The best laid plans...

Or life is what happens while you're making other plans. I wasn't prepared for the changes this past week. My 82-year-old father who returned to Brazil to live after my mom passed away, got sick. After a week of dry mouth and dry eyes, he was finally diagnosed with diabetes, not surprising since his mother and two brothers were diabetic. My Brazilian passport expired two years ago...I know!...and so now I'm renewing it, trying to get things in order so that I can go there and help care for him, stabilize him, and bring him back to the states.

I was thinking of trying to participate in NaBloPoMo, and so I'm going to make an attempt. The daily writing and unloading of thoughts can't do any harm. Don't know that I'll be able to do it daily, but making the effort.

While I wait for my passport to be express mailed back to me I have time to sew, quilt, make gifts for the abundance of relatives I have and will be expected to visit. My last trip to Brazil was 1996, and this one is not going to be a vacation, though I'll do my best to get some enjoyment out of it. I expect to be gone a month--the expense of the trip hardly warrants any less time, and I don't know what kind of challenge getting my dad stable enough to travel will be.

On a lighter and definitely happier note, Lindsay passed her state boards on the first try, and is now an RN. And so, since I don't have to write it all with this one post, I'll end with a work in progress, my Frida quilt. I've had the fabric for a quite a while, and finally decided to get on with using it.