Getting Back to Normal

Life was just about back to normal today but then Leen jumped over the hammock to make her brother, Kyle, laugh. She caught her foot and came crashing down on her face. She bruised her face, cut her nose and walked around with an icepack on her face for a while but she seems to be ok. This of course happened while Jim was at the ER getting the blood poisoning he developed, complements of a cat scratch, taken care of. I'm not kidding, even I'm not capable of making this stuff up. Oh well, at least Kyle didn't split his stitches laughing at his sister.

The events of the last few hours aside, things are getting back to normal although I really feel out of sorts. Kyle spent 9 days in the hospital and for the most part so did Jim and I. When he went in, there was plenty of summer left. When he came out there was only a week and a half of summer left. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things knowing I'll be changing gears in a few days.

Mostly I'm spending my time being amazed at my son's recovery and examining his poop as instructed by the surgeon so I can report back at his follow up visit next week. Kyle thinks this is great fun. (Imagine telling an 8 year old boy that to get out of the hospital he has to fart, poop and eat. Does life get any better? My son didn't think so.)

In frugal food news, we're trying to use up what we have on hand so I don't have to take it home. On the bean front, we're down to kidney beans, chickpeas and a few lonely green split peas. Tonight I made chili with homemade tomatillo salsa (I had to do something with those tomatillos from the CSA!) I thought it was too watery so I tossed some bulgur in rather than serving it on the side. It was simple and delicious. We've also become huge fans of the sourdough pancake recipe from The Vegan Family Cookbook. Cooking just feels so normal after all that time in the hospital.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and thoughts. Honestly, the thing that got us through this experience was the kindness of the people around us. In the hospital, we encountered so many parents of sick children, nurses, doctors, volunteers and other hospital staff. All of them were so kind to us. You can't imagine the relief of being shown to a room in the hospital to sleep in while your son spends his first night in the intensive care unit just down the hall, or the gratitude felt toward a father who saw us looking bewildered as we tried to get into the intensive care unit and showed us how to work the phone so we could be let in, or the relief in knowing that the Ronald Mcdonald room(yes, it hurts me to say this but I am forever indebted to the Ronald McDonald House Charities) was on the floor staffed by volunteers and stocked with food and coffee for the families of the kids on the pediatric unit. So be kind to someone, it really can make a difference!