Posted 4-25-19 Hey! Eight months from today is Christmas! How is your shopping coming? I am deeply sorry, not sorry. Remember, I love Christmas. 😉 I play Christmas music all the year long! You can take the Mark out of Christmas, but you can’t take the Christmas out of Mark. Regardless, as I lay in…
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Posted 4-24-19 Mom’s favorite number, at least since she has started struggling with Alzheimer’s, has always been 5,280. You know…that “number of feet in a mile” number? I have mentioned that before, but I am intrigued by the fact that she still uses that number whenever I bring up anything that implies a number. I…
Mom, the Accidental Soldier
Posted 4-23-19 Mom has always admired and appreciated members of the military. I would say she is a pretty patriotic lady and raised us to love and honor the military too. We celebrated July 4th in a festive, pro-USA kinda way every year in our childhood, although we were pretty violent with the fireworks at…
A Tangled Knot We Weave
Posted 4-22-19 Had a great visit with mom yesterday just after church, then a couple short hours later my sister had a rough visit with her. It seems as though the break from routine (lots of visitors in a place that usually has few) and anxiety reared its ugly head again. Mom has cycles when…
Happy Easter!
Posted 4-21-19 Today is the celebration of the day that is the source of the strength that keeps me going. Christ defeating death that Easter takes away the sting of Alzheimer’s, or anything else that harms us,for the believer. It is terrible for her now, but heaven will be even more sweet with this time…
Watch Your Diet, Caregiver
Posted 4-20-19 Just a quick caregiver thought this holiday weekend: Be careful to watch your entertainment diet. I love reading and contributing to caregiver forums, studying cures and treatments and serving up digital cornbread for you. I really do. It helps me vent. It gives me a forum to cry, safely. It helps me see…
What Matters
Posted 4-19-19 I feel like a terrible person referring to mom in the past tense in any sense, but in this case it is ok…I will explain later. Mom was a very frugal person really until the start of when dementia shifted gears into the current later term Alzheimer’s juggernaut. My childhood shopping hangouts were…
I Lost My Music
Posted 4-18-19 I had a really nice visit with mom today, albeit a tad earlier in the day than normal. I hit the traditional nappy time for most of the Sweet 17, right after lunch as their mush piles have had time to settle hearts and stomachs. When I got there, three princesses were asleep…
Changing Times
Posted 4-17-19 One of mom’s most amazing traits is her flexibility and willingness to change. Mom was a stay-at-home mom for many, many years and gradually entered the workforce later in our childhood. Later in our early adulthood, needing money but balanced with wanting to be an available mom/grandma, mom worked for temp agencies…a lot….
Spring Dreaming
Posted 4-16-19 “I need a break!” Eleven-year-old Brenda said, sighing as she scooped another shovel of poo into the pile the same way she did every stinking Saturday while her friends…uhhh…did the same thing at their farm home. “Cows are milked, the stupid horse is fed, the fence and gate are checked, the dishes are…