Can’t believe it’s Wednesday already. Haven’t had much clay time but here’s what is there. The tentacled heart just isn’t coming out the way I wanted unfortunately. Not sure what to do. Guess I’ll go make dinner.
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In an effort to get back into blogging I’m going to post a picture of what’s on my work table. Or I’m gonna try! Maybe this will help motivate me to A: finish projects and B: get some of them into my Etsy shop. Thanks to some friendly inspiration, I’m back on Etsy with polymer clay creations!
So without further babble…
My first slices from my first pirate cane and some playing around with the cane ends. I had avoided canes for a long time because of those “wasteful” ends. But now I’m starting to see them as opportunities for unique pieces.
That’s all for now. Although im liking the faux-sepia of the photo, I think I need to use the daylight bulbs next time. Maybe even the light box. But then it wouldn’t be the workable.
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Wow! Okay. Serious blog neglect going on here. Going to try to remedy that as we kick off the school year this month. At the end of the day Sam thanked me for making the first day back stress-less. LOL! If stress-less is the same as fun, or at least close to it, then today was a success.
Health-wise I think things are starting to look up. My back is fine now and I think we’ve hit on a migraine medicine that may be working. If I can get quality sleep now I think I’ll be set. Although I was starting to enjoy the insomnia-induced, all-night art/craft time. 
No C5k workouts this week. Did stretches and yoga but things were getting worse. My left leg felt like it was burning… even when lying down. It had been a month since coming off the Neurontin. And I was still needing up to 2400mg of ibuprofen a day to keep the pain manageable.
So I started making calls. Orthopedic office made appt for another ESI (epidural steroid injection) and told me to go back on Neurontin and take oxycodone for pian. I made a long overdue appt with a new family doc too.
Thursday I went in for the ESI. The staff and doctors at Advanced Radiology really are wonderful. The injection hurt and really did feel like they had poked “Steve” in the eye.
After the numbing wore off though, things got worse. I had a horrible headache, my leg hurt even more and my back was aching. Friday I was able to get to the Amish and to the Planetarium but I was crashing… on a Friday (visions of another ER trip going through my head).
After a few phone conversations, and the help of a friend, I was back at Advanced Radiology with the diagnosis of a spinal headache. The doc was wonderful at explaining things.
I agreed to go with a “blood patch” to cover the spinal leak caused by the ESI. Basically they draw some of your blood and inject it into the same space the ESI went into. Wholly beejeebers!!! The blood draw didn’t go well and the injecting… That was nearly more pain than I could take!
It’s now Saturday. I felt pretty good when I woke up. Pain at a 2. But after about 5 minutes of being up that pain was at a 5 and didn’t go away when I lay down. essentially I am back where I started pain wise. Frustration.
With a little luck, the ESI will kick in this afternoon. Barring that the increasing Neurontin should start helping. Barring that the Oxycodone should knock me out. Depressing.
I hate to end on a downer note so here are a couple really great things that happened this week:
The kids are still loving the yoga so there is some great good coming from it. They are getting really good at arm balances and backbends. It is cute to see their faces light up at doing things they thought beyond their level.
At tea time this week, Jessie read poetry aloud for the first time. Very cool! Afterwards she even wrote her own.
And if that isn’t enough goodness, I’ll close this post with a quote from Jessie: “Thank goodness you have family and friends to take care of you. ”
Indeed!
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Woke up Thursday morning pretty gimpy and sore. The sore is good, the gimpy not so much. The kids asked for yoga again so we did Gaiam’s Family Yoga DVD
I had intended to do a third C5k session on Friday but decided against it. Hurt too much.
But I did one session more than last week plus yoga so I’ll mark that as improvement. Hmmm… May stick with week one until I can get three days in one week.
On the homeschooling front, I tried something new with Jessie’s handwriting worksheets. I had her practice writing in both Spanish and English. Made the sheet using StartWrite software. She seemed to like it too. Always a bonus there.
Two workouts in one week! Went to the gym yesterday. Steve had a lot to say about it today. Lots of advil needed to keep me upright.
Second session of a.m. yoga with the kids today. Boggles that running does not hurt but yoga (and just about everything else) does. ??????
Even tried some karate today. I can do punches and blocks but that’s it. 
Time is up. Gotta hit the hay.
????! (( _ _ ))..zzzZZ
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Tried doing a morning yoga session with the kids using: Yoga For Families: Connect With Your Kids
Back: Siff and sore from C5k W1D1. Hoping yoga will help keep the muscles loose and the advil will keep the nerve inflammation down. Tomorrow hoping to try W1D2!
My mom was up for a visit last week (yay!) so I didn’t exercise at all. Figured I’d better do day one again. My right IT band is a bit tight but other than that I’m feeling pretty good. Gotta remember to stretch and roll tomorrow…. hrm… maybe we’ll start studies off with some morning yoga tomorrow.
It is so weird to not hurt when I run or stand but when I sit or walk a lot. OUCH! But I think this is good…. errr… “normal”. Weird. Taking advil in the evening makes the morning less painful. Weird too. But I’m feeling good in the evenings so another good… pretty sure.
On homeschooling: Have started gathering items for next school year. Love this part. Getting pretty excited! Found some neat resources for Jessie: Chinese games… Tiu-U or Chinese Domino Cards (lots of math involved there) and PiaJi and… and… and…
… and now I must get to bed. Got too side-tracked planning next year and didn’t plan tomorrow. Doh!
To health and hopefully to a more positive mental outlook… I took the first step today. I’m sure Steve will have something to say in the morning. So far, I’m not in any more pain than when I started.
60sec of running alternating with 90sec walking for 20min. At first the walking bits were frustrating but towards the end they were a welcome break. LOL!
Almost embarrassed to say that it was facilitated by a couch-to-5k iPhone app. ^_^; but if it gets me there it’s okay. Right?
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Started to write this about two weeks ago! Still worth a post…
Friday we had what I think was our first really combined lesson. Of course it really wasn’t supposed to be
Sam’s math lesson that day was 3D figures and “nets”. Thank goodness for teacher’s manuals! I had no idea what a “net” was. Mathematically speaking.
Found a website where you could download patterns to make various polyhedra. It helped a bit I think to define the vocab by pointing to the various parts of 3D models rather than flat images. But Sam still looked a little befuddled after but I let it go. We’ll revisit it again soon.
His sister however had this to say:
Oh yeah. She’s been studying Ancient Egypt.
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