In order to escape from reality, I often find myself in a dream world.  Sometimes that is on facebook, sometimes on pinterest.


I have wanted to create a welcoming entryway into our home since we built our home.  I love our front door.  I also love wreaths.  However I felt that a wreath takes away from the beauty of our door.  I went on a mission to find a way to hang a wreath somewhere other than a door.  


I found these to attach to the brick.  Not exactly what I was looking for, though very cool.


Then I found these:
 



An idea was born.  I decided rather than hang a welcome sign I could hang a wreath.


I was on a mission.  I headed to Lowe's for supplies.


I looked at different posts, finials, moldings, boards, etc to build my own.  Then I found these:
 

PERFECT!  Very little construction needed.  The end is meant to attach to a deck so there was a notch cut out of the bottom.  I don't have a saw, but I do have a chainsaw.  FUN!  I just chopped off the bottom.


I then bought 3 of these in different sizes for the base.  
 



I secured them all with a 6" screw.  I added a small screw hook and a coat of paints and viola! Because I had to buy paint it cost me about $25.  Had I not bought the quart of paint, this is a $20 project!






Now all I need is a wreath.


Check out my Beautify my Home board

Not much to report on. Overall we are doing pretty good. We are finding our new normal. I discover everyday things that Marty doesn't remember. We learn new things together.


We had a minor meltdown last week.  We pushed through it.  Marty has decided he is jealous of time that I spend away from him.  Whether it's work, primary, shopping, or other tasks, he misses me and wants to be by my side.  That's not always feasible.  I am grateful that we are both committed to our relationship and to our children.  That makes pushing through the meltdowns much easier.  


We had a very productive weekend.  Several projects were clicked off with Marty as my assistant.  He is wanting to be involved in everything I do.  He watched me cut, sand, paint and assemble a cool wreath holder for the front door.  (that's worthy of a blog post of it's own).  He helped me clean off the front porch including washing and sweeping the porch.  He helped me make bread, cinnamon croissants and nutella croissants.  We loved spending time together.


This week is spring break.  That means that I am spending all day in the office while the girls are with their dad.  Addyson and Marty had a date today.  I don't know all that they did but I know it involved lunch at Mimi's.  That used to be a favorite of Marty's and now it's just okay.  Overall, I don't think Marty likes to eat out.  I suppose I'd better learn to be a better cook.


We are rapidly approaching 90 days since Marty's stroke.  Crazy that it's been this long.  Physically he is back to normal.  Speech wise he's about 90%.  Memory is probably 25% at best.  I don't know that memory will every really come back.  The rest of his recovery will be about re-learning.  Hopefully within a year he will be able to fully function on his own.  For now, we are pushing for the necessities and pray for the peripheral tasks to come later.


I don't know that I will ever be able to thank everyone or even come close to expressing the gratitude that has been in my heart through this process.  I see people all around me with trials much more than mine that are giving aid to our family.  I am so excited to be able to start serving others as well.  What a beautiful charity circle the Lord has created.

Most of Marty's family lives out west. He has only been able to see two of his sister's since his stroke, Laurie who drove here from Houston while he was still in the hospital and Susie who met us in Kansas during our K-State visit.  He hasn't been able to see any of his brother's other than via Skype or Facetime.


Last week Marty received a text from his brother Andy that they were going to be in Missouri this week for spring break.  Andy's wife is from Springfield, about two hours away.  We decided to meet them in Joplin (about half way) for dinner on Tuesday.  I have never met their son Zac and all of them were new to Marty.  Unfortunately it was a short visit as we couldn't meet until after school/work and we had to get back home in time to get to bed for school/work.


The entire visit was bitter-sweet.  It was fun for the girls and I to visit with Andy & Debbie.  To Marty it was visiting with a stranger.  Andy told many stories about their childhood and growing up.  None were familiar.  Marty tried to be cordial and polite during the visit.  


On the way home he broke down.  He said he feels like he has stepped into someone else's life.  He occasionally has small glimpses of memories, but often times just enough to really confuse him.  For him right now, that is the most frustrating thing he is dealing with.  He knows he had a life for 40 years, but doesn't know anything about it.  People are all strangers.  Stories of his life are all fairy tales.  He isn't looking forward to building new memories.  He wants all his old memories back.  He wants to tell the stories.


Now, to top things off, he has a terrible cold.  You can tell to look at him he doesn't feel good.  He has so much pressure built up in his head.  This is accompanied by coughing and sneezing which are both quite painful.  We keep trying different medications but can't seem to find one that is giving him relief.  I suggested we take him to the doctor to see if he has an infection.  He doesn't want to go.  He's very anti-doctor right now.  He saw too many doctors in too short of a period of time.  Now he only wants to see them for the absolute necessities and he doesn't view this as that.


Last night he said he wishes he could just have one good week.  One week without a cold, flu, headache, fatigue, etc.  Just one week to enjoy life.  I pray relief comes soon for him.  He is wearing down.  


This is one of my favorite Michael McLean songs.  The message is so true right now.