Autumn Brings Care-Giving Family Time

While we have enjoyed time exploring Alaska, the west coast, and Newfoundland this spring and summer, fall usually brings us closer to our roots for more family time. This year's family time took a twist when we got the call that Denisa's Mother, Betty, had been exposed to Covid. She was visiting a friend from college, who didn't know she had been exposed several days before. Sure enough, Betty eventually started feeling bad and tested positive herself. She's already had two vaccine shots, so we were hoping that her case would be light. She ended up in the hospital when her oxygen level dropped a little, and a couple days on oxygen were enough. But she was weak from the virus, and couldn't care for herself. It's an interesting problem when one isn't sick enough for the hospital, but still needs help, but they are contagious with the dreaded Corona virus. We were glad that the hospital in Beaver offers respite care, where she could get help until her ten days (the CDC's definition of being contagious) were over. We drove to pick her up at the hospital the day she was released. After being in isolation for ten days, she was happy to be outside. Still very weak, she was glad to be back home and around people again. This 91-year-old had survived Covid 19! We didn't take any pictures at the time, but we'll include one from later to report that she is doing better.

We spent the next few days washing all the clothes and dishes and surfaces around her house that might have any trace of the virus. The CDC has changed their mind many times concerning how long Covid can linger, and we washed and lysoled everything just to be sure. After cleaning and taking care of Denisa's Mother for four days, we delivered her to Denisa's sister on our way to another care-giver gig. This one was in the Kansas City area, and we are on the opposite end of the age spectrum this time. From a 91-year-old patient, we are going to take care of a 3-year-old granddaughter, and a grandson that hasn't yet had a first birthday. We headed to our son and daughter-in-law's house. 

We have to sneak in some pictures of our beautiful grandbabies!

But the real reason we came this time was because our son was having foot surgery. He'll literally be off his feet for a week, so we are here to care for him and these babies, while his wife is getting scuba certified this weekend.

We had some great weather for some trips to the park while Luke had his foot up at home.

We also did some exploring around the neighborhood. That's where you find interesting things like inch-worms, that Carter loves to hold.

She loaded the inch-worm into the wagon, and we took it for a walk.

We've been on a lot of hikes and walks in our travels, but we can't say that we've ever taken a worm for a walk before. We had no idea how many times a three-year-old has to stop and check on the welfare of that worm, so it was a very loooooong walk.

Our destination was to see the neighborhood horses, and Carter was a little disappointed that they weren't interested in her worm. But we were so pleased that Mary came out to see us while we visited her horses. She had treats that the horses were very interested in, so it was a great walk around the neighborhood! Special greetings to our friend Mary!

This care-giving stint was lots of fun, filled with making more day-to-day memories.

Because it is fall, we celebrated with baking a giant pumpkin cookie. Carter was being careful until she figured out that the more frosting you get on your fingers, the more you get to lick off.

She was also in charge of the sprinkles. A pumpkin can never have too many sprinkles!

Earlier we blogged about our new-found rubik's cube skills. Well, we are passing on our new skills. Home from scuba-class, Jordan was a great student. She was enthusiastic about learning how to solve a cube.

Luke was less enthusiastic about this new skill.

But when you spend a week with your foot propped up, it seems a good use of time.

Eli was also fascinated with the cube, and he's almost got it figured out.

On another beautiful weather day, we made a trip to the Red Barn Farm near Weston, Missouri.

Carter was happy with this trip, because they have horses!

And she has a Grand-dude that will pretend to be a horse and give her rides,

and Gram will give rides in the wheelbarrow.

Thanks Jordan for taking us to the farm today!

This fall's stint of care-giving has run the gamut from Covid-19 to foot surgery; from a 1-year-old to a 91-year-old; from pumpkin cookies to pumpkin patches. Happy autumn while we're off the road for a while for a little care-giving family time!