Around The Home

Another week in the books! Already two weeks into the new year…crazy, huh? Since our life looks a “bit” more normal, we are getting motivated to continue working on little house projects. Our front coat/storage closet still had boxes from when we moved in it. I hadn’t touched them because I had no where to go with the items, due to the lack of shelving in there. Well, I found a picture on the internet of what I thought we could turn the closet into, and my handy dandy husband made the picture come to life! He says he isn’t handy, but boy he sure is. Don’t let him fool you! He even hired some help – Mazy – to assist with the painting!

Don’t let these pictures fool you though (above)…Mazy wanted to help too much, so her and I ran some errands, like going to the bakery! As you can see, it wasn’t difficult to persuade her to go…

By night time we were back at it, painting the shelves for the closet together! And we may have ruined some clothes in the process, but oh well!

The finished product! Isn’t it incredible? I should’ve taken a before picture…it was like a tan/yellow inside with just a wire shelf about level with the top of the door. Dan patched, sanded, painted, and put all these shelves and dowel up!

Every week or so I have to get my blood drawn for various reasons. The quickest way to our local hospital and then to the lab center, has one driving past the helicopter landing pad. I never took notice of these before, until I was launched from one. The first few times I drove by it, I cried. The emotions and memories so vivid in my mind. Now, I can drive past it with a feeling of humbleness and grace. A feeling of realizing “wow, has God taken me through a journey but wow, look at how FAR I have come.” And THAT is His grace! That landing pad will always be a “memorial stone” place (the Israelites placed stones in rivers to mark where they had seen God as a memorial).

Mazy now comes with me and after I get my blood drawn, they always ask HER if she wants a snack, which makes me laugh! They are so sweet to her! And it’s the oreo thins, everytime!

Like I said, we’ve been motivated to do little house projects here and there, well we decided to take “little” to the next level! The upstairs had wallpaper on it, so we decided to tackle what will eventually be Mazy’s room. There were a few holes in the walls, so Dan the handyman has been drywalling and patching those as well. I may have overdone it that day with pulling off wallpaper, but you live and learn, right? Unfortunately the wallpaper doesn’t come with the adhesive, so it’s a two-part process, but it will be awhile before she lands up there anyways!

Thankfully we have a steamer!

Speaking of a steamer, on Thursday it was WARM here in Michigan! All of our humongous icicles broke free from the house, which needed to happen! It is cold once again, but it was nice to not have to even wear a coat for a bit there!

The warm day called for a walk outside! Learned once again that maybe pushing Mazy in a stroller was a bit too soon, but again, ya live and learn, right?

This week I officially start my cardiac rehab. It is a bit surreal to think that I, at 34 years old, am stepping into a facility where the majority of people are about 40 years older than me. Though when I walked in, there was this strange sense of peace and feeling of home that I felt. I saw these men, who stared just as awkwardly at me, us looking at each other, all wondering wow, you went through surgery too? I could have almost cried. I just wanted to tell them, you’re going to be okay! But then I saw one of them just cranking away on the exercise machine, doing FAR more than I could dream of doing right now, and then it was reversed. I could see him telling me, “you’re going to be okay.” For at least the next 10 weeks, 3x a week, I will be heading to the rehab facility. It will be crazy and busy, but we see it as my “job” right now. My job is to get better and healthier. My body took an incredible beating and though I look fairly normal (as normal as Kristin will ever look :)), my body is weak and lacks much yet. But it will come, thanks to the opportunity to do cardiac rehab. Can’t wait to share more!

I had a small session on Friday and it was HARD. I had to breathe through the weights and struggle for breath talking to the trainer while walking at a relatively slow pace. It was a reality check that made me realize boy, do I need to be there! And it was only 10 minutes in length. I am paying for it a bit now, as my sternum is quite sore, but that is the beauty of rehab. It pushes you, but also helps you know your limits. I am learning what those limits are, all while under the care of professionals. What a gift it is to be able to do this! I head back on Wednesday for my first full-out session. And I can hardly wait!