It's science fun along with all our science fair projects preparation this week in our multigenerational homes and even my sweet senior mom has joined in the fun with her gardening magazines.

Our younger grandkids have to collect pictures of flowers and plants for their Christian home schooling program and she's had such a great time picking out some good ones from her collection. She's got Garden Ideas & Outdoor Living, Country Gardens, one of the great State-by-State Gardening magazines, and Container Gardening. And then her favorites, Birds and Blooms, along with a Burpee Seed Catalog, are in another pile for sharing with all her long distance grandkids who absolutely love all things birds and butterflies. She gets so blessed by cutting out pictures of both and using them as stickers and stationery when writing them. Talk about your easy crafts for seniors, that is also great for the kids. And it looks so cute!  

It may be a bit chilly (we finally got a tiny bit of snow) but she's already thinking ahead, longingly, to her own senior gardening projects for the spring, collecting pictures from these same magazines all about how to create a butterfly garden, and hoping to have a better year growing it along with our beloved sunflowers and sunflower houses! Now that she's feeling a bit better, hopefully the gardens will be as well. And won't those local grandkids have a great time in our senior gardening projects! 

isn't God's world grand! And isn't it fun when we get to include the whole Sandwich Generation family while babysitting and helping our grandchildren. She was tickled pink, they were tickled pink, and I was tickled pink. Hmmm – sounds like this is perfect for Pink Saturday, what do you think?

Kaye

The Sandwich Generation multigenerational caregiving issues of life can certainly be full of stress, can't it? Whether it's dealing with hospitilizations of senior parents and the ensuing recovery period (note the red gizmo on the big hospital gizmo – just in time for Rednesday? );

or perhaps it's helping a grandchild with all the necessary requirements of those ever fun science fair projects;

And then, we won't even think about our own bodies giving us fritzes with sinus infections or tummy bugs (I'm FINALLY over that sinus infection – yay ).

But when things get a bit too much, I really appreciate the lovely trees, and the gorgeous sky. Isn't it amazing how taking a few seconds to just stand and relax and look up at God's wonders, can often help you feel a bit more relaxed and ready to dive back into those Sandwich Generation issues of life?  Even lovely photos can help me relax – another reason I love my easy to use digital camera. And if you feel the same way, be sure to visit Sweet Shot Tuesday for more interesting pictures.  

Kaye

I have a deep dark secret to confess! I am NOT fond of science fairs! They are time-consuming, deadline-inducing, sometimes frustrating, often expensive, and (for this science-challenged Sandwich Generation granny nanny) HARD! That being said, they are also educational, interesting, informative, and a good life-lesson for our kids and grandkids. SO when it's science fair time, if I get drafted to help out, I always do.

(And by the by, if you are also a boomer or senior like me, you – like me – probably never had to do a science fair til our kids came along. According to WIkipedia, science fairs started in the 50s and still aren't done a lot here – but all of my kids and grandkids schools have, so we are WELL familiar with them now!  

If you are in the same boat on occasion, you might appreciate a little extra help. And I have a very smart grandchild who suggested Science Buddies as a great resource. Along with that, and the books pictured in this article, other useful sites and resources include:

• Successful Science Fair Projects By Lynne Bleeker (Science teacher, science fair organizer and judge)
• Science Fair Project Resource Guide by the IPL (Internet Public LIbrary)
• Super Science Fair Support Center
• The Camden Campus Library at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey has some great advice and links for all our science fair projects as well.

And for those who need/want some extra hand-holding (they don't do the work for you, but they have it all laid out to make it much easier for you to make good science fair projects quickly and easily!) – 24 Hour Science Projects and Middle School Science Fair Projects. 

They even have a science fair projects info video for us.

Don't forget the poster board – we get ours at Walmart, Target, or MIchael's – along with cool stickers that go with the project, the colored markers for writing on the poster board, and other specific needs to their assignment. 

And with that being said, it's time for this Sandwich Generation granny nanny to get back to the throes of science experimentation (well, really, my grandchild is doing it all – I'm just helping her with running the errands to collect a few more needed items. ). Happy science-ing to us all! 

Kaye

One of the sweet joys of the Sandwich Generation is having a variety of friends of different ages, interests, and talents. I have friends who are caring for elderly parents, as I am, and we appreciate comparing notes to see what works and doesn't work. Since I am often babysitting grandchildren, some of whom are in homeschool and others in Christian school classrooms, I also enjoy learning new tips from the many younger moms I often work with when I am volunteering in both educational situations. 

Even online, I get to visit with all ages while writing about caring for senior parents and grandkids. And what's really fun is when those two worlds "collide." I so enjoyed an article written by Mary Nix, a sweet online friend I work with through my guest posts at EldercareABC. She also homeschooled her children and I loved how she intertwines the homeschooling and caregiving throughout her article, Happy 2012.

Of course, that is a big part of the Sandwich Generation issues, isn't it? Intertwining family needs in and through all that God has us involved in. Whether it's school, work, family, friends – caregiving is a vital part of our lives. And isn't it a sweet joy to be a blessing to others! Not to mention being blessed so much by so many others. Yes, it has it tough side as well. Not everything is fun and rosy. But daily, I see God's grace and blessings, like good friends and loving family, holding me up and holding me together. I pray you are as well.

Kaye

Last week, I finally made it to another ElderCare chat on Twitter. Babysitting grandchildren had kept this Sandwich Generation granny nanny too busy to make it the last couple of weeks so it was a real treat to get to join in. And I was so glad as it was a very interesting discussion full of useful news for those of you caring for elderly parents who need help transitioning them to a senior care facility. Excellent resources and information shared for all in the baby boomer generation caring for our senior citizen parents. That's always good news, isn't it? 

Here are some of the great tips and links I learned about:

• Seniors For Living, always an excellent resource, has a great in-depth article on just this topic – SeniorsforLiving.com’s Senior Living Transition Resource Guide
• @KathyKastner shared the link to a wonderful little e-book, Visiting with Elders, Strategies to Help You Have a Meaningful and Rich Visit with an  Elderly Loved One. Combining tips, ideas, and personal stories by relatives and caregivers, this free e-book deals with the issues of visiting seniors in nursing homes, understanding aging and cognitive loss,  understanding the meaning of behaviours and feelings, checklists to help make visits special, grief and loss issues, and so much more. The PDF version of the book, which you can read online, print out, or save to your computer was written by written by Ruth Goodman, MSW, RSW, in collaboration with Linda Jackson, MSW, RSW, and Baycrest Public Affairs. It's a very useful resource for yourself and to share with your extended family.
• Always Best Care Senior Services has a great list of common eldercare services and what they are in their article, Key Definitions Help You Make Informed Decisions, including defining a CCRC which can be helpful if you are caring for elderly parents who both need extra help but at different levels. A CCRC can provide all levels of care throughout an aging parent's lifespan which would then require no need to relocate if higher level of care is needed.  
• In addition to senior moving services, there are also companies that help with the whole senior transition process – with a senior move manager to oversee and coordinate everything from moving, to cleaning, to helping with legal documents and more. One such company I learned about is Caring Transitions with fanchises across the U.S., some of which are accredited with one of my favorite resources, the Better Business Bureau. Of course, you always need to do your own "due diligence" of thoroughly researching any company you work with. I've found to be a big help with that type of research process as well. 
• Be sure to ask plenty of questions before selecting a care facility for your senior parent. We came up with a couple of extra questions to add to the list:

1. Are pets allowed and if so are my parent's pet(s) allowed?

2. What could cause my senior parent to be asked to leave (medication issues, certain types of health issues, etc.)?

All in all a very interesting and resource-full time. If you'd ever like to join us, we'd love to have you. #ElderCareChat is every other Wednesday at 1 p.m. EST. The next one is scheduled for  Wednesday, June 15th at 1 p.m. EST. They are wonderfully moderated by Michelle from Seniors For Living – her Twitter name is @Seniors4Living – and Denise from Caregiving – her Twitter name is @Caregiving. Be sure to say HELLO to me - my Twitter name is @SandwichINK . #ElderCareChat is definitely an encouragement for those of us in the Sandwich Generation, caring for the beloved elderly parents in our family.  

Kaye

For those of us caring for elderly parents, tis the season – to check their Medicare insurance. Now that Thanksgiving is over and before the major rush for Christmas starts, it's time to take a deep breath and make sure they have the coverage they need and that you and they want. 

To get the most reliable news for boomers and seniors on the changes and updates Medicare has made, the best place to head is Medicare.gov:

• Medicare Basics
• 8 Things to Consider When Choosing or Changing Your Coverage
• Medicare & You 2011
• Caring for elderly parents with low vision issues? Medicare has help for those with visual disabilities for reading their PDF documents here.

Other Senior Citizen news regarding Medicare that's also of interest to the boomers caring for their elderly parents can be found at the Wall Street Journal:

• Private Medicare Plans Are Retrenching
• The New Medicare Rules – including "Coming changes to Medicare will benefit some recipients—but will make coverage more expensive for people with higher incomes."

Staying on top of the current news for boomers and seniors is vital for those of us caring for elderly parents. Good resources like the Wall Street Journal and Medicare, itself, are a big help for those of us in the Sandwich Generation.

More news for boomers and seniors here at SandwichINK! We had a delightful Caregiving Holiday Progressive Blog Party again this Christmas thanks to Denise Brown and Caregiving.com. Thank you, again, Denise, for such a delightful time.

I was thrilled to find a fun box in my mailbox today – a prize I won from Caregiving.com – with all sorts of goodies for my whole Sandwich Generation family. My senior mom was thrilled to discovered tasty chocolate covered cherries – her favorite! My granddaughter and I will enjoy the Swiss Miss hot chocolate and candy canes! And all the grandkids will love the cute little stuffed reindeer! And I even have a stocking with more goodies hanging from my wood burning stove! What a sweet encouragement to this granny nanny, immersed in the Sandwich Generation and dealing with the issues of caring for the elderly parents in our family as well as helping with grandkids. 

And SandwichINK has winners too! CONGRATULATIONS to JoAnn who won the Amazon gift certificate from SandwichINK at the Caregiving.com site. Her gift certificate is on its way! And CONGRATULATIONS to Laurel who won here at SandwichINK, and also has a gift certificate "flying" to her. Christmas for caregivers can be an extra busy time, often full of more tasks and frustrations than the norm. Denise and I hope that this fun blog party and sweet give aways brought extra smiles and encouragement to y'all as well! Now that's great news indeed for all of us boomers and seniors! Merry Christmas!

Kaye

Have you ever noticed that sometimes God takes us the long way? It may not be the way we planned, or the way we wanted to go, but eventually we realize it’s always the best way. Often it’s a way that ministers to others as well as ourselves, which makes us caregivers especially happy.

Some examples that spring immediately to mind include Moses, Joseph, David, and Paul. Moses wound up having to trudge through the desert for 40 years and didn’t even make it to the Promised Land here on earth, but you know he’s happy now in heaven! If Joseph hadn’t gone through captivity, slavery, and prison, he and his whole family would have died from starvation.

When David was first anointed as the new king, I bet he didn’t envision years of running from Saul, messing up so bad with Bathsheba, or having the issues he did with his kids. Yet God used him and his family as part of Jesus’ ancestors. Once Paul became a Christian, I be he wished A LOT that he hadn’t been so awful to Christians. And, considering his personality, he probably didn’t expect to spend quite so long in private teaching time with the Lord. But oh, aren’t we glad he, and all the others, went through what they went through so we could learn so much from them!

Just think, thanks to all of David’s trials and tribulations we have the wondrous book of Psalms, where we are reminded,

“Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long. Remember, O Lord, Your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to Your love remember me, for YOU ARE GOOD, O Lord.” Psalm 25:4-7

Awesome words, an awesome God, and awesome testimonies from men of God who went before us to show us that, while our paths may seem circuitous and strange, God’s paths are wonderful and GOD IS GOOD! That’s good news for all of us Sandwich Generation caregivers and grandparents!!!

After a wonderful experience with the Pantech Duo, my poor phone started giving me some grief. This could have had something to do with my dropping it a couple of times, due to the occasional arthritis twinges that crop up in my hand. As a senior home care giver for a senior mom and for grandkids, I definitely need to have a phone that works well at all times, so it was time for a new phone!

As I wrote earlier, I replaced it with the Pantech Matrix Pro which I also really enjoyed, for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, its antenna is apparently a bit on the weak side and it did not work properly in the first floor of my three-story building. I could literally call myself and watch it never ring! That left me with an unreliable phone – never a good option for a multi-generational caregiver. Back to the drawing board I went!

The only other small phone option that worked well with my hand and wrist issues was the Blackberry Pearl. The AT&T service technician explained its antenna was stronger so hopefully it would work well for me and overall, it does. I do sometimes have to go to the patio or take a walk, to hear well, which has actually led to me getting lots more exercise. A very good thing for caregivers in general and for caregiver stress, as well! I have to confess, I miss my Pantech Duo. I liked the slide-out keyboard better than any other cell phone I’ve ever had. But the Blackberry Pearl is not bad.

Pros:

• It’s a SmartPhone – giving me a computer as I travel, along with my email, contacts, etc.
• It’s one of the most customizable cell phones I’ve ever had.
• The size is great for those with arthritis and/or carpal tunnel syndrome.
• It has an excellent antenna.
• It’s easy to Twitter on it. I ended up using TwitterBerry and have been quite pleased with it.

Cons:

• Its internet access is nowhere as neat or easy as the Pantech was or the iPhone seems to be. On the other hand, the iPhone is wider and heavier which I would prefer to avoid.
• Because of all the customization options, it’s easy to get lost trying to figure out how it works and how to make the exact changes you want.
• The keyboard is small and partially colored pink, making it one of the hardest keyboards I’ve ever tried to read. The joys of older eyes.
• It has a small screen which also is harder for me to read.
• It calls 911 WAY TOO EASY! I keep the cell phone in my pocket and try to remember to lock it. Even locked, it has called 911 two times from my pocket! After doing some research, I discovered this was a common problem for many. I found two fairly good solutions to this, although they do require extra steps making it a pain in the neck. You can keep the Blackberry Pearl in the little holder when not using it. Alternatively, you can lock the keyboard AND press STAND-BY (the key at the top left of the Blackberry). It will appear to be off, however it can still receive calls. The remembering-to-do-it is the hard part.

Overall, now that I’m getting more used to it, I do like it. But I have to admit, it would not be my first choice. I still prefer my old Pantech slider and will give them a try again in a few years, if my living quarters change. If that fails, I may break down and get the iPhone and just always use a wired earplug (I lose the wireless earphone way to easy!).  If that doesn’t work either, then the Blackberry Pearl is not a bad option for this Sandwich Generation caregiver.

“I hate you!”

“You hate me!”

“Who are you? I don’t know you!”

Those are some of the worst words we, as caregivers, can hear. If we have children, we may well have heard the first two statements before, either when our kids were throwing their 4 year old tantrums, or occasionally when they were throwing their teen tantrums. For those of us in the Baby Boomer Generation, however, most of us have seen our kids outgrow those phases. We never expected to hear those words again, and certainly not from beloved moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, or other dear aging relatives! But it does happen. Not to all of us. But some of us will go through the dark shadow of a loved one -whether due to medication issues, dementia, or other illness – challenging us with words of dislike, hate, or not even knowing us.

It’s hard! It can seem impossible to deal with. But we keep on going, one foot in front of the other, step by step. For those of us who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, we will often find it is a time when we will grow stronger in our relationship with Him, as we lean harder on Him, unable to deal with these pressures alone.

I went through a time like this many years ago, when a sweet and loving relative of mine looked at me with such dislike, hatred, and fear. For weeks I was sure that was all I would ever again see as this beloved person was so ill. I clung to my Lord harder than ever, praying, reading God’s Word in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep, and feeling so lost and lonely even though surrounded by others who cared deeply for me. I am so grateful that I only had to go through it for a relatively short time period. Eventually the doctors figured out a combination of medications that worked better for my beloved relative. The joy and relief I felt when I once more saw love and concern in those eyes stays with me even now!

I remembered that time today, as I was listening to a sermon on Ephesians 1. The pastor was describing, in wonderful detail, all the heavenly blessings that God has poured out upon His children. As he listed each thing, one in particular caught my ear.

Through Christ, we have the power to love those who hate us!

I realized that I had, indeed, seen that proven out during that dark period with my sweet relative. Even though we know, as caregivers, that our parents, relatives, or other patients, don’t “mean” the unkind, rude, hateful things they may say, it still sends a burning arrow of pain through our hearts. But through the power of Jesus Christ, we can continue to love them, continue to care for them, and continue to minister to them, even if it goes for a prolonged period of time. Not because we are so powerful. But because God is so powerful. I pray these words will bless you as much as they did me, both then and now:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him…I…do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Eph. 1:3-4, 15-23 (NASB)

Computer security concerns are in the headlines again, so it seemed appropriate to discuss them in our weekly Thursday current events post. As I wrote in SandwichINK for Twitter Tuesday, Homeland Security Issued a Vulnerability Notice regarding Adobe Flash and indicated that a solution should appear soon. I’ve been checking regularly, both for y’all and for my grandkids who have been missing their Webkinz without the Flash being enabled.

I’m pleased to announce that Adobe and US-CERT have both announced that Adobe is in the process of releasing a Shockwave Player Update and Flash Player Security Advisory. Adobe also announced that the problem is only impacting Internet Explorer on Windows and not other browsers such as Firefox or computers such as Macintosh. Hooray.

By the time you read this, there should be even more updates, so I would head straight to Adobe and/or US-CERT to find out exactly what steps need to be taken to update your system.

In addition,  Microsoft has also announced a major update, also due to security concerns. So while you’re at it, be sure to go to Windows Update (Start, All Programs, Windows Update) to verify that your computer has ben upgraded. It might be wise to do that, even if you have updates done automatically, just to be safe.

And finally, this is a great chance to make sure our computers are all updated for other programs we use, back ups are all current, and the computer is defragmented, spyware-checked, and virus-inspected. That way, hopefully, we can focus our attention on our Sandwich Generation caregiving and grandparenting, instead of dealing with security concerns and computer woes.

You can find more interesting Current Events news at The Surrendered Scribe, where today she is writing on health insurance.