Whew! Where HAVE I been? Well, here...mostly. The whole fam-damily was in town for the first time ever. We had a family portrait done to capture the fleeting moment since the next time it happens one of us will surely be dead. Sad but true.
My brother lives in Indiana and one of my sisters in Idaho so getting everyone here at the same time is a bit of a challenge. Usually we ship mom off to my brother for Christmas so the rest of us can get into her house and throw things away, er, I mean clean and organize. It is so much less stressful for all parties involved when she is hundreds of miles away during the process.
Speaking of cleaning mom's house, I finally hired a housekeeper for her. Mom is eighty, after all. I reckon it is about time she stopped scrubbing toilets and showers. And hey! Dusting will take place EVERY TWO WEEKS now instead of once a year (while she is away visiting my brother for Christmas.) I dropped by today to put all the cleaning supplies in one place in preparation for the housekeeper and installed a new wall cabinet for the bathroom while I was there. She has had an old metal wall cabinet (with gold trim, no less *barf*) sitting atop the counter and LEANING against the wall for, I kid you not, twenty years. Not only has the cabinet been there for twenty years, some of the stuff in it has, as well. I threw away things that expired in 1986. How she has lived to be eighty using and ingesting all that expired stuff is beyond my comprehension. Or maybe expiration dates really DON'T matter (as she claimed...with each bottle I threw away...while she dug it out of the garbage.)
I also threw away many empty bottles of various hair and skin products. EMPTY. She was keeping them "as a reminder" that she likes that one so she should buy it again. You know, keeping it in the cabinet she never opens. When I told her to take the bottles into the kitchen, write the name of each product on her shopping list, then throw the bottles away, she got mad.
One of those empty bottles was the exfoliant Pretty Feet and Hands but she does not use it on those tough-skinned body parts. No, she uses it to exfoliate her face. Her FACE. She finds regular facial exfoliants "too rough" but the one that peels skin off your heels, that one she puts on her face. The worst part is that now I am going to have to try it.
Old people are crazy and it is contagious.
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Update on JCW's ma: I talked to JCW tonight and his ma is still in the hospital but improving every day. She lost half a lung and almost died on three separate occasions due to complications. It has been Hell. Their main goal is to get her exercising so she improves enough to come home. I am sending happy casino gambling thoughts her way. Hang in there, John!
Tags: JCWs mom, family visitorganizing,
