Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2003. Mattie was a year old. I snapped this photo of him! What was Mattie doing? He was crawling over to the bin by the couch, where I kept all of his books! Mattie loved pulling out this bin, pulling out every book, looking at them, stacking them, and having me read them to him. I absolutely LOVE his curious expression!
Quote of the day: You can find something truly important in an ordinary minute. ~ Mitch Albom
I did not get to bed last night until after 1am. I find the only time I can truly focus on anything is when I have safely gotten my dad into bed. Of course, going to bed late doesn't mean I can get up later. I was up at around 6:30am. I did not hear my alarm go off, my brain just naturally jolted me awake. Once my feet hit the floor, Indie somehow heard me moving and started meowing outside my bedroom door. Speaking of Miss Indie..... I don't want to jinx things, but I think I deduced what her issue was! If you recall, I have been facing Indie doing her business outside of her litter box. I approached this problem scientifically. I altered ONE THING at a time, to try to isolate the exact issue. What I can conclude is... she no longer likes the lid on top of the box. The lid has a swinging door, that she walks through and gives her privacy. I think she no longer likes to walk through the door, doesn't like the box covered, and seems to like the freedom of an opened box. So far, I have had a week of success! Indie gets great praise from me. When something goes right, even the small things, it is worth celebrating in my house.
This morning, my dad had a physical therapy session. The therapist can see that I am wiped out. My dad is having another bout of constipation, and this makes for a very taxing day. At one point, I said to the therapist, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW DIFFICULT THIS IS! To which she said, I CAN SEE WHAT YOU DO for both of your parents and you do it 24/7. It would be a lot for a team of people, much less one person. There are many reasons I love this therapist, but when I met her in 2022, I instantly connected with her. There are aspects of her that remind me of what I used to be like when I was her age.
While the therapist was working with me dad, I sat down and created September's budget and cash flow spreadsheet. I do not know where I would be without my spreadsheets. I am juggling so much, that I have to time when bills are paid and track them. I have been using my spreadsheet method for a year now, and what I can say is it keeps me organized, less in a panic, and with each month that I have under my belt, it gets a little easier. Well maybe not easier, but MORE familiar.
This afternoon, I took my parents out to lunch. As tonight's quote points out, you can find out something truly important in an ordinary minute. While dining, music was playing in the background. I could hear that the instrumentation was that of a saxophone. An instrument my dad LOVES, and played as a child. In fact as a teenager, he played on the stage of Carnegie Hall. Though for the most part my dad is quiet whenever we are eating and tunes out the world. I stopped him and asked him if he heard the saxophone. To which he smiled and said that it was an Eflat sax. I had NO IDEA what he was talking about because I had no idea there were six different types of saxophones. My dad played an Eflat sax (or alto sax) and he reflected on the challenges of playing a wind instrument, how he learned to play, and what kind of music he loved to play (big band music, my dad was in a band as a teenager that played at weddings and other events). It was an ordinary afternoon, in an ordinary weekend spot for us, but the conversation was revealing and provided me an important context into my dad's formative years and history. May we always try to find and be open to these important ordinary minutes in our lives.
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