Naps

I’m learning to catch a nap when I can while Don is asleep during the day.  He wakes me up every few hours in the night for the bathroom, and sometimes more frequently than that.  There are days when I need a nap far more than other days.

I haven’t blogged about that, have I?

Back in April, an elderly lady I know from church called and asked if I was looking for work.  I did need a job, so I said yes.  She asked if I would like to come and live with her to help her take care of her husband.  She wanted to bring him home from the nursing home and wanted someone she could trust to help her take care of him.  She knew I’d had experience helping my mom take care of my dad the last year of his life while he was battling a brain tumor.  She’d be willing to pay me the same that she was paying the nursing home to care for her husband.

While my immediate reaction was fear – it had been something I hadn’t done in five years and it would mean living away from home for the first time in my life – it was something I had experience in, and a woman I knew and cared for needed help and she trusted me implicitly.  So while she gave me time to think, fast and pray about it, I still knew my answer would be yes.

In seeking confirmation from the Lord about this, that despite being frightened, I wanted to do it anyway, I learned to listen for a still, small answer.  For some reason, I seem to expect attention-grabbing answers to prayers.  But after sitting for a while and forcing my mind to quiet, it took me a minute to recognize what I was feeling.

Peace.

It was the right thing to do.  I moved in the night of April 9th after our church’s talent show.  Elaine and I brought her husband home the next day.  It’s been a month and a week since I’ve been here.  There have been good days, bad days, confusing days.  Sleep is interrupted for him to “get rid of some water” or if he needs a blanket.  Some nights he wakes me up more often than others.  But I have a priesthood blessing and a whole lot of prayers supporting me in this.  I know with God’s help, I can do my best to help Elaine.

I have Sundays off to go to church and spend the rest of the day with my family.  That special day goes by far too quickly.  Check out how we spent our Sunday afternoon at my mom’s blog.

Today I realized I needed more rest than usual during the day – two naps.  I hadn’t gotten much sleep Sunday night, despite being back home in my own bed with my wonderful family, so perhaps an hour or so after returning to Elaine’s, I laid down for a nap on the couch.  I got enough rest to last me until after lunch when I realized I needed another nap.  I had a brief dilemma in deciding if I wanted to nap then or not.  Mom had just gotten on Facebook and I wanted to chat with her.  But I was tired, and I’m sure that had I mentioned that in our chat, she would have told me to take a nap while I had the chance.  There are plenty other opportunities to talk with her and my family – phone calls, e-mail, Facebook, the weekly Sunday day off.  I need to take care of me just as much as – if not more than – I help Elaine take care of Don.

All the same, I must remember to rely on the arm of the Lord during this.