Thankful Thursday and Positive Talk to Myself

I challenged myself to start keeping a thankfulness journal this year but we were both so sick the first week of January that I never gave it another thought. Then we had a busy week trying to run all our saved up errands and then of course, I had the mystery killer headache and invisible flaming arrow in my eye for a week and that challenge went to the bottom of the trash heap. But I was recently reminded of it by another blogger and thought I'd give it another chance even though the first month of the year is almost over. That's when I realized I really don't know how to keep a thankfulness journal, or even how to write thankfulness. How many times can I say I am thankful for my incredible husband? Then I thought I'd look at a few Thankful Thursday posts from linkups, and I couldn't find any Thankful Thursday linkups. I thought I had several bookmarked, but I only had one and it has ceased. So if you know of a Thankful Thursday linkup, let me know. I'd like to see how other people do this. *edit* Thank you for the link to a new Thankful Thursday. I added it at the bottom of this post.

I thought I'd write about something I'm thankful for every day, but since I was just reminded about this yesterday, that would be a short list. I'll try to do that starting tomorrow though. For this post, I want to tell how being sick for almost a month made me thankful. I'm not thankful I was sick. That is not how I wanted to start the year. But it did make me see things around me that I have been taking for granted.

I am so very thankful for my husband. For the last year, he has driven my mother and me to her doctor appointments, even when I'm sure he would much rather be doing something else. He drives us to the door, waits in parking lots, and picks us up at the door. He gets out wheelchairs, walkers, set up appliances, and put together furniture. All this without complaining, or at least not complaining much. He sorted through mom's house of hoard, packed box after box of stuff and carted them 350 miles to her new home, only to be met with requests for more stuff. This past week, he sat in the emergency room with me while people all around us coughed and hacked, and he listened to doctors toss ideas in the air and then say they have no idea what was wrong with me. Then he brought me home, turned out the lights and made me as comfortable as possible while we waited to see what to do next.

I am thankful for these two furballs who depend on me and support me by showing unconditional love. Even Mia, who has chosen Hubby to be her favorite person, showed she cared by sitting in my lap for two worst days of my headache. She did jump down and run into the kitchen when Hubby started cooking though. Did I mention that Hubby cooked for a week? I don't remember what all he made because I couldn't eat much, but I do remember we ate.

Mia saying "Do you know what time it is????"

I am thankful for the friends who called and asked how I was doing every day and who asked what they could do to help us out. I'm looking forward to paying them back for their kindness or paying it forward.

I am thankful for my mother, who put aside her wishes to give us time to get better. I know how it feels to be dependent on others for food and transportation and I'm sure there are places she would have liked to go in these weeks without doctor appointments.

I am most thankful that I woke up without a headache and eye pain Tuesday morning.

This one is pretty selfish, I admit, but I'm thankful the weather was cold and windy. It made it much easier to want to be home instead of think about what I was missing. Now bring on the nice weather please!

******** Another blogger, MiaIsMine, challenged me to write things we like about ourselves. So many people sabotage themselves with self-criticism, and it's time to turn the tables and build confidence with encouragement. I read this question on another website: "How many friends would you have if you talked to them the same way you talk to yourself?" So I am going to try to detach myself and talk to me as if I were a friend. If writing about being thankful was hard, this was nearing impossible. I couldn't seem to turn off my inner negative voice.

1. I like the way you cut your hair. Changing to a new look can be tough, so hang in there and grow one more layer out before you do anything different.

2. I like the way you held your tongue when he said that B12 and Biotin were the same thing. Save your energy for more important disagreements.

3. I like how you recreated one of mom's old favorites out of some chicken leftovers. I love comfort food.

******** What are you thankful for this week? And I challenge you to tell what you like about yourself too, espcially if your inner voice tends to critique instead of encourage.

Kate reminded me of I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of color, so I will try to link to that too. Lee Anna's challenge question today is: "I love color! what are your favorite colors? Do you wear them or decorate with them? has it changed in the last few years? Is it influenced by the seasons?"

I've never really thought about it before, but my favorite color has changed over the years. It took me a long time to learn about seasonal color analysis and I found out I was an autumn. For years, my mother and mother-in-law bought clothes for me for Christmas and birthdays and they were always pastels. I always felt washed out in pastels and tended to wear bright red when I shopped for myself. The last few years, I've added some bright blues into my fall colors, and lately I've been in love with jewel tones, especially teals. If I were buying fabrics like I used to, you would see more teal in my quilts.

When we bought new furniture for our family room, the furniture we both found comfortable only came in navy blue, so for the last twenty years, my house colors have either been navy blue or something that coordinated with navy blue. When we moved here, I considered buying new furniture, but our furniture still looked brand new, so we kept most of it and I said I would never buy blue furniture again. We were shopping for new recliners for our RV last fall, and wouldn't you know it, when we found one that we could both sit in and would fit in the space, they were navy blue! But let me say here and now, I will never buy blue furniture again!

Linking to:

Thankful Thursday and Fashion Files (I don't know what Fashion Files are though.)

I like Thursday

Thankful Thursday

I Just Want My Life Back

About five minutes after submitting the post yesterday morning, my phone rang. It was Mom's assisted living director notifying me that two people there had Covid. A few minutes after that, Mom called to tell me the same thing. I quizzed her with the usual questions and yes, she was running a low fever, and yes, she was really tired. She had just woken from sleeping for over twelve hours. Her back and neck were also aching and she was sneezing and had a runny nose. I wondered if those last two were because the assisted living was spraying the place down with Lysol, but considering her age, I thought we'd better take her to the doctor. I made an appointment, coordinated with Mom and the assisted living staff and we left.

After a long wait at the doctor's office, we were told by the PA that the Covid quick test was negative, but her urinalysis showed a UTI. Since Mom has been battling e-coli for the last year, this was the last thing we wanted to hear. It is resistant to all but one oral antibiotic and after that there will only be IV infusions. But this doctor wanted to start her on that antibiotic now, before the culture comes back and identifies exactly which bacteria it is. She also wanted Mom (which means me) to make a follow up appointment next week with Mom's urogynocologist, despite having an appointment in three weeks. She also wants Mom to see a nephrologist (kidney specialist). I could see my desire to get back to a normal life disappearing into the same endless cycle of doctors' appointments and hours on the phone that wore Hubby and I out last year.

This morning, the PA called (in person!) to say that the longer Covid test results came back and it was positive. So I spent the morning cancelling appointments for the rest of the week and calling doctors, notifying the assisted living, and getting paperwork sent from one place to another. Our afternoon was spent running errands, picking up Mom's medications, and making a grocery store run for her in case we come down with it too. Monday we got home at 8pm and tonight it was 7pm. Yes, 2023 is beginning to look like 2022.

An Unexpected Long Holiday

Everyone came to our house for Christmas this year. Brownie and her boys came with coughs and runny noses but Brownie assured us it was nothing, just the end of their colds. The day they left, I had a scratchy throat and Hubby started coughing the next day. It quickly progressed to chills, fever, and the worst body aches I have ever had. One sleepless night, I actually thought something had happened to our bed and all the springs and metal frame must have come through the top. But by the end of the first week, we were both over everything except a deep, croupy cough and being very tired. We assume it was flu but never got tested.

Today marks the end of the second week and I feel pretty good. I hate to admit this, but I've enjoyed this past week. Other than the coughing that woke me up at night (Hubby's, not mine - I learned how to sleep through my own coughing), I have binge watched Longmire, The Crown, Providence, and All Creatures Great and Small. I've started a new quilt, I've kept my slippers on all day, have eaten comfort foods, taken several naps a day, worn old, ratty clothes, and let my hair stick out in all directions. It was like going back to 2021, minus the naps and funky hair.

We took Mia to a veterinary ophthalmologist last Thursday. It was about 60 miles from us on the other side of the city. It was just a consult for surgery, so the drive was the hard part of the trip. After that, we had to pick up prescriptions and do some grocery shopping for mom. By the time we got home, we both fell into bed and took a two hour nap. It seems this cold or flu has turned us into old people.

But now it's back to reality and the daily grind. Today I have to take down the Christmas tree and put up Christmas decorations, things I usually do on January 1. Tomorrow I have to take my banquet tables to the library and set up for our book club meeting. Wednesday, I have to take Mom to a cardiology appointment. Her assisted living is in a Covid lockdown and I don't know how this is going to work. Thursday, Mia has to go to the vet for teeth cleaning and toenail surgery. She may never want to get in the car again. I have reserved Friday for another old person nap.

Happy New Year 2023!

This year, I am not going to tempt fate by making any specific resolutions. I am so happy to have 2022 behind us that my only resolution is to put it behind us and move forward. If I were going to make resolutions, they would look something like the collection of memes below. Enjoy and I hope to be back again soon.