It's fall now.....
I cannot believe how long it has been since I last posted! I will have to attribute my procrastination to the complication of having both the time and the inspiration to write - at the same time. Guess that does not happen very often for me!
So what have I been doing? On top of running a house, working with and caring for my dogs, and ignoring my garden, I keep pretty busy. I got into a terrible rut during that long HOT-weather spell of sitting and knitting or reading. Once the weather cooled off in August, the damage was already done. (Imagine that; we don't often see the words "cooled off" and "August" in the same sentence, do we?) Anyway, the damage is that my book stack was fully stocked and my knitting projects well begun with a drive to finish several projects before Christmas. Not to mention that the garden was almost ruined by the heat and then pretty much finished off by the Japanese beetles....
Reading: Nella Last's Peace (aka housewife, 49 who'f first book, Nella Last's War was the inspiration for this blog). I also read a knitting/romance novel that was too heavy on the romance, so I won't recommend it. Then back to my favorite, D.E. Stevenson. The Yahoo group that I am on for DES is discussing a newly found and published novel of hers, which I don't have yet, so I am re-reading some of my favorites of hers; I just finished Miss Dean's Dilemma, and currently I am reading Miss Buncle's Book, which is an omnibus of two novels about Miss Buncle.
Cooking: Too many foods that are NOT on my cholesterol-lowering diet: Since I had to clean out the deep freezers this week, I cooked some pork ribs, and then re-imagined them as pulled pork. We still have a bit to finish. Also made a roasted chicken which I served with a nice rice pilaf. Dessert this week was a peach and blueberry cobbler - I actually had enough to make two! I had made these last week and froze the second one. Pulled it out last night to have with the chicken and pilaf. Quite good ;-)
WHY did I have to clean out the deep freezers? Nothing drastic like losing power! I bought a dog bath tub and it needs to be place where the freezer was. So I had to clean out the refrigerator freezer to put delicate things in from the deep freezer, then clean out the deep freezer so I could move it. Ended up not being too bad a job! Good to have a clean-out now and again ;-)
The dog bath will be a continuing story. I ordered a contraption called a Booster Bath, which comes in several sizes. I thought I had ordered the XL for my extra long and tall dog, but got the merely Large size. I was not sure it was going to work, so I partially assembled it and had Elvis walk into it.... THAT was a project in itself! Maija was popping in and out like a charm, to get all those nice dog cookies, but Elvis is going through a fear-stage and was not so willing. He finally decided it would be okay and was hopping in and out a few minutes later. Anyway, he seems to fit, so now I can finish assembly and hopefully, bathe dogs MUCH more easily than squeezing them into a corner shower!
On the family front.... I was down to my Dad's just before Labor Day. Brother and S-i-L had sold their house and found another BIG house to include their family as well as Dad. They had to be out of their house just after Labor Day, so I went down to help with a garage sale. I have been going through Dad and Mom's house for the past 3 years, so I had weeded out a lot. I still got about 5 car fulls of stuff carried down to my brother's house for the sale, and another car full of things I want to keep for myself, which I brought home. There is still more to do, but since Dad's house is not sold, we have time. Now we think we will move him into my brother's new house in about 3 weeks. Dad will be taking about 4 rooms of furniture - for his space as well as contributing to furnishing rooms that brother and s-i-l had no furniture for, like the dining room and guest room. I am also going to be sure that a lot of cooking utensils go along, for when I go to visit and cook for them! (My s-i-l is a great gal, but she DOES NOT COOK).
I also visited my mom at her nursing home....where she continues to fail. Alzheimer's is a horrible disease!
Which brings us to my mother-in-law. She also has a form of dementia, and at age 92 her overall health is failing. We have had to have care-givers in to help her when she had a bad spell a couple of winters ago, but she recovered fairly well and was able to continue to live on her own with the help of a "daily" and a gentleman friend that spent most of the day with her. Well, her friend's health really went downhill last winter and he passed on this spring. That set m-i-l back both mentally and physically, and we realized that she was NOT able to live by herself anymore. We were able to find a lady to live-in with her and that has worked with varying degrees of success throughout the summer. But this lady does not speak English very well at all, and that makes some of the day-to-day care of m-i-l's home difficult.... for example, she cannot call a repairman to come fix anything, and even has trouble talking to us over the telephone! So my husband and his sister have determined that it is time for their mom to go into a Home, and at her evaluation they determined that she is not eligible for the Assisted Living apartments, but rather must go into the Memory Care Unit. This will happen next month, too. And it isn't going to be pretty. M-i-l insists that she wants to die in her own home and will NOT go to a nursing home. We understand, BUT..... It is just not realistic for us to be responsible for her care and the upkeep of her house when we live 2 hours away. When we moved back to IL and were looking for a house, we asked her repeatedly if she would please come to live with us, and we would buy a home that would be suitable to have her with us. No, no, no. She would not hear of it. Not then and not in the future. So we decided that if she was not willing to live with us, we would buy any house we liked and when she was no longer able to live in her home, she would need nursing care that we could not provide, anyway. So this is what we did. We enabled her to live in her own home as long as possible, but that time is now up.
This is a horrible decision to have to make for someone else, and I know that many people our age are in this same position. I think you just have to be sure that you have tried all the other options up to that point. We have been through this with my own mother (who is 20+years YOUNGER than my mother-in-law) and ran through all reasonable options for her, as well, before we put her in a memory care unit. I hope that when my time comes, I will be somewhat cognizant of the fact that it has to happen. With my mom, she had assured us that she did not want to be a burden to the family and we were to just be sure she was safe and cared for. She is. Her being in a Home is harder on my dad than it is for her.
Dementia sucks. God grant me some other form of death, please!
So what have I been doing? On top of running a house, working with and caring for my dogs, and ignoring my garden, I keep pretty busy. I got into a terrible rut during that long HOT-weather spell of sitting and knitting or reading. Once the weather cooled off in August, the damage was already done. (Imagine that; we don't often see the words "cooled off" and "August" in the same sentence, do we?) Anyway, the damage is that my book stack was fully stocked and my knitting projects well begun with a drive to finish several projects before Christmas. Not to mention that the garden was almost ruined by the heat and then pretty much finished off by the Japanese beetles....
Reading: Nella Last's Peace (aka housewife, 49 who'f first book, Nella Last's War was the inspiration for this blog). I also read a knitting/romance novel that was too heavy on the romance, so I won't recommend it. Then back to my favorite, D.E. Stevenson. The Yahoo group that I am on for DES is discussing a newly found and published novel of hers, which I don't have yet, so I am re-reading some of my favorites of hers; I just finished Miss Dean's Dilemma, and currently I am reading Miss Buncle's Book, which is an omnibus of two novels about Miss Buncle.
Cooking: Too many foods that are NOT on my cholesterol-lowering diet: Since I had to clean out the deep freezers this week, I cooked some pork ribs, and then re-imagined them as pulled pork. We still have a bit to finish. Also made a roasted chicken which I served with a nice rice pilaf. Dessert this week was a peach and blueberry cobbler - I actually had enough to make two! I had made these last week and froze the second one. Pulled it out last night to have with the chicken and pilaf. Quite good ;-)
WHY did I have to clean out the deep freezers? Nothing drastic like losing power! I bought a dog bath tub and it needs to be place where the freezer was. So I had to clean out the refrigerator freezer to put delicate things in from the deep freezer, then clean out the deep freezer so I could move it. Ended up not being too bad a job! Good to have a clean-out now and again ;-)
The dog bath will be a continuing story. I ordered a contraption called a Booster Bath, which comes in several sizes. I thought I had ordered the XL for my extra long and tall dog, but got the merely Large size. I was not sure it was going to work, so I partially assembled it and had Elvis walk into it.... THAT was a project in itself! Maija was popping in and out like a charm, to get all those nice dog cookies, but Elvis is going through a fear-stage and was not so willing. He finally decided it would be okay and was hopping in and out a few minutes later. Anyway, he seems to fit, so now I can finish assembly and hopefully, bathe dogs MUCH more easily than squeezing them into a corner shower!
On the family front.... I was down to my Dad's just before Labor Day. Brother and S-i-L had sold their house and found another BIG house to include their family as well as Dad. They had to be out of their house just after Labor Day, so I went down to help with a garage sale. I have been going through Dad and Mom's house for the past 3 years, so I had weeded out a lot. I still got about 5 car fulls of stuff carried down to my brother's house for the sale, and another car full of things I want to keep for myself, which I brought home. There is still more to do, but since Dad's house is not sold, we have time. Now we think we will move him into my brother's new house in about 3 weeks. Dad will be taking about 4 rooms of furniture - for his space as well as contributing to furnishing rooms that brother and s-i-l had no furniture for, like the dining room and guest room. I am also going to be sure that a lot of cooking utensils go along, for when I go to visit and cook for them! (My s-i-l is a great gal, but she DOES NOT COOK).
I also visited my mom at her nursing home....where she continues to fail. Alzheimer's is a horrible disease!
Which brings us to my mother-in-law. She also has a form of dementia, and at age 92 her overall health is failing. We have had to have care-givers in to help her when she had a bad spell a couple of winters ago, but she recovered fairly well and was able to continue to live on her own with the help of a "daily" and a gentleman friend that spent most of the day with her. Well, her friend's health really went downhill last winter and he passed on this spring. That set m-i-l back both mentally and physically, and we realized that she was NOT able to live by herself anymore. We were able to find a lady to live-in with her and that has worked with varying degrees of success throughout the summer. But this lady does not speak English very well at all, and that makes some of the day-to-day care of m-i-l's home difficult.... for example, she cannot call a repairman to come fix anything, and even has trouble talking to us over the telephone! So my husband and his sister have determined that it is time for their mom to go into a Home, and at her evaluation they determined that she is not eligible for the Assisted Living apartments, but rather must go into the Memory Care Unit. This will happen next month, too. And it isn't going to be pretty. M-i-l insists that she wants to die in her own home and will NOT go to a nursing home. We understand, BUT..... It is just not realistic for us to be responsible for her care and the upkeep of her house when we live 2 hours away. When we moved back to IL and were looking for a house, we asked her repeatedly if she would please come to live with us, and we would buy a home that would be suitable to have her with us. No, no, no. She would not hear of it. Not then and not in the future. So we decided that if she was not willing to live with us, we would buy any house we liked and when she was no longer able to live in her home, she would need nursing care that we could not provide, anyway. So this is what we did. We enabled her to live in her own home as long as possible, but that time is now up.
This is a horrible decision to have to make for someone else, and I know that many people our age are in this same position. I think you just have to be sure that you have tried all the other options up to that point. We have been through this with my own mother (who is 20+years YOUNGER than my mother-in-law) and ran through all reasonable options for her, as well, before we put her in a memory care unit. I hope that when my time comes, I will be somewhat cognizant of the fact that it has to happen. With my mom, she had assured us that she did not want to be a burden to the family and we were to just be sure she was safe and cared for. She is. Her being in a Home is harder on my dad than it is for her.
Dementia sucks. God grant me some other form of death, please!
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