I LOVE Days Like This!

EDT 8:19 pm: Misspelled word has been corrected. Can you imagine my laughter when I read my post today and saw that I had given our "friendly neighborhood duck" a MONOCLE??? His "MONAKER" is "Mr. Quackers"!!!

I accomplished much! Now here is the proof!

I took apart the air vents/fans in both bathrooms to give them a good cleaning inside.

The vent back in place after a good scrubbing with

a toothbrush and bleach.

A freshly washed bathroom door.

My trusty "KIRBY" carpet spot remover. This took care of the problem in the next photo.

Proof for those who say my house is never dirty! See the orange spot on the formal living room carpet? I do declare, we did buy Cheetos last week!

A clean and shiny bathroom! The vent in here was also taken down and cleaned.

Shane's bedroom didn't get a good vacuuming due to an ensuing battle!

I couldn't live with out this monster! My hard-working Kirby Vacuum.

See spot? (on the wall)

See spot run?

This chased spot away!

Time was spent instructing Shane in Bible, Reading, Spelling, Cursive Writing, and Math! Maybe we'll sneak some History in before bed.

A healthy afternoon snack of pineapples and cottage cheese.

I weeded this section in the backyard.

You can see this section which remains to be weeded. I will attempt tomorrow and then will work around to the other side of the patio.

Shane and neighbor feeding our friendly neighborhood duck, whom we've given the fine monaker of "Mr.Quackers."

The hall bath, all clean and shiny!

Freshly laundered towels, folded and ready to be put away.

You may be wondering why my accomplishment of these few chores warrant a blog post and why all the photos of such menial tasks. Just know this, I AM AMAZED that I have the capability of performing any of these alone. You see, this time last year, I was just beginning a new regime of meds for my RA (rheumatoid arthritis), Diabetes, aand a couple of other issues I was dealing with. I had been immobile for many months and seldom left my home. My loving husband did most of the grocery shopping and heavy chores around the home. On his days off, he saw to it that our 10 year old participated in activities out and about. I, on the other hand, was happy if I had the capability of getting the bed made daily, my shower taken, and giving instruction to Shane. I only occasionally attended church services. It was much easier to get ready if my hubby was home to help me dress. Due to his work schedule, I wasn't able to attend as often as I should. As I sat in service this past Easter service, I reflected a moment on our Easter service last year. My then 20 year old son had driven up from Tampa to drive Shane and I to church. He first had to help dress me. So you can bet I remembered to rejoice and give thanks to the Lord during this year's Easter service. For you see, this year I was able to dress and drive myself! I've learned to not take small daily things for granted. God has used my chronic pain to teach me so many things and most importantly, He has proven over and over again that His tender mercies are abundantly given to me each and every day.

After one year of many changes, I can now:

*climb to reach things which need cleaning
*vacuum my entire house in one day
*walk an hour each day
*scrub my own bathtubs
*shop and cook on the same day
*kick the soccer ball with Shane and try to keep up with his neat tricks
*hold a baby for longer periods of time
*stand outside and talk with neighbors
*exercise on this!

I must now go do my 15 minutes on this thing. We lovingly refer to it as "THE BEAST"!!! (When we first bought it about a month ago, I could only manage to creak out 30 seconds or so on it. I've slowly worked my way up to 15 minutes at a time!) BABY STEPS!

Now on another topic: Here's the shot of my cowboy boots I mentioned in the previous post. One of the outfits I like to wear them with is a suede dress of the same color, which is enhanced with silver and turquoise bling! (Think Pocahontas) It drives my 21 year old son crazy! "Mom!" says he. "Those boots shouldn't be worn with that dress." I ask, "Why not?" He replies, "They cancel each other out. You can't be an Indian (Native American) and a cowboy at the same time." Oh well!