2017 Life Logs, Day 319: On Oma Duty
Date: Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Cool; High 43, Low 32 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
I got a text from Heather early this morning asking if she could bring Sam over to spend the day with me. He has had terrible congestion and what has felt like an ear infection and strep throat. But when we met Heather at the doctor’s office for a mid-day appointment, the doctor declared that he has no ear infection or strep. Something is wrong because his throat is swollen affecting the way he talks and because he gets slight fever every afternoon. But whatever, I loved his comment when he came out of the doctor’s office. He told me the doctor said he didn’t need an antibiotic and he questioned why she didn’t ‘prescribe’ other things that might get him back to a healthy place. I ask this question all the time. Doctors just don’t have the training to prescribe anything but medications, but there are a whole lot of things other than meds that can be done for almost all health issues.
Jed left early this morning to fly to England and Heather had PTO duties from 3 to 8 pm, so I was on Oma duty with all three boys for the afternoon and evening. Sam was taking a nap when it was time to go pick Jonah and Ollie up from school. I had anticipated this and told Sam that if he woke up and I wasn’t here, I’d be back with his brothers shortly. When I got home with Ollie and Jonah, they played together beautifully while I worked with Sam acquainting him with my old computer that I am giving to him. He has to work online through his Google account to do his monthly book reports and having his own computer to use will be very helpful. I haven’t used my Toshiba since I had email problems last fall, so now it is his to try out. And speaking of computers, I have been having the same email problems with my current computer that I had with the old one last fall. Jane Woodin suggested a fellow Newcomer that makes computer house calls, and she came this morning and found the problem. Thank you, Jane, for that referral. But back to the afternoon with boys . . . while Sam and I worked on the computer, Ollie and Jonah got out my dive bag and traveled to the Arctic to get into the water to tag sharks. Then they played some made-up marble games. While they were doing this, I was furiously getting dinner ready. I overheard their play, but never even had to go check on them. When I called down the hall to tell them to clean up and come to dinner, they did that without so much as a reminder. They came to the dinner table and then we left immediately to get to the school book fair. I didn’t have time to check on their clean-up job. But when I got home from taking them to the school book fair and then home for the night, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they really did completely clean up everything. Not one thing was out of place. Now, if they would just do that at home. Anyone who has been a parent knows that children will do things for others that they will never do at home. But their compliance with my request, with no follow-up, shows that they have had the right training at home whether they practice it or not. I had a great afternoon with the boys and was so proud of their cooperative behavior. Sam even wrote the next section of his book report without a single complaint. Well done, Goldpebbles (and mom and dad).
