Manage your Monday PWYC

[LadyMaverick]

I just had a memory pop up on FBook from 4 years ago. On this day four years ago, our Public School was cancelled for the rest of the year.
We can all look back and see how school was affected for a couple of years because of covid.
i don't know if that is when the reduced effort/concern of staying in school started, but it seems possible.

I have had several challenges today -
** DD12 toilet was stopped up. I was able to use a plunger to get it working again.
** one of the dogs was sick to stomach twice before I could get it outside. Lovely. Not my favorite thing to do but it had to be cleaned up.
** DH is confused and not feeling well. When I came home from taking DS15 to music lessons I found DH walking through the house looking for his food. He said he heated up 2 pieces of pizza on a glass plate, but he couldn't find them. We searched everywhere. We still haven't found the plate or pizza.
** I found what I think is a mole tunnel in the middle of one of my raised bed gardens. ARGH!

[Harriet]

LadyM, I had a 3 year memory photo pop up of ddnow25 getting her Covid shot, after she and the young man had scoured the whole area to find one for her Daddy - as of that morning there were enough for her future dfil and the young man, too. I remember how incredibly grateful all of us in that church fellowship hall felt - there was such a sweet spirit of gratitude to that church.

HRH and I had a nice long walk at mid-day - just a beautiful day out.

He found another movie for us to watch, too.

I've been sewing a lot today.

[lucylee]

FIRST -- CLARIFICATION --
blessed -- it is NOT dcousin's father who has been widowed this past week. Duncle, the new widower, has NO children. That is the big reason it is such a huge situation... I am amazed that dcousin is willing to step in and take on so much for him, but -- as I have said before -- it is her mother's brother and they included him and his late wife in a lot more of their own family occasions than they have my side of the family.
This uncle is my ddad's brother. I feel guilty for NOT doing more -- not doing ANYTHING so far -- but we just haven't been "close" in a long while.
He became abusive, verbally, emotionally, & physically, to his wife several years ago -- LONG before the dementia showed any signs at all -- and because dmom and I would not take his side when he called us complaining about things that happened 30-40 years ago, he would get angry at us. Before that, he was a pain to deal with, but he did try to help out dmom as much as he could, but it has been probably six months or a year since he and daunt/his wife visited dmom.

There were 6 of us first cousins, Ddad's sister had 4 children, ddad had me and my brother. My oldest first cousin died ten years ago; she has three grown children, her sister (the one I keep talking about) has three grown children, and one of her brothers has a son who is in eleventh grade. And of course, I have ds -- so there are ELEVEN adult nieces and nephews (all but one with spouses) here in the same county with duncle... but we all live at least 15-20 miles away. Daunt -- his sister -- is also 15-20 miles away, and not in the very best of health herself. She has had some falls and is showing early signs of dementia as well.

For myself, I feel like I have just all I can do to take care of dh and my dmom, and help ds/ddil with dgrands. I know I have more time on my hands than dcousin who is doing so much -- she works full time as a special ed aide, and she has three small grandchildren. She takes care of her mother's meds and goes to her doctor's appts with her, also. But part of me keeps saying, if they wanted my help, why didn't they invite us to ANYTHING they did with daunt and uncle in these past four years??? It seems this "loss of connection" started with covid.

I will call my duncle on the phone this week though, and I will work on my attitude, and pray that I can find a way to deal with my feelings and be useful when I am needed.
And I agree -- flowers have just gotten entirely too expensive for most individuals. I usually do potted plants, but even something that looks like more than a tiny tabletop dish garden is going to be $50 a lot of the time. And I imagine everyone knew duncle would not want a bunch of plants to take care of.

Also -- yes, LadyM, I think the covid break in school led to a lot of this home-schooling non-schooling trend. People did school at home online for so long, they thought it would work forever. It's really sad. My dgs might be smart enough to do his work on line and learn a lot... BUT he has no self-discipline to keep himself at it (and no one in his house does either.) But also -- socialization is so necessary for dgs. I think what your ds is doing is absolutely wonderful -- obviously, he has someone (YOU) who will keep his feet to the fire and keep him accountable to his schoolwork, AND he has the socialization of good friends, his church group, and his employer and other workers. He is doing GREAT. My dgs, OTOH, would have become the stereotypical autistic child who never takes his head out of the computer if he had been left to his own devices since he was six years old.