Caregiving is hard so take a break and come tour my personal Sewing Machine Museum!

Fifteen weeks have passed since my last entry.  Seems like it's been longer...an age, an era.  Three weeks after my last post, my mom (hereafter referred to as Nanny) came down with chemotherapy-induced pneumonia and spent three long weeks in the hospital.  She came home changed. 

Now we are caregivers.  We have learned many new and exciting things.  Can you say.....oxygen?  Ensure?  Prednisone?  Depends?  Wheelchair?  Immodium?  Steroid psychosis?  Memory loss?  Confusion?   I used to be the mother of small children that needed my watchful eye upon them at all times; my finely tuned ear trained to hear the merest whimper, the slightest cry.  I am 55 and thought I was done with all that and then.....this.  And I am reinvented.  I alternate between patient and loving, then exasperated and frustrated.  And I am unhappy with me when I cannot be pleasant and detached during the hard moments.  I am newly devoted to prayer, to depending on God even more than usual.  I am insufficient for this job for sure.  The Lord gives me the grace to continue each day.  I am doing better as each day goes by.  But then, so is Nanny.  So am I only handling it better because she is getting better?  I have an all new respect and admiration for caregivers EVERYWHERE!  Bless you, whoever and wherever you are.

My refuge is my Sewing Room.  My Craft Room.  My Museum (don't laugh).  I shall take you on a tour and you will love it, too.  I'm serious.

There.  Don't you feel better now?  I should be slim, trim and beautiful before long.  This haven is UPSTAIRS in my house, so I run the stairs many times a day.  I have MANY machines (no, I don't know how many....)  Some are common, some are not.  Yes, I sew on them.  I make sure that each is complete and works as it was intended.  They are beautiful.

Recently I learned of a musician named Peter Hollens.  You can look him up on YouTube and listen to Shenendoah and then, The Prayer.   At the moment, they are my favorites and I have listened to them about a zillion times.

I made four loaves of bread today.  Dinner is in the oven.  Nanny is watching TV in her room.  Dinner is in the oven.  At this moment, all is well and peaceful.  Thank you Lord, for every good and perfect gift.....and this moment is one.

Until next time,

Matthew 6:34King James Version (KJV)

³⁴ Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.