Two down.

Sexond shift done. I’ll just say, working with the right team makes any day better. :)

After work tonight, we visited with a couple of old, dear friends. The kind of friends who’ve seen you at our worst, who will tell you when that eyebrow hair is getting too long, who will just be there when you need them. And I was in my pajamas, fresh from a shower (cleaning off ER nasty), no makeup. The kind of friends with whom I can be my true self: a cussing Christian who cares wholeheartedly. I don’t let the public see the whole me; it’s not worth the risk. Very few get to see the real me, and these two do. 

I hope everyone has at least one friend in their life like that. 

First of three

Just finished the first of three patient care days in a row. Three isn’t hard: 36 hours is manageable. It’s when we get to 4 that I get grouchy. 

Of naps and ball and the pigs

 A day off!! I did my best to make the most of it by doing as little as possible. I mean,  being mom means there are always dishes and laundry and, around here, animal chores. Specifically, walk one dog, feed three cats, feed and water 33 chickens, pick up the three eggs those moochers produced. 

But I did make lunch for Jay and take it to him at school. And finish reading a book, and started another. And enjoyed the fireplace and soft, fuzzy blanket.

I drove to Abilene, so Jay could nap, after pulling a near all-nighter farrowing pigs. (We were stopped when I took the pic, I promise.)

And watched John play in his first junior high basketball game. A team won, B Team (John’s team) lost by one. These boys haven’t lost a competition in anything since early September, so it was a new feeling for them. 

And stopped by the Abilene farm to check out the babies.

We were introducing this runt to Charlotte on the ceiling, in hopes she will get inspired.

And yes, continued the Bible in a year podcast! I’m ridiculously proud I haven’t missed a day yet. 

It’s also an anniversary of sorts. Ten years ago, John was flown out to Children’s Mercy after a status epilepticus. He woke up unable to stand or walk. Thank God, that was mostly resolved in three days. But what a scary time, definitely a triggering memory for me. I remember feeling so abandoned, so hopeless, so angry. These pop-up memories are so good for reminding me of how good we have it now, so much to be grateful for!

One week down, Fifty-one to go

Thanks to John’s early practice, this was a very productive but very long day. 

-1.25 miles ran, half mile walk, before work.

-10.5 hours worked

-One week successfully keeping up with Bible in a Year podcast. 

It was a weird work day, with some hands on education on hand hygiene. Try to make “wash your hands” fun and get back to me. Now add a healthy dose of bed bugs, a splash of accounting for business operations, a sprinkling of scheduling, a plethora of policies, 

 and a stack of statistics… and now you know what a day in the life of the infection control nurse looks like. 

Tomorrow — day off from paying jobs, likely on call for the farm side of things. 

Day 6 of ‘26

You ever have those days? Where, from the moment you wake up, you just want to cover your head and hibernate? Every step was a trudge through hip-deep sludge? Metaphorically speaking… I did no mud sludge trudging today. But if I had, it might have made the highlight reel.

I have not learned how to separate my adult children’s actions from my own self-worth. And when they do stupid things and make bad decisions, I take it personally. Where did I fail them? What should we have done differently as parents? How do we parent this stage? I have more questions than answers, for sure. 

It is one perk of the big family. There is always one kid who isn’t being a dinosaur aardvark (which is code for dumb a— in our fam.) 

So I ended this hard day with homemade mint brownies, made by John, while watching high school basketball on TV. 

Day 5 of '26

Today officially started with me at work until 3 a.m., filling in for a call-in. 

Then home to sleep, until around 9 a.m.

Then off to get some essential groceries, get new tags for a new-to-us vehicle, get enough caffeine to get through the day, and then to the office by 11. 

Office until 3:45, working on end of year infection control summary stuff for 2025. 

Then home, shovel in frozen convenient food for supper (tonight was taquitos), then off to a school board meeting that started at 5 p.m.

School board until 8 p.m.

Home, but no venting allowed, because it's all executive session content. 

So, drowning my sorrows with iced tea, cheesy movie, and cheesier cheese puffs. 

But...

I did get the Bible in a Year podcast listened to today.

I did get one of my presentations done for an upcoming quarterly meeting.

I did successfully report December's mandated data points to a government site. 

I did get the shift needs list sent out by end of day.

And that's good enough. 

Bible in a Year

One of my new starts for 2026 is to see how far I can get through the Bible in a Year podcast. I’ve read the Bible cover to cover twice, but I like the teaching that goes along with this podcast. The hard part is committing the time to it every day. But, in episode two, they talked about God rejecting the offering from Cain because it was essentially the leftovers, and how we need to work on giving God our prime time and effort, not the leftovers. It’s just hard with the variability of my work schedule to make any kind of daily habit. But… I’m working on it. 

Do Less. Prioritize More. Pray always. 

Supper plans for tonight? Spaghetti squash and kale with oven baked pork chops.