Saturday, March 22, 2025

Saturday, March 22, 2025

Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2004. Mattie was almost two years old. That evening we were sitting on the couch together, surrounded by books. Mattie loved to look at books, and enjoyed listening to me read them. Mattie was fascinated by the illustrations and he always took the whole experience in! He had the best smile!

Quote of the day: It's your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life's story will develop. ~ Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Given that my mom has been sick all week, I have been very home bound. She was still struggling today. She is absolutely exhausted, congested, and has a bad cough. I was hoping the antibiotics would help, but she could have a virus, and that will have to play out its course. 

After getting my parents situated and comfortable in the family room, I went to the backyard to start doing some weeding in my flower pots. I picked up sticks and got some fresh air, which is always appreciated. 

When I came inside, I prepped a chicken meatloaf. I love adding sauteed vegetables to the meat, as it makes it lighter and my parents can get lots of vegetables this way. This meatloaf had onions, basil, broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, and carrots in it. 

I chopped up sweet potatoes and baked them with cinnamon and nutmeg, and made string beans.  

My mailman surprised me with a big box today! In it was many gifts for all three of us from my dear friend in St. Louis. My dad kept asking.... why are we getting gifts? I told him it was the best kind of gift... an unexpected one, to show us that WE ARE NOT ALONE.

My dad opened up his gifts! My dad is ALL about the chocolate chip cookie! He literally eats two or three a day! 

My mom was thrilled with the chocolate. It is amazing how an act of kindness combined with chocolate can turn one's day around. 

These were my gifts. The sunflower blanket means so much to me, as the sunflower is so symbolic of my journey during Mattie's cancer diagnosis. Team Mattie used to give me fresh sunflowers whenever we were home from the hospital. The sunflower has come to symbolize love, compassion, and community to me! My St. Louis friend has been an incredible support for decades, but now that I am facing the world alone, her insights, love, and support, almost on a daily basis, are indescribable. 

Chocolate, tea, a fragrant candle, and a blanket..... it was like receiving a box filled with love and comfort! 

The comfort of this box, carried me through another round of packing today in the basement. I now have things staged to be moved out of the house in three areas. I knew that packing and organizing would be key, because when movers come in, they want to hit the ground running.... they do not want to wait around to determine what needs to be moved. So though this was labor intensive on my part, not to mention emotionally laden, I once again rose to the occasion in order to do the responsible thing.