by jphilo | Dec 1, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
Gravel Road posts have been a bit spotty for a few weeks. Here are the top 10 reasons why.
10. Two to three hand therapy appointments a week.
9. Fifteen minutes worth of hand therapy exercises every two hours during the day.
8. Christmas shopping and present wrapping.
7. Thanksgiving baking and cooking.
6. Hours and days in a carbohydrate stupor after the Thanksgiving feast.
5. The Grandbaby’s arrival which led to quibbling with the Man of Steel about who’s turn it was to play with the little guy.
4. Spending time with our kids.
3. Watching Baby and marveling over his new skills: hand clapping, food smearing, and flashing a most disarming grin.
2. Nursing the cold Baby passed along when he planted a huge, slobbery kiss right on Grammy’s lips.
1. Feeling all mopey while doing piles of laundry after the kids and grandbaby went home.
What’s eating away your time this holiday season? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Jul 27, 2015 | Family, Uncategorized
Home. I’m finally home after several weeks of travel. All to see family. All of it good. But I’m glad to be home and in one place again, with time to think and reflect and process the experiences.
And to do laundry.
Because our very precocious and gifted almost 4-month-old grandson proved to be very adept at peeing on my lap. By the end of 6 days of snuggles, the little rascal had soaked through his diapers and every pair of pants in my suitcase.
And that’s saying something.
Because I’m one of those people who throws in an extra of everything. Just in case. And then an extra extra of everything. Just in case the just in case extra of everything might not be enough.
And it wasn’t enough.
Which means I now need to pack an extra extra extra of everything. Just in case. Or–paradigm shift–I could do laundry at the grandson’s house. Why didn’t I think of that before?
I know why.
Because I’m too busy thinking about that sweet little boy who found his fists this week, learned to put them in his mouth, who grasped his rattle for the first time, who cooed and smiled at his grammy, and stole her heart.
And her mind.
So she paid scant attention to the time or the gleam in his little eye that means, “I’m going to pee now.” Which is why every pair of my pants came home pee-soaked and pee-stained.
And I came home happy, exhausted, and utterly content.
by jphilo | Mar 21, 2011 | Current Events
With the earthquake in Japan, the air strikes in Libya, and March Madness some topics of national interest have been overlooked by the media recently. To be specific, the completion of our new first floor laundry room. My January 20 blog post recorded the commencement of the project, and a mere two months later, the job is done.
Which must be a relief to those of you who’ve been waiting with bated breath to hear more about the earth shattering adventure. To be honest, I a little chagrined by the fact that this breathtaking ecological story (the new washer and dryer are energy efficient) hasn’t been all over Facebook, Twitter, and the greater blogosphere. I guess my natural humility and lack of self-absorption simply kept me from uploading daily photos of the progress. That and the fact that the new laundry/half bathroom is so small it’s really hard to take pictures. To get today’s shot, I had to stand on the toilet – lid down, of course. So, in the interest of full disclosure, I freely admit that my propensity for vertigo when perched on anything taller than roller skates has a great deal to do with the poor journalistic coverage of this major event.
To make up for my alarming lack of journalistic commitment, Hiram and I hereby invite you to the christening of the laundry room this Tuesday evening. We will break open a new bottle of detergent in honor of the event and read aloud from the instruction manuel in preparation for the the launch of our stackable washer and dryer. Refreshments will not be served, but you’re welcome to stay and chat until the laundry folding festival begins.
For those of you who aren’t afraid of heights, feel free to bring digital cameras and take pictures (in shifts since the laundry room only holds 2 or 3 people) of this breaking news story. You can even use my computer to upload them on Facebook, so the people who can’t attend don’t feel excluded. Consider it your journalistic duty to humanity.
This kind of breaking news can’t be squelched. It must reach the common man!
by jphilo | Aug 17, 2009 | Different Dream, How-Tos, Special Needs Parenting
The previous post suggested five ways parents of hospitalized kids can respond when people offer to help. The longer your child’s illness lasts, the more ways people can assist you. Here are five more ideas for the people who want to make your situation manageable.
Pet Care
Arrange for someone to care for your pets in your home or provide “foster care” in theirs.
Laundry
Have someone drop off clean clothes once or twice a week and talke your dirty ones home to launder.
Technology
If you’re uncomfortable with technology, have a teenager or computer guru create and update a webpage for you on www.carepages.com or www.caringbridge.com. Or ask a techie friend to help you connect with the outside world by downloading your digital camera, sending out pictures via email, ordering prints, dealing with cell phone issues, or creating a facebook account.
Yard work
Depending on the season, ask a neighbor to mow, water, shovel snow, and tend flower beds.
Cleaning
A long absence can leave your house and refrigerator pretty skanky. Ask volunteers to give your house a thorough going over before you come home. They can even throw the moldy stuff in the refrigerator away and stock it with milk, eggs, and bread. Coming home to a clean house makes the transition from hospital to real life go much smoother.
If accepting help or admitting that you need assistance is hard for you, remember that the people who care about you are hurting for you, too. When let them shoulder your needs, not only are they ministering to you, you are ministering to them.
In my next post, you’ll learn five more ways people can help when you’re in the hospital with a sick child.
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by jphilo | Apr 15, 2009 | Daily Life
This morning dawned bright, clear, and chilly. During the first two hours of daylight, the sun chased the cold away and ushered in perfect spring weather.
Since Wednesday is laundry day around, I quickly stripped the beds and gave the washing machine a work out. Then I pegged everything, including the handmade quilts (lining side out so the pieced side won’t fade), on the clothesline. Between the light breeze and the sun, they’ll be dry by mid-afternoon.
Hanging the laundry outside is a lot of work – trips down to the laundry room and carrying up baskets of heavy, wet linens, and wrestling the wind while pegging them to the line. All that happens before, what is for me, the drudgery of all drudgeries, making beds. Only my desire for a foretaste of heaven motivates my lazy soul to go to so much trouble.
The air in heaven, I think, will carry the fragrance of clean sheets dancing with the breeze beneath a springtime sun. And tonight, when I crawl between the air-sweetened sheets my lungs with fill gratitude. I’ll fall asleep bathed in the simple pleasure of a most fragrant aroma. Heaven can’t smell better than that.
