Back from the dead

It's been forever and a day since I've posted anything. Rather than blame it on being busy or nothing happening, I'll let you all in on what I've learned about my frequent blog vacations: I've learned that one of the main reasons I stayed away was depression. I didn't even realize it at the time, but I had been living my life in a constant state of mild clinical depression for a very long time. Now that I've been diagnosed and am on medication (NOT Prozac, LOL), things are so much better. It has made a huge improvement on relationships with my kids and my husband. I think my general outlook on life has become more positive, and my husband says I am much easier to live with! (I never knew I was hard to live with!)  Anyhow, there is much peace and joy here in our home now that I am chemically balanced. Life's not perfect, but it's still great. Thank God for bringing the right people into our lives to help bring this about.


Another reason for my absences (related to depression) has been that I used to use online activities to escape. My time online was often a sore spot between me and my husband. So I purposely stayed away from blogging out of respect for him. As things settle into normalcy here, I see that I can still blog and respect him... but the out-of-balance me could not do both. I still will not be here every day; maybe not every week, either. But I will not have mental conversations with myself to talk me out of sharing something here that I want to share (unless of course, I *need* to do that!).


So that's the BIG news from our household.


Other really good news is that I had carpal tunnel release surgery done on my right hand 2 days ago. I have been suffering with numbness, pain, and tingling in both hands for a very long time (years) and finally decided I needed to do something about it. Only took about 3 weeks to get through the appointments needed to officially diagnose it and set up the surgery. I was able to schedule my surgery just 5 days ahead of time, too. Yesterday, I took advantage of the Vicodin prescribed for me; the pain wasn't awful, but annoying. I haven't taken any today and am going to drive the car for the first time since surgery this afternoon. I'm looking forward to my followup visit with the doctor next Thursday morning. I have to leave the Ace bandage on my hand until then. It's a bit of a hassle. Meanwhile, I will enjoy letting the kids do as much for me as needed. It has been nice the last couple of days!! In another 6-12 weeks, depending on how quickly this heals, I will have the other hand done.


There you have it. God is doing big things in my life and my family's life. Hope you can see what he's doing in yours, too!