The Post I Keep Starting But Never Finishing

I keep trying to sit here and type out a post that says life is slowly transitioning from the Surreal Near Death Experience to the Blessed Hum-Drum of Normal, or at least Normal as we at Casa del Meyer knew it to be.

Which, really if you think about it, we were in the process of defining a NEW Normal prior to the Surreal Near Death Experience seeing as we'd recently added a family member and that always shakes things up a bit, so really, apparently I'm liking the really lingo tonight, do we even know what Normal, even the Casa del Meyer variety, is anymore?

I think I've just confused myself, and therein lies the problem of why this post has been started and stopped umpteen different times over the past 2 weeks: I'm at a loss of what to say because my mind spins a million different directions anytime I start to think about it.

So....as unoriginal as it is, I give you Bullet Points!

• Health front - I'm feeling more like my Normal self, physically and mentally. And as of Thursday I became PICC free! No more frustrating attempts to cover my arm in saran wrap and medical tape so as to keep my arm dry in the shower - how liberating this is, friends! My CRP's were back down in normal range (interesting trivia - normal range for CRP's is less than 10 and I was at a whopping 319 at the hospital - yes, I was one sick chica) as were my white blood cell counts, and now I just have one follow-up appt with the pulmonologist next week and another with the infectious disease docs in 2 weeks. Then, I shall hopefully be done and just watch the bills pile up this will all be a distant memory...albeit one that I will constantly be reminded of every time I put on deodorant and/or pay my bills.
• Parenting - LMNOB has been great and resilient about this whole episode, but Punkinhead has really struggled with it. Not only was Mom super-duper sick and couldn't care for the fam like he was used to, he now had to be around LMNOB 24/7 vs. having a nice 8 hour break from her called School, AND, he had a new sibling who happened to bump Punkinhead into the infamous Middle Child placement. Oh yes, Punkinhead has had a bit of a rough go at it of late. Add to it that Colorado's weather has suddenly decided to end its summer drought pattern and return to the Junes of yore, which were exceptionally wet and rainy, and well, we've all been a little stir-crazy. One day a week or so ago, he was tired and frustrated with it all and he exclaimed accusingly, "But everything is always ALL ABOUT YOU, Mama!" his eyes screaming at me, "This is NOT Normal! I want Normal back." And oh, how my little heart ached to try and explain it all away for him. But how do you explain to a 5, almost 6, y/o that sometimes you just gotta go with the flow of life, that sometimes the pecking order gets skewed and yes, everything can change to be all about someone else whether we like it or not? My standard "Suck it up, Buttercup," isn't sufficient for this one. Thankfully, he's getting back to his Normal self too, proportionate to our lives resuming normalcy.
• Marriage - Charlie Brown is great, has been great through this whole process, but we grew a bit distant having Crisis looming over our heads for a prolonged time. We didn't have the debriefing convos that LMNOB and I had had until one Sunday night at Life Group we were talking about the ordeal with our peers from church and I got to hear his take on it. Which was essentially that he was scared witless initially but that faith and the support of our church got him through each day. That same weekend, we'd been out for a walk and at the end of the subdivision is a house on a giant lot. They were playing their stereo loudly as it was nice weather and they were outdoors. As I listened to the words, I recognized the song as Martina McBride's Blessed, and the tears flowed from both of our eyes as we looked at each other knowingly. To top it off, the next song was LoneStar's Front Porch Looking In - which has a great sentiment too, but directly applies to us what with "carrot tops who can barely walk" and little blonde girls. Shortly after arriving home there was this hunger, this raw need for physical intimacy between us. Kind of like how, in the wake of the death of a loved one, people instinctively turn to their mates to make love as an affirmation of the fact that they are still alive, the desire to be united as one and the closest two can be consumed us. Afterward, I asked Charlie Brown if the scars, as well as my post-partum physique diminished his attraction for me. He held me, told me I was beautiful and that the scars only reminded him of just how precious my time with him was, and we both cried. Healing, therapeutic tears slipped out of our eyes, not in torrents of inconsolable sobs, but in a cleansing wash that rinsed our once-worried hearts with peace and gratitude. Now that we have that behind us, we're now just trying to adjust to the daily grind of him going to work and me staying with the kids, and keeping up that precarious balance between sleep and intimacy that is necessary when you have a newborn. No small potatoes, but in comparison to the last month, it is pretty Normal.

There's so much more to say as always, but time escapes me. I'll keep plugging away though :)




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