Thursday, Feb. 16

Up at 7:30, and after breakfast, I went to Mother's house to help her take a shower, and throw a load of laundry in the washer. Mother is able to put the laundry in the dryer, but she's unable to gather it and carry it to the washer.

Back home, I changed clothes and did a treadmill session and weights exercises. Once I was ready for the day, I spruced the house and got things together for refreshments this afternoon.

After a cold meatloaf sandwich lunch, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house. We worked on scrapbook pages until another member of the club arrived. Our other member didn't show up, so I guess she's still having problems from her hernia surgery.

The three of us worked on our scrapbooks until 2 p.m., when I served refreshments...coffee and dark chocolate wafer straws. Hubbie joined us for the treats.

We continued with our scrapbooks afterward until around 2:45, when the other member decided she should leave to get ahead of the school buses. She continued chatting, though, until 3 p.m., so I don't know if she had to stop every quarter of a mile behind a bus or not.

This member enjoys coming to our house for meetings, rather than to the Extension Services office, because it means she doesn't have to cross town. At 82 years old, she doesn't feel comfortable in traffic. Of course, she never has to drive to the office, since she's always welcome to ride with us.

But for the past few months, we have met at our house, because it's difficult for me to manage Mother getting in and out of the van and lugging scrapbook supplies into and out of the conference room. Also, the chairs in the conference room are extremely uncomfortable. Even sitting in the folding chairs today made her back hurt. I guess I need to devise some way for her to craft from the living room rocking chair...like finding a TV or bed tray sort of thing with a completely flat surface.

After our guest left, we started a pot of split pea soup...Mother diced onions and carrots, and cut up ham, and Hubbie diced celery. I washed the peas, added water, the veggies, and seasonings, and set it to simmering.

That's not what we had for supper, though. We had the-week-in-review...lasagna, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans. The soup is for the weekend.

After supper, Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house. Then, during our hour without TV, we cleaned and organized the three kitchen drawers that house storage containers and lids, discarding containers with no lids and lids with no containers. Got a plastic grocery bag of discards. How do we manage to accumulate stuff like that?

Back to TV, we watched "The Odyssey," a 1997 two-part mini-series based on the classic Greek epic poem. Right after his son is born, Odysseus is called to serve in the Trojan War. He is gone for fifteen years, during which time, he meets with a cyclops, Cerce, a siren whose song turns men to animals, Hades of the underworld, and Scylla (she has six snake heads).