This journal/blog entry marks the beginning of our sixth year of retirement and the writing of our retirement history. With Volumes 1 - 10 filed away, we now begin Volume 11 of the journal in a different format.
When we were traveling much of the time, visiting family and friends, and involved in missions activities, it was a natural thing to keep a day-by-day account of our adventures. Now that we are fixed in place for the most part, our lives have taken on a different nature. There are only so many ways to make the daily routine seem interesting, so we’ve decided that we’ll begin this series of writings by recapping the month in general and then publishing any special events or activities pictorially.
With two places to maintain (Mother’s house and Our Little Lot at Holiday Villages of Lake Fork), there is more than enough work to keep us busy. Both places require constant attention and cleaning, and both lots need mowing, trimming, and other general weekly upkeep, and there is always laundry to be done.
And, of course, there is always the business of business. Barbara takes care of everything to do with our personal finances while I handle the bill paying and record-keeping for Mother.
Our weekly activities are prescribed in part by established routines: Sundays, of course, are church days. Since Mother is now in a nursing home, we have pretty much had to give up the fellowship breakfast and Sunday school at Yantis First Baptist Church. Instead, we visit Mother for a while on Sunday mornings, then drive to Yantis for church, return to the house in Mineola for the afternoon, go see Mother again, and then return to Yantis for choir practice and the evening service. We had hoped to spend Sunday afternoons at Our Little Lot, but we are in a brutal drought and heat wave, which takes the fun out of being outdoors in the afternoon.
Wednesday evenings find us scrambling to gather up all the trash we can find (and it isn’t too difficult to find quite a bit) to get it ready for trash pick-up on Thursday mornings. It’s a very routine thing, but seems to catch us unawares each week.
We try to visit Mother at least twice a day, with either or both of us making the short trip over there. Mother is doing about as well as can be expected at Wood Memorial Nursing Home. The bouts of urinary tract infection took their toll on her, both physically and mentally, but she continues, albeit reluctantly, to go to physical therapy. The Medicare benefits for rehabilitation therapy have run out, so we are now on private pay for Mother’s room. Fortunately, Mother planned well for her future, and with excellent oversight of her finances by our friendly and competent Edward Jones consultant, we are able to provide for her current needs.
Mother’s Parkinsonism continues to manifest itself through halting speech patterns, blank spots in memory and the occasional journey to the Twilight Zone, but for the most part, she is still able to read, watch TV, and enjoy visits with family and friends. We continue to reiterate that, while this is not what we wanted for Mother (and certainly not what she wanted for herself), she is in the best place possible for her needs. The staff of Wood Memorial far exceeds our expectations for competence and compassionate care giving. We are truly blessed that we were able to arrange for Mother’s care there.
As we mentioned, July has been a brutally hot and dry month in East Texas, and the indications are that the trend will continue through the summer. Still, we are attracting the hummingbirds and a few other strange critters to the neighborhood. Some of the visitors are very welcome and provide good photo opportunities. Unfortunately, our armadillo that made its appearance last year has returned to forage nightly in the nearby yards. We haven’t seen it yet, but it has left numerous ugly scars in the neighborhood lawns.
Friday, July 1
For the past two years, we’ve been telling our neighbors, John, Wanda, and Addie, about our lot and motorhome. We needed to go out there this morning and John, Wanda, and Addie needed to go to Sulphur Springs, so we invited them to follow us as far as Holiday Villages to see where our “other place” is. It’s always a pleasure to show off Our Little Lot, especially to good friends like these.
John and Wanda (neighbors from across the street) and Addie (next door) have been kind and caring since we first met them. We’ve all had opportunities to help each other out, and can depend on each other to watch after the three houses and lots whenever any of us needs to be out of town. They have been a real blessing and comfort to us, especially when we first made the transition from living in Big V to living in Mother’s house.
As soon as John and Randi arrived, we got their things unloaded and set up in the house, and then Barbara and Randi set to work on a new dessert recipe for the big family dinner scheduled for tomorrow. While the ladies did their dessert thing, I set about preparing a marinade and rub for the planned meat dishes, smoked pork loin and smoked and barbecued sausages. John decided that supervision of the activities would be his responsibility and contribution to the efforts.
We had a big day planned, beginning with getting the smoker started and then tackling some basic chores to get ready for our company. While Barbara and Randi worked inside, John and I tackled the yards and the “North 40,” the vacant lot next to Mother’s house.
Leah and Ryan came in for the day and while Barbara, Randi, and Leah finished getting dinner ready, John, Ryan, and I went over to the nursing home to get Mother. John is a big man and has had experience working with nursing home patients, but even he found it to be a challenge to get Mother into and out of TJ’s car so we could transport her home. But, with everyone’s help, especially John’s and Ryan’s, we were able to get the job done and get Mother into the house and settled in for a time of family, fun, and (of course) food. TJ, Ladd, and Madelyn were also there to join in the fun and fellowship of the day, and a good time was had by all.
Happy Independence Day, America!!!
Today found John, Carol, Leah, Barbara, and me on the road to Shreveport to join our friends Gary and Joyce for a special Fourth of July celebration. As we were on the way from Mineola, Gary and Joyce were driving up from their home in Houston.
The camera is always an important part of our traveling equipment and we took it out at the Louisiana Welcome Station to take a few pictures.
When we were finally all together, we took time to go to a restaurant, have lunch, and begin getting caught up on each other’s lives.
Wednesday, July 6
John and Randi were in Arlington to tour the new football stadium this morning, but returned this afternoon. We just took the day off to rest and relax, but were up and at ‘em for a rousing game of Catch Phrase when the kids returned this evening.
While Barbara and John visited, Randi and I went over to the nursing home so she could visit a while with Granny.
When we returned to the house, John and I put on some work clothes, left Barbara and Randi to do their thing, and we went out to Big V to begin digging a utility trench to bury the water, waste water, and electrical lines for the new storage shed. The ground was baked solid and it was hot and dirty work. Something tells me this project isn’t going to be as easy as it first appeared!
John, Barbara, and I went out to Our Little Lot today while Randi and Madelyn went shopping. Nothing significant to report, but we did get these great pictures of the girls.
John and Randi had to return to San Antonio today, so we got up early and got them ready for the road…one last picture and lots of memories.
Thursday, July 14
Cousin Donnie made a flying trip from Birmingham to spend a couple of days with TJ. They came over today for barbecued pork chops and all the trimmings, and then Donnie came back for an hour or so this evening to visit.
Today was jam-packed with activities. First, I made a PGR ride to Tyler for a military funeral, where we stood a flag line formation at the funeral home, led the procession to the cemetery, and stood another flag line during the graveside service.
Tonight we had new visitors to Mother’s house. Jeremy and Emily Durig and their sons, Jameson and Jeremiah, are in the area to interview for the youth pastor position at Yantis FBC. Coincidentally, (or maybe not), Jeremy is now the youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Liberal, here our current pastor, David Bagwell, ministered, and where we attended when we lived there.
Friday, July 22
A busy month got even busier today when we drove to Dallas for the evening to visit with Heather, Andy, and the kids for a while and then drive across town to spend time with Barbara’s sister Carol, who was flying into DFW from Roswell and then taking a flight tomorrow to Minneapolis where she would get to visit with two of her grandchildren.
As usual, we had a great, but way too short visit with the Dondis bunch, but promised to come back as soon as possible to spend more time.
When Carol returned from her trip to Minnesota, she drove over to Mineola to spend a couple of days with us. One of the “must see” spots for our visitors is the Salt Palace at Grand Saline, so this morning we took Carol to see it. Unfortunately, there was come kind of community planning meeting going on today, so the Salt Palace was closed. Still, we were able to get some pictures to prove we were there.
Sunday, July 31
It was time for Carol’s visit to end and for her to return to Roswell, so we said our goodbyes this morning and got her on her way.
Birthday wishes for July go out to Nancy Terpening (16th), Karen Francis (19th), and Warren Yehl (29th).
Happy Anniversary this month to brother Jerry and Jane Little (4th), and daughter Heather and Andy Dondis (11th).
“Remember as far as anyone knows, we’re a nice normal family” - Homer Simpson
From Mother’s house in Mineola,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams
