The best laid plans...

My eldest daughter and I started with a filling, but not so healthy, breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. After that, we made a quick stop at the storage unit and rearranged all the 'stuff' until it was safely and much more efficiently stored towards the back of the space. Feeling rather good about ourselves, we took off to Mom and Dad's house.

In all fairness, we probably assumed too much. I was planning on taking as much as possible to the storage unit in hopes of making their house easier to sell. Mom was thinking more in terms of emptying the contents back into the house. You can imagine the disagreements and confusion this caused until we all sat down and talked about our options.

Mom has a good point on the need to move back in. However, she also needs to get a couple loose ends wrapped up before we can make any significant progress on bringing furniture back into the house. She's going to work on that this week. My brother conceded that he could use the help in wrapping up the lingering items around remodel. He really deserves kudos for several reasons. Primarily for the devotion and effort he has put into making things right over the last few weeks. I'm sure it's been a difficult battle and I respect everything he's done to finish it. With a little help, I think all should be complete in a short time frame.

At the end of the day, we cleared out enough that Mom felt better about her current situation, if not great. We agreed to reconvene next weekend and try again, hoping that enough will be done on the house that we can actually empty it all out. I admire how Mom has endured and what she has accomplished over the last few weeks. She has compromised, conceded and used creativity to provide a safe and manageable situation for Dad, and still managed to retain her dignity and sanity.

Throughout the day, Dad was in the middle of everything. Sometimes pointing out what needed to happen, sometimes simply intervening between "lively discussions". We may not have always understood what he said, he may not have been able to walk everywhere he wanted to go, but he was clearly on top of the whole process.

Lunch with Mom and Dad

Not so many updates recently. Sorry about that, with Dad home I've gone back to working on my house and haven't been the diligent son/blogger. Let's see if I can do a little better this week.

After a call from Mom, I stopped by McAlister's and picked up a light lunch to share with the folks. It was pleasant, relaxing and something I plan on doing more often. In hopes that you never need the information, baked potatoes are almost the perfect food for somebody recovering from a stroke. The food sticks together, helping keep everything on your fork. It's easy enough to chew and swallow, and it still has flavor.

So are cookies, by the way.