Monday, June 24, 2024

It finally stopped raining

Friday and Saturday were rainy days but things finally improved on Sunday thank goodness. This is how the weekend shaped up. The subtitle to this post could be: we did all the things.

Friday afternoon/evening: I got an injection into my tendon which made my pointer finger/palm numb for the next several hours. It hurt like heck getting this tendon injected - way worse than a joint injection so it better work. It could take 3-5 days to notice a difference so now I wait. If it improves, I can reduce my prednisone by 2.5 mg every 10 days. It’s a gradual taper since I’ve been on a higher dose for nearly 3 months. But that means it will take almost 2 months to get fully off it. Hopefully once I am below 10mg I will feel less jittery and will sleep better. 

Post-injection comparison. The right pointer finger/joint area was extra swollen and red.

Saturday am: I was up at 5:30, but not by choice - steroids continue to mess with my sleep. Paul was up shortly after me and Taco was up just after 6 so the day started early for most of us. We had a break in the rain so I ran 6.25 miles and then we hit up the library where we were surprised to find llamas! Llamas visit the different library branches and this was our library’s weekend. That meant the library was extra busy. Paul enjoyed meeting the llamas; Taco was terrified. We ran into lots of different friends from our neighborhood and former daycare which gave the event a ‘small town’ feel which was nice for a change. It made me think of NGS’s recent Mooseum event! The llama we met had as much interest in getting his photo taken as Phil does. Lol. The real high was seeing Paul curled up with a book (a Geronimo Stilton book). 




Sunday afternoon: I was wiped by the time we got home from the library to have lunch so I tapped Phil in and laid in bed with ear plugs for 75 minutes while Phil managed the boys. I planned to take them to a splash pad/wading pool/park so had them change into their suits and then Phil checked the weather and said - um another thunderstorm is moving in. WOMP WOMP. So we pivoted and I took them to an indoor playground. We are dropping Taco’s nap this weekend so we needed to get out of the house for everyone’s sanity. 

This building area was a hit

They also loved this trampoline type of thing. Taco stuck to the edges bit Paul is really getting some air in the background.

Sunday am: I woke at 5 and could not fall back asleep for read for a bit before starting the day. Paul was up at 5:30 and Taco was up just before 6. The boys are such early risers! Phil does a swim club course at a local lake on Sunday mornings so the boys and I joined him since it was finally not raining!! It was a beautiful morning.




Sunday afternoon: I once again tapped out to lay in bed for an hour to recharge my batteries. The boys and I headed to a local splash pad/wading pool park at 1:30. It’s kind of a haul to get to this place (20-25 min) but it’s a zero entry set-up which is what Taco prefers. Plus it has a really nice park adjacent to it. We were there for about 2 hours and then got ice cream on the way home since it was the first weekend of summer. 





So that was the kid-centric part of our weekend. We divided and conquered a lot but Phil did stuff around the house like mowing, laundry, and getting groceries. Plus I wanted to give him some alone time since he solo parents again this week while I am in DC for 2 nights/3 days. 

Llamas, indoor playground, beach, splash pad, and ice cream. These kids sure have it good. Although the only things we paid for were the indoor playground ($12/each and worth every dollar to entertain the boys during a rain storm) and ice cream so it wasn’t a big financial outlay. I do hope someday they look back on their childhoods and think - wow, mom and dad did a lot for us/took us cool places. I had a great childhood but the boys do more things in a weekend than I did all summer. But that’s the difference between being 1 or 5 kids and living in a rural area (population 500) that didn’t even have a library!!

How was your weekend?

11 comments:

Life of a Doctor's Wife said...

I am so hopeful that this injection is exactly what you need, Lisa.

Aside from the early wake ups (which are fine if planned, but annoying if they happen because you can't sleep!), this sounds like a spectacular weekend. Wow. What a way to take advantage of local offerings and summertime outdoors!

How did the nap dropping go? Doesn't seem like it resulted in a ton of later mornings, but I'm hoping it was overall a good thing! You certainly were able to accomplish a lot of adventures!

Birchwood Pie said...

Library Llamas!!!! Yes, kids these days have so many options compared to what we had. My summers were spent waiting for the day when the new TV Guide came in the mail.

Oh man, I hope that injection works!!!

Nicole said...

I'll say the kids have it good - so many fun things! And I hear you - I did SO many things with the boys when they were young, when I was a kid it was like "go out and play with the kids in the neighbourhood." And if we did things like swim, we were just dropped off to do them (not, obviously, at your kids' ages). Things were different when we were kids for sure.
Ooooh llamas. They are just so cute. I love them. I wish we had library llamas!
I hope that injection works, I have been wondering how you were doing!

Jenny said...

It sounds like a great weekend! And yes- parenting these days is sure different. In my day (ha ha, waaaay back in the 70s) we just played outside all day. With the neighbors, and no supervision. Okay maybe not at Taco's age, but definitely at Paul's age. And actually I do remember little, little kids out with the big kids. Our parents were not driving us all around to different events! Ah, the good old days.
All the tendons in my body are aching in sympathy- that shot sounds PAINFUL. I hope it works!!!!!

Elisabeth said...

I have so many conflicting feelings about how much my kids get to do. Like I love the opportunities and it is just the way the world (at least where we live) is designed, but sometimes I do wonder how much fun they're missing having "boring" summers like I had? I had relatively little structure for several months and it was GLORIOUS. It's a bit like my digital Sabbath, though - it's really hard to carve out that experience unless everyone else is living the same way.

That said, what a wonderful weekend in terms of so much fun!

That injection site looks so painful and I can only imagine the pain involved - ugh. I am so sorry, Lisa, but do very much hope this provides relief and is an important step forward to longer-lasting healing <3

NGS said...

Sunday was such a lovely day! I walked over to get ice cream myself!

I want to pet a llama now. What a fun event the library put on.

Mom of Children said...

I am in the same boat. My kids have fabulous lives, full of activities, desserts, adventures, movies, friends, etc. Very unlike my childhood.My summers had really zero activities, so I read a lot. And music, music was big for me when I was little/young.
I hope RA is manageable after the infusion. Oh and I hope that mess with insurance got cleared up.

Coco said...

sounds like a lovely weekend except the injection. I am amazed how cool you with managing it as part of life. I will get so mad and anxious.
In the US there are so many parks that are free to go and visit. IN asia, usually play area are in the malls and has a cost attached so a weekend out will cost $$.
Today's kids are so spoiled. I had no access to playground/swimming pool, even toys when I was a kid and I still have fond memories of my childhood, playing with my cousins during summer break. Those were the real summer breaks.

Sarah said...

I hope the infection is working as we speak! It is raining every single day here, too, and it’s a lot to deal with. I actually count on the weather to be nicer than this when I am planning our summer life. Gah.

Grateful Kae said...

You're in that very fun but very hands on parenting stage! Being able to do things like beaches and splash pads etc and have the kids really engage and enjoy it (vs a little baby or toddler) is great. But it's also exhausting to just be running around like that all the time. I remember doing all of those things so well and this post made me feel a little sad because I feel like we're kind of in opposite territory. I mean we still do stuff with the boys obviously but they have their own stuff going on. Like since we've been home I feel like they're either working or like yesterday Ethan went with a friend to an 18 hole golf course...or at night then they often want to connect up with their friends on video games. I told Ivan I feel like we really need to be intentional about making sure to be spending enough time with them this summer bc it can almost be easy to just morph into "empty nest" mode (ie Ivan and I just doing our own thing or going out without them or just watching a show while they're in their rooms...) when they are very much still home!!! Sometimes we'll ask if they want to watch a movie or do xyz but many times they have their own plans or will say, "Oh... well all my friends are logging on to the game after so and so gets off work so I was going to meet up with them..." I think maybe it's also just a bit of post-vacation apartness too, haha. But I do also remember doing a LOT more of my own thing or just with friends when I was in high school, too....so I suppose it may just be normal. I still want to make sure to be intentional about these next few years- Ethan only has 3 years of high school left!

Stephany said...

Oh boy, I really do hope that injection helps! That looks so painful, friend.

We haven't been getting a ton of rain here, but at least when it does, it's only for 20ish minutes and then the sky is blue again. It's rare to have a fully rainy day!

Llamas at the library! How cool is that?!