Okaasan and I stood in the entrance hall and threw peanuts out into the snow and shouted "Devil go away! Good luck come in!".
Then we went inside and stood with these giant sushi rolls and faced the north-east corner...the cooker...and took a first bite. Silently.
She loved it. Told me all about how it was a created festival by Osaka businesses etc etc. But loved doing it. All late afternoon I could see she was sitting looking at the supermarket flyers from the newspaper: all with glossy pictures of tempting sushi rolls.
I feel doing these seasonal things is important for her. Creates a kind of ongoing feeling. That time again. A link emotionally and in the routines to the past.
6 am today I crashed back into my reality though...
Wandered bleary eyed into the living room, switched on the Tv, moved aside some cat toys and sat myself down....found some stray peanuts on the sofa.
So I ate them.
They weren't. Peanuts.
Dried cat food bits.
The diet variety.
Oh. Yuk. I can see why Popo turns his nose up at them in favor of calorie laden goodies.
And in other news...I am trying to get on top of the names-on-clothes situation.
Okaasan stresses that people at the day care center take her clothes while she is having a bath. So she tries to sew little tapes and write her name on things. It's a task she does in fits and starts, usually when she has going to day care in mind.
10 minutes before the day service car arrives I find her in her underwear, standing by the window trying to thread a needle..... That old "time will somehow fit" routine.
So. I bought some iron-on labels - my life far too short for sewing the fiddly little things - and I've started adding labels to her clothes when I was them. And with a magic pen writing her name.
Great for kanji practice :-)
Except yesterday I realised I'd only put the second kanji of her name on the label......had to go back in this morning and add the first part! Otherwise she'll be "Jima-san" and not "Nakajima".
Taking over the doing of things like this involves lots of little decisions. Will she mind? Will she notice? Will she be annoyed? Should I do it with her? Would that be harder? Would she refuse to do it? Is it easier to just do it and hope...?
In the run of my busy life it often is just easier for me to DO it myself. Buy the labels, Take the clothes, Iron them on and write the name. Return the clothes to her room.
In an ideal caring world I would involve her in the process. But. I don't.
It's like the orange peel saving for a little bag and the bath. I doubt she is ever going to sew a little bag herself. I could buy a little bag, make it up for her next bathtime....but..agh....I just threw away most of the dried peel and kept a bit on top of the fridge - in case she gets angry about the missing peel. I can placate her with a bit.
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