited overnight on that one and it felt a lot better the next day, so I think it was just the splint, which we got permission to unravel a little bit. He’s proving to be incredibly resilient, not complaining about it at all, and not even asking for help with anything. He seems to be handling the one handed/left handed life just fine! It’s been more of a challenge helping him find things to do so he doesn’t just sit and watch youtube all waking hours, but for the most part he’s handling it quite well. He gets his cast on Tuesday and then we’ll hopefully find out how long it’ll be out of commission. I’m hoping we’ll get lucky and he can get it taken off before school starts, saving him from needing to write/type entirely left handed. But that’s probably too optimistic.
On Wednesday Greg was actually able to get into his office to clear out the rest of his stuff since he still doesn’t know when or if he’ll be going back to work (there). He took Caden with him after another horrific morning. (Car rides – the best punishment. :P) Shepard and I went back to my mom’s to hang out and to puppysit Herbie while Ollie went to the vet. They were both very full of kisses that day! I like that they recognize us and get so excited to see us!
On Thursday we were able to have a spontaneous date night, which was really great! We ordered from Monk’s and tried out another Sun Prairie park. Annie was with us and we went on a long walk after we ate. This is only the third time we’ve gotten out together since the pandemic started, so it was very much appreciated!
My garden is still slowly ripening up. Yesterday I was able to pick the first bigger tomatoes. I ate them today with mozzarella on an english muffin for breakfast, then with mozzarella plain for a snack, then on a BLT for lunch. And I’m going to cut them up and put them in ground chicken tacos for dinner. So tasty! I wish I were getting a bigger pepper crop, but my plants are still so small. Maybe I planted them too close together? Maybe I should have fertilized them somehow? Those are what I want the most, so it’s disappointing that once again I’m only getting one or two peppers per plant.
Meals were pretty spontaneous this week. I did have Peri Peri Chicken prepared for Monday, but that’s the night Shepard broke his arm, so it was thrown together late and not as prettily put together as I wanted. But it was still good – chicken marinade, basted, and dipped in a homemade roasted red pepper sauce. On Tuesday the in-law’s brought over stir fry. Wednesday I grilled cheddar wursts. Thursday we had our date night and Friday was a frozen pizza. I picked up more convenience food breakfasts at the store to try and cheer Shepard up, but also ended up making a banana bread scone recipe I’ve had my eye on for weeks. I made the original recipe and then made a second batch subbing in gluten free flour, coconut sugar, and hazelnuts for me. They were really good! Tonight I’m going to try and create some sort of fancy (“fancy” because I’m adding a bunch of garden vegetables to it) chicken taco meat to put on nachos, trying to use up a random pound of ground chicken I’ve had in the freezer forever and a bag of Mexican cheese that needs to get eaten asap.
Biking has gone pretty well this week, but I’ve also been riding for significantly less time each day. The week before I put in around 47 miles and this week I’m only at 27. But my knees have really been bothering me this week – I think it’s because of the TENNIS, not the biking, but I’m still trying not to overdo it. Fortunately the tension headaches have gotten so much better! Still a little bit each day, but not enough to really bother me.
The most exciting news of the week is that I finally pre-ordered a new bike! I’ve been spending a ridiculous amount of time researching bikes the last two months. I wanted something lighter and faster than my current beach cruiser, but my non-negotiable feature is that I NEED to be sitting upright or my body is just going to fall apart on me. And it’s pretty hard to find a bike that’s built for both comfort and speed. It’s also just really hard to find a bike, period. Add it to the list of the many, many things that sold out in like March and April and won’t be back in stock for ages. But after countless hours of stressing over it, I finally picked out the bike I wanted and ordered it last night. It won’t arrive until early December, but I’m hoping it’ll be worth the wait! I do have the option to cancel the order if I find something better in the meantime, but I’m so tired of researching them that I’m okay with waiting it out. I just hope there isn’t a massive blizzard in early December that’ll stop me from trying it out! It seems very cruel to have a new bike arrive when conditions for using it will be the worst. But many bikes aren’t even shipping until spring, so I’m lucky I found one I really think I’ll love that will come sooner.
That’s it for this week! I’m hoping next week will be much better! But it’s going to be a busy one. Probably the busiest we’ve had in months. My brother and his family are visiting for the week, so lots of time spent with them. Shepard also gets his cast on, I have therapy, we have a day of babysitting Hudson, I have a dentist appointment, and I’ll have to fit an errand day in there somewhere. There’s just a lot going on. BUT it should mostly be fun!
Have a good week!
