My independence is slowly but steadily growing. The biggest achievements of the week include taking a few teeny tiny baby steps using only a cane for support, getting outside and onto my front porch swing all by myself, and carrying a plate for a short distance while using only one hand on my walker! It is fascinating to me how these things can simultaneously be such huge achievements and show how low the bar is. I have realized what a powerhouse I was prior to surgery and I cannot quite contemplate how I will ever get back to the sheer magnitude of things I did in a day. I can sort of see that I will get back to being able to manage all of the home and kid stuff I did before. I’m back to making the kids’ school lunches every day and helping with breakfast preparations. I can sort of see that I will be back to teaching by the end of the month out of necessity (unless I really can’t), but just for Alexander Technique teaching or massage with vastly altered body mechanics. What I can’t see is how I will be able to get to my office with a huge bag of sheets and give a massage. Baby steps. I know. A week ago I couldn’t have imagined using a cane or carrying a plate. So I trust that I will get there, but it is ever humbling to be where I am now.
Sarah is in her school’s musical Peter Pan, Jr, for which the performances are April 22 and 23. She is a Lost Kid in the ensemble. While I may cringe when I hear the prayer recited school-wide at dismissal because it is all about how sinful and awful we are, I have to say that her school has always been wonderfully inclusive and loving. I love that Sarah and any other kid who needs extra help are welcomed to be in the musical and their main support teacher stays for all of the rehearsals. Sarah's rehearsal schedule is getting ever more intense. Last week she had rehearsal Tuesday-Friday for an hour after dismissal. Tomorrow her rehearsal will be twice as long. She will come home in time to get ready for her swim lesson. She has rehearsal every day this week and in theory I will be able to drive on Thursday and Friday to pick her up. I will do a short test drive Thursday morning so if that doesn’t work for me there is time to request assistance. Thank goodness for Grandpa being in town for such things and many other moments of help and support this past week. Also thank goodness for Anna helping with piano lessons and swim lessons and some dinners. Thank goodness for the mom of one of Sarah’s classmates who has been bringing Sarah home after so many rehearsals and will continue for most of this coming week.
Amy’s week was good, but sometimes she has feelings in the evening because her days are so full that she doesn’t get much free time. And yet, whenever we discuss dropping any of her usual things then she doesn’t want to. I can definitely relate to that as I often have felt similarly with my own life and schedule choices.
The weather has been predictably ridiculously March-ish. The day I went onto my porch it was 70 degrees and I was in a t-shirt. The next day it snowed. We are at our mountain house for the weekend and while the snow falls outside, the kids decided to play at the beach inside. Sarah had been looking at old photos and wanting a sandbox. Amy had the idea to bring out a sand-colored blanket and put it on the floor as a small beach sandbox. Carl brought up our bag of beach toys. The kids used puzzle-box lids to scoop pretend sand and build pretend castles. Then Amy spread out a gray blanket to be water and fashioned a snorkel mask for herself out of a cloth headband and a pencil. Later in the day they used pool noodles as reins as they rode sofa-arm horses. For another imaginative game, Amy sorted us all into Harry Potter houses. She used a witch hat to determine which house was appropriate for each beanie boo, doll, and actual person. Sarah and I were deemed a fit for Hufflepuff while Carl and Amy were sorted into Ravenclaw. I love how anything can be anything with enough imagination. While our family might have been this way anyway, I feel like we also came to it because of our Sarah-Rise time where the premiss for the room was that of course any scenario could be achieved with a few props and some imagination.
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