Activities you can do with an Early Stage Dementia Patient – Help Someone Else!

EldercareABC’s September 16th EldercareABC Blog Carnival is available with interesting articles and info.

A Cushioned Handle Helps Seniors Hold on to Eating Utensils. Isn’t that a great idea! I know that would help many of us in the Baby Boomer Generation as well! Thanks to @seniorlivingexp and @GilbertGuide

20 seconds of laughter can nearly double your heart rate for up to 2 minutes, works the muscles in your abs, shoulders, chest, face, neck. A great byte of info from @BoomerHealth . We’ll have to make sure our aging parents get plenty of laughter in their lives, along with our grandkids, family members, and even ourselves!

Difficulty with activities of daily living may indicate quicker progression to dementia (Newswise). Good info to know from @caregiving who also found us this terrific quote – “Count your nights by stars, not shadows; count life with smiles, not tears.”~Italian Proverb.

This article offers great advice for skydivers, which turns out to also be great advice for Sandwich Generation senior home care givers/grandparents.

Did you know there may be a test that can determine a Smoker’s Lung Cancer Risk? I didn’t! Thanks to @Carebuzz for that important info.

Alzheimers Update: Centuries old game helps families struggling with Alzheimer’s Disease.  This could be a fun way to involve great-grandparents and great-grandkids together, and help all our brains stay healthier! Per @alzheimersdotfm

GRANDPARENTS:

A fun and FREE Kitchen Kids’ Cookbook for you and the grandkids! You can find information on how to download a pdf version or request a copy to be mailed to you. Per @brandyellen

An important tip to help us keep our grandkids safer. Be aware that some beaches may have health issues! Staph Bacteria MRSA was found in sand and water for the first time at five beaches in Washington! And if I am not mistaken, they are just starting to test the beaches! Thanks to @momlogic for the info.

A big thank you to @TwinHappyJen for nominating SandwichINK for a Twinny in the category of “Best Supporting Twin Blog.” I think you can still vote today if you’d like to cast a vote for SandwichINK (A definite plug here! 

“Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You. Blessed are You, O LORD!” I love working at Awanas with my grandkids to help them learn to “treasure God’s Word and hide it in their hearts.” I also love to hear my long distance grandkids share the verses they’ve been learning in school. When we ask them to tell us their verses, it shows we really care and is a great encouragement to them.

SANDWICH GENERATION:

Here’s a great resource for writers, job hunters, career re-inventers, and iPhone users. That should pretty much cover all of us. A big thanks to @Marelisa for such a resource-full help!

Since many Sandwich Generation senior home care givers have small businesses in the home that allow them flexibility in caregiving, I thought I’d pass on this important news tip. If you own a small business, Bible Money Matters wants to remind you that the deadline is quickly approaching for quarterly estimated tax payments. Even if you don’t own a business, but senior home care and/or grandparenting has kept you so busy you filed an extension, the final due date of October 15 is coming up QUICKLY!

In addition to taxes, Sandwich Generation headlines all point out how expensive it can be to provide senior home care for aging parents, as well as grandkids. Coupons definitely help with those expenses and HomeEverAfter has an interesting article, 27 Top Secret Links for Getting Coupons That Nobody Else Gets. I found several great ideas, including information for Amy’s – I LOVE their healthier options in microwave meals. Another of HomeEverAfter’s ways to save money is to listen to concerts online free (from Classic Concerts to the Present)

KLOVE provides a cool link – Fabulous Freebies, 2009 with lots of great goodies!

Due to technical difficulties, SandwichINK has posted a few hours later than normal. I want to give BIG THANKS to all local libraries who provide free internet access! It was a HUGE help for me, and from the looks of all the others using computers and free wifi here, it’s a big help for many! And it’s a help that is repeated all across the globe! Once again, THANK YOU!

That’s it for this week. More great Twitter tips and resources next week!

• A sign of the economy: More Idahoans now qualify to get a refund of the grocery tax credit beginning with tax year 2008. While you may not live in Idaho, you may find that you qualify for something similar in your own state. It’s definitely worth checking out when working on your tax returns .
• Do you watch TV shows on Hulu ? If so, @rewebcoach suggests you look at http://getmiro.com/ to help you manage your shows. He does caution that if you do decide to try it, be patient when you start the Miro download as it’s a big file.
• Encouraging – God is my defense, my God of mercy.
• Do you have or know someone who has Parkinson’s Disease ? eChronicles writes, “According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this month, people with advanced Parkinson’s Disease who received deep brain stimulation showed greater improvement in movement and quality of life after six months than those treated with medication…” Thanks to @nkbe for this link.
• “Beware of what you eat. You are on your own”, Sen Tom Harkin announces…in Senate Ag Hearing…after the Salmonella outbreak from peanut butter products.
• With all these food issues, it is encouraging to know that God is near ! – Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.
• Now this kind of housing is right up a Sandwich Generation grandma’s alley! Housing for grandparents raising grandchildren. “It would be among a small but growing group of U.S. apartment developments that combine senior housing with grandkid-friendly features . The idea is to put children from broken homes into a stable environment…” Per @ShaynePacker and @Seniors4Living.
• Earlier this week, I wrote an article about the Silver Alert. I wrote that because I was busy praying for the friend of @PMKU who has Alzheimer’s Disease and had disappeared. I am so happy to report that he was safely found, 50 miles from home! Here is the article she wrote sharing the important lessons she learned from that dementia care experience. An excellent article to save for reference information for your family and your community.
• Bookworms, take notice! If you have an iPhone or an Android phone, Google now offers 1.5 million books to download FREE onto your mobile phone. While these are all older, out-of-copyright books, that’s pretty phenomenal and one of those great ways to save money! Thank you @stejules for letting us know.
• @Seniors4Living has an interesting article about Steve Gurney, 43. “On February 9th, at half the age of the average assisted living resident, Gurney will join Paul Spring Retirement Community in Alexandria, Virginia. After nearly 20 years of helping families and elders make these choices…he says, ‘I have never experienced the transition first hand as a resident.’” What a great idea and what an interesting article!
• The Online Age Gap Narrows (senior folks are finally here!!). Of course, we knew it all along! (eMarketer Research) Thanks for that tip – @Mike_Stelzner
• If you enjoy sports and the iPhone, here’s just the article for you, courtesy of @styletime. 100 Free Sports Apps for the iPhone .
• Encouragement – To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; for God is my defense , my God of mercy.
• If you are a pastor or ministry leader or know someone who is, check out Bill Reichart’s website for the article, “How to Help Those in Your Church Navigate Troubled Economic Waters”
• Excellent Author Alert: Brandilyn Collins has a new book coming out in May . It’s a suspense novel, “Exposure.” Don’t tell my sweet mom-in-law, but I’m thinking it would make an excellent birthday present
• If you have an elderly parent who suffers from memory loss going into the hospital , the National Institute of Aging has an excellent 18 page booklet with tips to help.
  
• If you’d like a good chuckle, here is part one of the World’s Weirdest Hotels, followed by part two of the World’s Weirdest Hotels. I have to admit I was intrigued by the dog hotel. Which was your favorite? Bet your senior parents would get a kick out of printouts of these.