Sarah Rise Weekly Updates

It has begun. This past Monday we emptied what used to be the Sarah-Rise room and what used to be the girls’ shared bedroom. Carl spent time each night this week working on wall and ceiling repair. Yesterday we did more wall repair, sanding, vacuuming, wall-cleaning, and taping. Amy loved spackling and Sarah was an… Read more »

Last Sunday after I wrote my update, the day went downhill. Everyone seemed to be clashing with everyone. Amy continues to have times when she has no space for Sarah to be her sister and to be Sarah. Walking most of the way home independently has helped, but then the anger towards Sarah is there… Read more »

Sometimes you know a change may come eventually and then suddenly you realize that the time is now. As you know, the walks home from Amy’s school are often fraught with Amy being mad at Sarah for being there, for walking, for existing, for pushing a stroller. It was heartbreaking for me to hear as… Read more »

Amy has braces! She picked clear brackets with teal rubber bands holding the wire on the brackets. As you can imagine, her first few days were rather miserable at meal time. Even mac and cheese was too uncomfortable to eat, so she had lots of applesauce and mashed potatoes. By the time school started she… Read more »

When I wrote a week ago I didn’t mention that we had just had a harrowing morning moment with Sarah. We were in Florida for vacation and our first day and a half went quite smoothly, in part because we were exceedingly flexible with our timing and the kids didn’t even need to agree on… Read more »

Amy was much better from her cough by the time her school’s winter concert came around on Wednesday night. Carl and I also had tickets to see Straight No Chaser so we had a double header of an evening. Our sitter A. came to Amy’s concert to be ready to take the girls home afterward while Carl and… Read more »

Last Sunday the girls decorated our large gingerbread house. Once they were allowed to sample it, the roof was broached. This was a new experience for me to eat the actual gingerbread so early. Normally the house sits so long (with just candy being eaten) that the gingerbread gets stale and hard. Then if you… Read more »

I can’t remember if I have written of this before, so it is possibly a repetition. Whenever we pass a Dairy Queen Sarah will whisper, “Dairy Queen.” For some reason this is hilarious. She often then whispers whatever she says next, which becomes equally hilarious because of being whispered. This past week Sarah told me… Read more »

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful, bountiful day. Grandma made songbooks that included some of the girls’ favorite songs. Amy belted out “Let it Go” with gusto. (Some day I want to name a pet Gusto so I can say that I do everything with Gusto.) Amy and I did a duet of the Vampirina… Read more »

I love to read, but often I don’t immerse myself in a book because then I don’t want to do anything else except read. It is a tricky balance. I just started Where The Crawdads Sing and I really don’t want to put it down. I’ve been thinking often about the relationship between Sarah and me, especially… Read more »