Be the difference in someone’s day, including your own.  

Have faith, light and hope today and every day. 

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Tired is good, overtired is not good. He is in the midst of setting a new routine — regarding bedtimes. He’s pretty much settled in bed around 7:30. He’s gradually made his time earlier and earlier over the course of the last couple of months.

In doing this, his sleeping pattern has improved a bit and he’s sleeping through the night more frequently and with fewer vivid dreams. He does become a little unsettled during the late afternoon hours, but sundowning isn’t really an issue at this point in time. We’ll see if he adds time as the days grow longer and summer approaches as he stayed up later last summer.

Great things! Anticipate something great is coming your way today.

CAREGIVER NOTES:
Anticipating some interesting moments over the next couple of weeks:

1. An appointment with an ortho for a possible break in the left hip area — but hasn’t experienced any pain since the middle of January. No big falls that we are aware of — and not that he would tell us either if we didn’t hear or see it first hand.
2. We found a large model airplane for him to put together. He’s excited! Now to set up a workspace for him that can be left up for an undetermined amount of time. Looking at options on how to rearrange things so they can get started on the build! 🙂

Hoping today’s count is a long one!

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Somedays you just have to smile…. and move on.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Reminisce often. Talk about family. Talk about experiences. Even venture into the vivid dream realm. Validate when possible.

Fill your day with all the good you can throw at it..

Fuel up with positive self-talk every day.

CAREGIVER NOTE:

Frustrations with memory loss add up to lots of despair and frustrations. It’s so important to find the positives throughout the day. What’s going right in this moment. Try not to lose sight of that — for yourself as the caregiver and for the person you’re caring for. We had a short conversation yesterday doing just that and it was wonderful to hear his own realizations of how well he was doing and that he was happy despite the fact that his brain wasn’t cooperating like he wanted it to be when trying to resolve a problem he was experiencing. Grateful for his ability to verbalize and find some positives in the moment. This allowed him to reframe the situation on his own and move on, at least for the rest of the afternoon. I’m sure we’ll revisit things again today.

Is today your day to let things go and soar? 

CAREGIVER NOTES:

Grateful, he’s not fussing about taking his meds. A few of his meds were changed during his most recent visit with the doctor and hopefully, he’ll continue to take them willingly. He has quite a number of pills to take both morning and night.

Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle. Jon Acuff

Happy New Year! Living and breathing one day at a time — and I’ve no doubt some days, one moment at a time.

With deepest gratitude, thank you for being numbered among our blessings today.