This past week Dean and I just happened to get in a tiff right before bedtime. Therefore he told me to shut up and I, being the normal wife, told him I'd be happy to, thinking that a good, long silent treatment would surely teach him a lesson. Tomorrow morning he would wonder why I still wasn't speaking to him.
But tomorrow came and Dean woke up as if nothing was amiss. Even with my quiet demeanor, it dawned on me that with his memory loss, my desire for revenge was doomed from the start. He would never be able to make the connection between my silence and any of his rude behaviors. So I determined that I would play dumb about our previous annoyance and all would be good.
I wondered why this scenario didn't happen more often. Why do I seldom have ammunition I want to throw at him over an extended period of time? Then I remembered that we failed to say our usual good-night to each other that night. More often than not it comes with a blanket apology from both of us, but usually initiated by Dean, for any wrongs we may have done to each other during the day.
This nightly apologizing has been an essential element of our marriage, especially since the dementia, but how necessary it is in any marriage. It's why Paul advises us to "let not the sun go down upon your wrath" (Ephesians 4:26). Yep, it's best to take care of it the night before. Not with angry vengeance in our heart, but with apologies.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Saturday, October 18, 2014
The Power of Prayer
Nothing is more aggravating than to be ready to walk out the door to go someplace and not be able to find your car keys. I'm usually pretty careful about putting them in the same place, because Dean doesn't like to see them just lying around. He's worried someone might steal them.
When I have forgotten his "rule" in the past, and left the keys in sight somewhere, he tends to put them "somewhere safe" for me. I thought I had him trained to put them in just one or two places in the spare bedroom, because he's been known to hide them a little too well, and with his short term memory deficits...well, you can just imagine the chaos that results from that situation.
Once again, chaos erupted the other day though when my keys turned up missing. I knew it must have been my in-house key thief, aka Dean, because I remembered opening the front door with the keys just the night before and laying them on the dining room table while I put my typical armloads of items away.
Dean half-remembered putting the keys somewhere again, and I was getting more and more anxious about his hiding place the longer we searched for them. My granddaughters and I were getting ready to go out on some errand--not an urgent one, mind you, but I knew later I would need to take these girls home or watch them multiple hours longer till their mom got off work, if we didn't find them.
After looking in every conceivable place in the house both Dean and I could think of, I went to my granddaughters and told them to say a prayer to find them and to keep an eye out for the runaway keys. They both prayed and helped us look for awhile, but after a short time they went back to their dolls, and I went into the kitchen to put some clean dishes away.
As I was putting the dishes away, the thought came into my head to look myself on top of the refrigerator. I saw Dean looking there as we were searching earlier. I have to get a stepstool in order to see up there myself, but as soon as I pulled the stool over and looked, there were the keys! They were just a little behind something, but certainly not out of sight. I don't know why Dean didn't see them when he looked earlier.
But then the answer came to me and I hurried to tell the girls that their prayers had been answered! And I'm sure it was. God obviously put that thought in my head, didn't He? And it was perfect timing for us all to have an object lesson about how God answers prayer.
What prayers has He answered for you today?
When I have forgotten his "rule" in the past, and left the keys in sight somewhere, he tends to put them "somewhere safe" for me. I thought I had him trained to put them in just one or two places in the spare bedroom, because he's been known to hide them a little too well, and with his short term memory deficits...well, you can just imagine the chaos that results from that situation.
Once again, chaos erupted the other day though when my keys turned up missing. I knew it must have been my in-house key thief, aka Dean, because I remembered opening the front door with the keys just the night before and laying them on the dining room table while I put my typical armloads of items away.
Dean half-remembered putting the keys somewhere again, and I was getting more and more anxious about his hiding place the longer we searched for them. My granddaughters and I were getting ready to go out on some errand--not an urgent one, mind you, but I knew later I would need to take these girls home or watch them multiple hours longer till their mom got off work, if we didn't find them.
After looking in every conceivable place in the house both Dean and I could think of, I went to my granddaughters and told them to say a prayer to find them and to keep an eye out for the runaway keys. They both prayed and helped us look for awhile, but after a short time they went back to their dolls, and I went into the kitchen to put some clean dishes away.
As I was putting the dishes away, the thought came into my head to look myself on top of the refrigerator. I saw Dean looking there as we were searching earlier. I have to get a stepstool in order to see up there myself, but as soon as I pulled the stool over and looked, there were the keys! They were just a little behind something, but certainly not out of sight. I don't know why Dean didn't see them when he looked earlier.
But then the answer came to me and I hurried to tell the girls that their prayers had been answered! And I'm sure it was. God obviously put that thought in my head, didn't He? And it was perfect timing for us all to have an object lesson about how God answers prayer.
What prayers has He answered for you today?
Monday, October 13, 2014
My Book Has Arrived!
My eBook is here! Please purchase it for a whopping 99 cents and review it as soon as possible. (15 pages of my best blogposts)
I'm so thankful for you, my faithful readers, these past few years. I know you will be happy to help me spread the word of how God can be found working in even the most difficult circumstances.
Here's the link to make it as easy as possible for you. Also be sure to forward by email, and share with your Facebook friends. I'm not worried about getting rich, but it will enrich my soul to know that my story may help someone else who is struggling.
You can be a part of that by reading and sharing this book. I hope (now that I know how) to have more books in the future.
http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Faith-Caregiver-Teresa-Thompson-ebook/dp/B00OFBXL4W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413197064&sr=8-1&keywords=Lessons+of+faith+in+the+life+of+a+caregiver
I'm so thankful for you, my faithful readers, these past few years. I know you will be happy to help me spread the word of how God can be found working in even the most difficult circumstances.
Here's the link to make it as easy as possible for you. Also be sure to forward by email, and share with your Facebook friends. I'm not worried about getting rich, but it will enrich my soul to know that my story may help someone else who is struggling.
You can be a part of that by reading and sharing this book. I hope (now that I know how) to have more books in the future.
http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Faith-Caregiver-Teresa-Thompson-ebook/dp/B00OFBXL4W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413197064&sr=8-1&keywords=Lessons+of+faith+in+the+life+of+a+caregiver
Thursday, October 9, 2014
My eBook Coming!
I have a request for my faithful blog readers. In the next day or two, Amazon will be coming out with my first eBook. Please look for it under the title "Lessons of Faith in the Life of a Caregiver" and purchase it if you can. (It's only $.99--due to its length!)
It will be a compilation of my favorite blogposts, so many of you will find the lessons familiar. But I need the immediate sales to increase my availability on Amazon, and it would also be beneficial to get some reviews of my book. So feel free to express your opinions and make comments.
I would be so grateful if you could help me circulate these stories that I pray will bless others in similar places in their life, who are looking for God to reveal Himself during trying times.
Thank you for your attentive reading of this blog, and I know you will help me spread the message of what caregivers and their loved ones face every day.
It will be a compilation of my favorite blogposts, so many of you will find the lessons familiar. But I need the immediate sales to increase my availability on Amazon, and it would also be beneficial to get some reviews of my book. So feel free to express your opinions and make comments.
I would be so grateful if you could help me circulate these stories that I pray will bless others in similar places in their life, who are looking for God to reveal Himself during trying times.
Thank you for your attentive reading of this blog, and I know you will help me spread the message of what caregivers and their loved ones face every day.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Perishable Items
Much to my dismay, I've discovered that nothing is safe for disposal in our trash. At least not when my hubby is around. My daughter, unbeknownst to me, threw a desktop calendar, the kind that covers your whole desk, in our outdoor trash bin the other day. Dean rescued it and now has it on our dining room table for doodling purposes. Sigh...
But this behavior doesn't surprise me. I've been "hiding" our trash for some time now. It started with our empty toilet paper rolls. Anything cardboard, if it's dry, is salvageable to him. Then it moved to plastic containers (any size, shape will do). Including the containers that come every day with his "meal on wheels". These items are taking up the space of a whole cupboard now. And at times I hardly have room in my refrigerator, because of all his bottles which he fills up with water. Making them look useful, I guess.
I've found some devious ways to fight this, because reasoning with him about it always falls on "deaf ears". Gradually removing some of the items secretly, leaving some prominently displayed, so it looks like some of his treasures remain, is my best option. Otherwise I have learned to "bury" trash pretty well. I've even been known to dispose of items in the middle of the night, before the trash company picks it up on the curb.
As I think about Dean's tendency to save things these days, I'm reminded of God, who thankfully also has this problem. God evidently is passionate about saving people. It says in II Peter 3:9 that He is "...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." I'm sorry, Satan, you can't change this about God either. God consistently is in the business of pulling people out of the garbage so they won't perish. That's just who He is. He doesn't make disposable people.
But this behavior doesn't surprise me. I've been "hiding" our trash for some time now. It started with our empty toilet paper rolls. Anything cardboard, if it's dry, is salvageable to him. Then it moved to plastic containers (any size, shape will do). Including the containers that come every day with his "meal on wheels". These items are taking up the space of a whole cupboard now. And at times I hardly have room in my refrigerator, because of all his bottles which he fills up with water. Making them look useful, I guess.
I've found some devious ways to fight this, because reasoning with him about it always falls on "deaf ears". Gradually removing some of the items secretly, leaving some prominently displayed, so it looks like some of his treasures remain, is my best option. Otherwise I have learned to "bury" trash pretty well. I've even been known to dispose of items in the middle of the night, before the trash company picks it up on the curb.
As I think about Dean's tendency to save things these days, I'm reminded of God, who thankfully also has this problem. God evidently is passionate about saving people. It says in II Peter 3:9 that He is "...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." I'm sorry, Satan, you can't change this about God either. God consistently is in the business of pulling people out of the garbage so they won't perish. That's just who He is. He doesn't make disposable people.
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