Caregiving

SandwichINK enjoyed being a part of the EldercareABC Blog Carnival last week. You can find my post with several others of interest, on such topics as “Can Seniors Go On Living at Home?,” “Medication Management,” and “Overcoming Loneliness.”

Very Interesting info – Couples have a lower risk of dementia!

Exercise can improve memory in a person suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Getting creative with your senior care is the key. Here are some great tips to help bring out your creativity.

Grandparents

Here are some excellent tips for grandparents to help their grandkids learn about reading!

For those of you who have autistic grandkids, here are two very helpful and interesting articles:

• Technology and Autism
• Protecting Your Autistic Child

Sandwich Generation:

Tech – For Business and Pleasure

• For all you Sandwich Generation Photoshop Geeks, here’s an interesting collection of Glow and Light Effect Tutorials in Photoshop:
• Remember yesterday’s post about my computer driving me crazy? I really appreciated the cute videos at Sugar Pine Realty!   They gave my senior mom and me a good laugh!

Family Friday at @HomemakerBarbi has an interesting post, Family Vacation Road Trip Planning: Breaks & Stops. Great ideas for a multi-generation vacation with your family.

Family Doctor Mag has some great Twitter health links.

If you or someone you care for is dealing with chronic illness, you’ll be interested to know that Rest Ministries announced the opening of their new bookstore.

WOW! Scientists have developed a mind-controlled wheelchair.

Have you ever thought of retiring overseas?

How’s your computer running? My laptop has been driving me crazy – nonstop computer freezes last week! I think one or two updates and/or new programs I added didn’t like each other. Between caregiving, traveling, and writing, I didn’t have time to deal with it, so I decided to do a thorough backup and reformat it all. Then I could rebuild it nice and neat the way I wanted it for all the writing I am currently doing. It’s been going fairly smoothly with only one minor glitch, which Norton solved wonderfully for me.

I couldn’t find the envelope my Norton Internet Security (NIS) software came in. That envelope has the key I have to type in to be able to use NIS. I went ahead and tried installing it. I was so happy when it asked for the key AND told me where I could find it online if I couldn’t find the envelope. I love Norton and their products anyway, but this was just one more reason to appreciate them. It was rather nice to received the care instead of being the caregiver for a minute. I logged on using my desktop computer, found the key, and plugged it in. Since then I’ve spent the day adding update after update, slowly and carefully, to watch for possible conflicts.

I decided that makes today the perfect day to remind y’all to provide some of the great caregiving to your computers. Back up all your important medical records, word documents, email files, password information, music, financial spreadsheets, etc.

Once you have everything nicely backed up, do a little spring cleaning in summer. Make sure your important programs are all current on their updates, that your antivirus software is running scans regularly, use your best anti spyware, and maybe even blow your computer out gently with a can of air.

Of course, even when you do that, you can still have problems. Software conflicts arise, programs can be corrupted, and hardware can break. But having your important things backed up will protect you from those nasty occasions when you, too, experience those nasty computer freezes.

Even thought it takes quite a while to rebuild it all, it’s still less traumatic than having to start from scratch without backups. And that helps you as caregivers, freeing you up to keep taking good care of your aging parents and darling grandkids, free from the stress of losing valuable data.

As you may know, some of my grandkids and I are spending the summer working on memorizing verses centered around the Fruit of the Spirit. Because of necessary travel, we’ve only had about 3-4 weeks to actually work on it, so we’ve stayed pretty much on the primary verse along with the verses for love, joy, and peace.

While we were apart, I was blessed to see that God is definitely using it in my life to encourage me! Isn’t it great how He will take what we give and multiply it back to us? Our peace verse, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee,” just kept coming back to me over and over, reminding me to make sure I spent time in God’s Word and that I stayed focused on it when worry would start to creep up.

Over the course of several years, I’ve had to deal with a wide variety of difficult situations. Of course, that is probably true for almost all of us, but it does seem to be magnified for Sandwich Generation caregivers, doesn’t it? Because we are so closely tied to so many people we love, we often find ourselves in deep prayer for different friends and family members, hurting almost as much for them as if it was happening directly to us. Whether it’s someone on hospice, a loved one with Alzheimer’s Disease or heart problems, a friend’s child in the hospital, a family struggling with job woes, or something else entirely different, it causes us to cling all the harder to our beloved Lord and Savior.

As I was enjoying an extended time of prayer and Bible study last month, while praying for a couple of different people, God blessed me with a wonderful passage from 2 Samuel. I offer it to you for those times you will or do need extra encouragement as well.

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence. “I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies. “For the waves of death encompassed me; The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me; The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, Yes, I cried to my God; And from His temple He heard my voice, And my cry for help {came} into His ears…the LORD was my support. He also brought me forth into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me. The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.2 Sam 22:1-7, 19b-22

As I read this passage over and over I was reminded of two very important facts.

1.Our enemies are spiritual - “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:10-12

God keeps bringing this verse to mind. Over the past few decades, I’ve learned that whether you are dealing with illness, discouragement, finances, or anything else, it doesn’t matter. GOD IS IN CONTROL! I just keep reminding myself of that. It doesn’t change the situation, but it does help me keep my mind “stayed on Him!”

2. When the verse refers to “The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,” it’s easy for us to think, “that doesn’t apply to me. I’m certainly not righteous. I blow it all the time!” Ahh, but it’s not our personal righteousness, it’s Jesus Christ’s!

…to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. Romans 4:5

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Romans 10:9-10

Talk about STRONG ENCOURAGEMENT! I was so blessed by all this, I even sat down and hand wrote it all out to carry it with me and think about it through the day. I could have easily copied it and printed it from Crosswalk.com, but I wanted to use the handwriting to help fix it in my mind. Even though that particular day was extremely stressful, with seemingly “everything that could go wrong, going wrong,” God kept me focused on Him, kept me from stressing out of control, and truly kept me in His perfect peace. It wasn’t me, that’s for sure! We truly serve an awesome God!

I hope and pray that these verses will be a strong light and encouragement to you, along with the knowledge that God has me pray for all of you every day! And yes, I would truly value and appreciate your prayers as well!   Have a blessed Sunday!

It’s that time again! Time to celebrate the United States of America’s Independence Day. As a way of celebrating, I’ve created a new Smilebox card just for you!  I discovered a great rendition of the song, God Bless The U.S.A., by Jump5. This singing group has a terrific sound many of our grandkids love.  I have to say, I thoroughly enjoy their music as well. And I love their version of this song! I hope you and your family, from grandkids on up to senior grandparents, will enjoy this as much as me. Don’t forget to use the virtual match to light the virtual rocket so you can all enjoy the virtual firework displays!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I hope you enjoyed the fun firework displays! Many thanks to HPebley3 for sharing the wonderful photo I used  in these Smilebox patriotic gifts. If you click on his name, you’ll arrive at his Flickr photos with many other great pix. I especially love his little frog photo and I know my grandkids will as well. For that matter, I bet even my senior mom will think it’s froggily adorable.

Once again, HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO THE USA!     

We’re all in this Sandwich Generation together, right? So we can be honest with each other, right? Raise your hands if you were so busy taking care of grandkids, that you forgot to send Aunt Ethel a birthday card. Raise your hands if you were tied up at the hospital with your elderly dad and didn’t get that birthday present off to your son. Raise your hands if you woke up on Christmas morning and realized you’d been so busy running grandkids to a therapy appointment, aging parents to a dentist appointment and helping both with THEIR holiday shopping that you never got cards out and you still haven’t finished shopping for a couple of people. OK, I admit it, I’ve probably done all of those things and more! Fortunately, most  of my family and friends never knew and if you don’t tell on me, they never will. (Well, 3 of my sweet ones will, but they all know how much I love them and are ever so patient with me )

Why do most of my beloveds not know how behind I sometimes get? The power of E! E-cards, E-gifts, E-gift certificates! The power of E is a wonderful thing for busy Sandwich Generation caregivers and grandparents.

For last minute, day-of gifts, I have three great tools! As I’ve already written Amazon.com Gift Cardsare some of my favorite “secret weapons.” I just head over to Amazon, select the online greeting card of my choosing, and the amount I want to send, and voila, they will have their online gift certificate the same day. I even have a couple of special people who I like to try to surprise once in a while, so I will purposely wait til the “day of” to send the egreeting.

Another of my favorites is making Smilebox Photo Memory Books (or as many call them, Photo Scrapbooks) and Photo Email Cards. Once I start going through photos I have so much fun, I find it hard to quit!

Today, I just discovered that, even though my favorite e-card site was no longer available, I have a great new option, Dayspring! Yup, the same company that makes the lovely cards you can find in many places, including your local Christian gift and book store, has a website with free Christian e-cards (free is always my favorite money saver). So next time you are running behind, because caregiving duties are keeping you busy, you can send an ecard that will get there the same day! By the way, they have several other interesting items there as well, including:

• Several movie/videos of music, scenery, and Bible verses that you can send to a tech savvy senior citizen or download as a free screensaver
• Some fun and free little e-games for you and the grandkids to have fun with.
• An online store

All of these sites are great resources for the Sandwich Generation, and now you have them all in one place. It’s our own personal gift and greeting center, just waiting for the next birthday or holiday to come along! Now, when you are in the throes of providing elderly assistance to your mom and babysitting for your grandkids, you can also stay on top of giving, and even include them in the fun! 

The CDC does a great job of researching and reporting on a wide variety of necessary information for us and for our families. I’ve used their site when my daughters went overseas on church mission trips. I’ve searched their site for swine flu information for my family and for this site. Today I’ve discovered two more great pages full of information for Sandwich Generation caregivers!

E. COLI RECALLS

Did you know there are at  least 2 more E. coli recalls going on, for both cookie dough and beef? I didn’t, but the CDC has all the facts. Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough and ConAgra beef are both listed on the recalls. If you think you have any of these products, call your grocery store to ask. (I called my store and was reassured to find that they did not not have any meat from that source.) Then head on over to your aging parents to look through their refrigerator. (Fortunately, my senior mom doesn’t eat beef.) While you’re at it, this is an excellent time to really look at what’s in their refrigerator. One great way we can provide elderly assistance to our senior parents is to make sure they are eating healthily, getting enough to eat, and storing their foods safely. Make sure they are throwing away food that has been in the refrigerator longer than three days.

EXTREME HEAT HEALTH PROBLEMS

Another area where the CDC is a big help is extreme heat health problems! According to the CDC, senior citizens, 65 years of age or older, may not compensate for heat stress efficiently and are less likely to sense and respond to change in temperature. If they are overweight, they are prone to heat sickness, putting them at more risk. For more on this subject, and to see some great resource lists of what to do to prevent problems, along with symptoms of heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and more, check out CDC’s Heat Guide.

I am going to bookmark the CDC site for future reference, as well as print out the heat guide sheet for myself and my senior mom. I never want to nag, but I  have found that it is good to keep reinforcing this kind of information with my aging parents. How about you? Got any “hot” tips for us on this subject. We’d love to hear them.

CAREGIVERS:

Caregivers, here’s a great tip to help you take care of yourself. Another way to make sure you get your exercise is to take someone along on a walk with you. No one around? Use your cell phone. I now walk almost every day for 30-60 minutes and barely notice it since I am happily chatting away with kids and grandkids! I stay healthy physically and emotionally!

Deciding between in-home health care and assisted living? Read what other boomers have to say at Seniors for Living.

Check Out Flying With Disability Before Flying with aging parents or others with disabilities.

Those dealing with Alzheimer’s Care: Cognitive tests are the ‘first step’ towards an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Elderly adults being readmitted to the Hospital is a Medicare Issue. One that is becoming more and more common!

Excellent advice from ElderCareRN: Avoid monochromatic color scheme in a seniors home to reduce risk of falling and/or injury. Also, avoid clutter and have good light.

Check out the EldercareABC Blog Carnival for more excellent information to help you provide great elderly assistance to your aging parents.

GRANDPARENTS:

More fun 4th of July activities and printables for your grandkids at your family celebration.

Make some interesting popsicles for your grandkids and be the hit of the neighborhood.

SANDWICH GENERATION/BABY BOOMER GENERATION

With all the high-profile sudden deaths it’s time for an important reminder – are you ready to die? Are you taking care of your health property? Have you planned for your families? Including your elderly parents? Have you made a will or living trust? Most important of all, is your relationship right with God? Death can come at any moment with little or no warning. Don’t put off any of the hugs, kisses, and loving notes til tomorrow that you can do today! 

Good news from Prevention with yummy , healthy, and low-cal BBQ recipes

My home warranty company reminds us to use the dollar bill test on our refrigerators. Close the door on the dollar bill. Try to pull it out. If it pulls through easily, we may need to adjust the door or replace gaskets. Now isn’t that a fun money saver idea!

Moomettes Magnificents has her all new and updated contest and giveaway list up and running. Check it out if you are in the market for some fun and free goodies. 

Very Good News – The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer. My God is my rock in Whom I take refuge!

For all of us Baby Boomers – Johnny Depp Wants to do a cameo in the 21 Jump Street Movie.

7 Refreshing Summer Salads at Homemaker Barbi’s. Yummy!

Google has created a new search portal where you can go to find out about community service and volunteer options and events.

The BBC is reporting that there is a strain of the Swine flu that “shows drug resistance” to Tamiflu. With this news and the fact that it isn’t going away as quickly as they hoped, we need to be extra careful as we monitor our aging parents and young grandkids!

BBQs with the whole family – from aging parents down to those tiny grandkids of ours, parades, 5k runs, community carnivals, and, of course, firework displays are just some of the fun things we associate with the 4th of July. When it’s the birthday for the USA, many of us enjoy going all out. But at the same time we are having a great time of fun, we also need to make sure we are having a safe time of fun! And we need to make sure our elderly parents and young grandkids are safe as well.

According to the California State Fire Marshall, severe burns, amputations, blindness,and, in some cases, deaths are often the result of 4th of July celebrations. That would take all the fun out out of the holiday for years to come! What can we do to have safe and fun firework displays and help our aging parents and our grandkids do the same?

As much as is possible for you:

• If you are in an area where fireworks are allowed, and you are shooting off your own, use ONLY the legal, safe and sane ones. To find out if you are in a legal area for fireworks, you can probably check the website for your city or call your local fire department. If they are allowed be sure you:
• Read all the directions carefully and follow them just as carefully.
• Make sure there is an adult present whenever the fireworks are being lit.
• Have a bucket and hose close by. We even liked to hose down as much of the area as possible. Granted, it’s usually so hot it dries almost as fast as we do it, but every little bit helps.
• Make sure the fireworks are only lit outside – in a safe area away from grass, bushes, and brush. Make sure, also, that the elderly adults and the tiny grandkids are sitting in an area where they can see well, yet not too close.
  
• If you get a dud, toss it! Don’t try to relight it. Don’t play games with them, experiment with them, nail them onto things, etc. Do it just the way they’re supposed to be done.
• Don’t throw them or point them at anyone else, not even sparklers.
• Don’t let the little grandkids light the fireworks.
• Don’t forget to put your pets in a safe place inside, preferably where they will hear as little noise as possible. Also, make sure they have IDs on their collars just in case they make a run for it!
• Make sure everyone, from grandma to toddler grandchild, is wearing shoes of some type so no one accidentally steps on something hot.

If you aren’t allowed to have firework displays or don’t want to deal with them yourself, check your local newspaper or your surrounding cities’ websites for community firework displays. Most areas have at least one or two and they are usually great fun!

As one who has a couple of young grandkids who get scared at the loud pops, we’ve learned that if you also have elderly parents or very young grandkids who are bothered too much by the noise, you might want to set the TV to a fun 4th of July concert or movie. That way they have an easy option for retreat if they’d like it.  If you have aging parents who live alone and aren’t close enough to join you, it would be an excellent idea to make sure their batteries are current in any alarm systems they use, such as smoke alarms and any personal senior alarm they are wearing.

Being prepared generally makes any occasion much more fun and the 4th is no exception. So let’s plan ahead and enjoy the upcoming festivities with our senior parents, young grandkids, and everyone in-between in a safe and fun way!

My sweet mom had to go in for skin cancer treatments last month. She lay on the chair apprehensively, knowing a shot was coming. (She was much braver about it than I would probably be. I HATE SHOTS!) Our doctor, who is wonderful, handed her one of those cute little squishy stress balls and told her to squeeze it as the needle went in while taking deep breaths.  It still hurt but she commented later that holding those little stress balls really does help. She appreciated the way it helped take her mind off the pain a bit.

I thought they were a terrific idea and asked the doctor where she got them. “I bought that one, but the Sales Rep for our pharmaceutical supplies has also given us some.” (Hint to any of you who might be a Doctor or Dentist’s Sales Rep – what a GREAT idea for a promo! Personalized squishy stress balls. They will definitely get used and all of us patients will really appreciate them and you!)

I have decided to buy a couple of these stress balls to keep tucked in my  backpack, along with my travel size version of Gobblet. That way, when I’m at the doctor’s office with my mom or grandkids, I can just pop a stress ball out and let them focus on squishing it instead of worrying about what the doctor is up to! Of course, I’ll have to keep an eye on those adorable grandkids to be sure they squish rather than throw. 

What do y’all do to help make trips to the doctor’s easier when you are caring for elderly parents or young grandkids? We’d love extra helps, hints, and tips!

I had to drop off my van at the service center. Again! Since moving cross country as part of my caregiving journey,  it had been in the shop for problems four times in one year! I must confess, I was feeling very down in the mouth about it all.

To add insult to injury, five minutes after I left I realized I had left my parking pass in the glove compartment and had to go back to get it. My bleak mood turned even darker.

I stood waiting at the service manager’s desk as he went to look for it in the car. As I did so, God nudged me to start praising Him for all of this. As I thanked Him for this situation, He gently pointed out that I had remembered it while still close by and not when I was late and needed to hurry. As I continued to praise Him, I could feel myself relaxing. Even my countenance seemed to be lightening up.

The situation hadn’t changed, but my perspective had and it was, indeed, a wonderful thing!

“Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,

always giving thanks to God the Father for everything,

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 5:19b-20 (NIV)

Now it’s time for a confession. I typed this article, uploaded it to my site, only to discover it wouldn’t format correctly. After fighting with it for 30 minutes, and with no clue why it was acting this way, I gave up and deleted it. Starting over, I pasted the original into a brand new page, uploaded it again, same problem! I’m sure you’re probably thinking, based on what I wrote above, that I was just chirping away happily, praising God.

Sadly, the answer is, nope. I was getting rather frustrated and not too happy. But then (I love those words. God uses them so much in my life ), God AGAIN whispered in my ear. He basically told me to go READ what I’d been writing. You should see the big smile on my face as I type this! AGAIN, He changed my perspective.

Let’s face it, as Sandwich Generation caregivers, life is going to have plenty of problems, bumps, irritations, and frustrating moments. But the Lord has promised to be there with us through all of them. And He’s promised to love us no matter how often we blow it. And He’s promised to bless us when we choose to praise Him and thank Him no matter what the circumstances.

So yes, I blew it, AGAIN. But then I confessed AGAIN. And wonderfully and miraculously, He forgave me AGAIN. And hopefully, I will hang on to His peace long enough to get this posted, and beyond. And if I forget AGAIN, I know He will remind me AGAIN, and we will continue this caregiving journey together always and forever. Now that’s a wonderful perspective!

P.S. After writing that, AND praying, I uploaded it and it all worked wonderfully. Praise God!!!