Monday noon

• dinner (beef burgundy) was perfect, if I do say so myself, and will attempt another dishy dish this next weekend, and using cooking wine worked really well

• might try coq au vin next
• also, robert duvall's movie 'get low' was a treat...more serious in content than the trailer leads you to believe, but still, he's wonderful in anything
• great weather today with the storms moving on east---breezy and just right for hanging out clothes
• oldest daughter at my mom's---taking her mcdonald's for lunch and a gift she bought her as well
• plain old navy bean soup for dinner---must keep it down to earth here since we can't eat french food every night!
• the forsythias look beautiful in the front yard (we have 5 of them) and the yellow is so snappy
• will share a knock/knock joke before leaving...hope it makes you chuckle like it did me
• knock/knock
• who's there
• little old lady
• little old lady who?
• i didn't know you could yodle

Yeah, maybe a pathetic attempt at humor, but I loved it.  Hope you all have a sweet day, and can fit in something fun to make it sparkle.

Thousandth post

 
Just noticed on my dashboard that this marks number 1000 in my writing here. Doesn't seem that long. As I topple over into a new era of writing wondering if I need to change my tone. I tend to whine and grumble a lot, especially lately, but have never been a blogger who was too awfully caught up in pleasing the crowd. I enjoy comments like the next guy, but don't write in order to get a response. It's more of a therapy for me.

I do know that I tend to be obsessive, and my mother has been my current one. With spring being in the air, though, I'm feeling a creative mood come over me and feel more myself, especially today. With us going to church last night, today is wide open in front of me and looking mighty restful. I'm in bed with the window open beside me. It's a mild day, sprinkling every so often, and the temperature is in the low 70s, and the sun is beginning to peek out. Really perfect. I've begun dinner with the bacon simmering (never have boiled bacon before) for Julia's Beouf Bourguignon (having a dickens of a time spelling it each time I type it out). 

Will focus on cozy homey sorts of things, and not worries.  Those will rear their ugly heads soon enough.  Today is all about dinner and rest.  And for that I'm thankful.

Saturday evening

By golly, I'm tired. Had to go grocery shopping again, and got Mom some stuff as well. While the work load isn't double, it is half again as busy with her being down. My goodness. I got dizzy in the store while fourth son and I went up and down the grocery aisles, and had to mentally keep myself on top of things. I felt that exhausted.

Let my lifestyle now be a warning to any of you who have family issues to deal with. Remember to rest.

My problem is that I take all of this too much to heart. My stomach churns (as it is today) or my head will ache, or I get all wound up with putting too much of myself into my mom's situation. Incredibly hard to do otherwise, and I'm failing miserably in taking care of myself.

So, bought ingredients for Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon (and using cooking wine being that we're tee-totallers, and hoping we can fool the meat into thinking it's real wine) and will commit myself to cutting up two small roasts, drying off the pieces and browning them---and just savoring the process. I'm so excited, partly for the little net bag of boiling onions I got as well. They're cute little beggars. I need methodical work at home that will distract me. Plus, tomorrow is supposed to be a lovely day, or least that's what I heard.

And being that tomorrow is cooking day, am glad I took the kids to church tonight. A very sweet service, to be sure. A contrast to the visited church last week with the noisy pastor. The quiet message tonight was very restful.

Will go now. Am pooped and ready to continue this pleasant evening. Take care.

Even pugs are important

Cool story.

I mentioned the other day that our pug, Daisy, was diagnosed with a bladder infection and bladder stones last Saturday. The doctor said she might have to have surgery in a month. Well, after I spent a few days grieving over this, I did some research on what we could do to help her out...the goal being to reduce the size of the stones in hopes of them possibly dissolving. It can happen. She's already on an antibiotic for her cough and the infection, so I added cranberry pills to that. Supposed to help in tandem with the meds. And we've substituted the pugs' tap water with distilled water. The thing is, diet is crucial to the stones forming.

Here's the cool part.

Our next-door neighbor called me this afternoon, saying that a friend of hers had given her a HUGE bag of dog food that she couldn't use with her dogs, and asked if we wanted it. Get this, I looked up the food and the particulars and it appears to be a perfect diet for Daisy.

I love it.

And the saga continues...

Had another doctor's appointment for my mom this morning, and all went well. The doctor said that the x-ray doesn't show much improvement, but at her age, that's probably not surprising. Mom said, though, that she saw the x-ray after they took it...and that to her it looked knit together. Wonder what she saw. I didn't see anything, and haven't been in the x-ray room with her, so not sure what the protocol is in there. I tend to run when radiation's about, so am clueless.

Anyway, she'll start physical therapy soon, and is spending her morning on the phone finding out if she can line up someone to do this at her house. That'd be wonderful for everyone (speaking mostly of myself, of course!).

I'm glad she feels a perk from the appointment, regardless of the x-ray kurfuffle, since I was so concerned for her emotional state yesterday. Anyway, she pretty much disregarded the doctor's comment that the film didn't look any different, and I guess if that makes her happy, then that's okay as well.

My only caution at this point is regarding her driving. He said she might be able to think about driving in 2 weeks, and she latched onto that like white on rice. I was motioning to him to move it further away which garnered me a tiny little grin from him, but I could tell that he was trying to encourage her but be realistic as well. Said she had to have good range of motion in that left arm first. In the car afterward, she asked how I thought the appointment went and I told her that she's got to take it slow. Then she asked what I thought slow meant. Shoot, in her mind she's already driving across town. This is the woman who refuses to be taken to church or anywhere because she says she's unsteady on her feet. Or maybe it's all about independence. I don't know about that, but do know for a fact that when/if the day comes when my mom doesn't need to drive---well, that's the day someone else will have to do the talking to her.

Makes my head spin. I want to support her, but tend to be the realist here. I can dump water on anyone's plan in a heartbeat, ask Gary. But I think I see things as they really are and not like someone *wants* them to be.

Time to go drink some of my Yogi tea again.

Book recommendation

Finished reading a really good book this afternoon called 'Imaginary Jesus' by Matt Mikalatos.  It's free for a limited time at Amazon in Kindle form, and that's how I got my copy.  It's all about the pretend Jesuses that we tote around and allow to run our lives, being a far cry from Jesus Christ, Son of God.  The book is written in an amusing way at the start, and the author is funny throughout, but when he talks about the real Christ, the joking is all set aside.  We treat the Lord in such a trite way, and this book puts Him back on the throne.  I so enjoyed it.

Will get back to Paul E. Miller's 'A Praying Life' again tonight.  Had the Mikalatos book sitting in my Kindle for a few days, and am glad I've had my head in both books at the same time.  Must be I needed a real taste of reality---of believing that God really is taking care of everything.  I sometimes forget.

Must go drink my tea now and eat a Cadbury creme egg.  The storm is almost completely past us now, and all is well here at home.

Sometime on Thursday

Took the kids over to my mom's this morning.  We had spa time...she needed personal grooming done, and I'm sure she felt better afterward.  It's frustrating, though.  I was expecting her to seem stronger and more able to cope, and am hopeful every time I go over there, but this time was disappointed.  While maybe her arm is healing on the inside, her spirits are low.  Told her we'd take her to our church this weekend, but she didn't say much to that. She says she's not ready to go to hers, and I said that if she goes with us she can be totally anonymous.  Nobody knows her there, and we'd be there as a support system.  We'll see how she feels once she's mulled over it.  One thing, she keeps saying she's unsteady on her feet, terrified of falling again.  Still, you have to move around sometime, don't you?

I'm not prepared for her to be so introspective.  This broken arm has broken her spirits a bit as well.  She's at the place now where she's lost her enthusiasm.  Nobody told me it'd be this way.  At the doctor's, it's all about physical healing, but spirits don't enter into the conversation.  And it's hard to be on this side of the situation, powerless to change her, but that is her prerogative.

Can't put myself in her place.  I try, but can't.  I can imagine, though, how maddening it has to be to have to have help bathing.  For me that'd be an ultimate humility.  No, help going to the bathroom would be at the top. 

Oh well.  Went to the health food store for my iron and picked up some Yogi Calm tea as well.  Thinking I should've bought more than one box (slight effort at humor).  My emotions take a beating when I leave my mom's house, and the sticky feelings of sadness of the situation hang on for awhile.  Probably the weather that literally whooshes through here later on tonight will be a distraction.  Hope not too much of one, though.

Take care all.