Mom’s Musings

It’s a very quiet Sunday evening here, as I am all alone in the house, with only our cats and faithful Lassie for company. The rest of my dear family is off to the evening worship service at church. I read portions from my Bible today, and the first four chapters of The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges, but it’s just not the same as joining in the public worship of the Lord.

About once a year, it seems, my back goes ‘out’, to the point where my back muscles spasm when I sit, stand, or attempt to turn over in bed. I’m much better this evening, after resting in bed for two days. I made it slowly down the stairs a little while ago, warmed up a bowl of my son-in-law’s good knoefla soup, and am now doing this blog post.

The cause of the back trouble this time is a wrong lifting technique, I think. When I assist my elderly mom into the car when we go to her appointments, I first stand behind her as she is by the passenger door. Then I grab hold of her left pants leg, bending over a bit to lift that leg into the car. Then I sort of guide her as she falls into the seat. Next, I bend over and lift the right leg in and lift both legs further in. The next part is the killer. Facing backwards, I place my right knee by her as she is seated, reach under her arms, and lift her up and forward while pushing her sideways with my knee, in order to situate her comfortably on the seat.

My husband suggests that next time I try backing her up to the passenger seat, guide her as she falls into the seat, and then swivel her frontwards into position. This will be easier on the old back I hope.

In the mean time, I’ve had to cancel taking her out to an appointment tomorrow, as I doubt I can even drive. Hopefully my back will be healed enough to return to work on Tuesday.

During this quiet day, my family has taken turns bringing me oatmeal and coffee for breakfast, a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, apple slices, and tea sweetened with sugar. Thank you, Sweeties!

Laura cooked a Sloppy Joe lunch for everyone when they returned home this afternoon from church, and I believe Rebecca and Lydia helped with the mega cleanup.

Rebecca told me, “The house is missing you,” meaning no one was emptying the garbage (She did it.), and we are out of bread, milk, half and half and coffee. Sigh! She and I had planned to do a Costco run yesterday, but it just couldn’t be helped.

Instead of shopping yesterday, I did the following:

1. Slept off and on throughout the day. Why a hurt back should make one sleepy, I don’t know, but it does me.
   
2. Read The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. He made me know that I would love the Botswana of Mma Precious Ramotswe. My friend Nancy at the middle school recommended this book to me. Thanks, Nancy! I am looking forward to reading Tears of the Giraffe, Morality for Beautiful Girls, and The Kalahari Typing School for Men.
   
3. Read quite a bit more of Love & Logic Solutions for Kids With Special Needs by David Funk. One point he makes that really stands out for me is “the primary goal of both teaching and parenting is to get kids ready for when the adults are gone. This goal is important for nondisabled kids—it is essential for those with handicaps.” (page 147). “Amen” to that, but I have a lot to learn yet about actually doing this for kids who are so behind in their learning, and so non-engaged with their own lives.
   

Well, thanks for reading my wee lament. I look forward to getting up tomorrow without any problem and baking bread. Going grocery shopping would be a good idea, too. Tshüss!

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 15th, 2009 at 7:32 pm and is filed under Bible Thoughts, Books, Education, Family, Sunday Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.