Hi readers,

I’ve missed you, and I’ve missed blogging. It has been 15 days since my last post, and nearly a month since I lost Mom. As I said when I last wrote, my thoughts have been too scattered to concentrate enough to write. Or, for that matter, even to read. I was relieved when someone told me that this confusion can be a normal part of grieving.

Lately, I’ve been feeling better—most of the time. When sadness sets in, I play the music our choir sang at her celebration of life and look through old family pictures. There are a lot of them; Mom kept them all, boxes of them.

Here’s one of my favorites. Mom loved coming to my Abbey, and the sun room was where we usually ended up.

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There’s another activity that has cheered me recently. It’s a lot more expensive than listening to music and looking at photos, but it has been a great distraction. I had just begun a fairly large redecorating project when Mom passed. After a break of a few days, I gradually went back to transforming my master suite.

All during the summer, I had been mulling over a complete color change. The lavender walls and purple accessories that had pleased me so much at one time began to annoy me. Here is a before picture of my master bedroom in all of its lavender glory. The photo bomb is courtesy of my cat, Angie.

Painting came first, of course. Out with the lavender and in with a soft tan. Then came accessorizing, layering, and generally creating a new look. Just as I didn’t do my own painting, neither did I do my own designing. That was mostly the vision of my good friend, Dee. My main contribution was swiping my credit cards, which, by the way, is one of my specialties.

Here is how my bedroom looks today, with Angie reprising her photo bomb.

I think Mom would have liked this new look. She liked pretty much anything I did. And I’m sure she would be happy to know that I am not spending all of my time mourning.