Wow, can you believe it has been 8 weeks since the new year began. Time is so fleeting. As I have been doing this year, I am trying to record the joyous thing (or things) that happen each day. At the end of the year I want to reread all of these joys to remind myself that something good and joyful happens every single day. Though I must admit some days the hunt is on for the joy!
Feb. 19 The morning started with a mad hunt for my keys. I was up, dressed for the day and ready to go to mom's house for my morning visit/duty. Every possible place I could have put them was searched more than once. I was about to get the garbage from outside and search through it, but decided to call TheHub to see if he knew where they were. There was an outside possibility I had left them in the doorknob when I came in the house the night before. If I had done that I figured he would have seen them earlier in the morning when he left for work, removed them and put them somewhere. He told me he had not seen them, then laughed and told me he did not take them to work by mistake like he did in January. Then he felt his pocket where my keys were.
I had to call the overnight sitter, who leaves Moms house to go to another sitting job. I was horrified to ask her if staying until the daytime sitter could get there would complicate her day too much. It turns out her client had passed away during the night and she had just gotten a call about it, so she could stay the extra time. I guess my weird joy was that things worked out, but this time instead of being a good sport and staying in for the day, I insisted the guilty party bring me my keys during his lunch break.
And on a sad note we lost a dear friend. George was a true gentleman, and will be missed.
Feb. 20 I am pretty sure I am developing gills instead of lungs. In spite of the deluge today I was able to buy hot kolaches to take to our friends house this morning, without them getting wet. She has been swarmed by family and friends who are going by to see what they can do to help or just offer their support, and I thought they might welcome a self contained breakfast either for the family or to share with others who dropped by.
Feb. 21 Mom had an appointment with one of her doctors. Just about 8 months ago I could drop her off at the door and she could either walk down the hall to his office or wait for me to park and I would walk in with her. About 6 months ago I dropped her off at a different doctor and asked her to wait on a bench in front of the professional office building while I ran the car to the valet parking. My sister and I had already decided my days of parking in the deck took too much time, and it would be better for me to do the valet thing anytime one was available. In the approximately 5 minutes it took to drop my car, get the receipt and walk across the parking lo in front of the hospital,, Mom had disappeared. After running to her docs office and not seeing her there, I contacted security and went looking for her. I found her in the 5th floor in her former neurologist's office instead of the second floor where her pulmonary doc practices. After that episode I only made appointments when her daytime caregiver could help.
Because she was ill, I had to reschedule her last appointment and the only time they had open was the time T. gets off on Friday. My joy this day was My Beloved Sister taking a half a day off work to help with Mom.
It was late when we got her home and settled and TheHub could not reach me by phone . (I had turned the ringer off when Mom was at the doctor and had forgotten to turn it back on) As I was pulling out of her driveway he pulled up in front of her house. Obviously there was no meal cooked or even thought about. Instead we headed to Homewood for BBQ then went shopping. Nothing beats a Friday night date at Trader Joe's.
Feb. 22 As I have mentioned before my computer was very sick and we decided it was time to bite the bullet. Now by forking over more money than it cost our zero pregnancy insurance, married college student selves to pay for Son1, I am the owner of a MacBook Air. I am beyond thrilled to no longer have to post from my phone nor respond to blogs via the Kindle. Overjoyed actually, except for the paying for it part.
That was not a part of my financial plan for the month.
Feb. 23 Our friend, George, was also a member of our Sunday school class at church. We went into class and every single person was there. Even on Easter at least a few folks can't make it. Through shared sadness we celebrated knowing him. After church TheHub and I went by his house, took some food and visited with his family.
Later that evening we rented The Good Liar and watched it. It dragged a bit in the set up, but then took a turn and was a delightful movie.
Feb. 24 This was the day of our friends funeral. It was a true celebration of life. Afterward we went to their house and visited with approximately 100 others who knew and loved him. We left at about a quarter till 4 and TheHub and I were talking about how imperative it is for us to start doing all the things we just talk about doing, and about the old adage about where you spend your time is where you spend your life. Even though I fully expected TheHub to go back to the office for at least a couple of hours he decided he would not. Neither of us had eaten anything all do so we ran the movie back to Redbox and planned to go grab a quick bite of anything. While we were in the car I checked my phone (it had naturally been on silent) to see if there were any messages about Mom. There were none but there was one from my SIL. She and TheHub's youngest brother had made an unexpected trip to Birmingham and wanted to know if we could meet them for a very early (5 o'clock) dinner Of course we said yes, drove back to our house, changed clothes and headed to meet them. If we had not been to a funeral and spent time with the family we never would have been available to meet them. We decided this was one last gift from George to us.
Feb.25 I guess my joyous gift for Tuesday was the gift of laughter. Mom was on a tear all day, telling her daytime caregiver that she was going to be fired since Mom could no longer go to the club. She also called me to tell me that my BIL had left her on the golf course and she did not appreciate it at all. Later in the day she was hosting a huge party and had cooked all day and organized it, but no one came. She was pretty angry that they had all responded to the invitations but were no shows. My Beloved sister and I talked off and on about how incredible the human brain is and how reality can become so skewed. It is sad and hard for her, but we can laugh or cry so we will always choose laughter.
And that wraps up the joys for the week and now I begin a new one. I am sure I will find lots of things to add to the list for next week. Until them look for joy, because it is always out there.
Feb. 19 The morning started with a mad hunt for my keys. I was up, dressed for the day and ready to go to mom's house for my morning visit/duty. Every possible place I could have put them was searched more than once. I was about to get the garbage from outside and search through it, but decided to call TheHub to see if he knew where they were. There was an outside possibility I had left them in the doorknob when I came in the house the night before. If I had done that I figured he would have seen them earlier in the morning when he left for work, removed them and put them somewhere. He told me he had not seen them, then laughed and told me he did not take them to work by mistake like he did in January. Then he felt his pocket where my keys were.
I had to call the overnight sitter, who leaves Moms house to go to another sitting job. I was horrified to ask her if staying until the daytime sitter could get there would complicate her day too much. It turns out her client had passed away during the night and she had just gotten a call about it, so she could stay the extra time. I guess my weird joy was that things worked out, but this time instead of being a good sport and staying in for the day, I insisted the guilty party bring me my keys during his lunch break.
And on a sad note we lost a dear friend. George was a true gentleman, and will be missed.
Feb. 20 I am pretty sure I am developing gills instead of lungs. In spite of the deluge today I was able to buy hot kolaches to take to our friends house this morning, without them getting wet. She has been swarmed by family and friends who are going by to see what they can do to help or just offer their support, and I thought they might welcome a self contained breakfast either for the family or to share with others who dropped by.
Feb. 21 Mom had an appointment with one of her doctors. Just about 8 months ago I could drop her off at the door and she could either walk down the hall to his office or wait for me to park and I would walk in with her. About 6 months ago I dropped her off at a different doctor and asked her to wait on a bench in front of the professional office building while I ran the car to the valet parking. My sister and I had already decided my days of parking in the deck took too much time, and it would be better for me to do the valet thing anytime one was available. In the approximately 5 minutes it took to drop my car, get the receipt and walk across the parking lo in front of the hospital,, Mom had disappeared. After running to her docs office and not seeing her there, I contacted security and went looking for her. I found her in the 5th floor in her former neurologist's office instead of the second floor where her pulmonary doc practices. After that episode I only made appointments when her daytime caregiver could help.
Because she was ill, I had to reschedule her last appointment and the only time they had open was the time T. gets off on Friday. My joy this day was My Beloved Sister taking a half a day off work to help with Mom.
It was late when we got her home and settled and TheHub could not reach me by phone . (I had turned the ringer off when Mom was at the doctor and had forgotten to turn it back on) As I was pulling out of her driveway he pulled up in front of her house. Obviously there was no meal cooked or even thought about. Instead we headed to Homewood for BBQ then went shopping. Nothing beats a Friday night date at Trader Joe's.
Feb. 22 As I have mentioned before my computer was very sick and we decided it was time to bite the bullet. Now by forking over more money than it cost our zero pregnancy insurance, married college student selves to pay for Son1, I am the owner of a MacBook Air. I am beyond thrilled to no longer have to post from my phone nor respond to blogs via the Kindle. Overjoyed actually, except for the paying for it part.
That was not a part of my financial plan for the month.
Feb. 23 Our friend, George, was also a member of our Sunday school class at church. We went into class and every single person was there. Even on Easter at least a few folks can't make it. Through shared sadness we celebrated knowing him. After church TheHub and I went by his house, took some food and visited with his family.
Later that evening we rented The Good Liar and watched it. It dragged a bit in the set up, but then took a turn and was a delightful movie.
Feb. 24 This was the day of our friends funeral. It was a true celebration of life. Afterward we went to their house and visited with approximately 100 others who knew and loved him. We left at about a quarter till 4 and TheHub and I were talking about how imperative it is for us to start doing all the things we just talk about doing, and about the old adage about where you spend your time is where you spend your life. Even though I fully expected TheHub to go back to the office for at least a couple of hours he decided he would not. Neither of us had eaten anything all do so we ran the movie back to Redbox and planned to go grab a quick bite of anything. While we were in the car I checked my phone (it had naturally been on silent) to see if there were any messages about Mom. There were none but there was one from my SIL. She and TheHub's youngest brother had made an unexpected trip to Birmingham and wanted to know if we could meet them for a very early (5 o'clock) dinner Of course we said yes, drove back to our house, changed clothes and headed to meet them. If we had not been to a funeral and spent time with the family we never would have been available to meet them. We decided this was one last gift from George to us.
Feb.25 I guess my joyous gift for Tuesday was the gift of laughter. Mom was on a tear all day, telling her daytime caregiver that she was going to be fired since Mom could no longer go to the club. She also called me to tell me that my BIL had left her on the golf course and she did not appreciate it at all. Later in the day she was hosting a huge party and had cooked all day and organized it, but no one came. She was pretty angry that they had all responded to the invitations but were no shows. My Beloved sister and I talked off and on about how incredible the human brain is and how reality can become so skewed. It is sad and hard for her, but we can laugh or cry so we will always choose laughter.
And that wraps up the joys for the week and now I begin a new one. I am sure I will find lots of things to add to the list for next week. Until them look for joy, because it is always out there.
