February 12, 2019

I’m wearing a bandage on my left thumb. I haven’t needed one on any of my fingers for some time, because I’ve been very careful when cutting things. However, I admit I was a bit tired on Sunday when I was prepping supper.

On the menu was meatloaf, and scalloped potatoes. My husband wanted cooked cabbage as the veggie, but I wasn’t sure if my daughter liked that, so I also made carrots. A lot of cutting was going on!

The cabbage, of course, was the veggie that plotted with the very sharp knife to slice my thumb. I guess my tiredness played a factor, too. Whatever the case, I ended up with a nasty cut on my thumb. Not bad enough to need a doctor or a stitch, but it bled, so I needed to tend to it.

Knives and I on average just don’t get along all that well anymore. Neither do the oven and I, though, touch wood, I haven’t burned myself in a while. I understand that I need to be diligent always, in several areas: walking, using utensils, showering…

Being aware, paying attention, that’s a skill that I’ve honed over the years. You don’t need to fall too many times, walking with a cane, to understand that you must pay attention to every single step you take all of the time. Falls are to be avoided at all costs, and while a part of me acknowledges that some falls will happen, the rest of me contends that they’ll be far fewer than they might otherwise be if I just pay attention.

My friends, getting older is not for the faint of heart.

The cut on my thumb is healing but the process would go faster if I could remember to not use my left thumb to do anything.

I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that my beloved and I have now two eleven-week-old puppies. Yes, he and my daughter won that one. They just decided it would be so. To be completely fair, she is pitching in. The little guys are used to sleeping upstairs in her bed-sitting room with her chihuahuas, one of whom is the puppy-momma. So she takes them upstairs at bed time (anywhere from 9pm to midnight), and the little ones spend the daytime hours down here with us.

That’s actually quite reasonable. Now, you might ask, “but Morgan, what will you do if your daughter goes away overnight, or for a few days? I can tell you the “overnights” are highly unlikely. She has told me that God has not yet created a man worth kicking her dogs out of her bed for. But the few days will happen likely once or twice a year. She and our second daughter are planning a four-day, three-night jaunt to the Caribbean before the end of this month. And the answer to that dilemma is simple. During the time that she’s away, David will be sleeping up in her room—likely on her sofa—so the animals will not be lonely or distressed.

It doesn’t suck that for those three nights that I will have our new, wonderful Casper bed—and all attending linens—to myself.

The job of training the puppies is ongoing. Three things they need to learn as quickly as possible: to use the outside as their bathroom (though we do have puppy pads for those times when they forget, or can’t get out), they need to learn their names, and they need to heed one command: up.

As it was with their puppy-daddy, Mr. Tuffy, I can’t chase them. They need to know that if I want them then they have to let me pick them up. So far, Bear seems to be the most responsive to this command. Missy—the name we’ve given to the female pup my daughter nicked named Little Miss—isn’t quite there yet. One sentence of digression, here: the girl dog’s name is actually Little Miss Sweetie, and we’re calling her Missy, for short.

Oh, and I don’t know if I mentioned this or not. Bear is more chihuahua than Morkie, and Missy is more Morkie than chihuahua. Bear was born last and for the first two weeks he was the biggest of the three. But he is now half the size of his sister. The hardest thing so far has been trying to convince my husband that Bear is normal sized for him. He’s never going to be really big, and that’s the truth.

Mr. Tuffy was on the small side for a Morkie. I have a feeling that won’t be Missy’s fate. Of course, as with all things, only time will tell.

There is one more thing they’ve both learned in the last week, as well. In the evening when David and I are on our new sofa-recliner, watching a bit of television, that’s the time for them to climb the puppy stairs to the sofa, and sleep on the bed that is the human-mommy.

Love,
Morgan
http://www.morganashbury.com
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