Three Beautiful Things 07/28/17: Mom's Peaceful Sleep, Hospice Nurse Visits Mom, A Relaxing Afternoon

1. I spent two hours with Mom this morning, starting at 8:30. When I arrived, she was sitting in her wheelchair in her pajamas. I walked in and greeted Mom and she replied, "Well, hi Bill! How are things on the home front?" After I told her things were pretty good, she told me she wanted to lie down and Misty came in and helped her go back to bed.

Mom fell immediately asleep. For the first since I returned from Eugene, Mom fell into a peaceful sleep. She looked serene and was only a little bit fidgety and rarely twitched. We didn't exchange another word for the two hours I sat with her. I read articles online from The New Yorker and was very happy for Mom that she was having such a restful sleep.

2. Later in the day, Mom's hospice nurse examined Mom, in part to evaluate her levels of pain. She determined that Mom is experiencing a significant amount of pain. She made adjustments in her medicine with the hope that Mom might rest and sleep more comfortably. She also recommended that we tell people who want to see Mom to do so sooner than later while she is still with it enough to see them. We are not working here with a precise timeline, but with the direction Mom's condition is moving. It's declining.

3.  The Deke and I drove to Coeur d'Alene for lunch and some shopping. We had delicious sandwiches and a short pour of beer at the Daft Badger. After lunch, the Deke shopped for yarn at Alpaca Direct and I bought some shirts at Kohl's. After a visit to another yarn shop (I did some reading at Starbucks), we had a superb time at Slate Creek Brewing. We drank half pints and had a great conversation with the twenty-something woman pouring our beer. We enjoyed her puppy and the young dogs a couple of other beer drinkers brought with them to the outdoors drinking area. We left Slate Creek and drove to Wallace for a couple of very enjoyable short pours of beer at City Limits Pub and Grill.  We haven't been out for beers much, but we have both loved the North Idaho brews this summer, not only at the three places we visited today, but at Kellogg's Radio Brewing, too.

Once back to Kellogg, we relaxed in the refreshing evening air with Christy and Everett in their back yard and talked about all that happened today, especially with Mom.