Highlights of the Last Month

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. The longer I am away from the blog, the harder it is to come back to it. I hope to do better in 2020. In fact, I may even make a resolution to post at least once a week. But for now, life is a whirlwind, and blogging is on the back burner.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, the family was called in and told that my mother-in-law had a terminal bedsore, specifically a Kennedy terminal ulcer. They said most patients do not recover from it; instead, they decline rapidly. She passed away four days later. The funeral was the weekend before Thanksgiving, in our hometown, so instead of the kids coming here for Thanksgiving, we had a meal together that weekend so they wouldn't have to make another long drive right after getting back home.

It's been two trying years for Hubby, taking care of his mother, working, and lately, chauffeuring me. He had to go back to work after the funeral, but was off Wednesday afternoon through Friday, and we did absolutely nothing. I didn't cook a meal for Thanksgiving, just a pumpkin pie to go with our chicken sandwiches; other than that, we barely moved out of our chairs. Even though we had been expecting her passing for a long time, it was still stressful when it happened and we needed to recover. I think I've written before how needy and demanding his mother had gotten in the six months before going to the nursing home, and then she spent the next six months being bitter and depressed. The next year was better, but she still wanted someone to be with her every day. It affected his attitude toward her and the rest of us; I'm sure no son wants to parent his mother.

But in the next few weeks, as we began going through all the things from her apartment that we had boxed up and stored in our attic, he came across pictures, letters, and journals of the mother he remembered. He began to smile again when he talked about her, and the irritation he had been carrying around for the last couple of years began to slip away. So as hard as it has been to sort through things to keep or get rid of, it has been good too.

I mentioned that he has been my chauffeur. My double vision had been getting worse, and finally I knew I couldn't drive on the highway again until I had stronger prisms in my glasses. When I couldn't tell which lane the car was in, I knew I was in trouble. I've had new glasses for a few days, a stronger prism for one eye and a prism to straighten the image in my other eye. For some reason, one eye saw things straight, and right next to it, the doubled image was at an angle. I'd like to say all is good now, and it is better, but there is still some double vision, and a vision distortion that is like watching a 3D movie without the special glasses. I haven't driven on the highway since getting my new lenses, but will try it tomorrow on a two lane highway to the next town.

This past week, I've been taking pictures of things we want to clear out of here, both mother-in-law's stuff and our stuff, and listing it on Facebook marketplace and craigslist. It did well at first, but the closer to the Christmas rush, the slower it got. So we've put everything on hold until after the first of the year. I was hoping to clear the space in my sewing area before the start of 2020, but I don't think that's going to happen without playing the shuffle-the-junk game.

Tomorrow, I need to do my pre-Christmas house cleaning, and then try to squeeze in a little Christmas shopping. I hate to admit this, but other than buying a couple of toys for the grands, I haven't bought or made a single Christmas present. No stress there, right? Happy Christmas shopping, cleaning, and cooking, and I hope to check in with you soon.