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Sunrise – #JusJoJan Jot #10

I’m going out on a bit of a limb with today’s prompt in that I’m stretching to use it.

It was brought to mind by a comment on Facebook concerning my misstep and my broken laptop of the last time I was carrying something precious and I did the same thing. What actually happened, both last night and that last time was I thought I was on the last step but I still had two to go. So when I took that last step, I realized I’d stepped out too far, thinking I was stepping onto the floor. I could have caught the edge of the bottom stair, but I made the conscious decision in that split second to try to take both. Catching the edge of the last stair would have caused me to fall, but I might have saved the laptop. As it was, I decided to save myself instead. All in that split second.

The brain’s ability to make such decisions in that much time is even more astounding than my mad Paint skillz.

I know you’re still wondering what all this has to do with a sunrise. I’m getting there.

The last time this happened to me, I was carrying this guy.

Except at the time, he was only a couple of months old. That time, again I had the presence of mind to make a decision: fall and save what I was holding, or save myself.

I ended up in the emergency room, he didn’t even wake up.

But he did live to see another sunrise.

The prompt word, “sunrise,” for today’s post is brought to you by Toortsie! Thanks, Toortsie! To find her “sunrise” post, click here.

It’s never too late to participate in Just Jot it January! Click the following link to find out how, and see all the other participants’ links in the comment section. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/10/jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-10th/


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Master – #JusJoJan Jot #6

I am not master of my domain.

No, I’m not talking about in the Seinfeld sense, so you can please just wipe that idea from your brain right away. I’m talking about my house. My home. The place that rather than hang my hat, I usually toss it on a piece of furniture because there’s some crisis or another taking shape the second I walk in the door.

Someone once said to me that a perfect house in which children live is a house with miserable children. I’m not sure that’s true–maybe there are parents who are just that organized. If so, and if you’re out there, tips are welcome.

Or maybe I just really need a hat rack.

This very short, very late post was brought to you by the prompt word “master,” given us today by Sadje! Click here to find her Just Jot it January post and say hi!

To see how you, too, can join in, click the following link. You’ll find all the other participants’ links in the comment section. Try it–it’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/06/jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-6th/


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#SoCS & #JusJoJan Jot #5 – Sip

As I sip my morning coffee I wonder if maybe I’m a sap for thinking I could pull off a family supper tonight. Maybe I can find a sop to make it SEP.

Wow, that was a stretch. Bonus points to me! Thanks, Dan.

I had planned a family supper tonight but I don’t have any food yet. I had no idea that “sop” was a synonym for “bribe,” and of course if you clicked my link in the prompt, you’ll know “SEP” is an abbreviation in the urban dictionary for “somebody else’s problem.” Chances of making MY family dinner somebody else’s problem are pretty slim.

My eldest son, having developed an interest in cooking, has been making all our big meals of late, but he worked all night, so I assume he’s sleeping.

Our family supper was supposed to be on New Year’s Day, as it always is, but with Alex just freshly out of the hospital and still coughing, I didn’t want to take the chance that he’d pass something on to my mother who would take it back to her retirement home and thus make me responsible for an outbreak.

I’m terrified of doing this every time I bring her out. Because you never know what germs are lurking. You know, the sorts of germs that you pick up but you don’t know you’ve got until a cold settles in three days later.

It would be handy if we could get sick immediately after picking up a virus, wouldn’t it? It would help prevent the spread. But viruses are sneaky. They work with our bodies’ immune systems–take advantage of it for their own ends.

Okay, this post is going downhill, isn’t it?

Where did I start? Oh yeah. Coffee. Nectar of the gods. Time to pour another cup.

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday and Just Jot it January! Click the link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/04/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-5th/


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#JusJoJan 2019 Daily Prompt – Jan. 2nd, and One-Liner Wednesday

I’m not sure how I managed to forget I took this photo with all the updates I’ve done recently on Alex’s health. Good news is our first full day back from the hospital was uneventful. Things are definitely looking up since this, the evening of December 26th when he fell asleep sitting up on the couch after a full day of non-stop coughing.

Yes, that was three lines and this is four: do your best to keep it to one line. 😛

Here are the general rules to follow for Just Jot it January:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post the daily prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5), every day except for Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness (SoCS) prompt–you’ll find that one on Friday morning at 9:30am. That daily post (i.e. this one) will be where you leave your link for others to find in the comment section. There will be a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday.

2a. Since today is Wednesday, I challenge you to make your JusJoJan post a one-liner. If you don’t care to, or if you’ve already written your post, no problem. Remember, with One-Liner Wednesday you can write anything – it’s only a prompt to write one line, not necessarily to keep to the same theme as mine. The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

(i) Make it one sentence.

(ii) Make it either funny or inspirational.

(iii) Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

(iv) Enjoy yourself!

(v) Use our One-Liner Wednesday badge.

#1linerWeds badge by Cheryl, at dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/

3. As long as your blog is on WordPress, you’ll be able to link via pingback. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! If you’re participating from another blogging host, just drop a link into the comment section. Note: The newest pingbacks and comments will appear at the top.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. The prompts are here both to remind you and to inspire you to write. However, you don’t have to use the prompt word of the day. You can link any kind of jot back here. Note: If it’s 18+ content, please say so in a comment with your link or close to your pingback.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


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My 2018 and my 2019 – Jot #1

Is it bad that I have no idea what I’ve been doing for the last year? Yeah, probably.

I know I’ve been working a lot. Writing a bit, and spending far too much time sitting. My FitBit is threatening to leave home without me.

On a positive note, I did give away a stunning 25,000 copies of The Magician’s Curse. That number still astounds me.

And my kids are all still here with me, which is something I am grateful for every minute of the day.

I think I’ve already mentioned that I’d like to publish at least three books in 2019, and I hope to learn how to effectively sell them. I want to get off my butt and get more exercise … catch up to my FitBit before it finds a more active wrist to attach itself to.

And I’d like to hang on to my kids. Even if they decide to move out, I’ll be happy as long as they’re still in the world with me.

This post is part of Just Jot it January! Click the link to find the rules and see how you can join in the fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/01/jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-1st/


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Hopefully the final update on Alex, plus the 2019 Just Jot it January update!

Alex is home!

He’s still coughing, still having a bit of a tough time breathing, but his cardiac numbers were better and we decided home was a better place to be. So I’ll watch him closely for the next couple of days, and hopefully we’ll be all back to our normal chaos for his second week of Christmas vacation.

Just Jot it January 2019!

The first of January is tomorrow already!!

Normally, I’d have gathered up prompts by now from all of you, but with the mess this past weekend has been, it just wasn’t happening. So I’m going to do something different for the first week this year.

Tomorrow’s jot will be whatever you want to do with it, though I will post a prompt post just so you have something to ping back to. Wednesday the 2nd will be the regular one-liner, and on Thursday I’m thinking of doing something special. Maybe. We’ll see. Sometime before Sunday, though, I’ll post a request for prompts from you to get us through the rest of the month.

Stay tuned for the Just Jot it January rules post coming up right after this one.

Let’s do this thing!

Happy New Year, everyone!!


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Update on Alex #2

I woke up from nine hours of sleep this morning and called the hospital before I got out of bed. The nurse I spoke to was a nice lady named Heather who introduced herself as someone who used to work at Alex’s school, so she knows a bit of sign language.

She told me he had a good night and was up early, out of bed, and following his nurse (the one on shift from last night) around in the corridors. He got tired of his IV, probably when another IV pole with his feeding pump was added to the mix, so he unhooked the IV. They left it off.

When Heather came in at 7:00, he took one look at her and knowing she had the ability to tell him off in ASL, he went back to bed.

“That was a couple of hours ago though,” she told me. “Now he’s following me around.”

He was doing okay, so I decided to have a shower and take my time getting to the hospital. Only to immediately be told to go home when I got there … by Alex. I sent this text to my best friend, John:

At the hospital waiting to see the doctor. Alex wants me to go home. I’m cramping his style. Sitting alone in his room while he hangs out with the nurses.

To which John replied:

I can sympathize. It’s hard to woo a nurse with your mom around.

So he’s obviously feeling better. But they wanted to keep him one more night for observation. His oxygen levels are still very low when he’s laying down, his heart rate is still through the roof, and he’s still working to breathe.

Hopefully he’ll be home tomorrow and all the heart issues will have arisen from the combination of the pneumonia and the extra drugs. And hopefully the antibiotics will work their miracle.

Thank you again for all your awesome well-wishes. I appreciate each and every one.


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Update on Alex

Before I go to bed, I want to leave a quick update.

First, thanks so much to everyone who left their prayers and positive wishes for us. It seems something got through.

I’ll back up a bit first, though. After I wrote my last post, my eldest son volunteered to go to the hospital for me and watch over his brother, so I did get a bit more sleep before I went.

Whilst there, I asked about Alex’s regular heart meds–I realized he was past due for them. The nurse said she thought she’d read that they were on hold … I told her he needed them every day, so she agreed to go and double check.

About five minutes later she came back with his heart meds. But. Her first question for me was, does he get fifteen mils or seven and a half mils?

The prescription is 15mg twice per day, and being liquid, it’s mixed as 2mg/ml, so he gets 7.5ml twice per day.

The doctor who’d written the order had it backwards. Had she not looked at the bottle and just read the doctor’s orders, she’d have overdosed him the medication that slows his heart rate by double.

Thank goodness for eagle-eyed nurses.

And again, thank you for your well-wishes. He might be out of the hospital tomorrow, or if not, Monday.

I left his signing dictionary at the hospital, so if they’re really stuck, they can look it up.

Oh, and he still hadn’t slept when I got there. He stood and looked out the window all afternoon–for about six hours–watching for me to arrive. When I left tonight, he’d been up for 38 hours aside from a one-hour nap. I hope he’s sleeping now.

 


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#SoCS – Pneumonia

Spent 17 hours at the hospital last night. Came home and slept for 3 hours. Going back. Hopefully not to spend another night in a chair.

The world needs more people who can sign.

Who can communicate with the Deaf when they need it most.

Wish us luck. Alex has pneumonia and I’m truly exhausted in every sense of the word.

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

Sorry for this post. I just wanted to let you know where I am. https://lindaghill.com/2018/12/28/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-29-18/


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One-Liner Wednesday – So Sorry!

I totally forgot to schedule One-Liner Wednesday last night! And now I think Alex has whooping cough. Our Christmas was good, though. How was yours?

Alex, Christmas Eve 2018

If you would like to participate in this prompt, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Cheryl, at https://dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/