And we all fall down

It was a perfect summer's evening. The sun had just set, and stars were beginning to pop out of the deepening blue sky overhead. And then the fun started. There was screaming. Children were traumatized. Neighbors came running. No big deal, really. It's just a day in the life at the bishop's house.

The knee that has been the bane of my spring and summer has been improving dramatically in recent days and I have been working hard on getting my full range of motion back and re-training myself to walk without a limp. Last week my physical therapist, Ed (aka The Dungeon Master) was so happy with my progress that he said I only needed to come in once a week. I even did a tiny bit of clogging - yes, dad, I was careful! - to help Nathan and Megan practice for summer lessons. I am jazzed about getting my mobility back, and with it, my life.

Life is good.

Oh, except for one little detail.

Last night I fell out the front door and hurt myself. Again.

It was one of those stupid things that you keep going over in your mind and see all the ways it could have been avoided. If only I'd taken my stupid waffle stomper shoes off earlier so that my toe didn't catch on the threshold. Or maybe if I'd picked my feet up or -- oh here's a good one -- watched where I was going instead of scanning the horizon for a stupid planet we'd been watching for all summer. If only I'd declined my husband's offer to come and see Venus in the sunset instead of brushing my teeth. I had the toothpaste on my brush. I already had two buttons undone on my shirt. It all happened so fast. One moment I was stepping out the front door to see the sunset and the next I was on the porch, kneeling a step down on the welcome mat with my feet pinned behind me on the threshold above, my still tender knee bent as far as it would go-- far more than it had been bent in the last five months since I first hurt it.

I made quite a spectacle of myself. Tom was standing right behind me when it happened, and although it seemed like forever, within seconds he had lifted me off the porch and drug me backwards into the house so that I sat clutching my knee with both hands, my feet dangling out the door down onto the wide top step. I don't remember why the screen door didn't close on me. Was he holding it open or was I? I could hear Megan wailing in the kitchen. A door slammed somewhere in the house. The floor was shifting and the walls began to spin slowly. Someone was groaning loudly. It made me mad. SHUT UP, already! Oh wait... that would be me. Quick, somebody get a sock and stuff it in my mouth to stop that pitiful mewling noise!

Just then the neighbors arrived. Are you ok?! Oh... hi! Uhhhhh - yes I'm fine, but could you do me a really big favor and maybe get a gun and just shoot me? Right now would be real, real good.

One burly guy helped Tom hoist my great bulk the rest of the way into the house and onto the couch. Karianne, ever the calm one, filled ice packs and brought them to pack around me leg. I think maybe she should go into nursing or something. That girl has nerves of steel. Tom went to comfort the sobbing Megan and checked on Susan, who had fled to her room in tears.

So now I'm on the couch propped up on pillows and my knee is blessedly numb from the ice. I am telling the kids that I will be okay and I that I don't think I did any more damage. I'm telling them that I'll be back up and around again in no time.

But there's one burning question in my mind that I don't have an answer for...

Did I ever button my shirt back up?

The Great Garden Cleanup

Due to my malfunctioning camera, I have no amazing photos of our day of garden work. I'm sure you'll get over it. I have confidence in your resiliancy.

At 9am, our ward's Scout Troop converged on my garden next door, ready and willing to wreck destruction on all things of the plant kingdom. Interspersed with the work of pulling down cornstalks, sunflowers, and uprooting tomato vines, was a pickupgame of baseball with sunflower stalks for bats and tomatoes for balls. This quickly degenerated into an all out tomato fight. After the work was done, donuts and hot chocolate were passed around.

I recruited my kids to help too. Susan, Nathan, and Megan helped in the garden, while Karianne negotiated for indoor work -- she cleaned the kitchen. It was nice to come in after a long day's work and have the kitchen clean from top to bottom, instead of the usual disaster of dishes that awaits me after a day outside.

In about an hour, a day's worth of work was done. With a rented shredder, Tom reduced the mountain of waste matter into a nice big pile of compost-ready fluff. I fired up dad's old Troy Built rear-tine tiller (ok - Tom got it started the first time because I was too weak to start it cold) and prepared some ground for winter cover crops. What an awesome tiller. It's so heavy in front that it stays on course without any help from me. No jumping around or any silliness like that. I just walked along side it with one hand on the persnickety throttle that had to be constantly adjusted to keep the motor going. It's a bit annoying to have to baby it, but the upside is that I can't lend the tiller out, because it's so hard to keep it running. Of course, nobody else in my ward has a garden large enough to need a big tiller anyway.

The weather was perfect--sunny and cool, ideal for outdoor work. I like the feeling of having worked hard all day and being productive.