Have you ever heard the saying, “Man plans, God laughs”? It’s a reminder to us that we can make all the plans we want, but those plans are subject to change.

That has definitely been my experience over these last three months. In my last blog post, I was talking about how important it is for us to actually do the work to make our dreams come true.

As I talked about overcoming obstacles, I mentioned thinking of potential obstacles and how to overcome them. As an example, I was going to spend some time with my parents, as my Dad had to have surgery, and I wanted to be there to help out as he recovered. I made the comment, “My plan is to take my travel palette, my travel sketchbook, and some pre-cut bookmarks with me and paint whenever I have the chance.”

Guess what? During the 5 1/2 weeks I was there, I only painted once. So much for plans, right? Of course, my reason for being there was much more important than painting. Sometimes we just have to realize there are things more important than our plans. Thankfully, my Dad recovered well from his surgery and I was able to return home.

And Then….

Fast forward a few days….. My Hubby and I went back down for a couple of days to help with some things around the house. As we were packing up to return home, I wasn’t watching where I was going and tripped over the threshold. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor, and couldn’t use my arm to push myself up.

My Hubby finished packing up the car and we headed back home. We didn’t go home though; we went to the Ortho Urgent Care instead. We left there a couple of hours later with my arm in a sling and the knowledge that my shoulder was broken.

Thankful

I had a lot to be thankful for in this situation — the doctor said if I was going to break my shoulder, I did it in the best way possible. It was a non-displaced fracture, so I didn’t have to have surgery. I just had to wear a sling to keep it immobilized. The timing also could have been way worse — if I had done this a few weeks before, I would have been absolutely no help to my parents at all. And the thing – or person – I’m most thankful for is my sweet husband. For the first 3 weeks after this happened, he had to do everything for me. Because I broke my dominant shoulder, I could barely do anything for myself. I’m able to do more for myself, but he’s still having to help me a lot.

I’m finally out of my sling and the doctor says the bone is about 80% healed. I’m doing physical therapy twice a week and am starting to regain some mobility in my arm and shoulder.

Baby Steps

Now that I’m able to move my arm/hand a little more, I’m able to get back to painting. I don’t have very good brush control (though it’s getting better) and I can only paint for very short periods of time, but I’ve really enjoyed being able to get back to it.

As you can see, I’m also finally able to stand to type long enough to write a short blog post. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to keep up with other blogs while I’ve been out of commission, but I hope to catch up with everyone soon.

I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and I hope you do too, even if you don’t celebrate. Have a blessed week, and if you celebrate it, I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving!