Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2004. Mattie was almost two years old by that point. That day we took him to the Children's Museum in Washington, DC. The Museum was filled with a lot of hands-on activities, which were right up Mattie's alley. Everything from sand to big vehicles like a firetruck which Mattie could climb aboard. It was our first and last trip to that Museum, but it was a day I will never forget.
Quote of the day: A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. ~ Joseph Joubert
Starting on Wednesday, I noticed my mom was getting sick. She was coughing, congested, and seemed exhausted. She also developed laryngitis. When my mom gets sick, my balancing act at home goes up exponentially. I tried getting her to rest, take Tylenol, and cough syrup. But this morning I knew I had to intervene. So I contacted her doctor. Given that my mom has a significant lung condition, the doctor prescribed antibiotics, but he wanted me to test her for COVID and the flu. I knew about over the counter COVID tests, as I have several of them at home, but the flu is another story. The last thing I wanted to do was to take her to urgent care for a flu swab. So I asked the doctor whether there was a rapid test for the flu. He said..... YES and to get it at CVS. CVS has a combined COVID and FLU rapid test. Brilliant! This will make my life so much easier, as my parent's doctor always asks me to swab them.
Any case, my mom did not enjoy the swabbing process, but complied. She is negative for both, yet is still quite ill. I am juggling her care and needs, as well as my dad's. When I went to CVS today to pick up her script, as I was leaving the store, I heard someone say.... hi Vicki! I wasn't sure who it could be, since most of my friends do not live near me. I turned and saw it was Nate. Nate runs his own stone cleaning company and I was introduced to him by my landscaper. Nate will be working with me starting next week and as odd as this sounds, it was very nice that someone stopped for a moment from their busy day to say hello.
Caregiving is a challenging job because there are no minutes or days off. No matter how I feel, I need to push through those feelings because things need to be cleaned, laundry needs to be done, food needs to be bought and prepared and of course Indie needs to be fed and cared for. Let's not talk about caring for the house.
Later today, I went to the basement to start packing up items. Indie, my cat, was in tow. She is paying very close attention to all the work I am doing and I can't tell whether she is fascinated or anxious by all this activity. Nonetheless, you have to wonder, what is she thinking? After all, she wasn't my cat, she wasn't bonded with me throughout my marriage. Yet now she is my full responsibility and the beauty of Indie is she figured out pretty quickly that she had to hitch her wagon to me. As I am the only one giving her food, cleaning her litter box daily, and paying attention and playing with her. Somehow she seems to know that her presence is appreciated as I comb through items from my marriage and pack things away. I would expect this from Sunny (if he were alive), but I am most surprised by Indie!
It will be hard weekend with my mom sick and more packing in store for me. All I can do is take it one task, moment, and box at a time.
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