4 kids, 4 days, one mom

Today begins another single-parent weekend for me. Brian flew back to MO on the redeye flight last night to be with his family. He is taking care of some more financial stuff for his mom and making sure that things in the nursing facility are being managed well, plus just spending time with his family. He won't be back until late Monday night.

His mom is doing as well as as can be expected. They have stopped therapy on her legs, so our instincts about the recovery in that area were pretty spot-on. She will need a custom wheelchair now... and thankfully it appears that the cost will be covered by Medicare/Medicaid. She does seem to be showing some improvement in her arm that was affected by the stroke; I'm not sure if she has regained fine motor skills yet, though. The kids still haven't talked with her about the possibility that she may not be able to live apart from a care facility. At this point, it is important for her to feel that there is something to work towards. And depending on the availability of at-home assistance during the times when she would be alone (daughter/son at work), the possibility of her moving in with one of her St. Louis-area kids may be a viable alternative somewhere down the road. I think there are a lot of resources out there that they haven't availed themselves of up to this point, and I'm hoping they will. There is just a lot to deal with at this point, including stuff not even related to her MS and stroke, like...

the other situation with Brian's father; the prosecutor's office isn't doing anything about it at this point. They are waiting until February, when their "expert" will be back in the office to handle it. I don't know if that means they will prosecute or not. But it is frustrating for me... I want the man locked up, and just don't understand why and how they can be so laid back about this case.

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In other news, Noah and Halle started piano lessons this week. We have a very sweet girl who comes here to us to teach them. They both hit it off with her and she seems to have a gift for relating to the kids. I'm looking forward to hearing them progress. It will be nice to have someone learning to play the piano in the house again. I love being able to see and hear how they grow from simple finger exercises to playing melodies with 2 hands.