and a few days off....

 ...oops.  There's always so much to ramble about, too!  My sister and I went out to lunch with our aunt the other day, my father's sister. He was one of 12, now only two aunts remain.  One lives in Ohio and is developing dementia, and this nearby Aunt has been a widow for years now, and has no children.  

So, we went to Panera for lunch, and sat there for three hours.:). My sister is good company anyway, always has been.  After we brought Aunt Barb home, we went to Target...and the grocery store, and it was like old times, except we didn't have the big van full of kids.  

Yesterday I took a swim in our pool in the morning, then went on a long drive down the thruway, to Sonja's NY state nursing exam.  It's a knee-shaking nail biter, I guess.  She went in, I said a prayer for her, then drove off...there were SO many stores around there, and...I ended up in Walmart, a huge Walmart.  It was hot and muggy outside, and cool and comfortable in the store.  I was able to wander to my heart's content, no-one rolling their eyes, or putting things in the cart we don't need, except for me ha.  

We needed: 2 four dollar beach towels, all bright and new and not ripped, 2 bags of monk fruit sweetener marked down from $9.98 to $1.50, 2 Starbucks Blonde Roast Iced Coffee/Cold Brews, one lunch box from the clearance aisle, you put the whole thing in the freezer, then pack your lunch in it ($4).  We needed a package of cute little  3 oz. cups for the grandkids, a few packages of pepperoni, a package of socks for Miss Camille who was lamenting she didn't know where one sock in every pair seems to disappear to...and whatever else adds up to a hundred ten dollars.  ugh.  

I found my way back to the building the test was in, driving in unfamiliar places with loads of traffic isn't really my thing.  I turned off the car and opened the windows, and ate some special almond flour low sugar keto cookies I had gotten at Aldi, and read some of my book...ahhh...then she walked out, fifteen minutes later!  

The test is designed to turn off after a certain amount of questions if you've done really well and passed, or if you've done horribly and failed.  You have to pay extra to find out sooner, and since this was taken on a Friday of a holiday weekend, she's not sure when she'll find out.  Remember, this is the FIFTH time I've gone through this with one of my kids...they love hearing me say these things, as if I think I've actually suffered a small percentage of their anguish, little do they know the pangs of hope and fear, the longing a mama feels for her kids to succeed.   

I am not a Helicopter parent.  Nor do I push my kids to do what I wish I could have done.  But I do try to support them, encourage them, praise them, be there for them.  

Anyway, pork chops on the grill, grilling in my bathing suit (I had taken a swim first, and was going to go back in after grilling, so classy...an old stretched out, at-home bathing suit ha)...and Margaret and Adrian arrived.  They were going out to dinner for Adrian's 30th birthday, and we were watching Wulf and Tennyson.  I did take them swimming after dinner, Tenny likes to play on the pool deck with Sonja, with the squirt guns, but Wulf likes to swim with me.

We went to the playground the other day...Kathryn with her baby, then Tennyson in blue hat, Achilles with his hat off, and Wulf in white hat...I had Rhys.  Grace also met us there with Grant and Ruth.

Tennyson feeding baby Jamison a bottle, his little cousin...Ten's going to be a big brother soon.

Grant, Achilles, Rhys, Tennyson

The sugar cookies I made with cake mix...

The dinner I made myself one night when I was here alone.  The chaffles are made with:  1 cup shredded mozzarella, 2 whipped eggs, splash vanilla, a bit of coconut flour, a bit of almond flour (like a tablespoon each), a little bit of baking powder.  They're so good, taste like a nice vanilla-y waffle...I had some sugar free whipped cream, too.  It's from Walmart, has no fake sugar, just doesn't HAVE sugar, love it, it's in the can, sqirt-y whipped cream.

Rhys...:)

So Grandma isn't happy where she is.  She gets confused.  She called yesterday and wanted to know why we put her in Willard, and why no one is coming to see her.  I explained to her that she's in Florida, that Willard (a mental institution with a huge horrible past, that's downstate from here) has been closed for years, and that we're here in New York...then she says, "Oh, I know that."  Imagine, every single day, you wake up and don't know where you are, and are angry at the world for leaving you there.  She doesn't remember that her daughter was down there with her when she first fell, (or sometimes that she even fell), her older son was there for a month, got her settled in, then we were there for five days...her youngest son will be there at the end of July...she knew that she was down there alone, for years, preferred it to NY, don't blame her, but now she's alone...and it's horrible. 

When she calls, I admit:  I'm tempted not to answer, but I usually do.  I can't be there with her, but I can tell her we love her, and explain where she is and what's going on.  She has a thought train that starts in:  The food is cold, my clothes aren't put away, I haven't had a shower since I've gotten here, no doctor or nurse has been in, ect.  These things aren't true, we saw when we were there that she forgot she ate lunch right after she ate it, and Paul is in contact with the social worker and staff co-ordinator there.  

So I shouldn't be sitting here, I have SO much to do!  Today is the start of our Summer Conference at church.  I've gathered up all the dollhouse stuff to bring out, and our ride-ons, and then the food. tablecloth, paper plates, ect..  Our camper is in no condition to stay in anymore, but we can still use our little yard, and hopefully one of these days we'll be able to get a newer, functioning camper.  But we can commute, and keep things simple...right now I'm blogging in my bathing suit, because I intend to get out there and move a bit in the pool before packing everything up.  

And...I need to move it!!!!