I woke up this morning with a migraine which I had all day to varying degrees, so I wasn’t as sharp as usual today.

This morning when I went over to Dad’s house, Dad was still trying to sort through papers for taxes. I know it’s weighing on his mind, but he has been unable to focus when he has tried to work on the project. While Elaine went to the store and Dad dozed, I went through the box of papers they have been collecting to give to their CPA. Dad had made of list of the charities they give to and how much he thought they had paid to each. I sorted the papers by charitable organization and found 3 charities they had donated to that weren’t on his list and 2 on his list that there were no receipts for. I added the 3 extra charities to his list, put question marks beside the ones for which there are no receipts, and then put a rubber band around the whole stack. Hopefully, that will clarify what yet needs to be found and he can get on with preparing for the CPA. Organization is what we librarians do best (my former career)!

I had to leave around 1:20, just as the hospice Social Worker arrived to fill out a form for my sister. Mom wanted to go with me to a concert that was being put on in her community clubhouse. When we got there, we discovered that the concert had been canceled. The office had tried to send an email out to the community to let everyone know, but Mom recently had to have her email and phone number changed due to scammers and she hadn’t updated the office. We got that taken care of so that she can be notified if this happens again.

When we got back, we played a couple of games of Scrabble and each won one. Then we had dinner and watched the president’s State of the Union address. I haven’t watched one of those in many years. Mom and I are from different sides of the aisle and she promised to keep her comments to herself if I would watch with her.

This may be shocking to most of you, but I don’t keep up with the news. I stopped watching it regularly many years ago when I heard on the news that killer bees were heading north toward the US. I have a phobia about any kind of bees (with the possible exception of the cute fuzzy ones), and I couldn’t imagine anything worse than being attacked by a swarm of killer bees. So much anxiety was roused in me that I decided it was better to not know what was going on in the world but to have personal peace rather than to keep track of the news and be living in constant fear. Every once in a while, I hear a prayer request in church for some sort of world situation and I look it up to see what I should be praying for, but for the most part, I am blissfully uninformed. I know a lot of people would say I’m burying my head in the sand, but I view it as trusting that God is in His heaven and all is well (or at least it will be well).

I like my quiet time. I start the day out by reading the Bible and a devotional and praying for everyone on my prayer list. (Many of you are on it!) I am outgoing and friendly, but I get reenergized in silence. God speaks to me in silence. I am equally happy whether I am alone or with people unless there’s strife. I used to tell Mark that I don’t do anger, but I have come to feel safe enough with him to let it out every once in a while. However, I cannot stand to feel cut off from family members and friends due to an argument. I need relationship even as I say that I am fine alone. My alone time is only peaceful if I know that my closest relationships are intact. Romans 12:18 is kind of my philosophy: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”