Can do...

Over the past several months with slow, but mostly steady progress in my physical activities, I will periodically list the things I can do. Sometimes for perspective I list the can't do stuff, but only for the record, since I hope to be able to do them soon. Often something makes it on the can do list just because it wasn't on there last time!

Currently I can:

• walk for 20-30 minutes (yep, this means more than once around the block!)
• stay awake while reading
• go up and down the stairs if I forget something (instead of sending one of the kids after it--though I still do that sometimes anyway!)
• carry the laundry basket (instead of dragging it)
• cook real dinner without just directing the action from a stool in the kitchen
• make bread (thanks to a powerful KitchenAid--but still, it wasn't on the list last time)
• do light duty work (at the hospital) without feeling like a wrung out washcloth at the end of 4 hours
• smile when I lose my balance or catch someone looking at my gait with a puzzled look on their face

The reasons to make such a list are to mark progress, laugh a bit at the irony of the items listed, and to keep things positive, upbeat, light and can do. FYI, my can't do list includes running, working on a Master's degree, puttering till late into the night, and starting IV's, but those things can wait while I listen to my kids talk while we walk, while they read, while I bake cookies, blog, and while I rest and heal.