Channeling my Mother

Last nite, as I was crawling into bed, Nicole ran up the stairs and brought me my heating pad from the living room. She plugged it in next to the bed and said, "Here, this might make it easier to sleep." :) (Yup, she is always that nice.)
As I settled the heating pad under my right hip (which is making my life FAR too challenging this past week), I thought, Oh dear, I am channeling my mother . . .  She slept with a heating pad every night for the last 20 years of her life due to back pain. For just a moment there was nothing more in life that I wanted than to pick up the phone and call her. I wanted to say how sorry I was that I didn't pay more attention when she was in pain. I wanted to tell her I UNDERSTOOD now. I wanted to hear her smile over the phone and reassure me that she still loved me. That I still "knocked her socks off". Instead, I pulled up the covers, turned the heating pad on low and snuggled with the other person in my life who loves me that much (is this where I say, oh yea, Joseph was there too? Heehee.)
Last year, in June, we had a strange confluence of events that resulted in NO INCOME for the entire month. This year, it is apparently going to occur in August. Not NO money, but about one-fifth of what I typically get in a month. That means life will change for a while. Less leaving the house. More careful eating. No visits to the thrift stores.
But that's okay. Goodness knows, this house has no lack of good material for reading, stacks of stationery for letter writing, and movies for watching. Best of all, it is filled with the people I find the most entertaining, compassionate, patient, and loving in the world. Good place to hang out, I'd say. Even if I have to do it with a heating pad behind me.