Mom the Independant

It has been a while since I wrote about my mom. She has been doing so well. I don't know what it was but once my aunt left for those two weeks, she was pretty determined to do a lot on her own. She insisted on staying alone at night which was great with not a ton of worry since Ren and Heidi are next door. She frequently sends me home early after all of the things are done for the day. She is really trying to do basis house keeping things at home too. She is also trying pretty hard to dress herself. Her bra was always a problem. Didn't matter if it was one that clasped in the front or the back. Those little hooks are tricky for anyone. She was so excited to tell me a couple of weekends ago that she did up her own bra. Huge accomplishment. We didn't need to go anywhere on Friday so I told her that she had to get herself completely dressed on her own. She needs the practice and we are usually in a hurry in the mornings so I do her socks/shoes. Not this morning or the afternoon for that matter. We could sit there for 6 hours if we needed to. Needless to say she was able to do it all including her brace and shoes which was HUGE. She thought that she could not do it until I made her. When she was able to get her shoe on over the brace by herself, she was floored. I don't think she believed that she really could do it. It was a real confidence booster for her. She has been reading the newspaper almost daily and a book about Mark McEwen, a former anchor for the Morning Show (I think that was the one), that suffered a stroke a few years ago. He wrote the book about his own stroke adventure. It was super easy to read and pretty interesting. I shared that with my mom and she started reading. It is great to see her reading on her own. Sometimes it feels like it takes so much energy to motivate her and then other times she does it on her own. Some days are bad and some are really great and fun. It changes daily. It also depends on what is happening that week. Some weeks are packed with extra appointments and some are just the normal things (like this week-we are so thrilled). Our months are starting to get a little more simple. It was crazy there for a while but all of her doctors appointments are starting to stretch months out which is super nice. We all really miss my dad (you reading this dad!). My mom misses him so much! People ask us all of the time when he will be coming back from Iraq. We now tell them anytime from September to December. We don't know. I am not really sure that my dad knows. It changes all of the time.

So whatever happened when my aunt was here, we are greatful. They must have had some sort of pep talk or my mom realized that she can do more than she was doing before. The change has been nice.