Autumn leaves are much loved by my grandkids and me. When everyone else is busily raking their lawn to achieve the bare look, my grandkids and I are crunchily dancing in the leaves, watching in awe as they fall to the ground in God’s awesome “Autumn Ballet,” and making craft projects with them.

We have fun collecting a bag or two of leaves, picking out the prettiest ones and gluing them to construction paper. These projects can be as simple as a random display or as fancy as their imaginations take them. I love to bring Autumn into the house by hanging these masterpieces all around.

Another fun idea is to let them help me decorate by filling a couple of wide-mouthed, clear vases with leaves, as well as artfully decorating my fireplace mantel with them. It can also be fun to add other autumnal decorations such as pine cones, cute little scarecrows on a stick, etc.

These are simple and fun ways to create great fall memories, teach our grandkids to rejoice in God’s lovely world, and just plain have fun with them. Happy Autumn, y’all.

SENIOR HOME CARE:

Infections may lead to faster memory loss in Alzheimer’s Disease. Per @ALZHEIMERSread

National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week is September 14-20. Invisible Illness Week’s site has plenty of great information such as an article on handicapped parking spots and @invisibleillwk is sending out tweets to help us help aging relatives and others dealing with Invisible Chronic Illness, such as “Consider yourself a friend for the journey, not a physician or savior”  and “What she could do yesterday may not be possible today.”

Alzheimer’s Reading Room: Dementia and the Eight Types of Dementia

Being There & Far Away – Adult children living far from aging parents have many of the hardships and few of the rewards of near-by senior home care givers.   Per @matthewbjohnson

Caregiving.com has several fun contests going on all through September:  September Summer Send-Off: You Can Win! In fact, I just won a $25 Visa gift card! How about you? Let us know if you win. I’d love to announce your name as a winner for this contest! 

How To Get Assistance For Your Prescription Medication.  Per @ParkinsonsInfo

Loss of Taste in the Elderly.  Per @PattyGrace

GRANDPARENTS:

This economy can be hard on our grandkids as well as adults. Sesame Street has a special coming up dealing with that very subject, all about Elmo’s mom losing her job. The Sesame Street special airs 8 p.m. Sept. 9 on most PBS stations including #Detroit & #Toledo which have both been hard hit.   Thank you to @MonroeOnABudget for letting us know.

WOW! A great HANNAH MONTANA wardrobe contest  from And Freebies for All. Terrific fun for our granddaughters, this contest is open for entries from 9/1/09 through 9/19/09 at 11:59pm PST. Be sure to leave a valid email address in your comment.

Grandparents Day is September 13, 2009. You can find lots of fun family activities to help you and your family celebrate by clicking the link.

@Carebuzz has some sweet quotes about Grandparents for Grandparents Day! Great for making homemade cards and gifts.

SANDWICH GENERATION:

More fun contests:

Enjoy a night out with a great meal from @PFChangs by winning a $100 gift certificate from @lkwhtmomfound…and Dad too!   I have to tell you, I LOVE PF Changs.  Their food is healthy and delicious. They even offer you a choice of white or brown rice. Yummy!

Awesome giveaway from @Moomettes.  Enter by November 15 to win a brand new GE kitchen appliance!

Enter to win a @storkcraft Classic Wooden Rocking Horse. It’s a beautiful gift for grandkids! Hurry! This giveaway will end September 10th, 2009 at 11:59 PM EST.

Not only did I win a prize from @Caregiving, I also won a prize from @TwinHappyJen – a gift certificate from @happypandababy. Thank you @TwinHappyJen and @happypandababy!

Autumn is almost here! A fun outing with aging parents and/or grandkids – enjoy fall leaves with a ride to mountains or parks. While you are out, collect leaves for craft projects. Thanks to @SrHelpersNEOH & @SeniorHomeCare for that great tip.

Grand encouragement for the Sandwich Generation: I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.“ Ps 91:2 (NIV)

Social Networking Safety for the Baby Boomer Generation.

30 fascinating and bizarre ads to leave you with a big smile as you go about your Sandwich Generation caregiving. Per @Journeywoman @Inia_Bergamot @MLTGroup

I was wandering through a most delightful bookstore with one of my granddaughters last week when we spied an intriguing craft magazine geared for children. Purchasing it, we took it home to see what ideas it had for us.

Cool Kids’ Crafts from Woman’s Day Special Interest Publications is currently on sale for $4.99. The cover states:

• 156 Super-Easy Projects
• Great DIY Ideas Under $10

Having fallen for such claims in the past and then being greatly disappointed, I was a bit leery as I opened the magazine. I hadn’t even made it through page 16 of the 96 pages when I realized the cover told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It really is a great magazine for grandkids and grandparents to have a lot of fun with!

Many of the projects are, indeed, simple. The materials required range from construction paper to paper plates to foam. There are also some larger projects needing such items as socks, paint, wood, t-shirts, etc. Overall, though, many of the crafts are really simple and easy – perfect for busy grandparents who are also providing senior home care for aging parents.

Some of the craft ideas include:

• A cute picture of a house with windows full of photos of family members. We could fill it with grandkid pictures and use it as an adorable gift for great-grandparents.
• Grandsons and granddaughters would enjoy the cool sunglasses they can customize, not to mention the cute and easy-to-make sunglass holder.
• For those of you who, like me, are already thinking fondly of Autumn and Harvest fun, there are several adorable pumpkin crafts ranging from an ultra-simple pumpkin-face garland made from paper plates to a more difficult pumpkin totem made from plywood!
• There are even some cute Christmas projects to help you and your grandkids get a really early start on your Christmas cards and decorations. That’s always a good thing for us Sandwich Generation caregivers, since we never know when unexpected illness might slow us down in our holiday preparations.

All in all, this is a very useful little craft magazine. And at its discounted price, it’s also one of those fun ways to save money while having fun with the grandkids!

For more fun Family Friday ideas for you and your grandkids, be sure to take a peek at Homemaker Barbi’s site! She’s got a great article on rainy day fun. Not only that, I found another early-Christmas-planning compadre at Life As Mom who has written on getting started with your Christmas planning now. Pre-planning Christmas expenditures is one of our best ways to save money, not to mention time!  Since both are vital necessities for Sandwich Generation caregivers, do check it out.  Merry Christmas, in July. 

Happy Harvest Time! Autumn is truly here in much of the U.S. Yesterday I went out in the early morning and it was around 70 degrees. Today, it was definitely in the 60s! And I’m loving it! I love the whole harvest season and now that we are into October I’m seeing more and more decorations going up. So far it’s mostly scarecrows and hay bales which are all my favorites so I’m a happy camper!

A friend sent me the sweet story that has been circulating in emails and blogs for years. As far as I’ve been able to tell, the author is unknown (if anyone does know the author, please let me know). It’s such a great story to read and enjoy and even better if you can ever use it to share the gospel with others. I love to read it to my grandchildren.

The Inspiring Pumpkin…
A lady had recently been baptized. One of her co-workers asked her what it was like to be a Christian. She was caught off guard and didn’t know how to answer; but when she looked up, saw a jack-o’-lantern on the desk and answered:

“It’s like being a pumpkin.”
The coworker asked her to explain that one.
“Well, God picks you from the patch and brings you in and washes off all the dirt on the outside that you got from being around all the other pumpkins. Then he cuts off the top and takes all the yucky stuff out from inside.He removes all those seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc.

Then he carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all to see.

It is our choice to either stay outside and rot  on the vine or    come inside and be something new and bright.”

Isn’t that great?! In trying to research who the author was, I discovered a great site with several other cute Halloween ideas for you to share with your grandkids. It’s at http://www.christiancrafters.com/pumpkin.html  and there you will find a variety of Halloween Alternative Resources – a pumpkin prayer activity, a craft, two stories, and a poem which were sent in by Diane Bracher. If you want to explore their site further, they have a wide variety of other craft ideas for general purposes as well as many for holidays. Some require a fee while others are free although I know they’d appreciate a donation. I’ve added them to my Delicious bookmarks and am looking forward to trying some of their projects with my grandkids this fall.

One other cute resource for having fun during the harvest holiday season while keeping our eyes and the eyes of our grandchildren firmly planted on Jesus is found at http://www.annieshomepage.com/halloweenprintable2.html . There you will find a cute poem, Pumpkins & Jesus. The writer (also unknown) has taken the letters for the word Pumpkins to spell out the gospel message for kids. I’ve enjoyed visiting Annie’s website many times over the years and highly recommend it. You can also find many other Christian-based Halloween and autumn ideas and projects there at http://www.annieshomepage.com/annieshalloweenpage.html .

Have a bushel of fun with all of these fun “harvest” goodies!

What is your favorite season? Mine is Autumn. It officially starts tomorrow and I can’t wait! I love the cool crisp days and nights. I love the crunchy leaves. I love the sights and sounds and fun times. I love decorating for Harvest Time. I loved it as a newlywed. I loved it when my kids were young. And I love it as a Baby Boomer Generation caregiver. I just plain love Autumn.

I am thrilled that my grandkids all love it as well! Sharing our traditions with them and learning the new traditions they have started is all part of the heritage we are creating for our families.

When my children were young, we collected leaves and put them around the house while singing fall songs together. These were songs I had made up and set to Christmas song tunes.

Some of that has changed – we don’t usually bring the leaves into the house anymore (I have developed allergies). But we love to crunch in them outside and watch as the wind swirls them around for a lovely “Autumn Ballet.” I love to share that imagery with my long-distance grandkids as we enjoy talking about the leaves dancing outside.

When we are discussing our “Autumn Ballet,” it is a great time to talk about God. It provides a powerful picture of Him and how He works in our lives. We may not be able to see the wind, but we see it ruffling the leaves in the trees, carrying them around in the air and skittering them around on the ground. We may not be able to see God, but we see His power at work in our lives when we pray and He answers, when we see Him protect us from an accident on the freeway, and when we read His Word and see it apply directly to our lives.

It’s fun finding autumn pictures for all the grandkids to enjoy coloring and decorating. I keep a close watch on Target’s $1 bin and the local Dollar stores for fun projects for Autumn, Thanksgiving, and harvest time. Last year Target had turkey sticker projects, autumn picture frames to decorate, and Pin the Tail on the Turkey games. Needless to say, I scooped up plenty for all my grandkids. We can incorporate them in their home schooling program, as well as just having fun. These are memories we can all share and enjoy, right now and as they grow older.

Here are some Autumn Coloring Pages Fun for you to share with your grandkids. On a PC, you can right click on each picture, select COPY. Then open a program such as Word and select EDIT, PASTE. You can change the size by selecting the picture, press on the CTRL key with your left hand while pressing the left mouse key, and dragging. This will increase the size proportionally.