Yes, I am having back surgery.

I realize many of you know already that I'm having back surgery in a couple days, and with that knowledge comes many questions.  I don't mind the questions at all, because I have done hours and hours of research to get to where I am in my understanding.  Before such study, I was under the impression that a spinal fusion meant inactivity and thus decline.  However, I have come to see many cases of recent (<10 years) fusions in other young active people that have been decidedly successful!

Long story short, I have degenerative disc disease.  My L5-S1 disc is almost completely gone.  The surgeon will remove what's left of my non-cushioning disc and replace it with this.

Thank you a hundred times to all of you who have (or will) prayed for me, brought meals, watched kids, cleaned my house, and many other helpful things.  I will be completely down for 2 weeks following surgery, and my doctor predicts that I'll be operating at 50% after 4 weeks.  Fifty percent!?!?  I'll take it!! That means I'll be able to play half-games of ultimate frisbee, take half my kids to their scheduled commitments, prune half the orchard, hike halfway up the springtime mountains...right?

If you are curious about scientifically proven research (or have a sinkful of dirty dishes you're trying to avoid), I've included informative links below.  If you wonder if I have tried anything else to help my pain, here are a few of the treatments I have tried with faith and vigor:

walking
magnesium
recumbent exercise bike
massage
physical therapy
chiropractic care
McKenzie exercises
essential oils
tart cherry juice
ice packs
heating pad
lumbar roll
weight lifting
reflexology
TENS unit
lying on the couch doing nothing
yoga
pilates
epidural steroid injections
systemic steroid injections
sacroiliac joint steroid injection
oral corticosteroids
antidepressants
neuropathy medication
narcotics
Shakeology
Reliv
tequila

Many of those things have helped to one degree or another.  The core issue is not an inflammation problem, a muscular problem, or a nutritional problem.

Anyway, that's the news.

Thank you for all your prayers my way!  I have full hope that I'll be on the road to getting better instead of worse by the weekend!

Monosegmental anterior lumbar interbody fusion with the SynFix-LR device : A prospective 2-year follow-up study

Biomechanical comparison of two different concepts for stand alone anterior lumbar interbody fusion

Let all mortal flesh keep silence

My musical Christmas wish to all of you:

Eika turns Eleven

The past year has been a full one for our oldest.  She has created all kinds of things, finally traveled beyond North America, become an aspiring gymnast, and so much more.

 A rug woven using a hula hoop for a frame

Hand-sculpted and painted bowl

Getting acquainted with a crocodile

Pouring out love at Kibuye Hope Hospital in Burundi

Soaking up sunshine on the shores of Lake Tanganyika

Beauty in Bruges, Belgium

 

Looking way too grown up

Gaining confidence, strength, and poise

Making lotion

Dressed as the perfect Pippi

who are you,little i

(five or six years old)

peering from some high

window;at the gold

of november sunset

(and feeling:that if day

has to become night

this is a beautiful way)

               

                                 --e.e. cummings

Instructions for triumphing over Mondays

1. Give your three-year-old a pair of sunglasses.  Tell him they are spy glasses.

2. Give him the vacuum hose.  Tell him it is a spy gun.

3. IF he is wearing his special spy glasses, and IF he says shu-ZAM at just the right moment, his spy gun will magically make things disappear.

4. Point to all the crumbs (dried-up play-dough bits, wood mess and splinters by the wood stove, etc), sit back, and marvel at your genius plan.*

*raisingourebenezer.blogspot.com, the Willis family, Jude the Spy, and Hannah the Spy Mom are not responsible for other items that may inadvertently disappear if your spy is left unattended with his spy gun.

Milestones (or cliffs)

Yes, Henry's birthday was two whole months ago, and I'm just now posting about it.

The day began by opening his few treasured presents:

(a drone thingy that flies, or is supposed to fly, once you figure out what the instructions mean)

There were also Lego sets, birthday money (woo hoo!), and a few boring pairs of jeans and such.

His birthday request was that we could go to the Yaak River, because why would you not want to spend your birthday jumping off a cliff?

We wrapped up the day with the requested angel food cake, strawberries, and whipped cream. I guess this proves that he really is my kid, after all (I know that this issue has seriously been up for debate, considering his love for running).

And just like that, he is nine years old.  

Savory Greek Pastry on a Thursday Afternoon

I have come to a shocking realization:

Each day continues to have only 24 hours in it. This means that each week insists on holding steady at 168 hours.

So schedule cuts have been made this school year. (Wait, really? We have been busy every single night this week.)

The sad news is that none of my kids are taking music lessons this fall. For the past 8 years, there has almost always been one kid or another learning piano or violin (or both). But it is not the passion these days, and something had to go.

In effort both to enrich the upper elementary grades with practical extra-curriculars as well as to get cheap help in the kitchen, we have implemented a rotating lunch prep schedule. My older kids have been cooking lunches and snacks for themselves for quite a while, but there is a caveat this semester. One person fixes lunch each day for everyone, instead of each person choosing his or her own culinary adventure. This can be anything from leftovers to boxed mac-n-cheese to homemade spanakopita—cook's choice.

It's working pretty well so far.

 

Super-simple 12-step process to better kitchen lighting

I guess for every 10 posts like this (which is so much of my life), I have to be positive and share a less defeating project.

Enter The Pendant Lights.

Step One:  Order super cool, on-sale pendant lights just in time for Father's Day, since for the last 4 years your husband has been commenting on his desire for more light over the kitchen island.

Step Two:  Let the lights sit in their boxes in the front entry for six weeks.

Step Three:  Admit defeat when he pronounces his judgment that the clear glass "shade" (hung at eye-level) does nothing to shield one's eyeballs from the increased wattage emitted from even a frosted bulb.

Step Four:  Scheme about ways to cover the shade with patterned paper, paint, or some other pinteresty thing.

Step Five:  Again admit defeat when your husband comes up with The World's Most Boring Idea Ever: this product from the hardware store.

Step Six:  Let the pendants, along with the can of frosting spray, sit on the counter collecting dust for three more weeks.

Step Seven:  Send your husband and two oldest kids on a six-day vacation with his dad's extended family on the other side of the country.  The day they leave, invite an extra three-year-old and five-year-old to come play with your three-year-old and five-year-old.  While they are happily busy doing this

and this,

break out the painter's tape and newspaper to cover the wooden part of the pendants.  I mean, assuming you don't want frosted wood to match your frosted glass.

Step Eight:  After taping one-third of one pendant light, waste an hour (give or take) skimming pinterest for frosted glass inspiration.  Find nothing interesting that doesn't use a stencil of some sort.  Lament the absence of a wild, yet graceful, tree branch stencil at your disposal.

Step Nine:  Make popcorn for the kids, who are now watching a movie.

Step Ten:  Double-check that there aren't any fabulous ideas out there on the interwebs, you know, because hey, it would be hard to get this painter's tape straight using only one hand (the other hand is shoveling popcorn to your mouth, of course).

Step Eleven:  Get down to business.  Tape off the wood.  Practice on a little jar.  Spray the pendants. Scratch the design using a tool designed for any purpose but this.

Step Twelve:  Have your hunk-muffin of a hubby hang the radiant beauties while divas pose and a couple of bucks face off on the nearby kitchen stool.

And switch 'em on!