Random Pictures and Brief Notes from the Weekend....

Nov 15

Written By

Sleep.

I went to sleep early Friday night. I got up Saturday morning, took a shower and called my mother. She sounded o.k. and said her homecare worker was coming over that morning. So I said I'd come over in the afternoon and promptly went back to bed. I got up around noon. NOON. That is NOT like me to say the least but I felt better. Owen had a VERY IMPORTANT EVENT at the Champaign Library that afternoon and had requested that it be just an Owen-and-Mom afternoon. We got there a bit early so he sat and read and I sat and looked at him.

If you look to the left of the podium you can see him with his group. It was the Monarch Challenge or something like that. The kids had all read the same books and had to answer questions about them----each team was made up of kids from different schools. He adores his librarian so he wanted to do it although he was slightly insulted at how 'easy' the books were......... My sweet pea. He was quite happy afterwards..... We headed over to visit my mother and he was in rare form entertaining her.....

That night I made some weird chicken/pepper pasta kind of thing. It was lazy cooking but turned out pretty good.....here are the peppers simmering with the chicken.....

Sunday morning I woke up to the scent of Ernie's homemade drop biscuits in the air. I was treated to some before I headed to the nursing home. My mother had been put in a room with a woman who is in such pain that she yells throughout the night. Yeah. Sigh. The woman had fourteen children and has horrible bedsores open to her tendons....

I got mom moved to a different room today so hopefully she will get some sleep tonight. It's all rather heartbreaking.

Walking into a nursing home and seeing my mother sitting with all the others eating biscuits and gravy....well....it's hard. I went with her to therapy which was good. The therapist seemed great, he thought she had a surprising amount of strength in her legs AND he noticed the remnants of her New England accent so he's in our good graces. Then we met with the administrator about the room change, waited for them to do it and got my mother all settled in. All in all it was several hours that felt like twice that.

I got home and told the boys I wanted to drive and take pictures and then maybe go to our weekly Fries and Peanuts lunch if all went well. The driving/taking pictures part wasn't met with great enthusiasm but their father told them to suck it up and so they did.

They are my sweet peas....we had a good afternoon. It felt good to be driving out in the country in the grey rain.