Monthly Archives: October 2006

I am woman. Hear me roar.

Posted on by
Reply

On Wednesday morning I had a quiz (read: three pages of short answers) in Holistic Health. Before the quiz we meditated, and I couldn’t help but think what a great thing that would be to do before every quiz or exam. Relaxation and focus. And afterwards we watched a film on the chemical industry that was guaranteed to induce stress. Darn you, Bill Moyers. I went online later to check my grade, and found that not only did I pass my quiz, I’m passing all of my classes at the moment. With just six weeks to go in the semester. One word: yesssssssss.

For dinner that night we had homemade Minestrone Soup. De-li-cious. I still haven’t figured out how to achieve just the right consistency of beans, they’re either too crunchy or too mushy, but the soup was good regardless. Afterwards, I washed and cut Hannah’s hair. Her hair is very curly, and to ‘wash’ means to lather her hair with enough conditioner to enable working through it without tangles. I know most people dry cut curly hair, but it turned out fine, and she looks really good (and quite a bit older *sniff*) I also made another batch of baked oatmeal for the next morning, and prepared our chicken roast.

Thursday morning I cooked the oatmeal, put the chicken in the crockpot, made breakfast for Papa, fed the animals, took a shower, and got ready for school. And after class I came home and helped Stephen perfect his Halloween costume for the youth group party that night. You know you live in Maine when you dress up like an authentic lumberjack and don’t actually have to buy anything.

After dropping Stephen off at youth group, Mom, Hannah and I went clothes shopping for Hannah. Five shirts at Goodwill, plus a hoodie, dress shirt, and two pairs of pants at J.C. Penny. The girl is looking good. We also went to Wal-Mart *shudder* to get some fabric for Hannah’s witch cape, and then to Home Depot to pick out carpetting for the livingroom. My feet were KILLING me, and I was very happy when we picked up The Boy and went home to watch The Office. 

My roast chicken ended up overcooking and turning to a yummy crockpot stew. I went back for seconds…and thirds.

Got up this morning, and repeated the procedure. Fed the rabbits. Fed the cats. Cooked another batch of baked oatmeal, started heating the soup for our dinner. Made Papa’s breakfast, and delivered it to him along with breakfast for Beeper. Then I planned out the meals for the coming week. I’ve completely taken over grocery shopping, and for six people I have a weekly budget of $300. Definitely do-able, but the key is to eat as healthy as possible, and a weekly menu really helps with that.

So pulled together a shopping list and headed out. First to Blue Seal to buy cat litter, rabbit food, and hay. Then to the grocery store. It’s amazing how much food six people go through in a week. If I did a trip like that every day I’d be buff in no time. It got to the point where people would see my cart and give me sympathetic glances; here I am, with my ponytail and flyaway curls, heavy scarf hanging down to my knees, looking all of fourteen years old and pushing a cart so full I can barely see over.

Reason #1 why Emily will never find a guy at a grocery store: loading a couple hundred pounds of food into the back of a minivan doesn’t exactly scream ‘Available’. 

Anyway, I came home, put the groceries away (the kids at least brought them inside for me), and enjoyed some delicious soup and hot French bread. Tres magnifique.

So I’ve done a lot in the past three days. Sure, I bustled about like little Susie Homemaker (I even have the apron), but I also had a long conversation with my mom and snuggled with my sister. I may be pursuing a degree at a university, but I also took the time to learn from my Dad. Those things are more important. That’s what it’s all about, anyway. 

Papa and his pal

Posted on by
2

I know I haven’t written much about my grandfather in the past couple months. He’s doing well, though the Alzheimer’s is progressing just as we knew it would. He forgets the name of his hometown but he’s convinced that he needs to go back and live there. He gets lost in our house, yet he still wants to know why he can’t drive, or ride a bike. And the thing of it is, he does have his lucid moments, where he understands what’s going on and can participate in a conversation the same way he would have 5 or 10 years ago.

The main problem is that he doesn’t have much of a life here. Not he doesn’t enjoy our company, but just that the last few years of Papa’s independent life were spent on the road. He was always going somewhere. He’d drive an hour north to see us, stay for ten minutes, and drive back home. It didn’t matter where he was going, just that he was moving. And now we’ve had to take that away from him, and he’s lost that part of himself, the part that represented his self-sufficiency. He knows that, we know that. It kinda sucks, to be honest, but what can you do? Every single time we take him out it turns into an argument about why he can’t drive. No amount of redirecting and polite answers will calm him down, and how can you argue with someone who is largely irrational?

Papa has found ways to keep himself occupied now that he’s here. He goes for walks several times a day, plays his accordian, and watches sports (he was a coach for nearly 60 years) Every night before dinner he sits and reads the same magazine, and every night after dinner he dances with my mom. And now, he has Beeper.

Beeper is our 17 year old semi-feral cat. She hates the other cats with an undying passion, and even though she’s 1/3 his size, she nevertheless thinks that she can beat up PJ, our largest cat. She’s always been a loner. It was over ten years after we found her that she finally started making the house her home, rather than her source of food. So Beeper lives in the addition of our house, and she loves it out there. It’s spacious, it’s quiet, and she has the whole thing to herself.

Even though she can be moody and demanding, she loves her people, especially Papa. And to that end, she has moved herself into his apartment. It started when she’d slip in to join him on the couch for a football game. Then the other morning, I couldn’t find her anywhere, and when I went in to serve Papa breakfast there she was, sound asleep on his bed. Since she wanted to be in there, and Papa kept letting her in, why not?

Well, Papa is thrilled. He’s always had pets, but we didn’t want to buy any new ones when he moved in because it would just be too much work, and the responsibility would rest solely on us. We never imagined one of our pets would adopt him, and Papa is constantly tending to her, making sure she has fresh water and food, not letting her outside at night, giving her comfy places to sleep. They’re two old peas in a pod.

changes at the zoo

Posted on by
1

- Peanut walked out of the pen and explored my bedroom for the first time in four months. Even though she still prefers the security of the pen walls, I am completely thrilled. She’s such a brave girl. Meanwhile, Rex has been running and binkying his heart out – I keep having to remind myself that he’s seven years old. He certainly doesn’t act his age.

- Stephen’s bedroom now has a screen door, so that PJ can see/hear/interact with the other cats even when they’re not meeting face-to-face. Having him be more a regular part of the household means that the girls are finally working out their territoriality and redirected-aggression, and we’re finally making positive progress.

- Beeper has officially moved in with my grandfather. She’s been living in the addition of the house since mid-summer, preferring to camp out in the storage room where it’s quiet and there are multiple levels of boxes to lounge on. But with the cold weather she’s found that Papa’s heated apartment is much nicer than the storage room, so we moved her litterbox and dishes over. Right now she’s curled up on his bed, sound asleep. He’s happy to have a little companion, and she’s happy to still have a low-key place to stay (at 17, she’s earned the peace and quiet)

- Beeper has also transitioned herself to raw food. She was the most stubborn, intractable cat when it came to making the switch, refusing any and all fresh meat in favor of Fancy Feast *blech* But last week, after she broke into a fresh package of chicken wings, I thought I’d give it another try. She’s been wolfing down breast meat, livers, and hearts, and has now stopped eating Fancy Feast altogether. Just goes to show you that cats will do what they want to do when they want to do it. My biggest concern is that she cannot chew bones and she detests the smell of supplements, so grinding whole prey, along with chunks of meat and organs, is going to be our best bet. Let’s just hope she doesn’t mind the texture. Crazy animals…they certainly keep me on my toes.