Having a huge family that gets along helps a lot in the way of emotional support, and we've both been getting consecutive nights of good sleep for the first time since mid-March.

I had a related experience when my father went into the nursing home -- it felt bad in some ways, but I (and my mother of course) had spent so much time worrying about him that it was a real relief on some level.

I had a related experience when my father went into the nursing home -- it felt bad in some ways, but I (and my mother of course) had spent so much time worrying about him that it was a real relief on some level.

Yes, when my mom passed I had it too. Sleeping through the night, not starting at every sound, making plans without worrying about leaving her alone. It's hard because you feel less stress, yet feel guilty for that little bit of relief.

Laura, are you keeping up with the Orange Theory?

Yes, I am! I am on a Mon-Wed-Fri schedule now because apparently I do much better with a rest day. On my rest day I do swim at least an hour. I do the lessons at noon. Still massively hard to do, but I am getting stronger.

That is good to hear, Matt. Sleep is so important to keep your immune system intact when you are grieving.

Yeah, I didn't realize quite how much worrying about my mom's bone cancer spreading and causing pain was taking a toll until she died.

My parents had the downstairs apartment, and I hadn't realized how attuned I was to hearing (and deciphering) noises from them, and after Dad died, from Mom. For the entire year after we'd moved her to assisted living, I still alerted at any sound, in the other room, or outside, until I was certain it wasn't from her, downstairs.

We're in a detached one-story now. And I still have that alert response until I find out what that noise was--any noise that's not immediately identifiable. Tree branch hitting the roof: Did she fall? Flowerpot blows over on the porch: Did she drop something?

Of course I was awake in the wee smalls for years after they'd left home, waiting to hear the boys' cars pulling into the driveway. Some learned behaviors are hard to unlearn. I keep working on it.

I still alerted at any sound, in the other room

same, but for mac having a mood shift. It's mostly gone now, but I still sleep much lighter.

After my dad passed, I changed my ringtone. It's helped a lot to reduce the adrenaline response.

Timelies all!

Had a dentist appointment for a regular cleaning this morning. After they checked my gums, it was determined that I needed deep cleaning all over. This meant my whole face was numbed. I decided to go home rather than to work after that. Numbness is gone, and my mouth doesn't hurt, but I'll need to change my dental routine again.(Either up the number of times per day I use the PerioProtect, or get a Waterpik with special attachments.)

Thinking of you and your family, Matt.

If anyone remembers, we had an exciting confusion when filing our taxes, in which we thought we had double-paid property taxes. Now that it's past tax time, we're trying to get to the bottom of this.

CPA said, there's no way you belong to two different school districts.

ISD #1 said, you definitely belong to us.

ISD #2 said, nuh-uh, you belong to us.

Appraisal district said, we agree with #2.

Call #1 back, and she says we belong to them 60% and ISD #2 gets 40% of us.