Three Months Later

How have things changed in three months? Well.

Rich is coming along well with his speech and language. We've seemed to hit a road block of sorts or a plateau of gaining ground. Rich sees it as a road block and feels frustrated. I try to keep him encouraged to keep moving and doing things and to keep using his language.

If we have a dreary day he is dreary himself and it is hard to get him motivated to do anything.

Lately I have been leaving part of the chores unfinished in the morning so when I come into the house I can say to him, "Oh by the way, the cattle need water. Or I need your help with getting some hay out."
Anything to keep him involved and engaged.

He still has an issue with memory or processing. We started to work on that in Speech Therapy and I soon realized that Rich always sort of had an issue of being a bit distracted when he went out to do something.

Changing what he was like before stroke can't really be fixed now. I have to ask him often if he recalls what it is he went to do. He stops for a moment and sometimes he does remember.
Those times he will give me a sly grin and say, "Oh I think I am supposed to water Thor!" He will wink at me and then tell me that he thought of something else first.
Those other moments he will stand and stare at me while he thinks. He'll frown and then say, "Nope. It is gone."

Do I miss work? Well I hadn't really thought about it. But one of my old supervisors called on Thursday to see how things were going. I told her things were working out well and I didn't miss the crazy shift hours or being called in the middle of the night because someone had called off.

I do miss the conversations I had with co-workers.
Do I miss the income?
Well. Yes and no.
I find that we have saved money by me not working. No more 60 mile round trips in the car up to four times a week. I find that I don't have to fill up the gas tank very often. Our grocery bill has dropped. I am not getting off from a 12 hour shift and driving through town and picking up take out for our supper any more.
Meals are planned and are much more healthy. I'm not exhausted all of time either!

The garden is producing a great variety of summer food and I am freezing food for the winter as well as drying herbs for winter stews.

Three months have flown by. We have been busy with visiting kids and friends, mule riding, fishing, and just keeping things going with the animals we have left.
I find myself doing more now than when I was working.

I have time to get up in the middle of the night to watch the stars, or to watch the moon set from the comfort of our porch.

How are things now?
Pretty darned good I'd say.

Three months later and Rich still improves a small bit. Our routines have changed. How we do things has changed.
But all in all, things are working out rather smoothly.

Who knew, right?