PalmWarbler of Sleet

This day was almost entirely occupied by the church committee meeting. We did a bunch of tidying up, and once the Sparrowhawk came back from the store with more coffee and some confectioner's sugar, I put frosting on my heart-shaped cookies. I'm not happy with this cookie recipe. The Sparrowhawk likes it fine, but I feel there's something a bit wrong with the flavor. However, I did learn how to make a cookie glaze, and it worked very nicely, so now I have that in my repertory for later. I glazed half of them white and half pink, and then made a buttercream frosting and used it to put mottoes on them--white on the pink and pink on the white. Baking is fun for me, although I do prefer not to be in a hurry! And then there was a two-hour committee meeting, which was pretty tiring.

The Sparrowhawk went off to the gym for the first time in a week and a half, and I took some cookies over to the neighbors. We were really lucky to be out of town last week! The neighbors said they had all kinds of water in their basement after the sump pump quit when the power went out. They couldn't leave, because they had to bail it by hand every hour, and the house was freezing cold for two days. We were well off by comparison--in a nice warm hospital. We found an area of our basement that was wet, too, which we hadn't noticed when we first came home. There probably was more water during the storm, but there's nothing we can do about it now.

It's not quite true that we spent the whole day on the committee meeting. I started out first thing in the morning with the texting and email with my family. The Duchess has worked many wonders at the nursing home, meticulously checking on everything and informing everyone about what they should be doing. A part of me is grateful, and a part of me wishes she could step back just a tiny bit. But we all cope with things in our own way. A package arrived today. The Duchess had helped my mother mail it before all this happened. It was supposed to be a birthday present from my mother. What really happened was that she bought a couple of small items she wanted to give her favorite caregivers, and then they told her they weren't allowed to accept gifts--so she sent them to me. There's a set of 4 colorful tiny plates, and a set of white hankies. I appreciate the thought . . . but it's kind of tragicomic/bittersweet. I wish this would not be the last present she sends me. Maybe she'll live another year. The card that came with is is something I'll keep forever. It's a pretty, cheerful card with pictures of hummingbirds and flowers. Inside, in her tiny, shaky handwriting, she laboriously wrote, "To my dearest and best big sister! You are so good to me. Enjoy your birthday for a week or two while I gather my wits. With tubs of love, your Mother." Yeah . . . I just . . . don't even. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. She had a big sister. Her sister has been dead for awhile now. And now, I guess, I'm her. As the Sparrowhawk observed, you could not make up my family.