Daily Update, March 31, 2024

    After breakfast, I contacted Uber, and they came and took me to church. The service started at 9 am because it was Easter. They'd had the early service at 6 am for a sunrise service, instead of the usual 8 am, so they didn't want to wait until 10 am for the late service. I arrived just in time to say the Lord's Prayer right before communion. So, I did get communion, though I missed much of the earlier service. It's a start. I'm just having to convince myself I really want to start the morning earlier. {Smile}

   After the service, we had the usual feed, which was more brunch than lunch, since the service ended so early. It was big with a variety of dishes. I contributed a jar of mixed nuts. I hope it will last a few more Sundays. Auntie Barbara took me home but didn't come inside. She'd visited with Mom just the day before, and she was tired. She'd been there before the late service to hide the eggs for the egg hunt the kids had after the service. {Smile}

   Home communion asked to come between noon and 12:30 pm. I think it was actually a little after 1 pm that they go there. We had a nice little service. {Smile}

   I ate dinner with Mom and read to her before that. Mom was sitting when I got there. I opened her presents first. I gave her _Memories 1970's_, _Disney Princess 5-minute Princess Stories_, _Five-Minute Fairy Tales_, and _Mary Engelbreit's 5-Minute Fairy Tales_. She looked at each present, and at the pictures I showed her while reading. She didn't say much, though. {Smile}

First, I started with scripture and thoughts about it. After that, I finished her niece's long family Christmas letter from 2023. Next, I set aside _Cats Galore: A Compendium of Cultured Cats_ for a few days, starting _Memories 1970's instead. Thought I kept saying 1960's while reading. This is the first time I've seen a dementia picture book past the 1960's, so I keep thinking it must be then, since it isn't earlier yet. Then I set aside _Five-Minute Stories: Over 50 Tales and Fables_ and started _Disney Princess 5-minute Princess Stories_ instead. I started with "A Path to the Sea," a story about Moana, the Hawaiian princess. Lastly, I ended with the 31st of March's story from _366 Stories for Bedtime_, "Lazy Long Ears." {Smile}

   I did my head exercises and my arm swinging exercises while waiting for Uber to come take me to church. Then I did my arm resistance exercises between reading to Mom and dinner. Then i did both sets of salsa dancing for 20 1/4 minutes of salsa dancing in all. I also did both of my standing arm weight training exercises, so I did a little more today. {Smile}

   I wrote Saturday's daily update and played a little Cross Stitch World while waiting for home communion. After home communion, I cleaned myself up. The I hopped into City of Heroes: Homecoming. There, I spotted Dark, Kitten, and Pierogies. I said hi to each. Dark responded, so we chatted. Then I gave him some recipes he's been collecting for two of his characters that two of my characters had gotten while playing recently. One of them has all she needs, and the other needs more supplies to make them with. They're good for badges, and make useful things, as well. Then we teamed up on low-level bunny characters in honor of Easter and started to run a mission to catch me up with him. It was very hard for us on these characters. Then Kitten responded to my earlier hello and joined us. Just as things were getting easier, Pierogies responded to my earlier hello, and joined us, too. With all four of us, things went much easier. We finished that mission - the first long mission many characters can get, in good time for me to go read to Mom. {Smile}

   After dinner, I started writing this up. Then I hopped into City of Heroes: Homecoming. I saw Pierogies, Kitten, and Dark again, so I said hi. This time Kitten responded. They were farming with a random person they were helping. They finished their mission, and we got together. The random person wanted to unlock content that required running one of a few story arcs, so we started one of the story arcs. I started talking with Dark when he responded. He decided he was too tired to join us, so he left for bed. Then the random person decided they needed to go to bed after a couple of missions and would just have to finish this story arc another day. I switched characters, and Kitten and I ran some of my missions, working on a story arc. I also chatted with Nox on the chat server for a while. This time I watched the time carefully to make sure I didn't leave early like last night. I did my exercises, watched some of a video, and wrote a little of this, making a lot of notes to write from on Monday. {Smile}