Mama’s nails, pregnancies, projects

As I deleted pictures from my phone, I came across a short video from Sunday lunch at the restaurant. Mama always ends up with the girls crowded around her at some point during lunch. Generally, that crowding involves the phone; looking at pictures, figuring out a game, taking silly selfies. Sunday, as Aubrey sat on Mama’s lap, she played with Mama’s nails – especially her thumbnail. Mama had her nails painted, covered, whatever the process was late last week so the acrylic was still smooth and new. Aubrey did what has been done by children her age – especially little girls - throughout my time with Mama. The child will absently rub, tug on, catch and snap with their fingernail, and generally absorb themselves with a nail on her hand. More often than not it is the thumbnail that is tactilely experienced. So it was with Aubrey. It is a cute video.

The Echevarria children were still with Mama when I got home last night, but Erin was on her way to the house. She had an unexpectedly long visit with the obstetrician. Almost two hours. All that time was spent with the doctor. This is not a high-risk pregnancy but there are always lingering concerns with Erin and Sam because of the autistic child they have. The new little boy on the way is going to be monitored very closely to ensure a healthy pregnancy, a safe delivery and a healthy baby born to the family. Some of the maintenance meds Erin is typically on have been suspended through the pregnancy so the doctor is monitoring those conditions as well. Erin will be under a lot of stress with the pregnancy, her normal life as a wife and a mother of three, the cantata we are working on at church, the holidays through the end of the year, etc. Not unlike Makayla and Brittany as their pregnancies progress. All three babies are due in the same timeframe – early February. Mama and I are praying earnestly to be fulltime in our real estate business by the time our newest grandbabies arrive.

Feeding the animals and getting ready for church was the order of business last night as mama packed up the kids to go home with their mom. It was not a typical church night for us. Mama had a couple stops to make in town before church, so she was determined to leave early enough to take her time with those stops. One involved delivering more eggs to our Chinese family. It seems, Leslie took all the fresh eggs with him when he headed back to Florida yesterday. That drop off happened pretty quickly. It was the second stop that took a bit of time.

Since Grandma had fallen Monday afternoon, Grandpa went to Walmart and bought her a leg brace. Neither of them paid enough attention to the fact that the brace had latex in it. Grandma is allergic to latex, but she wore it anyway (even after they discovered it) because, she told Mama, “It felt so good.” At least until it didn’t. She ended up with a severe breakout of hives – head to foot, armpits, bends of the knee and elbows, etc. While Grandpa took Grandma to the Urgent Care, we went to a sporting goods store to look for a brace that was latex free. That took some time, but we had plenty to spare. There turned out to be too many choices for us to settle on one. Mama will communicate the styles and prices and work all that out today. If the brace helps, we certainly want to provide it for Grandma. But we also want to limit trips to the store to return and/or exchange braces as Grandma settles on the one that suits her best.

This evening, I will have time to do some work around the farm and in the shop. I am nearly finished with assembling the second hive. Fortunately, I am months ahead on that project. We will not get bees for those hives until April of next year. We have not even decided where to place the hives on the farm. I am also working on making some catfish jugs for use in the lake beside us. I had a rough idea what to do but refined the idea looking at videos on YouTube. Most of what I need I have available at the farm, left over from other completed projects. I may get to test the jugs this weekend. It all depends on how quickly I get back from Red’s tomorrow night. We are buying some cattle panels from him and the dog kennel they made up has to be disassembled as we go. Mama has me preparing wood for her and Kimberlyn in their craft making business. I have sufficient light in the shop to do that type of work.

Darkness is settling on us earlier and earlier in the evening as fall begins. It is nice to have the shop to work in as the nights get longer. Fortunately, I have several projects that can be completed in the shop. I am starting to enjoy having the shop. Adapting to and taking on new projects that can be stretched out over the weeks ahead as darkness comes sooner in the evenings.

I enjoy this life with Mama.