Just say “Thank you! I greatly appreciated that you did that”

This seems simple. It is something that I have said intentionally and meaning every word many times throughout my life. And many of those times to my mom. Now with her living in our home and the disease progressing it has become glaringly obvious – she needs to be needed.

A dear friend first pointed this out to me about a year ago while we were at lunch and I was venting some frustration. More recently, my husband said the same thing to me one evening.

In the mornings I am in the kitchen before my mom comes out. I start the coffee and proceeded to ‘clean up’ the kitchen from the adventures that take place after I have long gone to sleep. (Oh the beauty of having teenage boys!) Then…