Robin's Nest

  Thursday is not normally a babysitting day, but it is a holiday weekend. Next week I only babysit two days so that will be nice. I plan to pick up a shift working and have a babysitter or companion, whichever way you want to look at it, here at the house. My house is currently a disaster zone. Kids home from school, baby playing with whatever she can pull out of the cupboards and sewing projects laying everywhere!  This morning as I got up to get my day started, as I left the bedroom, I noticed the gates were open as well as the door to DH's room. Further into the living room area there were pillows strewn about. If I hadn't kept the dogs in the bedroom all night, I would have blamed them. The truth is it was SIL. I immediately checked all the exterior doors and found them secure. I went into the master bedroom and got the tray of meds ready to fill all the pill compartments. As I entered the bathroom to set thing up, I noticed all the drawers and cabinets wer...

  I wonder when the early to bed starts. If I don't stay up to get the little things done or get up super-duper early, then they won't get done. Super-duper early would be nine o'clock the night before. Three months into our new living situation, I have learned to be very quick at doing some things that used to take me forever to do because I didn't care if it got done or not. Now I get it done because I don't want to listen to the questions of "where does this go?" or "why do you have two spatulas?". I know this is only meant to be helpful, but it goes back to time. Some days I have the time to have help and be slow. Most days I do not. Today is babysitting day. It will be very noisy here and chaotic. That can be distressing or ignored, time will tell. So far, the girls have only argued for an hour of the 2 that they have been together. Well, a swat was needed. I real ly hate when I end up having to give swats. Everyone is tired from the nightti...

Procrastination... the one thing I am excellent at, and it is so annoying!   Take today for instance, I have known since Saturday that kid gift exchange would be today. So why are the kid gifts not wrapped and ready to go? One reason is because they were not all made yet. I did finish the gifts for the teenagers today and of course I need to go to the bank and get some cash to put in with the little things that I made them. Cash is not a gift I like to give; it feels like it doesn't take much thought. Of course, teens like cash but they must suffer with a little handmade gift from Gramma to get the cash. This year it is ear warmers. Now these don't take a whole lot of time to make under normal circumstances. I do not live under normal circumstances anymore. Procrastination has taken on a whole new meaning for me. Truly, I am able to finish more if I stay up later at night but most nights, I am too tired to do just that. So, here it is the day of, and I just finished ...

  There was way too much caffeine in my system yesterday. I was tired but could not lay still. This morning no one knows what they want for breakfast. Neither do I. The thought of smoothies came up, but that requires a trip to the basement for frozen fruit. Homemade yogurt is good in that and then I have a good excuse to make more. The children gave up and poured cereal for themselves, SIL would like a smoothie. Ingredients are in the blender, and she is having a sleep attack... I am jealous! Yummy homemade yogurt! Bananas, honey, strawberries and a little vanilla.  There is plenty to do today. Tomorrow, we have a get together with all the grandchildren here in Colorado. There are gifts to be wrapped for that event too. The joy of it all! Careful wrapping, pretty bows and thoughtful gifts, all to be demolished in 30 to 60 seconds. When my daughter came in yesterday and saw that our little tree was already down and minimal decorations were left, she was jealous. I sti...

It is another day around here... start early and oh wait! Last night after being the last person awake and not taking full advantage of the ability to shower in peace, I dropped much like a rock into a deep sleep for at least an hour. During that hour I must have had some revelations about self-care or something. On arising this morning, I was in an exceptionally good mood! DH has been awakened to someone "rummaging" around in his room for the last week or so. He really thought he must have been dreaming as I had not heard anything. I did not accuse him of dreaming because I sleep in the other room in order to hear SIL if needed. Of course, I have been awakened for "less than" necessary things this past week and I started shutting the door at night not just leaving it cracked. So, it is quite possible she "visited".  Early Christmas morning the evidence appeared. She indeed had been in the room foraging! The bag of items was left on the living room side of...

  One more year in the books and the day was relatively quiet. At least there weren't noisy middle of the night antics. There were antics, but mostly just waking others up because it was morning. very early morning, but morning indeed. Because my husband grew up with the tradition of opening gifts on Christmas eve, we are doing the same with the youngest two. It has its' perks. One of which is no early wake up by the children, just SIL. The drawback for me is the day seems very blah. We do not entertain guests on this day. Nor do we go anywhere. I think that does not sit all that well with SIL, but I am okay without all the fuss. This is the first year that the tree is already down, the decorations are still up but will come down very soon. I am not sure why the rush, but I do know there are things that are missed during the "put away" phase. Those will be gathered here and there throughout the year... as usual. I think the extra drama that occurs about every other ni...

The lost Santa hat has been found! As I tidied the card table in order to lay out material for sleep pants, I uncovered the missing hat. At least I found it before the holiday was over! For safety I will place it with the "Frosty" hat. It is down to the third day before, am I ready? Haha, ha-ha, No, not even close. Okay maybe a little close. I have been looking for resources to help my nine-year-old cope. As it stands, she has pretty much lost every present if I were to actually follow through on every threat, I have made in the last two days alone. It hasn't helped to have me babysitting on top of stressing out with SIL not sleeping at night and not being able to do the gift wrapping or sewing or anything like that. It just makes me a little short tempered... okay a lot short tempered. Which is another reason I am not fond of holidays. It brings back memories that are better left buried. I used to subscribe to a "gift rule". Each kiddo got 6 things and there ha...

This week I was informed that my Uncle Kenny passed away. The call came after a very hectic, few days. My min d was numb. The news came from my mom. She and I always held him close in our hearts. We lost touch over the years as happens so often. The last few months he has been on my mind more often than not but reaching out just didn't happen. He was the youngest of the four kids, 3 boys, 1 girl.  My mom was crying as she spoke of her shock at the news and the fact that she found out through a Facebook post.  Her heart was broken that no one called. I, however, failed to be shocked. There has never been two-way communication with that branch of the family tree. If I called Uncle Kenny, we would talk and enjoy visiting over the phone. After they moved out of Michigan, I think they came back to visit a time or two, but we never made it to visit them. By the time, I was out on my own and it never crossed my mind to "visit" them. The last time I spoke to him for any length o...

How did this happen? Could it be from not working outside the home? By the time this is posted there will be 12 days left until Christmas. I am thinking there must be a way to delay the inevitable. Short of a disaster, I suppose not. Perhaps I could work the 12 days of Christmas song into real life and go from there. A chicken might make a nice partridge and there are two pear trees outside. Of course, they have been maimed by the little goats. But still, they might live. And who could really tell the difference between a chicken and a French hen? Unless of course they start clucking in the wrong language. Guess it is best to get the lyrics and follow the script. Well, here it is 10 days away and the children did not fall for chicken under the pear tree. Nor did they appreciate the two turtle chickens... what is the world coming to? Apparently, I must participate in this year's festivities. This week is "spirit" week at school... again. Monday was holiday hat day. Now thi...

  Happy Birthday! You know who you are! Hope you day is filled with joy unspeakable! Mine started early and it is getting boring to be writing about the same stuff every day. With only two weeks left before Christmas and no shopping or much crafting done, I am going to get serious and make a gift list for each kid and get it done. The extent of my decorating can be seen in the following picture. Nice, eh? Currently SIL is asleep in her chair and if I am lucky will remain there for at least half an hour. Then I will get her into the shower and start my day. I have a shop due today and I planned on doing it after church. Which I will go to via live stream. We have come up with a tree plan, although the kiddos will be disappointed, there just isn't room this year for a big tree or a real tree. We will make it work. It is time for live stream so see you later!

It is the last Men's Breakfast for the year. DH gave up the last Men's Study Group so that I could attend the Holiday program at the school so how could I say no. Besides, what could go wrong? Surprisingly, it was a low-key day in a lot of ways.  That of course makes for a long night SIL is already back on the dementia train and trying to figure out the baby gate.  The oldest child was invited to a birthday party/sleepover, so I invited the granddaughter to come spend the night with the youngest one. We spent the morning making the scrunchies for the birthday girl. These have been on the to do list since Wednesday. Absolutely the least possible amount of progress had been made so far. The extent of that progress was getting some of the material brought to the living room. By 1pm we had them finished and wrapped. That made us both happy. After taking her to the party, the youngest and I went out for a soda. Right now, we are watching Frosty the Snowman and sleeping on...

 Sunday came and went with much stubbornness and time that was consumed by relentless delusions. There are no answers, only questions. It seemed like for a brief time on Sunday she was with us. We watched a program on television, Virgin River was the name. Probably too much drama for her, but she watched without emotion. As the clock neared 10 pm, her eyes reflecting her tiredness, I suggested that we call it a night. She declined as she was not tired, the glazed look in her eyes told another story. That was the end of the day and the beginning of a very long night. There was indeed a "party" of sorts. Dementia invited delusion, hallucination and paranoia to the big event. I am pretty sure delirium dropped by to watch the fun. As SIL went on to wake the children and try to exit the front door we were thankful that the lock had been applied to the laundry room and all sharp objects were safely out of reach. Once the kids were settled back into their beds, I watched SI...

  As much as I look forward to the weekends, I also experience dread. The idea of not getting up to get and rush kids through the morning routine and be on time, is alluring. The attraction is deceptive. Medicine must still be given to SIL and she does not handle change very well. Therefore, I do not sleep past 0620 on any given day. This particular morning brought my "friend" dementia along with delusion. It does happen more often on the weekends. Presently I am chalking it up to the change in routine that occurs along with a lack of sleep. Delusion brought a whole host of people and a guard. These people and the guard would not leave the house and they had friends outside that were just waiting for the kids to go to school. Even SIL standing at the front door with it wide open and yelling at them did not deter them from hanging about. Pills were not happening if she had any say in it, and she did. I decided that I would move all the medicine from the spot in the kitchen whe...

Today we went shopping for shoes for SIL. Because of the sleep attacks that she suffers we decided it was best to leave when the kiddos left for school today. So, we all piled into the minivan, one big happy group. Sort of a happy group. School starts at 0800 but they let the kids in at 0735 and mine like to be there at that time to connect with friends.  After the kids departed the vehicle, we decided to go to breakfast. Finding a place that we agreed on proved challenging. SIL want McDonald's or Applebee's, DH wanted Burger King, frankly I didn't want to go out to eat. I don't enjoy shopping and I needed the pain to be over with as quick as possible. We ended up at IHOP. My food arrived with foreign matter in it. I sent it back. That was it for me. We then headed to a shoe store only to find they didn't open for 30 more minutes. I am glad I did not go alone as it took two hours to pick out a pair of shoes. Then over to Walmart to try and find T-shirt type shirts f...