Happy 80th Birthday!

The last time I posted here my mother had had a serious stroke and was admitted to hospital. 

 I'm happy to say she was discharged to her home last Saturday.  We spent a few extra days visiting and making sure she was settling in okay,drinking adequate fluids and eating.

She is currently on a pureed diet and on gel like water flavoured with honey and lemon.
She likes the flavoured water much better than the plain old thickened water they had at the hospital.

On August 31st we were able to celebrate her 80th birthday. It was a real joy to see her be able to mark the occasion and in her own residence.

We usually have a dinner and cake and a few family members gather with her to celebrate.  We planned to do the same this year but had to forego that idea for now because mom cannot eat a normal meal. In fact, we were not even sure she would make it to her birthday.  We are pleased with her progress and have promised we will have a proper dinner and cake when she is stronger and able to eat regular food. For now we had the very small cake with candles so we could sing "Happy Birthday" and take photos.

When I arrived at the care home I was so surprised to find mom dressed, sitting in her wheelchair and driving herself.  She had also had her hair done by the in house hair dresser.  Last Sunday evening when I left her she was lying in bed and we didn't know if she would be able to drive or feed herself. She is now doing all of the above.

Mom is not yet able to speak clearly on a regular basis.  She does put several words together into short sentences and can often do so in two different languages. She can also say some things very clearly at times.  I was surprised she could do this at all because it is her left brain that has been affected.  The left side of the brain deals with thinking and speaking (language).  She does have days when she is tired and cannot communicate very well and evenings seem more difficult in general. But she also has other days where she is almost her old self.  In fact, my very first day with her in hospital she was alert, talkative, funny and cracking jokes. I was simply amazed.

Several close family members made the  32 hour round trip to visit with her while she was in hospital.  She was very happy and I'm sure it aided in her recovery.  She really loves to see all her relatives at any time but most cannot visit very often.  The journey is so long and expensive and there is no way to fly directly from where they live to where mom lives so a road trip is the primary way to visit. 

My brother was at the hospital the entire time mom was admitted and making sure to advocate for her since she could not speak for herself.  By the time I joined him, he needed a bit of rest.  We both stayed until mom made the transition back to her residence but I took over the visiting and dealing with hospital and residence staff while he did his thing,  relaxed and updated people.  We are both very pleased with her progress so far and will be checking in on her again soon.

Your kind comments, prayers and wishes of support for my mother and I are very much appreciated.

All your words and well wishes meant a lot.

Sadly, just as my mother was getting better, the mother of a very dear friend in Kenya is going through the same thing with his mother.

His mother's name is Eunice.  She is in serious condition in hospital several hours away from her home. 

I humbly ask for prayers for Eunice and her family members all of whom have gone through an awful lot this past year.

Many blessings to all of you.

My Great Nephew

It has been awhile since I posted.

To be honest, I have tried posting earlier but I've discovered that since I upgraded to Windows 8.1 a lot of things don't work (phone to computer connection, printer, scanner). Of course they still work but they all need to be reset somehow. I'm no good at that kind of thing. I usually get my brother to set everything up. He will do so but then neglect to tell me he didn't download a certain program or connect up my printer. That kind of thing.

And isn't it Murphy's Law that you always need something the most when it isn't actually working as it should? I discovered that last week when I was trying to scan some documents and help my nephew out with some on line research. The computer connection would just "spin around". I'm not sure what the technical term for it is. Later on we discovered that my wi-fi signal wasn't working. A call to the telecommunications company resulted in them changing the modem frequency remotely.  Now at least the scanner and printer are working again.

The cell phone connection to the computer isn't. I tried to figure out how to do that myself but have no patience for it so will need to wait for help. In doing some on line research I found a forum which told me that others were having similar problems.

In my last post, I mentioned that I was preparing to go out of town to celebrate my mom's birthday.

Since then I've been to her place and back but most of the photos I took didn't turn out so I don't have too much to share with you photo-wise.  I was too busy trying to set up the room and be the hostess as well as taking photos for both my niece and myself on two different cameras.  I didn't even get a photo of the cake which looked lovely.  Sadly too most of the photos on my camera were blurred. I hope they turned out better for my niece.  The main thing is we all enjoyed a good meal.  Mom enjoyed her special day and she really enjoyed seeing her 2nd great-grandson for the first time.  Of course she also enjoyed visiting with her children, grandchildren and her 1st great-grandson.  

My picture of the fruit plate is the only thing that seem to turn out fine, lol. Everyone also enjoyed this dish at lot or at least the fruit.  All the fruit on the plate was gone and I brought home the cheeses home.

Hunter, born June 14, 2014

Oodles of food was left over. We packed it up and left it for the staff and an extra plate for mom for a snack later.  The remaining cake had to go in the garbage.  The weather was so hot that the cake frosting (cream cheese) melted and the top layer slide off the bottom layer when cut. Each of us had a piece and I threw the rest away. It was a strawberry cake and looked lovely but it wasn't nearly as good as the cakes we've had in previous years.

Besides trying to ensure mom enjoyed her day, I was so happy to see  my little great nephew. He is only two and half months old and the cutest little thing (of course we all say that). He is like a miniature man and very strong. His preferences and character are already so evident and he is the spitting image of his dad. His name is Hunter. His father is a huge outdoors man (hunter, fisherman and cowboy) and will no doubt take him hunting at the first opportunity.

This is the quilt I made back in May for the baby.

While I was there I was able to take the little guy's measurements to see if I can tailor a sweater that will actually fit him.