Dot`sThoughts

Here it is, almost Christmas and I still have a lot left to get done before Christmas arrives. Seems like the older I get the later I get the gifts for everyone. Maybe that is because every year my family just keeps getting larger- either with more new great grandchildren, or more grandchildren getting married. Heard a while ago that there will be at least one new great grandchild again next year.
I have been busy trying to get enough crocheting done to help with the gifts. I try to spend at least one afternoon each week visiting my Aunt in the Nursing Home.
After losing my last brother in August, my 3 sisters and myself had the home place to clear out. My Dad built this house back in 1923 or 1924 and after my Father passed away in 1975, one of my brothers moved in with my mother and he remained in the home place after our mother passed away in 1995. About a year ago, a sister-in-law (the wife of my oldest brother Fred who died last year) bought the home place. In the Will our mother had given my brother Gerald the life use of the home, where he remained until he died this past August. Then the sister-in-law wanted her house and the garage cleaned out. Last month my three sisters and myself worked for weeks trying to get all the work finished. Was hard watching strangers buying so many items that once belonged to our parents and my brother. I never realized how much there was in the house that I had bought over the years for them. A few of them I brought back home with me. November was made even harder as the 13th was brother Fred`s Birthday and the 26th was brother Gerald`s Birthday. Lost our last Uncle just a couple months before Gerald. That took such a strain on my Aunt that a few months later she went into a Nursing Home. They had been Married for 67 years. Will be even harder for my Aunt when her Birthday comes in April as that is also her Wedding Anniversary date. She is 89 years old and I worry a lot about her health. When I visited her a couple days ago she was telling me about pain she had both in her chest and in her right arm and that she still didn`t feel quite right from it. She also told me that she did not mention it to either of her sons as she did not want them to worry. She told me in confidence so If I tell either of them I would be letting her down and she would feel she had no one left she could trust to talk to. The Nurses at the home know about it and it is their duty to let her son know. I do not know if they did . She told me she asked them to see a Dr. and she said they told her they could not call the Dr over everything that happens. Since I am just her niece, I have no authority, so can not do anything. A couple months ago she had an eye infection and I was told "she will see the Dr tomorrow as that is her scheduled time". A few days later, while we were attending my brother`s Funeral, I was told that she had been taken to the Hospital because the infection had gotten so bad she was running a high fever. If it had been my mother, I would have insisted she see a Dr when the eye infection was first noticed instead of letting it get that bad. I did tell both of her sons that if it was my mother I would have insisted. Her oldest son said it did not look that bad to him.

Then last month there was all the outside items to be taken care of before the snow arrived, plus all my outside plants that needed to be brought inside for the winter. Once all that was done, I covered the side porch with heavy plastic to keep the snow off the porch and to help break the wind when the door was opened. Next, I put some plastic over the kitchen windows to help make the kitchen warmer. I made a small table frame to hold the round table top for a place to get the plants all in one place and off the floor and in front of the smaller pitcher window -in the room that once was my dining room. Today this room holds my large horse collection and now also my house plants during the winter. Yesterday one daughter told me it looked like a garden with soo many plants. All of the Amaryllis plants are upstairs where they will rest till spring except if they blossom as Some usually do blossom during the winter.

Another thing I did last month was to help daughter Linda make new front porch steps- railings and all. Her old cement steps had some breakage, making them unsafe.
Since it would have cost her a lot to get someone to break up and remove the huge old steps, I decided to just extend the porch out a little so we could make new steps to just cover over top of the old ones. She has a Ranch style home with a porch extending all across the front of the house, so wider steps looks ok. Some of her neighbors came over to tell us how great they looked. I did all the head work, measuring and most of the cutting, but to make it more her work, I had her do all the drilling and all the screw driving. That way she could feel proud of the job and also learned more about how to make plans and work better with electric tools. She is a fast learner and a hard worker.

This month I went in half on a new snow blower. My daughter and her husband who live next door to me have been helping me shovel for the past few years. This way they have a better machine to remove the snow with and since they also do most of mine for me, I benefit by helping so they can buy a better one that should last for years instead of a small cheap one.

Guess I should stop writing and head off to bed as it is now 10 minutes of one in the morning. My Border Collie Sassy will be up early waiting for me to get up and let her out and then bring her back in to feed her. She is almost 14 years old and does not stay out very long now that it is so cold out. I have to chain her up every time she goes out as we have a dog confinement Law here. Only got about 2-3 inches of snow today before it started hailing out, but almost a foot the day before yesterday. So, winter snow is starting to pile up. Was in the teens F when I let her out this morning, and got up into the 20`s F during the day. It is about 30 F now. I went out and poured hot water (with some Dawn dish washing detergent in it) over the porch steps on all three of my porches to keep them from icing up. I also poured it over the dogs steps off the side porch to remove some ice that had started forming on them. Funny how hot water with the Dawn keeps the ice from forming instead of making more ice. But it works great as long as there is enough dish detergent added to the hot water.
Sorry it has taken me so long to get myself writing again. Am still quite busy with getting gifts made and bought, but will write again when I find some spare time.