Saturday, January 21, 2012

Saturday, Jan. 21

Slept late this morning. After breakfast, I went to Mother's house to help her take a shower, and then throw a load of laundry in the washer for her. It's difficult for her to gather her laundry and take it to the washer, but she is able to transfer the laundry to the dryer, and then fold it afterward. I want to help her in any way that makes things easier for her, but I also want her to perform whatever tasks she feels capable of doing. She knows there are things she can't do anymore, like cooking.

Came back home, changed clothes, and did a session of stair-stepping, resistance, and weights exercises. By the time I was ready for the day, it was already time for lunch. Hubbie helped Mother come over to our house, and after a potato soup lunch, we planned the menu for the week.

Then, Mother diced veggies, cubed ham, and sorted beans for a couple of batches of 11-bean soup, and a recipe of barbecue pork chops. I bagged the veggies and ham for the refrigerator. We'll cook the food tomorrow...the soup as our donation to the Arts Council "Soup Saturday" event, and the pork chops for our lunch tomorrow.

Although Mother can't cook anymore, it makes her feel useful and needed to do some kitchen tasks, like "slicing and dicing" veggies and meats. She can do these tasks while seated at a small table in the kitchen.

Later, Hubbie and I ran errands...to a grocery store for a couple of items, to the WDCS for more groceries, and to pick up a package of photos that I'd ordered online earlier, and to the bank.

Back home, we watched our favorite college basketball team play to a skin-of-their-teeth win. While the game was on (I'd recorded it on DVR earlier) Mother helped me with supper by preparing a box of cornbread mix for the oven. I served the cornbread, as well as biscuits (and honey), with steaming bowls of leftover New England stew.

Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I continued watching TV.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Friday, Jan. 20

Today is Sis's birthday. Happy Birthday, Sis!

We were up at 6:30 on this downright cold morning, so I could get ready to go to water aerobics. It has been weeks since I've been to the pool, so I was thrilled to be back in the water.

Nineteen of us showed up today, including a couple of other women who hadn't attended in a long time. One was the lady whose daughter was killed by her husband in a murder-suicide tragedy. The other was the woman who was treated for basal cell carcinoma.

Our leader was very excited to see the three of us and a few others who hadn't been attending for a variety of reasons. We now have two new members, one of whom is a young man in his twenties, who suffered a broken back in an automobile accident last August. His doctor recommended water aerobic therapy. We're glad to have him, and he seems quite comfortable among us senior ladies. We must seem like a pool full of doting grandmas to him.

Back home, after I'd gotten ready for the day, we made a trip to a town about an hour and a half east of us to meet Hubbie's sister and niece for lunch at an Italian restaurant.

His niece, who lives in another state, was here for a week's vacation, but will return to her home tomorrow. Niece is four months pregnant and still suffering morning sickness that she says last pretty much all day. This is keeping her from enjoying her pregnancy. She doesn't yet know the sex of the baby, but is hoping for a boy.

Hubbie's sister, being the sweet and thoughtful person that she is, gave me a little birthday gift of a journal and a stack of pretty notepads.

After lunch, we went shopping...Sister-in-Law and Niece going in one direction, and Hubbie, Mother and I in another. Our first stop was an intimate apparel shop, where I used a $10 birthday gift card from the store to buy on-sale tubes of hand cream. Mother stayed in the van while we went into the mall.

Then we went to a hobby store. We'd taken the wheelchair, so Mother enjoyed shopping here. We bought a couple of packages of plain white note cards, large ones and small ones, as well as sheets of patterned papers to use in making scrapbook pages of the new grandbaby girl, plus a punch that dials three different corner patterns. I'd printed two 40% off coupons from the store's website this morning...Hubbie used one to buy one of higher-priced items, and Mother used the other one. If I'd been thinking straight, I would have printed three coupons, and used one myself.

Our last stop was at the wholesale club store, where we picked up bulk paper products, and several bulk or large size boxed and canned food items, plus fresh produce...Little Cuties oranges and Gala apples for Mother, and grapes and apples for Hubbie and me. Once again, Mother preferred to stay in the van while we shopped.

We headed back home around 3:30 p.m. Along the way, we saw hundreds of Canadian geese feeding in the boggy rice fields, and hawks...at least a half dozen of them...perched on the crossbars of power poles, scanning the ditches alongside the fields looking for small prey like field mice.

At home, I accompanied Mother to her house. After unloading the van, Hubbie and I had a supper of leftover potato soup, with crackers and cheese, and slices of fresh apple. This is a variety of apple that is new to me...Honeycrisp. It's a delicious very crisp fruit with a sweet honey-like flavor. They are large, so one apple is enough to serve two.

Later, we watched the 2010 movie, "The Wolfman," starring Simon Merrells, and Anthony Hopkins. In 1890's England, an American man returns to his ancestral home, but runs afoul of a werewolf, and is himself turned into a werewolf. Things naturally go from bad to worse as the beast rips and tears a bloody trail through humankind. If you're squeamish, this isn't the film for you.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Thursday, Jan. 19

Up at 7:30 this morning. After breakfast, I went to Mother's house to help her take a shower. Then I threw a load of towels and clothes in the washer, before I returned home and changed clothes to do a treadmill and resistance band exercises.

Once I was ready for the day, I did this and that around the house until lunchtime. Hubbie helped Mother come over to join us for a potato soup lunch.

We weren't sure if one of our scrapbook club members would come for a club meeting, but Mother and I decided we'd work on pages, anyway. The member did not show up, but Mother and I accomplished quite a bit. Except for a little jounaling, we managed to finish wedding pages featuring Grandson and his bride, who married last July. Now we are ready to begin pages featuring a new great-grandbaby girl.

Later, we had a supper of leftover spaghetti and sauce, served with canned whole kernel corn, and French bread. Hubbie accompanied Mother home afterward, and then he and I settled in front of TV.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Wednesday, Jan. 18

Up at 6 a.m. this morning to get ready for a trip south to attend the memorial service for my ex-husband.

It was a sunny, but br-r-r, really cold morning. We left home at 7:30, and arrived at the funeral home near the appointed 10 a.m. hour. The well-attended service lasted about an hour.

My great-grandson thought it amusing that both of his great-grandfather's ex-wives attended the service. Of course, no matter what the relationship between us and his great-grandfather, we wanted to be there in support of our children, who naturally loved and will miss their father.

Afterward, my children, their spouses, a granddaughter, and a grandson, and Great-Grandson (ten of us in all) went to a favorite Italian restaurant for lunch. I hope this provided a pleasant stress relief for my family after a very difficult few weeks.

We arrived back home around 4 p.m. Mother and Sis had prepared a recipe of New England stew. Sis couldn't stay for supper, but she took helping of the stew with her for hers and Nephew's supper.

Hubbie, Mother, and I enjoyed the stew at our usual 5 p.m. supper hour. Hubbie accompanied Mother home afterward, and then we watched TV, including the 2003 movie, "Mona Lisa Smile," starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, and Julia Stiles. A forward-thinking young art professor at Wellesly college urges her 1950s conservative female students to think outside the box of getting married and having kids as the only life course they should pursue.

Note: phooey, I discovered this afternoon that the fluorescent ceiling light in my office is burned out. Hubbie suspects it might be a starter problem. Always something around here.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Tuesday, Jan. 17

Tossed and turned until 2 a.m. this morning, before finally going to sleep. My mind kept reviewing recent events...the illness and death of my ex-husband, the stress on my older son and the rest of the family, the hospitalization of an infant great-granddaughter, the problems of a grandson, the muscle-pull injury to my younger son, etc., etc., etc.

Slept late, though, until around 8:30. After breakfast, I did strengthening exercises...stair stepping, weights, and resistance bands. Then I got ready to go meet my doctor appointment.

Didn't have long to wait before I was taken back to an exam room. The clinic is still updating computer files, so the nurse needed to ask again if I smoke, if I drink alcohol, and if I use street drugs.

"Oh, sure," I joked about that last one. "I'm always out on the street corner looking for drugs." She laughed and said, "Well, I had to ask." We agreed that neither of us has the foggiest notion about how to obtain illegal drugs.

The doctor arrived quickly and removed the bandage on my index finger. Low and behold, the wound was completely healed. It's still sore to the touch, though, which is what made me hesitant to remove the very stuck bandage (I'd been told it would come off by itself, but it didn't). I was afraid I'd re-open the wound if I tried to take it off myself.

I felt sort of foolish for wasting the doctor's time, but she assured me it was best to let her do it, so that if the wound did re-open, she could deal with. There's a scar on my finger, but it's not bad.

I was back home around noon, when I heated leftovers for our lunch. While I was heating lunch, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house.

The nurse had visited her this morning, and said she was doing well. Her vitals are good. She asked Mother if she was getting enough to eat, and Mother assured her that I see to her meals, and that she doesn't cook anymore, other than heating things in the microwave.

This afternoon, Mother, Hubbie, and I made a pot of potato soup. Hubbie peeled and sliced the potatoes, and Mother chopped the onion, celery, and carrots. Then I put the soup together. We felt a pot of soup is in order for Mother's and Sis's lunch tomorrow, since it's predicted to be a very cold day.

Once the soup was cooked, Mother and I spent time working on our scrapbook pages. Before we started the soup, I put the ankle weights back on, and wore them the rest of the afternoon as added exercise when I walked and went up and down stairs.

Later, I heated a supper of leftover spaghetti and sauce, and green beans, along with French bread.

Hubbie accompanied Mother back to her house, and then Hubbie and I watched TV, including the 2007 movie, "Nobel Son." A philandering professor wins the Nobel Prize for chemistry. While he is in Stockholm to receive his $2 million dollars prize money, he gets a phone call telling him his grown son has been kidnapped, and the kidnapper, who we learn is his illegitimate son, is demanding the prize money as ransom.

Then we watched our favorite college basketball team as they played to a wide-margin loss. Boo.

Sis arrived tonight, so she could be here to spend the day with Mother tomorrow, while Hubbie and I attend the memorial service for my ex-husband.

Monday, January 16, 2012

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.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Sunday, Jan. 15

Slept until around 8:30 this morning, and skipped my exercises after breakfast. Upon checking my social network page, I learned that my ex-husband had passed away at 12:50 this morning.

Later in the morning, Son called, and we talked for a long time. Then I talked for a while with Daughter. All of my children are at peace with the decision that their father had to be taken off of life support. They are grieving, of course, and they know there will be sad days ahead, as they remember the good times they spent with him.

I'm especially proud of my older son, who has been a rock for his siblings, his half-brothers and sisters, and his stepmother during the long hours and days of his father's hospitalization. Today, he and his stepmother met to make memorial service arrangements. Visitation will be Tuesday night, and the service will be Wednesday at 10 a.m. I will plan to attend the memorial service, in support of my children. Sis will come up to stay with Mother while Hubbie and I are away.

By the time I was ready for the day, it was already noon. I heated leftover chicken and dumplings and mashed potatoes for our lunch.

Around 2 p.m., we decided to take advantage of this relatively mild January day to go to a lake about 45 minutes away to see the trumpeter swans. We try to find things we can do with Mother as often as possible, because she gets tired of sitting around the house doing nothing all the time.

The trumpeter swans winter in our state from around Thanksgiving to around Valentine's Day. The swans have been visiting here for several years, after they somehow got off course one year and found the small lake to be a safe haven. The lake is now a protected preserve that the swans faithfully migrate to every year.

Though the temperature was near 60 degrees, a breeze off the lake made it a bit chilly, so Mother and Hubbie enjoyed the view from the warmth of the van, while I got out and snapped several pictures of the beautiful and graceful birds.

We were back home around 5 p.m., and had a supper of leftover chicken salad for Mother, and leftover chili for Hubbie and me, followed by slices of warmed apple pie with ice cream.

Hubbie accompanied Mother home afterward, and then he and I settled in front of TV, as usual.