Chasin’ the Blues Away

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful day! The last remnants of snow are melting away and the sun is shining. Once again, I awoke to birds singing outside my window…a sure sign of Spring. My iris and daylilies are poking their noses through the dirt and I spy buds on the lilac. My impatience at the cold and snow is turning into impatience at having to wait a few more weeks before I can begin to dig in the dirt.

I’ve been in a little funk lately. Nothing major, just minor exhaustion and frustration aimed at the hurdles and hoops I’m jumping through to get proper support for the C man. I cannot understand why I must apply for Medical Assistance (the application for which is daunting on its on) before being able to find full-time classroom support from an ouside agency. They will also be providing the wrap services of home help and hooking us up with the right therapists.

My mind’s eye is seeing the three more evaluations by psychologists, speech therapist, occupational therapists, psychiatrist…and the mountains of paperwork involved.

OT, PT, IEP, SLP, MA, TSS, MD, PsychD…it’s like Alphabet Soup! Oh, and let’s throw in a 504 just to confuse things.

Any whoo…last night I sat in the living room with all these reports, applications and letters, feeling rather overwhelmed and a bit blue.

So, I pulled up my You Tube account and found my favorite video to watch. Nothing like a dose of The Blues to drive the blues away…and with that I will leave you with my favorite blues pianist and her improvisational skills…

Private Tears

I probably shouldn’t blog this stuff, but I’m not sure where else to put it. Since people we know and are close to read my blog, it’s a little bit unnerving sometimes to bare my soul. But, writing is my therapy and this is my outlet. It’s personal, private stuff put out there for the world, I know that.

My daughter turned 9 years old a few weeks ago. She had been looking forward to this birthday like never before because finally we were giving her a birthday party. I broke my promise last year to let her have a party when she turned 8 and she had never quite forgiven me. Let me tell you, this 9th birthday party was to be the bomb!

This past Saturday, fifteen little third grade girls, my sons and one friend of Liams, three adults and two ice cream cakes were scheduled for a 1:00 pm start to a swim party at an indoor water park.  At 3:00 Saturday morning, Erin came to my room with a belly ache. By 6:30 she couldn’t stop crying and was so exhausted from no sleep. At 9:45 she puked. No fever, no illness, not a sign anywhere of germs or contagions.

By party time, she was “fine.” One small episode of barfing during the party (no one noticed), otherwise she did great and we all had a lot of fun! She scored some awesome presents, including five new Webkinz. I’m a little jealous; I only have three. After the party, she slept for awhile and then went to bed early. Slept all night on the floor of my office so she could be next to our room. The belly pain began again in the wee hours of Sunday, and she stayed home from church with her dad. By lunchtime, she was pink and perky and ready to go.

This hasn’t happened to her for a long time. She has abdominal migraines/cyclic vomiting and there’s no real explanation for what precipitates these episodes. Her belly aches do seem to be worse when she’s worried or if something really exciting is coming up. Like Christmas, dates with mom or…her birthday party.

These cycles, coupled with her violent temper worry us enough that we’re meeting with a counselor this week to see what she says. Play therapy. Erin doesn’t know yet and she won’t be going with us. This is for grown ups to talk. We are actually quite concerned about the road ahead for Erin and what we’re going to find out. She frustrated, angry, worried, overwhelmed and tired. She’s depressed. I was a clinical pediatric nurse long enough to know she’s not behaving “normally” for her age.

We’ve got a few good ideas as to what’s bugging her; we may never know for sure. Nothing is simple.  I know too well what depression’s murkiness feels like.  I also know that we can do nothing to fix this. God is fully in control.

What a long strange trip it’s going to be.

Thomas The Tank and God STOP

I would like to close myself up in a room for about a week. Or sit at the end of a pier on a misty lake in an Adirondack chair with a blanket around me. Not alone though. Surrounded by books, pencils and all the notebooks I can fill. And my laptop. I have a friend who also just had surgery for which recovery is long. She is not allowed to speak for weeks afterwards; she’s off to the mountains to be alone and read. The idea is that this will speed her recovery. I’m only mildly envious of her.

Yesterday I cried harder than I have in a very long time. One step forward; then flat on your butt. The story of my life sometimes. The surgeon said everything looks great but I need to take it easy for at least six more weeks. He wasn’t clued in before the surgery to the degree of damage I had in my spine. Therefore, recovery will take longer than expected. He’s also not clued in to the fact that my brain will implode if I sit here much longer doing little, gaining weight and surfing the web. I also need to provide for my family; we are a two wage-earner team and that’s not negotiable. It also means that I need to wait to start school, which is the one thing I am most disappointed about. I was already pushed off until March; now it’s at least May. So I need to make some decisions and I was feeling mighty overwhelmed.

So, I just bawled for a while. It seems like everything good happens to the other guy. Things always go perfectly for someone else. No one else has any problems and no one else has any pain. Know what I mean?

Then, my young son (yes, him of the sweet sleep) wanted to watch his new Thomas the Tank Engine Movie. The theme song of Thomas is called “Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining”. Leave it to my Father in Heaven to decide this little child had a lesson for me. I listened to this whacky song for the first time the whole way through. When it was done, I felt better.

I’ll find my silver lining. In each of my day I look for Godstops. (This being a word I learned from Beth Moore.) STOP=Savoring The Observable Presence. A conscious effort to find obvious physical signs of God working in your surroundings. Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends were my Godstop yesterday. I didn’t see that one coming.

I so clearly see the beginning shape of the ministry that God has laid before me. Why do I think that NOW, all of a sudden, He’d change his mind?! This little bump in the road will not stop me from reaching my goal. Oh, ye of little faith! OH ME OF LITTLE FAITH! Good grief! When will I stop wallowing in the mire of self pity and get on board with Thomas and Friends?

Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life….(SEE!)….what you will eat or drink; or about what you will wear…”(As of today, one pair of pants fits me again! Really.)… 27 “Who of you by worrying can add a SINGLE hour to his life?”

He promised.

I just can’t forget it.