Monday, Jan. 16

Woke up at 4:30 a.m. this morning, then lay awake reviewing yesterday and planning today. Finally drifted off again around 6:30 and slept until 8:30.

Today is Martin Luther King Day, but because of the threat of rain, we didn't hang the flag on the well house.

After breakfast, I went to Mother's house to help her take a shower. Back home, I changed clothes and did a treadmill session and weights exercises. By the time I was ready for the day, it was already noon.

After lunch, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house, but we didn't accomplish much. Hubbie ran errands to pick up a few groceries and fill the van with gas for a trip south to attend a memorial service for my ex-husband on Wednesday.

While he was gone, I downloaded photos that I took of the trumpeter swans we visited yesterday. Then I posted some of them to my social network page.

After that, I called the members of our scrapbook club. One of them was not home, so I left a message for her to return my call. I did reach the other one, though, but she told me she has been suffering with shingles since the middle of December. So of course, she doesn't feel up to working on scrapbooking or card making this month.

I was going to suggest that the ladies meet at our house again, since Mother still doesn't feel like going to the Extension Services office. If the other member opts out this month, then Mother and I will just hold our own meeting on Thursday, and continue working on the pages we started yesterday.

I also called my doctor to make an appointment to have her remove the bandage from my index finger. So far, it has not come off on its own, and I can feel a little bump and some soreness under it. I don't want to re-open the wound by removing the bandage myself. My appointment is for 11 a.m. in the morning.

This afternoon, too, Daughter-in-Law called to tell me that baby girl Great-Granddaughter had to be taken to the doctor today for an infection on her bottom. She was diagnosed with celluitis and was immediately sent to the hospital for treatment. She will remain there for a couple of days, but if she doesn't respond adequately to antibiotics, she will be transferred to children's hospital in the capital city. This is very worrisome for everyone in the family. We're all anxious that she be well.

Later, I started a pot of spaghetti sauce simmering, but naturally when it came time to boil the spaghetti, I found we didn't have any. So off Hubbie went to the nearest grocery store.

The spaghetti, served with green beans and French bread, was very good. This was a meal requested by Mother. It might not have been my choice, so close to having chili for several days in a row. But since Mother had only eaten the chili once, she was ready for spaghetti.

Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house after lunch, and then we did the usual...watched TV, including an episode of "Downton Abbey," a British period drama from the PBS channel. This the second season of the series, in which the estate is now a hospital for convalescing WWII ranking military.

We followed that with a 2001 murder mystery from the Lifetime Movie Network..."Facing the Enemy." A couple loses their young son, when the boy finds a gun belonging to his policeman father, loads it, and accidentally shoots himself. The wife blames her husband for having the gun in the house. Their marriage deteriorates. Meanwhile, the husband is investigating what appears to be a murder-suicide of a couple, but turns out to be murder. His and his wife's lives eventually intersect with the murderer and his partner-lover.