Monday, November 30, 2009

Light at the End of the Tunnel

For the past few months, my husband and I have been remodeling what was previously my mother-in-law's home, located on the 43 acres we have owned for about ten years. It seems rather strange, having owned that kind of acreage, that we have rented the home we live in for the past 22 years, but that's just the way it was...because the agreement was that my mother-in-law could live in the house until she passed away, and my husband was either too cheap or too busy to build a new house on the property.

In the last two years, my mother-in-law began to show signs of dementia. We didn't know how much longer she could continue to care for herself, and the strain of helping care for her was becoming too much for my husband and me. But mostly my husband, since "the farm" is where he works every day. There were some pretty strange things we had to deal with; for instance, my mother-in-law claimed that I told her I wanted to cut her head off, she imagined that people were stealing from her (particularly telephones, which we later found stuffed in closets). Then in July, she fell and broke her hip, which made the decision for us. She is now in an assisted living facility, where she is well cared for 24 hours a day, which had been impossible for us.

So the house remodeling thing: I'm worn out. I have no time to color my hair, or read a book, or keep up on housework, because I've been so busy trying to help get the "new" place liveable. And basically, it's only been three rooms that we've redone. Our bedroom, a living/dining area, and kitchen. The rest will have to wait until we're living there, and even the exterior won't be finished until who-knows-when.

I guess I'm just trying to explain why I haven't been blogging. It took until this morning to realize how much I miss it, and I'm hoping the colder weather, the move, and the advent of Winter will all remedy that.

Maybe I'll even have time to color my hair.

9 comments:

Linda S. Socha said...

You have definitely had some things going on! I am glad you are coming back to blogging! I love your posts
Linda

Urban Cynic said...

It's really very strange that you have reappeared today as I have been working on my laptop all day for a client & have actually been thinking about you & wondering what you were doing - and now I know! I don't usually spend my time thinking about strangers either!

I know that renovating is very hard work but we'd love to see some before & after photos if you have any?

Glad to see you back by the way...x

MauritaMason said...

Linda and UC, thanks so much for your comments. While it's difficult to pinpoint exactly why I feel compelled to blog, certainly you and my other readers have a lot to do with it. I've missed and thought about both of you a lot!

Dorrie said...

my dad had to put my mom in a care facility last year, too, for the same reasons. She no longer recognised my dad, her husband of over 60 yrs, and that really hurt his feelings, plus other "strange" things like what you described. She turned 90 last September and is now being cared for... my dad just could do it anymore. Luckily my younger brother lives on the same lot so at least he isn't alone.

Living in Germany (they live in San Diego), I'm just not able to help and sometimes I feel really guilty about it.

Blogging has helped me...just letting it out and get feedback/support is good. It's good you're back again.

Simon Butler said...

You have returned to blogging because you know how much we truly love you.

Anonymous said...

From time to time I stop by this blog in hopes of reading something new. You certainly have a full life right now.

Marchelle said...

I was thinking about your blog this morning and that I haven't checked in for quite a while! Glad to see I didn't have too much catching up to do! ;-)

countrygirl005 said...

I'm glad you're blogging again! I enjoy reading your posts, you are so good at writing, and you always seem to make me laugh. I'm going to have to start blogging again myself! Is it bad that I pretty much forgot my google account login?

MauritaMason said...

Rachel, that's funny. I was trying to change my address the other day online, for a credit card or something...so they asked me this security question: "What is the name of your favorite pet?" Are you serious? At one time did I actually have a real answer for that? I probably said whoever was the favorite at the time. It might have been a cat that died two days later, a cat whose name I can't even remember now. Then they switched to the question, "What was your first job?" Do you know how many ways there are to type TCB? With a hyphen, without a hyphen, as much as you can type in the small box, or just the basic...none of which worked, and then I was locked out.

So, yeah...I understand forgetting how to login.

Hope to see you blogging, too!