Brrrr! We had total frost on Sunday! Since then, the weather has gotten progressively warmer and we were actually back in the 70’s today. Well, we were AT 70 degrees. It isn’t going to last though. Rain is forecast for the next two days, followed by a mega drop back to the 40s! My senior mom has been having a harder time with this cold weather than me, which is par for the course. I keep reminding her that when she was in her 50s, she was always roasting because her dad, who was freezing, kept the heater up at 80 degrees (pre-energy crisis days!). She is much better than he was. She just keeps adding layers, so I don’t have to melt away from the “heat” in the midst of the snow. I appreciate her for so many reasons, and that is one BIG one!.

Arthritis sufferers all seem to believe that cold weather brings on more aches and pains and the news media agrees! Denver is definitely a mega-snow area and the Denver Channel 7 news channel has an interesting article about arthritis and winter weather. They even mentioned that apparently it’s not just the cold weather, but various viruses that can contribute to our achy feeling. I’ll definitely keep taking my Vitamin C every day.

They do have some great tips for less achy and more comfortable winters, such as:

Seniors and Baby Boomer Generation Need To Stay Active, Even When It’s Cold!

It’s the perfect time to play games with our grandkids and work up a sweat on a regular basis. Or put on several layers of clothes and go for as brisk a walk as we are able. Sitting too much will just make things worse! I’m in the process of unpacking and getting as many boxes as possible out of our new, attached garage. With warm clothes and small scooters for my grandkids, I’m hoping to keep them active all winter and referee-ing/playing with them will hopefully keep me busy too. If the outside is too cold for walking for our senior parents, we can often head for the mall or a big Wal-mart to get our regular exercise.

Make Sure Our Senior Parents and All of Us Sandwich Generation Caregivers With Arthritis Keep On With A Healthy Diet, Not A Heavy One!

I’ve been depending a bit much on TV dinners and hoping to start cooking for myself a bit more often this winter. But I had already planned on keeping to a healthy menu and am going to give a couple of menu websites a try. My daughter used to subscribe to Leanne Fly’s SavingDinners website and said they had the healthy dinner ideas with minimal work on her part. They were definitely delicious! Since time is definitely “of the essence” in my life, that’s what I need. They offer several weight loss meals, including Low Sodium, Low-Carb, and Vegetarian which would include low cholesterol recipes. A site specializing in homeschooling programs recommended another Cooking Plan as well, which also offers a variety of menu options including one for Busy Moms and Grandmoms. I’m going to “test drive” both of them and see which is easier and tastier. I’ll keep all you busy Sandwich Generation senior home care givers and grandparents posted on how this works out. 

More Tips For Senior Home Care Givers.

You can read the full article with even more great tips for a happier combination of arthritis and winter at The Denver Channel. If you have any tips of your own for making our aging parents’ (and our) bones less achy for the winter, let us know. And be sure to sign up for the SandwichINK free email for plenty more great info in every season!

LEGO is one of my grandsons’ FAVORITE words right now. That’s because their new and old LEGOs are some of my grandkids’ favorite building toys.  For that matter, they are probably a favorite among many of us in the Baby Boomer Generation, since they’ve been around for decades!

I decided to do some internet surfing to see what fun info I could find for them, and you, about LEGO and LEGO sets. I haven’t tried any of these yet. I’m hoping to order the book (below) for Christmas, and trying a couple of these design kits (also below) over the next few months. When I do, I’ll write more about them then. In the meantime, if you beat me to it, let us know how you like them.

These are not “cheap toys,” but they are so wholesome and educational, they are well worth it. They are excellent for homeschooling programs as proven by all the LEGO curriculum idea links at this homeschooling programs support site. They are also  terrific for grandkids with autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, as well as other special needs. This is true for the regular sets and/or the LEGO soft sets.

Plus, I discovered that, while most LEGO sets that you can purchase only make one or two designs, there are some intriguing alternate designs online using parts from various kits. Those would be some great ways to save money! Here are some that sounded interesting. As you look through them, you’ll realize that “yes,” we love Star Wars and Star Wars LEGOs :

• Photos and some directions for alternates for the Millennium Falcon Star Wars LEGO sets.
• Lots of interesting designs, including Star Wars LEGO set ideas.
• Directions for making a LEGO Toy Car. This is a very cool site. It offers many free projects that are small plus some huge projects that run about $7 each. They also offer CDs that are about $10 which contain several projects on them. I’m thinking this will be another Christmas present for my grandkids. Shhh, don’t tell.

If you've lost the directions for a LEGO set you have, or you've bought some LEGO sets at a yard sale or thrift store with no directions included, the Brick Factory would be a great place to start looking.

Last for today, but definitely not least, I found interesting and informative reviews of what sounds like a very good resource book about LEGO sets and pieces, The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide. According to its website, it “provides an overview of the entire LEGO hobby from how to identify different parts right up to the skills you need to design and build your own original models.”

It includes instructions on how to (and not to) put LEGO bricksets together, it explains what “scale” is, and even includes the complete instructions to build a minifig scale train station. It shows how to build the little people using mostly common pieces  as well as how to build giant LEGO modules. There are also complete instructions for making a gorgeous sphere LEGO set. Some of the other things in it include:

• Building mosaics
• Mechanical parts including gears, axles, and lift arms
• Creating a mini space shuttle orbiter
• Design Grids
• How to create instructions to share your designs with others
• Using new and old LEGOs bricks to play games
• How to sort and store bricks and bricksets
• Technic info
• Setting up a LEGO work area
• A Brickopedia  – info about over 300 of the most common new and old LEGOs pieces
• And so much more!

The website even offers a sample chapter for you to download along with free directions for smaller projects. Lots of fun for my grandkids coming up, that’s for sure!

I’ve looked into it at Amazon where I found good reviews there as well. It’s only $16. 47 there (list price is 24.95) so it’s definitely on my Christmas list. I’ll have to order early as it looks like it takes a week or so to get it. I suspect it may be geared for kids a bit older than my grandsons, but I don’t want to take a chance it won’t be available in a couple of years.

Be sure to come back on “Family Friday” this week for LEGOs for Grandkids, The REST of the Story.

Kaye

Looking for a fun new game for your grandkids? My 5 and 7 year old grandsons and I had a lot of fun with games this summer and we wanted to share our favorite with you. Pictureka is a funny sounding game name, with a funny looking board, that they absolutely LOVE! There are 9 board cards that you set side by side in three rows to make one huge board. They have a “zillion” different pictures in various directions, similar to the I Spy books and the Where’s Waldo? books. There are three sets of playing cards. Very simply, you pick a card, then look on the big board to find the picture from the little card. Sometimes everyone looks at the same time. Sometimes, only the one player looks, depending on the roll of the two different dice (one with colors and one with numbers), and the arrows on the playing cards.

The rules for this version are quite simple. BUT the game is geared for 8-15 year olds and my little grand-guys are a bit younger than that. I bought it because they LOVE the Where’s Waldo and I Spy books. Trying to play the game by the rules, I found that waiting until they were 8 for the regular game would have been better. SO we made up our own rules for a younger kids version.

SandwichINK version of Pictureka Game for Younger Grandkids:

Turning this into a cooperative team-building game, we only use the red and green cards. As each person rolls the color dice, he picks the appropriate card if it rolls red or green. If it rolls blue, he gets to choose between red and green. Then he rolls the number dice, and we ALL work together to find that many items each of whatever the picture is. It’s so much fun watching them help each other. They will often share a picture with another brother first before moving on to their own pictures.  You have to understand, this is not the norm with most of our games, so I really have appreciated the good team-work lessons they are learning.

Shopping at Target this week, I discovered there are a couple of other versions of Pictureka, including Pictureka Kubes which includes a version for younger kids. I read the directions for that, in a hurry, and had a hard time understanding them, so we will hold off on that one. It did look nice, because it takes up less room, but we are having so much fun with the primary game, we’ll stick with that for now. I am eyeing the smaller playing card version of the PICTUREKA Game, though, for our next long trip…

Family Friday is back, along with exciting happenings over at HomemakerBarbi. They have a new name, HomeEverAfter.com, along with an interesting article, Pregnancy Later in Life: Does Age Matter?