Make me one of those, I have numerous vests I wear and it would look good with the chain hanging just so, and that Seniors Only timepiece. Gold or silver, doesn't matter. I've even got a hat that will go and with my cane, will I be some kind of dude? Steppin' out, mama.
Dear Diary, I ordered a new Wii game for us for Christmas. The game has Backgammon, Checkers, etc. on it and I know we will enjoy playing those games. That's if my Honey will be able to see the games well enough to play them. For Thanksgiving we brought our Horse shoes game to our daughter's home and gave it to them since they don't have one and my Honey's vision is not clear enough anymore to play Horse shoes anymore. So many changes happening because of his vision loss, so many adjustments to make too. Together we can do this though and we will.
Dear Diary, It's Christmas time again and I know that ever since my Mom passed away my Christmas spirit has often seemed to have passed away too. I don't want it to be this way this year as I have been blessed with the gift of having all my daughters and their families living here in the same City with us once again. This is a very special Christmas indeed and I'm going to celebrate it this year with thanksgiving and joy! There is no greater gift than Family to me...and no greater time to celebrate the gift of Family than at Christmas time when God offered us the gift of becoming His Family by sending His Son as a gift to us. Renew the spirit of Christmas within my heart Father...not just during Christmas time but all the time.
Dear Diary, Today we lost another member of the Seniors Forum through death. It's so hard when this happens to those we have drawn close to by our sharing our lives on here with each other. There is an intimacy here that is not on many other Forums and while that is a good thing to me...it is a hard thing too when someone I feel I have come to know and care about here passes away, instead of just moving on to another forum. Today it is @Ina I. Wonder who has died. I am sorry that with all the train trips I made to Houston, I could not get over anxieties and met her in person. And yet I feel I knew her heart and I will be ever thankful that she shared that with us. In the midst of my tears for Ina today, are also smiles as I imagine her joyful reunion with her husband and sons. Ina has been blessed with a wonderful early Christmas gift this year...and Lord we thank You for the gift Ina was in our lives. It's good to imagine Ike and Gary welcoming Ina to Heaven too. I can just hear the new stories Ike will be sharing with Ina now too. I know she and her loved ones will enjoy every one of those stories.
Dear Diary, Yesterday when my husband and I went to Albertson's to pick up a few things we met a lady in front of us at the Checkout register who was 89 years old and I was amazed when she told us her age. She was so full of life and clear minded, etc. that I felt I was the "old person" and she was the "youngster". She is still driving herself around, living independently, and seeming to have no problems with any of it. She told us she drove herself to a little town past Austin, Texas for a Family Reunion when she was 84 years old and I marveled at that because I can't even imagine living to 84, much less driving myself long distances at that age. This perky 89 year old woman made our day...and gave us hope that just maybe we could perk up some too.
Dear Diary, I've got some good news and some not so good news to share today so I guess I will get the not so good news out of the way first. My sister that has a rare for of cancer called GIST had her six month CAT scan a few days ago and this time the scan showed her GIST tumors have increased in size by 30%. Now her Doctor wants her back on the full dose of her chemo pill which her body has a hard time tolerating. So I'm praying for those tumors to be zapped back into nothingness like they were last time...and that she will be able to take the full dose of her chemo pill with no problems. She has been under tremendous stress with her husband's health failing to the point he can hardly do anything for himself anymore...and also his children's Mom died a few months ago and my sister has had to be there for them since her husband doesn't have the strength to be. I believe it's the stress she's under that has lowered her immune system and given those tumors and environment in her body that are perfect for them growing again. So my prayers are also that the stress will be lifted from her body and her immune system will grow strong and make an unfavorable environment for the GIST tumors again. The other sad news is my Nephew is back on meth again and has sores once again all over his body, can't keep a job, and is causing all kinds of stress in his Mom's marriage. This is another sister of mine and I have spoken of my Nephew's addiction to meth in another post. For awhile it really looked like he was on the right path again...but something always seems to happen and he falls right back into that meth pit. I'm continuing to pray that he will be truly be set free from his addiction which has caused him to lose everything good in his life and is destroying him. It will be fatal one day...so I pray that a miracle will happen here. As much as I wish I could change things for my sisters and Nephew because I love them and it hurts to see them suffering so...I know I can't control these things but I do believe God hears the prayers all their loved ones are praying for them all at this time. Now some good news...I will be seeing all my sisters for Christmas or right around the New Year's and one of my brothers for sure....this is a "present" I am looking forward too since I didn't have much time with any of them this year. I hope the New Year will bring us together more often and I hope I get to go to the beach more often too.
Dear Diary, Burrr...it's cold outside and raining right now too. I hope it won't be raining when I have to go pick up my Honey from his job. We have a few errands to run today and I do not like driving in rainy weather. I had to call our Landlord again this morning. Earlier this week he came to replace some ductwork to our cooling and heating vents. The ductwork was rotting out and a big ball of insulation was blocking the air flow in our livingroom vent which made the livingroom so much colder than the rest of our home even when the heater was on. Now that the ductwork is change the heat is spreading more evenly through every room. Today the call to our Landlord was because our bathroom "throne" is not flushing right, due to the tank not filling up right. So he's making a trip to the Hardware store right now to get what he needs to fix this problem and hopefully when he gets back it won't take long to make the throne good as new again. I ordered Papa John's Pizza for us today...and will cook our catfish fillets tomorrow since I don't know how long our Landlord will be working to fix things. So thankful we don't have to pay for any of these repairs and that our Landlord is so good about coming out right away to take care of problems.
Dear Diary, What a mess yesterday. Our Landlord came and "fixed' our problem with our toilet, the valve that lets the water in to fill the tank needed to be changed out. After he left I go in the bathroom a short while later and there is water all over the floor and that water is coming from a leak in the new valve. So my husband shut off all the water, called our Landlord back, and we cleaned up the water mess in the bathroom. It was after 3pm when our Landlord came back and he resealed the new valve and told us we would have to let the sealant dry over night...meaning the water had to stay off all that time. By the time our Landlord left it was 6pm and I was more than ready to settle down for the evening. We filled some five gallon buckets with water and put them in our tub so we could manually flush our toilet. Bottled water served us fine to brush our teeth, etc. and since we had both taken showers that morning we were good to go until this morning when we can turn the water back on and hopefully there will be no leakage from the new valve. We are going to go deposit my husband's check and mail off Yvonne's Christmas coffee before we do that though...since we had to put these things on hold yesterday and I'm anxious to go do this as early as possible today so we won't be stuck long in the weekend traffic. The one thing that is nice to know is that our next door neighbor and good friend who is wintering in Florida and whose cottage we take care of for him while he is away....told us to go ahead and stay in his place and make ourselves at home there if we need to. If the valve is still leaking once we turn the water back on...we definitely will be going next door to his place to shower, etc. ...as our Landlord is now out of town for the weekend and will not be back until Monday.
Dear Diary, So far so good...no leaks in the bathroom and it's been almost two hours since we turned the water back on. You never realize how important a bathroom is...until it's out of order. Our Weatherman is saying we might have snow for Christmas...that would be a first for sure.
Dear Diary, One thing that is really bothering me lately is that I often can't think what to cook anymore. Is this part of aging too? I don't feel hungry for anything in particular most days so maybe that is part of the problem too? If there was just me to feed I would go to the store and pick up a bunch of frozen dinners along with a mixed fruit tray, a bag of salad ingredients and the stuff for my yogurt smoothies. This won't work for my husband though...and he doen't seem to know what he wants to eat anymore than I do. I have plenty of cookbooks, etc....but nothing really gets my digestive juices flowing most of the time. I wonder if others are noticing differences like this too as they age?
I still have a great appetite but do get bored and can't think of what to eat. Well, I can but I don't want to be doing any major cooking so that's my issue.
Dear Diary, Sometimes I have found after the hustle and bustle of Christmas...there is a "letdown" feeling when it all is over with and all is back to normal again. I find that the days after Christmas and before the New Year is a good time to go through the paper work, etc. of 2017 and shred what I will no longer need as well as putting tax info all together in one folder. Filling in the Birthdays, etc. and Appointments on the 2018 Calendar helps me smooth the transition from the Holiday excitement to everyday life again too. Our everyday life has changed alot in 2017 but we are adjusting to those changes one day at a time and whatever 2018 brings our way we will face one day at a time too. This is part of life...and things will change whether we want them to or not. Our attitude towards those changes is what makes all the difference in how those changes will affect us. It seems harder the older we get to keep a positive attitude about changes...but if anything it's more important than ever to find the blessings in every change.
My wife is forgetting how to cook and her vision is very bad. This holiday is the first time she has not baked anything. I have encouraged her to buy frozen dinners she likes or might like. She has started doing this I eat one occasionally but eat mostly sandwiches and soup. Daughter in law sent home with us pork roast and fried chicken, and some pasta. Finding something to eat is getting to be a problem. I can eat most anything that doesn't eat me first but she has no teeth. We have been eating a lot of eggs.
I'm not forgetting how to cook...just having problems figuring out what to cook as when I think of things to cook nothing really appeals to me many times. Then I ask my Honey what he would like to have me cook and he can't think of anything in particular he's hungry for either...so I'm doing my best to just take some meat out the freezer and usually bake it with a starch and a veggie or two. My Honey has top dentures so there are many things he has problems eating too...but those things are mostly not on the list of things I cook anymore. Many things can be cooked down until they are so tender or mushy anyone can eat them. If I'm not watching my vegetables closely...they often end up mushy like that. Today it's really cold and we have just about finished off all the Christmas food that we brought home so I am making a pot of chicken vegetable soup and some corn bread. I try to cook more than one thing at a time so I won't have to cook as often. We just don't eat like we used to but I do want to make sure that even though we eat less....we still eat healthy stuff most of the time. While I can still use the stove just fine, etc. my husband can no longer see the numbers or words on the stove or microwave so if he's going to do something there...I am his eyes for setting the temps and timer for him.