You might expect this post to full of gorgeous little ideas and recipes to inspire your Christmas preparations but that just wouldn't be me, would it!
The truth is that my life has gone a little haywire. My lounge makeover has stalled halfway and I'm having to just heave a sigh, draw a deep breath and move along.
Unfortunately my Mum (Joyce) became very ill at the end of October, a massive chest infection which nearly killed her. So everything stopped obviously. She pulled through thankfully but it has been a prolonged hospital stay and as so often happens with Alzheimers sufferers she lost a little bit more of the everyday skills she had had up till then. She is healthy but her mobility has suffered dreadfully. I am just grateful that she is here with me today and still knows me and other family members.
I don't often mention my Mum or her illness in my blog but this has impacted more on me this time because she will now have to live with me permanently. This in itself is no big deal as we have been splitting our time between her home and mine for the last couple of years as she has needed me 24/7. So while she has been busy getting back to good health I've been trying to pack up nearly 80 years of living into a few boxes that will assimilate into our shared home. This hasn't left a lot of time or energy for decorating! But I'll bet you would feel as I do, that the house can just sit there and wait for a day when the person I love doesn't need me quite so completely 100%.
My Mum has been given a discharge date a few days before Christmas. Once she had passed the danger point it was ok to start planning a celebration so we do have presents for each other and for family and we will have dinner with all the trimmings!
My next trick is to make myself available to the Occupational Therapists and other lovely folks who will make my home a safe place for Mum to live. Including a hospital bed, riser recliner chair and various other massively unattractive large pieces of hospital type equipment that I will be over the moon to have if it makes her life just a fraction easier and more comfortable
It will all be ok, repeat as necessary. In my case hourly at the moment :)
I have occupied myself with a couple of crafty projects, small ones that have distracted me from the trauma and helped me to stay sane! So I will post some of those little bits in the next day or two so come back and have a look . The Tick List has shrunk considerably but there's no telling when or if I'll get the last bits done and I need to find a turkey fairly soon,
Altogether a fairly poor Pre Christmas Blog Post so far.
lots of love,
Samantha
x
