September 22, 2014

Bookkeeping, Errands, and Update on Mom

September 22, 2014

Mom last month.  I know she would much rather be eating that bowl of ice cream at Jason's Deli right now, than to be in the hospital with her back hurting so much.  Please keep praying for her.

This morning I needed to go in to the office a little early because Ron had a couple of jobs scheduled and a couple of errands he needed to run.  I worked on a bank deposit and got that ready to take for the afternoon.  There were a few customers in and I did fine hearing all of them, but mostly I worked on other tasks and some emails. 

Ron came back just about lunch time, so I ate and did a little reading.  Later I was about ready to leave for the bank when one of our suppliers called to say I had put the check for another supplier in their envelope.  Oops!  Actually, I made it out to them, but it was for the amount for the other main supplier.  I don't know where my brain was that day!  I think Ron secretly delights in those because he often messes stuff up and since I deal with all the invoices, I catch his errors.  I guess we are even for a while.

Since I needed to send a check to the correct supplier, I did that and paid a couple of other bills and wrote the check to the utility company to take when I went to run errands.  First it was the bank, then the utility company and finally the office supply store to mail a package through UPS to Mom.  Traffic was terrible!  It seemed to take a long time to do those errands.  While at the UPS place, I had a lot of trouble hearing the young, soft spoken, fast talking sales clerk.

After returning to the office,  I put my things away and headed home, going first by Mom's house and then to get gas.  It is nice to see the price down a little on the gas.  When I got home I prepared vegetables for a big pot of stew.  It is in the oven as I type and it smells wonderful.  It may be late, but we will have some when it comes out of the oven.

I really did not accomplish much more today.  I have been thinking a lot lately about my elbow injury and how for a long time I pampered it.  I would not do anything that I thought might hurt it.  As my mom is in the hospital with her back injury I have thought about when I have suffered with back pains.  I recalled the things the doctor told me to do and not do.  Often we think we can do "just this one little thing" and we will be fine.  But sometimes that "one little thing" is the one that puts us over the edge. 

Mom thinks she hurt her back trying to add a little bit longer chain to her ceiling fan because she had to reach and stretch so much to pull the chain.  We all sometimes push our bodies past the safe area of exertion.  When I mow and start getting hot and tired, it is easy to think, "I am almost done."  Instead, I am trying to learn to take a break when I am tired.  This is the backyard I mow.  No one else sees it.  If I stop in the middle, it will drive me nuts, but no one else will see it or care.  One of the things my doctor told me when I had back trouble was about carrying in groceries.  When we used to use brown paper bags it was hard to carry even two at a time, so we didn't often overload ourselves.  Now that we use bags with strap handles, we sometimes carry 3 or 4.  He says, "Don't".  He also told me if I am going through a narrow area (like beside the car in the garage), not to carry one bag in front and one behind.  Carrying weight behind is very hard on the back.

Mom's therapist today told her not to bend over the sink (like when you wash your hair).  Oops!  If my back is hurting, I can't do that, but sometimes when it is fine, I do it.  The fact that it sometimes causes pain should be the warning that maybe I shouldn't do it that way.  We all carry things that are too heavy.  We push ourselves to the limit and then find that often there is a price to pay.  We don't want to become lazy or weak from doing nothing, but we need to find the right balance to keep our backs strong and safe.  Please continue to pray for my mom to heal and regain her strength and to return to the activities she loves.

Here is a photo of Mom from a couple of months ago with me and my older brother (he is my only brother, but I like to remind him that he is OLDER.)  He is spending a few days with Mom early this week to give my sister a break.  He is a great brother!

This is my youngest sister, Janet, who is taking excellent care of Mom.

 

It is funny, when we were growing up, I was the one who wanted to be a nurse, but it is Janet and my brother Gordon who have taken such good care of Mom this time and a year an a half ago when she was so very sick with a virus.  Our other sister, Debbie always hated doctors and she now works in a hospital.  You just never know!  Thanks Gordon and Janet for taking such good care of Mom.