Here Comes the Sun

The warmth of the past couple of weeks has caused the snow to melt here in Winnipeg. The grass is getting greener and there are birds returning and bunnies hopping all over the place. Spring has finally reached Manitoba!

The sun is peeking out intermittently today and my daughter decided that she would take a break from her work and take the dog out to play in our backyard. She said getting dressed, putting on her shoes and leaving the house to get some sun made her feel happier and a lot more ready to get to focus on work again. I teased her when she came back in by playing  Here Comes the Sun by The Beetles.

I love that song. To me, it says to hang on, it has been a long difficult period but that this too shall pass.

The first online handle I had was the nickname  Rainy Gal because it seemed like every time I went camping it rained. I first got dial-up internet around 1998. Things were very innocent back then and I became part of an online "web design and shared learning group" where we linked webpages in our private websites to form a "mouse village".  Yes, really a bunch of adults. There were people there with varied knowledge and info and I learned about initial set up of pages, graphic design, animation, and HTML and even learned some javascript skills.

Together we designed graphics and animations and had our mice do little activities like telling stories and creating new digital furniture and clothes for them and had them do magic tricks. They even got to go camping. We had little digital prizes and certificates for our mice and our fellow creators. We really learned a lot from and about each other.

One of the big online things back then was to program webpages to automatically open with little music clips. This was all before YouTube existed. I had about 20 mousey pages all with different rain or cloud themed songs that I coordinated with the graphics and page content.  One of my favourite pages had the song Here Comes the Sun playing and I placed a sun animation and added my little mice family creations, all animated to jump up and down in the sunshine.

 It was a happy time.

Perhaps this fairly recent Abby Road release will get this hopeful song stuck in your head.

Here comes the Sun

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun,
Here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…

Update Time

It has been a fairly stressful nine days since I last wrote, but I didn't want to go much longer without an update. I kind of left things with a cliff hanger last time I posted. 

I know there are lots of people facing much worse challenges, and I am trying to just keep calm. I am painting for relaxation, I am doing mindful meditation, trying to keep to a regular routine. I am trying to leave home at home and being positive and happy at work for the residents and then go home and leave my work concerns at work.

My middle (adult) daughter is doing much better now after her respiratory infection, but there were some ups and downs. She had seemed better from last Friday, or so and then she started getting even shorter of breath again and coughing increased. She was sitting at her desk studying when she felt dizzy and passed out, hitting her head and found herself wondering how she wound up on the floor. We immediately called her doctor for an over the phone appointment. Her head wasn't hurt badly, but passing out is never a good sign.

 It looks like she developed a secondary infection. She may have bronchitis or pneumonia, so she was put her on an antibiotic, a different kind of inhaler, and she was given strict instructions to watch that she isn't getting dehydrated and to have frequent small meals. She seemed much better now and is continuing to improve. 

In the middle of all this, I got a call that workplace health and safety were waiving the rest of my 14-day quarantine, so I am back at work. I usually only work 26 hours biweekly, but I will be picking up a couple of extra shifts now.

My daughter that lives in Regina called about 5 days ago... to tell us that she had to take her beloved German Sheppard, Oliver, into the emergency vet clinic. He had to have immediate surgery with a very poor expectation of success. It was touch and go from hour to hour. The operation took more than twice as long as expected, and they removed a section of his colon and straightened out his intestines. He made it through surgery, and the next couple of days was constant slow recovery at home, but he is still not out of the woods. It is just "wait and see" for another day. She is having a little quality time with him cuddling. I wish I was there to cuddle her.

There have been a few other tension creating situations this week. You don't really want to read about how my washing machine leaked all over the floor and has now given up on us, do you?

I went to work yesterday evening for a few hours, and it was not easy, but I know that I am making a difference. It was hard to change gears for work at first, but the problems of my day went away once I focused on being present for my residents and bringing them comfort.

.

I plan to Keep Calm, Wash my Hands and hopefully we will soon find a way to get a new washing machine so I can wash my clothes too.

It Got Stressful at My Home

We are all concerned about COVID 19 and what it means to each of us. 

Indeed you should be concerned because this is changing how we work and play, how we raise our children, our cleaning habits, our health, economics and relationships.

This past week, one of our adult children that live with us became very sick with a respiratory illness. We don't know for sure what is wrong because she doesn't fall under the guidelines for testing. She would need to show that she had travelled recently, that she was around someone else with COVID 19 in the past couple of weeks, attended a large event, or is a health care worker. She was directed to get to the hospital if she became unable to catch her breath or speak in sentences.

Now, this was a good set of questions when our city had no cases or when we were early on and could track every contact that one affected person had, but we are long past that, and now people are picking up the virus through community contacts. It reflects the shortage of testing kits in the city and not necessarily the need to be tested. How would she know if she was in contact with someone with COVID 19? It's not like anyone else has been tested that she might have bumped into at her physio appointment or at the Grocery store because those people probably weren't on a plane either.

I am worried about my daughter. I was in a crazy cleaning and bleaching frenzy all while trying to pull off a fun and meaningful Easter weekend, because what else was there to do? No medication to administer for this disease, no sitting around cuddling my sick and potentially contagious daughter. I was watching to see if her breathing was getting more difficult and prepared to rush to the hospital.

She is on day 8 now, and she did not reach a point where we were scared enough to try and get her to the emergency department. Some of her symptoms have let up, but she still is not breathing well and is lethargic, but one positive sign is that she is starting to cheer up a bit and act more like herself.

I work as a front line health care worker, so I was told by the health department that because a household member is sick with a respiratory illness, I could not go to work for 14 days. I do agree with this quarantine because I would never want to risk the health of our residents or my coworkers. I don't know if my daughter has a cold, flu, or COVID 19. I do know that I don't want to risk bringing any serious illnesses to work.

I have mainly been feeling upset because of how helpless and powerless I feel. 

I know a lot about different aspects of this kind of crisis through my work as a Microbiologist and my years of working for the Department of Infectious Diseases at our University Medical College. I am not in a position to use my knowledge right now. I moved on to a different kind of job that I take great joy in, but it doesn't mean my interest or knowledge of my previous field went away.

I feel helpless at home, trying to protect my family.

I feel helpless watching groups of kids saunter by my house with those essential Slurpees in their hands.

I feel helpless when I see people gathered in parking lots, chatting before lining up to going inside and get groceries. 

I feel helpless when I see my coworkers learning how to wear protective garments and adjusting to how their work has changed.

I feel helpless when I watch politicians making risky decisions that I might not agree with.

I feel helpless watching family members who are students struggling with the changing online learning method that is not really the best fit for them.

I feel helpless knowing there are so many lonely people living with depression, anxiety and fear.

I think, for the most part, I am an optimist and rather on the practical side. I am realistic about what a significant impact this pandemic will have on us as individuals and upon our world. 

I keep thinking about the Serenity Prayer, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference."

 I will try to make a plan and then carry on; however, if my plan isn't working, I will have to accept that and adjust to our changing circumstances. I have to find the courage and do the work I need to do and help when I can. I need to care for my family when they need care and I will accept help gratefully should I need it. I need the wisdom to know what my limits are and believe me, that can be extra challenging for me some days.

I am going to keep cleaning and disinfecting my house and even my groceries, and I'm staying in place when possible and I will try to make sure everyone is eating nutritious food. I'm working on projects that make me happy, and some that might even help my family and others. There are a ton of online group activities and even credit courses that I am participating in online, and of course, there is facetime chatting with friends. Most of all, I will treasure this extra time with my family.

Basically, I am still doing the best I can to be Leading a Healthy Life.

photo credit Pixabay

There is Muffin Batter in my Fridge!

I worked this past weekend, and when I came home on Sunday night, I basically retreated to my room immediately after dinner because I was feeling completely drained and pretty stiff and sore. I had no energy left for anything. That night my daughter, Emily, made up the 6 Week Refrigerator Muffin batter, and I never even realized that she was doing it. Monday morning, I woke up to the wonderful smell of baking drifting down the hall. I was so surprised and happy that she made them for us, and it lifted my spirits. It was such a thoughtful, and yummy breakfast served along with some juice.

Years ago, when my kids were babies, I used to make a lot of basic food like yogurt, bread, ice cream and jams. One of our most useful and favourite recipes was the one for 6 Week Refrigerator Muffins. It is a pretty basic muffin recipe but made easier by using raisin bran cereal and buttermilk. The muffin batter fits in a plastic ice cream pail, and you can simply scoop out as much as you need for fresh hot muffins when you have a guest or just want a treat. I was a little suspicious back then that it wouldn't be good for 6 whole weeks, and I still can't answer that question because the stuff never lasts that long in our fridge without getting baked! 

During this period of social (physical) distancing, many of us have more time to bake and learn new skills. Still, we are finding that stress and uncertainty kind of sneak up on us, and focusing and being productive can become challenging from time to time. We want to make things fun, we want to eat healthily, but that can be hard to coordinate when shopping is challenging, and our family's daily routine is so disrupted. No one should feel bad about having off days when you just don't care if the dinner plan suddenly turns into a sandwich. Nor should they worry about trying to keep up with the elaborate activities friends are sharing on Instagram. 

(yes grin - I absolutely plan to put this pic of Jasper Dog looking lovingly at muffins on Instagram)

This batter has been a shortcut for me. It is a way of doing something one day to have something special and easy to use on another day when maybe life isn't going as planned.
It doesn't have to be my muffin recipe (though I bet you really would like it) It might be a frozen meal that someone else can pop in the microwave. Perhaps it could be forgetting about the dirty dishes and cuddling up and watching a feel-good movie with someone you love.

Just let go. Have some nice surprises ready for when you really need them and most of all, be kind to yourself.

Here ya go. The muffin recipe.

6-Week Raisin Bran Refrigerator Muffins

 Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 3 cups sugar 
• 4 cups buttermilk
• 6 cups bran flake cereal 

• 5 cup all-purpose flour 
• 5 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup oil

Method:

• Beat the sugar and eggs in your very large mixing bowl 
• stir in buttermilk, cereal flour, baking soda, salt and oil and mix  
• put in a storage container with a lid and keep in the fridge for up to 6 weeks

•  to bake anytime:pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees 
• put scoops of the batter into greased muffin 
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes depending on the size of your muffin or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. 

Notes:

It is essential to use the buttermilk, soda and sugar and oil as directed in order for it to last in your fridge.

The traditional cereal is a raisin bran style cereal, but there are now a lot of other bran flake style cereals out there with goodies like dried strawberries or almonds that I think would be a delicious option.