{"id":379469,"date":"2014-06-03T03:12:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T03:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/03\/cheeseburger-rose-sweater-tractor\/"},"modified":"2014-06-03T03:12:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T03:12:00","slug":"cheeseburger-rose-sweater-tractor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/03\/cheeseburger-rose-sweater-tractor\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheeseburger, Rose, Sweater, Tractor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I<\/span>t\u2019s the beginning of a new month, Journeyer.<\/span><\/div>\n
Which means that in addition to bill money in my bank account, I also have raging hormones to look forward to every day for a week.<\/span><\/div>\n
I\u2019m talking the pimply-faced, swollen-body-limbs-aching-boobs-pants-don\u2019t-fit, irritability-initiating, completely exhausting kind of physiological changes.<\/span><\/div>\n
In between Wednesday\u2019s shifts I napped from a little after nine until twelve-forty.<\/span><\/div>\n
I am ever grateful for this past week\u2019s shortened work days.<\/span><\/div>\n
The long Memorial weekend gave me a much appreciated reprieve.<\/span><\/div>\n
After being gone for the past several weekends, Warren and I spent this weekend catching up on some outside work.<\/span><\/div>\n
But first up, I slept in until nine o\u2019clock Saturday morning!<\/span><\/div>\n
That sort of sleep-in usually leaves me sluggish all day, but I managed to make a full breakfast; wash and dry a few loads of laundry; clean the kitchen and the toilets; address the weeds that have taken over my flower garden; and then I cleaned the interior and exterior of Zee, my new-to-me little car.<\/span><\/div>\n
Afterward, I spent a few glorious hours outside with sun, lush green trees, and this old Ford tractor as my companions.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Before the fire reduced our store to ashes and ended the farm as our full time business, I used to spend countless hours atop this steel horse.<\/span><\/div>\n
I can\u2019t tell you how many people are surprised to see me, this five-foot-two female who evidently looks more like the school teacher type than the machinery type, hop aboard our equipment.<\/span><\/div>\n
Forklifts, bulldozers, backhoes, tractors, I\u2019ve operated them all\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
But I must admit that I much prefer the latter and would rather climb a tree than drive the other three.<\/span><\/div>\n
Thankfully, I don\u2019t have to and hopefully never will, again.<\/span><\/div>\n
But the tractor?<\/span><\/div>\n
There is something so peaceful about the whir of the blades, the engine\u2019s hum, the breeze and the birds and the mountainous silence.<\/span><\/div>\n
Driving affords me plenty of time to reflect.<\/span><\/div>\n
As I thought about last week\u2019s moments, the most prevailing thought was this: Cheeseburger. Rose. Sweater.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cHe remembered \u2018cheeseburger\u2019, \u2018rose\u2019, and \u2018sweater,\u2019 \u201d my student exclaimed gleefully.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cThey showed him three pictures and he remembered them all!\u201d she continued in response to my inquiry about her brother.<\/span><\/div>\n
This might not seem extraordinary, given the fact that he\u2019s a vibrant thirteen-year-old, but it is a magnificent accomplishment.<\/span><\/div>\n
You see, seven weeks ago he was an active, bubbly, and healthy teenager.<\/span><\/div>\n
A freak skateboarding accident later he now wears a heavy rubber helmet and is relearning the simplest things.<\/span><\/div>\n
Cheeseburger.<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Rose.<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Sweater<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/div>\n
This family\u2019s life has been altered beyond my imagination, weeks in a hospital nearly three hours from home, long-term physical therapy, health fears, an entirely new education program to contend with, financial strains\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
And so many new hurdles that most of us cannot even fathom\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
And, yet, I cannot help but share in my six-year-old student\u2019s happiness.<\/span><\/div>\n
Her brother survived a series of seizures and a traumatic brain injury.<\/span><\/div>\n
He is alive<\/i>.<\/span><\/div>\n
He came home<\/i> from the hospital.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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He stepped out of the car<\/i> and walked<\/i> to the bus stop to see his baby sister off to school.<\/span><\/div>\n
And now, days after returning from what began as a tenuous and unknown future, he can remember cheeseburger<\/i>, rose<\/i>, and sweater<\/i>.<\/span><\/div>\n
This family is surely embarking on an entirely new set of firsts with their son, things that would likely fill another baby book.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Through the haze of hardship there are many reasons past, present, and future to celebrate\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
And that knowledge fills my heart with joy.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Speaking of merriment, Big Guy\u2019s team won their final match<\/span><\/a> and clinched the tournament title.<\/span><\/div>\n
Last week\u2019s happy can also be found in the scent of the blooming lilac bushes bordering our drive\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
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In the delicate petals of my emerging iris\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the wonder of my three children observing the baby bunny Beauty discovered (“rescued”) while weeding a neighbor\u2019s garden\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
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Then there were three…<\/div>\n
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And then there were SIX!<\/div>\n
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In the company of my on-summer-break daughter (of course, when she\u2019s not busy pushing her parents away)\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
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Enjoying watching Beauty enjoy herself…<\/span><\/div>\n
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In Fave’s visit and the laughter and camaraderie of three siblings…<\/span><\/div>\n
In the recent warmth and fullness of the sun\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
In the licensing of my new little car and in the feel of shifting through her five gears!<\/span><\/div>\n
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In the joyful memories of remembering my own children\u2019s earliest object recognition and first words, which, growing up on a farm, included tractor<\/i>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

And in those three little words\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
Cheeseburger<\/span><\/i>. Rose<\/i>. Sweater<\/i>.<\/span><\/div>\n
What about you, Journeyer? What memories or Moment(s) fill your happy last week?<\/span><\/div>\n
Until next we meet again, yours in healing and hope and happiness\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span>~AE<\/span><\/div>\n
Soon\u2026<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the beginning of a new month, Journeyer. Which means that in addition to bill money in my bank account, I also have raging hormones to look forward to every day for a week. I\u2019m talking the pimply-faced, swollen-body-limbs-aching-boobs-pants-don\u2019t-fit, irritability-initiating, completely exhausting kind of physiological changes. In between Wednesday\u2019s shifts I napped from a little […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[316,1277,317,1278,106,54,63,320,1279,1280,1281],"class_list":["post-379469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-happyhappens","tag-cheeseburger","tag-finding-happiness-in-your-day","tag-head-trauma","tag-joy","tag-loss-and-healing","tag-parenting","tag-random-happiness","tag-rose","tag-sweater","tag-tractor"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Cheeseburger-252C-Rose-252C-Sweater-252C-Tractor-Image.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}