Category Archives: Mom

Always look on the bright side…

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…of life-Monty Python.

I’m having one of those days when the dark side is overpowering the lighter side of our lives.

First I called my mom and the discussion went sour when I mentioned again that she should get rid of half the stuff in her house so she doesn’t have to worry and do things she likes such as draw and watch movies. She doesn’t care to be told this, says she cleans when she can, which is practically never. She doesn’t seem to have trouble shopping though. (I know who I take after, but I don’t shop as much as her, believe me). Said no one helps her and I only talk about myself when I call her. She started crying and hung up on me.

The heater man came before noon and within 5 minutes called me to the basement and said he couldn’t clean the heater as it was shot! It’s like 19 years old and a piece had broken off. We are looking at a big bill for that. I was reeling from that and called my mom back and she said she couldn’t catch her breath right. I think she had herself so worked up and with all the exercise she got last night she did that to herself. She’s ok, I’m going there in a few hours. So the poor man from the heating company thinks I’m completely loony because I heard his voice which sounded like a friend of my son’s who seems to call at all the most inappropriate moments. After my ‘please don’t call this number…blah, blah’ he said he was calling about the heater! Man. The good thing-the warm weather is setting in soon (please). The bad thing-I had to sign a paper that said ‘run at your own risk’. I’m crossing fingers and toes that my van is ok when Ken inspects it tomorrow.

In the meantime…always look on the bright side of life..da…da..dadadadada. : )

Monty Python sings…

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (from Monty Python)
words and Eric Idle

Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you’re chewing on life’s gristle
Don’t grumble, give a whistle
And this’ll help things turn out for the best…

And…always look on the bright side of life…
Always look on the light side of life…

If life seems jolly rotten
There’s something you’ve forgotten
And that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you’re feeling in the dumps
Don’t be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle – that’s the thing.

And…always look on the bright side of life…
Always look on the light side of life…

etc.

Mom stuff

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Did you feel the earth move today? I hopped in the van about 11:30 and went down to my mom’s to do a few things for her. Things that I feel bad that she couldn’t do for herself. One was putting the handle on her new vacuum cleaner. It took me a few minutes (remember I don’t read directions), but I got it. She got one of those bagless ones which is not good for someone like me with allergies. I donned a dust mask and went to town-after spraying all over with Lysol and Febreze. I had to empty it about 6 times as it had been a while since the place was vacuumed. She also wanted me to hang up a new phone, but a connector piece was missing. Both the wall plate and the phone only had spaces for those little snap in pieces. I put a slipcover on a chair and then had to leave. I had brought her half of a lobster salad sandwich. I had gotten baby lobster tails for Christmastime and never cooked them until yesterday. It was good! I think she enjoyed it. I also brought her a 8 oz can of coke which seemed to brighten her up a bit-sugar overload. I got to talk to my Uncle Don too which made me feel better. He sounds okay, a little tired but more like I expect him to sound. And mom really liked my Art Trading cards, especially the one I made for her. She said she can see why I like doing them. She showed me all the little watercolors she’s been doing from her watercolor a day calendar. I can see her getting better each day. I was glad to see her being creative.

I dropped by my brother’s on the way home with Roald Dahl books for Tori and a few other things I found in the room I am trying to turn into a craft area. I told them mom didn’t look good and her appetite was terrible. My nephew Kenny who is almost 11 is as tall as me now! Tori was cute and gave me several hugs.

When I got home, we went to church, picked up disgustingly big burgers (am feeling that!) and settled in for the night.

I talked to mom and she said she had cleaned off her end tables in the living room after her shower. I sure hope she gets her strength up so she can go to the Philly Flower Show sometime this week. That’s a lot of walking! Brian’s dad isn’t well either. So much to worry about.

No photo for ‘salty’ as call I could think of was pretzels and my jar of sea salt. Sorry!

In a quandary

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I really need to see my mom one of these days. She has been sick for over 3 weeks and I haven’t been down to her house to do anything (the weather hasn’t helped). Thinking about going makes me a bit tease. My sinuses and throat are really bothering me this week. The problem is mom hasn’t really done any cleaning for that length of time. I did gather up some dust masks because I really want to go! I guess I’ll resort to taking allergy medicine which I hate to do. This always happens to me at this time of year from the forced air heat and not getting out in the fresh air.

Sean and I were out yesterday on a whim. I had stuff to drop off at the Goodwill and I wanted to go to Michael’s crafts while Sean was in Old Navy. As soon as I hit Michael’s I got the ‘drip’ ‘drip’ and then the flow in my throat. Not fun. It was like a hurry up and look around and that’s not what I wanted to do at all. I should always have water on me. So I got some neat paper, stickers (that look like old postage stamps and some with wording on them); some varnish and ModPodge and glitter. Actually when I left the store and we went to Trade Joe’s, TJ Maxx and then The Olive Garden, I felt better. Probably they were using glue or something that bothered me in Michael’s.

So I’m up in the air. I miss mom so much and she’s sounded so sad. She never asks my brother to help and he’s within walking distance of her house. I feel this is so unfair. My other two brothers never call and she hasn’t heard from the one in Florida since November. He’s mad at me, why take it out on mom?

So I hope this ‘cottonball’ effect lets up. I really feel like my sinuses are stuffed with cottonballs. That was a good choice for my Photo Hunt picture this past Saturday-like I had a premonition!

I hope you all are feeling chipper.

~Update~Mom doesn’t want me to come down as her 750 mg a day antibiotic is making her feel terrible and she wants to rest. If she’d eat more, that may help. I told her to drink an entire bottle of water when she takes it at dinnertime. I was looking at last year’s late February entries and the same thing was going on- I hadn’t seen my mom for a few weeks and my sinuses were bothering me. I just used the miracle spray-BioAllers Homeopathic nasal spray and it helped a lot.

That warm fuzzy feeling

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After Heroes was over last night, a new show came on called the Black Donnelly’s. I tried to watch it for about 20 minutes and couldn’t get into it, so I switched over to find the Oprah Winfrey special about the all girl school she opened in South Africa. I was totally mesmerized by those sweet girls and how happy they were to be able to go to the wonderful facility that Oprah built after 5 yrs in the planning. The last photo that was shown, was Oprah in the middle and surrounded by a sea of smiles (every single girl!) teared me up big time. Oprah said that ‘all the girls are like her daughters’. This touched one girl whose mother left her when she was 4. I can see many lives changing now.

Oprah and the girls

This special will be rebroadcast on Saturday, March 3rd so check your local listings.

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I’m doing a little ‘me’ pampering tonight-I couldn’t get a hair appt until 6 tonight and I called a week ago! Cruella DeVille and I could be sisters! I guess my stylist is getting too popular. I plan to shop at a local office supply place for some art card supplies (I’ve made 32 ATC now) and then go to Subway to pickup dinner so I don’t have to cook and run out the door.

My mom is still unwell. She said she was wheezing a lot last night. She has a doctor’s appt at 3. Wish her well as this is about her 3rd week of this illness.

I went and started a new cross stitch project when I have two looming deadlines. Not to worry, the house round robin is nearing completion as I need to finish the garden area in front of the house. The bee and flower for Love Quilts is fine-the poor bee needs it’s wings! I’ll put an updated photo above soon. What I started was a heart shaped design filled with butterflies. My mom gave me the two packages of DMC linen floss for Christmas and they both came with free designs. The fabric I am using is from Sugar Maple-a blend of pinks, greens and a little yellow and blue. It’s a cashel and very nice to work on.

It’s in the 40s today, so down right tropical. Go away snow and ice! Bri almost fell in the driveway this morning as it must have done something during the night.

A winter scene

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Yeah! I actually did a little something for myself. : ) It took a few months, but I sewed it into an ornament today.

Just finished ornament

Other than that, the temp is up to near 50 and the snow is melting a little. Sean just went for an free oil change (I had a card) and hopefully he’ll stop by the mall to get his snap on sunglasses fixed and to bring home a shrimp topped white pizza which I am craving. And it’s Ash Wednesday too.
I’m one of ‘those people’ who throw ‘stuff’ (mostly in clear plastic boxes)in their bedrooms when she is cleaning for the holidays and company. I did put some under the bed, but they all won’t fit, so I have to bite the bullet and decide what stays and what goes.
My mom sounds awful! She has a loose cough and was at the doctor’s yesterday. She has a sinus infection and bronchitis! I so need to go clean her place, and hopefully will do that in the next few days.

For mom

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 Series-Family Snapshots-#1

This is for my mom. It’s a photo of her when she was about 2-3 years old. She is actually petting a dog which I had to cut off (this is a scan). She still loves dogs and misses her late pets. I like the verse-‘In your eyes I  see everyone that I have ever loved’ by Flavia. I made a few more tonight and will share with you in days to come.

Art card

Oh my mama

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To me you are so wonderful and confusing. My mom is a really lovely woman, but the way she is living right now is very upsetting to me. She loses things like crazy. Early last year it was her cellphone. She swore she left it in my car. Jim, her boarder found it this week under the sofa in the living room. He looked there because my mom misplaced a big bundle of money-and I mean a big bundle! It was my uncle’s stash moola that he told her to get out of his house when he was in the hospital during the summer. Well mom would borrow from it, put money back and now can’t find it. She had a miserable cold to begin with and now she is making herself mentally frustrated. She is definitely bi-polar either really up or really down. I asked if she wanted me to come clean and she said no as she was up until 4 am looking for it. I think she put it somewhere else and forget where she put it. Her vacuum has been broken for almost a month and so that means her house needs attention that way. I have to get her a new one. I can’t live her life, I do what I can to help, when I can, but it’s hard to clean her kitchen for 3 hours and go back a few weeks later and see it in bad shape again. She’ll be 77 in September, so I don’t know if she is able to stay in her big house too much longer. She can’t part with her ‘stuff’ and there is a lot of it.

On to more calming things-my pals over at tribe are artsy folks. We are going to do a few more projects together. The next one will be an Art card trade. These little cards are 2.5″ x 3.5″. They’re rather small, but you have to think in a ‘big’ way I guess. I was reading up on them. I have to make 3 and then I will get three back that are total surprises. I won’t say much about what I’m thinking of doing in case anyone on tribe reads my blog, but I have some neat old books I’ll probably be utilizing for this project. We still have to make a St. Paddy’s day poem (original) to hang up. We all get our turns to chose what to do. My choice was for Valentine’s Day. I found 4-5″ foam letters for the letter of each gals first name (one was wooden as I forgot her the day I was buying them & found the wooden one at Target) and decorated them with ribbon and 3D items. Each recipient got a handmade Valentine that the original poem was glued to. We have one male in the group and he got a decorated card. My verse for him said that may his true love be standing before him on this day without him knowing until this very day. Like meeting your true love on Valentine’s Day. What could be more romantic?

It’s still windy and bitter cold. I am running down to Big Lots for a few things that I need and forgot to get at the store. I’m hoping they still have the string or better yet hemp!

Flying the coop

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Sean was online picking out dorms for the fall semester at Penn State. He’ll be a junior and will be at University Park campus in the middle of PA about 3-4 hours from here. Gulp-a college ‘junior’ already! I can’t fathom it. He had to sign up for Chemistry this semester as he would be below the 60 credits he needs to transfer. He has to get up at the crack of dawn, but home by 1 pm. He’ll have to take a couple of classes this summer. I had a feeling taking a few semesters of only 4 classes would catch up with him. His stomach has been a little funny tonight. Guess he has a lot to think about.

I went down to my mom’s today. I tried to fix the belt on her fairly new vacuum, but it broke again. The brush part is broken-one of the ends of it was missing. I went to a vacuum store around the corner from her and they wanted $25 for a brush. I told them I could get a new one, an entire vacuum for $30-35 at Walmart-so there! We dropped off stuff at the Goodwill and went inside to look around. Mom is not allowed to buy clothes (in my presence anyway, but she better cut it out). I found a few little things for Easter and eBay. When we were leaving, I noticed a lady had bought something I dropped off, a pinball machine of Sean’s. It’s not everyday you see who acquires your discarded items. I have a little surprise for one of my online pals and will mail it to her soon. It’s a Goodwill find and I know she’ll like it. I’m not telling.We went to the nearby mall and had a nice pasta dinner and shopped in Macy’s as I had some credit on a gift card. Mom went and bought a top behind my back when I was undies shopping (no short task)-she’s bad!

Now what?

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One of those weeks that are not very pleasant for my family. Between me and my teeth, my uncle fracturing his right hip and now my mom getting an ‘abnormal’ electrocardiogram as a pretest for her cataract surgery. The doctor wants to compare this cardio to a previous one and possibly she’ll have to have another one. She was a little scared, but she’s under a lot of stress because of my uncle and of course thinking about her surgery. She took heart meds for over 20 years for an extra heartbeat. She doesn’t complain about chest pain or palpations. Please wish her well.