The Grace of YES Day

Today we are trying to have the internet explode with our YES!  Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom wrote The Grace of Yes:  Eight Virtues for Generous Living and today is your day to tell your story of Yes. So please join us by sharing your Yes on your blog, Facebook, twitter or Instagram!

My YES Story

Summer ended three months ago, but over here at our house we are still feeling the effects of what I have dubbed, The Best and Worst summer ever.  We can start with why it was the best.  To celebrate our thirty years of marriage we said yes to a three week trip to Italy.  We visited Rome, Florence, Assisi, Verona, Lago di Garda, and spent time with my family in Laurignano, (near Cosenza) a small town in Calabria.  It was a wonderful trip filled with beautiful Churches, great food and wine, and an appreciation for trains and the ability to speak Italian.  And then we came home and the best summer became the worst summer ever.

My husband had to go into the hospital for a very badly infected toe which set off a chain of events, test, procedures and life changes that we are still dealing with today.  And probably will be for a very long time.  There are many, many medical details which I can’t spell or explain properly, so I’m not even going to try.  Every day over the summer was a new chance to say yes to a change, to a test, to a procedure, to being patient, to staying calm, to overcoming fear, to trusting in God’s providence.  I did not think I was a stranger to difficult situations, but this was different.  It was my husband.  And I wanted him to recover and then get back to normal. 

At one point in the hospital, my husband didn't want to say yes to a test and procedure which might happen based on the test result.  I needed him to say yes and was having a hard time convincing him to do it.  I remember the nurse looking at us in disbelief and me following her out to ask for more time before she called the doctor.  In the span of minutes, during which I prayed with all I had, my husband changed his mind.  Thank God.  That test and the procedure were necessary and life-saving.  The yes led us to hoping back to normal would come quickly.

But before we could get to normal, there were a few medical things to deal with such as changing his toe dressing and hooking up his IV antibiotic infusion.  I am not a nurse; I don’t like feet; but I love my husband so I said yes.  None of it was as bad as I thought it would be.  The toe was like a very bad cut, once I got past the pins sticking out.  The IV, well, it was like programming a phone, as long as I concentrated, I was fine.  To help the healing, John went for hyperbaric treatments for a month.  Monday-Friday he spent two hours a day breathing pure oxygen and healing from the inside out. 

Recovery is a process and we waited for each new YES from the doctors that told us John was getting better.  Yes to driving, yes to going back to work, yes to removing the IV, yes to taking the pins out, yes to wearing shoes again.  We are still waiting for more yes-es and each day we hope and pray for continued healing.  When I am asked how John is feeling, I say “ok”.  He certainly is not back to normal.

One day, while we were still changing toe dressings and connecting IVs my sister asked how things were going.  I sent her a picture of John with the message, “I just finished changing his toe dressing and re-connecting the IV and now I’m going to cook dinner”.  I’m not sure if she even read the message or just took one look at my poor husband and sent back, “Wow, you really meant it when you said in sickness and in health.”  Yes, I did.  

7 Quick Takes: the week in review

1.  So I started the week feeling a bit, okay very BLAH as evidenced by my word art.  The act of making and posting it seemed to help me as it put my feelings into words and a very small action of kinda maybe whining about it.  It was good in that I validated myself and was able to move on to un-blah.

2. The shift can be attributed to a few things:  this Ignatian retreat which gave me much to think about in prayer; some conversations with various people; some positive feedback of some writing I did at New Evangelizers and Catholic Mom; writing and focusing on gratitude.

3.  I have a long to-do list for today.  Then it was confirmed that our wandering son will indeed be home today, which is of course wonderful news! and this now adds to my list while also subtracting to my list.  The net result is more work, but it's worth it to be together around the table.  We'll celebrate our two September birthdays (father and son) and the pin removal!

4.  Oh yes, my husband no longer has any devices holding his toe together.  We were so excited about the doctor visit yesterday.  When the office called to confirm the appointment on Wednesday my husband actually reminded them that the doctor needed a special instrument to remove the pins so please make sure he had it.  It was duly noted on the call sheet.  We sat down, did few preliminary things and then teh doctor came in and asked for the instruments.  There was one all sterile and ready to go and the nurse said "here it is,"  "I need the hexthingamajigy" (ok, he used the right word, I just have no idea what he said!) "Oh, this is what you said you needed."  "Oh, (mild expletive) I forgot to bring it from home."  My husband is not happy.  I start to pray, #MemoraraeUP and reassure my husband.  The doctor calls his surgical tool guy and he is there in the office in less than ten minutes! With the tool!   A few quick turns of the screws, and viola, he's unpinned!  I posted a quick report on Facebook and my fav comment was from one friend who said"Unpinned, pinterest is gonna be pissed."

5.  I have a confession, I'm burying it way down here.  I think I am killing my friend's mint plant.  My son was no help, "mint, it's the easiest thing to grow, how can you kill it?" I've given it more water and will trim it again and move it to another window.  The tomato plant is flowering though, doesn't that count for something?

6.  We interrupt these quick takes for a coffee refill brought to you by Mystic Monk coffee, Pumpkin Spice blend.  Oh so yummy, and made even more so in my favorite mug.

7.  I have tons more to say but I need to get to work on that list, especially now that my lunch book study has been moved up.  See how I make that sound less like meeting my girlfriends for lunch and more like a very important intellectual pursuit.  

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary who found driving in DC the nightmare I did!

7 Quick Takes

An FYI, I am counting this as my post for today in the 7 posts in 7 days link up.  Unless my husband is reviewing for his comps tonight, then I may write again!

1.  If I had a smart phone and posted tweets about driving they would look like this: #hatebaddrivers all the bad drivers are out today and #gobackupnorth why are you stopping at a green light and #accidentwaitingtohappen you are so 8&^%*&!   Of course then all my nice Catholic followers would see the real me and that would be that!

2.  I have a terrible knot on the under my left shoulder.  No idea what it is from and can't get rid of it.  This morning I even tried 'mashing' with a softball under me.  If you could have heard me while I did this you might have thought I was giving birth or having a tooth pulled without Novocaine.   It hurts when I move which stinks since I am going to the gym today and I think we're doing upper body since we did legs yesterday.  Could be a problem.

3.  I have some photo boxes full of boxes (I'm clever like that) and would like to organize them.  I really would love to scan them into my computer but doing them one at a time is way too time consuming.  Are there any options for quick and easy scanning of photos?

4.  For a long time I've thought about going back to school for a doctorate. degree.  But the more I think about it, weighing the costs, return on investment and time I think it's not something I want to do.  John will be finished with school in May and it will be very nice for both of us.  Between us we have two undergrad degrees and four graduate degrees, that must be somewhat close to a doctorate, no?  I'd rather spend money and time on travelling.  I do reserve the right to change my mind though, especially if circumstances change or someone offers me a scholarship.

5.  Tomorrow is the walk for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  Our team, Jack Jack Attack, has raised over $5,000.  It looks like it will be a beautiful day weather wise and I know it's going to be lots of fun being with everyone at the walk.  I just need to get over my dog issue.  If all the dogs who are there are service dogs I'll be fine but I'm not sure that's the case.  Maybe I can hold my mommy's hand?  Yea right, she's worse than me and my daughter is even worse.  

6.  If you are not reading Pope Francis' Joy of the Gospel you should be.  It is awesome.  And yes, I can be bossy at times :)

7.  Fitness tip I keep reminding myself of:

More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

Weekly Paleo Meals

Breakfasts:

Melon, banana bread and almond butter

eggs and paleo bread

hard boiled eggs and fruit

Lunch:  we eat almost the same thing every day:  green salad with lean meat either turkey breast, leftover chicken, tune, whatever we have.  For veggies, sometimes add celery, tomatoes, avocado 

Dinners:

Baked Boneless pork chops and roasted butternut squash

Chicken Stew

Spaghetti Squash with meat sauce

Shrimp, Fish, Broccoli and Cauliflower in Coconut Milk

I also made Tomato soup, Paleo bread and Paleo Banana bread.

So the Paleo bread was good, but mine does not look like the picture and it did fall apart a bit.  I wanted to eat bread with my sunny side up eggs because you need bread to soak up the yolk.  It did the job!

The banana bread is very moist and keeps well in the refrigerator.  I used only three bananas and think it was better than when I used four.  My friend asked what I used for sweetener and was  surprised when I said "Nothing."

Chicken Stew

5 or 6 boneless skinless thighs

2 or 3 zucchini

2 or 3 yellow squash 

1 onion

2 or 3 garlic cloves, to taste

2 tomatoes

Cut zucchini and squash into same size pieces, dice onion and mince garlic

heat pot and add small amount of olive oil, when heated add onions and garlic.  Cook until soft, add chicken to brown in each side, toss in zucchini and squash, add salt and pepper, cover and simmer, stir every 5 minutes or so, until chicken is cooked through.  Chop tomatoes and add, cook uncovered 5 more minutes.  

Use the type of pot you'd use to make a pot roast in.

Keep Going

Last week I overdid it a bit and ignored my shoulder pain.  This week it is not back yet to 100% but the coaches have been great at giving modifications to shoulder work.  Today will be a no shoulder work out at all.  I was glad.  I'd get to do what everyone else was doing.  Notice I said, I WAS glad.  Then I looked up the workout of the day.  It's called "Grief".  The plan, run 800 meters then 400 meters backwards, 800 meters, 400 meters backwards for time.  I just started running doing a very slow jog  as opposed to rowing on Monday!  Yesterday I alternated jogging and rowing and was able to jog 600 meters, spread out over 5 times.  I rowed 1200 meters.
I decided to look on Pinterest for quotes to motivate me, I like this one:

Then I  went back to morning prayer:   "May your hand be on the man you have chosen, the man you have given your strength." (Ps 80:18)  I am chosen, God has given me strength.  I use that strength for many things.  I try to use it to glorify him in all I do.  Today I will use it to do my best with the workout, forward and backward.

The negative

Six weeks ago I began a program of improvement.  It involved an exercise program and eating plan and taking a good look at all of my commitments and deciding what to keep and what to lose.  The good news is that it is working. I wrote more about the experience over at Catholic Mom. The bad news is that I strained my left shoulder, probably on Wednesday and after sitting with frozen peas on it and taking (gasp for me) pain relievers, it feels better but not great.  My family is at a BBQ while I sit at home and ponder why I not only have a bum shoulder but a slight stomach bug.  

I know that whenever positive changes are made and I see results I simply cannot stay with those happy thoughts.  So I thought if I started to chronicle my journey a bit more it could help not only me but others who struggle with seeing the good and positive.  I am great at seeing the negative in myself.  I berate myself for not starting sooner, for having walked this road before; I focus on the negative.  I need to stop.

A brief list of positives I noticed this week in spite of hurting myself.  I wore a dress to Mass today that hasn't fit for a very long time.  Yesterday, when I was getting my hair done (wow, sounds like I am an old lady, but how else do you say that?) I noticed my face in the mirror.  I had cheekbones. 

Now I am feeling a bit attacked and wondering why my body is giving me trouble now that I am being good to it.  It might because it is not as happy with the changes as my mind or spirit.  If I think about it, why would it be happy to be made to work hard at squats and sit ups and rowing and all that sweating when it used to just sit?  Change is not easy and requires perseverance and diligence.  It would be so easy to not do anything because I feel lousy, but if I give in to that temptation it would be a quick downward spiral back to not taking care of myself.

This is my pep talk.  I am taking positive steps to improve my health and well-being.  I am doing it because I am worth it. " Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body (1 Cor 6:19-20)." Sometimes when I am working out I think about glorifying God and it helps me continue.   I am taking care of myself because not taking care of myself is not what God wants.  (I know, awkward construction, but you get the point)

My journey will take time; progress is more important than perfection; God knows our hearts and will guide if we listen.