Whew - two weeks and a few days, and I'm FINALLY feeling better. No more conjunctivitis, just a tiny bit of cough left from the bronchitis. Jeff, unfortunately, has been hit hard with this cold, and has difficulty sleeping at night because of the cough. I hope he continues to be 4 days behind me, so in 4 days he'll be done with it.
This morning I actually have ENERGY! Yay!! I have plans to go over and visit Mary and Brayden later this morning, since I haven't seen them since Thanksgiving and I miss them both! I may take Brayden grocery shopping with me to
Jungle Jim's just because he enjoys it and it will give Mary a break for an hour or so -- unless, of course, she wants to go with us, which would be fine too.
From there, I'm going to
Hancock Fabrics to pick up the last few things I need to finish making Christmas presents, and then it's home to continue working on same.
The upcoming week is busy for me, and I'm not sure if I'll be posting much. Now that I have my energy back, on Monday I plan on cleaning (and de-germing) the house, top to bottom. On Tuesday I'm going to court to observe my son-in-law (hopefully) being sentenced to 4 years in prison, and on Wednesday I happily have a babysitting day with Brayden. Thursday will be errands and Christmas shopping, and possibly lunch and a movie with my friend Kathy, and Friday is another babysitting day. Whew - there goes that week!
I could go into the story of why my son-in-law is in jail and (hopefully) on his way to prison, but those close to me know the story. I will say this. The man (and I use that term loosely) is not an evil human being. He is, very unfortunately, a victim of his upbringing who refused to understand that life is all about choices. You can be a victim of a terrible childhood, but you don't have to remain a victim. He chose to remain a victim of his upbringing. He chose to make poor decisions that affected and jeopordized his son's life. He continues to blame everyone else (including me), and doesn't accept responsibility for his own actions. He's actually a very intelligent man; but with no educational or moral foundation, that intelligence just went to waste. He had no idea of what a father should (or shouldn't) do, but, on the other hand, he also wasn't willing to find out so he could do the right thing. His going to prison is actually a God-send, as my grandson's life was in jeopardy when this man was around him. Unfortunately, none of us, with the exception of my son who did try to tell us, saw this man for what he was or, in my opinion, what he was not (a responsible father). I am not sad to see him leave our family at all. I am sad that he can't see how much better his life would be if he let go of his past and made choices to improve his future. But I also firmly believe that no one, not my daughter, not me, not his own son, will ever be able to change that about him and, therefore, my daughter and grandson have better chances of leading safe, productive lives without him in it. When I talked to my daughter last night, she was glad to see December 4 finally get here so she could get divorce proceedings underway. She did mourn the loss of her marriage for awhile, but I don't believe she ever mourned the loss of this man in her son's life. I have faith she will get through this, be a better, more decisive person, and a hard core protector of her son's safety and wellbeing when this is all over and behind her.
All is not horrible. Without this man in our daughter's life, we would not have Brayden. And Brayden, by all measurements, is the most wonderful grandchild ever born and our lives would be totally different without him!! So for that, we are thankful. This horrible dark gray storm cloud definitely has a bright shiney silver lining.
