by jphilo | Jan 12, 2016 | Top Ten Tuesday
For some reason, the first week of January 2016 was a highly productive one for a certain inhabitant of our gravel road. Had I known on January 1 what I know now, the following New Year’s Resolutions would have been listed and checked off in 7 short days, rendering the remaining 359 guilt and fancy-free.
10. Come to grips with getting older after learning of several former co-workers and present dear friends, who are our age contemporaries, are dealing with age-related health conditions.
9. Cut back the geraniums wintering over in the upstairs bedrooms and water them less so the woody stems stop rotting.
8. Send out Christmas cards as a staunch proponent of the better-late-than-never school of thought.
7. Find a group to hand quilt Mom’s remaining quilting projects, sewn together by my daughter a year ago, and which have been lurking in the corner of the guest bedroom ever since.
6. Launch a redesigned website full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes that make half the archived posts disappear for a few days.
5. Garner a 100 new likes on my Facebook author page thanks to EA/TEF parents who read the first EA/TEF Awareness Month post at DifferentDream.com.
4. Eat a few Kirkland non-dairy chocolate covered almonds every day.
3. Watch as many seasons of Downton Abbey as possible in preparation for watching Season 6.
2. Call a dear friend in Harding County, South Dakota and make plans to visit next August during the 100th Anniversary county fair.
1. Record personal information in your copy of The Caregiver’s Notebook so you can tell people attending caregiver organization workshops to do the same without feeling like a hypocrite.
What New Year’s resolutions would you make in hindsight? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Mar 23, 2015 | Book Updates
Can it possibly be that Jane last made an appearance along this gravel road in July of last year? Yes, sorry to say, it’s been that long. And since that post’s report of on the sad lack of progress of the mystery novel bearing her name, Jane and her cast of characters has been almost completely neglected.
Poor Jane. Poor, poor Jane.
Mind, you the reasons for this shameful neglect are all good ones. First, I had to research and write a book about PTSD in children to meet the publishers November 30, 2014 deadline. A week later a month long Camp Dorothy commenced, and I was too busy keeping track of Vanna White and Judge Judy to write much. No sooner did that end, than our second grandchild was born and Mom moved into assisted living. Oh, and did I mention that The Caregiver’s Notebook released on November 1, 2014?
Poor Jane. Poor, neglected Jane.
To add insult to injury, all my time since 2015 began has been spent going to see the grandkids and completing edits on Every Child Welcome, along with a B-I-G rewrite of the PTSD book. That book, by the way, has finally been named Does My Child Have PTSD? What to Do When Your Child Is Hurting from the Inside Outs.
Poor Jane. Poor, traumatized Jane.
Because, as Does My Child Have PTSD? makes very clear, neglect over a long period of time can cause PTSD in children, especially babies. And Jane is most certainly my baby, even though she’s a young, independent woman living in the wilds of South Dakota. And my baby will most likely remain sadly neglected for at least 2 more months, maybe 3…until the final edits of the PTSD book are done, my daughter’s baby is born, and my spring speaking schedule clears up.
Poor Jolene Jane. Poor, poor Jolene Jane.
She misses her imaginary romps in northwest South Dakota and writing school teacher detective scenes where glitter becomes the ultimate weapon. She misses writing about nasty weather on the big prairie without having to experience it first hand. So to give Jolene Jane and anyone else who misses the short grass prairie a taste of what they’re missing, here’s a clip from KOTA news in Rapid City offers a taste of life out west. Complete with heat, indoor plumbing, and two of the strongest Harding County women I’ve had the pleasure to meet.
Just wait, Jane. Wait, Jane, wait!
by jphilo | Jan 26, 2015 | Uncategorized
Since the end of October, my newly released Caregiver’s Notebook has been getting plenty of positive attention at this website and The Gravel Road’s sister site, DifferentDream.com and in Amazon reviews. But in the interest of full disclosure, this post describes my epic fail as a caregiver using the notebook I authored.
The epic fail occurred in December during the month long Camp Dorothy Extravaganza held here at Winter Camp HQ. After a road trip for a doctor’s appointment in Ankeny, the nurse called to inform the camp chauffeur/director/cook/nursing assistant that a certain specimen needed to be collected–I’m trying to be discreet–but that the specimen could be analyzed at the Boone County Hospital lab, much closer to Camp Dorothy HQ.
“I’ll fax the orders to the lab,” the nurse said, “and you can just run it into the hospital lab.”
So after the camp chauffeur/director/cook/nursing assistant enlisted the Man of Steel to assist in the collection process, I “ran the specimen to the hospital lab” just as directed. With the specimen bottle discretely tucked in my pocket, I asked the nice lady at the information desk how to get to the lab. She pointed the way, I trotted over to person at the lab window, and pulled out the bottle v-e-r-y discretely. “Here,” I said.
“Have you registered at the desk?” the nice lady at the lab window asked.
“No,” I said. “I was told to run this to the lab.”
“You have to register first.”
She pointed the way, I tucked the bottle back into my pocket, and trotted over to the registration desk.
Once the nice lady at the registration window had keyed in Mom’s pertinent information, she asked, “Do you have her insurance cards?”
I blinked. “The nurse told me to run…something…to the lab. She didn’t say anything about insurance cards.”
The nice lady’s attempt to not level a are-you-kidding-me look in my direction was her epic fail for the day. “Well, do you have her numbers? Anything?”
That’s when I remembered Mom’s copy of The Caregiver’s Notebook. Which I would have brought with me if the nurse had mentioned it. Or if I’d watched any of the vlogs in The Caregiver’s Notebook Vlog Series. Which I haven’t yet. But that is on my to do list. I promise.
Anyway, I knew exactly where the notebook was at home, so I called the Man of Steel who was filling in as Camp Dororthy activities director while I just ran a little something to the hospital lab. “Would you check the insurance section of Mom’s Caregiver’s Notebook that’s on the table beside my chair in the living room?”
He found it, I handed my phone to the nice lady at the registration desk, and she keyed in the information as the Man of Steel read it off. Then she handed the phone back to me, I thanked the substitute camp activity director, and turned off the phone.
“Do you know what’s really bad about all this?” I inquired of the nice lady at the registration desk.
“What?” she asked.
“I teach people how to organize caregiving information, and I wrote that notebook.”
She giggled and handed me a piece of paper. “You can take this to the lab. Do you know where it is?”
“Sure do,” I responded and then trotted over to the lab window. I fished the well-traveled bottle from my pocket and v-e-r-y discretely placed it on the counter. “This is for you,” I whispered the nice lady at the lab window.
A few minutes later, I was driving home, mulling over my epic Caregiver’s Notebook fail. Until I realized that perhaps it wasn’t really an epic fail. After all, without the completed insurance section of Mom’s Notebook, a trip home to dig through Mom’s purse to locate her cards and a trip back to the hospital would have been required to get the information for the nice lady at the registration desk.
And who knows what might have happened to the discretely hidden specimen bottle in my pocket with all that extra running to the hospital lab. I really don’t want to think about it. Do you?
by jphilo | Jan 23, 2015 | How to Use the Caregiver's Notebook, Vlog Series
Welcome to episode 12 in The Caregiver’s Notebook vlog series. This is the final episode in the series about how to use The Caregiver’s Notebook: An Organizational Tool and Support to Help You Care for Others. This vlog post acquaints caregivers with the resource section of the notebook.
What Kinds of Caregivers?
This book was designed to be used by caregivers in a variety of different situations. It works for adult children caring for aging parents, spouses caring for husbands or wives, and for parents caring for babies, toddlers, young children, and teens with special needs. It also can be used by parents caring for adult children with special needs, parents caring for typical babies from birth through age 3, and by senior citizens in good health who want to have their affairs in order for whoever will care for them in case of sudden illness or accident.
The Caregiver’s Notebook Vlog Series Episode 12: Resources
In this episode, caregivers reviews the glossary, the resource section, and the organizational sections of the notebook. The video is a brief review since your elementary teachers probably covered these how-to schools when you were a kid. So click below to watch episode 12.
To view episode 12, click on over to Gravel Road’s sister site, DifferentDream.com.
by jphilo | Dec 12, 2014 | How to Use the Caregiver's Notebook, Vlog Series
The Caregiver’s Notebook vlog series is back with episode 6. This video explains how to use each form in the medications section The Caregiver’s Notebook: An Organizational Tool and Support to Help You Care for Others. It reviews what belongs in the medication list, how to fill out medication notes, and ways to use the pick up and payment record. Won’t it feel good to have all that recorded so you don’t have to keep it in your head?
Who Needs The Caregiver’s Notebook?
The Caregiver’s Notebook to meet the needs of those dealing with a wide variety of caregiving situations. Here are some of them:
- Adult children caring for aging parents.
- Spouses caring for husbands or wives.
- Parents caring for babies, toddlers, young children, and teens with special needs.
- Parents caring for adult children with special needs.
- Parents caring for typical babies from birth through age 3.
- Senior citizens in good health who want to have their affairs in order for whoever will care for them in case of sudden illness or accident.
So if you or someone you know is in any of those situations, the video below is for you. After all, keeping track of medications is a challenge, whether you’re caring for a baby, child with special needs, spouse, or aging parent. Now, onto the video.
To watch the video, visit The Gravel Road’s sister site, DifferentDream.com.
