Thursday, August 12, 2021

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2008. It was our first week in the hospital, awaiting Mattie's chemotherapy infusion. We were outside Mattie's hospital room, in the hallway of the pediatric intensive care unit. Mattie's child life specialist (Linda), who was getting to know us, decided to set up a painting project in the hallway, as Mattie's buddy, Charlotte, was going to visit him after school. Linda understood that she needed to plan an activity to bring Charlotte and Mattie together. It was a great idea because it was hard on Mattie's friends to visit a hospital and see a friend so ill. Throughout Mattie's treatment, Charlotte kept on visiting, despite the fact that most of Mattie's friends stopped coming. It speaks volumes to me about Charlotte's strength, courage, and friendship. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 36,249,006
• Number of people who died from the virus: 618,813

I set my alarm to get up by 7am. It never happened. Somehow in the middle of the night, I must have shut my alarm off. I woke up at 8:30am, and was scrambling to get ready to get on my conference call. Meanwhile, Peter hasn't been feeling well. He had whatever I had over the weekend. Except add to it nausea. Given my migraines, I am quite used to nausea, which is why I always travel around with zofran, an anti-nausea med. Needless to say, I am monitoring Peter and he is having forced rest this afternoon. 

My conference call was interesting today. Do you know when you expect to have one type of conversation, and then what actually happens is something else?! Well that was today's call, as the person I was talking to, invited me to co-write a book with her. Though I like the idea and I support the content that she wishes to cover, I feel like if I am going to devote time to write a book, it first and foremost must be Mattie's story. So given I am moving, I will be moving my parents in with us in 2022, and I am trying to run the Foundation and obtain a big government grant this year, I am hesitant to commit myself to any other project. 

It was another busy day at the Farm. We have HVAC over (as the system isn't working and it's like 100 degrees), electricians trying to install new electrical panels (and in the process found structural issues with the house.... NATURALLY), and the wood floor refinishers!

This is the original color of the oak stairs! It had a lot of yellow/tan to it. Given I have now stained the floors a combination of cherry mahogany and English chestnut, the stairs DON'T match.

Roberto and Jonathan have been fantastic to work with! They hand sanded the stairs and railing. They have been working very hard and after three days of sanding, they put the first coat of stain on today. 

The stairs now match the floors. When we bought the house NOTHING matched. Each room was painted a different color, and each room had different types of wood floors (oak, cherry, or maple). Therefore, the floors stuck out because different types of woods take on stain differently. You truly need someone who understands wood floors to be able to stain floors so that they look like they match. But the smells in the house are hard to take. Which is why I think this has contributed to how Peter is feeling. On top of the simple fact that we are working around the clock. It has caught up with us.