Mom is 86

 

March Journaling

1.     Church. I taught the younger kids and was so nervous because the lesson was not a simple Bible story but a doctrinal teaching about Jesus as the lamb of God and how that means we don’t do animal sacrifices anymore. But my helper, Anna Karina was so good, and helped them with the memory verse by drawing pictures of the key words.

2.     The O.T. was here but my mom gets her Finn on and is so stubborn and obstinate, refusing to answer questions. When she doesn’t know something like what is this colour? She will ask, Why? Or say, I don’t want to. It gives her control. But it is very frustrating. But one improvement was she was able to print her name, which she didn’t do before.

3.     A visit from the home care coordinator. Then we are seeing my mom’s family doctor at one o’clock, because she also needs to get bloodwork done.

4.     PSW to shower my mom. I got copies of my latest word search, Obscure Vocabulary Word Search. That’s five word searches now.

5.     Going to Hamilton to look after the youngest granddaughter.

6.     I made two yodas.

7.     Making more mushy pops for the kids in Uganda. My mom is having a bad day language-wise.

8.     Helped at Sunday school, the younger kids. The Paralympics are on in Italy. I got copies of my first coloring book, called My ABC Fruit Coloring Book, but there are also activities in it.

9.     OT here to help with speech therapy. My mom is less difficult now.

10. I have a doctor’s appointment for myself today.

11. Staying overnight in Hamilton to help with the grandkids. I brought my coloring book, which my granddaughter loved.

12. Home again. Made two axolotls and a platypus.

13. The grandkids are coming for a night. There was a bad snowstorm and the drive here was treacherous, but they made it, thank God.

14. Looking through pictures with my mom.

15. Church, then booking our hotel rooms pre and post cruise.

16. O.T. for my mom. We are cancelling the speech therapist twice a week and working with her online instead. Too many appointments, and the O.T. does a good job.

17. Cleaning lady. She does such a good job. I like a clean house, but don’t like cleaning, nor do I have the energy for it. Last day our daughter is here for a while.

18. Our youngest daughter is going to the U.S. to visit her husband, dog, and in-laws for 10 days, then she is moving back to Ottawa to work at her old job with the government, until and unless she gets a job in Toronto, in which case, she’d live with us rent free while she is waiting to reunite with her husband permanently.

19. The PSW we have coming is wonderful. We have her for a year.

20. Trying to adjust our flights pre and post cruise. Successful, now we’re on the same flights as our travel buddies.

21. Women’s ministry meeting. Today my mom’s speech was pretty good, she spoke to my aunt on the phone.

22. Church. Went out for ice cream after evening service.

23. Botox. O.T. speech therapy for my mom. I gave her back her phone because now she can answer calls and texts.

24. Shopping for food for our guests this week.

25. So nice to have family visiting my mom. She was very encouraged by their visit.

26. I made salmon wellington for dinner. They appreciated it.

27. It’s my mom’s 86^th birthday. Glad she’s still with us and her speech is improving all the time. This evening we had our first in person meeting of the newly formed Young Adults for Christ, YA4C. There were 20 of us and it was really nice.

28. Our daughter returned from her visit in the US to see her husband, dog, and in-laws.

29. Our daughter left this morning to return to her job in Ottawa, but she’s hoping to get a job in Toronto and live with us to save money while she awaits her green card. Church. This evening was a different format.

30. O.T. for speech therapy. Meeting online to debrief about the Young Adults meeting on Friday.

31. Pain clinic for back injections.