Where Do I Start

Photos:
Top: Jacob and Andrew hiding in a hollow log!
Left: The boys contemplate a recent beaver chew.

Too much going on
The last three months have been crazy and chaotic.

September was the Erie Canal bike ride.

October had my mother in and out of the hospital for her 3rd, 4th, and 5th intestinal obstruction. The first two (Feb. and June) and the first two in October were resolved without surgery. The 5th one left her surgeon no other options. At age 96 her chances of surviving with or without surgery was 50/50. Surgery was a success and she is now completing her recovery at a skilled nursing facility. But, that has meant a lot of running back and forth for me. Or, in the case of this afternoon, sitting around doing nothing waiting for the transportation service to pick my mother up at her doctor’s office. They dropped her off before 2 p.m. for a 2:30 appointment and didn’t pick her up until 4:25 to go back to the nursing home. I met her there and waited with her. Both of us could have been more productive elsewhere! ☺

Because she is being so well cared for, I was able to fly to Maryland to visit my daughter, Anne, and her family this past weekend. I had a wonderful 5-day visit, which included helping out at Andrew’s school as a volunteer aide. That was fun! Her boys also took me on a couple of hikes.

Now I’m home again and trying to get all the loose ends tied before my mother comes home. There is laundry and cleaning. Then there is putting the finishing touches on my Christmas book, Come Ride With Me, which I publish for my family. This is Vol. III. I have a lot of work to do on this including proofing the stories I’ve written, making revisions, checking the poetry to be sure the ones I want to included are indeed included and listed, and I still have photos to scan in to finish off the story of my hang-gliding adventure out in California in 1991.

Thank goodness my journal and photos from the Erie Canal bike ride are up on the web and I can now let it go and move on to all these other things.

And so it goes. At times I get so frazzled by all I have to do, that I don’t get anything done. That’s when I have to take a deep breath and go into “what’s-the-most-important-thing-I-need-to do-now?” mode. That was all day today. Tomorrow should be easier. Sure.