Summer's Almost Gone

                  Aslan doing what he does best. Posing and being in the way.

Well, the weeks went by fast enough, even if I can't move fast. The weeks just race up behind me and pass me by.  I guess it's a sign of aging. The world spins a little faster. 

Facing some health problems, and with my anxiety level in the clouds, I decided that I needed some time off from my responsibilities at the church. I took the months of July and August off, and will start back at the piano the first Sunday of September. Except for Covid, when there wasn't church, I have not had time off in years. I felt guilty the first Sunday, but the 2nd Sunday was okay. My girls were pleased that I had followed through with this. 

I am not keen on driving at night so I no longer hold choir practice through the week. We go over the special before church begins. It works out okay, since we have sung them before. It's not ideal, but it will have to do until someone is willing to take over, but I don't see anyone waiting in the wings. I had my 80th birthday in July, so as much as I wish I could do better, I can't.

It is absolutely dreadful when your mind thinks you can do things, but when you try, your body yells, "No, No, No!!!!!" I get so disgusted with myself. However, I just keep putting one foot in front of the other, one day at a time, as long as I can. 

The captain is a bit of a worry, as well. He's not moving too well, and I am always nervous about him falling. He doesn't say much about how he's feeling, so I need to guess how he is. 

The bright light in my rather mundane life is seeing my granddaughters and my daughters. Since the granddaughters are living in the city now, and very busy, I don't see them as often as I would like, and my daughters are busy as well. I am proud of them for what each has accomplished and are accomplishing. My eldest has taken courses at university and is doing quite well. She does that with farm duties in between. I'm amazed.

Well, I guess I will close this off. I am glad that I finally written here. I think about writing a lot more often than I actually write. Cheers!

A New Year

So here is the dear little kitty inspecting "his" Christmas tree

Needless to say, there are very few decorations on the lower half of the tree.

Especially shiny ones....

The shiny ones are under the couch, the chair, and in the kitchen.

He is such a sweet little guy......

If he couldn't bat the ornament off, her would grasp the ball with both paws and pull down, pulling the string right out of the ornament. He also managed to break a branch. What can I say? He's a pest.

Christmas is over, and I'm glad that Aslan enjoyed the tree.

He was not impressed when I took it down. 

His help was not appreciated.

Now it's the New Year.

I don't know what is ahead for this year.

The last few years have been weird to say the least.

Back to having a choir for the first time since covid started.

Things have changed in the interim, and I have decided that having an evening

choir practice is not something I can do anymore.

Hopefully, going over a song before church will work. So far so good.

Between the fibromyalgia, arthritis in the spine and hips and the vascular disease,

life for me has become a bit of an effort getting around.

I'm hanging in though.

Going to try to keep a bit of a blog. I didn't do very well last year.

Just some odds and ends. My laptop has suddenly decided not to recognize my phone, so pictures are not going to be easy.

Anyway, here's to the New Year and all that it holds for us.

Take care.

In the midst of weirdness

I exist. I cannot get past myself.

I am but I'm not.

Days merge, weeks slip into months 

Months into years

Yet all is the same.

Life has thrown me a huge curve ball

A strike out, definitely not a walk.

Definitely not a walk.

There will be no homers in this ball game,

No runs around the bases.

The dug out is where I am.

Pain is the story of my days and nights.

It depends on the day,

No consistency

Never know what to expect. 

Arthritis in lower spine, and hips,

Fibromyalgia teasing muscles in legs,

Finally vascular disease affecting legs and feet, 

And God only knows what else.

I went out today to see what I could accomplish

Discovering that I could do very little.

It crushes me.

I can not do what I want to do

And I am defeated.

Still there is nothing to do about it but carry on

One step (even if painful) in front of another.

One day at a time,

I'll soon be 79.

But not in my mind, which makes everything harder.

I think I can do what I can't physically do.....

The world is in such a state now,

It's hard to find anything that can make you smile.

Death, destruction, senseless violence,

Little children dying in a classroom,

Teachers too.....

Indigenous children's graves found 

Beside residential school.

Customers shot to death in a grocery store.

And on and on and on.

Life is cruel to so many.

These are just what I call my state of mind......

This is a felted bench cover, that Aslan has decided to lie on,

Here he is climbing where he shouldn't be climbing

Well, I guess I'll stop here and try to enjoy the sun that is

shining today. I'll try to think of good things.

Take care

Time, where does it go?

      I cannot believe how fast the weeks seem to go. It is especially strange because my days are not filled with lots of activities. In fact, I am lucky to get a few things done in the course of the day. I procrastinate like you wouldn't believe. So, why I ask, is it already mid December, and how did I get here so fast

We had a heavy snowfall two days ago, and today the rains come. Heavy rain. And wind. Snow plus rain equals lots of water, with possible flooding. Not exactly something I'm looking forward to.

A few days have passed, and I have been trying to get ready for Christmas.....at least I managed to get the things I absolutely needed to get.  Christmas is definitely different this year. Dawn and the granddaughters were able to come in for present opening, but they all wore masks. Covid is rampant in NS, worse than ever. The latest variant is sure taking its toll on our province. 

My little Christmas tree is pathetic, so I'll show you my friend's tree. She says most of the decorations on it are from me. I usually gave decorations to my choir.

A visitor to my side lawn back before all the leaves had fallen

Aslan in one of his few quiet moments

My Christmas card this year, and I extend to anyone who still drops by, all good

things for the year to come. May Covid not get any worse than it is now.

Cheers and Best Wishes

from

Bonnie & Aslan 

 

 So, I see that my last post was in April. I have to read it to see what happened. I think that since then, we have both gotten our 2 covid 19 vaccines. I'm happy about that.

The Captain did not get his first shot as planned. He went into the hospital the night before he was to have it and was in for a week. He was not impressed, since the hospital is the last place he would want to be. However, it was necessary. Along with a few other things he had a stone in the bile duct, and had to go to the city to get it removed. He would not have anything else done, and so was discharged. He does have homecare once a week now, to help him shower.

My legs and feet are still giving me problems, but I shall unload on my doctor next week, and see what happens. I don't know if it is Fibromyalgia or not. Guess I'll find out.

We are expecting the remnants of tropical storm Elsa to hit us tonight with heavy rains and wind. Hope it isn't too bad.

The last Sunday in June, we were able to have in person church again, with masks and social distancing, but in person. We had been closed down for about 8 weeks again because of the covid variant. The province is doing fairly well, at this point.

Today, the 2nd of August, leaves me wondering where July went. Is it just that I am getting older that the time passes so fast, or am I passing out for 2 or 3 days during the week. It seems like summer just got here and it is half gone. There was so much I wanted to do outside but didn't get to. My legs will not let me do very much. The Doctor is a bit concerned and I will be seeing a vascular doc to get some tests done, since she thinks part of my problem is circulation. That would not explain the problems I've had over the years. Anyhow, I imagine it will be a while before I get an appointment, as things have backed up due to Covid. 

A few pictures to end off with. My garden is a disaster area this summer, but the flowers still find their place to bloom.

Some fun I had with coloured pens. I could spend hours just testing, trying things out. 

Summer is so hard on a poor little kitty.

Well, time to stop. I've got laundry in the washer and the dryer, and I'm pretty sure they won't move on their own. Guess I'd better get moving. 

So long for now,

Aslan & Bonnie

Oh me, oh my.....

I had a partial post written, but so much time has passed that it was old news. The story of my life. Always  behind. I suppose it is because every day seems the same, except for a trip to the ER in an ambulance over our potholed roads. That was on Palm Sunday evening. I managed to be sick enough that my daughter was concerned and called 911. I was checked out, and sent home after about 4 hours. A little anxiety and a panic attack en route to hospital would leave me hurting, because of my fibromyalgia. So I got over the sick spell, but am still paying the price. It is better, thank heaven.

The upshot of all that is that our daughters decided we should investigate home care. The worry is that should something happen to me we had to have something in place for the Captain. It appears that I am a 24/7 caregiver. We are going to get the life alert, in case one of us has a fall. This would be good if I'm out for groceries, or whatever.  The Captain refuses most of the help suggested by the homecare representative so we didn't get far with that.  We are fortunate to be able to get our first shot of covid vaccine this Friday. 

I am glad that spring has arrived even though some days are quite chilly.  At least the sun shines once in a while. I am anxious to get out and putter in the garden, but my body is not ready yet. I can't seem to walk very far, and when I do attempt housework,  the movement bothers my back which is sore all the time anyway. 

Well, I got my Covid shot on Friday. My arm is a bit sore, and I have a bit of a headache but it is not too bad.

 Things are changing in this household as I write this, so I'll leave this now.

Here's to one day at a time.

Lambs, lambs, and more lambs, hooray!

 Well, I finally got to go to Ironwood Farm, to see Heather and Rupert, and all of those baby lambs. Oh, it's my happy place for sure. It was cold, but it was great to see all the ewes and their little ones. And we had takeout lunch from the Flying Apron, which was so good. (It always is).  I got the Captain's lunch and supper ready for him, so he could get them himself, and off I went with Dawn and Lindsay. A whole day away, to my happy place. YES!!!!! Rae and Colton joined us and we had a great day together.

Several of the lambs need extra nourishment and are bottle fed. There were several sets of triplets and I think some quads. Now I must say that I was so busy looking that I didn't get pictures taken. Duh.

Here we are feeding one group of lambs

This is a special little girl, whose name is Squishy.

Rupert found her squished by probably her mother's foot, and

she was cold and needed attention. She spent some time in the

house, and seems to be none the worse for wear, but she likes

snuggles. I could have snuggled her all day.

I asked Lindsay to take a picture with my phone, and she did,

every 30 seconds. When I looked I had about 12 pictures of me and Squishy.

I won't bore you with the rest of them.

Their little faces are so sweet.

I do believe that this is one picture that I managed to take.

This is the farm, with its snowbanks.

This is the snow at my place

And, I could not post without a picture of Aslan. He 

missed me while I was gone. I think this is the longest I have been 

away, since last February.

Both the Captain and Aslan survived the day.

As a caregiver, the few hours away were a welcome change of pace. Good for the spirit, emotions, mental health, and mind, (which I am slowly losing).