To depart and return with changes

School is around the corner.  We still homeschool, but there is only one little'un left to teach.  My extra time is spent being a caregiver for my Mom, who now has a moderate level of dementia.  My Dad also had Alzheimer's.  I suppose there's little hope for me.  I will say that being a caregiver for someone with dementia is everything it's cracked up to be.

I finally saw the movie Raging Bull last night.  I'd seen bits and pieces but never the whole thing.  I will say I have no clue what the rave reviews are about.  I found it a sub-par movie.  Yes, De Niro gave his usual stellar performance.  Pesci was his typical F-bomb laden hot head.  But the story seemed chopped up, there was no real sense of time passing until the later part of the movie.  And I often felt there was an entire story arc going on that I was not privy to.  Perhaps if I knew the life and times of the real Jake Lamotta it would have made sense.  I understand that in 1980, the level of expletives and graphic fight scenes would have elicited oohs and ahs.  But on the whole, it was one of the more disappointing movies I've seen in a while.  Perhaps because it's suddenly found itself thrust into the top 5 spot of greatest movie of all time, I just had impossible expectations.  Or I'm so used to  the De Niro/Pesci schtick that this one just didn't deliver.  I don't know.

Anyhoo, school is upon us.  I'm also looking for some type of at work from home income, though it isn't easy.  I'm not tech savvy, and many valid at-home jobs lean on some form of technical know-how. So that will be a challenge.  With two boys now in school, we need to have a little more moola than we do.

Finally, when I return I'm going to shake things up a bit for the blog.  Times have changed, life moves on, and I find myself going in different directions than when this all began.  I started this blog in 2010 (wow, my oldest would have been around 12 years old), for very distinct purposes, none of which panned out.  So I will be explaining the new direction when I get back. 

In addition to school, our second oldest's 20th birthday is this weekend.  So we'll have plenty to do celebration-wise.  Owing to the varied and hectic schedules of everyone, the family get together time isn't what it used to be.  But everyone will be here tonight, so we're having our customary seasonal all veggie harvest meal.  Don't let it full you, it isn't as healthy as it sounds.  We don't have a garden anymore, so we go to a local farm and orchard to pick up the fresh veggies.  It's probably cheaper in the long run.  But in addition to the healthier items, we will feature several helpings of fried veggies - green tomatoes, squash, peppers.  Nothing takes away the health value of produce than dunking it in flour and boiling oil.

So that's the plan.  I'll be back at some point next week.  I'll lay out the plans for the blog going forward at that time.  Thanks to everyone for the visits, the comments, the outreach and the insights.  It was always the insights of others that were the best part of blogging.  Prayers will be appreciated, and returned in kind.  Will be back then.  God bless and TTFN.