Weekly Goals, Week 9: Winding Down

My mom's time here is winding down.  Assuming she is able to drive (we're going to practice first) she'll go home on Sunday.  She's definitely pretty independent now, and is walking without the cane as well as doing most things for herself.

If I thought I would have more time to myself as she became more independent, I was wrong.  Now, instead of taking care of her as much as I was, I'm driving her to appointments and entertaining her.  It's partly that she has more things to schedule now, and partly that she doesn't want to sit around doing nothing all day.  So we've been pretty busy lately, and have a fairly busy week ahead of us.

Her birthday is also Wednesday, so we'll probably celebrate a little then, and we have plans for afternoon tea on Saturday.

Part of me is really sad at the thought of my mom going back home.  She feels like she belongs here with us, and I like doing things with her, including her in our outings and our schedules and our meal plans.

On the other hand, it's difficult to get anything done unless it's something I can involve her in.  So we've gone through some family things and I plan to enlist her help in prepping for the doll show this week, but we're a little limited on what she can help with.  She's independent but not quite fully functional yet.

So in some ways, I'm also looking forward to her going home.  I have a lot to do before the doll show, and I will likely need to work on it almost every day after she leaves.

This week's goals will look much like last week's goals, but I'm hoping to have more time for it this week.

1. Work on organizing
2. Prep for doll show
3. Survive

Honestly, it's a relief that this chapter is almost over.  Starting next week, though, I'll have to ramp up my preparations for the doll show.

Weekly Goals, Weeks 7 and 8: Hanging in There

Last week was so busy, between my mom's physical therapy and doctor's appointments and just general care, that I never had a chance to blog.  In fact, I'm not altogether sure what I did do all week.  I did manage to get a ride in, but looking back, the week is a blur.

It was, at least, a little better than the previous week, when my mom still needed a lot more help and my dad had a surgery as well.  That was my "just survive" week #2.

I did find a little time last week to work on organization, which was good.  I went through my absurd collection of records (I was buying a lot of old records at one point to find authentic 20s music as research and inspiration for my 20s novel series, Ruby Ransome) and picked out about half to donate.  This gets all of the remaining records into the record cabinet, which frees up additional space in the living room.

Unfortunately, the doll show is looming, and I need to get started prepping for that.  I have five weeks as of right now.  It means I need to get back to work on organizing as soon as possible, so that I can move on to sorting out what needs to be rehabbed, organizing everything, and pricing.

We have another busy week ahead of us, so I'm being conservative here, but these are my goals for the week:

1. Work on organizing
2. Start prepping for doll show
3. Survive

Okay, there's still a fair amount of "just surviving" this week.  We have a whole bunch of appointments for my mom, so I'm not going to have a lot of time around that.  But even if I can do a little bit of organization and prepping this week, it's that much that I have out of the way and won't have to worry about in March once my mom goes back home!

Weekly Goals, Week 6: I Will Survive

I said last week that my goal for the week was just to survive it, and the theme continues this week as well.  It might be the theme for next week too.

My mom's surgery last week went well, but recovery is going to take some time.  It's about what I was expecting, but much harder I think than she was expecting.  She had her first physical therapy appointment at her apartment last week though, and they are transferring her up to the Denver area office, since it's quickly become clear that she is NOT going home as soon as she thought.  Physical therapy is three times a week, this week and next.  I expect her to be staying with me until at least the end of next week, if not longer, since she can't drive until at least the beginning of March.

Today my dad has a procedure of his own, so I'm waiting at the hospital for him now, with plans to spend the night at his place tonight since it's a cardiac procedure and he's going under anesthesia.  That leaves my husband to take care of my mom, although I do plan to stop home for a bit this afternoon or evening to help my mom get a shower.

Frustratingly, if physical therapy is going to be at our house, I need to finish some cleanup and organization, but I won't be home to do as much as I'd really like to do.  The next appointment isn't scheduled yet but I'm assuming it'll be tomorrow, which doesn't give me much time.  I still need to clear a path for the walker upstairs to the bathroom, as I'm assuming the therapist will want to work on getting in and out of the shower.  The walker is wider than I thought it would be, so we've had to adjust the width of some of the pathways throughout the house; being an older house, my house has narrower hallways and doorways.

With all this on my plate, my goal for the week is, once again:

1. Survive

I just have to focus on getting through the next couple weeks, and then things should be much easier for a while.