Paying my last respects

I am waiting up for 2 of our cats to come in from playing night games, yawn. Little buggers.

I probably could read another chapter of Alma while I'm waiting. This is the same place I got to the last time I attempted reading The Book of Mormon in 100 days. Lent is over, meaning the push to successfully complete the challenge of celebrating Lent is over. It was especially important to me after I failed so dismally last year.

Sam just came in, without a mouse. Now for Marsha.

Don, Mother & I went to the mortuary last night for Gwen Hulse Wheeler Cottle Fish's viewing. The new mortuary is SOOO nice. Today I took Mother to the funeral at our church. We could only stay for part of it because we didn't think to reschedule Mother's hair appt. But Mother was there for the life sketch, which Edna & FayeLynn gave. They stood together & talked in turn. It was really well-done. I wonder if they practiced. They mentioned Mother. Five of her 10 grandchildren gave "Memories of Grandma." Each of her 4 children were represented by one of their grown kids & both of FayeLynn's daughters spoke. It was a stretch for most of them, as her grandchildren are not active in the church. Derick, one of her grandsons, said, "Public speaking is not one of my strong points." He did very well. Public speaking is not a strong point for a lot of people who are active in the church. Most of us do get a chance to practice though.

I took Mother to her hair appt & went back to the funeral in time for the ending of the bishop's remarks, Robert Child sang "That Wonderful Mother of Mine," accompanied by his wife, Karen, who is also our (mine & Mother's) visiting teacher. The benediction was given by a stepson, Scott Fish. I went out to the cemetery. Gwen was buried in Dayton, next to her first husband Fay. After I picked up Mother, we ate at the Subway & then I took her back down to the church for the family luncheon so she could visit with Gwen's sister Venda.

It is so strange to look out the window & see Gwen's house sitting dark. It's strange to drive by during the day & see the drapes pulled. In the funeral today they said Wheelers moved into that house in 1953. I was just small. The house burned in the mid-'50s & Gwen & the kids lived in Glendale while Fay rebuilt their house. For virtually all of my life, Gwen has only lived 3 houses up the street.

Well, Marsha is in, so I'm off to bed.

Easter Sunday

I woke up this morning about 5 in pain. I ached all over, I thought I might throw up, then wondered if it was diarrhea. Nothing that easy, just pain. I came out in the front room & sat in the swivel rocker/recliner. I swiveled it away from the bright light from the network server & sat there dozing fitfully until Don got up, gave me some ibuprofen & I went back to bed.

Nick woke me up about noon to tell me that I wasn't needed in the library. Don had called & said it was "covered." Instead of going back to bed, I got up & put the roast on. I bought a 5 pound pork roast last night. Eddie has gone home, so I don't have to worry about having dinner ready & over by the time he has to be home. I'm using a recipe that is appearing in the Citizen this coming week, Coca-Cola brisket or something like that. They didn't have a brisket at the store last night, not that I would have been able to afford it anyway.

So, my new "project" for the month is to continue striving to make it to bed "on time." But I'm changing my bedtime to midnight. Also, I've been a FlyLady fan for a long time & the monthly habit for April is making your bed every day. That is something I've pretty much mastered. Even if I go back to bed in the middle of the day, even though people die in bed, I get up & remake the bed. I have a selfish reason for that. Our bed is "catland."

As you can see by the picture, our cats share the bed with me in the morning. Here I am working on a daily to-do list & Jae is practically on my lap; Prissy is on my right side, against my knee; Sammy, the yellow cat; Brackin, at the end; and Marsha, the gray cat sitting up.

Lent, Day 19

Can you believe it? It's 8:50 p.m. Facebook & Shockwave both have new layouts. Two favorite sites on one day changed drastically. I don't know if I can handle it.

Only one doctor's visit today too, guess I'll have to go update Mother's Caring Bridge site. Nick went over to Mother's this morning & Don-Mike was still asleep. Nick didn't stay long, but he came home & after I was awake awhile, he came & sat on the bed & visited with me for quite a while. I shared several funny stories about Mother & Daddy & we laughed. I told him about Don-Mike coming in & waking me up this morning.

Me, sound asleep, & Don-Mike, don't know what he did to wake me up, kneeling on the bed looking down at me. I said, "Oh, Eddie, what are you doing?" Don-Mike: "Eddie?" Me: "Oh, Nick? What've you got in your eye?" Don-Mike: "My eye?" Me: "Oh, Don-Mike, umm, never mind." By then I was coherent enough to realize it was Don-Mike & he just had his glasses on. What I had seen was the white nose piece on his glasses & I couldn't figure out what that white thing was on his face. I had been completely & soundly asleep.

I had taken some Western Family cold & flu daytime formula lemon "stuff," that you mix in hot water. It is supposed to compare with TheraFlu. I went to bed, like 11:30 or just a few minutes past. I didn't fall immediately into a sound, dreamless sleep, but once I could breathe through my nose, I did fall asleep. It wasn't dreamless either, when I woke up, staring into Don-Mike's face, my butt was cold & I was all tangled up in my covers with my butt hanging out in the cold. I had Prissy right next to me, practically breathing in my face, & Marsha on my feet. I think it was about 9:30 this morning.

The lemon stuff said not to take it if you have 1) high blood pressure, 2) diabetes, 3) thyroid disease, 4) heart disease, 5) low sodium diet & umm, one more that applies to men only, trouble peeing because of prostate. Well, I only had 2 of the 5 things, high blood pressure & diabetes, so I decided to take it. I remember thinking that Mother couldn't take it because she has 4 of the 5 things, she doesn't have diabetes.

I'm going to take it again tonight, unless Don takes it. There is only one packet left. I didn't use any more Zicam because it said you could only take it 3 days in a row. The lemon stuff worked better anyway. It helped with the fever.

Today when I went over to pick up Mother to take her to Logan, I asked her what she had for lunch today in her home-delivered meal. She said, "Salty soup." I said you're not supposed to have salt. She said she didn't eat it. I asked what it had in it besides salt. She said she thought it was supposed to be chicken noodle soup. When I got home, I looked at it & I think it was supposed to be chicken chow mein. The noodles were soggy chow mein noodles. There was some dry ones in a plastic baggie.

She said she was going to mix in the soup that Don had taken over to her last night. I was looking at the soup & started laughing. I said that you're supposed to put a potato in your soup if you've made it too salty. That's what she had last night was potato soup.

Lent, Day 2

Ok, last night I turned the computer off at 11:30. The idea is to be in bed by 11:30, not start getting ready for bed at 11:30. I turned off the light & crawled into bed at 11:50. I had to take my meds, get my pajamas on.

I had to FIND the bed before I could crawl into it. Remember my Lent project is 2-pronged. I will declutter, give up junk, AND get to bed earlier, give up late nights. In this first part of my project, cleaning & decluttering the end of the bed is supposed to help me get to bed easier.

Yesterday morning I pulled out a box & put it on the bed. I didn't do much with it, & then needed to get it off the bed so we could go to bed. As I put the box back, I took the clothes that I had found beneath it & put them in the dirty clothes. They were clean when they were tossed there, but who knows how long they've been there & whether cats have laid on them or spiders have crawled in them. They were on the floor, therefore they are dirty.

This morning, I pulled the same box back on the bed, only this time I emptied it. I'm almost afraid to tell you how long I think it's been there. The box has fancy embroidered towels from Don's mother's house. She died in August of 2007.

This is the fanciest, but they all have some sort of crocheting on them. It has crocheting on the bottom of the towel & that is a wash cloth tucked in the basket. It also has some of her plastic canvas things from her front room, still with pens & stuff in one of them that hasn't been looked at or cleaned out.

FlyLady says you can't organize clutter, but I think you can at least give it a home. I have a lot of homeless stuff. Some of that stuff needs to find a home in the landfill, but not all of it. And you need to know what you have before you can find a home for it.

So, I got off the computer at 11 tonight, but when I went in to clean off the end of the bed again, this is what I found. Sammy had found the empty box & was giving himself a bath.

Two of the girls, Jae & Marsha, were on the bed. Jae still sleeping & Marsha had sat up to see what was going on.

So, it is now 11:20, but I'll finish this entry & try again. This morning, I didn't wake up until 9:30 & finally crawled out of bed at 10. I have to work tomorrow, so I hope I'm up before then. I have to be to work by 9.