Day 12 - 20

Well, I've been away for awhile because on Wednesday morning as I took the morning off work to take my Mom to breakfast before she headed back up to Northern California, she fell in front of the restaurant and broke her shoulder. I can't tell you how I wanted to go back in time. I also can't tell you how ironic it was for me because I NEVER call in to work and say I'm going to be a little late today. I am religiously there ON TIME every single day. I have so many sick days stacked up because I am always there. On Tuesday two of my coworkers were encouraging me to call in late the next morning so I could spend some time with my Mom. I have to admit, I felt a bit guilty as we headed out to breakfast. Can you imagine the guilt I felt when Mom fell and in the E/R I find out her shoulder is broken. God, I wish I could go back in time. Anyway, I know things happen for a reason and I do know that this was not "punishment" for my taking off work but you have to admit it's pretty ironic, isn't it?

Well, I drove Mom back home and for 5 days I cared for her, taking care of cooking, grocery shopping, laundry and bathing her. I did a few out of the ordinary thing for her when I was there that made me smile. She has to save quarters to do her laundry and she is always scraping around to find enough to do a load or two. So without her knowing I went to the bank and got her a roll of quarters that I stashed in the pill bottle where she keeps her quarters in her laundry bag. (Hee, hee). I also took her car and filled it up with gasoline. And when I grocery shopped for her I didn't use her debit card like she told me to. She lives on a very fixed income (social security) and I just wanted her to have a little cushion...a fridge full of groceries, a tank of gas (and LOTS of quarters for laundry) that she didn't have to pay for herself. Even now, in the retelling, I am smiling and my heart feels happy!

After many phone calls we found a couple caregivers and arranged for them to come in and help throughout the week and I returned home very late on Sunday. My 19 year old son drove up to get my and drove me home. That was a gift for ME. We had wonderful conversation on the way home and he even tried to find music that I would enjoy listening too.

Monday was back to work and I have to say the week has been a blur since then. I've had LOTS of needy students wanting to see me and have spent many hours behind closed doors counseling and consoling. On Tuesday, I baked peanut butter cookies from scratch for my husband as a gift for him and my sons. I have not baked cookies for about 15 years so this was quite the monumental occasion! The cookies turned out beautifully and everyone raved about them. I think I may have found a new therapy for those days when I am stressed out and generally overwhelmed and spent. The plus at the end is that I get to eat the cookies too!!! I guess I better be careful because the way my life has been going it looks like I'm going to be baking A LOT....and that could mean gaining LOTS of weight! I've already planned out the birthday cake that I am going to bake for my husband on Sunday....We've been married 20 years and I've never baked him a cake. Weird...I'm becoming more domesticated....Hmmmmm.

Today was another very busy day with many needy students. In the heat of it all one of my gifts was comforting a co-worker who had been so rudely and unjustly cussed out by an angry parent, not once but TWICE! My heart broke for her because she is an amazingly caring person who is so wonderful with our students and that parent must have been smoking something to say the things she did to this sweet lady. Anyway, I let her cry on my shoulder and offered her kleenix, water and the use of my private office until she could compose herself.

My second gift was 2 1/2 hours spent with a student in crisis and I am very happy to say she is now getting the professional help that she so desperately needs. I would have had to get her the help with or without her consent but after all the time we spent she consented and that made me so very proud of her and how brave she was. She will be in my thoughts and prayers that she can turn her life around and realize that she deserves a long and joyful life.

I realize that all of these things I would have done anyway, even before reading 29 gifts...taking care of my Mom, comforting a co-worker, and giving of my time to my students but I am still counting them as gifts....Sometimes after a long day of giving to my students at work and then coming home and giving to my family in the form of a meal, grocery shopping, laundry etc. I feel I have nothing left to give or no energy to think of something out of the ordinary to do for this 29 day giving challenge. I'm not really sure if I'm on the right track with this or not but I'm going to press forward and see what the next 9 days brings. I sorta think I will begin again after the 29 days. I want to keep expanding my understanding of giving...

Oh, I almost forgot to write about a gift that I received today. I had stopped by Trader Joe's on the way home to pick up a few things for dinner and they had those wonderfully, yummy cookies called Peppermint Jo Jo's. I threw them in my basket but when the guy rung me up he forgot to ring up the cookies. He realized it just as my debit transaction was finished processing so he said, "Enjoy the cookies on us". I gratefully accepted his gift! What a treat!

Well, here I am revisiting and editing this blog for the second time. I just stopped and thought about all the gifts I was given in the days 12-20. I want to list them here:

* A phone call from my friend, Kathy, with lots of natural remedies to ease my Mom's discomfort.
* My husband shopped for a meal and did a load of laundry on Sunday (after driving home from his parents house in Southern California), so that I wouldn't have to worry about that my first day back.
* A friend who graciously listened as I vented all my frustrations from a very stressful week.
* The gift of love and hugs from my friends Eric and Marissa when I was feeling very low.
* My son brought home a peanut butter cookie for me from his work on Wednesday.
* All the many friends at work who stopped to ask how my mom is doing and how I am doing.

I am sure I am forgetting some...It's been a crazy week.

I am so blessed and have so much to be thankful for!