Journal entry by Barbara Bradley — May 12, 2015

Breaking news – Ding bat mother tries to water a fake plant today. Over the weekend, the same Mom catches turtle while fishing. After a banner week last week, daughter starts week with scratching her classroom aide and spending afternoon in front office. Today mom nervously waited to pick up said daughter after school to find her wearing shorts with no button and a sweatshirt with the phrase Wish in glitter. Allegedly stubborn girl refused to use bathroom stating she “wanted to dance!”. Later, same girl was seen relieving herself in the classroom. Thankfully, on same day son gets “best etiquette” in class by his teacher. Mom redeems herself.

To begin, we are in the process of scheduling Katie’s surgery to complete a complete anatomical removal of her malformed left side of the brain. We are looking to have this done mid June after the kids get out of school. As we embark on this next journey, we appreciate your continued prayers and support.

She has these “pockets” of days when she does well and other days she seizes more. We are feeling hopeful and pressing onward. We were greeted Saturday evening with a beautiful symbol of hope; a gorgeous rainbow. We were sitting on the front porch enjoying the weather and looked up to see the brightest rainbow I have ever seen. It was perfect. There just may have been a pot of gold and a little dancing leprechaun at the end. Gold, leprechauns or a big bowl of lucky charms, I considered it sign of hope.

It was a lovely Mother’s day weekend and you know what that means… I got dibs on the extra cinnamon roll at breakfast. I got a beautiful carved, wooden vase. Nathan made me a turtle out of legos which he said I could keep because he promised to never use them for another build. Kate “wrote” the most awesome card ever. You know the worksheets they do in school where they fill in the blanks with phrases about mom like How old is she? How much do you love her? When is she the prettiest?, etc. Her answers were hysterical and even more awesome that she came up with them by herself. I will post a picture.

We fished on Saturday morning at the scout property. It was so nice. The weather was just beautiful and Katie actually behaved. Nathan was pretty impressed with his mother. I caught 2 fish and a big turtle. Poor Billy only managed to catch one fish. Every time he would cast his line Nathan or I would need a new hook, snag a tree while casting or try to drag up a log from the bottom of the lake in a tangled mess. 

Church was nice too. I love seeing everyone all dressed up. The message was on Grace. Katie brought tears to our eyes dancing and singing in the isle watching the children’s choir perform. She was trying to sing the words and follow along with the motions. She is a joy to watch. She even snuggled up in her brother’s lap long enough for me to snap a picture. That afternoon we grilled out and did some front-porch-sittin’.

From the front porch I can watch my new friend. We all now I am not much of a bird person. The robin is expecting. Her nest sits in the tree right in front of our yard by the sidewalk. Midway up she has built a secure nest right where the branch meets the trunk. Most of the time she protectively sits on her eggs but a good portion of her day she scavenges for worms. Her russet chest feathers always catch my attention when she hops around looking for food. She often comes into our yard and never gets further than across the street. She is always on guard.

I am done with my sleep diary. Well, not technically but life is too short get attitude from an Internet site. To recap, I was really desperate to sleep at the beginning of this year. It is still a struggle but I am getting there. Long story short, the sleep specialist recommended a cognitive behavioral therapy program that could be done online. Basically you follow guided tutorial sessions each week for 6 weeks while also tracking your sleep patterns each day. I was very religious in recording my data. If you track your information you are graded and get personal advice. I named her Terry. Terry will also give you a window of time to sleep. That’s right. Based on the answers to her questions and the logging of data she will give you a sleep window when you are permitted to sleep. She wants to know all your business. Like Terry says, “Get more sleep by getting less.”

Oh shove it, Terry. Terry doesn’t understand our circumstances. Terry doesn’t live with Katie. I started out with good intentions. No matter what, I couldn’t seem to follow (nor did I want to) getting only 5 hours of sleep at night. When I didn’t do as told she would take sleep away. All the questions…..all the nagging. Terry seems to know when you are lying. Definitely DO NOT tell her about the margarita you had on the front porch on Mother’s Day. Terry doesn’t care. NO SLEEP FOR YOU! I’m grounded. Again. Terry is nuts.  

To all the moms out there (even my new robin friend), Happy Mother’s Day. You may worry about your eggs and wonder if you are doing enough to keep them safe. You hope you have built the best nest possible so one day you can perch proudly on that limb and see your babies fly away. It is ok. They may stumble. They may fall down but they will find the way.  So know this, you are doing just fine.