And . . . . we've reached that first big bridge!

When MIL came home after her two weeks in the hospital, Sister-in-Law and her husband moved in to give her 24 hour a day supervision.  Seemed like an ok plan at the time.  But, in a nutshell, their personalities are not working well together.  There was another blow up on Monday this week.  I went to her house to take over for the day.  We got to therapies and even a short Wal-Mart trip.  SIL & hubby showed back up at 7:30 and delivered the news that they were "done" and now it was our "turn."  *sigh*

So, I let my DH know all the developments and he headed to work for the night.  Yesterday at dinner time we got to talk finally.  We think we have puzzled out a solution.  Our goal is to provide 24 hour supervision for MIL, and keep her in her own home.  I will see if work can change my schedule so that I only work on Thursday and Friday (but long days, 8 - 5.)  That will let me be at her house Mon  - Wed from 7am to 5 pm.  DH will come from 5pm to 9pm when he goes to work, and middle DD will take the overnight and sleep there.  She will leave and go to school at 7am.  On Thursday and Friday, we reverse - DH comes to his mom's straight from work and stays 7:30am to 5:30pm.  I come after I get off work and take 5:30 to when middle DD gets there, about 9 or 10pm depending on her work schedule.  Saturday is the only problem day.  Our schedules are too unpredictable - so we'll have middle DD bring her over to our house after they get up, and she'll stay at our house for the day.  Saturday night, middle DD & MIL go back to her house to sleep (or I take her there and wait on DD to get there from work, that is sometimes a late shift for her.)  Sunday, middle DD stays on through the afternoon, then I come over and stay till middle DD is off work at 9 or 10 pm again.  Only hitch with Sunday is, MIL will have to go to church with us.  She may not like that, but there isn't anyone available to watch her during that time.  Sometimes DS may be able to do it, if he is off on Sunday.  So that will be a flexible thing. 
SO, that's our plan.  Does it sound as crazy to you, my friendly reader, as it does to me??  My only REAL concern is that my house will fall apart.  I will only have a couple of hours a day to keep up with dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, errands and my quilting business. 
My first step is to copy her insurance cards and find out if insurance will cover anyone coming in to help out.  If we could get a caregiver for a couple times a week, maybe 4 hours or so, that would give me time to run errands and get groceries.
Honestly, my brain knows this is long-term, for as long as we have her or her situation changes for the worse.  But realistically, I'm only looking at it in chunks of a few weeks.  Of course, when summer comes and our youngest DD is out of school, she might help out a little too.  Especially when you remember that Gr'ma has air conditioning, and we don't LOL.

On a personal front, I have been at my best.  Feeling better than I can remember.  I quit drinking Diet Coke around Christmas, and I've been drinking tons of water.  I'm watching what and how much I'm eating, not eating anything after 8pm and have even lost weight - I was down to 133.8 on Tuesday (but didn't eat much since I was with MIL all day Wednesday, so it won't stay, LOL)  My depression is more under control than maybe ever.  I switched to generic on my Rx at the first of the year.  So, probably a combination of all these things have added up to better health -- and just in the nick of time!  I'll need to be in best form to take on caring for MIL.

Quilting, well, it's ok.  I cleared my February calendar so that I could work on my scrappy stars for our bed.  It's huge -- king size.  I was hoping to put it in the Bloomington quilt show, but it won't be done in time.  It's on the frame and getting feathers meandered in the main area.  Not sure what I'll do in the outer border, but I think I'll be doing some trapunto flowers, vines and leave.   I have a couple of customers in line to call first of March, or sooner if I get mine done before then.  I was invited to present a program at the evening guild on Trapunto.  I was super nervous, but it went well and was even fun.  I've been meaning to join the evening guild for some time, and maybe now is the time, since it will be harder to get to the morning guild and find someone to be with MIL because that's a therapy and doctor appt. day.  I know I need to find a way to keep a few fun outlets in my schedule if at all possible, I'll need some things to blow off steam and relieve stress :0)  Heck, maybe I'll even vent, oops, I mean post in this blog more!