Berrrr

Up here is good old wisconsin, its deep freeze time!   My car almost wouldn't start after work registering at -7, by the time I got home-11.  So glad my parents have a garage!    Unfortunately it means I did cancel my residents outing this week, in case van breaks down or they get sick from cold. ( was to a magic show, but we have a magician coming next week)

Well my new years resolution is get back in shape, eat better and feel better.  I'm actually doing it so far!,  I've been using my blender which turns into a portable mug, for fresh fruit smoothies ( Wal-Mart, 20 $!),  and this weekend I finally got on the bike, several times now!  I'm also drinking a lot of tea as I've been inbetween nonstop colds. (Discovered chamomile which helps a lot with head colds),  and I have two awesome friends working at this with me, which helps so much.  Were doing a point system, every 20 min of working out is 1 pt. This last week I had 3 pts, we check in sundays at 8 , and my 3 mth goal is to lose at least 15.  Our reward at that time if we hit our mark will be shopping and dancing!!  Will be fun to go out and dance with the ladies.  Sucks being an adult sometimes...lol it was so much easier to hang out back in college.  Oh well, well make it work!

Andddd news!, I tried eharmonys free weekend, was talking to someone but then not.  So I got on plenty of fish instead! And I was talking to someone last night :)  not sure if were a good match but it could at least mean a New friend.

Yaaay for new year

Winter wonderland

So pretty outside with the snow!   But drivers are crazy.  Last week in one day in expressway near my house, there were three pile ups, one hundred cars, sixty cars and 30 cars! (Between a stretch of highway during the blizzard, one took 2 hrs to clean up, !   ).  Thankgoodness I didn't have to take that road that day. Ugh this month has been icky, stomach flue, bad cold, hanging cough, food poisoning, and today I feel like a truck ran me over! I've taken aleve, two naps, tea, chicken broth, and I'm still sore all over, even though the weather is clear!.    So in between the soreness I've been working on knitting, I'm making a blanket for my nephew, twin size and almost big enough!  Then I'm gonna embroider a giant j, and if have time a boarder.  Only two afternoons off this week so who knows how much time I'll get to work on it with how tired i am after work, plus our outtings!  Work is iffy, still having issues with boss. But tomorrow is the holiday party, we have about 30 ish family members coming for residents, we have Santa, which I have to pick up suit early am, and we will have Carole's!( granted they waited till the last minute to confirm, it's ok).  Sooo nervous.  Any whoo, watching a sad hallmark movie (determined to sit through it, even though the person is dieing of cancer, cause I'm sick of avoiding movies. Just keep telling myself, it's a completely different situation!). And knitting and sipping on tea, .  

Where has the time gone?

My goodness, already the end of November, a day to be thankful!  Four years since I found out my pain was real, and started chemotherapy ( started the Friday before thanksgiving 2009).  I had gone to a doc who initially thought it was an old soccer injury,  he had me go for an MRI cause the pain was in the wrong place.  A few days later, within hrs of the MRI, he called me from his family vacay in Texas to tell me to get off the leg, and wait for a call, as he had scheduled all the necessary tests for us and we just needed to confirm the dates and times it was one less thing for my family to worry about.   When I can find his name in all my records again I plan to send him a bushel of thankyou cards, for doing that, and checking in on me while I was going though treatment ( even when the docs at the larger facility that he referrd me to, wouldn't communicate with him). 

Any whoo, at work this month we really haven't done activitie.s.  I had a banjo player. Guitarists, singers,  outings on scenic drives, visits to a famous cathedral in the area ( holy hill). Longish ride, but totally worth it if your in the area!   This next month we have another greeting card workshop by trisha Klowak, crafty paws!  , caricaturist, banjo, guitar/harmonica, and mary Kay!  As well as Christmas light scenic drives, out to dinner,and a family christmas party!  Busy busy. And I'm planning  February's and march calendar already!   ( if your in the upper Midwest and have some sort of skill to share such as those listed above, contact me and well have a chat!). 

This week I made a big step.  I contacted cancermatch.com and made a profile.  It's a free social networking / dating site for individuals with cancer, survival treatment post, recurrence etc.  I know it bothers me to think what if I fell in love and then we had to go through cancer all over again, watch them or them watch me suffer?  But im tryingt o think more positive,  make some friends, have someone to vent to,see what happens.  We could Both be lucky and never experience it again till were old and grey.  Until the old and grey part comes, I'm going to see where it goes.  I did mention this worry , as other people mentioned their worries.  It seems like no one really messages on this site... Pretty ghost town ish, so we will see if anyone responds to the posts I made in diff areas.

Happy turkey day y'all :)

october office updates, part 1

This month has been fun! not everything has gone as planned when i made my wonderful themed calendar, but thats ok.  with people who have dementia, its good to have a schedule, but at the same time be willing to change it if necessary.  Every day is different, moods can change quickly or slowly, or be set and not change. fatigue can come on quickly, or last all day.  With age comes aches, and with Wisconsin weather we have plenty of aches most of the year, especially if we are human barometers due to age or sickness.  luckily we had some nice days such as for pumpkin painting, but lately has been too cold to go outdoors so some activities had to be adapted into completely different activities!  as long as my residents are happy or willing to do what i recommend, the change works out :).  every resident gets a activity schedule, and one is sent to their power of attornys.  they dont always remember they have a calendar, but thats why we help them remember .  Some of my ladies are on top of me with what daily activities are, and others would rather sit in front of the news all day ( were working on finding a happy medium).  i have some residents wh odont care to join in activities, or arts and crafts, or bingo,  so im trying to work with them to find a happy medium for us all to enjoy lol.  Many of my residents have stated that they have never done arts and crafts, except embroidery or possibly knitting in the past.  with each activity that we do i started out very simple. and as weeks progress i find activities that are more challenging to build up their stamina!  these photos are not in order,

Card workshop! as you can see, the tables were filled with supplies as my residents were building their cards

This resident chose to do several "happy halloween " cards with spider stamps "crafty paws custom designs"

Pumpkin Yahtzee! i will be adapting this game to make it easier for my residents, right here i used either a felt orange pumpkin, or a photocopy of a finished pumpkin , and felt pieces.  i will be adapting it by creating thicker pieces, and possibly magnetizing it like the pinterest one or using velcro.

http://www.oopseydaisyblog.com/2011/09/roll-a-jack-o-lantern-creative-carousel.html

 here we were painting wood objects, or paper to go towards bookmarks.  the end results will go towards our "bazaar" a facility fundraiser.

Pumpkins~  painted and foam applicated! the foam application pieces came from www.orientaltrading.com

as people finished making masquerade masks for our halloween party (oriental trading.com), i introduced water color paints!

Expressive art therapy holiday card workshop- Togo!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331052639678?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Check this out y'all!, my friend and I are hosting an expressive art therapy holiday card workshop next week, and since the internet world can't all join us, here is the link to purchase a holiday card Togo kit!  Enjoy crafting everybody, for the ArtTherapy portion,  while you work ur mind is at ease which releases  your bodies tension thereby reducing blood pressure and taking away daily stress!!!  

Catching Up with office updates

im going through my September photos, and here are what i have found! please excuse the horrible pixelated images, i will get better with practice, until then technology and i dont agree!

 

we used bubbles as a way to transition from the last day of summer, into fall! Bubbles, to reminisce of memories of the past.

Gods eyes! to hang in the windows, full of fall colors or give to the facility to sell at a fundraiser!

here are images of some smaller godseyes, as well as some residents coloring in the leaf drawings.

Our entertainer played both harmonica and guitar simultaneously!  

Finished leaf drawings, and godseyes. the leaf drawings are now on the residents apartment doors, and we have pumpkins for october!  the gods eyes are in process of getting to the windows.

this resident chose to outline her leaf and color it in naturally, as nothing is perfect, not even nature.

October update soon to come!  will have to be in sections, as we still have one week to go!

Updates!

So, I'm running out of things to talk about myself!  And my experience with cancer,  i know I could write about all the icky things I went through, or the bodily changes I experienced, or write about each treatment from my diary I kept back then, but as no one has asked any questions, I'm gonna leave that a mystery for now!   

Instead, I'm going to continue writing about different art projects and activities I do, as well as update about projects I do as a life enrichment specialist, aka art therapist, with my residents at work!   For hipaa / confidentiality concerns, I will not include photos, or names of my residents, but, just cropped photos of the activity. 

 Feel free to use my ideas, as I have recieved them from Pinterest! And will try to include all the links along with my adapted activity.  While I went to school to be an art therapist, I did learn about different activities, mostly how to adapt activities to the required population, and thinking outside the box to create our own activities.  ( we were told it was perfectly acceptable to take other ideas, and adapt them as needed).  We learned much more but in this case, a life enrichment position with dementia is wonderful!  I'm absolutely loving my job, and my residents are so sweet, and always trying new things! They like hands on activities, music, the outdoors, and bingo, and Yahtzee!  I'm trying to bring in a large variety of entertainers, so if any of y'all are south eastern wi and have aTalent to share, please private message me or comment with your email!!!!

Being a life enrichment assistant, I get to plan activities, including arts and crafts, outtings, parties, volunteer programs, a little bit of everything!  Quite overwhelming but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it, but there's still something new every day. I was told the first year is the hardest in this position.  For my group, I try to plan movement based activities twice a week, such as tossing a beach all back and forth to stretch and work our muscles, get the blood pumping and reminisce to relive stress!  We have chair yoga volunteer on Tuesdays, and Wednesday is arts and crafts day! We have decorated the kitchen calendar wAll with colored leaf drawings, tissue paper pumpkins and masquerade masks for our upcoming Halloween party. Pumpkins were donated By a local business, and the residents painted one side, and used foam stickers to put fun faces on the other!   We also have had bingo about every other day, and started doing Yahtzee in between.  We've also done ring toss, pumpkin bowling, and pumpkin Yahtzee!   Our place is full of Halloween now thanks to the residents hard work, and my coworkers setting up the outside decorations.    Some entertainers we have had are, crafty paws custom design cards, banjo bob, a guitar harmonica player, with more to come!  Even though I've only been working a month, I feel like it's been forever, I have accomplished so much here!  My goal by xmas is to bring in more volunteers :).  Pictures and descriptions will come soon,promise!