Snow and Grass

How can one have snow and then green grass the next day? Just live in Minnesota. Yesterday we awoke to another light April snow, today we awoke to green grass. As I looked out the window I was reminded that soon the riding lawn mower would be removed from the shed and I would be making the passes, back and forth across our lawn in summer gear. Woo Hoo!

The joy of watching the birds peck and hunt in our front and back yards is a spring time joy. We have a pair of robins that squat under our deck eaves, alternating each year. They use one next one year and the other the next. I wonder which nest it will be this year; the robins have been hunting in the yard a lot lately. I have not seen the flickers yet. They come to our back yard each spring, a sure sign that spring is here and seed time will begin.

The river is finally starting to drop from the high of over 16 and 6/10 feet. It runs wild and free, way out of the backs and onto the fields still. It is receding finally. It is going to be a very late seed time this year and we probably won't be able to see all of our fields. The field north of Badger is the only field that looks even close to getting dry enough to drive a drill onto.

Following the rain and snow we had on the Sunday was the worse driving conditions on our country roads I have ever encountered. The roads are greasy and rutted no matter where I drove. Today is it partly cloudy and I don't think there is any rain in the forecast so hopefully they will dry out; the grader will come by and all will be well again.

Perhaps a little total hip replacement (thr) and total knee replacement (tkr) update should be noted. It is amazing how quickly the body recovers from surgery. Except for periodic stiffness and not always having the range of motion I would like to have, things are wonderful.

At this point, most days I can fairly run up and down stairs, walk a mile or two easily, sleep through the night without any pain, and generally feel better than I have in years. The terrible back pain I experiences prior to my hip replacement is gone, although once in a while I do have some back pain on the other side. This is annoying but livable pain; after all I have arthritis along my lower spine with many spurs to deal with. Would I advise these surgeries? Definitely!

There is lots to do at work, the Minnesota History test to complete, a news article to put together and some research to do. Time to head into work.

Minnesota weather is so unpredictable

Ardmore's moving around the bedroom upstairs woke me at 5 this morning. I sleep in the bedroom below him. It has a shorter bed in it so it is easier for me to get in and out of with my hip replacement. Needless to say, whenever he wakes up, he wakes me up. He decided to share the snowstorm with me, so came traipsing down the stairs to inform me that we had about 4 plus inches of snow. Ouch! I knew snow was coming but didn't think it would be that much. This snow is up on the office window in the lower level of the house, so much for spring. It is like a full-blown blizzard out, with the wind howling and making drifts. The snow is still coming down.

Our deck at 7 am this morning

I knew I should have taken in that deck chair!

I feel for the birds that have arrived. Some of my friends have had to put out their humming bird feeders already. What happens to a humming bird when we have this much snow? We had several robins pecking in the back yard yesterday they too must look long and hard for a meal now. I hope this snow disappears fast!

This ends my walking outside for a few days, thank goodness for PT. Yesterday at PT, it did three-quarter of a mile on the step abductor. It wasn't difficult and didn't take long. Going to PT now will set a precedent for the future; it will have become a habit. Each day, I feel stronger and more fit.

Pam gave me a massage yesterday. She has magic hands and arms! I went right home afterward completely relaxed and rested the rest of the day. An hour massage is the best medicine.

James called last evening. He was driving to pick up a date for a LDS Young Adult Conference. He is so busy he needs to begin to say no to some things. Take this week as an example. Sunday he had guests over for supper. On Tuesday, he had an Elder's Quorum presidency meeting. He is President. Wednesday he went sailing, he had committed to this a while back He has lofty goals and sometimes over extends himself. Humm, that sounds so familar. I think I tend to do that too.

A mother's thought.

It is difficult to see your children become unhappy about something in their life, life is not usually fair. I have seen so many things in our lives and our children that I would like to see more successful, but life is not controlled by us. Then again, we also make choices that limit our ability to succeed.

Today is good example of how life is uncontrollable. We are involved in agriculture. We seed about 400 acres, not much but many in our area see thousands and we are all receiving this snow. This much snow right now will interfere with seeding, and can be devastating. It is possible that it will snow and rain off and on all spring and we won't get a crop seeded. We have crop insurance but we would sooner seed and harvest the crops than take an insurance payment for not being able to. There are no guarantees in life.

Thought for the day
"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."
Henry David Thoreau

1:30 pm

Ardmore is out snowblowing. I hope this is the last time; we have at least ten inces of heavy wet snow!

Snow blowing the last of April!

Thoughts on hip replacement exercises

I have about 15 exercises I do two to three times a day. Most are very easy but a few I find give me some discomfort. Those are the ones I am going to focus on and see if I receive any comments from anyone about their discomfort also.

The first exercise I seem to have pain with is the back leg raise while laying on one's stomach. This exercise causes pain at the top of my inner thigh. The second exercise to cause pain is the side leg raises. These also cause pain in the inner thigh. I can do these better than when I first started and it seems the pain is not as bad but they are still very hard to do. The pain for each of these exercises lasts for a while following my exercise program. I know it is not uncommon for women to experience inner thigh pain up to two years following hip replacement and wonder if these exercises help or hinder the recovery effort.