Lent 2013

I know I am late in posting but with Matt being in the hospital and what not we have been a little bit slow to beginning our Lenten practice for this year. 

We had already been planning on keeping it simple this year, but now it's more true than ever. Our themes for this Lent are "No Excess" and "More Time Together." We created a whole long list of what that means for us but I won't bore you with the whole thing. 

Here are our main goals for the next few weeks: 

1. Eat at least 2 meals together at the table each week.
(Confession: We have a bad habit of sitting only in front of the TV to eat dinner--Netflix doesn't help.)

2. Bring back 1 night a week where we keep the TV off and pick up a book.

3. Try only to buy what we will eat for the coming week or two at the grocery store. 

(I have a bad habit of picking up good deals or buying something that sounds good for no other reason than to have it on hand for when we need it)

4. Try to cut back on eating out and ordering drinks while out. 

(This one has been made easier seeing as Matt is on a low-fat, no alcohol diet for now)

5. Shopping only for what we need and not just buying out of excess. 

Things have been busy (and stressful) as we've kicked off 2013 so we are hoping to use these weeks to slow down, take a step back, and breathe deeply. We are hoping to find ways to share life together here and now because life is too short to do anything else. May your Lent be blessed with these simple treasures as well! 

Love.

Love definitely takes on new meaning when spent in a hospital room. 

It's a scary thing to watch someone you love in so much pain. I don't wish it upon anyone. 

Coming back and forth to an empty house has reminded me of all the little things I love about having a partner in life:

I love Matt being home when I walk in the door. 

I love that Matt makes dinner and has it ready to go at 7:00pm. 

I love that Matt is able to come home and let Maggie Mae out to play. 

I love that Matt turns on the outside lights so that I don't have to come home in the dark.

I love sitting on the couch and watching all of our favorite shows on the DVR. 

I love making grocery lists and planning for new meals to try. 

I love falling asleep to HGTV House Hunters every night.

I love having Fridays off together. 

I love talking about our days each night. 

I love planning our next adventure together. 

I love the way Maggie curls up between us on the couch (and shoves between us on the bed).

These are only a few of the things I love about Matt but they are magnified when he's not here. I am so thankful to have someone to love so deeply along the journey and can't wait to celebrate our love outside of the hospital!

Pancreatitis

It began Tuesday night. Matt was complaining of heartburn--which is not all that uncommon in our house. So we sent him to bed and were hoping it would eventually die down. Unfortunately at about 2am, the pain had actually increased. 

So we headed to the ER after a sleepless night for the both of us. Matt was in the worst pain I think I've ever seen him in--he couldn't lay still on the bed and the waves of nausea were constant. I didn't know what to do to help calm him down. They were finally able to find a pain killer strong enough to ease some of the pain. After some blood work and a CT scan, they diagnosed Matt with a pretty severe case of pancreatitis. They would need to admit him to stop the inflammation and try to discover the cause. 

There are only a few "common" causes of pancreatitis, none of which fit Matt's habits or lifestyle. So the cause for the flare up is still a bit of a mystery--but the doctor assures us that is not all that uncommon. They will be doing some follow up tests to keep an eye on things and see if we can come any closer to discovering what caused the inflammation. 

In order to let the pancreas rest, Matt wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything for a solid two days. Yesterday he was finally allowed some clear liquids and today its on to soft solids. Although we are thankful for the enforced rest and good care, we are very ready to have Matt back home.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be the day! 

Thanks for all of the kind words, love, and care. We are so thankful for each of you!