(this was February 24 when I started this post..)....4 inches from about 2:00 to 5:00. Lauri wanted to come and bring us dinner and orange rolls. It had started to rain when she called but by the time she should head out, it was heavy snow here so we both thought it better that they not come. It's so hard to believe that we have 4 inches of snow today (and sunny) and they got a little rain but the daffodils are in full bloom. I keep track of them every year and they usually come out about Feb. 5....maybe a bit late this year but here is the first bud.
Lucy is enjoying her daffs in the sun....I got a selfie with my geraniums with snow in the background.
Some may wonder why I stay here in the cold. Well, this is my home and I love it here and I'm very warm and comfortable by my fire and as I've said before, I love all the seasons. I'm not even sick of the snow yet. We'll probably have more before spring. Just a wee 30 minutes away I can go from dead of winter to the sweetness of spring. It's a good life.
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Skip ahead now to March 6. February flew by and now I'm ready for spring. Our snow has a hard time melting because we are so far up here in the clouds and the sun just isn't getting warm enough to melt our snow....but it is warm enough for me to bask in it several times a day which I do..I've just come in from giving my thyroid a little sun. A friend told me that it's the thyroid when it's not functioning that makes us tired and she swears by giving it a bit of sun every day so I did. I only have half a thyroid but I'm sure it needs sun too and it feels good to let that natural heat penetrate my neck and my half-thyroid, I'm sure, says thanks. And I say "thanks for the sun" which I'm sure does a whole body good. I do take a thyroid supplement but I'm pretty much gullable to try most things people tell me about. When Scott was sick and fighting Leukemia, someone told me he needed a gallon of carrot juice a day....and I was ready to go out and buy out Harmons producer department but he said he wouldn't do that even if I did prepare it for him and I soon learned he wasn't as willing to do the weird stuff like I was. Someone suggested a drink called "Body Toddy"...once again he said NO, damnit...but when someone told me that the doctors in Mexico had miraculous tours, I thought I better ask him before I book our tickets....once again a "NO, stop this nonsense". One thing I did do that I didn't ask him was read a book about positive thinking and imagining the good cells in his body forming an army that destroyed the bad cells. Yep, I did that. Spent days on end imagining his army doing it's job. In the end, I think it was his faith in God and desire to conquer and the many prayers and fasting of our friends and neighbors that pulled him through and he was cured of AML, Acute Mylocytic Leukemia. It was a long, tough faught battle but he did it and conquered.
It was hard for me and my little family of five little ones, but we were carried too through all the love and support of family and friends. As Lauri found James unconscious as he had fallen in the shower, I could imagine the horror and thoughts of her thinking he was dead. I remembering preparing myself every day I rode up the hospital elevator when Scott was going through treatments for Leukemia in 1985....."Is this the day he will die?"
Bless her heart though, she was brave. Held it together to call 911 and they came and took him to ER. He had a nasty cut on the back of his head but came through it and is now home resting....Lauri, however is suffering PTSD and cries at the thought of "what could have happened". We are all forever grateful again for wonderful a neighborhood and ward friends that have gathered and supported her and her little kids who are so resilient, Lucy sleeping through it all and proclaiming when she woke up...."I think I missed all the dramma"(so cute, that's how she said it,
drammmma")......and Louis being in awe of all the firemen and emt's that were in his mom and dad's bathroom that morning.
The kids are oblivious to anything going on around them when settled in front of a screen. They really are a blessed and wonderful family. James and Lauri are awesome parents.....facing a lot of those health trials so young. It will make them stronger.
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Emily was born to act. We enjoyed her performance of "Game of Tiaras" a spoof of Shakespeare, Game of Thrones and the Disney Princesses. It was hilarious....blood and guts, but funny, so funny. I loved Emily and she did a great job but my very favorite character was "Guy with the Blood Pack" and I hope when I read this a few years from now, I will remember him and think how much I was able to laugh....laughter is so good for us all and this play certainly brought that on and they all "killed" (pun) it.
Emily always has good support from family and friends.
Emily may have been born to act but I think Lucy was born to sew. We took out her sewing kit on that dark day as Lauri was with James and with very little instruction, she was able to create these cute crafts from a kit she got for her birthday. Molly joined in with some simple projects I created for her out of cardboard. Listening to a talk show guy he told us that everyone is born to something. It has gotten me thinking a lot but I really felt good when he said ...."some people are born to be lazy". That's me. I'm hear to teach people how to "just be".....and I've made progress with Randy. He was born to paint and work and make money....and he had shoulder surgery and now he can do none of those things and he was quite agitated at first but he has settled into a very "nothing" routine....only healing.
He fell a couple of years ago and is finally realizing he had to get something done so Randy Clark, M.D. did the job and we are hopeful for a full recovery. He has been doing a jigsaw puzzle and resting in the big recliner and mostly.....is learning to" be" but yearning to" do". Bless his heart.
In his disability, we have learned to accept help from the branch. I asked for a couple of guys to help me move some bookshelves and six showed up. That's how they do it in Pine Valley. They have also kept our walks shoveled and driveway clean. Bless their hearts. Good men with good hearts.
I'm so grateful for the blessings of this day and yesterday and last week and last year....lots of them to count and so grateful for family.....and good and bad times. We muddle through the storms and bask in the calm but know we truly are born to be happy.
.......WHAAAAAT!!!!!!!? For future viewers of this blog, yes we are all (all of the world) quarantined to our homes until further notice while we see if we can slow down this CORONA VIRUS. So I guess this blog is going to be about our quarantine. Randy is doing well, started out a bit rough but he can sleep in and do nothing with the rest of us now, bless his heart. Always lived a busy "gotta make some money" kind of life but now he's confined to his couch. Several sunny memes have come through. I'll try to find some of the best and include them here for posterity. My very favorite was sent to me by Lauri. They have done well. This would have been their spring break but next week is just plain "NO SCHOOL" and they have to make it up by online courses. For Traci, no big change. The boys, I think are all still working but home-life goes on as parents are getting creative with things to do while the kids are home. Lauri challenged her kid to dress their dolls in different outfits every day. I'm sure there's a lot more screen time mixed in there but so far it seems like everyone is fine. 
So Randy and I got out in the "Z" on one of the better days between all the snow and the rain. We rode to Gunlock Res then stopped for our new favorite Mexican food in Veyo. All restaurants closed to dining in customers but we made it just the day before that mandate. Now everything is take-out and I think the restaurants are getting streamlined and keeping some business going.
