AUGUST and SEPTEMBER

I hope this finds you all doing okay on your end.  I'm running almost a month behind because I had to buy another printer and then had a back-set from lifting too much when I was in the kitchen, but let me start at the beginning.

August and September are the two months in late summer when things outside look the drabbest due to the earth being dry, dusty, and hot, before the autumn rains and fall flowers bloom. Most of the summer flowers have wilted in the heat, except for a few hardy roses that continue to bloom, along with the autumn clematis. The mini marigolds, that I planted in the raised bed Dwight made me, on the back porch, love the heat and are a riot of blooms  in yellow, orange, and yellow/dark burgundy among the lighter-green sage. They always give me joy every time I look out the back living room window from my recliner. Soon, the hummingbirds will head south, but there are lots of young juvenile birds that eat at the bird feeders, which I so enjoy filling on my front and back porches.

 We had quite the week when my sister, Lois, her husband, Ted, and son, Kyle came down from PA as my niece, Stacy, and her two children: Theo and Mae drove over from NC to meet at my house. Inside, the girls went on a cleaning and painting spree of the living room and my bedroom, dusting and washing curtains, etc. Lois also helped me de-clutter and get rid of stuff that I had kept through the years. Between her artistic eye and Stacy's gift of decorating the two rooms were upgraded. Meanwhile, outside, Kyle trimmed all the overgrown bushes in the front yard, while Ted checked out my beehives. Lois and Stacy brought food and cooked it to give Dwight a break from the kitchen. I enjoyed getting to be with Theo and Mae who has really grown since I saw them from four years ago. There was lots of laughter and chatter with making more memories.

Two weeks later, a girl where we pastored in NC years ago, who is grown up and married, came for a visit with her friend and mother. It was so special to see Lisa after forty years. Both her parents are gone, but we have kept in touch. Lisa brought me a cute bouquet of flowers as well. Now, the little girl she used to play with, my daughter, Dawn, lives with her family around the world.

In Aug, I kept busy chopping onions, green peppers, and celery in my recliner to help Dwight as he made canners full of tomato juice and salsa to refill the pantry. I also broke up a 5-gallon bucket of green beans and then put them in the jars with salt for Dwight to can. It was wonderful not only be able to walk around the  house, be more independent, keep the dishes washed up and put away, cook, and bake some. I even made an apple pie!

I was able to make it nine weeks before having a small setback, then six weeks before I lifted a heavy sugar container over the stove down to the counter, that in my hurry I didn't realize until too late that Dwight had filled it back up, and had to start all over again.

On his end, after over a month with a bleed in his hip, Dwight ended up with an upper, front leg, muscle bleed. Then when working on his truck, Dwight's elbow had a bleed sidelining him. Thankfully, Dwight is doing better right now. He finally got his truck fixed, working on it an hour here and there, after a month. You would think both of us were in our nineties and in an old folk’s home at times around this place. We just have to take it one day at a time and turtle along when our bodies act up.

I’m scheduled to go to my local doctor this week for prescription refills, which has Dwight feeling antsy. He is hovering over me like a broody hen and keeps checking if he hears any noise. Between all the prayers over these past two years, on my behalf, and the new prescription, I’m now able work up to in one week what used to take me a couple months. My last flare-up was more painful, like I had before, because my lower spine, where I have a budging disc, hit me with pain then went through the sciatic nerves in my hip. I am trying to behave, I promise.

Cooking, baking, and doing some canning is new territory that we weren’t even sure I could get back to again after injuring my hip. Being able to stay up on my feet for nine weeks in a row is a record and very encouraging. I had also got up to waking 4,000 steps a day as well. I was really moving around like normal. So, Dwight determined that going forward, I should make sure that I don’t pick or lift anything more than five pounds to prevent more “accidents” where I forget or don’t pay attention when I’m working in the kitchen. He also decided to sit the large sugar and flour containers on the counter where I can slide them when I need to use them.