It was a very difficult month right through Thanksgiving. While my mom had a good day or two, most were extremely challenging. Without going into too many details, there were long sleepless nights, tears, pain, frustration, and lots of additional unpleasantness. My mom was exhausted, we were exhausted, and the three of us spent much of our time in a zombie-like state, just trying to get through each day or night, as both C and I have continued to work full-time. I don't like feeling as though I'm failing at every turn, and that's the best way I can describe my life this fall. Although it feels like I've been giving 120%, that breaks down to only giving 60% at home and 60% at work...my mental and emotional struggle has been no joke.
I'm so happy to report that by the end of Thanksgiving weekend, we seemed to have turned a corner and have found a promising routine that is making life much better for all three of us. While no day is perfect, it's such a welcome relief to have finally figured out a few things that appear to be working successfully! It's been a very positive shift over the past week and I'm feeling optimistic for the first time in what feels like forever.
We had a full house for Thanksgiving break - both of my brothers, both SIL, my human niece and nephew, and my two canine nephews. If you know me, or have read previous posts related to our dogs, you know how special my nephew Max is to me. When my brother first adopted him, they were living with us, so this is Max's first house, and he bonded with all of our dogs over the years, but especially Ginny. I am always so happy when he is here! B2 was kind enough to stay through Saturday morning so C and I could go to the Kennedy Center on Friday night because we had tickets to the NSO performing Frozen and we were nervous about leaving my mom alone for any stretch of time. Not only was the show fabulous, it turns out that we had nothing to worry about because my mom did just fine! Even two weeks ago, C and I were wondering if we'd ever be able to leave the house at the same time ever again, so seeing how well she did while we were at the show was very encouraging. We even managed to leave her for a few hours on Saturday morning so we could go for a long walk and then again on Sunday so we could have lunch with my best friend and her husband. I know these are little things, but they're signs that maybe life is settling down into some semblance of normalcy. I'm incredibly proud of my mom and the progress she is making!
Other than life at home, it was a fairly uneventful month. We cancelled a planned trip to Chicago over Veteran's Day weekend because it was just not possible to leave my mom. We were disappointed to cancel yet another adventure, but we did book our big trip for next summer! We'll be going to Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, so we have that to look forward to! It's a total of nine flights over four weeks and we've been saving our Chase points for this trip, so all of those flights only ended up costing us about $600 in cash and our points covered everything else! Have I ever mentioned what an amazing travel planner I'm married to?!?
Tomorrow begins my favorite month of the year and I'm going to do something fun or positive every day, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. There's been a lot of stress and worry and sadness for the past few months and I'm so ready to focus on little happy moments.
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| I could not have survived this trying season without him |
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| my boy |
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| the Kennedy Center looked especially wonderful |
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| it "snowed" inside the concert hall |
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| the Chase points we started with |
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| after booking all of our flights! |
Happy Tails to you!
