this we can manage

Hi dear sweet Laura,

I love hearing about your days. It sounds like you are much more organized, with a regular pattern, than I was when Chris was little. It sounds like you have created a beautifully balanced life together.
How idyllic to be able to play on the beach.
Every year we rent a house by the sea for two weeks. I dream about having a cabin by the ocean. I love watching the ocean, for hours and hours.
I have to admit that I am relieved that you allow your children to watch movies. We love to watch children's movies, and movies like The Secret of Roan Inish (our favorite), and Miss Potter, and and UK tv series like Ballykissangel and currently Ray and I are watching Doc Martin. Oh...are you familiar with the long series Avonlea? We love the shorter production of Anne of Green Gables, and Avonlea, which is about Story Girl and other LM Montgomery stories. We were thinking this morning that re-watching the Avonlea series will be a good thing to do while we are recovering from the major surgery.
And thank you, I am so excited to hear about an author I don't know...Enid Blyton. We will look for her books online later tonight.

I am sorry to hear about Andy's unemployment. What is his work?
Ray is a firefighter, and all the firefighters in his department took a pay cut so no-one would have to be laid off.
I hope your family will be ok.

We had a long day today, but we are feeling a lot less stressed. Littles were so scared at the prospect of having the major surgery on our left foot, as well as the screws out of our right heel, both on April 11th, which was the proposed plan. We are proud of ourselves that we were able to get internally organized so the dealing-with-medical-stuff team was on the surface, and littles didn't pop to the surface sobbing and maybe rocking. That would not have been good.
So Ray drove us the hour to the hospital where the foot-and-ankle surgeon is. On the way we talked about how we were in agreement about how I need to have the screws out of my right foot and then do physical therapy to strengthen before having the major left foot surgery.
At the hospital, I had to have a dozen x-rays with the x-ray tech from hell. Then Ray and I met with the surgeon, and now the plan is for me to have the surgery to have the screws out on April 11th, and then do physical therapy , and we have a tentative major surgery date for August 15th. So we are feeling relieved. This we can manage.
And now I should have enough time to figure out some doll clothes and/or doll quilt projects.
You are so generous to share knitting patterns and yarn.
I hope I will have something to share with you.

Ray and I stopped at our local Irish pub on the way home and Ray had bangers and mash and I had chicken strips and chips. Their chips are my favorite!
But they were salty.... I need to go make a mug of tea.

goodnight for now, dear friend,

—Carole