The Money Saving Mom's Budget

In case anyone missed it, you can pre-order the Money Saving Mom's Budget from Amazon.  Since I've long enjoyed her blog, I'm sure the book will be equally inspiring.  Even better is the fact that all proceeds from the book go toward Compassion International!

Due to revamping our budget, I've not yet reserved my own copy, but I hope to be able to do so soon.  I have no doubt that it will be worth the wait!

Something Sweet

Compared to many - perhaps even most - people, I lead a very vanilla life.  I've learned to be okay with the fact that I have few extreme likes and to appreciate that I'm not terribly adventurous.  That said, I do have a few things in which I genuinely take pleasure.

When my mom-in-law invited me to join her Sweet Adelines chorus this summer, I looked forward to trying it out.  This activity would combine two of my favorite subjects:  music and learning (learning, because I know relatively little about Barbershop singing...actually, I don't know much about singing of any kind, least of all Barbershop).  I also figured that joining would get me out of the house once a week for something other than schooling or teaching piano. 

To date, I've truly enjoyed myself at chorus rehearsal.  The ladies are amazing.  They gave me tons of literature on what, exactly, Barbershop singing is and made the qualifying process as painless as singing-a-capella-in-front-of-other-people-while-staying-on-pitch could possibly be.  (Okay, maybe that wasn't so vanilla, after all!)  I'm learning a lot about this form of music; I'm having fun while doing it; and hopefully I can help contribute to the group's performance at Nationals next October. 

While costuming and stage makeup aren't generally things that fall into my comfort zone, it's good for me to try something a little out of the range of vanilla.  At least I'll be colorful even if not comfortable!

No More CSF (For Now)!

It's hard to believe that Jon's surgery was two weeks ago!  Time seemed to drag as we anticipated the operation, and now that it's behind us, time seems to fly.  When we arrived at the hospital nice and early Monday morning, we were told that the surgery would take about 4 hours.  Since his previous surgery had gone longer than expected, I assumed the same would be true again and decided to return home once he was wheeled into the operating room.

His doctor called me about three hours later to let me know he was out of surgery and that all had gone smoothly.  While I had some questions for her, such as finding out whether or not she'd found another CSF leak, I figured I'd just ask her once I drove back to the hospital.  Since I knew Jon would be wanting me as soon as possible, I didn't want to spend too much time on the phone before leaving.  Once I got back to the recovery floor, though, I found out that she was already back in surgery with another patient. 

It took several hours for the anesthesia to wear off and for Jon to feel up to traveling home, but I was amazed at how much better he looked so soon after surgery.  By Wednesday morning, he felt up to returning to work - just 48 hours after his operation!  I was afraid he would overdo, but aside from some insomnia due to his medications, he made a full recovery without much setback. 

At his first post-op appointment, we were able to get many of our questions answered.  He did not seem to have another CSF leak - yay! - but there had been a lot of scarring from the prior surgery which was probably the root of much of his discomfort.  As long as no more scar tissue develops, he shouldn't need any future operations. 

The only problem he's currently dealing with is the headaches he gets right before the weather changes.  I'd really hoped that this surgery would eliminate those, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  Since I get heat headaches every summer, I can somewhat relate to this.  Hopefully over time these will lessen in intensity or even go away completely. 

For now, we're thrilled that he doesn't have any current leaks and that his doctor is pleased with his progress.  This surgery was so much simpler and easier to deal with than the first one, and we know it's because so many people were praying.  It was wonderful to have yet another very vivid reminder that the Lord truly does answer prayer!