Today, Saturday, April 24th, is a gorgeous, fresh day after the rain cleansed everything yesterday. It smelled better outside and it was a joy to breathe the air. I made sure Kaja did her business, and I picked it up, and then we walked down into the lower part of the cemetery. It is so good to let her run a little, and I am not breaking any rules by watching her closely and seeing that she does no harm. And the smells for her after a rain are even better. Dogs seem to smell everything in such a different way. She gets so excited and run all over smelling everything.

While Kaja is doing well, my kitty, Tawny, is not, and I will probably lose her. I took her to the Vet last Saturday, and he discovered a mass inside. He took blood tests, but thought it likely that she will not recover. She actually has been acting fairly well, but lost an incredible amount of weight. When I took her in, she weighed just over seven pounds. That means she has lost fourteen pounds. I knew she had lost weight but had no idea it was that much. She was truly a fat cat as Jason used to say. I am waiting for a call from the Vet, but if he doesn’t call today, I’m going to call him. When you live alone, pets do become your children and a death is very painful.

Jason, my son, and I have spent a lot of time in the yard the last two weeks, cleaning up from winter, and getting leaves and debris out of the garden. I have two very large evergreen trees just behind my back fence, and they are huge with branches hanging over my yard, and I end up filling up many barrels of yard waste with pine cones, needles and branches. Both trees are quite old, and are not doing well. I hate to see trees cut down, but there does come a time when it is time to let them go. I wish my neighbors would have them cut down, but unfortunately I don’t see than happening in the near (or even far) future. We managed to get most of the winter stuff cleaned out before the rain, which was a blessing because the rain could be absorbed by the plants rather than the debris.

I hope to plant a few new thing, but mostly I just need to trim, cut back, and decide what to keep and where. I will need to move some things and replant some others, but it’s not like starting from scratch. I remember taking out the front lawn a couple years ago, and filling the space with bushes, trees, flowers and vegetables. That was truly an incredible job. I don’t plant any annuals or vegetables until after Mother’s Day, so I still do have a lot of work to do.

I’ve just finished going to a nutrition class for diabetics this last week. At my last blood check by the Dr., he said he thought I would have to go on insulin for my diabetes because of high blood sugar, but I said I did not want to do that. I asked if he couldn’t just put some water in my blood and dilute it so it wasn’t so thick. I was just kidding of course. When he said no, I told him I had gotten very careless about watching what I ate and also taking my blood sugar during the day, I suggested I revisit the diabetic class and relearn and follow the rules. I did the class on Thursday afternoons for two hours for four weeks, and it was very helpful. I am back writing down what I eat, keeping track of my sugar count, and always remembering to exercise.

I certainly need to remember this and continue to monitor all of those things the rest of my life, because unfortunately diabetes doesn’t go away. I have a lot of diabetes in my family and I began having problems when my husband Jack was ill about twelve years ago. Stress is one of the key factors in getting diabetes, and that’s how it started with me. I remember a friend said to me “You’re not heavy. Why did you develop diabetes?” Well that is just one factor, but heredity is a huge factor. And learning that my dear husband was going to die was pretty major stress.

Work at the Center continues to satisfy me, and I feel good about helping the children in any way I can. Of course the major way I see is helping and encouraging them to read. In addition to providing a safe, friendly place, this is the most advantageous thing I can do. Helping in the Latchkey program, which is an after school program, allows us an opportunity to read to them, listen to them read and provide books for them to read. I know that all of those ways are helpful to help children enjoy reading and make lifelong readers out of them.

My own reading has suffered, because of working in the yard. I am too tired to even read at night when I come in from working in the yard. I do pick up a magazine and read a little, but do not want to get involved in a long term reading project. I have picked up David Sedaris’ book When You Are Engulfed in Flames and read a chapter, because each chapter stands alone. I find him funny, but a little strong in some of his comments. Perhaps strong is not the correct word, maybe just different is better. Anyhow it’s interesting. Plant a flower or pick one if it’s blooming.