It's so difficult to begin to fathom just how much has taken place over the past year for my family.  If you're a loyal reader, the last post you've read would have been on my alternate blog - BartlettTastestheWorld! - in which I discuss the horrifying 2 weeks my 87-year-old father had spent by that point in the hospital after breaking his femur in THREE places.

Unfortunately, he ended up back there a third, and tragically final time, passing away on 9/22/16.  We had a lovely memorial service for him (and my mother, who'd passed away in October of 2012), and will be honoring their request to be scattered over Beartooth in the future. 

Life is finally beginning to become my own again, as quite a few things tend to fall by the wayside when your family faces struggles such as his initial brain surgery in November of 2015, then finding a lovely retirement community that nurtured the last year of his life, one where he found many new friends, helping take care of his finances, medications, doctor visits, etc., and his passing. 

On those days when I spent way more time on things for his benefit, and he'd come out of his room during the time he stayed with us and make comments about the amount of time I was on the computer (nearly always taking care of his affairs), I'm so fortunate I always reminded myself that maybe, just maybe, at times during his life when he was working 60 hours or more per week, walking across 100 acres thru hip-deep snow to get to the Turnpike so a snowplow could pick him up to transport him to work, where he worked 30 straight hours during the blizzard of 1978, maybe he'd have liked to have a few hours off, but he was a dedicated family man, providing for our family.  I'm glad I was able to spend so much of his final year making sure his life was as fulfilling and enjoyable as possible.  

As I begin to gain control of my life and do a few more things that I enjoy, like scrapbooking, Photoshopping vacation photos, and traveling, I am once again cooking and baking more often, so my plan is to post weekly, and a great recipe to being with is for the Chocolate Shortbread Cookies with Cacao Nibs and Sea Salt that I baked recently.  Look for this post this week - these cookies are seriously addictive!