How It's Going...

EGAD!

The last time I tried to write on this blog was a week ago. I didn't finish the post, so there has been silence from this keyboard for this entire week, so let me catch you up with all the stuff that has happened here in just seven short days.

My mother and my sister arrived exactly on time (we are a bit concerned about getting them home, but they are here). I got them back to my house at 1am on Sunday morning, shuffled them off to the new mattress sets, and then went upstairs for three hours of sleep before heading off to church to do the children's part of worship. It went off without a hitch - even the littles sang their hearts out! I returned to my house to find that my sister and mother had started right in with the boxes in various areas of the house - the kitchen, bathroom, and office/craft studio. We went to get them a rental car for the week and then went out for lunch and some "necessity" shopping. After that excursion, I was exhausted, so I said goodnight pretty early and went to sleep. Monday and Tuesday were work days for me and unpacking days for them, so they managed to get most of the office supplies and craft stuff out of boxes, the entire kitchen organized and arranged, and both bathrooms were functional for the first time with MY stuff. Other than a couple of "revisions" to my original decorating plans, we have had a cordial time and I am amazed at how much they finished! Now, don't get me wrong, I am NOT moved in completely, but I am over halfway there!

This morning, I had my Christmas - they will do theirs with my brother and my younger nephew on Monday - and I got some very nice things. I have a new-to-me book of 40s crooner standards. Lots of peppermint body stuff, and some creative projects to work on. My sister gave me a lego-type mosaic portrait of my Bella-cat. It will be a good project to work on in the evenings after I am finished with my work stuff. It is like a cross-stitch project, but with flat bricks instead. I will enjoy that remembrance of my kitty who died last year on this day. They also gave me lots of new writing pens and new cat stuff. I keep getting asked by various people when my next cat will arrive - I am still not ready, but I am getting closer.

I am now getting ready to drive my Mom and my sister to the airport tomorrow morning WAY before dawn. I am hoping that their flight will NOT be canceled and that they can get home easily, but I am not holding my breath. The flight that I would have taken (had I been going home today) was cancelled this morning, so that means that there will be many people wanting to get out of the airport tomorrow morning who did not get to go. Delta hasn't cancelled things yet, but we will see what happens in the next 12 hours. If all else fails, I will go back to the airport and bring them back here. My sister has some time before she has to be back in CA, so we are not really all that rushed, but it would be nice to have things go as planned.

I have a week before I head back to work, and I am planning on doing some  LOTS more unpacking and organizing. I checked out of my apartment on Wednesday and am now only living in one place. This is a strange feeling, but a welcome one as I no longer have the thought of being over there to do things lurking in the back of my head. I now have one place to go and focus on. That is a relief.

Each time I have come home, my family members have had more surprises for me! I was met at the front door by my sister who insisted that we head out to Home Goods to see if I liked the table that they had reserved. I did, so I plopped down the debit card, we loaded it up, and brought it into the kitchen. It is a sideboard-type thing and came with three stools that fit nicely under the table. It also had drawers which fixed the problem of "how do I fit five drawers worth of stuff into two?" situation. We have been eating off of it since that evening. I have a list of desired objects to start to purchase as I am able to do so, and lots of decorations up in various places around the house. My front room is becoming yellow, gold, and green. The kitchen is now Star Wars (this morning's gift from both my Mom and my Sister), and the upstairs bathroom is floral. The downstairs bathroom is my original Star Wars plan, but not the shower curtain that I had planned on using - that is still upstairs in a box! I have a list of chores to do and projects to complete as well. Lots of things to do when you are a homeowner, I am finding! (And, I love it!)

Now, though, it is time to start focusing on the new year and what I want to get done in 2022. I am going to be cautiously optimistic about our pandemic status and how things will happen, but I am also ready to do some more work for the profession of music therapy and for myself as a therapist in the bigger world.

2021 has been a difficult year for me. I'm not over it yet, but I am getting there. The anniversary of my Dad's death is coming in two weeks - on my Mom's birthday - so, we will be working through that date in our way. There is a bit of anticipatory dread for us all when we start to talk about plans for Mom's birthday because of Dad's passing, but we will figure it all out. Last year, the time between Christmas and Mom's birthday was a blur - hospice was coming in and I was stuck out here while the rest of my family was doing things for Dad. My only contact with them was via Zoom and the phone. It was not a usual thing at all. This year is also not usual, but we are (mostly) together and getting ready to Zoom with extended family. We are doing things differently, but we are doing things. We have our traditions, but those traditions are shifting - as they should!

The next couple of weeks will be probably full of posts about grief and future planning. I do not really foresee much else happening in my attention span at this time.

Thanks for reading - I have to start a Zoom meeting with my family members!!