Boomers & Seniors: Alzheimer’s Awareness, Aging Parents In Crisis, Keeping Healthy in Body & Mind, and More!

Welcome to the Boomers & Seniors Blog Carnival at SandwichINK! This week’s edition has plenty of great info to inform, encourage, and entertain you.  You’ll find interesting articles covering such topics as restoring hope for caregivers, staying younger longer, Cheat Sheets for healthy living, financial advice, and so much more!

Starting off with yours truly, SandwichINK , we present articles covering two primary aspects of the Sandwich Generation.

How to Perk Up Your Aging Parent’s Day by Spiffing Up Their Walker is a review of the WalkerWonder, a stylish, practical product for your aging parent’s walker or rollator, giving it a sense of personality. We even have one to give away! Just head on over to get the full details.

For fellow grandparents, SandwichINK presents See How Easily You Can Make Your Grandkids Smile Even When They’re Sick , with fun tales and details about Paper Airplane designs and games. Your grandkids and you will have a blast! If they are part of a home schooling program, these make great summer projects.

Caregiving / Elderly Care

Alzheimer’s Disease Takes the National Stage , at Seniors For Living , gives a behind-the-scenes look at the Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing. “During this hearing hundreds of Alzheimer advocates met with their individual members of Congress, seeking their support on three priority policy issues. It was truly a banner week in terms of awareness, media coverage, and attention from legislators and the public, including Maria Shriver, on all things Alzheimer’s…”

Dale Carter of Transition Aging Parents presents My Top 5 List – Things I Wish I Had Known . “The key things I wish I had known about before my mother went into crisis a year ago.  Learn from my experience!  Do not wait until your aging parent goes into crisis."

Traits of a Hope-full Family Caregiver by Denise Brown of Caregiving explores seven traits for caregivers, along with great suggestions on how to build them into their lives, that can help bring hope back into their hearts.

Baby Boomer Generation & Senior Health And Wellness

Ready for some good news? Read about a new study that has found a simple way to stay and feel young at heart — just get involved with helping young people. Seniors Tutor Kids Through the Experience Corps , at Seniors For Living , is a fascinating article detailing how helping others can also help you!

Catherine Eagleson has a fun article appropriately titled, Have Fun and Keep Your Brain Active With Crosswords for Fun Codewords! posted at  Crosswords For Fun , saying, "Codewords are really great for giving your brain a workout, and provide you with a real sense of achievement when you solve the puzzle."

Verna Morris presents 25 Bookmark-worthy Cheat Sheets for Healthy Living posted at Assistant Guides . I am definitely going to be bookmarking many of them! They include resources on the subjects of nutrition, news, medicines, and sports and exercise. My favorite was “Unhealthy Chinese Food Choices.” My favorite foods passed! 

Vital information for all ages, Kirsten Fallon presents, Interview with Dr. Peter McCullough on the PLAC Test, posted at Blisstree. "Great Questions and Answers on detecting hidden risk for heart attack and ischemic stroke."

Colin Timberlake presents Training Log: The 2009 Arnold Classic 5K Pump and Run- Day 21 posted at colintimberlake . "Colin Timberlake uses amazing senior citizen marathoner Ed Whitlock (now 78 years young) as inspiration for a day of heavy training." Wow! Next time I don’t want to exercise, I’m going to think of Mr. Whitlock!

Heartstrong presents  A Fresh Look at Organic Produce , posted at Healthy Hearts with Heartstrong . “Which is better for you-an organic tomato or one that’s grown through conventional methods? The answer might not be as obvious as it seems.”

Financial Info for the Baby Boomer Generation & the Senior Caregiver

"Financial well being is just as important as physical well being,” writes Patricia Grace at Aging with Grace CareConnection . Read her interesting article, Does the Buck Stop Here? “If your parent’s money is disappearing, you need to intervene.”

Jeff Rose presents an informative article at GoodFinancialCents explaining why The Economic Stimulus Tax Cut is Misleading for Retirees . “If your retirement check got bigger in April, don’t start celebrating because you did not qualify for the tax credit….The net result is that although you are taking home more money each month, you will pay it back when you file your 2009 taxes…So what should you do?”

ConsumerBoomer has some fascinating facts in Where are Baby Boomers Cutting Their Spending? , presented by Jeff Rose. Have you been wondering if you are the only one cutting back on movies or eating out? Nope! Not only that, they’ve got nine items Boomers have been cutting back on! You might find new ways to save.

Did you take an early retirement in the last couple of years, or are you considering it? Be sure to check out what Super Saver Writes about Surviving Early Retirement During the Financial Crisis .

"Boomers that have multiple retirement accounts should consider consolidating,” writes Jeff Rose, in IRA Consolidation: The “Super IRA” Strategy presented at GoodFinancialCents.

Tips for the Baby Boomer Generation

Should You Buy or Rent a Home for Retirement ? An excellent question posed by Mr. ToughMoneyLove at Go To Retirement. “Many boomers considering retirement housing assume that owning is better than renting. That is no longer the case…”

“These are unprecedented times…for Sandwiched Boomers, many of whom are financially responsible for their growing children and aging parents, they’re scared as they watch their dreams of a comfortable retirement disappear.” Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D. and Rosemary Lichtman, Ph.D. of Nourishing Relationships address those fears in  Five Ways Sandwiched Boomers Can Think Positive in Tough Times .

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Boomers & Seniors: News You Can Use by using our carnival submission form . Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page . The next edition is due out on June 9th, with article submissions due by June 4th! We’d love to see YOUR article in the next Boomers & Seniors: News You Can Use!

It’s getting close to Father’s Day! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, where is this year going in such a hurry? It’s already time to start thinking about how to make the day great for all the special men in our lives. I want to encourage you to begin now, enjoy the process, and then enjoy the results when you celebrate the day with your dad, your grandpa, your husband. I say this with great feeling, as all those special men in my life are now in heaven! I can assure you, I’m happy they are safely there, but really miss having them here! So treasure those great guys and have a blessed holiday.  To that end, I am planning on a couple of posts on this subject. Today, I thought I’d start with a couple of frugal Father’s Day gift ideas.

First, FREE is the cheapest way to go, and SandwichINK has a GREAT & FREE gift idea for a special father in your life who uses, or may soon use a walker or rolling walker. WalkerWonder banners are terrific, high-quality Father’s Day gift ideas . We have one to give away that is specifically for Fathers! All you have to do to enter is add your name to the box on the right to receive SandwichINK in your email for free . Then leave a comment below to let me know and you are immediately entered. There’s not many entries so you have a great chance of winning. You’d then have a lovely personalised gift for your special Senior Citizen at no cost to you!

If you don’t have any need for walker decor personally, I’m sure it would be highly appreciated by your church’s senior citizens’ group! 

Personalized gift baskets also make great Father’s Day gift ideas . I like to roam around the Dollar store and pick out a really nice looking basket. I try to find ones that will be useful once the gift is opened. It’s a bit late, but you might check some of the smaller drug stores to see if they have any Easter gift baskets left from Easter. If so, they might be marked down as low as 90%. Fill the basket with some special goodies such as holiday flowers like carnations or roses from your very own garden. Pop in a book or two that you know he will like. My dad loved crossword puzzle books, even when the Parkinson’s Disease made it hard for him to write, and I can buy those fairly inexpensively at most stores. In fact, the Dollar store often carries those. Finish off the basket with something tasty and healthy and he’ll love the gift and be healthier for it.

My mom wanted some bran muffin recipes today as I was working on this and that made me think what a great addition they would make to these lovely custom gifts . If you’d also like some new bran muffin recipes, you can find some tasty-sounding ones at:

POWERFUL BRAN MUFFINS (Please note that some of the ingredients are listed in the directions, NOT in the list of ingredients. I’m not sure why, but when I printed it out for my mom, I added them to the main list and am including that part here for you. Then you just pop over to the site to get the actual directions

• 2 c. flour (whole wheat)
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 5 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt (optional)
• 2 c. Bran (either wheat or oat), I use 1/2 of each
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups skim or 1% milk
• ¼ vegetable oil
• OPTIONAL: raisins, cinnamon

BRAN MUFFINS

VARIED BRAN MUFFIN RECIPES

Well, there’s two simple and frugal Father’s Day gift ideas. How about you? Care to share? We’d love to hear your suggestions as well. In the meantime, have a wonderful day!