I Thought Sir Walter Scott Was Dying

I really did.

We'd taken the family out ice skating--the cost of entry being a gift from Rose Red to the family.  I had chosen not to skate because I'm only just getting back normal use of my left shoulder, and I was afraid of hurting myself again.  (I'd reinjured it over the weekend, setting back my progress already.)

Sir Walter Scott got skates, and joined the kids on the ice, mostly to stand by the wall and be available in case of accident. 

I was just making noises about going home to dinner soon, and he'd been grateful to see that he could keep his balance far better than he'd thought he would since his stroke nearly 3 years ago . . .

when he fell.

He sprawled out face-first on the ice.

It knocked the wind out of him.  

But when he got his breath back, he skated off the ice, returned his skates, tolerated some jokes from me about us being geriatric parents, and started texting pictures to Rose Red to thank her and show her what a good time we were having because of her.

I love how long and lanky Brother is in this picture.  When he skates, he just flies.  He looks like he was born on the ice.

When Ladybug got so confident on the ice that she was actually a little bit bored, she ventured to the center to try some tricks.  A kind skater took some time to teach her a few techniques!  The same kind skater offered to pray for Ladybug's dad when tragedy had obviously struck.

Perhaps half an hour had passed since his fall.

Then he started clutching his head.

I guided him to a seat in the arena.

He slumped.

I panicked.

He looked like he was having another stroke.

I called 911.

He dropped into unconsciousness.

He started convulsing.

People helped.

My older kids took care of my younger kids.

We raced to the hospital.

He regained consciousness, but he was in an altered state with memory loss.

To shorten things even more than I have so far because I am exhausted from rehashing this story, he was cleared to go home after CT showed nothing more than bruised/fractured ribs, his memory returned, and he was mentally himself again.  

His behaviors were consistent with a concussion, but he swears he never hit his head.

All we can think of to explain it all is that his brain must have shaken in his skull in the effort NOT to hit it on the ice.

He's stiff, sore, and recovering.

We're all grateful beyond words.

But the emergency left its mark on us all week.  

I both couldn't sleep enough and had poor sleep.

The kids all slept 12 or more hours a night.

We were all unfocused and in need of a lot of white space.

Sir Walter Scott himself has had up and down days with pain, but he's mostly making progress.

People from church kept offering meals and asking how they could help, but I had freezer meals already prepared, and all we wanted was time to recover.  (Their loving offers warmed our hearts.)

We read quite a bit more of Early Candlelight before I decided it wasn't a good fit for younger kids.  There wasn't anything wrong with it, and we were enjoying it, but it just felt too grown up.

We put it away for another season and turned to The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.  

It's got magic.

I'm hooked.

Mister Man, Lola, and Baymax like it.

Brother, Beowulf, and Ladybug keep falling asleep while I read it, but I think that's related to the trauma of the week . . . as well as the fact that they've always been dramatically affected by the light and dark of the seasons.

We had only 2 Morning Meetings because I let the kids sleep, and because I didn't get up early either.

We watched Facebook reels together, played games together, read books, did a little cleaning, and generally lost this week in the fog of time.

Little Princess captured this shot before Sir Walter Scott's injury, but it has the right flavor for the week.

Little Princess also made fabulous dinner rolls one day when she "needed something to do."

Gluten-free--they were soft and delicious

Traditional--they were soft and delicious, too.

Aside from baking, Little Princess spent hours and hours working on applications for various CAP activities coming up in summer 2024.  This means she learned how to write a resume, asked for letters of recommendation, reviewed her qualifications, did some financial planning, and made a lot of thoughtful decisions.

Nature Angel spent vast quantities of time painting.

She says her new easel has inspired her.

I did a lot of baking myself--I'm trying to make all of our gluten-free bread products, and I'm experiencing quite the learning curve.

I did a lot of research and planning for 2024.

I learned to make 2 different kinds of dairy-free cheese.  The cheese sauce costs about 10% of the store cost to make myself.  The shreddable cheese costs about 30% of the store cost to make at home. 

Neither is very hard to make.

Lola likes them better than the boys do, but they are really committed to certain dairy-free cheese brands, and Lola never has been.  I have mild hopes that they'll grow to like the homemade stuff just fine.