The week was long and difficult. Nearly every day I was at one of the two hospitals taking care of issues from bone density scans, flu shot, pain management, and blood draws to troubleshooting my PICC line. These trips out exhaust me since I have so little stamina, and all I can do when I get home is fall in my chair and drift off to sleep. The good thing is that the week ended well--great report from the doctor who saw me on Saturday and 24 hours nearly pain-free. Maybe I've turned a corner!

Reading has been slow going the past few months. You'd think with all this time on my hands I'd have read twice as much as last year, but instead it's more like half. Time is not the problem; motivation sometimes is. Pain, disappointment, drugs, and schedule disruption are, for me, the enemy of a desire to read. With the sweet encouragement of friends who are still recommending, bringing, or sending me good reading material, I have managed to keep my mind and soul fed with the very things God knows I need. This week, Lyric sent Parting the Waters: Finding Beauty in Brokenness by Jeanne Damoff, and as much as I might have resisted another "brokenness" book, her explanation of why she sent it grabbed my heart and I devoured it in nearly record time. Now it's clear why God had this on my list...and I can say that it is second only to Carol Kent's When I Lay My Isaac Down: Unshakable Faith in Unthinkable Circumstances in the quality of the story and the storytelling. And as far as illustrating a vibrant and authentic theology, Parting the Waters is superior. Put both of them on your list.

Our 25th year of homeschooling has begun almost without me. The Papa and the girls have stepped into the significant gap left by my injuries/surgeries and have made sure that Shelley and the boys are not lacking in any of what they need this academic year. Together we've cobbled together a mixture of online classes, local co-ops, music lessons, college dual credit classes, and a few things here at home, ensuring that their transcripts will never reflect the craziness and uncertainty of the past few months. This isn't exactly what I wanted for our silver anniversary year in homeschooling, but it's very much in line with how God has helped us get through many years when it looked like things should fall apart. So maybe this is only fitting...our brokenness, His faithfulness!

I was able to order Christmas cards this week and get started on a few tasks that look forward to the coming holiday season. I had to do some things to get me "unstuck" from thinking that since I didn't really experience much of summer this year, it was somehow still here!

Several things conspired this year to make our annual International Talk Like a Pirate Day a day later than usual. So as we speak, Granny's House is full of pirates and wenches and outrageous costumes and happy kids :-)

Did you catch that Obama is now open to a newspaper bailout? So now we're not just going to bail out industries that have fallen on hard times as a result of recession or mismanagement; now we're going to bail out industries that are dying of their own weight...no longer really wanted or needed by the vast majority of Americans. Next we'll be bailing out the slide rule industry. Oh, wait...

I'm researching exercise equipment, something that will allow me to get a good non-impact workout here at home once I've exhausted my home physical therapy benefit. My outpatient physical therapists make great use of the Total Gym and so I'm considering that but also open to alternatives. Let me know if you have used something similar and are aware of a good source to buy these, used or new.

As the weather finally cools a bit and we drink in the first bits of rain to come our way in two years, I'm thankful for the onset of fall. By far my favorite time of year, it's truly delicious this year since it sweeps away what has been a painful season. May God be glorified in whatever the next season brings...

Labels: Books, Health, Homeschooling, Kids, ObamaNation