One of the joys of being a granny nanny is the opportunity to reinforce lessons my grandkids learn from their parents. Spiritual activities for grandparents and grandchildren are always a high priority for me, as are educational activities. When I get a chance to combine the two, I really love it!

Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.

Psalm 50:15

Teaching our children and grandchildren to call 911 for an emergency is vital. There are plenty of great examples of young children successfully calling for help in a crisis – even kids as young as 3 or 4. Teaching them to consistently call upon the Lord is another invaluable lesson. These comforting  Bible verses are great for memory verses for children and grandchildren, aren't they?

For more fun and encouraging Bible verses for Sandwich Generation granny nannies and pappies, be sure to visit…

Kaye

While traveling recently, I called my senior mom daily. On my last trip we wound up using more minutes on her Jitterbug cell phone for seniors than normal, making for a bit of a concern when she got her bill. She ended up using more than her allotted minutes and the bill reflected that! We have never had this happen with her phone before (BOY have we had it in years past with our own cell phones! ), so I wasn't monitoring as closely as I should have been. Lesson learned at a price for us and FREE for you!  :)

Whatever cellphone you have – whether an AT&T iPhone like me (LOVE IT!) or a Jitterbug like my senior mom (GREAT cell phones for senior citizens!), you do need to monitor your monthly usage minutes – and, perhaps, increase them before an out-of-town trip. Particularly if you call your beloved seniors often or vice versa – not to mention those cute and cuddly grandchildren.

Needless to say, I popped right into the Jitterbug website to check up on things. As I suspected, it was primarily due to my traveling. But I'll be watching closely in the future! While I was there, though, I discovered some new-to-me services that look great and wanted to share them with you as well.

1. Jitterbug LiveNurse – This is one I just added. For a limited time, it is available FREE on select rate plans (ours qualifies – YAY). Otherwise it is $4 per month. "Get 24 hour, mobile health care advice. Jitterbug LiveNurse brings you health care advice whenever you need it. Brought to you in partnership with FONEMED®, Jitterbug LiveNurse is part of our continued commitment to provide you with a family of helpful and easy to use services. Jitterbug LiveNurse provides you with 24-hour unlimited access to registered nurses and more. " I'm looking forward to testing it out and, of course, letting you know how it goes.

2. Check-in Call – They also have a check-in call service. For an extra $5 a month, "This helpful and exclusive feature will ensure that you or a loved one are being checked on as often as necessary, by our friendly automated system. You will receive calls according to the schedule you setup in advance, asking how you feel about topics that you have asked us to check on – like pain level or sleeping. Simply answer the questions on the call, and should you need assistance, a notification will be sent to your list of personal contacts, so that help can be provided immediately." Very handy service – particularly for a senior who lives alone and is dealing with health issues. I can think of two friends in my life I will have to recommend that to! And I will definitely keep it in mind if I ever have to be "incommunicado" for more than a day. It sounds especially useful for caregivers who care for more than one person as well as caregivers whose jobs require extensive non-availability due to travel, business meetings, etc.

3. Medication Reminders! What a great idea! For an extra $10 per month, their "helpful Medication Reminder service lets you stay up-to-date with your prescription schedule…With this helpful service, you or a loved one can enter in your medications exactly as prescribed by your doctor, and receive calls from our automated system reminding you to take them at the appropriate times. Not only do you receive helpful reminders, but you can track your adherence to your schedule on myjitterbug.com and share the results with your health care team, to help you manage your own health, on your time." Definitely useful for  those caring for elderly parents  and juggling a wide variety of other issues including busy work schedules! Perfect for the Sandwich Generation.

4. International - If your elderly parent needs to make international cell phone calls, (do you travel overseas for business periodically?) you might want to call Jitterbug about their International Calling option. There is no charge to select the International Calling Service. Once you do, "Calls must be placed from within the U.S. Additional charges will be applied to all international calls outside of the U.S., in addition to the minutes used for the duration of those calls." You can call Jitterbug for more specific information if this is something that would be useful for you and your special seniors. 

WOW! What great options! Four more reasons my senior mom and I personally consider Jitterbug to be one of the best (if not THE best) cell phones for senior citizens. Don't get me wrong. They aren't perfect. (Only God is perfect!) But I am very pleased with their cell phones and service for the elderly relatives and friends in our family, and thrilled that my senior mom really does love her cell phone! 

P.S. Ready to get one of the Jitterbug cell phones for the beloved elderly parents in your life? They are offering a great deal right now! 

Enjoy!

Kaye

When your senior parent starts to show signs of a bit less energy, but still prizes their independence, you can often help by "just being there." It might be easier to pick up grocery items for on your own, while quickly running errands, since juggling the Sandwich Generation issues of life can keep you extremely busy. When you do that, though your elderly parents lose an opportunity to get out of the house, see other people, and enjoy a bit of normal-ness.

Instead, how about taking them with you and picking a store you enjoy window shopping at or one that offers a seating area where you can work while they enjoy shopping. If they wear out, they can easily call you on their Jitterbug cell phones for senior citizens and you're only a minute or two away from helping them. 

Walmart, Target, and Sam's Club are all great options for my senior mom and me. She has fun meandering through the aisles, picking out the items she needs and wants. I do my shopping, put it away, then settle down at one of the tables to work. I always have a shorthand notebook handy to write articles. I use my iPhone to check my email. And since I have the Kindle app on my iPhone plus always carry my iPod, I'm never without books to read or listen to. Sometimes I can even find a plug to keep my iPhone nicely charged as I busily work away.

The bottom line – thanks to my iPhone and my senior mom's willingness and ability to use one of the Jitterbug simple cell phones for senior citizens (personally, we think Jitterbug is the best cell phone for seniors due to its ease of use, large size, and the fact that it comes as a flip phone which means no accidental calls), I can be just as productive at Walmart and McDonald's as I can be at home, sometimes more. I get some of my best ideas there – like this article.

For a member of the Sandwich Generation dealing with the issues of caring for elderly parents while juggling activities for grandparents and their grandchildren with writing and blogging, that's definitely a blessing and an encouragement, for both my senior mom and myself! 

P.S. Want more info about the ? Just click here.  You'll find vital statistics, customizable features, and their wonderfully flexible and affordable plan (no contracts – my senior mom especially LOVES that!).  :)

Kaye

Technology is a big help to the Sandwich Generation as we deal with the issues of caring for elderly parents while enjoying a wide variety of activities for grandparents and their grandchildren. I’ve used baby monitors to help me in caring for both grand-infants and my senior dad when he was on hospice. One grandchild has her own cell phone and I just convinced my mom to get one as well, the Jitterbug simple cell phones for seniors. (). Another dear relative uses the Phillips Lifeline necklace which he has put to good use three times  already. 

Most of my beloved seniors use the computer at least a little. One taught herself to use it, with only a few phone calls to us for help. We were so proud of her! Another took a seniors’ computer class. A third enjoys the photo slideshow screensaver of all her grandkids and great grandkids.

Truly technology is a blessing. Unfortunately, it isn’t perfect. As caregivers, it falls to us to not just care for our beloveds, but to help them in caring for their technology. We can do this by passing on security alerts, such as yesterday’s warning about Gmail . We can also help by periodically checking with them about their important technology tools to make sure they are still working.

Today I tried several times to call my senior mom on her Jitterbug cell phone for senior citizens, but kept getting a busy signal. I was so glad I hadn’t gotten rid of our land-line, as I had considered doing a few weeks ago. Using it, I was able to reach her and find out she was just fine. I had her turn her Jitterbug off and on but it still gave her a busy signal. I finally called Jitterbug. After about a 15 minute wait I talked to a very helpful operator (they are all wonderfully helpful!), who explained that they were having technical difficulties but had discovered the problem and were working on it very industriously. They hoped to have it fixed sometime in the next few hours. Since my sweet husband was a data center supervisor for several years, I know very well that occurrences like that, while few, do happen. I also know the staff was probably working double-shifts, extra hard, and getting yelled at by at least a handful of irate phone callers. Unfortunately, that is one of the facts of life. Technology is great, but it does crash periodically. It’s not a question of if but when.

The point to all of this, besides letting fellow Jitterbug users know what’s up with their phone , is to serve as a reminder to all of us, myself included, to check on our aging parents’ technology tools regularly. I know my senior with the Lifeline is required to make a test each month by the day of the month that is their birthday. If their birthday is the 8th of the month, every month by the 8th they are to check in. They are supposed to get a reminder on the 8th if they haven’t yet checked in. When I talked to him, he commented that this month that hadn’t happened. He hadn’t called them, but I encouraged him to give them a call to see if it needs to be reset.

One method to help monitor all of this is to tie it in with the time changes. Each time there is a time change, we are all reminded to check the smoke alarm batteries. We can use those reminders to help remind us to check on our beloved seniors to be sure their batteries are also fine, and to see how the other technology tools they use are doing. Your elderly parents will appreciate you for doing this, and you’ll be glad, too, as you will, hopefully, have fewer tech problems to deal with. And any time there are fewer problems, it makes the Sandwich Generation issues of our lives a lot easier!