Monday, Dec. 19

Up late this morning, around 7:30. After breakfast, I helped Mother take a shower, and then I did a treadmill session and weights exercises. After that, I presented her with a seventh twelve-days-of-Christmas gift...a pack of six pairs of her favorite heavy socks (white this time). Yesterday's sixth gift was a jar of lemon curd.

As soon as I cooled down after exercising, Hubbie put color in my hair in anticipation of a haircut appointment tomorrow.

While I waited upstairs for the color to work before washing my hair, the occupational therapist came to help Mother use her assistive devices. She was still here when I finished washing and drying my hair, so I slipped into a housecoat and came downstairs to meet her.

I thought she was engaged to come only once, but she said she could come a few more times to help Mother with activities of daily living at her house...like using the microwave to fix lunch for herself, getting into and out of her bathtub, and getting into and out of her bed (which is higher than the one at our house).

She watched Mother do these activities at our house, plus observing her exercise routine. She said Mother is doing pretty well and might only need a little more help to make her independent enough to stay at her own house most of the time. This is the goal we are aiming for, and Mother is anxious to achieve it.

We agreed on an appointment next Wednesday for the OT to return. This will give us all a breather to get past the holidays.

It was noon before I finally finished getting ready for the day. After lunch, Hubbie helped Mother walk to her house, and I prepared a Styrofoam plate of rum cake slices for my student. I also located a tarjeteria Christmas card I'd made a long time ago. I enclosed the recipe for the cake in the card. Reading and understanding the recipe became a part of her lesson today.

I met my student at our usual time of 2:30. She had arrived before me, and her mother was with her. They presented me with a gift that by far outdid what I gave them...a pretty bag containing a box of Italian chocolates, a 12 oz. bar of almond soap (made in America and big enough to share three ways) in a very pretty box (made in China), and a couple of sample packets of coffee (cafe' latte, and cafe' noir). The coffees contain Ganoderma, from a mushroom that has its roots in ancient Chinese medicine to treat a number of ailments.

I researched Ganoderma online and found that it should not be consumed if a person is taking blood thinner medication, which I am. The coffee is a gift from my students mother, who (from what I could gather) is a salesperson/distributor for the coffee company. The coffees are products of Malaysia.

There was absolutely no one in the library today, except us and a couple of librarians. As mentioned, the rum cake recipe was a part of today's lesson. The student did a great job of reading the recipe. She ran into a few words that she didn't understand, but immediately looked them up in her ESL dictionary.

The second task for her was to write a paragraph about a particularly memorable Christmas. She wrote about the first time her husband met her family in Venezuela. He dressed in a Santa suit and distributed "many, many" gifts. Her family is still talking about it.

She followed this with a paragraph about her family coming to our town this year to celebrate Christmas with her, her husband, and her in-laws.

I asked that she write these paragraphs so I can take them to the Literacy Council director to be included in a drawing for a fully cooked turkey and a $15 gift certificate to a local grocery store.

The director e-mailed last night to say that no one has entered the contest so far, so anyone who does so now has a good chance of winning. I'd given my student information about this contest a few weeks ago as a homework assignment, but apparently she forgot about it.

Once she'd completed her paragraphs, we focused on today's lesson of giving directions (Where's the bank?...drive straight ahead one block, turn left...etc.), the word "must" in affirmative statements (A car must stop at a red light.), and "ready," "getting ready," (Dinner is on the table. It is ready to eat," "Jack is putting on his coat. He's getting ready to go out."

We ended with student reading a story and then answering questions about what she had read.

As with everyone else during this holiday season, the student is tired and harried. She has labored hard to thoroughly clean the house for the arrival of her daughters and their families, and to festoon every surface and corner in festive Christmas decorations.

She's also distraught (to the point of tears today) because her father-in-law, who recently had an episode that he thought was a stroke, but turned out to be diabetes related, has been prescribed a medication that is making him profoundly depressed. I recommended that the family call his doctor to see if his medicine could be changed. At the very least, his physician needs to know about the reaction he is having.

Around 4 p.m., one of the librarians came in to tell us that the library would be closing at 4:30, and also to inform us that it would not reopen on a Monday again until January 23. That's a long stretch, but I'm thinking maybe the student needs a break to recuperate from her increasingly stressful life.

The good news is that her mother's cast will be removed tomorrow after five weeks (she broke her arm when she fell in a motel bathtub).

Back home, I heated salmon chowder for our supper, which we had with crackers and cheese. Afterward, Mother chopped green onions, and Hubbie chopped pecans, for a couple of recipes of Italian cream cheese ball.

Then I cooked caramel sauce for a batch of fruited popcorn. Hubbie had chopped the pecans and cut up the candied cherries for this while I was meeting with my student.

Later, we watched TV, including a 2003 movie, "Runaway Jury.," starring Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, and John Cusack. Based on a John Grisham novel. A day trader is shot and killed, and his widow sues a gun manufacturer. A ruthless jury consultant will do anything to win for the defendant. A juror and his girlfriend are equally determined to hold the gun manufacturer accountable. To do this the couple plays both ends against the middle, promising to swing the verdict to the highest bidder.