Scattered Sundays

For the last 15 years or so, my sister and I have claimed that the entire month of August was cursed. Each August, one or both of our parents would have some sort of medical emergency.

My sister is a teacher and I used to work in higher education, so let’s just say that August is (was) a BUSY time for both of us. Each year, we’d approach August with bated breath.

August struck again in 2022 and man, it got us HARD.

Let’s recap August so far: 1) I had emergency surgery during the first week of August. 2) Bennett had his tonsils removed on August 12th and was in recovery hell for almost 2 weeks. 3) My dad has had some a-fib issues that have had him in and out of the ER and cardiologist’s office (he’s fine now BTW).

I feel like that should have been enough. August had other ideas.

Last week was a hell week for Troy at work. He had made a few shift trades at work over the summer and they basically all caught up with him in one week.

For those who don’t know, (most) firefighters either work 24 or 48-hour shifts and then have 48 or 96 hours off before they’re back on shift. Last week Troy worked Tuesday, was home for like 20 hours on Wednesday, back to a 48-hour shift on Thursday and Friday, home for 20 hours on Saturday, and then back to work on Sunday.

That’s brutal for him, brutal for the boys, and brutal for me, the solo married parent. It was rough but we survived and were all looking forward to a calmer week ahead. I even scheduled a pedicure for myself on Monday. August took a look at that and said “NOPE”.

Troy started feeling kinda crappy at work on Sunday and decided to come home that evening. While he was waiting for someone to come take over the shift (you can’t just leave a fire station down a person), his chief brought a test from another station.

Troy tested negative at work and then drove home. He took another test at home because he just had a gut feeling and it immediately popped as positive. He took a second one just to make sure the other one wasn’t a fluke, and yep, it was positive.

At this point, it was like 12 am on Monday morning. He throws a mask on, wakes me up, and tells me he’s leaving the house until we can figure out what to do. It’s early, we’re all tired and nobody was doing our best thinking.

Thankfully the next morning my sister graciously offered Troy her very very nice camping trailer as a germy man cave for the next 5-12+ days. We truly lucked out in that regard.

But wait, there’s more. Starting Sunday night, Bennett had started displaying some cold symptoms that looked a lot like his normal PFAPA symptoms. You know, the symptoms that removing the tonsils was supposed to put an end to. Yeah, those symptoms.

Also, I should add that we had promised the boys an epic week of adventures for this, their final week of summer. We had local day trips planned, tubing on a lake, floating on a river, meeting up with multiple friends, etc.

Jack bounced into my room on Monday morning all ready for our first adventure and then I got to watch his face fall while I crushed all his dreams of fun for an entire week. It was peak parenting, let me tell you.

Ok, a few things. One: we have been extraordinarily lucky and also have worked hard to avoid Covid up until now. We still mask in indoor public places and still have avoided doing things in super crowded areas. We’re those dorks.

As a first responder, Troy might have the record at his station for being the last one to get the ‘Rona. They’re in and out of people’s homes on medical calls, and for us to go over 2.5 years without previous infection was a dang good record. I also knew that eventually, our luck would run out. We had a great streak and I can’t be remotely mad about that.

TWO: we gave up two weeks of summer before Bennett’s surgery to keep him germ-free so that he could have his tonsils removed. We then went through hell for two weeks while he recovered. He had been feeling better for FOUR days before he caught another cold.

This SURGERY WAS SUPPOSED TO STOP THE EFFING COLDS. I am a very optimistic person, but man oh man, I have had some low moments this week where I have felt SO defeated. We put our kid through pain, gave up so much time, and spent a lot of money on surgery,…and it seems like it was all for nothing. NOTHING.

All at-home tests showed that Bennett was covid-negative. We even took him to get a PCR just to be extra careful heading into school starting next week. All were negative. It’s just the same crap that we’ve been dealing with since he was 2 months old.

Now let me say, we have friends who have a child with a form of cancer that they cannot eradicate. My mom was diagnosed with a debilitating autoimmune disease at 26 that completely reformed the life she and my dad had expected to live. My dad is an amputee.

None of our health things are life-threatening. These are mere inconveniences. We’ll all be fine in the end. We’re lucky and have health insurance and can access quality care. But inside I am having a big epic meltdown adult tantrum and I want to punch all the things.

Knowing how quickly Bennett caught yet another cold, just makes me think about yet another school year where he is missing days and days of school each month. I want to scream into a jar.

Please do come back next week when I will not be as grouchy and full of sugar. Stress = sugar consumption for me because sugar never judges or talks back.

August can bite me. That is all.

In the Garden This Week

Being stuck at home this week did result in a productive week for the garden. I did ALL the weeding that has needed to be done for a few weeks now. I also tackled Mt. Morning Glory, AKA the retaining wall that divides our neighbor’s yard from ours.

We live on a hill so all the homes/yards are terraced into the hill. Most of us have some form of a retaining wall to prevent earth movement. Well, this wall is on our neighbor’s property but it seems like it has slipped their mind for the last…7 years to ever remove the excessive morning glory that starts on their side of the property.

I have enough morning glory in my yard and gardens already, thank you very much. I don’t need more and I certainly have no use for weeds that belong to someone else. But I was bored and had some rage to get out this week and let’s just say that the portion of the retaining wall that I could access is currently completely cleared.

I’ve also been picking epic amounts of blueberries in the mornings. It’s too hot in the afternoon to pick and they’re also hard to see when the berries are in direct sunlight. We have 26 blueberry bushes and yet every year, two of them produce as much as ALL the others combined. It’s an embarrassment of delicious riches.

Other than that, there was a whole lot of weeding happening, especially near the retaining wall. Now that I can access our yard under all the blackberry vines. coughcough.

Our heatwave has broken and this coming week the temps will be dropping into the 70s, so I’ll be getting our lettuce starts into one of the raised beds ASAP.

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO THIS WEEK

I’ve been listening to The Sunshine Place because 1) I was appropriately targeted by apple podcasts and 2) I noticed it was produced by Robert Downy, Jr and his wife, Susan Downey.

Fun fact: when we lived in Los Angeles, I worked with Susan Downey’s brother at a consulting firm. So, in a way…I basically know Iron Man. 🙂

From the website: “The Sunshine Place tells the mind-blowing, true-story of Synanon – one of America’s most cutting edge social experiments, turned into one of its most dangerous and violent cults – as it’s never been told before: by the people who lived it.” (source)

READER SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK

Jeni left this five-star review on our How to Make Chicken Bone Broth tutorial {Pin this recipe}:

I used the Instapot recipe today and I am so proud of myself. It was my first time making broth from a carcass and I’ve never felt more “Little House on the Prairie”! Called my husband at work to impress him with tales of my domestic triumph and he was not impressed- apparently they use this recipe all the time at the fire station (he’s a firefighter) with leftover chickens so I’m trying to not let him rain on my crunchy granola dreams haha Anyways, the recipe was super easy and made SO much broth, I’m looking forward to using it in soups as we move into fall.

ON SUSTAINABLE COOKS THIS WEEK

Frozen Waffles in the Air Fryer – Making air fryer frozen waffles is incredibly easy and fast. This easy grab-and-go air fryer breakfast is simple to make and cooks in only 3-4 minutes. {Pin this recipe}

How to Dry Thyme – Learn how to dry thyme in a food dehydrator, via air drying, in the microwave, or in the oven. Drying thyme is a simple way to preserve this delicious pantry staple! {Pin this tutorial}

Confessions – everyone’s favorite post of the month.