Angels Watching Over Me

I realized that I haven't posted much about my knee replacement. So I will correct that right now. I want to thank Theresa, J.D., Melody and Amy for keeping everyone updated on my progress until I came home from the hospital. It is great to know that I have this kind of support. I love you all!! The last few things that I remember before the surgery was my Doctor came in and asked me what my name was and what knee he would be doing the surgery on. He then autographed my knee. The Anesthesiologist then came in and explained that he would be doing a spinal block, as well as putting  me to sleep. The next thing I knew, I was waking up and the nurse was putting the button to the magic pain machine in my hand and giving me the instructions on how it worked.

As I drifted in and out of sleep I remember my leg being on a machine that continuously kept it in motion. When I was awake enough to realize that the pain medications were wearing off and my leg had been moving with the help of the machine for quite some time. I was so surprised that I wasn't experiencing the " fight the tears back pain"  that I had before the surgery. I was feeling some soreness but not the searing pain that I have had for the past few years.

I was told by family and a couple of the nurses that at some point during surgery or in recovery my blood pressure had dropped to 40 over 20. I have pondered that information and came to the obvious conclusion that not only do I have Angels watching over me, it just wasn't my time to meet my Creator. So I will just keep on keeping on with what I have been doing and that is mostly paying forward the good that I have received. 

Meanwhile I am keeping up with my physical therapy. The plan was three sessions a week for six weeks. Thursday was my third session. I walked in using my walker and walked out without it...... Not even a cane. The therapist was surprised with how fast I am progressing.  With my first session the range in my knee was at 85% and yesterday it measured 110%. The therapy is painful and at times  I find myself reliving the  "  fight back the tears painfulness "" that I had before the knee replacement. It is the necessary path  though that has to be traveled if I want a full and complete recovery. I will do what has to be done and I will fight back any tears that tries to surface. In the future I will remember to take some pain pills before the session and not after it.

That pretty much catches you up to where I am in my recovery. I am hoping to get around to do some more visits as I continue to improve and the stiffness and soreness in my knee becomes less. Until then I am hoping that you have sunshine in your days and the wonderful sounds of springtime in your nights.    

   

Mosaic Monday...... God's Canvas

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.
~ Claude Monet

Why not visit "The Little Red House" and take part in Mosaic Monday.

 
Have a wonderful week basking in the warmth of the sun and enjoying the beauty of the world around you. 

 

Post It Note Tuesday......

Mosaic Monday "If Walls Could Talk"

My heart flutters when I see an old house that is slowly deteriorating and leaving no more than possibly a concrete foundation. Eventually even that will crumble and disappear. While they are still here I like to look at them and imagine the family that once lived there and what became of them. If walls could only talk what are the stories they would tell?

 

Is this the house that was home to an older couple who opened their door to all who came knocking in need of food and shelter? The same couple who never locked their door because everyone knew they had nothing worth stealing, but if someone wanted something that they had all they needed to do was ask and it was theirs.

   

Perhaps this house sheltered a family that included four young children. A family with so much love that it spilled over to neighbors and friends. All of that love could not be contained by walls. Could this house tell stories of laughter, joy and happiness? Stories that turned to sadness the day the father of these young children was carried away after losing his battle to TB?

  

I see Sunday dinner spread out at the table with mix match plates , complimented by mix matched chairs around the table. Fried chicken is piled high on the meat platter with mashed potatoes, gravy, Cole slaw and green beans with new potatoes as side dishes.  Apple pie is cooling in the window. Decades later all that is left is a shell of the old home place and those Sunday dinners with a family drawn together by love and respect for one another are but  echoes of the past.

I see a sadness that surrounds this home as generation after generation, news is delivered to this family that beloved sons who chose to serve their country died with honor during the time of war. Still years and years later the sons and daughters of this same family continue to serve our country and lay their lives on the line daily in the name of freedom.

Join us at "  The Little Red House"   For a list of more Mosaic Monday Blogs to visit. Be sure to take a few minutes and tell Mary Hello.

Happy Mother's Day

 

Childhood Doesn't Wait

I was sitting on a bench

While in a nearby mall,

When I noticed a young mother

With two children who were small.

The youngest one was whining,

"  Pick me up,"  I heard him beg

But the mother's face grew angry

As the child clung to her leg.

"   Don't hang on me,"   she shouted

As she pushed his hands away,

I wish I'd had the courage

To go up to her and say....

"  The time will come too quickly

When those little arms that tug,

Won't ask you to hold them

Or won't freely give a hug."  

"  The day will sneak up subtly

Just as it did with me,

When you can't recall the last time

That your child sat on your knee."  

"  Like those sacred, pre-dawn feedings

When we cherished time alone

Our babies grow and leave behind

those special times we've known."  

"  So when your child comes to you

With a book that you can share,

Or asks that you would tuck him in

and help him say his prayer...."  

"  When he comes to sit and chat

Or would like to take a walk,

Before you answer that you can't

'cause there's no time to talk"  

"  Remember what all parents learn

So many times too late,

That years go by too quickly

And that childhood doesn't wait."  

"  Take every opportunity,

If one should slip away

Reach hard to get it back again,

Don't wait another day."  

I watched that mother walk away

Her child followed near,

I hope she'll pick them up

Before her chances disappear.

~ Kathie Phillips Davis

There is no velvet so soft as a mother's lap, no rose as lovely as her smile, no path so flowery as that imprinted with her footsteps."  

~ Archibald Thompson

 

 Mother's Day never passes that I don't feel that ache in my heart, missing my mother. In June it will be 9 years since she passed away. Time has eased the pain of our loss, as I knew it would. Time has also brought long forgotten memories to the surface. Memories of days long ago when my mother would gather me in her arms and lay down on the bed with me at nap time and read stories like Henny Penny and The Three Little Pigs until I fell asleep. We weren't blessed with wealth, but somehow she raised us in a way that I thought we lacked for nothing. My childhood friend and neighbor went to baton and dance lessons. We couldn't afford lessons like that for me, but we had a dog that I loved and my friend didn't have a pet. I was allowed to sit in the middle of my mother's flower beds and let my imagination run wild making mud pies and and dandelion soup, my friend wasn't allowed to get dirty.

I never thought of us not having as much as others because we always had enough and still a little more to help someone else out. When my life is through, if my children and grandchildren can look back on their memories of me and feel consumed with a love that is as sweet as the smell of honey suckle then I will have lived my life to emulate the greatest mother I have known, My Mother!

Happy Mother's Day!

May your day be blessed with warmth and love.