Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Catching Up


I have a handful of things that I've been itching to post and share, most of which is fleeting as far as staying in the forefront of my mind for any specific period of time goes (that's my uber non-self-deprecating way of saying that I'm scatterbrained). I have all of these bits and pieces of things floating around in my head that I'm hoping transform into words and will spill out from my fingertips.

One of the things I hate about living in western Pennsylvania the most is not being able to put any sort of flowers or vegetables into the ground until mid May. The weather here is so sporadic this time of the year and it's just awful. One day the sun is shinning and we are all outside in shorts and tank tops absorbing as much Vitamin D as possible only for it to snow the next day. It's too soon to pack away our Winter coats and mittens but the itch of Spring fever is there and is gnawing away at my desire to sink my hands into the earth and start a garden. Especially since this year we are living on this big farm and have so much room to grow all sorts of delicious things.

The past few days have been sort of a whirlwind for me. Without going into too much detail, because it's a private matter and not my matter for discussion, my mom was recently hospitalized after having a massive heart attack. She had a permanent stent put into one side of her heart, which was 99% blocked. The other side of her heart is also blocked and once shes strong enough she'll eventually have to have that taken care of too. She's only 46. To be perfectly honest, that scares the living shit out of me, having a family history of heart disease. I already have to take a prescription to slow my heart beats down because of the fear of calcification of my ventricles (thank you parathyroid disease) and now on top of that I have this wholly different other thing looming in the background of my life. It's pretty nerve wracking to say the least and I'm looking at quite a bit of life changes to try and avoid a future that could quite possibly be inevitable.

Onto happier things, our ducklings have easily doubled in size since we got them only a few weeks ago and as soon as the weather outside is stable enough they'll be living out at our really big lake (Mike says it's a pond, but it's pretty huge, so I'm going with a small lake). I have to admit that it took me a bit longer to adjust to rural living than it did for anyone else in the family, partly because I spent part of my childhood in a city, but something about having the ducks peeping through out the house is making it easier. Hopefully they'll stay around for a little while before flying off to experience the world.

In a bit less that two months we'll be leaving for our vacation and I can't wait. We're going to Assateague Island in Maryland for a week where we'll be camping on the beach. The camping part isn't exactly my perfect idea of a relaxing vacation, but when you live with three boys you learn to embrace the rough and tumble things in life. We will literally be camping in the sand though and only a few short steps away from the ocean where the sound of waves crashing will lull us to sleep every night and provide lots of wet fun during the day. The best part of Assateague though, are the wild horses that roam the island, horses that are free to come and go as they please and will for certain pass through our small camp site and gallop along the beach. It's going to be amazing, and I really can't wait. Oh yeah, and it's an entire week with no computer either, so I'm sure I'll go just a bit nuts.

3 comments:

Alyssa S. said...

Funny, what you hate about PA is what I used to love about MA :) Here in the big TX, it's wondering whether we'll actually have a real spring day or whether it will start feeling like summer. ICK. I'm glad you guys are going on vacation. I think you need some nice, fun, relaxing time off.

I know how you feel about your Mom and your own heart health. Heart disease runs in my family, so I have to keep that in the front of my mind and be more conscious of my health and that I'm keeping my heart healthy. Of course I don't have the thyroid problems that you do.

Hang in there girly :)

Chelsey - The Paper Mama said...

Sorry to hear about your mom. That's tough.

-cheley

Melanie @ Whimsical Creations said...

Sorry to hear about your mom.

I hear ya on the planting issue. Our weather is the same here in WNY. I did start some seeds inside the other day.

That vacation sounds wonderful!