Hello Monday

Hello friends how was your weekend? I took a few extra days off. The end of the year is coming and I have some vacation days that I need to use before the year ends. It was also my husband’s birthday so we have had a few days of celebrating. Nothing fancy just a couple of dinners out. I made my hubs special pancakes and bacon for breakfast on his birthday and I made him a pumpkin pie. We actually spent most of the weekend settling my MIL back into the Assisted Living Village where she had been living until a few months ago. It has been a bit of a somber weekend. Life happens and you deal with it one day at a time. Sometimes one minute at a time.

Back in July my mother in law had an episode and had to be taken to our local hospital ER. She was unresponsive and after many tests the doctors told us she had had a mild heart attack. After spending several days in the hospital she was released but wasn’t ready to go back to the assisted living center where she had been living. The doctor recommended that she go to the nearby nursing facility where she could get care and therapy. After three months of being there she was finally set to be released about two weeks ago. She was so excited. I had planned to take a half day off from work to help her get settled back in.

As I was driving to the nursing home to help get her clothes and everything loaded, the administrator called and said she had just tested positive for Covid. WHAT??? So she would not be leaving for at least ten more days. Also she was in quarantine with about twenty other patients who had tested positive and we were not allowed to visit. We couldn’t call her because she can’t hear well enough to have a phone conversation and she gets very agitated trying to communicate. We were so disappointed and I know that she was. We had to rely on the staff to get messages to her and try to keep her spirits up. I am sure she felt like she had been forgotten.

I did visit with her after about a week and told her she would soon be moving back to the village. So on Saturday we finally got her moved.

It is amazing how much of a set back she has had. It’s sad and depressing and it just makes my heart break for her. When we got her to the assisted living village she looked around like she was seeing it for the first time. She kept saying “well I guess I will just have to get used to this”. She seemed almost disappointed to be there. And she had been so excited just two weeks before that. She was so confused. She is almost 89 years old. I know she has been through a lot but this last bout of Covid and being quarantined away from everyone has really taken a toll. After we left her, promising that we would return the next day to check on her, I felt like we were leaving a toddler alone to care for her self. I called to check on her later that day and the staff told us she was doing well and getting adjusted. By the next day it was a little better and more and more of her friends from the village were stopping by to see her. I think that made her feel more at home. She can’t wait to have her hair done in the shop inside the village.

So hubs and I returned the next day to check on her and because my work is only about ten minutes from her I can drop in daily until she gets readjusted.

We had a quiet day today. We decided to put our Christmas tree up. We have to do things like this when we have days off together and have no other obligations. I feel that waiting until Thanksgiving is over is just not enough time to decorate for Christmas. I say why not celebrate the entire last two months of the year. I don’t feel like it is taking anything away from Thanksgiving by enjoying some Christmas festivities as well. But that’s just my opinion.

I don’t have a tree topper or a tree skirt yet but the ornaments are on. This tree is 32 years old. We have had it since our first year of marriage. We haven’t put it up every year but we have many of the 32 years. That little red rug was crocheted by my grandmother Rose, she taught me to crochet, and I use it every year. I just noticed that bottom could use a few more ornaments.

I have done quite a bit of knitting and crocheting while I have been off the last few days and Kitty Kitty has been my constant companion. She loves being near yarn.