Honestly, the past year has been a blur

Mom went to assisted living about a month ago.  I thought it would be less work, it's not.  I still do alot of work on her behalf, now split in two locations.  She simply has round-the-clock caregivers.  They're not any better at getting her to shower or getting her to eat.  The residents there like the food, but mom is really picky and they keep forgetting to put her dentures in place in the morning.

 I'm still moving things into her apartment.  I'm torn between bringing her "real furniture" and the more lightweight patio furniture or portable furniture because I still have reservations about this place.  Assisted living is not cheap. She fell within the first week she was there.  I was called to the ER, she broke her arm, THEN they stepped up care. I had already told a couple people before that event "I don't think they're very proactive."

I have to excavate, yes, dig out some of her furniture.  One of the reasons she fell was because the bed was too high.  I had planned on using my aunt's bed & furniture for Mom's apartment, but she was having trouble adjusting.  On her second day, they had to put her in the Memory Care unit because she kept trying to leave. So I changed the plan to use Mom's bedroom furniture with a new mattress & no box spring, to lower the bed height.  I figured she'd be more comfortable with the familiarity.  When I dug out her bed frame, it created an avalanche (now all over the floor) so I've been, admittedly, too intimidated to  dig out her dresser.

I finally have a court date to confirm the sale of my aunt's house.  Then escrow closes within 10 days of that date.  I will have to move her furniture this month.

But look what I did this weekend!

1) I hate cleaning blinds.  I cleaned all the blinds in the house when I first moved in almost 20 years ago.  I've literally never touched them again.  Any blinds which have moved up/down or open/close slats have fallen apart.  So I've replaced the crap blinds with window film.  Now I can open the window!  Look how bright it is now.  My kitchen used to be so dark and  cramped.  There used to be 3 hanging baskets over the left side of the sink.

2)  I saw over the sink shelves on Amazon $20-50.  Well I had to go to Home Depot to get a shelving unit for Mom's apartment, so I got myself the pre-painted shelf plank for $5.  I had to cut it because of the plumbing, and I propped it up with 1x4's I had in my garage.

3) I've tried keeping herbs (in dirt) in the kitchen before.  Big fail because I hated the little bugs that would not go away until I got rid of the plants.  Plus I never get the water right.  So, left to right, I've actually managed to keep the Christmas cactus alive for 3-4 years now.  I've got a bunch of cilantro in water.  I've been too busy for to even water the front/back yard this year.  Everything is dead or almost dead.  #3 is a bit of Mom's vine that I cut from the front yard.  It's got roots :)  And lastly, spring onions in water.  So, if/when the cilantro or onions fail, it's like 33 cents to get a new bunch at the Mexican grocery store.