ONE MOTHER'S DAY AT A TIME, 8 weeks later

GOOD EVENING, ..LAKE TAHOE ! My mother is being wonderfully cared for by my brother and sister hovering over her with lots of love and smiles and their wonderful spirits while I am,once again, retreating.. in Lake Tahoe. Even though, I keep thinking I am needed home, I receive little assurances that all is well, maybe even better than if I were there because it gives my brother and sister more time to be with my mother, and they are being rewarded by seeing her improvement, her growing awareness of their presence and delight in their attention. It really has been a win/win for everyone. Thank You for showing me where I need to be, right here...and for my wonderful supportive family. This is the first time since we have been coming to Tahoe that I feel that I am living here, at least for a few weeks this summer. We have had the warm company of new and old friends who are here with their families at the same time, and we have shared moonlit evenings right at the lake, twilight barbecues on our little cabin deck, the night pines soaring through to violet sky. It has been good to have the time to really visit with friends in this peaceful place, being with other families and sharing stories of long ago, meeting new little characters, such as grandchildren whom we hadn't anticipated to be now enjoying a brand new generation of friendship. Around a campfire, the littles gasp and giggle, crazed by the snap and crackle of leaping flames, teased by the popping humor of teens who coddle them. For all this goodness, and the sweet smell of burning pine, melting chocolate, toasted marshmallows, for fire, and for the glow of Your presence on our firelit faces, I am grateful.

My stay has also been graced with the constant company of the two little superhumans, I am honored to call my granddaughters, who keep me surprised and delighted, night and day. Well, delighted by day with smiles and laughter, and often surprised by night...and whatever waking music they may choose to break up the monotony of a good night's sleep. Thankfully, they are blessed with the most loving parents, my amazing daughter and her even more amazing sainted husband i.e. John of the (family) Cross. His warm humor and easy-going patience keeps us all, his temperamental opposites, from both homi and suicide. Truly a modern day martyr, giving up his manly body to the cause of feeding a harem of hungry lionesses --two adorable babies, an amazing wife, and- this is where his seat in heaven is guaranteed ringside- a technologically challenged mother-in- law, who spends her time denying her handicap by insisting on learning to ewrite, keeping up a blog, while avoiding learning to read the ever-so-technical dial on a toaster-oven. Even with the variety of user friendly models she has tried, no real success has been noted. Yet, she insists on making friends with a computor. How modern of her. A special thanks to guardian angels that she did not burn down the cabin after leaving for a long family outing to cruise around the endless lake yesterday, with an innocent toaster oven left on high, charring away even the teeniest crumbs. Apparently, a visit from a forest fire expert, just the day before, to educate her on the perils of deeply bedded pine needles and the lack of defensible space around the outside of the cabin, was not lesson enough. Unfortunately, he neglected to educate her about the undefensible space around the inside of the cabin. How presumptuous of him. Heaven only knows the true account of forests saved by angels in the lingering smoke of half slices of charbroiled toast, one of her culinary specialties. We are grateful, Lord, for your patient son-in-law while she learns to make daily progress in the the complicated operation of the modern toaster oven. To quote him, we've moved from house to house, from kitchen to kitchen, from toaster over to toaster oven, but some things remain unchanged.