Easter

I had a nice Easter weekend. On Saturday, a lot of my family went with me to see Clue at the Hale Center Theater. It was fun and the play was really good. Because I had an extra ticket that was my mom's, my brother came with his whole family. 

We had Easter dinner at my sister's house. She cooked the ham I got from my company at Christmas. That's usually mom's job but my sister did a great job. It was really good. Guess that's her job from now on. :)  We are still trying to figure out how much food we all need to bring. I'm realizing that it was a big job for mom to do dinner for the whole family. We also got the kids to play spoons. They never had before. We actually had to Google just to make sure we remembered how to play it. We had fun. 

I am still really feeling mom's death when we do family dinner. We have a big empty spot where she should be.  

Sale

Well, we had the estate sale at my mom’s house today. It was a really long day. I can’t say we had a great turnout, but we had people there. Ha ha ha probably half of them were related to us. And then another bunch were mom’s neighbors. 

We posted it on FB marketplace and had a bunch of people ask questions but my sister wasn’t interested in answering all of them and it looks like most weren’t willing to drive out and see for themselves. Plus, the rules in the neighborhood said no garage sales and we got away with it because it was mostly indoors and we didn’t stick signs out all over the road. I think if we could have had a sign out, it would have got the casual people in. In hindsight, we probably should have posted a sign and then just taken it down if someone complained. Oh well. 

We really did get rid of a lot of things. The only really large items left are a dresser and the washer/dryer. Plus a few small things like side tables. What we didn’t get rid of is glassware (and we did get rid of some of it, but there was a lot) and a lot of the holiday decorations. She had so many decorations. So many. My sisters are still posting a few things for free on FB in case anybody is willing to take them. I just don’t care and am kind of done with it, at least for today for sure. 

So now we empty and clean it up a bit. LOL I’m not thinking about that for a few days, at least. 

Sorting and More Sorting

I’ve now spent a chunk of the day for the last 3 Saturdays cleaning out and sorting my mom’s house. Most of the family has been chipping in and helping. She had so much stuff in that house. It’s hard to believe that we already cleaned out when they moved and downsized. We’ve thrown out so much food storage that was either opened and we couldn’t figure out what it was, or it was expired. We thought we were almost done until today when we opened a few cupboards we hadn’t been in. She had so much home canned foods. We divided up a lot of it but just could not take it all. I have no idea where I’m going to put everything I brought home. But I will be enjoying some home canned food this year for sure. And planning meals around some of it to get it used up before it goes bad. 

She would kill us for the mess her house is in right now, but there’s no getting around it. We had to get stuff out of places to see what it is. We are planning right now to have an estate sale in 2 more weekends. Hopefully, the weather is nice. We are “selling” most of the stuff for free, if only somebody will take it. So I’ve got 2 more weekends of being over there and then we’ve decided to take a break over Easter weekend and then General Conference weekend. After that, we will be making runs to the thrift store and dump. We do hope to have it up for sale sometime in April though. 

I’ve got my own goal to start getting my crap in order as well. I bought a book I can write in to help me get it organized but I’m going to get it done this year for sure. My own house is kind of filled as it is. Ha ha ha… 

One Week Back

So I went back to work this week and it was nice to be on a schedule. Helps things feel a little more normal, even though there’s a big, gaping hole in my life. It was good to work. Still not sure how I’m really feeling. I think I’m finally starting to actually miss her. Not that I wasn’t before, but I didn’t see or talk to her every day so it’s normal to go for a few days without talking to her. Then it hits me again. And our family chat is silent now. I miss all her silly comments. 

We had a call with an estate lawyer today and I have an appointment set up to go into his office next week.  So the ball is rolling on that one. Tomorrow we will do some more cleaning out of the house. This is life now and how most of my weekends will be for a little bit until the house is empty. 

Cleaning out the House

Well, the funeral service for my mom was nice. I think she would have been happy with it. The chapel was full with friends and family. Myers Mortuary really has the process down and they ran everything so smoothly. It was so nice to be taken care of so well. It was not a large crowd at the luncheon but plenty of family there and it was nice to just talk to a lot of them. We really need to try and meet again somewhere other than funerals. 

I expected to be numb on Friday but was actually antsy and wanted to do something. So I did the project I had been thinking about to turn my spare bedroom/office into just an office. My sister and nephew helped get the bed out of there (it went to my sister’s house) and then I took one of mom’s chairs. I’ve got one more small table type of thing ordered, which is going to be a plant stand of sorts. And I started cleaning out the closet and bins that were stored under the bed. I’ve still got some sorting to do, but it feels good to have started. 

Today we all met at mom’s house to start cleaning out the food and food storage. We cleaned out so much from the old house before they moved here, but I cannot believe what she was storing. We threw a lot of stuff away. It was open and some of the grains we didn’t even know what they were. I have a bunch of her home canned food now. I’m trying to be intentional in the stuff I take from her home. I don’t need more stuff just because it’s nice or was hers. Ha ha I talked myself out of some bread pans and when I got home,  I found they were the same as what I have. So I need to be careful and remember I’m trying to clean out my house as well. We still have a really long way to go, but it was nice to all be there working together as a family. 

So I have a lot of pasta and fruit and vegetables to eat up now. I’ve eaten out too much these last 2 weeks so I think it will be nice to start cooking again. I think I can eat pretty healthy with all the food I now have (including what I had before) and just shopping for a few fresh things when I need them. For sure, I will be meal planning around what I have in the pantry. 

Today

Well, birthday shopping month has not turned out like I had planned. My mom died on February 14 due to liver failure. She basically went to sleep and never woke up. We had moved her to a hospital down in Murray and they evaluated her and told us they couldn’t do a liver transplant. We thought we would be able to move her to a care center with hospice like we did for my dad, but the doctor said it would be minutes to hours before she died once we stopped the medication keeping her heart beating. It was about 3 hours, I think. It’s been rough.

My birthday was a few days later and I just really didn’t want to celebrate but I decided to have the family over for cake and ice cream since the kids like that. It was nice, although a hard day. I do not feel like book shopping right now though I know one day I will get back to it. 

I took this entire week off from work. The funeral is on Thursday and we’ve got everything planned and ready to go. So today I didn’t have anything much to do. I decided to have a day for myself. I slept in and went to the grocery store. I think I’ll go for a walk in a little bit, even though it’s raining and drizzly. Still my favorite kind of weather. Some friends/neighbors brought me dinner last night and it’s so much food, I have enough for a few days. Shepherds Pie and brownies. It is so yummy, and a wonderful comfort food. 

I bought myself leftover Valentine’s flowers at the grocery store. They are so bright and pretty. Truly, joy can be found in the hard times. 

We started cleaning out mom’s house already, mostly for something to do, plus it will need to be sold before we can pay the medical bills. Right now I really don’t want to buy anything ever again. LOL When I think about all the stuff my mom has in that little house and I think about someone cleaning out my own little house, I think I want to be a little more circumspect and buy less stuff. And that fits right along with the theme for this year. It really hits home now though. 

Birthday Shopping Month 2024 Edition

Well, so far I was doing ok with the not spending money thing. I made it through January. Kind of. I went on a Georgette Heyer used book buying spree and ended up with 5 books.

But now it's birthday shopping month and I bought myself some presents already. 😇  I got myself 2 different 3-month subscription boxes. The first one is a "pamper yourself" type of book box and the other is body care/scent. Both things I love. I have a small list of things I'm out of cosmetic-wise that I'll be buying. And I will be going on a book browsing trip near my actual birthday. I've already pre-ordered the 2 books out this month that are must buys. So we'll see what happens with the book browsing. I'm sure I'll find something, but I'm trying to call that good. I'm still in the mood to not have a bunch of crap in my house and have another pile of things to donate. I'll make that a month goal as well, to get it out of my house. 

I also booked a mini vacation to San Diego in March, but that is up in the air now. My mom wanted to go and since she is not feeling well, I think we may be pushing that one out a little bit. Maybe we can go for her birthday this fall. We are waiting to see what the doctor says later today. I think I've pretty much decided that even if we don't go, I'm still taking the days off. 😊 I have plenty of vacation and it's already in my head that I won't be working. 

Life is good and hectic and fast and slow and just life. I'm happy to complete another rotation LOL.