Butternut squash parcel, salad, garlic bread

After yesterday’s flurry of productivity, I decided today would be a bit of a lazy day. All I did today was sort my meds, sort mum’s meds, arrange for someone to come and sort out our drains, refill the bird feeder¹, do some laundry, hang up the laundry to dry², respond to a couple of emails, help mum with the post, put the groceries away, and cook dinner.

The friend of mum’s who visited yesterday keeps telling me I need to find a job, whether paid or voluntary. Days like today are a good reason why I just look at her blankly when she says that. (Of course, she’s someone who runs a cattle farm, has her own separate business, volunteers for a couple of charities, and demonstrates her craft hobby publicly, so clearly lack of energy isn’t something that’s a problem for her.)

Those who have, like me, noticed how much better mum is when she’s been out with friends will, like me, be unsurprised that mum has been much better today.

One key thing, I’m realising, is to not react too much: if mum says she’s got nothing to do and is going back to bed, it’s best to just say “OK” rather than trying to talk her out of it. After a few minutes she’ll realise that I’m not going to do or say anything more, and usually gets up again.

She did so today, and was actually keen to go out for a walk with a friend this afternoon. The friend noted, as we were all enjoying a post-walk cup of tea / coffee, that mum seemed much brighter, so I know it’s not just my imagination.

The receipt of the letter from the Memory Service confirming mum’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s dimmed that brightness a bit: mum said she “doesn’t want to think about it”, but agreed with me when I suggested accepting the counselling around her diagnosis that they’re going to offer her. That’s a big thing, because mum has always been indifferent-to-negative when counselling has been suggested in the past.

After all that, I was quite glad that I’d forgotten to take the turkey mince out of the freezer this morning so I didn’t have to do anything with it and could just do a baking tray dinner. I had a butternut squash and chickpea parcel from Tesco; mum hates both those things so I cooked her a stuffed pepper instead. She enjoyed it; I was less pleased with my parcel, which had lots of slightly soggy pastry surrounding chickpeas and a small amount of sweet orange mush. I would have been better off with a pepper like mum, I think.

Now mum’s watching Strictly (of course she is), and I’m writing this before I go and do some washing up. Roll on bedtime, please.

1. During which I came very close to having a fall – only mum’s steadying hands kept me from a nasty fall onto concrete tiles. 😬 ↩︎
2. With both mum and the friend who was visiting watching my every movement, without it apparently occurring to either of them to ask if I needed help. ↩︎