This n' that

I’ve noticed that Miss Cathy has pretty much plateau-ed “behavior wise”. Don’t get me wrong, she’s come a long way since the summer; taking care of herself without any help, being responsible for taking her meds and even making her bed every morning.

But, she still gets overwhelmed when we’re out grocery shopping, and if we’re getting more than a few items the experience seems to just tire her out. She’s very quick to anger and she hasn’t made much progress with her walking.

I’ve been lax in my “no cooking when I’m out of the house” rule but in her defense there hasn’t been a problem for a very long time. Unfortunately that’s not always the case when I am here at the apartment. Just the other day she burned two sweet potato pies that she’d baked because she was on the phone in the living room with her sister.

I don’t know, other than telling her that I thought the pies smelled like they were burning I didn’t say anything to her. I was surprised (and a little annoyed when she said,” Oh they’re fine” and then she ate a big piece of one of them (just to prove the point I guess).
The pies sat on the island in the kitchen looking like two swollen, blackened, upside down Frisbees. Without saying anything they were gone the next day.

It’s funny, but the two people told about the burned pies both said the same thing, “Didn’t she set the timer?” I guess it’s a legitimate question but not the “take away” from the point I was trying to make that things like this wouldn’t happen of she’d just make her peace with the fact that things are different now and that she needs to change her behavior.

The timer is beside the point (it wasn’t set, by the by), I just wish she’d see that she has to “do something different” now that she’s different, but, that’s not happening-not yet anyway. I think the whole thing could be avoided if she’d just sit in the kitchen while she’s on the phone OR set the timer, or focus on kitchen activities only while she’s cooking.