Family Room Living

For a week we've lived mainly in the family room.   I took a panoramic photo to display our living space.

There are two couches, a two person rocking chair, a chair and a half, one La-z-boy, and a couple of kitchen chairs to sit on.  The boxes hold our new cabinets.  Then there's the fridge, stove and shelves of food and kitchen equipment. Oh, and 11 people and 1 dog.

The awesome thing about this is, no one seems to mind.  Instead of everyone going off to their bedrooms where they could have peace and quiet (though no food), they have all chosen to spend their down time together in one cramped room.  We have had all kinds of together time.

Not only family does not mind, the kids have had friends over.  We all just move over and make room for another body. Soon (relatively) the kitchen will be put back together and the furniture all replaced where it belongs. 

 But, I think we've made some fun memories in this room.  In fact, within 5 minutes of the television being removed from the room two of the boys sat down and played a duet on the piano.  That alone makes me want to keep the t.v. gone.

We've read, played games, watched movies on the computer and prayed together. 

So, we're managing.  It's not easy, but when we pull together we're a pretty strong team. 

Making Progress

We have a new kitchen floor.  Hurray.  The new hardwood floor was installed Tuesday. Wednesday through Saturday were spent sanding, staining and applying polyurethane. Thankfully, we did not do any of the work ourselves. Stan Gransky, the hardwood floor expert, did all the work with help from one gentleman.  I could not recommend them more highly.

This is a view from the family room, through the kitchen and dining room.  The living room looks just as nice.  Joey decided to test the 'slidability'.  He took a running start and almost crashed into the wall. 

Tomorrow we will gently return the furniture where it belongs.  I will kind of  (a very big 'kind of') miss the coziness of family room living.   Keep watching for further updates.  Eventually you'll see the whole new kitchen. 

May in Pictures

Wow, May is flying by and has it been busy.

Here's what's been going on:

While our tenacious one made her First Communion last year, her classmates made theirs this year, and so we celebrated with them.  She was thrilled to wear her dress again and have this special time with her friends. 

My travel buddy spent a week in Jackson with her 6th grade class at the CYO Storer Camp.  She had a great time and learned that her teachers are different people away from school.

Oldest daughter, Liz, graduated with her Master's Degree in Psychology from U of M Dearborn.

Second oldest daughter, Caitlyn, graduated from Madonna University with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. 

And her fiance, Jimmy, graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Business from U of M Dearborn.

My dear one and I celebrated our 30th Anniversary with a trip to Canada and Ohio.  

Why Ohio? you may ask.  Because that was the location of the second fund raiser for Jimmy. It was a great trip and it was fun to see all of the donated items and watch them be auctioned off.  The first fund raiser was at the Big Boy in Flat Rock.  Both were great successes and we are so grateful for everyone's generosity.  

Son, Michael went to prom with his friend, Olivia.  He also passed his driving test and got his driver's license. 

My dear dad had surgery to his great relief.  He is recovering nicely at home and wears his old smile, which makes his blue eyes shine, again. He is pictured with his sister, Pat. 

The last week will bring a dinner out with Caitlyn's future in-laws, a baptism,  finals and the end of the school year.   We are looking forward to summer.  June promises to be busy as well, with graduation parties, and a wedding. 

Roots and Wings

As our children have grown, the advice I have clung to with both hands is, "give them roots and wings."  I feel like the roots part was easy.  Sometimes the wings part is a little harder.

Our sixth child, now 16 years old and a junior in high school got his driver's license yesterday.

Today he drove his siblings to school.

While I have waited all year for this little bit of freedom, for both of us, it was really hard to let them all walk out the door this morning knowing that I wasn't going to be the one taking them.

It's happened before.  Our other children got their licenses and started buying their own vehicles.  They took themselves to high school and then to college and work.  There have been speeding tickets and accidents but they always make it home at night.

Somehow, this time it's different.  I don't know if it's because I'm older or if it's because he is so very confident!

He is an excellent driver.  He knows his way around and he's been in situations, already, that I have never encountered i.e.  an ambulance, with siren blaring, right on his bumper when traffic was so thick he could not move over to get out of the way.  He's avoided collisions when other drivers were being less than cautious and he enters the freeway like a pro.

But, I'm his mom and I worry.

I have given him roots, and now I move onto giving him wings.

Fly carefully number 2 son and know that I love you.

Toothbrush Tales

I don't know about anyone else, but we have issues with toothbrushes at our house.

I was standing in our tiny 1/2 bath the other day and marveling at the fact that there were 6 toothbrushes on top of the toothbrush holder. (Since they changed the handle shapes on the toothbrushes they no longer fit into the holder.)

Ok, so 6 toothbrushes downstairs. I was curious to know how many were upstairs since I know that several of the kids keep theirs in their bedroom to avoid it being used by someone else.  I know, gross. 

On my last Target run, I bought 12 new toothbrushes, four each of three different brands because it is impossible to get 11 different colors so they are easy to tell apart.  

Then, I went collecting.  In three bathrooms I came up with 20 toothbrushes!  I get that there are quite a few of us here, but only 11!

These do not include said toothbrushes that are kept in bedrooms, mine or my dear one's because I know which ones they are or our tenacious one's because she has a battery powered "twirly" toothbrush that I know no one else uses.  

This is far from the first time I have done this.  I've just never counted before to see how many I threw away.  

I will never solve this riddle.  I just felt like sharing! 

Breakfast with Adele

I was blessed to be able to spend the weekend in Los Angeles with our second to youngest daughter.  We stayed with my brother Dave, his wife, Gisa and my three year old niece, Adele.

The flight was spectacular since there were no clouds.  A great treat for our first time flyer.  She took lots of photos of the snow covered Rockies.

She enjoyed the benefits of free cartoons and beverage and snack service.

 But the best part was being with family.

Technology is amazing when you have family across the country.  Most of the time when we see Adele we are using FaceTime and she is having breakfast.

This time I got to share breakfast with her in person.

Awesome. 

We had great fun in L.A.  The weather was beautiful, the grass was green, the sky blue, the temperature a perfect 70 degrees.   

On the list of things to do was to see the Hollywood sign and the Walk of Fame.  We spent Friday with Gisa and Adele.

Saturday we wanted to go to the zoo but by the time we got close the zoo parking lot was full and the line to get off the freeway to the zoo was quite long so we decided on a much less stressful adventure. We went horseback riding instead. That was interesting since they put me on the BIGGEST horse they had!  We're all a bit saddle sore. Totally worth it!

Sunday brought us home again.  Thank you Dave, Gisa and Adele!  We had a great time.  Our tenacious one is hoping her turn to fly some place fun will be next. 

Losing Dad

Thankfully my dad is still with us physically. Mentally is another matter.

I watched my brother and sister-in-law take care of her mom and dad when they had dementia and Alzheimer's.

I watched my mom and dad take care of his mom and dad when they went through it.

Now, I am actively watching and helping my siblings help our mom take care of our dad.

As I contemplated writing this months ago, I had considered titling the post, "I choose to laugh."  I still think the sentiment has merit but now it is more in the losing stage than the laughing stage.

At first, little things he did that made us think his memory was going were cute and funny.

At this point, his agitation and confusion are more worrisome.

I'm blessed that for a couple of weeks before Easter he and I got to go for nice long walks together around the neighborhood.  This gave us together time and it gave my mom some alone time.  Beneficial for all of us.  Lately, he doesn't recognize the neighborhood or the even the house on some days, so he won't walk with me anymore.  But, he has his golf stroke counter and so we sit in the living room looking out the big front window and count cars together.  He has two counters so anyone who is visiting can be in on the fun. :-)

My siblings and I have banded together and we're putting plans in place. We are well aware that any plan may change at any time but we're willing to be flexible to be there to support our parents who have been there for us always.

One thing about having the best parents in the world is that it makes it a joy to help!

I may post some of the funnier moments at some point or maybe I'll just keep giving updates on how we're doing.  At any rate,  you can add this dimension of our lives to your prayers as well.

PS- The chemo treatments are going well with no severe side effects as yet.  Thanks for prayers and support!  (see "When Cancer Hits Home" for details.)