Friday, January 15, 2021t

We have been in my Mom's house since Saturday afternoon.  

It took a while for her to get used to us being here, but she is beginning to enjoy the company.  Her loneliness was very hard on her.

When friends or family call, she tells them that I am looking either for reservations at a hotel, or looking to buy a house.  She can't understand why we are here especially in the Winter.  I have that thought often my self.

Before we arrived she wasn't getting out of bed all day, or until very late in the day.  On the days she would get up,  she would go to bed by 7pm.  All that has changed in 5 days.  We have to encourage her to go to bed so we can, and she's downstairs, dressed and ready for breakfast around 8:30. We spend lots of time looking at photos and talking about family.  She is still very confused and her memory is mostly gone.  In 1998 I gave her one of those books to fill out and give back to your daughter.  As I was packing and cleaning our house in Orlando, I came across the book.  The memories she wrote in the book go back to when she was a child, how she met my dad and his two sons.  She has been mesmerized by the book.  Every so often she will read it out loud to me.  And she laughs and giggles as she is reading some of the information she put it there from her childhood and adolescence.  I had a feeling it would be a good stimulus for her. Of course because of her dementia, every time she reads it, it's all new again.

We are only about 20% settled in.  My mother is a person that believes you shouldn't throw anything away because you never know when someone will need it.  She has a wonderfully large pantry that I have been going through.  She has enough coffee mugs that we could open a Starbucks on Bunker Hill and be able to give every customer their very own mug !!!  I see a really large Yard Sale on the horizon.

She loves our dog Chelsea and Chelsea has really taken to her.  Chelsea spends every day in mom's sitting room, some times on her feet! 

Peter has started his relocated job at the Windham Home Depot. Only two days in so far but so far so good. He says the hardest part is getting used to a new store. The layout is completely different than his old store. The store is about a half hour drive from our new home.

We have been really lucky with the weather. We have had no rain or snow since we arrived. The night time temp gets down to about 30 but the day time temps are around 40+.

One little piece of info on being with my mother all day is her singing.  She sings almost non stop all day long as she sits and rocks in her rocking chair.  Unfortunately the rocker squeaks, so all day I hear dodo dodo do, eek eek, dodododo dodo, eek eek !!!  I guess it could be worse 😏 ! 

We really believe that we are here just at the right time. We work at giving her a better environment to live in. We spend a lot of time cleaning and organizing a household that has little work done to it for several years. It is indeed a labor of love.

A  little piece of advise, if you live in Florida in a typical Florida house, you DO NOT have stairs.  However, many houses in New England are two story structures.  Do you have any idea how much your calf muscles ache when you go up and down the stairs 10 to 15 times a day ?????

I'll be back next week ..........................................