Thanksgiving Blessings where ever you may be.

 

Watercolor by T Halligan

Thanksgiving Blessings where ever you may be.

  

 

The small things, the big things.

 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

As in the  small things - also the big things.  Giving thanks to God today, especially  for the nurses and aids and National Guard people giving care to our Covid patients.  In my  rural community, there is a skilled facility:  Our family walks  through the courtyard  and waves at Cindy from outside the  window, thankful for the nurses and helpers we see inside … 

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

Old Recipe

 

Glorified Rice:  once a favorite at church get togethers.      Easy to make.  And for some of the elderly folks, an easy food to swallow.  . 

Glorified Rice

2 cups of  cooked white rice.  Cooled. 

1 cup whipping cream. Whipped.  Add 1/4 sugar.  

1 cup of miniature marshmallows.

Blend the ingredients.

Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

  

Slime

Miss Tara, (as in Gone with the Wind) loves to hike, bike, and ski down  mountain slopes.  Today along with several other  Para Professionals, and a  teacher in an elementary classroom, she helped special needs children  make and play with Slime.  (Recipes are on line. And most  anyone of any age seems not to mind stretching and pulling  and squeezing slime.  It can also be found in the toy sections in colors of blue and purple and glittery pink.)  

Slime is  helping the children practice sensory skills:

Tara's own  sensory skills   as a child, came to mind-  living along the salty Sound, and playing along the shoreline  with the slimiest of sea weed  when the tide was out. She  could pick it up-a long wet tuberous green  her head.  There was also the squishy sand between her toes,   cold waves slapping over her wading feet,  barnacles on rocks she tried to walk on, warm tide pools to sit in, and castles to construct.    Sooo  much to pick up and examine,  the agates with light passing through, and  clam shells for scooping, and wild drift wood shapes that she imagined to be creatures of every kind, and rafts to float along in the shallows. And there was  skipping home in sandy socks and slimey  wet tennis shoes. 

And not to forget the slime of cleaning and carving a pumpkin this time of year.    

 

Everything happens in story form.

 "Don't you think life happens in story form?"  I asked Miss~C, my creative young grandaughter,  (The Little Girl With Stand-uppy Hair).   

Yes!  she emphatically agreed.    She likes to draw characters that are all doing something.  They're  active - acting. She also loves drawing, writing, and dancing.          



  In the past, I wrote a blog,  "Little Girl With Stand-uppy Hair".  It was my way to connect as a long distance grandma.  
  The blog was on line under Validations.blogspot.com  For some reason,  it wasn't easy to find on the net so I renamed it,  peachycritters.blogspot.com 

hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com

 

Autumn leaves.

As I say good bye to September- Let the leaves fall where they may! 

Let the "leaves" fall where they may.

Let the "quips" fall where they may.

Let the "chips" fall where they may - that is in  in wood chips.  

Back in the late 1800's,  the quip was- "Hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may."  

So to hew to the line is to cut along a line drawn  on  a piece of wood  or lumber, with an ax, a  hand saw, or a draw knife.

Have a good fall.  Or as my favorite COTA would say instead,  "Have a good autumn."  (and not to fall...)

Scrunchy and Sponge Bath !

      Home Health Care:  A bath?  Having an aid come into the home in the heat of a pandemic?  

     For some elderly folks,  that's a fearful thought.  Family members  might suggest their  elderly  person give themselves an old fashioned sponge bath. Most  will  remember sponge baths from childhood days:  The wash basin, and a chair or the commode beside it.  A fresh towel and wash cloth.  Soap.  

     Add    a  special scented body wash and a colorful scrub scrunchy!    Gifts perhaps to send?  (A sweet 94 year old lady , who has several bottles of body wash on her wash stand, Mike like a scrunch in pink.) n

     Or maybe  pumpkin autumn orange, like the one shown below.  It’s likely to be found at the pharmacy, on the internet, or at your favorite box store.)  

     My favorite COTA  suggests that the sponge bath begin from the toes on up. 

   

     And  a scrunchy stimulates the skin - which is the largest organ of the body.  And if there is no scrunchy,  then use a second wash cloth.  Exfoliating.  Move upwards towards the heart,  and scrub.  Feet, shins,  knees, thighs, etc. When you get to the face, grab up that fresh wash cloth!  Wash and rinse.  Rub dry with a towel.  

    

 

Bath Scrunchy advertised for sale on Ebay.  

Putting up Preserves and Memories

For my mother, I will put up cucumber relish. 

The recipe she gave me to use, was  on the back of an old blank check. 

She wasn't sure where the recipe came from some many long years ago, but the hand writing looked strangely familiar.    I turned it over and there was her sister's name and information.  

Mother let out a sweet sigh as we  remembered my aunt Rolene.

 I ground up 18 cucumbers and 4 carrots, remembering.    On top of the vegetables,   I put  half a cup of salt, and let it sit over night.   Then to drain.  (Nothing was said about rinsing the salt away first,  so I went to my vintage Better Homes and Garden cook book, and under a  hamburger relish recipe,  it stated "rinse and drain").  

So I did, before  adding the vinegar and sugar.   

I put up the preserves, and cleaned up the mess, and brought the relish to my mother.  She tasted it, and it was good, she said. And she had other recipes - pickled beets, for instance, but I had no beets in my garden that year.  Something ate them early on.  

I suggested we make a recipe journal instead,  with her favorite old recipes to pass on to her kids. And for her own remembering. With pictures and comments.  We'd  put it together later in the season when we would need a good winter project.   

Cucumber Relish

Country Flower Gardens Tour Advertised

 A Tour of Country Flower Gardens  was advertised in a small town near by.  We ventured out.  

There was fog.  And then rain.  All was  gray.   And the windshield wipers were speeding out of control, and making a malfunctioning clacking sound as I tried to see to drive.  A strip of loose black rubber whipped wildly back and forth at the window.  

I am in uncharted territory.  My elderly parents are passengers sitting back silent, but  peering out.    Gravel roads wind off into all directions, and I don't know which way  I'm going.  The   map got left  at home.  I am a dinosaur,  I have no GPS on my flip phone.  .   

The tree lined road  twists and turns , and thanks to the energy of the pandemic we're living in,  we are in the midst of - the  mist of  Jurassic Park.

Then, the right road for us to take, appears out of the rainy fog.  This was one  of farm steads  on the tour.  But here's the  unexpected.  Where are the flowers?  Plants maybe,  scrags of growing things in a rusted manure spreader, and  stems creeping out of an old claw foot bathtub…Roar! 

No.  My  mother will not get out of the car to see if there's anything else.    She has worked hard for the last several months,  tending to her own flower garden.  It's beautiful, and has just been made yard of the week in the local newspaper.  

We determine to  go back and  look at her flowers,  we had  just needed to  get out a little while.  

We  stopp at a rural cafe along the way.    There we sit, six feet apart in hard seats,  but alongside people with familiar faces - people  from our home town.  They  speak  to us,  wearing masks, except when we eat.  Pandemic or no,  it is  a comfort to be  in the mist of people  who greetus with  a warm hello.    

Duet. 32:2 "a small rain upon the tender herb..." at hollyhockjunction

hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com

Puppet Eyes- the eyes have it!

Puppet Eyes.  The Eyes have it!  The  faces below were meant for making expressive  puppet faces. 

But the other day, I was trying to answer questions  at the medical clinic,  about how my ninety year old father was doing.  I was sitting alongside him.   I imagine some of my facial expressions -while wearing a mask- looked something like this:  

1. Normal gaze.  

2. Small centered pupils-spooky gaze!

1.         2.

3. Sideways glance-wary or fearful.

4. Pupils on the inside of the eyes-

   Don't ask, perplexed, or angry!

3.                                   4.

5. Pupils look like commas-alert!            Interested.

6. The up and one down pupil-it's the who knows  look.

5.       6.
The eyes have it! 

If you check out my blog posts during the 2012 years,  I have several posts on how to embellish flat felt hand puppets. The above facial examples will be helpful.  

Deut. 32:2  "as the small rain upon the tender herb..."   at hollyhockjunction

hollyhockjunction.blotspot.com 

  

Summer sweet sandwich spread

     150 packages of hot dogs were donated to  the school.  One of the supervisors there, asked  for any  alternative ways to cook them for  variety. 

     "Remember eating hotdog relish  sandwiches  when we were kids?"  I asked. 

"I still make them."  Great to serve at get togethers.   

      By the photo,  you can tell why our family gave them the name ~brain sandwiches!   

      I  know the recipe calls for a a ring of bologna.  I substitute  hotdogs.  The sandwiches are easy to make,  inexpensive,  and with a couple of hard boiled eggs give, a hot dog sandwich has extra nutrition.    I don't have an exact  recipe, but this is how I remember it:  

Tasty hotdog sandwiches.  
"Brain" sandwiches. That's   
what we called them as kids
back in the sixties.  Tasty!

1 package of hot dogs (or ring bologna sausage)  
2 or 3 hard boiled eggs.
1 Tablespoon chopped onion optional
3-4 Tablespoons of hamburger sweet pickle relish.  Yum!  
3-4 Tablespoons of salad dressing.  

(Add more or less sweet pickle, salad dressing, or onion to your taste.)

Heat the hotdogs through just enough to bring out the flavor, but don't cook them.   Grind the  first 4  ingredients in a food processor or meat grinder.  Add the salad dressing.  Stir.  Chill.  

Serve on an open face hamburger bun, or on one slice of bread. Keep chilled.  They taste better that way.  

I did find  this recipe in an old church. cook book:  It's similar but a much bigger batch!! It makes about 100 sandwiches!  Great for school or a  large party!  

Bologna Spread
1 to 1 1/2 lb. ring bologna  (substitute the same amount in hot dogs- the 1 - 1/2 lbs.)
12 eggs, hard-boiled & peeled
I small. jar sweet pickle relish
1 T.    vinegar
2 C.   Miracle Whip
1/4 c. Half & half.
Grind bologna and eggs.  Mix in the other ingredients.  Keep refrigerated.  


* Another way to use hotdogs:     Mustard and hotdog sandwiches.    These, my mother in law used to make-  Grind up a package of  hot dogs.  Stir in plain mustard,  just enough mustard for a tangy taste and  to hold the mixture together.   Spread a tablespoon or so of  the “hotdog mustard  spread” on a white piece of toast,  add a slice of American cheese, and toast the open face sandwich in the oven until the cheese melts.   Tasty hot!

Bring Agate Into The Light

 I was walking with Kate and found a super clear agate.  She tried to find one, and  I gave her  mine.  She said, "Are you sure?"   I told her my grandpa was good at finding them, and I am super good at finding them.

 So on Saturday we were walking again, and I found two super clear agates, and I said,  "I told you I was good at finding them." 
 I told the story to Gram, and she was excited to remind me how good grandpa was at finding agates.
  
The trick is to look for the "glowing rocks".  

Holding  an agate up to the light. The light passes through...



“The regular rock, the light doesn’t show through.  regular rock and an agate.  If the sun is shining,  this is what to look for...easy peasy.  Tam

Deut. 32:2 ...as the small rain upon the tender herb at hollyhockjunction 
Hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com  

Hoo ray!

Hooray for camping season. 

Even if it's in your own back yard!

There's no flour on the shelves at the store.

GIVE US THIS DAY  

~Great Grandma Emma, near the end of the depression, baked a lot of loaves of bread.  She fed her farmer husband, eleven growing children, and two hired hands.  

Occasionally there were also hungry strangers who wandered  off the road and onto the homestead, and they too sat down at the table. 

After the family's new barn was raised,  Emma added rolls, rolls, rolls, and more rolls to her baking. She set them out to raise all over the kitchen wherever there was a flat empty space, and then she baked them crusty brown in a fired up wood cook stove. The  fresh butter rolls would be sold  at the barn dances held on Saturday nights when the men, women, and children in the community,   came together to square dance, have a nice lunch, and visit. 
  In all of this bread baking, every morning, Emma tied a fresh clean apron over her well worn-  much laundered flower print cotton dress. "Give us this day, our daily bread...".

On Mother's Day, untie your apron and run, and have fun! Run fast!  

Flowers in quarantine

Doggies and flowers make quarantine a lot  better.

Duet 32:2...  as the small rain upon the tender herb."  

posted by hollyhock junction  @  hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com  

Unknown Road

This email was sent by my favorite   home health care Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant, who has an amazing gift for reaching the elderly in ways that matter to them- by being sensitive to their life's work, their personalities,  and their  purpose. * (Many of my blog posts were inspired by this talented COTA.)  The following email was written by her.

2019 photo by  T. COTA

1980's painting by T. COTA 

  "After reading about the cookie lady, and the greeting card lady,  
it's now about wearing masks and further protection gear, and taking the normal life out of it.  

Going back to when I first got into Home Health Care,   five years ago, I was confronted by my rehab director about my treatments and documentation. 

She asked,  "How does playing the guitar have anything to do with this client's goal/treatment?  

What?  That's what it's all about!  Long story short,   “My client  has schizophrenia and sits  in his chair all day waiting for his sister to come!”

I made it the client's goal -  to get up out of the recliner, and then get the guitar, 
and  find ways to bring it to his sitting area.   His guitar was in his bedroom,  an impossible journey... 

He opened up enough to share his talent.  He turned on the radio, 
and played along beautifully.  
It was amazing. 
He had a true gift, and bringing it back into his life is what OT is really about." 


Deut. 32: 2  ... as a small rain on the tender herb...at hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com

Three Bouquets and a Bunny!

Grandma's Garden is inside the house.  

Spring is late.  These are housebound days.  Friends and neighbors have sent bouquets.    

Close to the ground

For health reasons, my  aging parents have been housebound.   They were feeling  bored and a little left out, and then the pandemic hit!  
Of course now, almost everyone in the nation has joined them, so they decided to make the best of it.

Today a short walk around the block, and afterwards, they had a cup of hot chocolate.  They're doing what they can to meet their present needs:

 2 Timothy 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 
  
at hollyhockjunction

Remembering Earlier Times and Take Out

In the fifties there was take out food in burger baskets,
drive-in movies, 
and out door roller rinks.
Cousin Rolene was a Do Op girl,
 and I was a tag along, I think. 

Duet. 32:2 as the  small rain upon the tender herb... at hollyhockjunction 

Ground Mail

Today I received a package in the mail from my daughter:  This little box of mail has a way of grounding me, today.   An anchor.  There is stability and sameness, and newness, and a past, and a present, and a hopeful future.
   
~In it there are several face masks that she has made using  colorful fabric. The pattern is included so that I can sew them too.  
~ Also in the box is seed bead jewelry and pottery - souvenirs from her January tropical vacation.  
~A small bottle of  hand spray just to "sweet scent" the air and not sanitize it. 
~An art card created by my grand daughter in college, now finishing out the year with on line classes - and a doll she made when she was  a little girl.  I take note that  the card and the doll are alike in color scheme.  Navy blue and tangerine. 

The pottery is wrapped in a stray sock.  I determine my daughter is tidying up and putting order in her laundry room.  

Duet. 32:2 as the small rain upon the tender herb  at hollyhockjunction  
hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com  

Brush Rollers Once Again

Clementine has had  her hair washed and set most every week for over thirty years by her favorite beautician,  Carol.  
Who would guess that the beauty shop would close up indefinitely with a Virus?
She couldn't  remember the last time she'd washed her own hair or put a curler in it! 

But no, to the curling iron, or even washing her own hair with her arthritis, 
and she didn't suppose 
any place in town would have a brush roller for sale.  But then the stores wouldn't  be open... 

Check out my blog post,  Curls on the Beach 1968,  posted in May 2011.  This too speaks of brush rollers and thinking about light hearted times.   

Missing your mug.

Coffee time and no place open for the elderly fellows to congregate.  
No one at the Round Table at the Cafe.
  
Home bound for a spell.  Maybe I'll drop a line and a homemade card - at least most folks can still get the mail.

hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com

FACING THE ...

Here are examples of handmade face masks that will be given  to local community service members - postal workers,  grocery clerks, and gas station attendants for starters. These were made by two Washington Coast gals who are trying to help their neighbors.  The masks help keep hands away from the face and  those we meet, more safe. 

   

Face Mask Patterns are available on the Web.  Saltymom and Craftpassion Joann's Fabrics, are  names that come to mind.  

Check out the sewing materials you have on hand: 
Use light weight decorative cotton prints for the outer layer, 
and a non woven fabric for the water resistant layer.  Pellon interfacing? An insert of gauze can also be added.
Bread bag twist ties  will firm up  the top of the nose, 
and thin elastic or handmade ties, are used to  attach around the ears.  
  

Happy Mask by Deann

Handmade Face Masks 

Cat Company

  Clara is under lockdown in assisted living. 

  "Why me?"  She asked with a pitiful look on her face.  

  "How's your sister doing?" I asked, by way of distraction. Her sister lives in Nevada, half way across the country,  and is also  in  assisted living.  

  "She's in lock down, too,"  Clara said,   "Only she has a cat to keep her company!" 

 Deut 32:2... as the small rain upon the tender herb   

at   Hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com 

Rose Specialist

  The neurologist said to Irma after reading her x-rays,  "You look 70,  but  you're 87, and how  you look on the outside is not  how you look on the inside.  You've already lived ten years beyond the average life expectancy.  There may not be any fix to your pain, but  even so,  I'm sending you  back to your pain doctor."


  Irma replied.  "I like my pain doctor.  He's going to help me with my pain,  and I'm going to teach him how  to grow healthy rose bushes.  

Irma's roses...
hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com

"BEAR" CUPBOARD

  BEAR CUPBOARD : Taking note to bring by something like 
toast, peanut butter, and honey

 to someone who may have a bare cupboard.  

How to help? Donations at local food pantries are always welcome.  ...that their cupboards may be full... 
hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com

Happy Valentines day

Handmade by me using a few old buttons
and felt shapes.  
But I can't take the credit for the idea. 
 A gum ball machine banner like this, 
 hung on a door at an adult day care center. 

Happy Valentines Day !
... as the small rain upon the tender herb (Duet. 32: 2)
 at hollyhockjunction  

Elderly Folks

"Geriatrics is a branch of health care that specializes in the particular medical needs of older adults."   Take note - each has a unique personality. 

WOMAN WHO BUILDS FIRE     

Most of the people I write about don't read my writing, and Barbara is one of them.  Next week she's celebrating her eighty-somethingish  birthday: 
    After coffee hour at church, she scooped up her covered cake pan from the kitchen, and said,  "I baked seventy-five dozen cOOkies for social hour last year,  so now do you think the Lord will let me into heaven?"

Barbara roasts marshmallows outdoors during  the  summer  over a big bonfire in her back yard. 
She meanders through the hOOd on foot through the woods.  She calls it the Hood because she's lived there since she was a girl.

Geriatrics yes.  Both knees were  replaced at the same time.  She can no longer kneel for communion.

But Barbara is young even if the numbers don't say so, and she lives the best she can with the hitches, and 
Prays to the Lord while she argues her point with Him. 
   
She tells it like it is.  Sings.  Cares.  Listens.    
Serves tea and coffee to family, friends, and neighbors, and warms up a  lively conversation around a small wood cook stove in her kitchen. (In winter,  woman who builds fire, builds fire to help save on the heating bills.) 

 
Hollyhockjunction
Deuteronomy 32:2 As the  small rain upon the tender herb ...  at hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com





  


   

Sugar Bear

JENNIE: 
  "You paint!"  The home health helper exclaimed as she  touched a small acrylic painting on a corner table near Jenny's chair.  "Did you paint this picture?" the helper asked.  It was of a sad eyed bear, with brown black eyes and a look on its face much like Jennie's. In the picture, there were also two happy snowmen.  One on each side of the sad bear.
  "I painted it,"  she admitted. "The bear is me, and the snowmen are my friends, and I'm afraid... they will melt." 

  "Someone saved my life today,  Sugar Bear...". Jennie hummed and softly sang. She had a best friend she said,  and he died, and it  was this song that we sang together- our song by Elton John. 
The helper played it for her on her Iphone speaker.   


 Alas for those who never sing but die with all their music in them. 
Song of Solomon 2:12 
hollyhockjunction.blogspot.com

Misfit

  Annie was stuck in a pod facade.  It looked nice from the outside,  but most of its inhabitants were dementia patients. Annie  was wheel chair bound, but she had a good sharp mind.   
  She had no one to play games with her - not Scrabble, not  Rummikub,  not Aggravation.  
  Would she tell her family she was misplaced?  That she  liked her previous skilled facility better, where the residents held game days and  tournaments, and that they were able to relate.  
(And hey, reaching for game pieces and putting them  in place for 45 minutes,  is very good range of motion exercise for strengthening shoulders.)

Handmade scoreboard for the card game Fast Track
 (originally called Aggravation)

small rain at hollyhockjunction