Spike continues to improve

 It seems that we’ve dodged a heart-breaking decision as Spike has improved dramatically and has even made it up the front steps a few times. Of course he’s still muddled by dementia and may even be a bit worse in that regard but he seems happy enough, evidenced by the ravenous appreciation of his meals! If the word ‘try’ had a photo beside it in the dictionary it would be of Spike as he doesn’t give up even when things are difficult for him. 

He is sleeping more than usual but I chalk that up to needing rest to heal his brain - when I was first sick I needed tons of sleep to get through life for a year or more. In fact when I started back to work I had a nap time at noon everyday. It takes a lot of energy to build new neurons.

We were lucky to have another diversion last night with Trudie and Leo coming over for a simple dinner of roasted tomato soup and fresh bread. At the last minute I whipped up some cookies: orange and cranberry flavoured shortbread. I made them with frozen cranberries which was not ideal as they never firmed up properly. But they were tasty enough to add the recipe to my Christmas 7 cookie list! 

Trudie brought a few treasures: some blue decorations for my tree - oh how I love blue and gold together; and some infused vodka which was a fun taste test ;-) 

Glancing at the calendar this morning I realized that Christmas is fast approaching so I better get cracking with baking. The traditional Norwegian seven different kinds of sweets were a good diversion last winter when we weren’t seeing people, but this year with our social calendar it might be more challenging. So today I started the baking frenzy with a batch of butter pecan cookies. A flurry of butter and flour will pass the next several days :-)

We had our third corned beef incarnation tonight: latkes with zucchini (from our garden), potatoe and corned beef. Yum!

Awesome!

“Spike climbing the stairs”

“Michael Buble Christmas music”

“snowflakes against a dark sky”

“my little pup close at my heels on the way to bed”

“making food from stuff we’ve grown ourselves”

a much welcomed surprise visit

 Yesterday I bustled around getting ready for a last minute visit by Olaf and Stephanie. Christmas decorations needed to go up - not so many as to create a huge cluttered mess but enough to make it seem like Christmas and maybe a bit merry. Lots of little trees dotted the interior landscape and a galaxy of tiny sparkle lights lit the sky.

Olaf and Stephanie were a welcome diversion from our on-going heartbreak. We laughed and told tall tales into the night but I did have to keep an eye on Spike as he’d get himself lost in corners and other rooms regularly. Once he got his head stuck between the curlycue legs of the sofa table. I mean really stuck - when he sunk to the floor his head was wedged with the only way to get him out was by picking him up to slide his head out. Stephanie suggested wrapping the legs with saran wrap.

The sun shone strongly today tempting us out in the car for a drive in the country. Destination: butcher in a nearby village. We picked up a beef rib roast to try. I’ve never cooked one, well, I don’t even know what it looks like! We’ll have Sunday dinner on Monday :-)

Spike is neither better nor worse. He’s able to get around enough to do his business but he’s not running around for sure.

Awesome!

“gathering around the island with friends/family”

“brilliant sky at sunset”

a stroke of bad luck

 I’ve got a sinus headache from a backlog of unshed tears. Spike’s vet appointment this morning was not what we expected (or maybe we did but kept fooling ourselves). The vet feels that he either had a stroke the other night or might have a brain tumor. So, we’ve got some anti-anxiety pills and some pain medication for him just in case. If it was a stroke we should see some improvement over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, he is wobbly on his feet and falls at times but gosh he isn’t giving up. He struggles to his feet and gives it his best shot, so since he isn’t giving up we won’t either. He’s shown some improvement from Monday night so we are optimistic. To keep him safe, we’ve put barricades in front of the stairs, built a 4x4 square to keep him in when we have to leave him alone, and arranged bins to block other parts of the room.

I was going to put up some Christmas decorations but honestly, my heart just isn’t into it. Instead I sat in a sun spot and tried to keep my thoughts positive.

It is December first so we sipped the first of our Advent beer along with excellent turkey sandwiches from the last of the leftover turkey.

Awesome!

“sunshine in my eyes… are my eyes watering from the bright light or from what I know is soon to come?”

“coloured lights at night”