I Could Really Use a Nap

Good morning! The world is still here. At least, it appears to be. I suppose I could be living in some massive hallucination or illusion or something.

The last week has been nothing if not interesting. And busy. And crazy. And not one I care to repeat.

I don’t remember exactly much from any of the days because in general, they all just kind of blur together.

This is from science a couple of weeks ago. There is blue food coloring in the left and red in the right. This stuff is awesomely cool.

Specifically, Wednesday Scooter did not have a good day. She wasn’t able to get up and was barely moving around. She wasn’t interested in food or water. Thursday dawned the same. I offered her food; she didn’t want it. I offered her water; she just wanted it moved so she could lay her head back down. I emailed Paul and asked him if he’d given her permission to leave because I really felt that is what was keeping her here. The stench was so bad we had to have three or four candles lit and even then it was not pleasant. When Paul got home Thursday, he offered Scooter a bone and she wasn’t interested. He said that he told her it was okay to go but I could tell he was still holding out some kind of hope when he said that she’d wagged her tail. Well, of course she did; Paul’s been her person for close to twenty years. He has been her life. Dogs live to make their people happy. He fixed his dinner and took it upstairs to eat it. I was going to work on a dress but the smell was more than I could stand so I started getting things ready to go to bed. It was then I noticed Scooter had stopped breathing. I finished doing what I was doing and told Paul on my way by his office. He took her out and buried her right then even though it was almost 10:00.

What a relief. She’d not been doing well for some time and was progressively getting worse. Friday morning I mopped in the kitchen where she’d spent her last two days and the smell drastically improved. If she hadn’t gone when she did, I was going to have to put her outside simply because of the smell. Now, she is at peace and doesn’t have to bump into things that she cannot see.

Thursday night was a Cub Scout Pack meeting. Seth went with me and Joseph because we were going to stop at the library first. We ended up not having enough time so I should have just left Seth home.

Seth and Joseph were were on notebooks earlier in the month. That was fun.

Saturday morning was a popcorn Show’n’Sell at the Post Office. We went for an hour and a half until we needed to leave for Seth’s game. Joseph was the only cub scout for the last half hour and he actually came out of his little shell and said, “Would you like to help support Hubbardston Pack 12?” Seth helped some, too. No one had signed up for 11:00 to 11:30 so at 11:00 we packed up and headed to Holden. Seth managed to sell another bag to one of the coaches.

Thursday I washed a load of sheets and two stuffed animals were added to the load. The both had unknown holes in them so they lost some of the little plastic pellets they were partially stuffed with and I was not sure about letting the washing machine wash with those things in there. I messaged Jessica to see if she could come take a look. She could Friday or Saturday. Saturday was already too busy so I went to get her around noon Friday. She cleaned stuff out and said it was fine. I’m glad to have checked anyway because I’d rather take precautions than have regrets.

Because Jessica doesn’t drive, that meant two trips to Fitchburg for me. Plus picking Cedric up from practice. Then Julia came over to paint Seth and Joseph faces for a $1.00 a paint. I was actually gone most of the time she was here.

On top of all the activity, Joanna called that day with her news and my day kind of just fell apart. In other words, my nonrestful, overly stressful day, was just more so. Not a day to be repeated.

Paul said I should go to the doctor. What the heck is a doctor going to be able to do for me? Give me something for the cough? Give me antibiotics? Tell me to rest and avoid stress? I don’t need anything for the cough; coughing gets the crap out and if I don’t talk too much and am not too busy and have lower stress, I don’t do as much of it. I don’t need antibiotics; antibiotics don’t do anything for a virus. I already know I need more rest and less stress; my family doesn’t seem to get it, though.

Yesterday I went to church but only stayed for Sacrament meeting. I wouldn’t even have gone for that but it was the Primary program; Seth’s last one. I thought I’d be able to have a quiet, peaceful hour and a half and maybe I could do a little sewing. Honestly, sewing is very good for me right now because it’s relaxing and doesn’t take a lot of physical effort.

When I got home, I took care of some laundry so I could wear sweat pants all the rest of the day. I got a couple of chickens in the oven. I checked email and Facebook. I looked at the clock and it was almost time for everyone to get home. Where the heck did my sewing time go? Out the darn window. Joanna came over so I could measure her. She stayed for chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy.

There was a fireside last night at 7:00 in Weston. It was actually broadcast to the Gardner building and I thought Amena and Cedric would be going with Paul. Instead, Joanna borrowed Amena and they didn’t get back until 8:00. Paul went home teaching and didn’t get home until almost eight and sat out in the car talking on the phone for a while after that. The fireside was for youth ages 12 to 18 as well as their parents and leaders. Paul really thought that Seth and Joseph should go, too. They didn’t think so. Paul thought it would be a good activity for Family Home Evening. I thought it would be better if Amena and Cedric went, listened, and then came home with what they’d learned and presented it as an FHE lesson. Instead, no one went and we completely missed out. Not to mention the fact that the stress level for my entire afternoon/evening was extremely high and I could feel the effects in my body.

Go to the doctor? What on earth can a doctor do if my own family can’t get with the program?

Paul had to get up this morning and leave by 3:15 or something like that to take Rich Goguen to the airport so he can fly down to South Carolina or somewhere in that area to drive a truck home for us. He decided to just not go to bed. I think he’s nuts.

I really wanted to do some sewing last night. Once everyone else was finally in bed, I got stuff out and pinned the top edges of the sleeves together so I could baste them. But I was so exhausted from all the wonderful stress and lack of rest during the day that I decided to just go to bed.

It was an exercise in futility. I was up every hour and a half to use the bathroom and cough. When I was in bed, I had the head of the bed way up and pillows behind me so I might as well have been sitting. I don’t think I slept much. After my third time of getting up, I looked at the clock, hoping it was after midnight but, no, it was only 11:30. At about 3:30 I decided to give up. I got stuff out to change clothes and did that and got a load of laundry to wash. I got my phone, water, juice, and toilet paper and a blanket to sit in a chair in the living room. I had to throw a blanket on a puddle of pee in the library and I had to clean up some poop off the living room floor. I looked for a lighter but didn’t find one because the poop smell was lingering. Finally I sat down on the chair, covered up with the blanket and I think I slept better for the next hour than I had all night. I think tonight I’m going to start out on the chair and skip bed.

Wednesday last week Joanna and I went shopping for the rest of the stuff we needed for her dress. That was nice because Seth and Joseph got all their work done by 11:00 and it was an early release day so Cedric was home in time that we didn’t have to take anyone with us. We went to the Fabric Outlet Store in Auburn (previously known as That $1.99 Yard Fabric Store but the price went up to $2.99 a yard) and then Joann’s in Leominster. Since I’ve got all the stuff, I’m really anxious to get going on her dress and of course, things keep happening to get in the way of sewing. Very annoying.

Today I’ve only gotten the sleeves basted and the neck sewn but I’m ready to sew the lining around the zipper and then the sleeves can go in. Then I have to decide if I want Katie to come try it on or not. Then just odds and ends to have the dresses done and then do the belts which I’m not sure I’ll be doing today. I do expect to have Joanna’s pattern ready to go today.

The boys were doing their reading for the past twenty minutes. Now it’s time to move on and get something else done. I figured this would be a good quiet time activity. I’ll work on getting it posted as they get their work done.

Have a wonderful day!