{"id":111216,"date":"2022-11-06T08:33:08","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T13:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/?p=111216"},"modified":"2022-11-06T12:40:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-06T17:40:02","slug":"hello-and-checking-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/2022\/11\/06\/hello-and-checking-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Hello and checking in….."},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone, forgoing my usual Seven on Sunday\u00a0 this weekend and just wanted to check in and fill you in.\u00a0 I have been truly overwhelmed and touched by the outpouring of love, support and kindness from my readers, customers and Instagram followers. T H A N K\u00a0 Y O U! I finally had a chance to sit down and read each and every message.<\/p>\n

I came home to my kitchen counter filled with\u00a0 cards, flowers and baskets of food from family and friends. I feel the love and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for it.<\/p>\n

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What happened a week ago last week will forever change my life. My mother is gone. I am still coming to grips with it. It still feels very surreal and I am totally overwhelmed with an immense sadness. I vacillate between having moments of feeling “semi normal” to balling uncontrollably like a baby. I imagine it will be this way for a while. I am trying to comfort myself by remembering how much she suffered, being physically present but somewhat cut off from connecting with those who loved her. We were there with her 24\/7 and I believe she knew that. My mom was the most selfless, kindest, sweetest, gentlest, most beautiful human being inside and out that I have ever know. Everyone who knew her referred to her as either a “first lady” or “a real life angel”. And I cannot disagree. She was all that and more.<\/p>\n

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The love my dad showed my mom as I expressed to him,\u00a0 is to this day,\u00a0 the most beautiful expression of love and devotion I have ever seen. It touched me beyond anything imaginable. How lucky they were to have each other. I think she felt the love that was by her side until she took her last breath.<\/p>\n

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Right now all I know is I am suffering as is my dad and sister. We are heartbroken beyond what I thought was possible. But I have to trust it will get easier to cope with her not being here. It is hard to imagine my world and life without her in it. She was such a big part of my life and I will spend every day trying to honor her in some way or another.<\/p>\n

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I was shocked to read over how many of you have been affected and touched by Alzheimer’s with a loved one. The absolute cruelest disease imaginable, one that leaves you physically intact (for the most part) but robs you of your mind, is beyond imagination. I felt like I lost a little part of my mother every day as the disease progressed this last year and thought maybe it would help losing her in the end,\u00a0 a little less traumatic.<\/p>\n

I cannot say that’s been the case. But I will say one thing, she was heavily medicated the last few weeks and despite that, she did not look “at rest”. It was pure torment for my dad, sister and I to see her asleep all the time. We so badly wanted to see one last smile, hear her voice even if we couldn’t understand the words. I wanted her to squeeze my hand back just one more time.<\/p>\n

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When she passed away, suddenly she looked like “the old Mimi”, her face showed such peace and relief, she looked so beautiful and angelic. I have that memory etched in my mind as I hope, it will help to comfort me during these difficult days.<\/p>\n

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Being there with my Dad was so important. I am so glad I jumped into my car spontaneously that Tuesday,\u00a0 the minute my dad said she had turned a corner (for the worse) as it allowed me to spend the last 14 days of her life by her side and to support my dear and strong Dad (he later admitted he didn’t know how much he needed me to be there until I was ).<\/p>\n

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There is something about those 17 days that were very precious and priceless to me. We had a routine, granted not the kind of routine I would wish upon anyone, but still it was routine based around caring for my mother, getting her meds to her on time, assisting the rotating hospice nurses when they arrived, sitting by her side, talking to her, praying for her, making meals for my dad, catching the evening news, discussing world affairs and mostly sharing so many wonderful stories centered around my Mom. My sister and niece could come over and spend the days with us, bringing us all kinds of yummy meals and treats. I would not trade those weeks for anything in the world. I am also thankful to my dear husband, Michael who was so supportive and incredibly understanding.\u00a0 I would have stayed even longer but had to come home…..<\/p>\n

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So I came back to NY mostly for one reason……….. we are moving. You heard correctly. I had not planned to share the news this way. I had a whole post planned around it. But here we are….yes, after living in our beautiful home for nearly 12 years, we are starting a new chapter. Our kids have flown the nest and as much as we love<\/em> this house, it is way way too big for 2 people. It was a beautiful chapter of our life and we will always be grateful for it.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of house that needs people, life, laughter, kids and dogs running through it filling the space. We once had that and it was so wonderful, too many amazing memories to count were created here. I will hold onto them and treasure them forever. When a certain house came onto the market last year, we felt that was our cue. A home I had long admired from afar. I look forward to sharing much more with you in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

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(this was the last time my mom was at my house, my last Christmas party in 2019)<\/p>\n

Bottom line,\u00a0 is I am knee deep is some serious packing\/organization working in tandem with the movers. Oh my word, I forgot how physically exhausting moving is. Plus the mental aspect particularly now,\u00a0 due to my mothers passing has made this extra challenging. Everything I touch seems to have a memory tied to my mother. But I am a fighter and will persevere. We are moving around Nov 18th so\u00a0 that is literally around the corner. It is a bit overwhelming right now but even in 2 days, we have gotten a lot done.<\/p>\n

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Got a huge dumpster and am purging like mad. Donating a ton. And trying to streamline what we move with. Seeing the dumpster makes it all very real.<\/p>\n

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That said, I don’t have the headspace to sort through every thing as it would take months, so am packing up most and will go through it all in the new house as time (and my mindset) allows. Too much at once.<\/p>\n

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Forgot how much storage our huge attic allowed…..12 years worth of Christmas decor, photos, luggage and so much more!<\/p>\n

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Always a challenge as I tend to be way<\/em> too sentimental about things. Where is Marie Kondo when I need her! My boys trophies, awards, graduation gowns and caps, boxes and boxes of precious handmade school projects, instruments, old luggage, magazines enough to fill a small Barnes and Noble, books and cookbooks galore, too many holiday decorations, size 2 and 4 clothes (finally relegated myself to realizing I will not<\/em> ware those again:) Need I go on, you get the picture. Don’t even get me started on dishes and linens….let’s just say it’s a lot.<\/em><\/p>\n

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It will get done tough, one way or another. So these next few weeks will be a bit different around here. Molly who is a very capable and able team member will work on blog posts and Instagram until I am feeling a bit more settled both with moving and dealing with my Mother’s death. I look forward to getting back in the saddle, as I have always shared that blogging\u00a0 is like my therapy and I truly love doing it.<\/p>\n

Knowing how much my dear Mom loved my blog and was my very first official fan makes it that much more meaningful now. Molly will share a few posts I had prepared weeks ago and I hope to resume in a few weeks myself. Until then just wanted to update you as so many of you have reached out. Ending this with a picture of our new home….lots more to come in the coming weeks. Take care of yourself and thank you again for your support and kindness.<\/p>\n

Thank you for stopping by, wishing everyone a wonderful day. If you are lucky enough to have your mom, give her an extra tight hug, tell you love her and take a picture of you together. If I learned one thing,\u00a0 its that there is no such thing as too much picture taking. I treasure the pictures with my mom now more than ever before. Back to packing, until next time……<\/p>\n

All new arrivals are 20% off (ends tonight) use code- pretty
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Rest in peace my beautiful Mom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone, forgoing my usual Seven on Sunday\u00a0 this weekend and just wanted to check in and fill you in.\u00a0 I have been truly overwhelmed and touched by the outpouring of love, support and kindness from my readers, customers and Instagram followers. T H A N K\u00a0 Y O U! I finally had a chance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111216"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111252,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111216\/revisions\/111252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}