Green it was

I was just hoping for green, some nice weather, a chance to relax and to leave some stress behind as I flew to GA recently. Well, at least I got the green. I was enveloped in lush surroundings of verdant foliage. Add the serene location of Lake Blackshear and the automatic result should be zero stress. Right?


veterans memorial state park at lake blackshear

I went to be with my mom at Mother's Day and offer her some support. Our previous conversations led me to believe she was kind of overwhelmed with the responsibilities of maintaining 2 houses and 2 yards by herself since my dad died. She has hired a wonderful neighbor to do the mowing chores at home, but there is still tons of weeding, grasshopper abatement, pond and pump upkeep (even though it's a tiny one), and watering--not to mention the daily litter of limbs and pine cones to pick up. The lakehouse and yard around it offer a repeat scenario and then some. I can see why Mother is overwhelmed. She is ultra-responsible, adding more tasks to what she was already handling (including volunteer work at the hospital, helping friends get to doctor's appointments, arranging flowers at church, carrying meals to the sick, etc.) And now it seems like she's committed to keeping the yard up to my dad's standard out of loyalty to him. He, by the way, put almost full time into his landscaping at the main house and the lake. Of course there is no way she can keep this up. I'm having to weigh my responsibilities here and my guilt of not being there to pitch in or get more help for her. At some point big decisions will have to be made about moving, selling, etc., but I've heard that older people do better when they stay in their own home as long as possible. I'm not pushing her to move, but I did push a little about getting more help with the yard.

The whole visit was chaotic. Besides the yard work at both places, we had to go up to Atlanta for a family wedding and a few other things happened. I'll share more.