It took my breath away

My grandmother is in the hospital.  She is not critically ill, and I'm grateful.  She has a serious infection and needs IV antibiotics.  She isn't in any pain and she doesn't feel awful.  These are all good things.  At the same time, she is 92, and that is simply reality.

I made a trip to the hospital to see her this afternoon.  I needed to stop by her assisted living facility and pick up her glasses.  I decided to take the back roads to the hospital from there, and in doing so, I drove past the house she and my grandfather lived in for the first 29 years of my life.  Oh goodness, driving down that road literally took my breath away.  I was so blessed to have grown up with both sets of grandparents living within a five-minute drive of my home, so many, many trips were made down that road.  It all just felt so surreal.

I don't think this is the end for Grandma, but I do know that she is weakening.  Reality is that she may not be able to return to assisted living...we really don't know what the future holds.  I told her I loved her as I was leaving and she became emotional.  Oh goodness, it's been quite an afternoon.

Eclipse

Today was the Solar eclipse.  I'll be honest, I didn't particularly care.  I knew we'd be in totality here, but other than the fact that I was thrilled to have a day off work as a calamity day, I didn't really care.  I had done virtually nothing to prepare.  When we knew that my mother-in-law would be here for Easter last weekend, I encouraged Andrew to either take her back after just a few days or to wait until next weekend.  I was pleased that she agreed to stay.  Andrew and I had begun to panic about not having glasses available, but we hadn't done anything to make that happen either.  Fortunately, we seemed to be the only people who didn't plan ahead and we were able to get the glasses from my office.

Catherine was back at her school apartment, but Andrew, Thomas my MIL and I grabbed chairs and our glasses and parked out front.  It was neat seeing it start, although without the glasses you couldn't really see anything.  We were scheduled to be in totality for over two minutes.  As totality grew close, it dimmed, but then all of a sudden it was dark.  We could hear cheering and gasps throughout our neighborhood, and it was so cool!  I was so grateful we got to share it together.  As a neighbor put it, he was completely prepared to be underwhelmed, and that didn't happen at all!  It was dark and we could see stars, and then all of a sudden, the sun came out again!  So glad it was much less cloudy than originally anticipated.  It was a moment I'll never forget...and I'll also never get to experience again!

Easter 2024

Our Easter looks a bit different this year.  To be honest, I just wasn't up to hosting a big meal.  And to be further honest, there was a pretty serious lack of enthusiasm throughout the family.  My mom had said she didn't feel she was up to coming down yet, and we knew my sister wouldn't be particularly interested.  We had decided we would do a bit of a nice meal on Saturday evening, but then Catherine informed us she was having dinner with her best friend and family as the best friend turned 21 this week.  Certainly couldn't argue about that, but we had already told Thomas he could spend today with his girlfriend and her family.  We decided it would be fine, we'd just take the four of us and eat at the state lodge buffet.  We called to make reservations as they were recommended, but things were completely booked.  Perhaps it should indicate reservations are "required".  I went yesterday and purchased things for a very simple meal.  This morning, Andrew took his mother to Mass, then we all joined them at our church.  Andrew lectored for the service, and Thomas's girlfriend joined us as well.  We then rushed home, threw together our meal, and then cleaned up.  It was all done by 2:00, and then nap time was upon us!  Another nice thing is that for the first time in four years, we don't have to work tomorrow.  It's really nice having tomorrow off!  He is risen!

Our wall of memories

I've written before about how I love having photo memories surrounding me.  I've been this way since high school.  I started noticing last fall though, that my wall of memories was in need of some updating.  For one thing, I had put the photo collages together last century (literally), in some cases, and frame styles have changed.  I also realized that because I had put the collages together before even meeting my husband, his family was not as well represented as I would have liked.  I was motivated, though, when my husband's cousin sent us a years' worth of digitized photos as Christmas.  I had purchased a bunch of new collage frames, and finally got my act together a couple of weeks ago to order the prints I wanted.  There are several from my husband's family, a few from when the kids were little, some with friends, on and on.  We finally got everything hung today, and I find myself standing in the hall and just smiling as I scan the photos.  The wall is full of so many wonderful memories.  As I've turned 50, while I certainly hope there are plenty of more years in front of me, I also have to acknowledge that there are more years behind me than there are ahead of me.  My biggest hope is that the people in those photos enjoyed making those memories as much as I did.

A week in March

In 67 days, it will be the last day of my school year.  I'm absolutely not wishing away the next two months, but I am absolutely recognizing how unbelievably fast time is passing.  It just doesn't seem real.

My mom had a heart procedure yesterday.  It went very well, and hopefully she'll have a little more energy.  I'm not completely convinced she is going to have as much energy as she wants, but the good news is that this should lessen some issues she has been having.  Her surgery for kidney cancer will be in just over four weeks.

Thursday evening, west central Ohio was pummeled with severe weather leading to a bunch of tornadoes.  The worst was an EF-3 that hit the Indian Lake area.  I stayed up well into the night watching the coverage.  So much of the down has damage, and a great deal of the town is completely destroyed.  I was emotional as I watched it, because that was where my dad had his cottage.  Our family made so many memories in that town.  the side of the lake my dad was on seems to have been mostly spared, but the towns of lake View and Russell's Point are another story.  Oh goodness, my heart ached as I saw pictures.

To be completely honest, my heart aches a lot these days.  That is our season of life though, and I lean on my faith.  The additional sunshine in life since last week's time change helps with that significantly!

Four years ago the school shut down

Four years ago today was the last day of school for the year.  I guess, technically, it was the last day of in-person school for that year.  I remember just sitting on the couch that evening, because, suddenly, none of us really had anything to do.

I was talking to a co-worker the other day, and while we both agree we'd never want to go through it again, and things were really scary at times, we also have really good memories from the family times we had.  It was a blessing to be able to go through it with my kiddos and my husband.  I have memories of card games and board games, movie nights and family walks.  I'll never be sad we had all that time together.

It's hard to believe it has been four years.  Time sure does move along quickly.

Going through memories

Today was a teacher work day at my school, but our boss gave us the gift of an entire day off.  I'll write another post at some point to explain why.  We were to use at least part of the day for the self-care...and I feel I accomplished that.  I slept in until 10 this morning, which feels crazy!  Every time I woke up though, I would doze back to sleep so I must have really needed it.  Hopefully it doesn't catch up with me tonight and keep me from falling asleep.

It's been a gorgeous day so far, and I was able to accomplish two very important phone calls.  I've also been trying to reduce some of the tubs we have in storage, and this afternoon I spent a couple of hours going through my memories.  I found a tub with lots and lots of old newspaper clippings from my high-school and college years, and shortly thereafter.  I'll be honest, I was a little amused at some of the things I kept, and I'm pleased I was able to get rid of nearly 1/3 of the tub.

The memories were also a little poignant though, as so many of them were soccer memories.  Seeing Scotty's picture and accomplishments just made it ache that he's gone at such a young age.

I'm so grateful to have had today to just be with myself.  It was perfect timing and a lovely day!