Sunday, January 5, 2025

It's The Little Things

January 5, 2025
Being a homeowner means there is always something to be done, and I don't always have the skill set to complete all the chores quickly or easily. I am so thankful that Rafe is not only a good handyman, but that he is absolutely willing to jump in and take care of things that need to be done. He is a true partner in that way, and I feel pretty lucky!

Saturday, January 4, 2025

In Limbo

January 4, 2025 In October, I had knee surgery. Lisa and I were taking salsa dance classes, and one night while being spun by my partner, I heard a familiar snap. (Familiar because I have heard that snap before while jumping on a trampoline, and it signaled a torn ACL and meniscus.) My instincts were right; after a few weeks of some hobbling and significant pain, I went to the orthopedist who diagnosed a torn meniscus. I was thankful it wasn't the ACL, since that would have been a more intense recovery. I scheduled surgery and let my school know I'd be out for a few weeks. Little did I know! When in surgery, the doctor found cartilege that was torn all the way through. He opted to not only repair the meniscus, but to perform micro-fracturing, which is a process by which drilled holes in the kneecap down to the marrow are done in order to promote healing and rebuilding of the damaged cartilege. I'm glad he did it while he was there, but the repercussions of that procedure were that I was to be completely non-weight-bearing on that knee for a full six weeks while it healed. Far longer than I anticipated, for sure, and after that there was physical therapy to rebuild strenghth and stability in those muscules. That's what I've been doing for the past several weeks; I finally got off crutches (falling twice after I could finally start to put weight on that leg!) and have been trying to rebuild stamina and reduce my limp. Here's where the limbo starts: The doctor recommended 24 physical therapy sessions. My insurance will only approve ten at a time. The doctor's note for disability has me off until February 2, but I was hoping to come back early, when the new semester begins. The physical therapist said when my first 10 P.T. sessions were done that she wasn't inclined to recommend me going back yet, but since we still had a couple of weeks of P.T. during the Christmas break, she'd be open to seeing what my progress was like. In order for my insurance to approve of the next set of 10 P.T. visits, my doctor had to review my 10 visit report and agree that yes, he still recommended a total of 24 sessions and would like for me to continue. Apparently, however, communication among Doctor, P.T., and Insurance is something akin to the Bermuda Triangle. P.T. has said they have faxed the doctor with the report three times, and the doctor's office has said that they have never received anything, despite reaching out to the P.T. office. P.T. can't schedule anything without an okay from Insurance, and Insurance says they won't approve anything until the paperwork from Doc to P.T. has been submitted to them. In the meantime, I have been attempting to play middleman to no avail and haven't been able to get phyical therapy for two weeks, let alone clearance to go back to work. And so, although students return from Christmas break on Tuesday, I will be out at least for another week while waiting for everyone to figure out how to get me back on track.

Friday, January 3, 2025

Albert's Birthday

January 3, 2025
A couple of weeks ago, Lisa, Bree, and Danielle and I went to a friend's house to make tamales. I'm not sure how we came into the tradition of having tamales every Christmas, except that opportunities for purchasing homemade Mexican tamales are plentiful at Christmas time, particularly in the Central Valley. Because of my fondness for them and easy access, my kids always grew up knowing that we'd have tamales at Christmastime--it's one of our traditions. When I happened to mention it at Thanksgiving to a friend, she offered to have us all over for a tamale-making day. I've always heard that it was a long day, tamale-making, and it was! However, with many hands and a few steamers, we were able to make about 18 dozen chicken, pork, and vegetarian tamales among all of us. (We talked, of course, and had the requisite singable songs going, which made the process much more fun.) I can confidently say that they turned out pretty well! Rafe suggested that we take some to his dad when we celebrated his birthday, which is today. Although I admit to a little trepidation about taking my homemade tamales to someone who grew up in a traditional Mexican household and whose mom used to make him tamales, we decided we'd go to Tulare for dinner and treat him. Rafe made beans and Albert made rice, and I must say we sat down to a very tasty meal together! Both of his parents thanked us and gave us the stamp of approval for the tamales, which made me feel good. I love visiting Albert and Cyndi because they are always so welcoming to me, so it really was a great birthday visit. :)

Thursday, January 2, 2025

One of My Favorite Things

January 2, 2025
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love babies. Today I got to take dinner to a good friend who just had her third baby. Sweet Daniel was sleeping cozily in his dad's arms, but I got to see that precious boy and give his mama a hug. I can't wait to go back and cuddle that sweet boy! Just seeing that little family, in the aftermath of Christmas, just spending time with each other and focusing in on what's important while mama recovers and everyone bonds with their newest arrival made my heart happy. Oh how I wish our society valued that kind of family time together more than it values the work, work, work of every day life.

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

January-My Word for the Year

January 1, 2025
Each January I start the year by getting back into writing on this platform, sometimes with strong success, and some years (like last year), only managing to maintain consistency until February. Regardless of how often I post or how long through the year I keep up chronicling my life, I have come to reassess the idea of labeling resolutions of any kind as 'successess' or 'failures'. I think I managed 15 entries last year, and some years I have managed upwards of 200. However, I don't choose to see last year as a failure. I wrote 15 more times than I would have if I had not challenged myself to remember to set aside time. I count that as a win. Goals that we have are goals that we believe we want to prioritize. That being said, I also believe an important part of goal-setting is doing a periodic check-in with yourself. If you are not meeting a goal, are there obstacles in your way that you can in someway remove? Are there different ways you can try to reprioritize your time and energy to meet that goal? Or, if you truly reassess, is it possible that this goal is NOT now a priority for you at this moment or period in your life? Perhaps if you are not meeting a goal, you have consciously or unconsciously decided that your effort and energy are needed in a different area of your life right now. If that's the case, that's okay. That doesn't mean the goal isn't important or worthwhile; rather, it means that your focus is on something else that is also important. I have decided to give myself grace in this regard and recognize that I prioritized different things last year, and now I'd like to get back to this goal. A handful of years ago, I saw a post where the writer decided to focus on a particular word to carry with them through the year, rather than making a list of New Year's Resolutions. I adopted this tradition, and have felt the power of my chosen words each year since. In keeping with my musings about success and failure and goals and the like, I have decided my word for the year will be INTENTIONAL. I want to be intentional with my time, my resources, my energy, and my relationships, endeavoring to make sure that the way choose to operate in my life truly reflects my goals at any given time.