This past week has gotten away from me, to say the least. I’d better get busy and post before this week is over!
It was Rob’s birthday on Sunday. The big family already celebrated it, but Lovana wanted to made him a special cake. It was so good! We had to take a small slice each, then freeze the rest for later, or we would have eaten the entire thing, I’m sure. It was that yummy!
Patsy spent quite a bit of time making Rob a “retirement” fund gift. She taped a ton of old Monopoly money together, and then put it in a box so that when he pulled, a long line of money came out. It was silly and fun.
Rob and Patsy cleaned out the greenhouse. Then, he planted some seeds. As you can see, some of the seeds are from the Dollar Tree. They were 4/$1. There are some varieties there that work just fine for me. I’m more picky about some other varieties, and ordered from both Territorial and Pinetree. I’m happy to pay the higher prices for a variety I specifically want. Some crops, like green beans, I never gamble with. I want so many to can. And, tomatoes need to be disease resistant around here, and also need to yield early. We were able to hit a 20% off sale at Territorial, which I have never seen before. He planted peppers, cabbage, broccoli, basil and a few flowers. We will plant other things closer to our planting time, but peppers, especially, take a lot of time to grow in our very cool greenhouse.
I stumbled upon ham for 69c/lb. at Fred Meyers. I bought 2. We used one for Family Sunday dinner and we are all loaded up with leftover ham this week to munch on for easy dinners. The other one I froze. I restrained myself from buying more, as my freezer is supposed to be getting emptied, not filled, as summer draws nearer!
I boiled the bones from the ham and made lentil soup from the resulting broth.
Rob baked a whole chicken.
I boiled the chicken carcass as well and made Rob some more “special” soup–which basically means every low-calorie/low-carb vegetable I can lay my hands on, cooked in broth. He’s making sure his weight stays down in anticipation for next week’s doctor visit.
My grocery shopping was focused on the list of things I’ve run out of and produce. It’s been one of those weeks, where I’ve run out of the “odd-ball” items like soda and red Jello (Jake’s favorite).
I made a very small bowl of scalloped potatoes and ham. We love it, but can’t eat much of it right now.
My sister instigated 2 outings. One was to a bounce house park and the other was to Get Air, a trampoline park. We took some young friends of ours to the first one, with Patsy going along as an extremely good sport and excellent climber of bounce house stairs after the young ones. The second time, it was geared for the older ones, and Jake and Michaela were super excited to get to go. Patsy had a great time jumping with her cousins, some friends, AND her AUNTIE, who had a ball bouncing and bouncing. It did look fun, but I was content to sit with the purses, basking in the knowledge that I had already ridden almost 7 miles on the exercise bike at the Kroc Center that morning. Whew! Glad I did!
After bouncing, my sister took the lot of them off to eat dinner out, but I went home and cleaned the bathroom. Not fun, but sorely needed. Patsy had no trouble choosing between the 2 options:). Can’t blame her for that! She enjoyed her dinner very much, and it was very nice of my sister to include her in all the fun.
Next week is extremely busy, so I’ve been trying to do extra housework and get the laundry caught up so that things are easier then.
Rob looks great. I’m so happy for him. I know it was a long hard road. I wish I had some of his staying power.
I’m super proud of him, too! He’s super motivated. Sadly, those pieces of birthday cake wanted to stick, but I think he’s finally shed those couple of pounds back off. He has been eating very little–lots of that veggie soup, and then he went down to the pool the other day and was able to do quite a bit with just his arms. As long as he doesn’t bump into the walls, or need to push off with his feet, he can just swim, only using his arms–so, he got a good workout that way on Tuesday. Every little thing helps! He says it’s hard not to kick, though–it’s what his body wants to do when swimming–go figure:)
Good for you in staying with exercising, and for Rob sticking with it too. I need to get started planting some seeds soon.
We might need to pop the space heater on in the greenhouse–when I went out and checked today, it was COLD in there! We do have a heating mat under the starting trays–maybe it will do the trick. Or, some sunshine would be nice:). I hope you can plant some seeds soon, it’s so fun!
Happy belated birthday to Rob! Congratulations on his weight loss, and I am so glad that he will be seeing the doctor to schedule his surgery. Hope that he will be painfree soon. Is there a long recovery after surgery?
Wow, that cake is beautiful, and I’m sure it was delicious. Lovana is a really talented baker.
Hope you have a great week and weekend.
We aren’t sure how long the recovery process is. Thanks to advice from readers here, we have obtained a walker. Our primary care doctor has indicated that it is going to take quite a bit of time and physical therapy to address the issues caused by this bad leg not being used properly for so long–she’s figuring a year-year and a half. However, that’s to get the muscles strong–not for the hip itself. Some say he will be feeling much better in the hip area after a very short time. We hope they are correct!
Congrats to Rob on his weight loss. Well done.
Has he tried swim fins in the pool? They make fins for lap swimming that are much shorter then what is used for snorkeling. They help with propulsion without needing much effort from kicking. I used them when first returning to swimming.
They’re also great for anyone just learning to swim. The idea there is that the new swimmer can concentrate on their arm stroke while the fins help keep them up on the surface and propel them without having to kick properly at the same time.
At this point, his feet are just dragging/floating along behind him. He can’t even bump into the side of the pool, or into anyone without terrible pain. He can’t put on his own sock or shoe on the bad leg, so therefore wears flip flops all the time, except for the rare occasion like the wedding we attended yesterday–and I put them on him. He is SO looking forward to things being different, and I will share the flipper tip with him for after his surgery, when, we HOPE things will be so much better after a short while:). Thank you for all your concern. We are gleaning lots of tips from all of you awesome readers, and I’m sure he will use as many as he can, when he can!
I’m praying that the surgery is soon and provides the needed healing.
And, btw, the flippers also add a bit of ‘lift’ in the water. Hard to explain but that’s been my experience. And, truthfully, they’re just fun to use as an adult. Makes me feel like a real swimmer without needing the fitness or effort to go faster.
If he does want to try them, I’d strongly advise getting the flippers meant to be worn in a pool. They are much shorter then snorkeling fins.
Cheers.
I didn’t know there was a difference in flippers! Shows how I have never used them before:)