Sunday all around the village: PWYC

[blessedw2]

thank you! just knowing that makes me feel better!

I just got a picture from my brother up north at his new property. He is in far north Minnesota and the area is thick with wolves - truly beautiful animals! he was surprised when he saw them. They carry bear spray and wolves are afraid of people. he has been in Colorado where they had grizzlies walk through the camp - he has a close up picture where all the guys sat really silent but all had guns on their lap but the bears didn't bother them. twenty feet away. He would rather have wolves than grizzlies. I am so really happy for him - that he has a place on boundary waters; one of his and his best friends favorite places. He is going to try to record the wolves at night for me.

so jealous! I grew up in the outdoors - vacations -etc. with my parents but this is special.

I am not a fan of moose or bears near me. my dad was chased by a black bear when fishing in the wilds of Canada. my mother took a picture but my dad got into the thick walled room fish cooler and sealed the door. I forgot the oars once when we portaged from one lake to another. I had to walk back, by my self, over the small water fall and land. There was fresh bear scat on the trail when I went back - scared the bejeebies out of me- I got back to my parents but I never forgot the oars or anything again. I will never forget that.

so happy for him!

[blessedw2]

mom wanted pizza so I ordered one for her as I had a nice lunch - she didn't want anything then. I don't feel like cooking but will make a menu plan for this week.

welcome home d twins! I do hope tomorrow's workout is exactly what you hope for!

it is wonderful that there is so much wisdom and truly beautiful souls here. Makes difficult situations easier to handle.

mom has always been hard on me - I was too weak, not smart enough, too heavy compared to her 98lbs and not like her. I know that it was hard for her to have me be who I was- it was very hard on me. She always felt that I didn't live up to "my potential" of what she wanted me to be. actually in her older age she has been so much nicer to me. it's been nice to have a loving mom as we got older. it has to be hard for her to be in the position she is in.

for such a super clean woman it is hard to see her not change cloths, not brush her hair or teeth and more. Talking to the dr. and professionals should help. I have to see what the specialist will suggest for easier transitions so she doesn't get stuck in frustration with me. it's important for her to have a good presentation to others so maybe they can find a way to help her.

[Nancy]

Twins no this shredder does not over heat. This is the 3rd one over the years so I knew to get one that could handle the job. It does up to 6 sheets I think I do not put that many sheet in mine at once. It is a pen and gear one.

I showered. Resting now.

[MysteryWoman]

Good evening!

(((blessed))), you have the patience of a saint! It is difficult to know what family is going through if you’re not around. I remember one time my brother went off on me because he was the one doing the bulk of the care for our mom. I had no idea he was doing so much. I knew he did her shopping once she could no longer drive and that he’d put a walk-in shower in her bathroom, but I had no idea how much day-to-day stuff he was doing besides the groceries. I’d come over and the house and yard were always as spic and span as she kept them — I didn’t know that it was mostly due to my brother at that point.

Today has been mostly uneventful except for church and getting flu/covid shots. Yesterday was a bit more eventful. I had book club at 10, followed by the monthly moms’ gathering (usually a girls’ night; this month it was brunch) at 11. I woke up at 10:20! Amazingly, I was there in under 20 minutes. (It doesn’t hurt that it was 3 minutes from my house.) I hit the potty, threw clothing on, (barely) combed my hair and brushed my teeth. Dashed downstairs, zipped the coffee cake into a carrier. Asked DD to carry the cake to the car for me; she not only did that but quickly pushed the shovel down the walk and dusted off the car, bless her! I don’t think I was too stinky.

So I still got to contribute to the discussion at book club (“The Snow Child” by Eowyn Ivey). And the brunch was lovely. We had two kinds of quiche, scones, popovers, and coffee cake, and fresh berries and grapes. Then we played a game of trivia that my friend had come up with about our doings of the previous year.

It’s not even half past eight, and I want to go to bed. I hate that it’s dark so early. OTOH, this might be my last evening to enjoy the tree. DH put away the crèche today and has the ornament boxes out. Maybe we can take off the ornaments tomorrow and have the tree for one more night with the lights on. We’re not supposed to put out our trees till our trash day (the city will come and collect them for mulch), which isn’t till Friday.

I guess I should go find something to do to keep me awake for a bit. You folks have a lovely evening!

[blessedw2]

dinner dishes in dw and is on now
sink is cleaned
counters are cleaned
stove will be tomorrow.
food put away

I hung mom's dressing gown on the powder room door and mom said - I will have to put that on later - fingers crossed that it will be as easy as that.
she is sitting on the couch petting the dogs and watching murder she wrote.

I downloaded another ken burns documentary - the civil war -
I have been listening to a history podcast about the reconstruction and the affects on freedman who had been promised land and it being taken away again by Andrew Johnson - and the Tenure of Office Act - very interested.

[blessedw2]

sweet dreams d mystery and everyone!!!
I don't think there is a way to know what someone does - your heart is wonderful and I am sure your brother made it look seamless. you are so lovely!

sending sweet peaceful dreams to you all!

[Harriet]

Mystery, you were moving at light speed. Whoosh.

Things you learn on the way to learning other things. Did you know that it isn't a "mug rug" in the UK if it isn't longer in one direction than the other? Rectangular or oblong. We don't seem to have that rule here. The idea there is that, for afternoon tea, you have a place to put mug or cup and space to put biscuits, which, since they are what I would call cookies, will likely be spreading crumbs.

Ds called asking if we needed anything and I said I couldn't think of a thing but would be adding pickles to my list. Within about a half hour, their family was over here with dill pickles, chow-chow and bread-and-butter salsa. It seems my cattle-raising dcousin's daughter A, whose little girl is dgdC's friend, puts these up. Dgd was playing there this afternoon, and they happened to mention it when they picked her up. I'll have to send some kind of thank you note about magic happening when I mentioned pickles. I'm very surprised and gratified that she thinks of me as someone she would like to impress, really.

I used to put up a lot of garden vegetables with my dmil, who herself put up b and b pickles and I would swap her for those - I never made them myself. Perhaps A remembers coming over when I would have done a lot of canning. It used to dominate my kitchen, and she was good friends with ds. Certainly got into trouble enough . She's the one who was with my kids when they got lost on a walk and scared us all to pieces. Ohmygoodness.

Sandwiches were good - can't say tasty only because of my own taste buds, but that is better. I am writing notes about each day's complaints in my planner so that maybe the future can be less of a surprise each time.

Had a good phone conversation with an old friend who used to work with both HRH and my late dh, so long ago - 1980s - so he wants to hear about each of the kids. He and another friend were visiting each other and were on speaker phone. Great fun. They were sad when speaking of friend S's death.

[lucylee]

Not much happening here. DGS spent the night; he and I both slept till almost noon! (Of course we both stayed up till around 2:00 a.m.) Anyway, when I got up, he was still sleeping so soundly, that even though he told me to wake him when I got up -- I decided to go ahead and s2s and that was a good thing -- did my morning stretches, made up the bed, and then woke him. We watched our pastor's message on FB while we ate lunch. Every day since this whole biopsy thing started, I wake up nauseated, so I take 1/2 of one of those Klonopin (sp?) pills and this morning I took a Zofran also. Then after lunch, I slept all afternoon. (I did try to watch some of the Broncos/Bills game, Cathy. Of course, I was pulling for the Broncos, because of Bo Nix and the AU connection. But sometimes I just have football or basketball on tv because it seems more like when dh was here.)
Tonight, I went to Burger King with DS and family. Now I'm back home alone, but I'm okay... watching Seinfeld.
Snow is still here -- I mean, patchy spots where it hasn't melted yet. My roof is still covered and about half of my front yard. OTOH, almost all my mother's snow had melted by yesterday. School is delayed for two hours tomorrow.

Anyway -- three more sleeps till the biopsy. I was going to send a message to my church ladies -- we had a text group titled "Sunday School Ladies" so I think it only goes to the women -- but now I am ashamed to ask. Just got a message to remember one friend who is having hernia surgery tomorrow, and the son of one of our members who is in ICU after a very small cut on his hand turned septic, apparently. Now my biopsy fear sounds ridiculous.

Talking about scripture notes -- DDIL gave me a spiral notebook for sermon notes -- it's about 5x8, about the size of my Bible. I try to keep notes, partly to keep my mind focused. Sometimes (often times) I am short on sleep on Sunday mornings and I will have trouble staying awake in the church service. Taking notes helps. Like Harriet mentioned, there is no topical organization or anything, just a week by week record. I do try to go over the notes later in the day and read the Bible study notes in my Bible for the scriptures.

Harriet, I've just gotta say... I am a little relieved that my dh never made a pet out of a mouse.

(((Blessed))) I can't even imagine how hard this is for you, wanting to do what's best for your dmom and the rest of your family, struggling with her changing moods. I truly admire the way you are handling all this, and I pray God will continue to give you strength and wisdom for the hard times. I do know that medication helped my uncle to calm down and not be as hateful to my aunt as he was before. Unfortunately, "hateful" was his default setting BEFORE dementia began, but it got worse and we were all getting afraid he was going to be physically violent towards her. Before she passed away, she told me that the medication had helped a lot. However, I think he did spend more of his time sleeping after he started taking the medicine, so that might not be a good solution for you. I don't know the name of what he was/is taking.

Mystery, I'm still enjoying my tree, and I still think I may leave it up, as an act of faith, until good results return from the biopsy. I have everything else on the dining room table, except the Nativity scenes and the snow village. * Oh -- and the wreath on the front door! I keep forgetting it! I never use my own front door.

While we ate supper (in the car) we watched a YouTube (I think) of Tasting History. DS and DDIL said they watch it a lot. The guy does different foods and tells stories about their histories -- this one was about gout, and the association with red meat, alcohol, etc. And of course the connection with rich people, the disease of kings, etc. Anyway, he made a venison dish with some sort of wine sauce. All his episodes don't involve famous people though -- DS said the last one was about lunchroom pizza.

Y'all -- have I changed? I feel like everyone is doing stuff and having fun and I can't really see anything in my future. Maybe I never had anything interesting to talk about before. But I don't know... it just seems like the rest of my life is just... empty. I don't WANT to add another person (man) to my life... but I feel like I will never travel anywhere again or attend any kind of event or do any of the things dh and I used to do. And I don't WANT to do any of those things with anyone else. I can't even imagine having anyone else in my life, and if anyone approached me, I'd totally have a panic attack. But as it is, life sorta seems hopeless, except for dgrands. I don't think I could stand anything in my life today if not for dgrands.
And then last night, I realized that dh's tombstone is going to be installed in a few months probably, and my name and birthdate will be on it also, and it just sounds so depressing.
I'm sorry I always end up with these sad thoughts. Maybe if I ever get past this biopsy fear, I will be able to function again. Being on my own is just still such a new thing for me. Nine months today. I'm sorry to be so self-centered.
BTW -- I KNOW you are not ALL having fun and doing things... everyone -- Every Single One of You has something that is worrying you in your family or your own health (((Harriet))) and I know I have a lot to be thankful for. I am continuing to try to keep a gratitude diary, and I am praying for all of you and your families tonight. A lot of my friends here "IRL" are facing scary things too. One of my best friends is waiting on her husband to have a heart cath/possible stents and can't do it till the 20th.

Jerry Seinfeld just said (in the program) "Why do I always feel like everyone else is having more fun than me on Saturday afternoons? They're out having picnics, making out on blankets..."
I guess this is a common feeling... especially someone in the first year of widowhood?
Surely I won't feel this way forever.

I hope you all have a great day tomorrow! I don't have to get an early start, but I will be taking dmom to the pulmonologist at 1:00 pm. Tuesday she sees the surgeon (who did her intestinal surgery the year before last) for a routine check-up at 2:00 pm. (She thinks he just keeps her coming for the $. ) Then Wednesday is my day... and if I am able to do anything afterward, I have to help with Wednesday night supper at church and teach my class. Maybe one night this week DGD will be making up a ballgame from the two she missed this weekend. Saturday she is supposed to have a game. So that's my BWP.

[Nancy]

CI / I have done s2slippers, did my QT in the afternoon then napped, had soup for dinner , sorted another box.
That makes 6 now!
Separated out 2024 papers and put them in a smaller box and cleared out for 2025 stuff.
Glad for this progress.
Feels great to make this progress now.