Life

More Than Physical

Today is the Solemnity of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That is a lot of words that basically means it is the day that the Catholic Church celebrates the fact that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was born and lived completely void of any sin. It makes sense that […]

Exchanging Love

Each time I go to the caregiver support group, I came away with a little more knowledge and a little more inspired. One of the women is taking care of her mother who has dementia and Parkinson’s. She is very committed to her mom and always talks about how much she means to her. Today […]

From Ministry to Minister

A couple of months ago, I connected with a young woman who I knew from my previous home. She is now living in the same state as me, so we caught up over dinner. The other day she told me that her brother was going to be in town for a short time and asked […]

Helping Me Help Mom

After my mom recovered from her most recent hospital stay a couple of months ago, we decided to go to the Parkinson’s Disease support group in our area. Since we are “newcomers”, we were invited to attend a special presentation called “Parkinson’s 101”. We have gained so much information already from the group and were happy […]

Dream Revealed Reality

We monitor my mom’s pulse and blood pressure on a regular basis. Recently, the pulse number has been erratic and sometimes very low. The same thing has happened with my dad due to premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) – extra, abnormal heartbeats that begin in one of your heart’s two lower pumping chambers (ventricles). I thought […]

Rosary in Lourdes

This morning as I was preparing breakfast, my mom was flipping through the channels on the small TV in the kitchen as she does every morning. She came across EWTN and left it there for a few minutes to see what was on. The program that came on was a priest and group of people […]

The Neighbors Return

We haven’t seen our neighbors for months. The couple purchased the condo next to us about a year ago and had some loose ends to tie up in their previous residence many states away. They were back and forth for a while and were supposed to move in to stay here a few months ago. […]

A Party

My sisters came over today and threw me a little birthday party. They brought balloons and decorations and cards and a beautiful large plant. One sister made my favorite cake -homemade chocolate with buttercream frosting. The other made dinner – taco salad, another favorite. I actually sat down and doodled while she was cooking. It […]

Christmas Cactus Bloom

My sister has a beautiful gigantic Christmas cactus. She grew it from cuttings off a plant my mom had about 40 years ago. My mom read in a magazine about a cactus that had been passed down through family members for a couple hundred years. We thought that was amazing. A few months ago, my […]

Getting Around Craft Fairs

You know it’s November when the craft fairs begin. I saw a sign at one of the local churches the other day and told my mom about it. Last year we went to a fair that was held in the town community center. My mom doesn’t have the stamina to walk through an entire fair, […]