Many Little Blessings: October 2009 Recap

I've been working on trying to get caught up on some of my computer related things that I have ignored over the course of the past week, so it's about time to put up my recap of October 2009.  (Don't feel bad -- I ignored our laundry during this past week too.  Eric was very kind to do all of our laundry this weekend, including all of the bedding.  He's extra nice, because he really doesn't like to do laundry.)

Thanks so much to everyone who referred people to Many Little Blessings during the past month.  Here's the top 10 referrers for October:

1. We are THAT Family

2. The Homeschool Classroom

3. Life as Mom

4. Conversion Diary

5. Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

6. Facebook

7. A Wise Woman Builds Her Home

8. Catholic Mothers Online

9. The Finer Things in Life

10. Simple Mom

Thanks so much to everyone!

And This is Why My Grandma is Cringing in Heaven

As you can probably imagine, this week has been a hodge podge of craziness, weeping, stress, surprise at all of the support we've had, and also moments of sheer delight in the aftermath of my Grandma's sudden and unexpected death on Sunday.  

Yes, I said that -- sheer delight.  This story is one of those.  But, I think if you can't find some moments of sheer delight in the aftermath of someone close to you passing, then you need to find people to be around that were close to them too, and you need to share stories.  Share lots of them.  Moments of laughter and joy are sure to be mixed in with the sorrow.

So, back to what happened the other day at my Grandma's apartment.

I don't know if I have mentioned this, but although my Grandma was 90 years old and basically home bound, she still lived by herself.  Because she lived in government subsidized housing, we have only two weeks (plus one day) from the date she died to clean out her apartment.  So, although we have put a hold on doing it anymore until after her funeral, we have already spent hours going through things, sorting, and such.

When we worked for a few hours on Tuesday, I took the kids with me.  They dutifully sat on the couch and watched some television.  Finally, not being able to stop themselves, they climbed onto my Grandma's motorized scooter.  This was, of course, forbidden before.  Well, that's not entirely true.  They used to sit on it, but then Grandma worried too much, and they weren't allowed near it.  Finally able to again sit in this forbidden fruit, they moved the joystick around, pretending to drive it around.


But, then a wonderful and unexpected thing happened.  It was the kind of thing that reminds me why God gave kids grandparents.  My Mom told my Dad that he should take the kids out into the long hallway and let them each drive the scooter themselves.

And, that is why, on Tuesday afternoon, a ten year old, an eight year old, and a five year old got to each take turns driving a motorized scooter throughout the retirement home.  Sure, they got some looks, but there weren't too many people around.

They loved it.  And I loved it.

I stood at my Grandma's doorway and looked down the long hallway that we had walked down so many times before.  I watched as the kids had so much fun, and I laughed.  I laughed so much that I couldn't help but put my hand in front of my mouth.  And then, I had to choke back tears.  But, in the next moment, I was laughing again.  And then back to tears.  It was a crazy melding of emotions, but I loved it anyway.

After it was all done, I told my parents that I figured Grandma was probably cringing in Heaven, watching those kids riding her scooter down the halls.  She probably was turning to my Grandpa, her husband of 57 years prior to his passing 15 years ago, "Howard -- do you see what he's letting those kids do?"

Sure -- she may have been in Heaven cringing, but I really hope that she was just like me.  I hope she was staring down that hallway -- laughing and crying and then laughing some more.

Home Baked Christmas Gifts

I haven't really been posting this week due to how crazy things have been since the very quick and unexpected death of my Grandma on Sunday.  (By the way, thanks so much for all of the kind comments.  It really means so much to have had such support through a variety of venues.)

But, I guess I couldn't let the chance pass by when Works for Me Wednesday's theme this month is holiday tips. 

One thing that I really love to do for Christmas is to make baskets and platters of home baked goodies to give to family and friends.  (You can check out our platters from last year, as well as a list of what was on each platter.)  For people like closer family, I put together baskets that contain a larger quantity of goodies, and then the platters tend to go to people like Eric's employees, the boys' therapists, religious education instructors, and so on.

The easiest way that I make something like this happen (since we give out somewhere around 20 - 25 baskets/platters total) is to do some baking ahead of time and freeze any cookies possible.  Then, closer to the time to actually deliver goodies, I make things that can't be frozen ahead of time.  If you are making just a few types of cookies/treats, it may not be as difficult to make them all close to delivery time.  However, I like to give a good variety of items, so it just becomes a necessity to do some of it ahead of time.

I know this is probably not an earth shattering revelation as a Christmas giving idea, but it is definitely one that works for me!  I think this gift is especially appreciated as more and more people lead such busy lives and have stopped making goodies (or anything) from scratch.  

Do you give any homemade goodies for Christmas?  What kinds of things do you like to give?


 





This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday, Finer Things Friday, and Frugal Friday.

My Day Took The Kind of Turn That You Just Never See Coming

Isn't it funny how sometimes we have our days planned and we think we know just exactly what to expect.  And then, in a moment, that same day takes a 180 degree turn and you end up somewhere you never guessed you would be that day?

I had a day like that today.

My family and I were driving to an All Saints Day party about 25 minutes away.  When we were about 10 minutes from our house, I got a call on my cell phone from my Mom.  In the next moment, I was breathing quickly, crying, and telling Eric, "Don't turn!  Drive straight!"

Instead of us all heading to the party, I needed him to take me to my Grandma's apartment, in order to meet my Mom there.  She had told me that she was driving there because my Dad had gone to visit Grandma (his mother) and he thought that she had passed away -- right while he was there.  One minute he was talking to her, then he was changing her clocks and she started to cough a bit.  Then, just a minute or so later, he asked her a question and she didn't answer.  He couldn't get her to respond, and called 911.

I got there to paramedics, police, and my Dad.  In what I didn't know would happen, the paramedics wouldn't tell us anything.  But, when they finally wheeled past us to take her to the ambulance, both my Dad and I caught a glimpse of a small monitor that was held on the gurney -- it showed a straight line and a zero.  We were told that we needed to meet them at the hospital.  We couldn't help but watch as they rushed her out, working on CPR the whole time.

The drive to the hospital was surreal.  We talked in terms of "if."  "If she has passed away, we need to (call whomever, do whatever)..."  I kept thinking that we would show up at the hospital and she would be fine.  Not fine, of course, but with us.  I don't know why.  I just thought that if I talked like she had passed, then we would look back and think how silly we had all been to over react.

We (my Mom, Dad, and I) made it to the emergency room and they seemed to indicate that she wasn't there yet.  And, then it seemed like just moments later, the employee at the front desk told us that they were there with her, but that we needed to wait in the waiting room.  But, just a couple of minutes after that, he told us that they wanted us to wait in a small, quiet room inside the ER to wait for the doctor.

At each step of this, I thought, "She's gone."  But, in each step, I also thought, "They're going to tell us that she's still alive."

Finally, a doctor and a nurse came into our small room.  Their faces and voices were soft but somber.  The doctor asked what had happened that morning.  My parents recounted having talked to her on the phone, and how she had been chatty with my Mom about a movie they had both watched.  They then talked about when my Dad was with her.

Then, the doctor had her turn to talk.  She told us briefly about what the paramedics had done for her.  And, while this story sure sounds like the ending is pretty easy to figure out, I thought she was going to say, "We got her back, but she's not doing well."  I don't know why -- I just thought that was exactly, word per word, what she was going to say. 

But, of course, it wasn't.  It was that the paramedics had never been able to get her back.  They had done everything right, but she was gone.  And, we would probably not know exactly why it had happened, but based on what Dad had said (and some previous heart attacks), it was probably a massive heart attack that had taken her in just a moment.  She probably didn't even have a chance to be in pain.

They were both the words I expected to hear, and not at all what I expected to hear.  And, even though we were able to see her and say goodbye, I have to admit that this still seems like a weird mix of reality and a hazy dream that you wake up from and say, "Was that real?  It seemed real, but that was too weird to be real, so it must be a dream." 

I keep telling myself that it shouldn't be so hard to believe, as she was 90 years old, but it still isn't quite within my grasp.  So this week, I will not only be helping to clean out her apartment and assisting with anything that my parents need, but I'll also be working on really believing that what happened today really did happen.

7 Quick Takes: October 30, 2009 (Vol. 20)

~ 1 ~

I have been working on trying to find time to exercise every day lately.  It's funny though, I feel like I am wasting time when I am doing it.  It's like time exercising is akin to time spent reading Facebook to me.  I seriously need to adjust that thinking.  If I could manage to exercise as often as I was on Facebook, I would be a size 2 now.

~ 2 ~

Speaking of that exercising, I have noticed an interesting thing about Wii Fit Plus
(which I really, really like by the way, and think it's a great addition to your existing Wii Fit).  You see, when I used to do it once every couple of weeks, they would say things like, "It's nice to see you again, Angie."

Not anymore.

Now, I skipped one day, and they said to me today, "Too busy to exercise yesterday, Angie?"  Well, yes, yes, I was.  Thank you animated Balance Board for your concern.

~ 3 ~

I'm super excited to share that I have purchased my ticket for Blissdom 2010, and even have my hotel room reserved!  I kept thinking that it was a long way away, but then realized that it's actually only three months away.  Wow!  I think I need to start saving my pennies, using the Wii Fit a little more (or a lot more), and get some business cards printed up!

Anyone else going?

~ 4 ~

This week, I was delighted to do something for the first time.  I actually spoke on the phone (at length) to one of my blogging friends.  Of course, I have spoken to friends who blog on the phone before, but never anyone that I only knew because of blogging.

I had a delightful conversation with you, Brenda. Can't wait to talk (and email) more!

~ 5 ~

Do you know what else I enjoy?


 Cottage cheese.

In fact, I just had some as a late night snack.  (Don't tell the Wii Fit Plus Balance Board though, okay?  They keep talking to me about my late night snacking.)  Here's the funny thing though -- I have got to use a fork when I eat it.   The idea of using a spoon to eat cottage cheese literally gives me a chill up my spine that I can't explain.

Very odd.

~ 6 ~

I would love to post a little bit about my beloved local homeschooling group.  We had a meeting about restructuring our group this week.  I was excited about the idea, but it appeared that there were two distinct view points on what our group should look like, and a lot of people left still charged with emotions.


I expected the meeting to go like that, but I guess it really surprised some people.  And then, after having to talk to many people on the phone about it the next day (the other former co-coordinator and I got an awful lot of phone calls), I wondered if things could be healed.

And, then the funny thing is -- just 48 hours after such a meeting that left a lot of people feeling miserable the next day, it already seems like there is a lot of healing, and I'm so encouraged by it.  I just pray that everyone will continue with this new spirit of trying out some new ideas.

Do you know what my favorite thing about it all might be though?

I got to meet someone that goes to my very own parish that I had never met before, and I think she is just delightful.  I am so excited to have gotten to know her just a tiny bit, and I can't wait to get to know her better.  Life is funny like that, isn't it?

~ 7 ~

Speaking of life being funny (and apparently the staying power of Post It notes), those Post It Notes I mentioned last week that I let the kids stick all over the walls -- a couple have fallen, but otherwise, they are all still there.  I have considered taking them down, but then I look at them and smile.  So, I leave them there.

This post is linked to 7 Quick Takes Friday and Weekly Wrap Up.



photos by: carbonated (cottage cheese) / google images (post it notes)  /  JaviC (Wii Fit)