6,600 pieces in 2 weeks!

We did a LOT of puzzles earlier this year, and then had taken a break. Nadia started doing puzzles again two weeks ago, and in the past fourteen days she did two 750 piece puzzles, seven 300 piece puzzles, and six 500 piece puzzles all by herself. She's come a long way during this pandemic with her skills at doing puzzles! Several months ago she didn't even want to do a 750 piece puzzle WITH help, and now she is doing that size without help. I ordered a few new puzzles for the kids for Christmas so she'll have some new ones to do in a few weeks. A day "off" from school for Nadia meant hours of listening to audiobooks while doing puzzles (today she listened to A Long Walk to Water and Riding Freedom) as well as finishing one art project (monarch) and doing a second one from start to finish (owl). The rain didn't stop Oliver from playing outside today, although he didn't last as long as he usually does primarily because he was the only child playing outside in the neighborhood today. Yesterday we received a delivery of the bedding for the guinea pigs, and the kids had fun playing with those boxes today. 

Paul wanted me to go to the doctor on Saturday morning. I talked to Yvonne and decided to follow her recommendations, and if I didn't see improvement I'd see a doctor on Monday.  The pain peaked at 2am on Sunday morning and my fever returned. If it hadn't been the middle of the night, I'd have gone to see a doctor at that point. It was an hour before I could take another Aleve so I took two Tylenol and prayed for God to intervene. I believe He did because when I woke up at 6am my pain had greatly diminished and my range of motion had greatly increased. I didn't wear the sling yesterday but continued to take Aleve every 8 hours and use ice. This morning when I got up I discovered my full range of motion had returned and the pain was very minimal. The swelling in my hand and fingers and the fever have completely gone away. I am very, very thankful! I discovered on Friday and Saturday how challenging it is to do things like cook and get dressed without being able to move one's left arm. Ian had a very, very hard time remembering not to hug me or snuggle on my left side. Ouch!!! 

We are praying for comfort for our friends as their beloved long-haired dachshund, Ruby, passed away today. Nadia was very fond of Ruby. The doctors hadn't quite figured out how to properly adjust Paul's mom's medication because the medication that lowers her heart rate (which has been too high) causes her blood pressure to be too low, but she was discharged from the hospital today because of COVID. First the hospital wants to discharge as many patients as they possibly can to have more beds available for COVID patients and also they were concerned about her risk of contracting COVID considering how many COVID patients are in the hospital right now. We're continuing to pray for Grandma.