Hello everyone! I hope that you all have had a good week.

I wanted to do a catch up post this week but I know I won’t have time tomorrow morning. So two posts in one day from me!

Let me start with an update about my mom. Her vitals are pretty good, she is eating and drinking, but most of this week she has been very confused about time and place when she is awake. It is heartbreaking to me but I try to keep her calm and help her as best as I can. I gave her my stepdad’s robe (he passed a few years ago) to hold onto when she gets scared as a comfort item. It does seem to give her comfort. I hate when she gets scared. That is so hard to watch and I feel like such a jerk just saying “Don’t be scared” because if she could just stop being scared I am sure she would. But I feel at a loss.

I have had good visits with her as well, and even when she seems like she is asleep, if I tell her that I love her she will say it back. It’s these moments I try to focus on.

This is a picture of me and her at the 1976 fourth of July parade. I am digging my mom’s yellow sunglasses! My mom is beautiful now and she was then as well.

This fourth of July we ended up not going to my cousin’s as we had planned. Billy slept funny and his back was bothering him, and his back was really an important part of the day with Wyatt in the pool. He wanted to go anyway but I told him I wanted him to rest and heal, because we need him to be able-bodied, and not hurt himself more. And it was ok. It was a very quiet day but we were fine.

On Sunday, Billy was feeling all better and we went to the Detroit Institute of Arts. We had such a great time! We wandered around the American and the Native American art areas, armed with little foam stars. The DIA gave out stars to the visitors to award to their favorite art pieces, which was a really cool way to have people interact more with the art, and connect. Billy, Wyatt, and I ended up choosing paintings all in the same room!

Wyatt chose the painting titled Apple Orchard, by George Inness.

My star went to Morning in the Andes by Louis Remy Mignot. I just loved the softness and just how misty and hazy it looks. I love it.

Then Billy fell in love with this painting, Cotopaxi by Frederick Edwin Church. I can see why.

Wyatt and I both almost gave our stars to works in the Native American section. I loved this amazing bowl, and love how the shadow is the design. Then Wyatt really liked a pumpkin effigy that went into a tomb, which was unusual but we all like what we like. I think he appreciated that it looked like a pumpkin.

I also snapped this picture of a chocolate jar and sent it to Lisa at Boondock Ramblings. We agreed that chocolate is definitely that important that we need it in the afterlife.

It was my week for art I guess! The other week The Tin Nose Shop in Norfolk, England dropped a batch of their wishing toads and shucks (like wolf dog things) and it coincided with a time I was feeling kind of low about my mom. So…. I hurried up and ordered a few things before they ran out, which was of course lightning fast. My friend Kelly was in Canada at a soccer match and she wanted a wishing toad as well, and I managed to snag two wishing toads, and a shuck for Wyatt. Well, they came this week!

Each are individually sculpted and “No two are the same but all contain a heart; a little chip of Norfolk flint or stone, so you can take a little piece of Norfolk with you where ever you go.” A shuck is based on the legend of the demon dog from East Anglia, and this little guy is considered a protector or guardian, and his talisman is strength. The wishing toad I bought for myself, and his design is called Cloud. I love his little face. There is a little hollow on the bottom where you write your wish on a bit of a scroll and set it in the windowsill for the moonlight to shine on. They are just fun. (Wyatt’s shuck is the Iceni design)

Finally, this week it was also the art fair in my hometown. It is one of the largest in Michigan, and I have gone pretty much my whole life. I always go with Wyatt once, usually the first day first thing in the morning to beat the heat and crowds, and then in the evening once with Billy for a date night. Well, I went Wednesday morning with Wyatt, and it was so hot and humid that we didn’t really enjoy walking around. Both of us are affected by heat, so we only did one loop of the fair. I did get Wyatt a sticker at a booth called Spooky Things by Jenny Hearns.

On the way out though, we passed a church that was having a rummage and used book sale. So of course Wyatt and I had to go. And of course we left with a stack of books!

I was very excited about this copy of Heidi Grows Up!

Billy and I went back last night, and while it was cooler, it was still sticky hot. Swampy. We had a good time though together, and this time I picked up an art print at the same booth where I got Wyatt’s sticker.

I was bummed that the artist I usually buy from, Anthony Brass, was not there this year but it worked out because I love this fox drinking tea. Now to find him a home here somewhere!

And that is it from me this evening! I am about to order pizza for our pizza Friday. Yay for not having to figure out dinner!!

Peace and love to you all.