Thank you to those of you who have checked in on me. A lot has happened. I have had both knees replaced, which has been a MUCH longer and harder recovery than I ever anticipated. But I don't regret it. To walk without pain is a gift.  My son has had health issues that have required ER visits that during a pandemic are extremely difficult. Because he is an adult, he is required to go in alone while we sit on a bench outside in the cold. Often in the middle of the night. Not being able to be there for someone who requires 24/7 care is a nightmare.  Speaking of nightmares, we lost ..read more

The past 3 weeks have been a challenge, to say the least. I had my knee replacement surgery, which has turned out to be a harder recovery than I anticipated. I've only had one other surgery before, to remove my thyroid, and I was attending a wedding two days after that. I didn't plan to be down and out much longer with this surgery. Wrong. The surgery itself went well. It was outpatient. Started at 7:30 and I was home in my bed at 3. Home health came less than 24 hours later to torture me by bending and straightening my leg. On day 3, I started feeling really lousy. All the drugs they had me ..read more

Student Loan (C) actually has two loans wrapped into it. So, although you can't see by the numbers, last week I paid off one of those loans! My goal has been to get rid of both of them while they are sitting at 0% interest during the pandemic. I will finish paying off the other half this summer and then I can note it on my debt chart. Yippee!! Sarah   ..read more

I have lost all track of time. I can't keep up with what day it is - it's all I can do to remember the month. I have tried to keep busy while staying home. I forgot how much I hate the louver doors in my 1971 house until I decided to clean them. Yuck! DS had to go to have labs drawn at the hospital today. It was eerie. No patients. Skeleton staff. No one was touching anything. They took our temps in the parking lot and made sure we had masks. That's quite the difference from the regular world. We are in Phase 1 and some of the restrictions have been loosened. But you would think the gates ha ..read more

I hope everyone had a nice Easter during these strange times. We watched our church service online and then Zoomed with our life group. I'm thankful for the technology, but it just isn't the same. Our middle son turned 29 on Saturday, so we had a family Zoom celebration. I had sent a couple gifts and he opened them during our "meet up" so we would feel like we were there. The highlight of our weekend was having our granddaughter with us for three days while our daughter gave birth to our grandson. Having a little one around brought some life back to the house. We had some plastic eggs and ta ..read more

We're in Week 3 of this whole new world. How is everyone doing? I know we are better off than many. We have a nice home, things to distract ourselves with, and plenty to eat. We are even able to "do church" from our laptop. I am so glad that DS works from home and has been able to hold on to his job for now. It allows him to hold to a regular schedule and not obsess about what's out there and what it could do to him. My husband the UPS driver is on vacation this week. It's not what he had planned, but we are relieved that he gets a week's reprieve from being potentially exposed. He's been wor ..read more

Has it only been a little over a week since the world turned upside down? Seems like months. I lost my job today. In only a week's time, the company has suffered such devastating financial losses that today was much like a blood bath. A company that expected to double in size this year has just cut half its employees. I am more fortunate than many, in that our family did not depend on my income for survival. I made a grocery run for my parents this morning. It was eerie. No one was talking. Most were wearing masks. One woman even apologized for stopping behind me in an aisle. The shelves are ..read more

COVID-19 is the topic of the day, week, month .... The first case in our state was in our town and was announced the day after I voted in the primaries at a polling place where the infected person had visited. We now have quite a few cases nearby.  I am not worried about myself. I'm young enough (ahem!) and healthy enough that my odds of recovering are high. But my son and my father are both high-risk. My mom, too, because of her age, but she is in very good health.  My son and I had tickets to see Les Miserables on stage Thursday night. At about 4 p.m., he decided not to go. (The theate ..read more

Is it Friday? I've lost all track of time. DS2 had a business trip this week to Philadelphia. But since he refuses to fly since the summer fiasco, he needed a driver. That would be me. It's about a 7-hour drive from us so it was doable. He recruited his caregiver and his caregiver's wife to meet us there on Monday night. As it turns out, this was almost like a vacation for me. DS had arranged with his CEO to have two rooms at the swanky hotel - one for him and his caregiving team and one for me. Me. All alone. For 3 whole nights! My only job was to provide the transportation to the city and ..read more

I know. You thought I finally went over the edge, never to be heard from again! It's been months since I posted. But I didn't disappear, nor did I stop reading your fabulous posts (How could I go that long without hearing the tales of Kim and Sluggy?). There have been some things going on that have put blogging at the bottom of my list. I just couldn't find the energy. Plus, I work part time from home and take care of our 3-year-old granddaughter full time while our daughter works. And there's the care I provide for our disabled son. I would probably do better with a good night's sleep, but ..read more