🦞 Locked down no longer but still firm friends 🦞

Good Morning 🙂

Ixion - you have distracted me from being gainfully employed in sorting stuff before it goes back on top of the cupboards because it might come in handy one day like old cold bags and bread baskets!

Decorator goes like a steam train when she's here but has a tendency to take random time off. She's a no show today because her son is unwell. I think her life is chaotic and it dents her professionalism. She's a terrific decorator but not a person who copes well with juggling life's curved balls.

So today I shall breathe and sort stuff and walk Aoife. Mr M has gone to get his feet done so all is calm and pleasant!

Spud is going great guns and is at that stage where they suddenly become small boys rather than babies.....why is it that we miss the baby bit when it's over but while they're babies we can't wait for them to grow up and talk/walk/dress themselves/earn a living/leave home?

Love to the Doodles

Grammaretto my mother-in-law's family were/are Swedish and about six years ago we took her to see her father's home as a child and we took her to where as a young girl she had visited relatives. She had been back as a young mum with my husband and sister but she hadn't been back till the 1980s. On the visit 6 years ago when we took her, we met the husband of this couple - and also a wide range of related and semi-related people - but it was pretty much all at once so it was overwhelming!

This time we just had the couple to concentrate on so have had anecdotes and stories which have helped bring wider family to life - the one who made shoes and eventually set up a factory, the brothers who argued over some promised property, the one who married twice and moved away... There are also lots of educated women in my mother-in-law's family - which is surprising given it was a pretty rural area - and this is going back some way - a Chemists, a botanist, several teachers of science and maths and even an engineer.

I can't place everyone of course but it did make me feel that there were lots of real people there - just like us, with hopes, dreams, aspirations and tribulations. Of course we know all this intellectually - but it makes them all feel closer somehow.

. ..and, I am SO grateful that they made this trip to see my mother-in-law. That was a real gift.

We have arrived at the hospice. It is beautiful and peaceful. DH in a lot of pain but hopefully they will help with that.
Thinking of you all x

Oh, that's such good news, Doodle.
Hospices are second to none in dealing with intractable pain.
Thinking of you, as ever.

Oh Doodle, you must have finally exhaled a great breath today if it is beautiful and peaceful!

I'm sorry to hear your dear husband is still in a lot of pain but I feel sure you are now in the right place to get proper help with that.

I hope you manage to get some sleep yourself now. Sending prayers.
X

Dearest Doodle & Mr D I'm glad it's beautiful and peaceful, just what you both need. You will, at last, have surroundings of hope and comfort where you can both rest.
Much love as always xxxx

Dear Doodle, I am so glad you are there and it's beautiful and peaceful
I hope you have been able to sleep properly and DH is not in so much pain.

My coughing is much better but now I don't know if it's the medicine, the daily turmeric, the absence of dairy since I have been avoiding it, or the 100 day cough has had its time.
Whatever, I slept almost all night.

I have just picked some lily- of- the- valley and columbine. For you Doodle.

The flowers

Thanks for our pin-up boy Mamissimo. 😋 yum

What an interesting story NotSpag. It must have been so nice for DMiL and for you that they made the effort to see her again.

Yes, definitely Grammaretto
I felt probably even more grateful than my mother-in-law - because to me, travel in your 80s is going to be exhausting and they barely had time to catch their breath in 2 days... But to my mother-in-law who travelled up to a few years ago (96 ish) they are still young enough to be gadding about!

Having said that, the wife of her cousin had just come back from 12 weeks in California helping with her grandchildren (driving them to school, packing lunches, ferrying to things etc) whilst her daughter was busy with some work something or other!

*Thank you for the flowers Grammaretto. We’ve had a lovely day. DH been outside in the sunshine on his bed. He was happier than I’ve seen him for ages. He had a long one to one chat with our DGS which was good for them both and visits from the rest of the family too. I can’t believe how peaceful it is here after 4 weeks in a high dependency unit with all the noise, it’s so quiet.
Much love to all x

Sorry forgot the bold

That's so nice to hear Doodle. The peace and being able to be outside must be wonderful after the stuffy, noisy ward.

How good too that Mr D has had chats with your DGS as well as other family.

You must be feeling a huge sense of relief, or maybe just exhaustion.

Has Jeeves found you yet?

My thoughts exactly Grammaretto - and such a relief to feel happier at last

Wishing you and your lovely caring family more sunny days ahead
🌞

Funnily enough Grammaretto Jeeves has found us. Heavily disguised as a more mature lady, he comes round every night with a heavily laden drinks trolley. DH and I are doing our best to lighten the load for him 🍷

Ah, there's a Mrs Little rather than a Jeeves in the hospice then Doodle, it would be wrong not to try to divest her of some of the contents of her trolley 😊. I'm pleased that Mr D is in such a beautiful peaceful place and that he's happier than he's been in in long time. You sound more relaxed too, which is good to hear x.

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Good morning from here 🦞
I hope everyone has had a good night - and those in a different time zone will have a good night shortly - I'm waking to a lovely bright day I think.

I'm so, so pleased that the Doodles are settling into their new routine and I had hoped that maybe Mr. D would be able to feel the sun on his face once more. As you say, so far removed from the hustle and bustle and regime of acute wards. I think, too, Doodle, that _ you_ will be looked after as well, which is as it should be.

First appointment yesterday with a (NHS funded) physio for what a scan should confirm as a degenerative sports rotator cuff injury. Lovely girl, three weeks into her job, having arrived from Brisbane on a 3 year working visa with her chap.

She had that insouciance found both in the young and in those from the Antipodes. Chewing gently and nodding encouragingly at everything I proferred, she responded with that young person's stock response - 'cool'.
As in 'now that hurts'. 'Cool'.
'Ouch'. 'OK, cool.'

But a charmer, and amazingly effective. My range of movement was vastly improved by the end. She has emailed me my own personalised rehab plan. I think it needs a second set to show me how to get up from the floor at the finish.

So pleased Mr and Mrs Doodle are now enjoying the peace and tranquility they so deserve. Enjoy the pretend Jeeves drinks trolley. Sending love x
Mamissimo Spud is soooo gorgeous. Could give him a big cuddle!
We are at the Norfolk Broads for a week and it’s HOT! Too hot for me but DH is stupidly sitting out there watching the boats go by at the bottom of the garden. Tonight we are off to our favourite fish restaurant!

I am so very, very pleased to read that the Doodles have escaped to the peace of the Hospice. Such a relief.

What a little corker of a lad Spud is growing into. If he needs boy sitting at any time, I'm sure one of us will step up to the challenge!

Have a lovely time on the Broads Jan. I'm missing our little boat terribly.

I may be absent for a couple of weeks as life is getting slightly hectic. But I will try to lurk even if I don't have time to post much!

Love to the Doodles xx

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