A Little Bit of This and That

I haven't given a good report on Mom or Kaye in quite a while. Both are doing fairly well.
Last Sunday I was there when Kaye woke and she yelled to me. I went in and she was sitting on the side of the bed and asked for her walker. For a moment there I nearly panicked, because Pete wasn't there to assure me that was okay. Kaye was insistent, so I gave in and handed over the goods and held my breath. Up she went, and with the walker trotted herself out to her chair. I expressed my delight and kept a tight grip on my dismay. Next, she got up and with walker went to the bathroom, took cared of everything herself and back to the chair. Wow, wow!

Why the dismay you might ask. Well, feeling independent enough to sashay around on her own is what got us here. Just shy of one year now she thought she didn't need Pete to get out of the bathroom and that fall sent a whole crew of us on the scariest ride of our lives. It is absolutely terrifying to know someone can go through what she has and I never want to experience such a wild ride again. It does so much for her spirit, as you can imagine, to have even this little independence. For that I am grateful. It wears her out. In two hours she was back in bed and still asleep when it was time for me to go. Her vocabulary continues to increase. I can understand her fairly well when she is rested. It's harder when she's tired. They think she's gone as far as she will, so physical therapy has been discontinued. She has to get that new place put in her arm and the old port out of her chest.

Mom continues to have ups and downs. The last three conversations I've had with her, she hasn't coughed once. That is also miraculous to me because the last bout was so awful and lasted so long (five months) I feared she'd never get her lungs clear again. Now her stomach is, well, not working, so she is sick too much. G-Lou and the docs are ever working to get all of her working.

Speaking of working, I have more work to do around here than ten people could do. I slept in a bit this morning as cramming seventeen conferences into a full work week wore me out. I was more than ready for spring break. Buttercup came for a visit and she and I played between throwing loads of clothes in the washer and dryer. She wanted to swing, swing, swing, so I pushed, pushed, pushed for an hour. She likes me sing "How Much is that Doggie in the Window" and to growl at her-funny girl.
Then Handy Man and I went to the library and to the candy making store and K-Mart. We came home with a swing set that he is assembling as I write.

Cluckingham was quite smelly, so I shovelled out another wheelbarrow of coop flooring and dumped it on the new garden on the hill. I cleaned and bleached all the food and water containers and set them out to dry in the lovely sunshine.
Still no sign of any lettuce, peas or chard peeking up out of the little garden spot. I'm anxious to see it growing.
It supposed to rain tomorrow and I hope it does. It is very difficult for me to be inside when it is lovely outside. I need to be inside all the live long day. I'm messy and actually I like messy. I'm comfortable surrounded by all by books and doodahs and Gramerlings. However the messiness has now exceeded even my level of comfort, which means it's scarier then you even want to know.
So, tomorrow it begins- Spring Cleaning, and I HATE IT! But I will be brave and press on!