(Originally posted September 8, 2009)

Actually, these are old routines. We spent nearly nine years of our lives as a dual-income family with kids, so why does it suddenly seem so hard? Every morning starts off with me getting up and getting breakfast going while J.J. takes his shower. Then we get Leah up and dressed, and J.J. finishes getting ready while I do Leah's hair and help her brush her teeth. The two of them leave at a few minutes after 6:00 a.m. J.J. drops her at day care by 6:30 a.m. on his way to make it to work by 7:00. In the meantime, Eli gets up, eats breakfast and packs his lunch. At some point, I yell down at him, "Ten after!". Meaning that once again today I'm harboring the delusion that he and I will both be ready, with packed lunches, bookbags and all, and will walk out the door at 7:10 to go catch his bus. Not likely, but hey, a girl can dream. If you're keeping track, I've got about 40 minutes to shower, dry hair, straighten hair, apply makeup, get dressed and get gone. I've mentioned that I'm a woman, right? Ain't gonna happen. Ever. So I start every morning in a state of blind panic.

Anyway, I get Eli to the bus stop (about 15 minutes away from our house, and not that far from his school, but that extra hour he spends on the bus between me dropping him off and the time that he's allowed to arrive at school makes the difference between me arriving quasi-on time for work and becoming unemployed) and sprint to work. Or maybe not, since here lately I've been working more and more late nights. Oh, and did I mention that in addition to my full-time job, I'm teaching for Ivy Tech (the local community college, for those who aren't aware)? Or that I'm taking two classes myself this semester?

My life is a blur. I do nothing but work, sleep and study.

So see, things are back to normal.

J.J. is enjoying being back to work, even if his enjoyment of his job is a little different than it used to be. J.J. loved running the help desk. He was good at what he did and everyone knew it. Since speaking is an integral part of help desk work, he's not doing that anymore. And some of the spark has left his eyes when he talks about what he does.

Hopefully his speech will recover enough to give him a chance to get back to that work soon.

Let's see, I haven't given you a progress report lately, huh? Physically J.J.'s still doing great. He's lost 148 lbs. and looks like a completely different person. A very young, hot person The only lasting physical impact from his stroke is some numbness in his fingers that comes and goes, mostly when he's extremely tired. His speech is also still improving, to the point that sometimes I forget all about his stroke for a couple of minutes. Then I call his work number and get his voicemail greeting, which still features the pre-stroke J.J., and everything comes rushing back. I seriously cried the first time I heard it after he went back to work. But anyway, he's needing my help less and less. He's not having any problems ordering at restaurants or any of those challenges we had at first. Although we still get quite the rousing game of Charades going once in a while. And let me tell you, my Charades prowess is unrivaled!

The Start! Heart Walk is next Saturday, September 19. Thank you, thank you, thank you to those who have already donated or signed up to walk with us. If you don't know what I'm talking about, the link is a couple of posts down.

J.J.'s birthday was Sunday. He's now 34, and we're hoping it's better than 33. I have much more to say about this, but that's a different post...