give thanks

sunny?

Find the “sunshine” in your day today!

CAREGIVER NOTE:
It was a tough day. Short term memory – went MIA yesterday. An earlier in the day 3 hour excursion in the truck was totally missing from his memory bank. A fun conversation sharing his experiences with me after coming home was also gone. While difficult, it didn’t escalate. He later stated that it’s very scary when he can’t remember things. We stated very plainly throughout the remainder of the day that we’re here to support him and would always be here for him and hoped that he would continue to trust us as he continues to move through the aging process.

with gratitude

Tell someone “thank you,” today.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

He’s excited about the prospects of a large vegetable garden and is looking forward to watching things grow and harvesting fresh veggies and some fruits throughout the summer and maybe into the fall months. He’s antsy and wants to go get things going now — but the snow is still covering the ground and the area we’ve picked out to expand the garden needs to thaw another foot down and have lots of TLC before anything can go into the ground. It was fun to see his enthusiasm for a project he has lots of say in. The list for seeds and starts is long! Hoping there will be room for everything he wants to plant! There are plans to pick up some additional seeds this coming weekend — and made plans to pick up the starts from the garden center later this month or early next month. Here’s hoping the weather cooperates and the ground thaws and we can get the prep work done – for a successful growing season that will keep him busy and happy!

be it

Breathe it.  Feel it.  Live it! 

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Sometimes they need multiple reminders about things coming in the future. That “niggle” was back yesterday afternoon. Luckily, we were able to resolve the “worry” quickly by reminding him that no steps had been taken on the process he’d thought about initiating earlier in the week. He was relieved to say the least and happy to know that no further action was needed in that moment and we marked the calendar with the date he would need to decide about the next step.

from lessons learned

Be a lifelong “becomer.”

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Always keep extra batteries on hand. One of his most loved perpetual motion toys requires batteries. Unfortunately, we hadn’t gotten a fresh supply of them last week when we went shopping. The battery died yesterday. The movement of that particular toy is a constant during his waking hours. He’s hooked on the thing. He took the toy apart several times — hoping that placing the old battery back in would fix the problem. When that didn’t work, he took the main piece off the base and just twirled the circles around and around with his hands for a while. There’s a fresh battery in the toy this morning and he’ll be very happy to “turn it on” and watch it move throughout the day.