Sunday

Here are a few sources of pleasure that we underestimate over and over again: sunshine heads the list! I wake up to single digit temps (so, like, -13C), but the skies are silky blue and in my trudge to the shed and barn to feed the animals, I don't feel cold!






Here's another: oatmeal in the morning. With stuff added. Include in that honey. It's like bringing your summer flower garden into your winter routines! Heaven. (Ed isn't convinced. His loss.)





And another: music! Sweet gentle sounds, easily adaptable to your mood. I'd been reluctant to turn it on since I've moved to the farmhouse. It seemed unfair: Ed's not one who would love sound for its own sake. But I fell into the habit of turning on music in November, when he was gone and I've stuck with it, to no protest. It's quiet and gentle -- holiday-ish these days, more vocal jazzy in normal times, the kind of stuff you'd hear at a sun drenched coffee shop, and it takes me into pleasant spaces.



Today I am absolutely on board with going out for a walk. Ed suggests the city park by Lake Monona. I'll take any place that's woodsy and quiet.






The lake is just starting to freeze over. It's pretty right now! And the views toward our city skyline are sublime!





I need this walk to clear my mind. Much of the day had been spent on reviewing options for my mom. The doctor deems her ready to be discharged from the hospital and I think that's correct: she is stable (and sharp as ever!), if very weak. Tomorrow she'll be moved (possibly by me) to a nursing home rehab facility. It's a slower track than the Rehab Hospital and I agree with that choice as well. She needs time. And honestly, I need time as well to figure out the next step.

After our walk, Ed and I go over to her apartment. He fixes some of the mechanical issues that had gone awry in the last months and I clear out her refrigerator and pack a few needed items for tomorrow's move.

We return to the farmhouse just before sunset. (Our sun set at 4:23 pm. today. Isn't it grand that in exactly a week, the days will start to grow long again?!) The shed cats have been infiltrating the porch, not so much to terrorize Stop Sign and her two kitties, but because they know I can see them, and they can see me, and we stare thus at each other, until I relent and send Ed out to feed them in their proper place (the shed).


No young family for dinner tonight. It's surely been the weekend for holiday parties and events for them! I had asked Ed to find a recipe for chicken and rice that he would like me to cook for him. Comfort food. Simple and good.