Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday, all! Plenty happening here so I'm just going to do a somewhat unexciting update post...

1. Doorknobs & hinges. Last month we finally got around to switching out the last of the brass doorknobs and door hinges in the house. Whew. It's not a huge difference and the doors are still the old original ones but it feels good to have updated them.

2. Age map. Micah cracks us up, y'all. During our ongoing family movie nights, Micah's opinions are frequently shared. One of the latest conversations stemmed from Micah's outrage over age differences in couples. He has very set ideas about what an appropriate age difference is and it varies by age and is a fairly narrow band. The ensuing debate led to boys creating "age maps" of what each considered appropriate. (There were actual charts made, lol.) It was an entertaining evening. :) 

3. Bao. I think I've mentioned before that boys join in making dinner from time to time (we had a more regular rotation but it's become more sporadic lately). In any case, I always appreciate it. And I have this picture that I haven't shared before...

This was when Nathan was in California for work. Micah made the pork baos that he's made a number of times, and Noah helped with running the steamer to speed up the process. 

4. Micah's arthritis update. So, as you know, Micah's been having flare ups and pain since February. Initially, we thought it was just due to the cold weather but it became clear that the current med plan had stopped working. So, we had an appointment down at Children's last week. Our discussion had two parts.

One, we worked on figuring out what to do right now about the ongoing pain and decided he'll have a steroid injection next week on the left knee that's giving him the most trouble. (That should almost definitely resolve that unless the accompanying ultrasound shows something beyond the arthritis inflammation, like actual damage from the flare up.) In the meantime, he's been back on the prednisone that's helped with most of the other joints. (The prednisone works great but, sadly, he can't stay on it for very long each time.)

Two, we worked on figuring out a new medication plan going forward. He'd already tried all the options that didn't involve needles, unfortunately. So, this time he had to choose between the two options left (due to his age, not all options are open to him yet). He opted for the monthly IV infusions over injecting himself every other week. He really hated injecting himself, lol. (He did that weekly for a few months before he'd started on the last plan with all oral meds.) Working now on getting all of that set up to hopefully start by the end of the month. (He'll go to an infusion center and have that administered over about 3 hours.) Bleh. Fingers crossed that we can get things back under control going forward.

On the plus side, since he's staying in CO for college, his rheumatologist can continue helping him and knows just where to send him for everything. So that's nice. :) 

5. Dishwasher. On Monday, I discovered (by stepping in a cold puddle of water barefooted) that our dishwasher had decided to break. We've had it for eleven years, so I guess it was time. Sigh. I'm going to be thankful that it cleaned that last load...that we're in a position that we were able to just go buy a new one (it will be delivered Saturday)...and that our meal plans for this week were already pretty light on the dish-dirtying. Also, hooray for paper plates, lol!

6. First day. I started my new job on Monday. This week and next are about prep work...getting accounts set up and doing some training, shadowing another site (there are multiple programs; I'll be coordinating just two of them), and getting things ready for starting up. The plan is to start "officially" with kids on May 1. Yay! 

7. Asher update. Asher met with his advisor this week and is now officially registered for his fall classes...and he seems pretty happy about them...which makes me happy. Also, it means that his to-do list is pretty much done for this fall now. Whew. 

So. That's some of what's been going on here lately. Thankful for it all!