The Front Porch Swing

[lazy gardener]

Here is what landed in the skillet...

TW: That is totally bizarre. Who'd have thunk it! But, it's entirely understandable how it could happen. Perhaps this lends credence to the old wive's tales about fertile chickens laying eggs with chicks in them!

I am praying so hard that the doctors make the right decision - what's best for Kendra - and that I make the right decision about taking the cruise despite what's going on. All this has made me rethink the other decision that I planned for after the cruise as far as my legs go. Oh, everything is so just so mixed together and I can't seem to make heads or tails out of it right now. Maybe I need a good night's sleep, a lot of prayer to make the right decisions and the strength to live with those decisions. Any volunteers?

Blooie, you and yours are in my prayers.

Oh and she might well enjoy having some shared chores with you. Young people bristle at chores but actually feel great learning those skills. Didn't someone on this thread make strawberry jam just now? What about a strawberry picking, jam making day rrrmama?

Excellent suggestion. My 12 y.o. is caught up in his electronic world. But when i force him to join the land of the living, he admits after the fact that he actually had fun. He learned how to make french toast a couple weeks ago, and reveled in the praise. He grumbles initially, but is proud of his achievement.

 

[lazy gardener]

Good Morning!

What do you think of my new pet?



I was coming back from the mailbox and found him climbing up the side of our house. That is the 2nd one I have seen in 3 years. He is fairly quiet. Doesn't get upset when I touch him.

Lisa

OK, Lisa! What is he? Is he a plain old spider, or is he a tarantula?

 

[TexasLisa]

That is a tarantula. They were all over the place in Oklahoma. The kids and I would play with them and got to where they would crawl on our hands. It is kind of fun to stomp your feet at them and they will rear up on their hind legs. I know, I know, I am weird.

Lisa

 

[Loc20chick]

Not in a real good mood, so weird after the exciting, wonderful week we had with Little Diane and Dustin. Kendra started acting funny yesterday - grabbing her head, crying wildly, and exhibited some eye movements different than her regular seizures. She gets periodic mild headaches, but this was way different and Jenny knew it. She called Denver Children's and the neurologist called her right back, on a Sunday evening. Just that was a big clue that this might be serious. He gave Jenny a special phone number to call first thing this morning, and when she called it they confirmed that he had scheduled Kendra for an MRI on Wednesday and an appointment on Thursday. She and Kendra fly out tomorrow afternoon at 2:00pm, so I've got Katie until whenever they get back. Tammy and I are supposed to leave on our cruise on Sunday morning, and Ken said not to worry about a thing - he can take care of Bug just fine. I have total faith in him.

Kendra has mild hydrocephalus due to her Spina Bifida, but so far she hasn't accumulated enough spinal fluid in her brain's ventricles to require shunts. In Spina Bifida, the opening in the neural tube interrupts the plumbing of the cerebral spinal fluid so in addition to the fluid the ventricles "'make", she also has the fluid that backs up retained there. We were told by her neurosurgeons that the longer she goes without shunts, the more likely she is not to need them, a rarity for kids with SB but certainly not unheard of. She seemed to have self-balanced fluid and the amount of fluid hasn't changed that much since she was born. The unknown factor was her Chiari Malformation. That's where the brain stem is actually pushed downward into the spinal column. Hers wasn't too bad, but if it's now getting worse and starting to block what little normal draining she has, that changes everything.

We don't know what they are planning to do....Chiari Malformation surgery is pretty drastic, not always effective, and it's almost a given that any Chiari surgery will be accompanied by the shunt surgery. They may simply change her meds around, add a pain medication, and watch and see how she does, or they may end up doing the Chiari procedure, removing a piece of the skull to accommodate the displaced brain tissue then do the shunts. They could also decide just to shunt and see if the pressures are relieved enough not to push the brain stem farther down. I don't know yet - this is all speculation based on Jenny's three conversations with the doctors and the neurosurgeon's nurse. I just don't know about this cruise. It seems so selfish and wrong to go at this point, but I can't change anything anyway. Ken is determined that Tam and I still go...if they do anything about the Chiari and do the shunts it won't be done this week - they need time to schedule and prep and such, which will mean another flight to Denver in a couple of weeks. If they do just the shunts to see if that relieves the pressure, that will most likely be done this week while Jenny already has her down there. Shunt surgery is pretty straightforward and routine, but the Chiari surgery isn't. Kenny is still there in Denver, and she needs her hubby much more than she needs her mother-in-law, but I have been with Jenny since the last 5 weeks of her pregnancy and all of the subsequent stuff so it feels strange to even consider being gone right now.

I am praying so hard that the doctors make the right decision - what's best for Kendra - and that I make the right decision about taking the cruise despite what's going on. All this has made me rethink the other decision that I planned for after the cruise as far as my legs go. Oh, everything is so just so mixed together and I can't seem to make heads or tails out of it right now. Maybe I need a good night's sleep, a lot of prayer to make the right decisions and the strength to live with those decisions. Any volunteers?

Praying for you, Kendra the Doctors and staff that will be involved in her case and the rest of your family, I'm asking God to give everyone wisdom on the course of action peace and grace upon you all.

 

[lovingmyhens]

Off to a job interview. Please pray God gives me the words to say and that His will is done. I really want this job! But it has to be what He wants...cause only He knows where I should be in the fall

 

[Triple Willow]

@Lazy Gardener... I knooow, those eggs are so weird. I did not even imagine that was possible! My mom said that years ago sometimes they would get eggs from the grocery that were partly developed. I wonder if they were like this or had been sat on a while by a hen. Not sure, not sure how layers were housed and all that back then. Don't you wonder what would have happened had they lived and been held inside full term. Would she have laid an egg with a live chicken in it? One of them looked like it might have been alive when she laid the egg. Blows my mind!

 

[TexasLisa]

Off to a job interview. Please pray God gives me the words to say and that His will is done. I really want this job! But it has to be what He wants...cause only He knows where I should be in the fall

Good luck! My dad always told me to make sure the back of my shoes were polished!!

Lisa

 

[Triple Willow]

Off to a job interview. Please pray God gives me the words to say and that His will is done. I really want this job! But it has to be what He wants...cause only He knows where I should be in the fall

Good luck to you. Praying God's will be done. (prayed)

 

[Beekissed]

@Blooie... prayer for you. Sorry you're going through all of that.

X 100 Praying for you and yours, dear Blooie!

What about a trail ride? My daughter loved hanging out at stables when she was a teen and I figured it was better than the mall. And sometimes an outing without any structure is really satisfying. A walk someplace to get ice cream and someplace to sit and eat ice cream gives space and quiet that makes for nice conversation. She probably needs quiet time with you, your insights and maturity, more than she needs time with others her own age anyway.

If all else fails haul out the board games!

Oh and she might well enjoy having some shared chores with you. Young people bristle at chores but actually feel great learning those skills. Didn't someone on this thread make strawberry jam just now? What about a strawberry picking, jam making day rrrmama?

Great suggestions! I think the world feels teens need to be entertained or cushioned by a bevy of activities and friends all the time but the things I remember most in my life didn't involve friends or teenage activities but time spent learning how to live and work by the best teachers, my parents and grandparents.

Teach her to make bread, build a fence, work on a small engine, care for animals, garden or just be still and know there is a God. She has a puppy and doesn't have to work for a living, what more could a gal need or want?

By that age I was working summer jobs each summer to pay for my all my school clothing and then working on the homestead in the evenings and weekends.....no friends, no hanging out, just living normally. Makes a kid want to go to school even more when school takes up because THEN they can have a social life within the confines of the school walls and on the bus.

Off to a job interview. Please pray God gives me the words to say and that His will is done. I really want this job! But it has to be what He wants...cause only He knows where I should be in the fall

Prayed for you that God's will be done!

 

[tntchix]

Prayers and best wishes for all today.