Lessons learned in the blackberry patch

It has been an eventful week full of doctors' appointments (four to be exact), the last baseball game of the season, and blackberry picking. I know I'm leaving things out, but I'm sure they'll come back to me as this progresses.

Monday started off with an epidural for Greg. His back has been acting up a little due to a trip on our little get-away a few weekends ago. While Greg was at his appointment, I took Maddie to get an event monitor for her heart. Her heart was structurally fine, but since she has had complaints for several years, Dr. Ward wanted her to wear an event monitor for a month. It's just a little device that has electrodes that go to her chest and a monitor a little bigger than a pager that she wears on her waistband. She pushes a button whenever she has an episode.

Tuesday yielded a trip to the pediatrician for Maddie. She developed an infection on her hand and was placed on antibiotics.

Wednesday was my trip to the doctor - just for "girl stuff".

Thursday morning we went to a movie in OKC with our friends. Maddie's hand wasn't looking any better, so we went to have it incised and drained that afternoon. She was nervous, but was very brave and did great. While we were waiting for the procedure she said, "Mav had to have a lot more needle pokes than I ever have, so I have nothing to be afraid of." The lidocaine started to wear off around 5:30pm and we had to make a call to get something a little stronger than ibuprofen. After that, the evening went smoothly. Carter had his last baseball game of the season. Here's a pic of a hit he made.

This morning we woke up early to go blackberry picking at a farm nearby. I thought it would be a fun outing for us since we were going with several friends. We had been there no longer than ten minutes when the whining ensued. I really can't blame them. We went in the morning to escape the heat, but it was in the 90's by 10:00. We picked about two quarts and then the kids took a horse-drawn carriage ride around the farm. Maddie said it was a little rough. It was the horse's first day doing this, so he didn't quite have the hang of it. Here are some pics of the day.

I took these last two pics after a conversation with a couple of men at the farm. I had just canvassed one aisle and was heading a different direction to go down another. One man thought I was just getting started and yelled out, "Ma'am, you might as well not waste your time. There's nothing out there." They continued to walk toward me red-faced from the heat. I held up my bucket when they were close and said, "I've had some pretty good luck. I've been looking underneath the vines." "Oh, well you have. Lookin' where no one else was lookin'" he said. I smiled and turned to start the search again. I kept pondering the incident in my head and was thinking of the lesson I learned from this - take your pick:

1. To find what no one else can find, you have to look where no one else will look.

2. Persistence pays off.

3. Don't listen to what everyone tells you (or should that just be what men tell you?).

4. You must pass over many pieces of sour fruit to find the sweet ones.

or, all of the above. Yes, I believe all of the above. I enjoyed the time with the kids today and we sang some of our favorite songs on the way back home. I reminded myself today how lucky I am to have three healthy kids here with me - with us. I was thankful for the doctors' appointments and all the chaos. The normal, regular chaos. I so miss Mav, but I know I truly appreciate my life more because of him. I think it's an amazing gift to appreciate people when you have them, not just after they're gone.

Carter and Chloe went to their grandma and papaw's house today and spent the night tonight. I was resting on the couch this afternoon and Oprah came on. It was an episode on moms. I couldn't help but think, "Some of these people don't know how petty this stuff is that they are complaining about." Another heart mom lost her five-month old heart baby this week.

Hug your kids and give them an extra ounce of patience. School starts back for us in six weeks. This summer is going by so fast. Love you all, jc