In a Perfect World

   I wish I had something profound to write about today. If I wrote everything I want to this post wouldn't be fit to read. It would be too full of impatience and frustration. I want you all to know that we are real people though.

  Suffice it to say that in a perfect world I would never have to juggle schedules and try to keep everyone happy because in a perfect world there would be way more volunteers than needs.

  How did I ever deserve to be the youngest child? Okay, that was mostly spoken in fun....(mostly)......don't ever let anyone tell you that the youngest is the spoiled one. After all the youngest one will be one of the few that doesn't have a bad back by the time mom ends up with dementia.

  Thank God I have Merry, but woe to the family member that doesn't carry the load when she is in charge. She is at 8 years old the no nonsense kind of girl that takes charge and tells everyone what to do. I will be safe in her hands! LOL!

  Maybe that is enough rambling now, and I need to get to what I really want to say. When I look at how I handle life then I want to retreat into the secret place of the Most High. I want to spend time in the presence of God and claim the mind of Christ. To think like he does, to let the pressures of this life flow off and away. To love my neighbor as myself and not allow myself to give in to stress and the things that from my vantage point don't look good at all.

  It is a refining fire, this thing of Caregiving. God have mercy! I hope Mom doesn't have to live on this old earth until I learn all my lessons.

  The only reason I am writing all this is because I want to be real.  When you read this blog things look like they are going well and they are mostly, but we are human beings. It reminds me of what a friend once said. When you see a duck on the water it looks like it's all good and serene on top, but there's an awful lot of paddling going on underneath.

                                                   Merry, getting a smile out of Grandma

                                     Combing Mom's hair, Angie is putting her socks on her feet

Music Speaks to the Soul

  We invited some friends over on Sunday evening with the intent to take them over to sing for my parents.

They had been singing as a family for many years but now most of their children have left home. But they still sound great and we had a wonderful evening.

Mom loved it! She had a huge smile and kept her foot going with the music all evening. They sang a lot of familiar songs including the Louvin Brother's, Drunkard's Plea, mom always loved that song.

At 8:00 I knew there was no sense trying to get her to bed, there was no way she would have been ready, We waited till 9 and then she was OK with it.

It's amazing to me how I can stand right in front of my mom, make eye contact, ask her a direct yes or no question and get a blank stare. But when someone comes with a guitar and a song she lights up like a lightbulb and keeps time with the music.

A huge thank you to Jim, Gina and Sara Hershey! Thank you for lighting up mom's life for an evening.

              Sorry, the pictures turned out a little dark, but hopefully you can still see well enough.

This is progress!

 In caring for Mom the past year, she has been going backwards inch by inch and I never thought I would be able to say we are making progress!

  Since Mom's bloodclot episode, Angie and I have been helping her walk, one on each side.Finally she started just dragging her feet....literally! She has put new meaning to the words. We couldn't figure her out. Her legs were perfectly normal. We thought maybe her leg was going numb from staying in one position all night. But then she also drug her feet in the evening when we took her to bed. She actually went down twice when she was being walked.

  We were really discouraged and Pop was getting depressed with it all. So on Wed. morning, Angie decided to see if she would use a walker. I thought it was a lost cause. But she really surprised me! She took right off and has been walking pretty good with minimal help.

  Tonight she walked pretty much by herself from her chair to the toilet, then when we got her back up to go to bed she didn't stop at the bed. She headed right back out to her chair and sat down. She smiled real big when we laughed at her. She went to bed then willingly, but I think she is happy with it all. I wonder if she got sick of being helped and decided to "drag her feet".

  She gave me a great big hug after she was in bed tonight. It feels really good to have her on her own feet again.

Mother's Day!

              Happy Mother's Day to my Mother. Even though she doesn't know today is the day!

  Last evening when Angie and I went over to put Mom to bed she was sitting in her chair holding a card she got in the mail that day. Dad said she was holding it all day. I took the letter from her and saw it was from my sister LaRita. I asked my Dad if he read it to her and he said he didn't so not knowing if she can actually still read I read it to her. She got a nice smile on her face and a light in her eyes. I could tell she was getting this. She was so tickled to get a card from LaRita.

  I think her happiness stuck with her all night because when we got there this morning she was actually ready to get up. Usually she pulls the covers up to her neck and looks like she hopes she can stay there. Like, what do I have to get out of bed for....This morning she looked eager and would have sat up with out help if she could have. So a card in the mail makes a lot of difference to an old lady.

  About whether mom can still read or not. I did a test on her recently. I took her little white board and wrote on it. "I want ice cream" Anyone that knows mom, knows she always wants ice cream. So when she just stared blankly at that tempting little message I concluded that she couldn't read. But maybe that wasn't an accurate test. Like the scientist that concluded that if you take a frogs legs off they can't hear.

 They did a test...first they cut off one of his front legs and yelled, "jump!" He jumped, but not too far. Then they cut off his other front leg and yelled, "jump!" He jumped again, not too far. Then they took off a back leg and  yelled again. He didn't move very far but still moved a little. Finally they cut off the remaining leg and yelled, "JUMP!" He didn't move at all. The conclusion? Frogs cannot hear when you cut off their legs.