A Little of This, A Little of That - Oct. 7th

This week has been killer. Let's just say that I have a really hard time with older teens. Still working on figuring out how to have boundaries without being controlling. And my mom's apartment was supposed to be packed out into a storage unit by now, but between my sister's and my own responsibilities and illnesses, we haven't gotten it done yet.

Yes, my mom went into a residential / long-term nursing home. It was more difficult for her than she let on, trying to put on a happy face but not quite succeeding to pull the wool over our eyes.

She and a friend from her apartment building both found themself at the same nursing home needing a roomate, so they decided to share a room (Medicaid will only allow shared rooms in long-term nursing homes. A lot to look forward to when we get old, eh?). They were together for a little over a week; her friend took a turn for the worse on Saturday and was dying of kidney failure and congestive heart while my mom was at dialysis. She died later that evening.

My mom called me on Saturday night when I was on my way home from the fabric store (I'll show you the cute prints I bought for a quilt I'm going to make for my grandbaby later on in this post.) Steve & I stopped by and tried to console her and get her situated back in her own room. It seems that since her roomie was dying, they put my mom in a different room after dialysis. --A hard situation since dialysis drains all of her energy and she was made to just sit in the room for hours. Usually she comes back and wants to immediately go to bed. Poor dear.--

So we got her back to her room and ready for bed after taking her nighttime meds and insulin. She made a comment that she felt like "a man without a country." So the next day I went to her apartment and boxed up her favorite belongings and took them to her in the nursing home. She isn't allowed many pictures and no furniture can be brought in. The one thing she really wanted - her computer - cannot be brought in because there is no room. I think I'm going to petition the nursing home that if patients can't bring their own pc's from home that the home provides a shared one for the patients' use. I hate for my mom to feel isolated. Anyway, after her room was decorated with her things she said that it felt much better and much more homey. Her spirits have seemed to brighten a bit, too.

My goal was to have her things out of hre apartment by Saturday the 10th. It isn't looking too likely, though I might ask for help to get it done more quickly. I hate asking for help, but I don't want to continue paying for an apartment that isn't and won't be in use anymore.

On the home front, Steve has picked up another webinar class to teach. Besides his class on Tuesday evening he'll be teaching on Friday now. The money is much needed, but I feel badly at how much he works to support us. My being a stay at home mom is important to both of us, but I'm starting to think that it might almost be time that I start helping out more than I do. I'll just be so happy when our debt is knocked out. If we were just paying for the here and now, his full-time job would easily support us and spoil us. I keep having to remind myself that slow and steady wins the race. We are trying hard to follow Dave Ramsey's theories for money and getting out of debt. It is very practical, but it is slow; though it is simple, it is not easy.

Oh! The material I bought for the baby is adorable! I'll make it into 4 patch blocks. And Josh and Karen better be having a girl like I think they are! If not, I'll have to buy more material and try again! I started cutting out the squares last night while watching HOUSE (we record our shows and watch them at our convenience) with the kids and Steve. Take a look at these colors and prints!:



I'm looking forward to putting it all together and seeing it finished, but I'm looking forward even more to seeing the baby snuggled in it!

And here is a doll quilt top that I made last week with the scraps from the log cabin quilt:



I love making little quilt tops. They just seem so much more do-able! I bought the material to finish it up, and I'll show you pics when I'm done. :-)

Good luck with all of *your* projects this week, too!