Caregiving-Cheap Entertainment (10/24/2017)

My mom loves audiobooks. We have a bunch of books downloaded to her smart phone, and she listens to them all night long. She can and has listened to the same book over and over again. Her current favorite series is the "Love Comes Softly" series by Janette Oke. It turns out that only 4 of  the 8-book series has been recorded. If the recordings were out there for the other books, my Papa-Larry would have found them by now. He's a relentless resource finder. He leaves no stone unturned. He eventually settled on buying the complete series in paperback form. There has been some thought given to me recording them myself, but the time has not yet been given to that project. For now, I lay on the floor by her bed at night and read a few chapters to her. It was intimidating at first because she is very picky about the narrators she listens to. If she doesn't like the voice, they're done by chapter 2, never to be heard from again. I guess I must have made the cut because she wants me to keep reading. It's a sweet time, really. Elaborate outings of entertainment have been replaced with quiet bedside reading, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I keep reminding myself to "cherish this time while you have it."