A Long Hard Winter

Hello, is anyone out there? I'm back for my unplanned absence. I didn't mean to be gone for so long, but that is how life goes. 

If you have followed this blog on Facebook then you know that this winter has been a hard one for me. As far as the weather, we have had a very mild winter. However, for me and our family, it has been a long, hard one full of unexpected events. 

It all started shortly after the New Year, when our much loved, spoiled Miss Oakley started showing signs of weakness in her hind legs. After a very long day spent with her at the Vet's office and me at home worrying myself sick, she was diagnosed with 2 herniated discs in her back. She was given meds and was put on strict kennel rest for a month, which meant we had to carry her everywhere. We could put her down to potty, but that was it. Needless to say, it was a long month. She is still not at 100% but she is doing much better now, but it still on modified kennel rest. 

At the end of January, DH had to rush a loved one to the ER with unexplained pain. After a very long night spent at the ER, it was discovered that this loved ones was suffering from an inflamed gall bladder, which required surgery a week later. That night also turned out to be a very long night for me, because I can't sleep when DH is not at home. Almost a month later, DH went back to the ER with the same loved one who was very weak and sick. It turned out this loved one had type A flu, pneumonia, a UTI infection, and C Diff which was caused by all the antibiotics taken during the gall stone episode. After a 4 day hospital day, they came home weak but on the mend. 

On top of all of that, DH and I came down with bad sinus infections and a bad case of bronchitis. I felt so bad that it was all I could do to get meals fixed and laundry washed and dried. The house was a mess and clean laundry was piled everywhere waiting to be folded and put away, but I just didn't care. When my bronchitis didn't seem to want to clear up, I was prescribed steroids. Steroids and I DO NOT get along. They make me jittery, anxious, crabby, and ravenously hungry, not to mention unable to sleep at night. I literally felt like I was going crazy. Not a good feeling. It took a long time to get rid of my cough and I still have occasional coughing fits, but I am feeling much better. 

When everything else seems to be going wrong is when things start tearing up. Within a week's time, one of the box fans we use in our bedrooms at night started smoking and we caught it before it caught on fire. We had to buy a new one. Then, our computer started having mechanical problems and we took it to a repair shop to have the hard drive cloned so we wouldn't lose everything, but they had a hard time cloning it. They finally got it fixed and cloned. Then, our dryer's timer decided to start acting funny. It would count down but wouldn't engage the contacts to turn on the heating element. We got a replace part only to find out it had the opposite problem. It would engage the heat but wouldn't count down. So we ordered another part and it had a broken sprocket, but lucky the first timer we took off had the same sprocket and it was an easy fix. It was a lot to take in, but all we could do was laugh at the error of comedies we were living through.

I know we all go through seasons of life like this, but the events of this winter have left me bruised and battered. It has been hard not to get discouraged and upset by everything. I can't tell that it didn't get me down, because it did. Yet, I know this to shall pass and better days are ahead. I know my family and I are in very capable hands helping us through this valley we are in. I know He will see us through to the other side. I know He is always there to lean on. The knowledge of that along with my DH's loving arms around me have gotten me through this very long hard winter.

Simply living life each day and taking each day as it comes!