“This is supposed to be the time of my life – the nest is empty; but now Mom needs me.”

Today we did some running around – grocery shopping first. My husband dropped us off thinking we’d be 30 minutes or so – Mom can’t usually last much longer than that. Well I guess that B12 she is taking is really kicking in because she had more energy today than I’ve seen in a long time. She wanted to do every isle and then the deli…. oh no, not the deli! She likes the deli because she can sample things – and usually not like any of it.

Finally she bought some tofu (protein – yay!) and then it was off to the salad bar. Really Mom? It’s not Marie Callender’s.  Then she spots something that looked familiar but she wasn’t quite sure what it was. It kinda looked like a kidney bean only white…. and bigger…. and flatter. So she stands there staring at it for what seemed to be forever, and then she grabbed the serving spoon. I knew exactly what was going to happen next, but before she had the chance I said “I don’t THINK so – that’s just wrong on every level.” I definitely got the evil eye, but she put the spoon down. That would have been embarrassing! Time to go…. next stop, the drug store.

As usual, I was just going to run in, grab her drugs, and run out. But, of course, Mom wanted to run in with me. Well, at 88 years of age there is no “running” in and there is definitely no “quickly” about it. But I complied (reluctantly) and off we went.

I’ll be honest, one of the hardest things having Mom with us is how our life has slowed down when we’re with Mom. My husband and I have so much energy and we love just whipping around places and getting things done. We never spend an hour or two grocery shopping, and  I’m just not ready to slow down. I think most of my stress comes from the waiting – it takes Mom 5 minutes just to slide her butt out of the car!

Later that night, Mom realized that her drugs came with the wrong lids – she needs the lids which are easier to get off. So she decided to call the drug store and let them know. Well, Mom is not the best with technology and the cell phone seems to confuse her more than anything, but she gave it a shot anyway. She dialed the number, but instead of pushing the “talk” button she pushed the “4” button which is right under the talk button and is also the speed dial for our son. Yup! You guessed it….  the phone rang right to CM. He answers and says, “Hi Grandmommy.” Well of course my mom is taken aback and asked, “Is this CVS?” Our son replied, “It’s CM, Grandmommy.”  After a few times back and forth of that, my mom finally said, “CM, what are you doing at CVS?”

Well you can imagine the conversation that came next…. you gotta love it!

What I Learned: I’m not ready to slow down but realize that one day,  I too will. Live it up while you can!