Elderly Free PLaY

This time of year, there are good memories  of grade school days, bulletin boards, and paper turkey decorations. Felt turkey with button -on feathers. 

Felt turkeys with 
button-on feathers.

Paper Skeletons.
What better  decoration in  October,  than  skeletons made from  paper plates:  Leg bones,  arm bones, collar bones, rib cages, hip bones, hands, feet  and skulls -   "The leg bone is connected to the hip bone...".  That's the one that aches. Trick or treat.  

Spider.
Spider with detachable legs.  Use velcro fastens or buttons.

Elderly play and care at hollyhockjunction

Only Seventy?

My favorite  COTA was helping Millie do upper body strengthening exercises. 
Millie said,  "Hey,  that's enough.  I'm seventy-one."   
To which Tara explained,  "The seventies are the new fifties, you've got to step it up a bit!"

elderly play and care at  hollyhockjunction

Maybe Rephrase that- Have a great fall.

Watercolor painting by Tamara Halligan

Have a great fall !  

(Not like Dick Van Dyke on his TV show - having a great fall over a footstool.)

Better said,  Have a great autumn!

 HollyhockJunction.blogspot.com 

Singing in the Rain in October?

There is singing in the rain, and there is singing in the hallway.

A spry old guy in the rest home sings with a bit of sway 
as he pops his head into open doors with his  musical greeting... 
"Singing in the rain,  just singing in the rain..."

It feels like spring on this cold rainy day in October. 

Elderly play and care at hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com

A Small Rain

Small Rain, a vintage book with  favorite Bible verses and delightful illustrations of children at play.  It's  no longer found on library shelves. (I wonder what has replaced it.)
A caregiver shares it with elderly patients and most often they receive "showers of blessings". 

 Small Rain,  by Jessie Orton Jones 
From Viking Press 1966.

My doctrine shall drop as the rain,
My speech shall distill as the dew,
As the small rain upon the tender herb,
And as the showers upon the grass.  Deuteronomy 32:2


Ezekiel 34:26 ...there will be showers of blessing.

Elderly play and care at HollyhockJunction

A heart for a family member with Dementia

There's dementia information available for care givers on the web.  Read from Teepa Snow, the Occupational Therapist, and what she has said in her article,    The Living  Gems.  She's on Youtube too.   (For the gem you know).  

 HollyhockJunction.blogspot.com 

  

"Delight in the Lord and he will give you the treasures of your heart."  Psalms 

  
  

Vintage Valentine 

Out in the field

FEAR: STOP AND SIT
"Is there anything  you are worried about when you get back  home?" the COTA asks an old timer in transtion care.  
"The long hallway in my assisted living building.  It's too far for me to walk."
"Pick three spots in the hall,  and when you get to each one, stop and sit in your rolater and rest a bit."  

PREVENTION: A bed alarm is needed for Grandpa's bed:
But it's the grandson who spends sleepless nights listening for his grandfather's stirring. The bed alarm helps the caregiver  rest more peacefully!

UNSURE:TEST IT!
"I'm afraid to use my security necklace."  
"Test it!  Push the button and say,  "Thanks,  just testing!" 

POSTIVE ATTENTION: Her arm is broken but not her leg.
Tilly kicked up her leg.  Was it  a dance kick?
"Are you a dancer?"
"Yes, an amazing dancer.  I'm glad you asked."

HOME: There's no place like home.
His belongings help to tell his story: the baby grand he bought for a nickel,
his boy scout bugle, and his collection of navy ship hats.

LONELINESS: Little Bits of Visit.
Duncan, out on his porch, in his wheel chair, visited a short time with the mail carrier but that wasn't enough. 
That was last year.   
Now he's moved into to the care center, and the people there meet and gather  and talk much longer.  He likes it there.  

Butterfly Embroidery and Soft Mystery

  

 Monica Ferris, wrote a series of  "Needlecraft Mysteries":  Crewel World,  Hanging by a Thread, and  A Stitch in Time...

      I attended one of her writer's workshops.  The theme was "Where to get ideas". 

     During her lunch break, Monica was embroidering a small flower on a linen dinner napkin.  

     "You do nice work,"  I said.  "Even the underside looks good.  If I were to take your handiwork  from you and finish it up,  my stitching underneath would be a tangled mess in comparison."

     Thanks for sharing that,"  she said,  "I could use that as a clue in my next book...". 

Eldery Play and Care at hollyhockjunction

Butterfly Bush

Lynette at the lakes is running around the outside of her house deciding where to plant  a garden of flowers that will attract butterflies.  (Like the  Milkweed Pod of old that I see  growing  down the road.)







Butterflies in your yard are popular!


So why not, a flower pot on the patio, and in it - the  butterfly attracting blooms: The Butterfly bush-Buddleia,  

Aster, Bee Balm, and Cosmos. Also Meadow Blazing Star, Golden Alexander, Ainnia, 

Marigold, and  Anise Hyssop that smells like licorice! 
   

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Little Donkeys

In the pasture on the way home,  little donkeys greet me. 

 I think- Palm Sunday!  
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Easter Greetings!

His name is Peter A Bunny 

His name is: Peter A Bunny

March 1st In Like A Lamb

Elderly play and care at hollyhockjunction

Old fashioned valentine

a new valentine handmade

 by a an old friend.

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Sweet!

On our way to the lakes, in a very small town,not far from HollyhockJunction,  there is a a very good bakery, with a display of vintage cookie jars and a showcase of delightful pastry's.  
  What can I say but, "Oh hubby Cookie Jar honey,  I want to be your  Valentine Sugar Cookie." Sweet!
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tottering knees and comic relief

Drawing by Miss C,  at the  age of twelve - a girl in the neighborhood who is  aware of the older generation. 

Hebrews 12:12 Amplified Bible
So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weaken and drooping hands, and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees,
(Isa. 35:3).  



Elderly play and care at: hollyhockjunction 

Valentine Fishes

Fishing You
a Happy Valentine's Day!

This felt fish is hanging on the doorway

 of  Room 101 at the Care Center.  

Elderly play and care at hollyhockjunction

Groundhogs Day!

The ground hog saw its shadow today.

Six more weeks of winter.  Oh dismay.

Oh no,  that's great!  The old timers say.

In these parts we  could have winter six more months-

past Easter and Memorial Day!

Six more weeks of napping!

Elderly play and care at hollyhockjunction

What do you want to do?

WHEN WALKWAYS ARE ICY - WALK LIKE PENGUINS


For   Octogenarians, when  exercises are needed, limbs strengthened  and steadied- beyond toilet and shower transfers, the Tara COTA asks,"What do you want to do?" 

FIRST RESPONSES INCLUDE:

"Stand up and look out the window at the birds."

"Walk to my train room and get the engines on track."

"Bake cookies, and decorate grapevine wreaths to give as gifts and pot one on my doorway."

"Go out to my garage, and check the tires on my car." 

"Finish that oil painting, and clean my own room." 

"Music. Several at different times, answer -play my guitar - trumpet - piano - harp. 

Sing.  "Do you like Elvis?"  Tara COTA asks. (The Elvis Presley lamp was the cue.)"What songs do you like best?" 

"Dance the Boot Scoot'n Boogey!"

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