Susiej

Before the sun sets today, I’d like to live within the parameters of today’s minutes, hours and seconds. Lately, this has proved to be an insurmountable task. Maybe Brownies will help me get there. Today, at 11:30, I will pick up my newly minted Freshman at the high school to have his cast removed. Although, it just dawned on me that I have yet to take a photo of him with it on. There is no group shot with him and his brothers on the first day of school, my son on crutches having to trek through his first day of high school on crutches. What is wrong with me?  The kids are already off at school, and there no way to corral them all back for a “let’s pretend it’s the first day” photo shot. Nor have I sorted through, and filed away, school papers from the last school year, which came home in May and June.

My mind is somewhere else. Far off into the past, and far off into the future.  Today, I will try to bring myself back to the present moment — my son’s cast will be removed today. What a milestone this is. Although, we must not get too excited… he’ll be back in a boot, non-walking for up to three months. But physical therapy starts today… and that shrunken leg, which breaks my heart to see, will start its rebuilding process. This is a first step toward healing. For this, I am grateful.

If I can find that open window of time, when we are all at home from sports practices at the same time, I will bake Brownies to celebrate this moment in time, in real time.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: boy by SusieJ - No Comments →

After spending the summer jumping off a wooden dock we took the birthday boy to the city pool, where there were diving boards, chlorine, and cement sidewalks.

He asked if he could jump off the diving boards. I didn’t know. Could he swim to the ladder? So hard to know, as the lake obscures so many of the boundaries that he swims around.

“Sure,” I said, gingerly, keeping my watchful gaze over his body, while scanning the distance from the diving board to the ladder.

He Jumped, and easily swam to the ladder.

Shot from my htc Google phone.

Beaming from his success, he looked back at me and said, “Can I go off the high dive?”

“Sure,” I said.

He marched up the ladder. Took a break, and looked down, and carefully, climbed back down the ladder backwards.

“Mom, you were wrong. I can’t do that.

And Happy Birthday.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Laugh, birthday, boy by SusieJ - 2 Comments →

When the sun appears, we are a bit more sleepy than usual. Our real fun happens after 11 pm, when the sun finally sets, and the sky lights up like a planetarium. We sit back in our boat seat and look up. The Perseid meteor showers have returned. There is no other option than to take the kids with us, as we know that sleep can wait, and this is a better science lesson than any text book could deliver. Kids, ages 7-15 sit in the boat with grownups, without electronics, joining the chorus of “Ohhhh and ahhhhs” that sweep over the boat ever few minutes.

Sometimes, by the time you’ve heard a squeal, you’re too late to look where they’re looking — because the streak will be gone already. But every once in a while, you’ll get one that lasts, and lasts, and lasts, and everyone sees it at the same time. More fun than a MilkyWay candy bar.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: boy, the lake house by SusieJ - 2 Comments →

Mom, fix the

camera

so that when

I jump off the dock,

I’m invisible.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Laugh, Life, boy, the lake house by SusieJ - 1 Comment →

As if having the frogs around wasn’t enough, they came with an accompaniment. Poison Ivy.

Frogs like to live in the tall grassy weeds, and there, unbeknownst to my son, was a big bed of Poison Ivy. He had marched right though the weeds, and there was not one spot of his body that didn’t hold some welt of the inflamed itches. I mean everywhere. Even his ears.

His eyes were soon swelled (not shut) and his itching was relentless.

But yet, there is a cure, and I must feel compelled to share this — because I can’t stand to see kids suffer. I did not get this stuff for free, (I wish! The stuff is expensive.) This is not a review. Zanfel Poison Ivy Cream is a Poison Ivy, (or Poison Oak or Sumac) soap that will eliminate the posion — not just the itches. The sooner you treat it, obviously, the better. But even my son’s poison, which had been growing for about 4 days, was curable… just took several applications. This stuff is a soap, but it comes in a tube, and squeezes out like lotion… kind of weird. Would have preferred it was a bar of soap. And, this stuff is quite expensive… $30 for a tube of the stuff, but considering what a visit to the doctor would have cost, combined with potential steroid shots, we came out pretty easy.

The hardest part was figuring out how to apply the stuff… very specific instructions.

1) Get a shower and get all wet.

2) Squeeze out EXACTLY 1.5 inches of Zanfel (there is a ruler enclosed in the packaging) and rub this stuff in your hands for 3 minutes with water to create a lather.

3) Rub the soap onto the affected areas.

4) Leave soap on until the itching stops. Which, for my son, was quite complicated… because he had different stages of the poision, so when one area felt like it was “cured,” and he would jump in the shower to wash it off, he suddenly remembered there was another spot that still itched. So, we had to do this several times before we got him all settled.

Then, he was happily, again, comforatble in his own skin.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Laugh, boy, health, the lake house, try this by SusieJ - 3 Comments →

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Laugh, Life, boy, the lake house by SusieJ - No Comments →