Well this post came faster than expected. Seems the aide that my mom really likes was in a car accident this weekend and will not be able to watch her this week at the very least. This isn't the first time this has happened, and you have to understand that we've only had someone coming to the house for a little over a month now.
A few weeks ago another aide's mom died. She ended up coming to work anyway while her mom's body was being shipped back to Africa, but in the end it was a train wreck waiting to happen and we had to let her go mid week. She was understandably not herself and spent her whole time on the phone. I was against her working in the first place, but she needed the money and said she wanted to keep working to keep her mind off things.
These types of situations are all things one has to deal with when taking care of a loved one. Not only do you have to make sure that competent people are looking after your loved on, but on the off chance you find a good one, something can always happen to them. I hope this latest aide is ok and can return to looking after mom soon. She was one of the few people that mom actually liked. Sighh.....
Monday, February 21, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
First Post, Woo Hoo!!
My first post...with hopefully many more to come. Since this will be a blog about caring for an aging parent and crafting, I will be sure to tag/label posts accordingly so that those interested in just crafting can find those posts, and others interesting in the struggles of taking care of an aging parent while trying to care for one's own family can read about that.
Just a little background on me and this blog. I've always loved to craft and can remember as early as 2nd grade staying after school to learn how to knit and crochet from my teacher. I never really did much with anything I made except for maybe make a few presents here and there for my mom, who lovingly accepted each and every gift. Along the years I've done needlepoint, cross-stitch, embroidery, sewing, woodworking, painting, you name it.
Today I enjoy primitive crafting, which basically means I make items and then try and make them look old. I started a small crafting business about 10 years ago with my husband before the birth of my son, and did local craft shows. My husband loves woodworking, so he'd cut out the patterns from wood and I'd paint them. Once my son came along we didn't have the time (or the energy) to spend our weekends in the basement crafting or sitting at booths in craft shows. I gave up my full time job and decided to become a SAHM. After a few years, I began to get he SAHM blues. I wanted to get back into crafting but knew I needed to find something I could do on my own that didn't rely on my husband to help me. Thus primitive crafting was born. I got out my sewing machine and started making home decor using fabric and paint. That was about 6 years ago, and within the last year I have found my new love, cricut crafting. I bought a Cricut Expression after seeing the infocommercial late one night. I was immediately hooked. I liked the idea of being able to use it to cut fabric, but to be honest, I've never even used it for that.
Soon after purchasing the cricut I came across all this information on software that one could use to expand the functionality of the cricut. I decided on Make The Cut software, and can truly say if it wasn't for MTC my cricut would probably still be in the box (more on that later). I love everything I can make with the cricut including glass etching, vinyl decor, cards, boxes, post-it note pad holders, you name it, if it is made out of paper or vinyl the cricut can help you make it.
When my son entered Kindergarten this year, the first word out of everyone's mouth was "what the heck are you going to do now?" Well the thought of crafting full time had entered my mind, or maybe just taking it easy. I had just had emergency back surgery the year before and was still dealing with paralysis issues. As it turned out, God had another plan for me. Soon after my son started school my 76 year old Mom (Granny as she is known) started to exhibit signs of dementia. Since she lived by herself and had already recovered from a stroke a few years earlier, I worried about her constantly. With her only about 45 minutes away, I made it a point to visit her at least once a week and call as often as I had a chance in between taking my son to soccer, karate, after school clubs, gymnastics, well you know how it is if you have a very active son. Things went from bad to worse, and whether it was the cause or the effect, mom had another stroke in January of this year. Since then it has been a constant battle to find good 24/7 care for her at home, almost a 24 hour job in itself. She has "left side neglect" which basically means she doesn't see or sometimes even know that she has a left side. She insists she is fine and just wants everyone to leave her alone so she can go on about living her life. This is the same woman who was my pillar of strength since I was a baby and who I could count on for everything and anything and who I knew would take care of whatever problem I could handle on my own. Now it was my responsibility (along with my brother who lived in Michigan, and my sister who lives two hours away) to make sure that my mother was getting the care she needed.
Soooo, enter present day. I volunteer at my son's school once a week at least and am also the room mom, I am on the board of the local MOMS Club, I am a skinny person stuck in a fat, broken body (more on that later), and when I'm not taking care of my son I am helping figure out the next step for my mom...oh and for a stress reliever I craft...so if I don't get to posting a lot right away you know why...I'm busy busy. I've been meaning to do a blog for some time now since all my MTC friends have them, but it wasn't until I started to have all these feelings about my mom that I thought it would be a good time to write some stuff down, and share some patterns and projects along the way...oh and the name of the blog, well the sandwich does not refer to my large size, but more to what I am going through now with mom. A friend sent me a video the other day and it talked about the sandwich generation....those of us who are trying to take care of our own family while at the same time caring for our aging parents....
Just a little background on me and this blog. I've always loved to craft and can remember as early as 2nd grade staying after school to learn how to knit and crochet from my teacher. I never really did much with anything I made except for maybe make a few presents here and there for my mom, who lovingly accepted each and every gift. Along the years I've done needlepoint, cross-stitch, embroidery, sewing, woodworking, painting, you name it.
Today I enjoy primitive crafting, which basically means I make items and then try and make them look old. I started a small crafting business about 10 years ago with my husband before the birth of my son, and did local craft shows. My husband loves woodworking, so he'd cut out the patterns from wood and I'd paint them. Once my son came along we didn't have the time (or the energy) to spend our weekends in the basement crafting or sitting at booths in craft shows. I gave up my full time job and decided to become a SAHM. After a few years, I began to get he SAHM blues. I wanted to get back into crafting but knew I needed to find something I could do on my own that didn't rely on my husband to help me. Thus primitive crafting was born. I got out my sewing machine and started making home decor using fabric and paint. That was about 6 years ago, and within the last year I have found my new love, cricut crafting. I bought a Cricut Expression after seeing the infocommercial late one night. I was immediately hooked. I liked the idea of being able to use it to cut fabric, but to be honest, I've never even used it for that.
Soon after purchasing the cricut I came across all this information on software that one could use to expand the functionality of the cricut. I decided on Make The Cut software, and can truly say if it wasn't for MTC my cricut would probably still be in the box (more on that later). I love everything I can make with the cricut including glass etching, vinyl decor, cards, boxes, post-it note pad holders, you name it, if it is made out of paper or vinyl the cricut can help you make it.
When my son entered Kindergarten this year, the first word out of everyone's mouth was "what the heck are you going to do now?" Well the thought of crafting full time had entered my mind, or maybe just taking it easy. I had just had emergency back surgery the year before and was still dealing with paralysis issues. As it turned out, God had another plan for me. Soon after my son started school my 76 year old Mom (Granny as she is known) started to exhibit signs of dementia. Since she lived by herself and had already recovered from a stroke a few years earlier, I worried about her constantly. With her only about 45 minutes away, I made it a point to visit her at least once a week and call as often as I had a chance in between taking my son to soccer, karate, after school clubs, gymnastics, well you know how it is if you have a very active son. Things went from bad to worse, and whether it was the cause or the effect, mom had another stroke in January of this year. Since then it has been a constant battle to find good 24/7 care for her at home, almost a 24 hour job in itself. She has "left side neglect" which basically means she doesn't see or sometimes even know that she has a left side. She insists she is fine and just wants everyone to leave her alone so she can go on about living her life. This is the same woman who was my pillar of strength since I was a baby and who I could count on for everything and anything and who I knew would take care of whatever problem I could handle on my own. Now it was my responsibility (along with my brother who lived in Michigan, and my sister who lives two hours away) to make sure that my mother was getting the care she needed.
Soooo, enter present day. I volunteer at my son's school once a week at least and am also the room mom, I am on the board of the local MOMS Club, I am a skinny person stuck in a fat, broken body (more on that later), and when I'm not taking care of my son I am helping figure out the next step for my mom...oh and for a stress reliever I craft...so if I don't get to posting a lot right away you know why...I'm busy busy. I've been meaning to do a blog for some time now since all my MTC friends have them, but it wasn't until I started to have all these feelings about my mom that I thought it would be a good time to write some stuff down, and share some patterns and projects along the way...oh and the name of the blog, well the sandwich does not refer to my large size, but more to what I am going through now with mom. A friend sent me a video the other day and it talked about the sandwich generation....those of us who are trying to take care of our own family while at the same time caring for our aging parents....
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