Where's Waldo?

Let's play Where's Waldo but play it with specks on the floor.  Can you find them?

One of Mom's obsessions is little bits of nothing on the floor.  When she finds one she bends down without her cane, licks her finger to make it sticky, then picks up the dust mote and puts it in her other hand while she totters around the floor picking up other dust motes.  When her hand is full of bits of

nothing then she wants to put them in the trash can but can't get there without her cane which she has left on the other side of the floor.

Dust motes will distract her on the way to the bathroom, bedroom for naps or to sleep the night, and to meals.  I especially need patience when she does it on the way to dinner because then she has to wash her hands, and she will probably be distracted again before she makes it to the table.

Being able to see these tiny flecks of nothing is a new thing Mom has taught me.  I now see them everywhere.  For everyone I pick up I see two more. Kinda like the hairs on my chin. 

If I don't pick up the petite particles then Mom will be stressed about them.  I have tried hard to be a good daughter but after a couple of weeks of picking them up to make Mom happy, I have started kicking them under the furniture.  What Mom can't see won't bother her.

What do people with dementia pray for?

I won't post a picture of Mom praying since it is a sacred time for her but she prays on her knees every night.  She's 92, walks with a cane, and kneels for prayers every night.  What a lesson for me who finds excuses not to kneel when I pray.  I have to remind myself that Christ died for me so the least I can do is kneel for him.

With Mom's dementia I wonder what she prays for?  I spend lots of time in my prayers telling God what I want and suggesting ways He can do a better  job.  I bet Mom spends her time in gratitude.

Why stitches in the title of the Blog?

I have been a fabric artist for a number of years now.  I started out with embroidery that Mom taught me when I was 10 and then moved onto quilts in my 20s.  My 30's was consumed with taking care of children.  In my 40s I started making more modern quilts and in my 50s I started dyeing my own fabric and adding surface design.  I thought living with Mom would be a good time to go back to some of the earlier work that was more stitching and less dyeing and other messy processes. And Mom might like to sit and stitch with me.  Something we can share.  So, that is why the blog is about stitching as well as living with my Mom.

Here is the first hand stitching project.  This is a wall hanging I started years ago and was never satisfied with.  It is titled "She Thinks She is the Center of the Universe (but she isn't)."  I named it after my daughter--you know who you are.  If you look really close you can see a face in the middle of the pink aura.  Anyway, staying with Mom was my chance to work on it some more. 

Well, it's kinda my chance to work on it.  Mom doesn't believe in having on unnecessary lights.  I can have the lights on at night  but it worries Mom.  So, I have to work on my wall hanging of the night time sky during daylight.  

And Mom says she doesn't like to sew.

Did you know you should wash your dryer's lint trap?

 

The washer and dryer in Mom's house are in the hallway leading to the small bathroom.  Yesterday Mom felt the need to check the washer and the dryer.  I had left some clothes in the washing machine.  Mom said I should never do that.  Actually Mom had already taught me that and I was just being lazy.   Before Mom put the clothes in the dryer for me she checked the dryer's lint trap.  It still had lint in it from my last load of laundry.  I always hand remove the lint before I start the dryer with the next load of laundry.  Yesterday I learned that just scrapping the lint off the filter was not enough.  The lint filter needs to be washed in the kitchen sink to make it really lint free.

Who knew?