Jan 14th, 2020 Day 11 of 128

It’s funny when mom and I were talking about the blog for this evening we were joking that we didn’t “do” anything today.  But what we really meant is I think we didn’t really “go” anywhere today.  In truth we never left the ship because it is sea day but we wander up and down and front to back of 6 floors of ship every day. Activities take place all over the ship. I think this is the first time I have ever cruised that I have been on the ship long enough to feel like I have a good lay of the land.  One cruise I went on, I didn’t even discover a swimming pool till like 2 days before we were getting off the ship.  This morning Megan and I grabbed breakfast to go as we were heading out to our crocheting group for Project Linus.  Nana and Valerie had breakfast together today.  Megan and Nana had hair cut appointments today.  They look amazing!!  They really did a great job on their cuts.  I participated in the first slot tournament of the trip.  There is a second round tomorrow and then finals. We all met for lunch around noon before Valerie went off to tutoring and and Megan and I worked on her schoolwork. Then at 2:00pm we went to the daily lecture on Recife, our next port of call in Brazil the day after tomorrow.  After the lecture the girls went off to line dancing class and mom and I played Bingo.  Then it was back to the room to get ready for dinner at 5:30pm for another wonderful meal with a Brazilian flare.  Mom and I decided to turn in early again tonight.  I feel bad sometimes missing out on all the evening activities, but I can’t stay up so late every single night.  It’s almost 8:00pm here now and getting my blog done is more important to me.  This cruise is definitely a test of prioritization.  Some days there are multiple things we want to do at the same time and since we can’t be in two places at once, we have to decide what we want to do most.  It has been amazing not having to have made my bed for the last two weeks.  When we have dirty laundry we fold it up, count it, mark the laundry sheet and place it in the laundry bag.  In the next day or two it reappears all clean.  I am trying to make sure the girls are keeping everything within our room neat and tidy.  This is a small space but you know what, it really works for us.  We spent February of 2016 through June 2016 living in my friends pool house as Don deteriorate and then passed away and this is very reminiscent of that time in our lives.  Only we have grown so much since then.  We are emotionally stronger and we have all come so very far since that time just four short years ago.  We are happier then we have been in a long time.  Our stress levels have diminished immensely being away too.  We had to take a pause from therapy to come on this trip and the time we are just being together focusing on one another has been all the therapy we have needed.  It is quite a pleasant side effect to this wonderful trip.  I can see more and more why people do this trip year after year.  O.K., off to bed with a cup of herbal tea tonight for some sweet dreams.  Hugs and Love to you all.   Debra