Regaining strength and mobility — oh, that sounds so wonderful, but requires much patience, thought and planning.

Last week I wanted to make a large pot of soup for our Lenten soup supper. My largest pan is a pressure cooker in which I used to get my canning done. Since I have not canned anything for the last few years, the pan was stored on the highest shelf, just out of reach. However I was set and determined to use that pressure-cooker. So I reached as high as I could, stood on tippy-toe and started to pull.

It worked.

However the heavy lid was lying loose on top, slid down and landed smack in my face. My glasses flew off in the process, but I had triumphantly the pan in my hands, holding on for dear life. Quite an accomplishment!

The next day I wanted to use the beautiful day to go into the woods and gathering branches, breaking them into pieces for the wood stove, and give the daffodils more room to grow, since the branches were in the middle of flower patches. Bending over is my latest trick, something I have not been able to do for months. So I have to be careful keeping my balance when I do. A tempting big branch went straight through three daffodil patches. It was almost out of reach. So, still bending, I took a small step forward, reached out and got hold of it. However, when I tried to straighten up I was right under a bunch of sticker bushes (berries, green brier and some locusts) and was stuck in that awkward position. Finally, after pulling and moaning, I got free again, be it with pinpricks on my back. It’s a miracle my shirt was not torn.

Just when you get some self-confidence something like that happens.

-Sunday I went to church. It was much chillier, but I decided to go without a coat, since I always forget something. Also went for first time without my walker or even my cane.

So what did I forget? In the afternoon I got a phone call that my son had my purse. One of the members had found it on a table in church and brought it to him for safekeeping.

It has been raining since early morning today (Monday). It’s a good day to stay inside, write this column and, if time permits, figure out my taxes.

Both things sounded simple to do. However my column was interrupted by a computer warning about needing virus protection.

When I got rid of that warning, my column disappeared and I still have not been able to retrieve it.

The taxes were another frustration. I cannot find the needed statements. Most of last year I was not even home, but in hospitals, the nursing home and at the home of my daughter.

When I came finally home all kinds of old mail had piled up, much of it still unopened. Then, in order to get things out of sight when people came over, some was gathered in piles and hidden. I certainly was not sure what I was doing most of that time. And my memory is shot. I can clearly remember some of the things which happened 50 years ago, but don’t ask me what happened last year, or month or even last week. It is a blur. But, I don’t think that Uncle Sam will accept blurry information on my tax forms!

Such are the problems and complications of trying to return to “normal” life. What is “normal” anyway?

Sometimes I feel like I am running. That is big improvement from not long ago. However, when one of my kids walks with me they will make all kind of sidesteps, admiring a budding flower, picking up some trash, or some branches, while I keep huffing and puffing walking a straight line. And they still have to stop to let me catch up with them.

I also want to sort out all the yarn I have, by color and by thickness of yarn. For that I need space, since I’ve got a good supply. In order to make some space for it I have found several items I had been looking for and which were buried under stacks of papers, books, or yarn or under a bed.

I already have two tables in use for the finished projects of my knitting and crocheting. I really need more tables, although I have no room for them.

I used to have a friend who kept her house spic and span. As soon as the mail came she would take care of it, answering what needed to be answered, throwing away what she did not want to keep. Same thing with the daily paper. An hour later she had disposed of it. She never saved any small left-overs from meals. She never even displayed photos. I admired her housekeeping, but I could never live like that. For a house to get a homey look, there must be somewhere be some clutter.

Our house here is filled with clutter, which sometimes drives me crazy, yet it is home sweet home to me, despite all this.

Years ago when I visited my sister in Holland she had been picking up a handful of small sticks and showed me how much wood she had gathered from the garden. She was going to give it to our neighbor who had a fireplace. I laughed and laughed. Don’t show these “matchsticks” to me who had woods of her own! Don’t be a fool and give them to your neighbor!

However, do you know what I have been doing lately? Despite our woods and dead trees needing to be sawn for the wood stove with which we heat the house, I have been picking up small sticks and dried dead leaves from the flower beds to be used as kindling. That will come handy when we have cool evenings this summer, or like now on a cold wet spring day, as well as later in the fall.

Maybe this is still an after effect of the war, when we had no heat in the house and wood was as treasured as gold when you found some. I know my kids think it silly and a waste of time when I collect that stuff. Yet, maybe they will later in life do the same thing. They are pack rats, so the seed is there to save everything which might some day come in handy.

I have given away a lot of our stuff that was still good, like clothes, dishes and some furniture and then kept the more junky and trashy stuff for myself, which is OK for me. Several people have been asking what the “sleeves” are that I am making. Come on over and look for yourself and visit a while when you can.

During Lent you hear a lot about giving talent, treasure and time to the Lord. The three T’s . Maybe I can add a fourth T to this and offer my trash too. That would serve as a spring house cleaning as well. I still have here good things for sale. All the money will go to Haiti, for the drilling of a well to provide continued fresh water in the future. Right now many organizations are donating bottled water, which is sorely needed. However there are elsewhere tragedies too, like Chile, Turkey and wherever a tsunami or earthquake, flooding or draught takes place. Those places need help too, and I fear that after a while world assistance to Haiti will stop and what good has it done? Has it only prolonged a life of hardship and unhealthy living? Our hope is that by Easter we can send enough money to “Food for the Poor” to have a well drilled, providing for their future.