Play Rummy.

A CONNECT:  A GOOD GAME OF Rummy. 

 

As kids and with our kids, we played rummy.  

These days, my husband and I  play Rummy with my sister-in-law Sweet Sue.  She has MS, and short term memory loss,  but even over the years as her MS limitations continue, she shuffles and deals,  scoops up the cards, makes points, and often wins.    

It's  a great way to connect - We have fun. We try to win as we banter back and forth, and pass the snacks and razz a little…  "Hey, are  you cheating?  Whose deal is it?"  A Nudge - whose turn is it?  It’s okay to forget, because we’re all getting older!   

And like how it is, our lives over the last seventy years, we play the hand we're dealt and  focus on that.  We’ve learned a lot, and the rules have stayed with us:  No one can play our cards for us, and no one can play their hand over again. Of course play to win! It’s more fun.  Healthy competition. No two hands are dealt the same.    And no one  wins every hand.

 

Connect:  And oh, my take on   HEARING AIDS.  

    Ida, is 91 and has just received ,  her first pair  ever - of much needed hearing aids. 

     She can  hardly hear a thing,  and yet she is a social butterfly.  When it comes to conversation,  she wings it!

     When the hearing aid guy plugged her in, she lit up!   Her demeanor changed, and  voice softened.  She could hear her own voice again...and so, leaned into a quieter  conversation, with  a peaceful  look on her face. But when she entered a room with a lot of people and conversation, that changed it a bit, and the hearing aids needed to be adjusted.   

     I think back to her own mother who lost her hearing early - but  who in her mid 90's was still up and at 'em,  in the garden,  pulling weeds,  and planting new tulip and  daffodils bulbs, and all summer long,  wanting to be in her garden.    

     Over the years, she stopped talking altogether, because she couldn't hear.  I can see her still,  standing in the midst of planted things looking at us, but not reaching out to us like she once did, as if there was a fence between us.  But we reach out for a connect -  a hug or two,  as  she shows us her  latest flowers in bloom.  

    

Barbie Doll Crochet

The toy department at the Farm and Garden Store has opened for the Christmas season.    A wispy little girl who said she was age 4, was at the counter with her mother buying a Barbie Doll.  The Barbie  looked much like the dolls I was buying for my girls in the 1980's. Blonde hair, skinny waist, and long legs.   Their tiny fashion outfits not all that easy to sew. 

   Some things old are still new.  To sew and crochet. Crafting Christmas gifts- a part of homemaking.  

 

   McCalls and Family Circle magazine in the 80's published patterns for  knitting and crocheting Barbie doll sweaters.

 ... an old fashioned Christmas this year for the  knitting and crocheting grandmothers out there?  (Posted before seeing the new Barbie movie! I think yarn colors would all need to be sparkly  pink for this day and age.  )  

 

                                            Barbie Doll Crochet and Knitting.

 

Chrystal Beads

Christmas Ornaments handcrafted  at the dining room table in the 1980's on  cold frosty weekends.  With the girls,  during their grade school days.

  In a little western town in Montana  on Main street, in the 1990's,  (a block away from the saddle shop)   there was  a store  that sold mostly plastic beads.   Alvira was the shop owner, designer, and retailer.  

She put   together   kits of beads -  angels, candy canes,  snowflakes, and wreaths for others to make.   Many were sent to rec centers in retirement communities in Arizona.  These were  simple and inexpensive.  

Part of her advertising strategy was a booklet of her bead ornament designs  hand drawn  in black and white,  by  my daughter, a  young graphic art student at the time.  She made beads sparkle  on paper with  faceted lines.  

In 2022, In New York ... in a retail shop  filled with  designer purses,  jewelry, and even dog collars.    Sparkly beads.   The latest trends in fashion “discovered…”.

I think I need a  few  packages of  plastic sparkly  beads this year for a bit of nostalgia - crystal clear,  red, gold, and green. 

Hand made in the 1980's:
  Angel ornaments
of sparkly crystal
 plastic beads

In 2022, Selling in a dazzling shop in New York, 

 dog collars,  purses, and earrings  

made of sparkly crystal plastic beads on 33 Orchard Street. 

  

Turkey Activity

 This is a Thanksgiving turkey activity and decoration used by my favorite COTA ~   Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant, who has worked  at a long term care center.  

ACTIVIY: Button and unbutton colorful turkey feathers onto the turkey body. 

 putting the resident’s hands  into motion! 

              Make  the  turkey before hand:  Use Light color felt,  and  cut a pear shape body.  

Sew the PEAR shape onto a  darker color felt  shape  that has been cut out with  the outline of a turkey back - a solid silhouette  of  feathers.  

(Cut the back piece large enough to sew on colorful buttons.)  

     Make a  large   variety of  colored  feathers with  slits for buttonholes in them to  button and unbutton.   

     Paint,  or cut out felt feet, and face pieces to attach with glue or stitching.

  

Have participants button on the feathers!   Happy Thanksgiving!