It's been a bit of a roller coaster ride the past month for the family and especially this week. Lisa's dad has been in the hospital for about a month now with ups and downs in his recovery - all starting with a visit to the ER for some chronic back pain that has always been there but more acute. Well, that trip identified pneumonia and it's been nothing but hospitals and physical therapy ever since. God bless Lisa, she's been trying so hard to do and advise the right thing as her dad has had surgery to fuse vertebrae in his back (from which he hasn't recovered well) in addition to the pneumonia. We've done our best to keep the little ones at home when she visits so she has time for him, but sometimes scheduling just doesn't work out so Lisa has to rely on telephone accounts from med stafd, friends and family for updates. The results of this week appear to leave my father-in-law moving from a state of self-sufficiency to one of assisted living. :-s

This week we also made a concerted effort to get Monkeyboy toilet trained. I took some time from work during mid-winter break to do the petty training in 48 hours approach. We have had successes, but we've got a ways to go. The difficulty we're having is that he would rather hold it and have an accident than use the toilet. Or, perhaps he knows the muscle to hold, but doesn't feel control over the muscle to release. Whatever the case is, he is unable to explain his resistance to the toilet idea (autism us driving me crazy here) so we're working blindly to determine what could motivate him to cross the line beyond disposable pull-ups.

All that said... I'm tired.

There was a time not so long ago when I felt I had the ability to make a decision. I felt I could take on any MacGuyver or A-Team situation, and determine a life-saving plan of action to save the world (and even get B.A. on the plane with no fuss). Seems nowadays, I can't even decide on chicken nugget sauce without inquiring the almanac. Sheesh! I blame the kids. I think I've used my quota of 'Decisitonin' on making choices for the kids. So when it comes to making decisions at work or for the Troop, uh, I guess I'll have honey mustard... No wait, someone won't like it. Sweet & sour? Plain? Eh, how bout plum sauce, hot that? Agh!