Celebrating Mother’s Day turned me into an absentee daughter.
Mother’s Day was glorious: sunny, warm and delightful. We had a plan that worked for the most part: Mass as usual and everyone over to our house where the guys would cook a big, delicious brunch and the Mom’s would watch all the little kids play in the yard.
The first glitch happened at Mass. Josie had promised to meet us there. We almost postponed until the evening service when we saw that the parking lot was so packed we couldn't find a spot. But we thought Josie was already there so we parked a few blocks away and walked. It was a lovely morning so that wasn’t a hardship. As we went in the doors to the church, I got a text from Josie; she had just gotten up, thinking Mass began an hour later.
She did make it to brunch, however.
As usual, the kids were fabulous! Xena and Babalouie brought me handmade Grandma Cards. Babalouie’s included a full color drawing of a big bowl of rainbow noodle soup. He’s really good at drawing that. Xena’s was a colorful heart, showing off how well her spelling and printing has gotten.
Boopity Boop were full of giggling good cheer. They always enjoy hanging out with their older cousins.
While we sat on the deck enjoying the sunshine, the men whipped up some sausages, hashbrowns and eggs. I sat on the deck, with one twin on my lap while the other ran laps around the table, each of them eating the strawberry slices I gave them. By the time brunch was ready, I looked like I’d butchered a pig on my lap, thanks to Boopity’s not so neat handling of the strawberries.
Thanks to Oxi-clean, my white shorts showed no sign of strawberries by the next morning. After all the kids went home I went to visit Dad. Andy and Katie were sitting with him in the courtyard of the facility, enjoying the glorious weather. Getting out of bed and sitting in the wheelchair is good for Dad; it’s good for his lungs and his core to sit up and getting out of his room is good for his morale. Being outside is good for everyone. We enjoyed a nice long chat out in the sunshine until Dad got tired. Then we brought him back to his room. By the time he was back in bed, Mom had returned from running her errands. After a couple of hours, I went back home, where Jay fixed us a lovely dinner.
Everything was great until about 9:30, when suddenly my throat dried up like a piece of sandpaper. I sneezed several times and remembered snuggling and smooching BoopityBoop despite their runny noses. I had definitely caught their cold.
Totally worth it!
When I woke up in the morning, I felt like my head was a solid chunk of mucas.
Sudafed used to be my go-to cold medicine but you can’t get it over the counter anymore so it’s a bit of a bother. Oh, you can still pick up something called ‘sudafed’ but if you want the good stuff, you’ve got to go to the pharmacist. That’s one more stop on how ever long a list of errands you’re running. Bleh. Last winter, I tried Mucinex and it did the trick. I bought a two pack at Sam’s club that included both daytime and nighttime medicine and I still had a box. The stuff worked so well that I tended to forget I even had a cold until the medicine wore off and I had to re-dose.
But having a cold meant I couldn’t go anywhere near my Dad. Unobstructed breathing is one of the few things he can do these days. He can’t eat, sleep or move and I didn’t want to be the one to add breathing to the list of things he can’t do.
So I haven’t seen him in over a week.
Today was the first day since Mother’s Day that I didn’t gulp down a handful of cold pills the moment I got out of bed. I feel fine!
By all accounts, Dad’s been working hard on his physical therapy and motor functions are getting better and stronger every day. Last week, he was able to stand on his own two feet for several minutes at a time!
Tomorrow, he’s going back to the hospital so they can do some test that will determine whether or not the swelling in his throat is reduced enough so he can resume eating like a grownup and remove the feeding tube. Poor guy hasn’t tasted food in five weeks. He dreams of ice cream and spaghetti.
Ice cream and spaghetti sound mighty good to me.
While I was busy getting over my cold, I also went out to the Arboretum to paint for the first time this spring. The lilacs were in bloom so four of us met in the grove and spent six hours painting. I can’t think of a better way to spend a sunny spring day!
My paintings weren’t failures but I don’t consider them quite successful, either. They look rather pretty but I completely failed to catch the sunlight, which was the whole point.
Friday night, the twins stayed with us while Katie and Adam went out. We had a grand old time; eating dinner, trashing the house and watching The Greatest Showman. Much singing and dancing went on before jammies and bedtime.
Sunday Jay and I were invited out to Ty and Megan’s place for dinner. They wanted us to see their place while the apple trees were still in bloom. They have an apple tree and four crabapple trees on their property. When they bloom, it looks like a bride and all her bridesmaids in their yard!
I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.
Jay and Ty played golf in the afternoon, so I drove down myself, which isn’t a big deal but it would have been nice if Ty had bothered to tell me about the construction.
There are a couple of ways to get to Ty’s place: you can take the highway right to the bottom of their hill or you can turn off a few miles earlier and go through town. The problem right now is that the highway is under construction starting right at the spot where I’d usually turn. If I’d known that, I would have gone through town.
But no one told me.
During construction, I suppose to keep traffic from coming to a complete halt, MnDot has made it currently impossible to either make a left hand turn on or off this particular highway. As the miles ticked away, taking me further and further south of my destination, I was tempted to just do a U-turn between the pylons. Several things factored into my decision not to do that: I had already seen two cars pulled over so I knew the troopers were out in force; I had tried a similar stunt last summer when it was impossible to get in or out of my own neighborhood due to construction and got nabbed by a cop; the signs every quarter mile warning me that such antics in a construction zone carry a $300.00 fine. So on I drove, singing along to Something Rotten at the top of my voice, substituting the lyrics with every swear word I know. I drove on and on and on, looking for an opportunity to turn back. Not knowing my way around the myriad tiny towns along the way, I was stuck on that road for 15 miles before I could turn around.
Fifteen miles!
AND THEN I HAD TO DRIVE FIFTEEN MILES BACK TO GET TO TY’S HOUSE.
So, what’s usually a 30 mile drive took me 60.
By the time I got to the house, I had smoke coming out of my ears.
A few minutes with Xena and Babalouie and the gorgeous view off the back deck and I was my old, calm self again.
This is how I react to construction. I can’t even imagine what a mess I’d be if I couldn’t eat or drink for five weeks.
I’m going to see Dad tomorrow and if he can eat it, I’m bringing him ice cream.