Home again, home again

Himself and I spent a long weekend at my mom’s. It was an extremely quiet time. Mom is about to turn 79–we’ll be heading out there again in a few weeks to celebrate that day. Mom’s been dealing with chronic health problems since childhood, and at this point is fairly frail and can’t get around much. Part of the reason for that, ironically, is the stuff she needs to take to stay semi-functional–the pain meds for the crippling arthritis, the asthma inhalers, etc.–leave her drowsy enough she loses . She’s trying to switch around the timing on some of the medications so the worst of the fatigue will hit her at night. Himself and I are trying to come up with various ways to help her–for instance, we left her 6 or 8 wholesome pre-made dinners in the freezer, since she admitted she’d been eating TV dinners or cereal a lot because cooking was too much trouble some nights. She lives a 6-hour drive away, and there are good reasons for her not to move to Massachusetts and for us not to move to central New York, so there’s only so much we can do.

I try not to worry about her too much. If any of you are in a similar situation with aging parents, though, you know that I do.

Because of the trip, and a cool, damp, rainy week, I have little to report for the Independence Days challenge.

Plant something: nothing

Harvest something: Kale, cutting celery

Preserve something: Nada

Waste not: Not even all the usual stuff, since Mom doesn’t compost. We did make sure to recycle, which she usually doesn’t.

Want not: Nothing

Eat the food: Used cutting celery, home-canned tomatoes, and beef from a previous stock-up in the food we left for Mom. Dried apples for road snacks.

Support local food systems: Bought a half-gallon of maple syrup direct from a producer near Mom’s.

Skill up: Nothing.

In other news, Blood and Lotuses was rejected by Samhain. It was one of the most positive, upbeat rejections I’ve received in a long time–very clear that the editor thought it was a good book, but not right for the line. (I hadn’t been sure about that myself; it’s a very dark fantasy and while there’s a strong romantic element that’s central to the plot, the icky factor is rather high–everything from bloody sacrifices to pedophiles.) Now I have to decide whether to try self-publishing or send it elsewhere.