Walk it Off

On Wednesday mornings there is an 8:30am Zumba class that I like to get to. But sometimes we just don't get there. Especially since Mondays and Tuesdays are the 'busy days' for the kids and they can be hard to pry out of bed on Wednesday mornings. So can I sometimes.

So this morning we walked instead. My foot keeps getting stronger and stronger with these walks. Especially when pushing 80 lbs in a double stroller...

They usually sit without complaint. Usually, but not always. I typically don't bring toys or electronic games or anything with us. Sometimes snacks. But I think it's a good skill for them to be able to ride along and just look at the scenery without needing extra stimulation. I feel the same way about the car. I think alot of kids today 'need' something to entertain them all the time.

Okay I'm off my soapbox.

I actually do have a box of soap upstairs. Anyway.

When we get back to our street, they are allowed to run free!

Hey that's our house. We like it. 

After 25 minutes of walking while pushing 80lbs  in 80 degree weather I look like this.

So since I was sweaty we stayed out and pulled weeds. They are EVERYWHERE. So are ants. Guess it's summer already! 

Fancy Footwear

Since I approaching the 6 month anniversary of my foot surgery (surge-versary?), I thought it was time to buy some new shoes.

I was cleared to walk in shoes in mid-December and have since been living in my tennis shoes, a pair of $14 knock off ugg boots, and a pair of orthopedic crocs that my Mom lent me (aka the world's ugliest shoes).

Nothing else from my shoe collection fits my left foot, not even my precious cowboy boots. My foot is bigger for sure, but mostly in a thickness kinda way rather than wideness. Meaning those titanium screws are taking up too much room, especially in shoes that are tight across the top.

So we headed to the Walking Company at the mall only to discover that that store has closed. Von Maur was a good second choice. The lady measured my robo-foot a full size bigger than what I already own, which is not a surprise. I also discovered that anything that fit snuggly across the middle of the foot just won't work. Like the fabulous sandals I tried on. All the other fabulous sandals go in between your toes and that simply won't work either. Alot of the nerves down there are still super sensitive. There are a couple of toes I still just can't touch.

A summer without fabulous sandals. Sigh. I love sandals. I am the sandal queen of Greenwood. I wear them any time there is not snow on the ground.

Luckily I found several style of Keen sandals that close around the ankle, which may have to be my sandal style of choice. They are the ones on the left.

You can see I also settled on a funky pattern of athletic style slip ons, and a semi-fancy (aka fancy enough for my world) black Mary Janes. My friend Erin used to say I'm addicted to Mary Janes. Luckily with these pairs I still can be. Shew. I though I was losing my shoe-dentity.

In my realm of reality, the money I spent on these three pairs of shoes is borderline certifiable. I don't believe in spending more than $40 on a pair of shoes.

My wedding shoes were $30.

And  yet here I am. An old lady with back problems and a titanium filled foot. What choice do I have?

Now it's time to bag up my 30+ pairs of other shoes that will never fit again, and dole them out to some family members who wear the same size. There's no point in them collecting dust around here.

Simplifying. Upgrading. Walking Comfortably. 

Arise and Walk!

Yesterday I had my 8 week post-op appointment with the Ortho. I'll admit I was nervous he was going to tell me I wasn't healed enough to walk yet, and that I might flip out and throw something across the room.

Luckily he said my xray looked 'perfect' and that I could ditch the scooter and start walking. Slowly at first of course. And then in a month from now he wants to see me again, with a SHOE on. This was another surprise because he had previously given me sort of a worst case scenario where I kept the boot on until February.

I walked around the rest of the day and it really did wear me out. Today my legs and back are aching big time. Slow and steady!

I have a long to-do list as well as Christmas activities I want to do, but I realize I need to pace myself. Our first big Christmas thing is that Jeremy and I are taking Tessa to see The Nutcracker in a couple of weeks. She's been watching a recording of it on Netflix to prepare her for what it will be like and she totally eats it up. She can recite the whole story now.

I'm sure she'll be excited when we get there to where the 'real ballerinas' are. If she goes running inside in her fancy dress, Mommy will be hobbling far behind in her supportive boot. But we'll have a great time, none the less.

God is good. All the time.

Not Winning Any Blog Awards

I know, I know. I'm horribly delinquent on blogging. But my foot hurts. Ouch.

A bad excuse I guess. It has been a busy and eventful week here and there's lots to post pictures of. I will, I promise!

I'm getting around okay. Only two more weeks of non- weight bearing on my foot and then I can walk on the air cast. I've been bearing a little weight here and there...shhhh, don't tell my orthopedist. Mostly because my scooter gets caught up on carpet and my crutches are too far away.

The good news is that the pain is much more minimal.

As a side note, I got a piece of my hair colored teal. Pretty hip and cool right?


And I've gotten to sing at church on Sunday for the past two weeks which has been a real treat. We park my scooter onstage and I crutch it up the front steps, while hoping not to fall make and fool out of myself in front of the entire congregation. And it's been really great. Singing through adversity!

Catchup

Sorry for my extended absence. I guess I've had blogger's block. It's not to say that there hasn't been alot happening around here, I just haven't had the inspiration or energy to sit and write about it. Plus I'm spending most evenings upstairs after we put the kids to bed...so once the computer desk becomes free from Jeremy's work day, my day is done as well.

So let's see....

-Me and Greased Lightening have been fairing pretty well. Maneuvering the house is tough, fighting my own bullheadedness is tough, and showering is a complicated endeavor entirely.

-The G's had a great time here, were a HUGE HELP and have sadly returned home. They did leave some pie and casserole in the freezer.

- Of the new fall shows I have to give major thumbs up to The New Girl and Pan Am. They are both great. I give one thumb up to 2 Broke Girls. Two thumbs down to Terra Nova and The Playboy Club.

-My foot and calf are both small and gelatinous. They freak me out.

-Fall weather has finally settled in and it is beautiful. Cool breezes, open windows.

Here are some catchup pictures....

The curlers are irrelevant to the costume. She was just letting me curl her hair. But we have Halloween costumes!

Super boy and his super dog. Well not his....Grampie's. By the way, Grampie read Charley the book "Hallowiener" so many times that he has it memorized. He can recite it on command.

Pre- church breakfast at Sophia and Tessa chose oatmeal and fruit. What a healthy girl. Jeremy and I split gyro omelet and extra crispy hashbrowns. A little less healthy. But hey, we split!


Our annual trip the pumpkin patch in Martinsville turned out with some great pictures as always. That's why we love that little farm so much. It's just a farmer's yard in the middle of the country. No crowds, lots of pumpkins, perfect picture backdrop and supporting our local farmer.



Wonder how we got this shot when I can't walk or stand? Movie magic people, you'll never know.

Frankenfoot and Pie

Things on the home front are holding steady, and improving every day. Grammie and Grampie arrived from Boulder last week just in time for Jeremy to go on a business trip. Since I was still on bed-rest at that time, they had some work cut out for them taking care of both me and the kids. I have to say they are FABULOUS caretakers...they are fun and willing to help, as well as very good cooks. Do you think I could convince them to move in?

Even more hours spent sitting on my butt in bed since my last blog post, doing much of the same thing. TV, naps, occasional crafts, and caring for the smurf village. Then yesterday was big 2 week post- op appointment. The doc was very please with my incision, my x-ray and prognosis, and he released me from bed-rest.

Look out world. I'm hobbling back into reality!

So still no weight bearing for 6 more weeks, meaning life isn't exactly about to get alot easier. So far it's not too bad. Really the big challenge is figuring out how to maneuver things like the stairs, getting into the car and not tripping over sleepy golden retrievers.

I'm alot more lucid than I was a week or so ago since I'm taking less pain meds, so I suppose you'll be hearing alot more from me on here and FB. Note that I said MORE lucid...not totally.

Here's a random sampling of update pictures.....
Frankenfoot.
I had 12 staples on the top of my foot and 6 on my calf. They took an x-ray before the staples were out and these along with the 4 permanent screws inside, made the x-ray tech exclaim that it looks like I 'fell in a hardware store'. Yup.


More fun with nail polish. Polka dots!

Last week Jeremy picked up 10 pie pumpkins just to use whenever, so we have a stockpile. You know in case of a pie-free apocalypse. The G's made us one tonight, yum!

I love the autumnal still life in the kitchen.

And I love this thing, my new best friend. I just got it this evening but I can already tell we are going to be very close. I can get around the house SO easily. Any suggestions on what I should name my scooter??

Hanging with the Fam, Post Surgery

Hey it's me, the blog author! Didn't you like Jeremy's post the other day about life post- surgery in our house? Good job keeping the blog alive!

It has been crazy indeed but honestly not that bad. My surgery was one week ago today which means that I have been in a bed-ridden foot-elevated-above-my- heart state for a week, with one more week to go. Half way baby! (well half way to crutches and wheelchair, which surely will prove to be much harder...so perhaps I shouldn't celebrate yet)

Everyone knows I'm good at being lazy so that's no problem, but it still does get boring around here. I've watched all of the new fall shows, read a little, and played on my iPad alot. Now that I'm coming out of a drug induced stupor a little bit, I'm hoping to do more crafts and fun stuff in the week ahead.

During the day the kids go to school or friend's houses. (THANK YOU friends who are babysitting), while I sleep and chill. Then in the evening we all have dinner up here, thanks to a handy dandy card table Jeremy brought up, and hang out together.

Tessa and I also started reading A Wrinkle in Time a few days ago. It's a 'big book' and pretty much over her head, but at the same time she likes it and having a big book makes her feel special.

Last night I tried to lead the family in some exercises. Jess had helped me find upper body workouts for handicapped people and I thought the kids might like to do it too...you know 'fly', and 'box'.

Man, between Charley running around naked, Tessa dancing and stopping for water, and Jeremy's incessant complaining about how out of shape his arms are...it's a surprise we even got through it.

Charley prefers to exercise naked. Because....he's Charley. My kids really love nudity.




Tessa and I tried to do some nail art. Mine are supposed to be clouds...see it? Tessa had pink polka dots that mostly smudged up. Nail art requires much longer drying time, hard for four year olds.

I got Jeremy a 'thank you for emptying my chamber pot' gift (one of many I'm sure). He loves Sriracha!


There's the dinner table. We don't typically watch TV during meals at all, but who can resist when you're already laying in bed? Reruns of the best show on TV.


This is my virtual Smurf village, which I really really love. I mean really. You have to build the town, plant the crops, keep the Smurfs happy and healthy, and move things wherever you want them. I love that it gives me something to 'care for' and feel important. And the kids like it too.

Charley calls them Narfs. So every time he greets me, it's....Hi MOMMY! How you? How me NARFS doing?


The Narfs have several games within the game. Charley does the hammering one.

And Tessa does the painting one.

And that's what we've been doing. I'm hoping tonight or tomorrow that Tessa and I can attempt making scarves out of old Tshirts. So I'm in alot of pain, and I'm bored, but I'm also blessed. Trying to enjoy my family and my constraints the best I can.

The New Routine

(JB writing) We're finding our new stride in the Bennington house. PTL for healing and patience (Laura, the kids, the dogs, JB's work, etc.). 

For those of you not following on FB Laura had surgery on Friday to repair the damage that stepping on Thomas The Train did.  This involved four screws in her foot to fuse the bone where the ligaments were torn off!   Friday had pain "as bad as natural child birth w/o drugs," unfortunately Laura was on pain meds and it wasn't cutting it.  By the grace of God we had some from a previous surgery and it got things under control until Monday when her doctor was back in the office.

The new routine is setting in.  Simple tasks like getting to the restroom are the most difficult, but teamwork helps.  The kids have been amazing through all of this; they have been trained up well by their mom and are showing amazing faith in God for little tikes.

Between pre-school, dance lessons, family and friends I am still able to get a lot of work done.  I'm able to work most meeting around when we have coverage and the rest is just getting things done whenever I can.  Then on to Mr. Mom tasks.   While I am tired, I am at the same time filled with thanksgiving that He will get us through this test...and maybe even enjoy parts of it!

We're looking forward to my Dad, Barbara and their pups coming in to town for two week this Sunday!  

Here's a few pictures from the past week of adventures.

Laura's new hardware!

Appropriate Literature

So here's the Deal

Rather than re-write the story I've been telling everyone...here is the news on my foot, copied from an email I sent out to family:

So you guys remember two weeks ago when I fell on a Thomas the Train and thought I tore or damaged at tendon?

I've been wearing a space boot for 2 weeks and had my appt with an Ortho yesterday. He did what is called a stress xray which translates to OUCH! He held my foot on the xray table and contorted it in all kinds of strange ways to get a view of what it looked like when I was writhing in pain (with both of the kids sitting on a stool in the next room watching, haha)

Anyway, I actually busted (or 'blew out') is what he said, the ligaments on the top of my foot.

So far my explanation hasn't been very good but there are several small rounds joint bones between your big toe and your ankle. Well mine are disconnected from the rest of the bones of the foot, and you can see very clearly a big gap where they are supposed to be held together by ligaments. He kept showing me my good foot and bad one on xray. It was like here's a normal foot....here's a foot with a huge gap where the bones are seperated.

So I have to have surgery, there is no other option. They will place 4-5 screws there to 'fuse' the bones back together. And the worst part of all...two weeks of elevation, then NO WEIGHT BEARING for two months (meaning crutches or walker/scooter only) , followed by two months in the walking cast and physical therapy.

That's the part that gets me right now. I could care less about pain and sugery, but I can't stand or walk on it for two months. I'm assuming I will get crutches or a walker or whatever to manuever around the house. I figure if I have crutches I can take the kids to school, and I can use the electric scooter at the grocery store. But I'm a SAHM....what about my normal activities like doing laundry, babysitting, cooking dinner, taking the kids to the zoo and library.

It's not like I'm soooo worried about the laundry. I have a perfectly capable husband, and a pile of laundry's not the end of the world. But I'm worried about my mental state without doing the things that I consider to be 'productive'. I mean it's basically like if I were working a 'real' job that requires you to be on your feet...I would lose my job or go on disability.


I know I can't sit around and watch tv for two months. That's just not going to work. I'm working on a bucket list of things I can do, projects I can start and fun activities for the kids. Any great ideas? Book suggestions?

Today I scheduled my surgery for Friday the 23rd. Mom will be here for three days, then Jeremy will do his best to manage the week after that, then Grammie and Grampie arrive (complete with rescue dogs!) for two weeks starting on 10/2. We are so blessed to have such great help and support! I know I will need some babysitting that first week after surgery on Wed (the 28th) and Fri (the 30th) so that Jeremy can work. Anybody interested?

Thanks for all your prayers and support and love.

Jeremy reminded me yesterday: Cor 10:13 (MSG) No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it

Since I wrote this I've been hard at work getting my ducks in a row, as well as celebrating Dad's 60th birthday and Marshall-ness down in North Vernon.

I've come up with a list of things to do next week pre-surgery:
- major grocery shop
- make a couple more lasagnas to freeze
- visit hobby lobby to get some crafts for myself, and a lap board
- clean out the car (so the G's won't be grossed out by it)
- wash comforter and guest room comforter
- get my hair done, possibly with teal streaks
- go to dance class with the kids
- go to the park and other places outside with the kids
- set up my nightstand and drawers with snacks, books and crafts
- buy a couple of new pillows for the bed

These are my plans post surgery, particularly the first two weeks when I have to be laying in bed:
- start every day reading the bible, and do the 'experiencing God' bible study with my friend Jenn.
- read the chronicles of Narnia
- read other books (suggestions?)
- play words with friends with everybody I know
- pick a tv series I've never seen and download the whole thing (suggestions?)
- do some painting, maybe corn syrup painting
- maybe cross-stitch or teach myself crochet
- use the scrap book paper I have in our stuff to make the kids origami swans
- write cards and letters
- Christmas shop online

What have I missed? I'm open to any and all ideas. I hope I can use this time in a constructive and uplifting way. But no doubt there will be TV....lots of TV.

Cheering Up

I've not had the easiest time with my bum leg. It's getting better every day but my spirit has been dragging. I don't like being waited on, I don't like breaking routine and I'm starting to feel like a slug sitting around so much.

Today was my first day out into the world since Sunday. I drove the kids to school and then took myself on a short trip to Target. After about 10 min of walking I was ready to drop, but it was nice while it lasted.

While at Target I picked up a gift for the kids. Partially to thank them for being so good, and partially to apologize for myself being so grumpy...

They like it...no they love it. And who cares about rules, when Charley is playing every game is just 'I won' anyway.

So things are starting to look up around here. I even walked around the house some today without my space boot on, and that's good progress. The freezer food has been a blessing as well as Mom being able to help for two days.

So I need to stop complaining and knashing my teeth. Life is good. And trying to remember this bible passage from 2 Corinthians 4:

¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

I Know for Sure

1) Thomas the Train toys should not be left on the kitchen floor.

2) Tearing tendons in your foot hurts almost as much as med-free childbirth.


3) Space boots are sexy.

4) Vicodin makes me puke...repeatedly.

5) God is still good, all the time.