Five Simple Things (April 17)

 Hello.

Got up today and walked, very slowly, around my backyard. The sun was out for a bit and Skylar helped me get up and move a little. I am still extremely tired and hurting quite bad, but I wanted to get out of the bed and out of the room I'm in. It was a nice, short, walk around and it felt nice having the sun on my face. I was ready to get back in the bed and positioned where I wouldn't hurt, though. Coronavirus cases are just going up and up in Oregon and across the world, it seems. Jeff said, when he went to get our weekly supplies, a lot of people weren't wearing masks at the local grocery store here and that kind of frustrated him. He gets things for us, puts them in the garage, and Skylar sprays down what he can with disinfectant, and they stay in the garage for 24 hours. Skylar then brings them inside and wipes down things once more. Skylar has been doing a great job at keeping things pretty sanitary inside the house and I am grateful for them both. Jeff goes to work and comes through the gate in the side yard, goes through the garage to do everything. I don't even see, or hear, half the time when stuff is happening toward the back of the house. Probably, for the best that I am not close to that area. Skylar opened my curtains and windows a bit this week, too, to help bring in some fresh air. He has been taking care of me so well, they both have, and I am extremely grateful for everything they have done. I have yet to be out of the house to see the "outside" world the way it is. I feel like, I got put under for my surgery, and woke up to another world, or died, and this is all in my head. It's definitely a strange feeling, and a hard thing to mentally process, that's for sure. Here are five things from this week.

1. This View.

I had to get out of the house this week. I was getting a bit of cabin fever and I was tired of the smell of medicine, creams, and disinfectant, in my room. We drove to Foster Lake and just enjoyed the view. I couldn't get out of the car, so I just sat and enjoyed it anyway, with the windows down. It was a nice drive and while we were gone, we washed all my bedding and blankets, so I can come back to clean sheets and blankets to lay on.

2. It's Earth Month...

Don't forget, Earth Day is April 22. Do you part, even though in quarantine, to help Mother Earth. Some ideas on what you can do this Earth Day:

1. Plant a tree, or new plant-preferably one that is pollinator-friendly.

2. Turn all of your lights out for the evening.

3. Go for a nature walk.

4. Conserve water when brushing teeth, doing dishes, or doing laundry.

5. Opt out of junk mail. You can remove your name from mailing lists here, and here.

3. This Plastic Bag.

If you're still using single-use plastic bags, or even the thicker plastic bags, consider changing your habits. Using your own canvas bags are great, but right now, with the Coronavirus pandemic, ask for paper bags. Oregon has banned the use of single-use plastic bags, but for some reason, companies like Walmart, KFC, and other businesses are using the excuse of a "back stock" to still be able to use single-use plastic. Tell these companies NO. And, that you refuse to do business with them until they change. In the meantime, YOU can change and make the difference for yourself and the environment. Start this month, as Earth Month is here and you can make a difference one step at a time.

4. This Moment.

  

I had to pick up my prescription medication and had to have Skylar drive me to get it, because of my surgery recovery, still. Him being able to drive is still something that I haven't fully accepted yet. This is the first time I rode with him, when he was driving, but he did great, and Jeff tells me, when he takes him driving, he does a great job. 

5. This Quote.

I posted this on Instagram this week, and I feel proud to be a parent that is open to my child's own expression and thinking. At times I catch myself trying to correct him, or "change" him and I pause and think, no, let him be him, and enjoy it. I grew up with parents that didn't allow us to just be ourselves and learn from our own ways of doing things. We were shown a certain way, or told a certain way, of doing things and that was the only way. I decided that I would not be that kind of parent and allow Skylar to be who he was always meant to be, and let me tell you, he is a pretty cool dude because of it.

Positive affirmations this week: "What’s your “why”?"

The "why" for me, is to be able to say that I made an impact, or a positive change in someone's life, before my time on this earth ends. I hope that my positivity, helpfulness, and empathy, has helped at least one person.

Have a nice weekend.

Easter 2020

We spent a quiet Easter at home, as the same as everyone this year. We wanted to make it a bit less boring and decided to sit and write out a scavenger hunt for Skylar to do, in order for him to "hunt" for this Easter basket. It took him about an hour to go through all of the clues and a few of them were in unusual places like, Hardy's dog collar, while he wore it. A few other places were around the duck's necks with bandanas, and hanging from strings in random places. Each clue before it gave the location of the next. He had a lot of fun searching and wondering where his next clue was. He had a total of 35 clues. We also dyed eggs in a new way. With my surgery being only a month before, and the pandemic, we used some food coloring instead of a more natural way of dying the eggs. This year, we tried the shaving cream and food coloring trick. It made for some pretty pastel-colored eggs.

 

 

 

The ideas for our scavenger hunt came from random accounts on Instagram. It seems we aren't the only ones to have the scavenger hunt idea this year.

 

 

 

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Five Simple Things (April 10)

 Hello.

Tax week here. Not fun, but I'm finally able to sit up in the bed and get a bit of work done. Every day Jeff and Skylar come in at the end of the day and let me know what's going on around us. I haven't been able to get out of bed much, except to go to the bathroom. I'm actually glad I can sit up and and eat, and brush my teeth. It's weird brushing my teeth in bed, but it's better than not. I've heard so many weird things from them this past week, masks being worn now, people distancing at six feet, first person in the state of Oregon dying (a 70 year old man), and how people's attitude is during this time. Our county of Linn, is the worst in the state right now, they tell me, and that's heartbreaking. On a positive, I guess I picked a good time to recover from a surgery. I've spent part of this gray day preparing for our tax filing coming up in five more days. Our taxes are pretty easy to file, but I'm glad we only do them once a year. Skylar bought me a new candle, so he's been lighting that in the evenings when everyone is in my room, and we're talking about things. It smells less like a hospital room in here, and everything is better by candlelight. 

1. This Frosty Window.

Even in early April we had some frozen days. With living in a house that's pretty old and needs updated windows, the benefit is that you get some cool ice formations on the glass.

2. This Hawk.

We aren't quite sure why it was only running and not flying, but we ended up leaving and turning around to coming back and it was gone. So, maybe we interrupted it during a "stalking" moment. Seeing a hawk run down the road, though, was amusing. We love birds of prey, so any moment we can get to be up close and personal, we enjoy it.

3. This Dinner.

Before the Coronavirus pandemic hit, we went to eat at P.F. Chang's. Little did we know, that would be the last time we ate at a sit-down restaurant for awhile.

4. This Rainbow.

Life at a Swells pace.

5. Kitty Tricks.

Eleven is such a cool cat. I taught her how to roll over and also how to sit up on her back legs. She's been laying with me a lot and following me around to make sure I'm okay. Some mornings she will come up to my face and meow at me, just to make sure I'm doing okay. She's such a loving cat and she's been looking after me well. 

Positive affirmations this week: "Which three words describe you best?"

•Empathic 

•Patient

•Logical

Have a nice weekend.