Back Again?

So, since Memorial Day weekend, my back has plagued me with aches, pains, lost sleep, etc...  Actually, my back pain started in High School after a car accident I was in.  However, during the past several years I haven't had many problems with it.  In Italy I was walking, I had changed my eating habits and lost weight, and our bed was nice and firm.  Since my brother's accident a year ago, I stopped walking, ate whatever was given to us, slept on whatever we could find (hospital beds, recliners, benches, couches, air mattresses, etc....) and gained some of my weight back on.  A dietician we met with said stressful situations will add weight on, maybe there's something in my survival instincts that tells me body, 'whatever problems we are facing, if you brace yourself, find a cave to crawl in, put on some hibernation weight and hunker down until things settle, we'll be okay'.  Well, the dust has been settling and my back pain has worsened due to the situational and habitual factors. 

My chiropractor told me today that it is my sciatic nerve running down my right leg that's bothering me.  He asked if it feels like a dagger is digging into the top of my right leg, to which I replied wholeheartedly, "Yes".  For a few weeks now, I have been trying to walk Brinkley each day.  It also gets me out into the neighborhood, something that I would have made a goal to do in Italy.  Been working on exercising some with a big RED ball and trying to be more discerning into what goes in my gullet.  Hopefully, next time I write about this, I can title it, "Back no more".

Humbled to Have Help

So, I've been working from home today, sitting at the kitchen table looking out onto a very cool sight.  Fifteen to twenty volunteers from American Airlines and the United Way have been in our (Kevin's) backyard since around 8.  They have been laboring without complaint all day.  We were asked what projects needed done around the house for us and Kevin.  Since, a couple great guys at Highland Park Christian Church built a ramp out front for Kevin's wheelchair, that didn't need done, but there were other needs.  We talked about having a deck to take Kevin out onto, they countered with the idea to have a covered deck.  I told them that if we had a privacy fence, we could take Kevin outside to give him a shower.  We knew we needed a storage building to put things like the mower away to protect it from the elements.  And every time it rains, a small lake is formed in the back fifteen feet of yard.  It causes mosquito issues as well as potential flooding, if we ever get a really hard rain. 

They are doing all the projects.  Wow.  I am humbled by their sacrifice.  I appreciate their gift of hard work.  I am thankful for the good things that God gives us through them, whether they realize they are the conduit of that gift or not.

Newsletter - August 2010

Here's our August newsletter.  Make yourself up a cup of coffee or warm tea and enjoy reading!  Let us know if you want to receive a paper version of our newsletters.