Rattle those Pots and Pans

I had a huge baking project to work on last night when I got home – long story, but my boss and I decided that we would bake small lemon poundcakes for our board members as Christmas gifts and tomorrow is gift day. So, I had to get cracking. It wasn’t hard, just time consuming. And it meant that I wasn’t sitting with M, watching TV.

It really threw him for a loop!

He didn’t know what to do with himself. He kept coming in the kitchen, asking me about what I was doing, was I close to being finished (no!) how is it going, what am I doing now, what about now . . . and what about now? He tried the poundcake when I baked a test model a couple of weeks ago, and lemon isn’t his favorite flavor, so he didn’t really like it. It’s not like he wanted a taste or anything. He just wanted me with him. And he wanted us to watch TV.

Then, as we were getting ready for bed, he had a question about one of the lights in the hallway, near the front door. Over the years, we’ve put more and more lights on timers so that our house has that “lived in” look, whether we’re there or not. And the light near the front door is on a timer.

Over the weekend, he became concerned that we needed to turn it off as we went to bed. I assured him it was on a timer and would go off in a few minutes.

Then last night. as I was brushing my teeth, he wanted to ask me about a light that was concerning him. So, I finished my teeth and we took a field trip to the light that had him bothered.

The light by the front door.

I promised – again – that it was on a timer and would go out by 10:00 or so. But I did want to point out to him that there was an overhead light on, leading down the stairs into the den. He had turned that light on as he was coming up to bed . . . but the fact that that light was STILL ON didn’t worry him. I can guarantee you, though, that when it woke me up at 3 am and I would have looked at that light shining through the dark house and debated whether or not I should get up and turn it off, I would have had a word or two to share with M. They would not have been fun words, either.

Bless him!

I had a GREAT phone call this morning! After all the aggravation I had with the insurance company getting M’s short-term disability payments started, I wasn’t sure how it would go when it was time to switch over to long-term disability. Yesterday, I had a message on my phone from a different person at the insurance office, letting me know that she was going to approve him for long-term disability that day and informing me how the payments would be processed beginning in December.

Wow!

Then, the same woman called me this morning, when I could talk on the phone and let me know that I should go ahead and apply for Social Security benefits, because these payments he’s receiving now will show as income and make it look as though he’s earned less over these two years. So we want to file now to reflect what he was actually earning when he was working. And, she’s going to send me paperwork to help me with all this and offered the services of their attorneys if we’re denied.

Now, where was all this service before?

I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth – I’m just grateful I have this information and I’m running with it!