A Little More Detail

Happy Saturday!  I know I dumped a lot on you guys with that last top ten, so let me go back and revisit one of the big ones that I got several texts about.

Chip quitting football.  I wasn't expecting it, but I wasn't surprised. He didn't really love football last year and talked about maybe not playing at the end of last season. But then they went into conditioning and his new epilepsy diagnosis and we didn't address it again. This summer he had many, many mornings where the 6:30 alarm went off for conditioning camp and he really didn't feel like he had rested well. Seems to be a problem for some people with epilepsy. Sleep is the most important thing you can do for your brain - but you just can't sleep well.  That has been Chip's story for years.  He just doesn't sleep well very often.  He is doing better on the prescriptions he is taking now, but still needs about nine hours or so to feel rested.  I think that probably has something to do with being a growing boy/man too.  Teenagers just require a lot of sleep.  With full on football practice coming at him soon, he really started to think he didn't want to play.  He just wasn't looking forward to it as he had in years past.  I also think the early bedtime and early wake up time for the upcoming season was a consideration.  Was it worth going to bed at 8:30 for a 5:30 a.m. wake up call?  He was really worried, thinking he would be a disappointment to his family or he would get some push back which is why it took him so long to say something.

My thoughts and feelings on the subject....and I recognize they probably should be sprinkled with a lot more...you can do hard things....life isn't supposed to be easy....sometimes you have to do things you don't love in life, but I really just can't get too fired up about applying those to this situation.  There ARE definitely lots of hard things in life and you will have to walk through them, but dude, it's high school football. It is supposed to be fun. If you don't love it, then don't play.  There is not one thing about high school that will define who you are as an adult person.  High school is a blip on the map of your life. You just survive it, you hopefully learn some study skills, some time management, how to get along with all kinds of people, cope with your hormones, acne, figure out girls.  It can be some tough years, so you should really have as much fun as you can in these fleeting young years of your life. None of high school comes with you. Clean slate when you start college and you get to keep writing your own story every day after that.  So, he had to go talk to his coach and that was hard. We had to get his schedule changed and that was only a little bit hard. I think now that he has made the decision, had the hard conversations with his parents and his coach, he is feeling relieved and actually looking forward to the new school year. So, bless up Chip!

Now a few other updates:

Dermatologist thinks my rash is some kind of contact rash...prescription steroid cream is on board, being applied and working (although slowly!) and it was only $5.00.  Grateful for that!

Gorilla Glue will hopefully fix the soap holder in the boys shower.

Juice cleanse is underway. I did have some cantaloupe and a few crackers with peanut butter yesterday, because I had a raging headache and thought some food might help.  It did.  I hope that doesn't nullify all the juice cleanse benefits, but drinking five bottles of juice and sending all those micro nutrients right into my bloodstream have got to be good news for my body, right?  Also, I have been a frequent visitor to the restroom.  A little annoying, but I feel really good this morning!

My knee!  I had an appointment yesterday afternoon and have been released from crutches and am gradually able to start getting back to regular activity. Start slow and gradually increase activity as I feel I can. I am so happy.  But, y'all will NOT believe what happened yesterday afternoon. I can't hardly believe it.

I am going to leave that right here as kind of a cliff hanger....

I have to get ready to go do some volunteer work with no crutches....HOORAY....but come back, because later this afternoon I am going to have a story for you!