Monday Musings

Made it to the gym again today. Met up with my friend Chris again for some good chatting while we sweated away. 40 min on the treadmill and 10 on the bike. Covered 2.75 miles on the treadmill - certainly won't win any races with a time like that, but I think my body is telling me to ease back into this thing - the last two times I've gone to the gym and done my weekend-warrior routine, I've paid for it with a massive headache for several hours afterwards. I deduce from the evidence that I may be over-exerting.

Today, never let my heart rate go into the "red" zone and I feel a whole lot better.

We've been having "issues" with childcare lately. For those (very few) of you who don't know about things that transpired this summer, I will give you the Readers Digest version...

When Dad started going downhill, we hired a home health aide name Leslie. She is from Tonga - Dad would call her "Leslie from Tonga" as if all three words constituted her name. She was wonderful - helped Mom around the house, could actually lift Dad in and out of bed or his wheel chair... and when the boys would go over to visit, they were ever so cautious of Leslie. They clearly like her (would giggle and chat with her) but if she said "Stop" or "quiet", miraculously, they listened! When Dad passed away, the decision was made that she would help take care of Christopher.

Three or four weeks into her new role with our family, and I am learning that consistency is not necessarily her strong suit. She clearly loves my boys - she was as upset and tearful when we had to take Christopher to the hospital as I was, but there have been a few mornings when she did not arrive on time, or days when I'd said that she could come by in the afternoon, rather than the morning, and she did not show up.

I so dearly hope that things work out. I am OK with the idea of going back to work - and going back full time will certainly help the bottom line for our family, but I am having mild panic attacks over the idea that this situation might not work out.

Keep your fingers crossed for us, will you??