Sunday Sabbath and Mothers' Day

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Good morning!

(((Hugs))) to all those who can only say Happy Mother's Day to their mom's in their hearts, not in person.

This can always be a day full of emotion, feelings of happiness, sadness, regrets, memories. In this stressful times, those emotions may be even stronger than usual. I wish you all gentle days.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm having a sad day here.

This is a favourite song about moms no longer with us but don't listen to it until you are willing to have a cry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIB8EWqCPrQ

[Lynlee]

Mothers' Day Greetings.
To all Mothers
and those that had Mothers, of birth or adoption,
and for our chosen Mother figures,
with special hugs to all who lost their babies in pregnancy.

My day started slowly.
I listened to Sunday morning radio, Australia all over. There are lots of folk calling in, letters read etc.
I was eating breakfast waiting for program to finish at 10 and my mother rang. landline.
DD#1 rang. I had thought through the week of visiting her.
If I had a car it is a defined legal distance from this weekend.
I decided to term it 'a compassionate visit' (allowed under previous rules) if I had to.
We discussed the when of a visit and it turned into today. I dressed in 10 min and was 10 min early to the bus stop. (Her week is dictated to by help from visiting nurse and Physio, visits to xray, and her dd is enlisted to take her shopping for manageable clothes that suit winter, bumming up and down stairs if leaving the house (God help that its not raining), and need for sleep. Today seemed easier, plus I avoided week day commuters. If people still work in the city? 2 hrs each way.
I could get there on train arriving 12.30, and had a choice of returning trains. So today it was. Caught the 3 pm rtn. dd was sound asleep when I left there. Her dh was tasked with station runs. We talked after dd went to bed, and I had a prowl of her garden. She has a wheel chair, knee brace thigh to ankle, sling.

I took more photos en route. Glasshouse mountains. some of forest/ bushlands. Mostly looked out window with artist eyes. and a wiff of geologist and botanist on the side. A cloudy day, so colours were subdued in photos. People taking the allowed 'picnics', I thought that looked a bit bleak. Wondered if they were adhering to the 2 households only rule. There seemed to be many children.
On the way home I tied again to crop some photos. There is not much external vision after the sun goes down. Time to just sit. bus home minutes after train arrives in home town. There were few people in my carriages, so being distant was easy.

Ph call from other dd on route down 'where are you?'. At the end, we both listened to all the health directives, broadcast loud via the speakers. 30 min talk, then time to text dd#1 for PU.

We have exchanged texts x many since I left. DD appreciated my visit.
I visited because I know the no visitor thing, especially when sick or injured.
One of my grief sources.
If I can, I get there.
Its a grief that visits to DM seem beyond what I can do. atm.

I think I'll do the church visit / website service on the morrow.

Tomorrow I'll see if I can remember how to get a text card from dd into my photos. I've done it before but tonight its beyond me.

News of dxmil. She had her 96th birthday. Movement in one side. 'seems resigned' to how things are.
She was moved back to the local hospital in her town.
her ds from interstate is still in quarantine, so hasn't seen her yet.
I told dd of the being mortal book.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Lynlee: thanks for the sharing the details of your day. I'm so glad you decided to go visit your dd.

Breakfast this morning was a bit different since dsil was there. He was making french toast as a special Mother's Day breakfast. When I mentioned how nice that was, dd said, "No it isn't for Mother's Day" and dsil said "Yes, it is!" She didn't even realize he was trying to do something special for the day. He also did the recording of Calendar time which was a lot of fun.

I opened the gift from dd. It was a card made my dgs (with a note on the back that we was also sending a Mother's card to Nonna" so I'd know she wasn't left out.) The gift was a #1 Nana gold necklace. It is a 'family heirloom.' Dsil had a Nana and a Nonna as well, and had given this to his Nana as a child. He was very close to his Nana and it was very hard on him when she died last year. His mother sent dd the necklace for me to have so the tradition could continue. I couldn't say a word, it was all I could do to not burst into sobs in front of dgs.

I've texted dd to see if she'd like a walk today during dgs' quiet time. She hasn't ruled it out completely.

[Twins' Mom]

It would be great if your dd would take a walk today. Getting outside is so good for all of us.

I was out a lot yesterday and felt energized. Of course, I've done most the outside things now. I still want to add another coat of paint to table that I painted last week, and then a coat of clear. It's not really worth all this work but it's a nice size to have on our back patio. I can turn the chair next to it and put my laptop on it and it's a comfortable height to use it. I also need to repot a houseplant.

Dkids are coming over and socially distancing on the back patio - bringing take out food to celebrate.

[LadyMaverick]

We attended church this morning and had plenty of room between people - probably close to 20' and there was plenty of room to make it more if you wanted. After church, we called an order in and picked lunch up. We took our food to the lake and watched the boats land and launch while we ate our lunch. We drove through the little resort town and it was packed. If that crowds of people were doing social distancing they must have invented new rules. DD is working at a waitress in one of the restaurants in this little resort town. Hopefully, they are taking more precautions inside the restaurant than the crowds of people are taking outside of it.

I only saw 2 people wearing a mask today and DH was one of those two. I'm not ready to return to crowded normal life yet. I can understand people in highly populated areas not going out yet. Give me wide open space and I'm okay with it.

[Harmony]

Happy Mothers Day to those celebrating and hugs to those for whom the holiday is sad.

I don't think I've spent a Mother's Day with my DDs for a great many years. Phone calls, cards and the occasional gift... and I do miss my own mother also.

It's grey and rainy again. We are at the northern border of the front that is in our state, but giving more rain south of us. I got tomorrow's bins collected before the rain and will roll that out to the road this evening.

Spent some time working on my stitching. I find I cannot do that for as long as I can read or work on a puzzle, because it is more intense.

Wishing all of you a great day.

[DeeClutter]

Wishing you all a wonderful day on Mother's Day -no matter the memories it gives us.

Haven't caught up on posts yet. I've been busy all day. I've emptied the shredder 3 times so far. Also did a lot of scanning. Now I'm working on papers I have in files here. Hopefully I can do a lot of those and get them shredded. Also want to do some packing today. Kids have all wished me a Happy Mother's Day today in one way or another. DGS7 sent us (dd and me) a really cute life size picture of his face pasted on 2 giant colored in arms to give us a hug. Really cute. Have to take a picture and send it to ddil-A as she said the other day that she forgot to snap one before they sent it out.

I'm up to 10k steps so far. I've set my goal (this week) at 11,000 so still have some to go. I certainly have the time.

Took some spaghetti sauce out the freezer and that's what for supper. Dsonil enjoys my sauce so that's a good thought for today. He'll start his next 4 month round -he'll be working 5am to 2pm for the next 4 months. So, we're not here a whole lot for that round. The worst one for us is when we come back down and he's working 8pm to 5am. That means he's in the living room most of the day. He goes out to his 'man shed' for a bit each day, but it's intermittent. DD kinda hopes if they have a different mattress that he might sleep in the bed again -who knows?

I'm not ready to return to crowded normal life yet.

I'm not either, LadyM, but I must say you're ahead of where I am right now. I don't find myself 'wanting' to go anywhere. Not sure how I'll be after I make the trip north. Hopefully there will be an update early this week on the campground and dd will be more settled on how her situation will be once we get there. Right now we're not even sure she and I can be together after we get there. Our case has been different and we'll have been together for about 2 months. Whereas dh and I will have been apart for at least that long. Dd was questioning if she'd even be able to leave the campground with me on board. And dh is definitely going to want to be with his dgranddogs and they with him.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dd has cramps so nixed the walk. I did spend time reading to dgs and she lay on the couch with a hot water bottle.

I attended church but skipped coffee hour today (both are virtual.)

Then I had lunch and dh and I watched By Jeeves, on the big screen. It wasn't very good (we knew that going in) but we had plenty of laughs and enjoyed the premise very much. We didn't enjoy the songs. Not a good work by Andrew Lloyd Webber. On the other hand, at the end we felt we had attended a play and that is very good.

Then I spent a half hour with dgs.

I'm making a big dinner - roast beef, yorkshire puddings, veggies and apple crisp for dessert. And I've mixed up Grandma Cookies for dh (they are chilling now, I'll bake those tomorrow.)

[Harriet]

My goodness, we have certainly had all different kinds of days. different from each other and sometimes from other years.

Happy to hear Lynlee's dd has a new normal with family help, and happy Lynlee could go to visit. I hope the wheelchair is soon unnecessary.

A phone call at ds' children's bedtime "walked" me out to the porch where they had sneaked a present. So we said "goodnight" to each other with my opening of my nice new clutch purse as dd21 watched me like a prison guard. I had to wash my hands after opening it.

I stayed up late last evening getting the grocery order right with dd, then had to get up so early - what a mistake not to sleep enough. She woke me at 6:00, which I thought was too early but turned out to be just about right.

We made it to dsecondmil's only a few minutes early, and she was waiting. She was a little disappointed we wouldn't sit in the grouping of lawn chairs she had made for us on her porch, but it is narrow and we asked her to bring a chair to her carport area and visited there. It was a really good visit when you consider how awkwardly spaced we had to be.

On to the pickup, but they were late so we had to wait a while, people-watching, as Indiana used to say.
Most people had masks on. Maybe 75 percent. Then home and into the work of grocery put-away.

We watched the church service together. They had the lowest numbers of virtual attendees at church that I've seen. I guess people were trying to get in their visits like we were.

Dd40 called and because we were gone (which never happens) I had missed her emailed invitation to plan a zoom today. So in that way I was not a very good Grandma today. But she said it was just a half-formed plan.

Dstepson and dstepdil came over and sat with us on the porch for a long visit. They brought me a flower and a box of chocolates with a sweet card. It was great to see dstepdil and HRH enjoyed them very much. He and dstepsil are a silly combo, so we were treated to lots of jokes.

After they were gone, I finished a few chores and collapsed into bed for a nap. I called dd40 and she forgave me for konking out on her - we're going to zoom another time.