Enough already.

When news writers raise alarms about biological warfare, viruses let loose accidentally by the CDC, bird flu, patches of black ice on the road, deadly strains of influenza, et al, my mom-sense goes into hyper-drive. Crohn's Disease and Remicade are a double handicap in the resistance game. While we're fighting to keep A's colon intact, Remicade is suppressing his immune system so it won't attack the colon . . . or any other disease, infection, etc. that happens to come along.

I want to stay home with my kids. Of course that's not realistic. I well understand the importance of preparing them for living with and in the world. I also understand that alarmist writing increases readership and ratings. But it doesn't stop me from enjoying snow days and stormy weather when we have no choice but to stay home.

There's an inordinate glee underlining doom-and-gloom news "reporting." Now that we're afraid of everything, narcissism rules the day. Don't tell us what to do. But SOMEONE should take care of all the bad stuff so we don't have to deal with it.

Enough already. There are enough real-life challenges. The stomach flu is waiting for the kids to get back to school so it can roar through families all over again. Life-changing illnesses are going to turn future plans upside down. The roof will leak and car break down when we can least afford the repairs.

And people will surprise you with kindness. 300 friends and neighbors will line the streets to welcome home a young mom recovering from months of physical rehabilitation. They'll let you in a long line of rush hour traffic and NOT bang the horn because your attention drifted for a moment when the light turned green. They'll see some broken glass in a picnic area and pick it up. They'll bring you an heirloom tomato plant just because they have extra and share the first crop of green beans from the backyard garden. They'll show up for volunteer workdays at church and the Nature Center and school and will value the results of their labors rather than the accolades.

Those kinds of stories don't sell newspapers or ad space for newscasts.

But they make living in Dunwoody all the nicer.

Remicade day.

Today is A's seven-week Remicade treatment, so I've taken a day off from the Nature Center. We'll get to the infusion lab at GI Care for Kids by 915 and he'll be hooked up to the IV for three hours. While he's passing the time with DVDs and Nintendo, I'll sit in the parents' micro-waiting room and work on a freelance assignment. Hurray for laptops!

This particular assignment is a "boomerang," a re-direction in style and format that has gone through second thoughts and now needs a fresh start. The client has a tight deadline, so I do, too. The three hours will pass quickly . . . my goal is to have most of it reworked by the time A's infusion is complete.

I've worked on hundreds of collections through the years, for high end designers and mid-range brands you'll find in the pages of Southern Living and Better Homes and Gardens. The furniture collection I'm profiling today is one that I would love to have in my own home. Ssshhh . . . can't say anything about the design or name because it's a big intro for my client. Even the name is cool.

Once I've finished the writing assignment, I'll dive back into the Vogue Sideways Cardigan project. I finished the back and am now getting ready to start one of the front pieces. Fun thing about the pattern (note: sarcasm) . . . the directions for the back didn't include ANY binding off point. They just stopped, as if there were about four stitches left on the needles for the shoulder area. As if. I had 24 on the needles and just bound off. I figure once I get to seaming, anything that doesn't fit can be adjusted at that stage. I want to finish it by this weekend because AG and I are heading to Savannah with her Girl Scout troop for a mother-daughter trip. It'll be a great piece to wear in the evenings.

On to Remicade. And writing. And knitting. Oh, yeah, and baking - I need to make a batch of goodies for the fab teachers and junior counsellors working summer camp this week at Dunwoody Nature Center.

Day off? I think not!

Spring break, cleaning, and knitting

This week is Spring Break for AG and AM. Since AM had a Remicade treatment scheduled Monday, we stayed in town (we never know whether he'll take the treatment well or be wiped out for awhile). Monday was pretty much Remicade Day, with AG and I waiting in the tiny airless waiting area and AM getting his three hours of infusion. (Our fearless leader and nurse extraordinaire Cathy came breezing in shortly after the infusion started with her latest load of munchies from Costco. The lab always has a tray of snacks for the kids. Crohn's is all about stoking the body with enough fuel to keep going - most of it doesn't stay in the system long enough to do any good.)

Tuesday was sleep-in day for the kids while I started on a long-deferred project: clearing out, de-cluttering, and organizing the basement storage area. They awakened in time to haul stuff to the curb.

Argh.

The pile by the curb was embarrassingly huge - and those were the rejects. We took a load to Goodwill as well (my favorite treasure-hunting place). I HAD to check the household area. A few weeks ago I scored a huge bag of fuzzy Patons Divine in an assortment of pinks, purples, creams and grays for just $4. So I made 2 prayer shawls, one in purples and pinks, and the other in white and pastels (for a mom in the neonatal ICU).

Purple Prayer Shawl Pattern:

• 4 Balls Patons Divine in Light Pink, Dark Pink, Purple, and Cream
• Size 13 circular needles
• Finished size: 18" deep x 68" wide (without fringe)
  

This is a self-fringing pattern in that you break the yarn at the end of each row of knitting. By tying two ends together, you add fringe as you knit.

Cast on 120 stitches on size 13 needles loosely, using long tail method. Knit across. At end of row, break yarn, approximately 9" from edge of shawl. Insert needle into first stitch (preparing to knit across the next row), carefully looping yarn as if to start a new ball. Leave 9" tail. Tie strand to previous strand. Knit across.

Continue knitting in garter stitch, adding new colors on the right side as you stripe in any pattern you like.

Knit until shawl is approximately 18" or more deep. Trim fringe so it's even (I trimmed this one about 6-7").

During this most recent visit, ostensibly JUST to drop off those donated goods, I scored another bag of yarn: 8 balls of Bernat Sox in a cheerful rainbow of pink, teal, line, brown, and orange for $3. That's enough to create a mitered square prayer shawl, the next design I'll put together. When yarn just falls in my lap, it seems meant for a prayer shawl!

Wednesday was the day of the Big Reveal. I redid AG's bedroom, taking out one of the twin beds and making it more tween-friendly for her gatherings. We found a huge butterfly chair with a deep, feathery cover that she proclaimed "yummy" for her room. AG and BFF D were playing Dance Revolution on the Wii in the basement rec room while I worked. When I was finished, I called them up for the Big Reveal. Squeals and a prompt slamming of the door in my face after a heartfelt "Thanks, Mom!" were proof of the successful results.

Today is all about fun. The weather is beautiful, the temp warm enough for shorts, and we're headed to the Island Ford part of the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area nearby. It's just a ten-minute drive, but it feels like the middle of a natural nowhere. We'll picnic, take a hike along the river, and then go to a movie (Nim's Island).

Tomorrow, we'll head to the Atlanta Zoo.

Happy Spring Break!

Take a hike

Ten miles. That's how far the kids and I hiked this morning. We looped through Dunwoody, headed over to the Perimeter Mall area, then trekked up Ashford-Dunwoody, back through the Village, and home. Finished in just under 3 hours, with a stop at Starbucks. Urban hiking rocks!

A has to complete five ten-mile hikes plus one 20-mile hike to earn his Hiking Merit Badge. That, and Personal Fitness, are all that stand between him and his Eagle project. It was a great morning for a hike - overcast, 50's. He's already completed hikes on the Big Creek greenway at North Point and Stone Mountain Park. He opted for an urban hike this time so he'd have access to restroom facilities. Just two days since Remicade, and things are still settling down. These physical merit badges are really hard for A, but he's gamely trying to meet the requirements.

It's been a hard month on so many people around us. One lost her mother to a horrible automobile accident and weeks of hospitalization. A friend is in the Northside ICU with double pneumonia and collapsed lungs. She has three girls between the ages of 5 and 14. Two weeks on a ventilator and still counting. Another mom of three young girls between the ages of 2 and 10) visited her last Tuesday, then was admitted to the same ICU the next day with Type H Influenza (the 1918 strain that was so deadly). Flu has been roaring through our preschools and schools here in Dunwoody. She contracted one of the rarer strains that is always around, but usually affects only the very young and the very elderly. She's in critical condition, also on a ventilator.

Awful.

I worry about A being exposed to flu and pneumonia - his immune system is compromised at best, and at the moment it's completely suppressed thanks to Remicade. But we can't keep him in a bubble, so keep hoping and praying for the best.

Knitting Progress

• Finished: another prayer shawl for the knitting ministry at St. Luke's. This one, also in the Comfort Shawl pattern, combined black and cream in yarns of various textures.
• 90% complete: At the instep for Jaywalker #2! I expect to finish it in the next few days, thanks to some unexpected waiting room time at Curry Honda. The van's transmission is hinky.
• Starting: Swatching for a felted runner idea, Ice Queen.
  
• On hold (temporarily): Mukluks.
  

Remicade knitting

Today is A's eight-week Remicade infusion. We'll stop for a chicken biscuit at Chic Fil A then head for the lab for his 10:00 appointment. The good news is that today is a school holiday, so he isn't missing classes. (A does not consider that good news. He loves to miss classes.)

Remicade is coded by the insurance company like chemotherapy, and there are many similarities. Every eight weeks, he's hooked up to an IV for 3 hours of measured dosage. The infusion lab is staffed by GI Care for Kids (the pediatric gastroenterology practice) so it's set up for the primarily tween and teen patients' comfort. Recliners, a TV, a bunch of current DVD's, snack tray and two amazing nurses, plus half a dozen pediatric GIs right around the corner and Children's Healthcare/Scottish Rite across the street just in case . . . it's a fantastic arrangement.

Remicade has been a last-ditch measure to control Adam's severe Crohn's, and so far it's preventing the perforations and sepsis he's endured in the past. We're praying that the inevitable development of Remicade antibodies is far in the future because there isn't much in the research pipeline to go to next.

Meanwhile, we parents get to perch in a microscope waiting "room" that's anything but comfortable. Seven armless seats with the worst ergonomics I've ever seen in an airless anteroom that's about 8 feet wide by 12 feet long! I always try to angle for the corner seat because that way I'm not in the path of strollers headed to the lab that shares the infusion lab's space, nor will the door to the lab smack me in the knees. Otherwise, it's a constant dodge.

I truly do not mind the waiting room because I appreciate the space set aside for patients. I can get up and move around. The patients are tethered to their IVs.

Three hours of Remicade equates to really productive knitting. I hope to get to the heel of Jaywalker #2 and swatch a new project. Plus I have a J. D. Robb in case my hands get tired.