Goals and Bucket List for 2017

Highlights of the 2016 year include putting two new raps on YouTube ("While You're Still One" and "Rocket City Ditty"); finishing the dissertation "Finishing Strong With Dementia Caregiving", except I have to defend it; and walking again after breaking both feet in August.

Cast and boot in August

So what are my new goals that 

you all can hold me accountable for?

Technology

• Get a Fire Tablet or borrow an iPad for the Skype defense of my dissertation
• Learn self-checkout at Wal-Mart

Health

• My weight is on a plateau, but I do go to Weight Watchers so I didn't gain back the 40 pounds I have lost. Lose 10 to 15 pounds to add to weight I have kept off.
• Use walker when ice outside so I do not fall again.
• Use the gym at my apartment three times a week.

Spiritual

• 2017 Bible Reading Plan

http://www.bibleclassmaterial.com/BibleReadingSchedule2017forBCM.pdf

• Consistent prayer life. Ask others how can I pray for you. Continue going to my church prayer meetings once a week.
• Encourage others--give them warm fuzzies and only constructive criticism when asked or if wise.
• Visit the residents at the nursing home where I stayed for three weeks. 
• Join the church in Huntsville I am active in.

Intellectual

• Defend dissertation successfully.
• Read more books. 

Recreation/fun

• Visit sights in Alabama and maybe elsewhere. 
• Read novels.
• Find TV shows to enjoy. I really didn't watch TV much as a caregiver for my late husband.
• Wear hats to church often.
• Enjoy Southern culture.

Organizing

• Paper decluttering
• Clothes--get rid go them and only wear what looks good on me
• Kitchen--only keep what I use

Financial

• Consolidate four credit cards for a lower rate and pay off as much as I can this year. Used credit too much during my caregiving years.
• Save
• Use IRA withdrawal for dog Ziggy’s operation, etc.
• No new credit cards

How about you?

Do you have similar goals?

Getting Settled in the New Apartment

 

Printer's Drawer for Small Items

I carefully put these small items in envelopes by rows. This had been in the large den in Plant City.  

Now it will go in a corner of the new second bedroom I call my den.

Meanwhile I can post easier from this iPhone 6 than from my computer with my new Internet/cable provider Comcast / Xfinity and it is harder to get pictures on this post. 

What is it like as a 70 year old widow to move? 

* Exhausting! Exhilarating! 

*  In contrast to my church Deacons and members who loaded the van in Plant City, my retired rocket scientist brother hired three young men to unload the van. My new Huntsville friend, L. J., directed these young men where to put the numbered furniture. 

*  My wonderful brother and sister-in-law have helped me unpack. My brother carried many boxes out to the apartment dumpster. This prompted a sign at the back foyer that out of courtesy to others those boxes should be flattened and I wrote OK on that sign. I am slowly unpacking those boxes. 

*  I will remain a member of my FL church for quite some time as my pastor there will be overseeing my seminary counseling dissertation on dementia caregiving from a biblical perspective.   I will listen to his sermons on podcasts. But Sunday at the church I visited I did arrange to have lunch with two other widows later in the month. Also I took note of prayer requests and called J. E. who has Hospice at her home for her husband. Next Sunday I will worship at a different church.

*  Downsizing is such a great idea for a widow. Now my closest family will not have to go to Plant City to put me in a nursing home and sell my house. And I was able to let my late husband live there all his days which was his wish thanks to Hospice.

*  On Saturday at Weight Watchers here in Huntsville I weighed 40 lbs. less than I did at the beginning of 2012. That year I had lost 25 pounds. Then I basically took a caregiving break and gained 10 of those pounds back. However, since my husband's death last June 23, 2014, I have slowly lost 25 pounds. So the total is now 40 lbs. It is great to be able to fit in clothes I couldn't wear for a while. However I still have to unpack my clothes.

*  How is my dog Ziggy doing? He is adjusting fairly well. He is meeting new dogs and noticing rabbits on his walks. Last night in the cool of the evening Ziggy on a leash, my sister-in-law and I took a lovely walk in the neighborhood outside of the apartment complex. 

*  Saturday my sister-in-law,  her three grandkids and I went to the complex pool after I served them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. I discovered that one of them likes only jelly sandwiches, one likes only peanut butter sandwiches, and the third one likes actual peanut butter AND jelly sandwiches. 

So long from Rocket City! 

Carol

P. S. This was edited later in the day on my computer when the Internet worked better.

Reflections on Peter Walsh's New Book

I am in the process of selling my house and also I am dieting with Weight Watchers. Peter Walsh points out that dieting and decluttering all go together in his book released this past week. Amazon got it to me on the release date, February 24th, and I have been enthusiastically reading it during planning periods while I substitute teach.

Peter also adds a third element to decluttering and eating and exercising--mindfulness. And so he launches a plan to work on all three. In this very thoughtful and might I add organized book, he takes twenty-two volunteers on a six-week program. 

From 9/14/12

My Decluttering

But decluttering has taken/is taking me much longer than six weeks.  Walsh uses a room-by-room approach to decluttering as I did when I went through Mindy Starns Clark's book, The House That Cleans Itself.  15 people got Mindy's book that she mailed me beginning HERE IN 2012.* Those of you who have been following my blog saw me prioritize areas to work on, Alzheimer's proofing the house as I went. Along the way I did get help from Pharis for the outside of the property #9. The last two areas, I never got to--the garage #11 and the workshop #10 as my caregiving days became more difficult and even house maintenance took a back seat to caregiving, a sad fact that I have had to remedy in recent days.  My Huntsville brother and Pharis were the ones to clean out Areas #10 and #11 and give me new purposes for those rooms--the garage has hosted three garage sales in 2015 and the emptied workshop is now the staging area for my move to Huntsville, Alabama (Rocket City) as the above banner suggests. The whole project has become a downsizing with rooms changing and furniture leaving the house as I have been chronicling recently.

My Dieting and Exercising

I started back to Weight Watchers at the end of 2011 as reported HERE. In 2012 I lost 25 pounds and I kept off 15 of it as the caregiving proceeded. Who knows! I might have gained all 25 pounds back! As I reported in that first Weight Watcher post, I chose 7 am Saturday as my meeting time. Spring of 2012 also saw a respite cruise paid for by family and on that cruise I maintained my weight. During the last years of caregiving, I chose caregiving above dieting, realizing that I was called to be there for my husband above all while also having to work to make ends meet. My husband did not want me walking outside and so I did get a treadmill that is going with me when I move and that treadmill might have helped my stress level. I might add that Peter says you don't need a treadmill, but because Huntsville is a colder climate, I might not be able to walk outside in the Winter. 

After my husband died, I went back to that 7 am Saturday morning meeting. Weight Watchers has been for me a great social and inspirational time. Why I even checked out Weight Watchers in Huntsville, Alabama last December.  This morning my total weight loss since 2011 is 31.2 pounds. Here I am today with my Lakeland, Florida leader. I looked all over this computer and my Notebook computer and could not find my "before" picture, but people are starting to notice the change. My weight loss is helping me decide  what clothes to keep as I downsize. 

In Walsh's book, he does not plug Weight Watchers, but I certainly want to and studies have showed that Weight Watchers is the best diet program around. 

Mindfulness

This area of the soul, the self, for me incorporates my Christian belief and I have been meditating on Scripture regularly. In fact, with a clue from Georgene who has often commented on this blog, I started typing up numerous Scripture passages to meditate on and apply. 

In my caregiving and in my widowhood, Scripture is precious to me--it sustains my days and nights. I also was helped by Staci Eastin's book The Organized Heart, a book that helps us Christian believers be mindful. See HERE and also HERE where I reviewed it. 

So you can see I totally resonated with Lose the CLUTTER, Lose the WEIGHT--with all three of the author's main points, plus learned so much more. 

New Insights from Peter Walsh

Before Alzheimer's came into the picture seven years ago (by my estimation), my husband worked, I would watch Peter Walsh on the Home and Garden Network's "Clean Sweep" in the summers before retirement when I taught in public school. (Those were the days I watched TV before my husband sort of took over the big TV.)  Peter would produce episodes like this one he has pictured on his LIKE* page in his native Australia. 

Already a fan from back then, I enjoyed these gems from his book this week:

• Somehow, at some point, you became too large for your comfort.
• Given the environment we live in . . .  How can your body and home not get to this point?
• If the stuff you own is not helping you create the life you want, then let it go. My main job in Huntsville is to write that counseling dissertation on dementia caregiving. I do not need stuff. 
• Pitfall #1: Not seeing enough improvement. Oh yes. I can come home and be upset. Yet I look around and it looks so much different than it does before I decided to sell and move. 
• Pitfall #2: Lack of time. Walsh suggests you schedule tasks like you would any other appointment. I know that perfection is gone, but today I will pack-up my books which are not selling and donate them.
• Pitfall #3: Resistance from family. Had my husband still been living, I would have had to leave things the way he was used to. But since his death, my Huntsville brother spent time here in January to help me get repair projects underway and to clean out areas #10 and #11 of my home as I mentioned above.
• Pitfall #4: Isolation. Weight Watchers is such a great group of friends. They cheer you on and understand when you blow it. I do not feel alone. Also, I have learned to ask for help. 
• Task 1: DEVELOP A VISION FOR WHAT YOU WANT FROM YOUR KITCHEN. 
• Task 2: SEPARATE THE "BENIGN" FROM THE "MALIGNANT" ITEMS. Malignant items are defined as any items that make you feel guilty, sad, nostalgic or angry. 
• Task 3: CLEAN OUT YOUR FRIDGE AND FREEZER. 
• Task 4: CLEAN OUT YOUR PANTRY. 
• Task 5: CLEAR OFF ALL HORIZONTAL SURFACES.    

There are 11 tasks in all,  and this chapter ends with physical activities. The book continues with the bedroom, bedroom closet and the bathroom. 

Then Peter Walsh goes into meddling with my desk and finances. He suggests zones. Zone 1 should be the area by your desk. That has me thinking about getting rid of my four-drawer file cabinet and just keeping selected filing arrangements. Zone 2 represents material that one uses infrequently. I am going to label Zone 2 boxes for my move, put them in the workshop move staging area, and keep Zone 1 material available. The author tells you to back up your computer files. I have already been trying to change my email because I am moving from the Tampa area and cannot have a Tampa Road Runner email. I do like what he says about maintaining your changes and will perhaps discuss this in another blog post or when I move to Rocket City (Huntsville, Alabama). 

So this week I am all into Peter Walsh insights. Shoo away your extra shoes, he says. Yesterday I brought a dozen or more pair of shoes to put here by the music room in the school where I substituted. 

_______________________________________

Today we have rain today in Plant City, so I canceled my 7th garage/yard sale and am just working on my downsizing and putting the house on the market today. Besides, the 80th Annual Plant City Strawberry Festival is on and that is the focus in our area now. 

My deadline for having the house go on the market is March 9th and I have to get back to making my rooms look spacious, downsizing and packing. Might try to get to the festival sometime next week with friends from last fall's cruise I invited. Probably will put books into the car to donate when it stops raining, because books have not sold well in my garage sales. 

Carol

* One of my blogger friends (also a caregiver whom I interviewed) suggested I form a "The House That Cleans Itself" group on Facebook; that group is not as active as is the Plant City and Friends FB "LIKE" page that I regularly post on and which has 74 members. I am also following Peter Walsh's FB "LIKE" page now and we have messaged each other. His next book, I believe, is on downsizing for seniors or for your parents who are seniors needing to go to a nursing home.

Getting My Momentum Back

Tuesday I had a lovely breakfast with Kristi who understands grieving from her own path of suffering. She is giving back however. She and her husband have taken in the husband's disabled sister and twenty-something Kristi is making the best of the situation, gradually getting her momentum back. Kristi shared Scripture with me that has helped her and suggested after discipline (doing things she didn't have the momentum to do) the feelings of wanting to take care of her home and sister-in-law came back. Here we were two women almost fifty years in age difference relishing how the LORD is helping us.

Even though it is hard, it is time I get my momentum back after being a caregiver and becoming a widow. Thankful I am able-bodied. START and the spunk will come back.

Here are my 15 momentum starter strategies and things I am thankful for: 

1. Rejoining Weight Watchers. Food still can be fun. I am in no way perfect with my diet, but enjoy the 7 am Weight Watcher group I am in. 
2. Studying my sleep patterns with the Weight Watchers Active Link.Planning 30 minute naps. See HERE. 
3. Having a week off to get things done (November 24-28) and to be there for Sally whose car is in the shop. 
4. Getting on the treadmill. Walked on the cruise and three miles at the Alzheimer's Association WALK TO END ALZHEIMER'S.
   
5. Having yard sales and very conscious of what still needs to leave the house to be able to downside for a move maybe sometime in the next ten years. Meanwhile trying to take care of business at the house including home repairs. 
6. Writing raps again. After a year of not writing raps, finally wrote one and am testing it out when I substitute teach. The topic, "children having children", was a suggestion from an 18-year-old high school boy. He wanted someone to speak up on this topic.  The students so far like it. Meanwhile very shortly ten of my recorded raps will be on YouTube to add to the other three videos. 
7. Taking the anti-depressant Paxil every three days now instead of daily as at the start. In December I will not take this anti-depressant. 
8. Giving back. I daily email other caregivers. I am tutoring Esteban. 
9. Taking time for others. Went to a movie with another widow recently. 
10. Making a list of what I am thankful for and telling people. Went out and thanked my mail lady Connie. 
11. Planning ahead for Christmas. 
12. Keeping a ridged budget and attempting to refinance the house so I can pay off credit cards.  
13. Arranging my workspace for the dissertation on caregiving. Started working on it again after months of doing nothing on it. 
14. Being able to clean the floors. (My husband used to do this for the first years of our marriage and it has been hard for me emotionally to do it.)
15. Making progress with managing grief and being thankful. 

Getting Away on a Cruise

Items from gift shop

Last week I had the privilege of being a guest on a Caribbean cruise paid for by the same sister-in-law who took me on a cruise in 2012 HERE.  Her next door neighbors (a couple) whom I have known over the years went as well.

Sunday November 2 the three of them arrived at my house. Then  the four of us went by car to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We stayed over night in a hotel which let the couple's van stay in the hotel parking lot for the week while the hotel bus drove us and our luggage to the dock on Monday where we waited in line to get on the ship.

The weather seemed foreboding as we left.

Ruby Princess

Bahamas

The prediction said  80 to 90 % rain chance. However, no rain. and the weather was beautiful that week, including our trips ashore in the Bahamas and Jamaica.

Now when you take a 70 year old widow on a cruise (me) she gets tired and needs afternoon naps, but she gets new delightful memories. Here are some highlights in the week.

• Being with people you like was delightful. Ann and Kim are so much alike. They both wear head bands, drink a orange spiced tea, and even had the same bags on the trip. I joined their club when I had orange spiced hot tea for dinner the last two night. Kim's hubby had a great sense of humor and went around taking pictures. 
  
• I also met two couples and two women at the ship's morning Bible Study. I introduced myself to two Amish couples--Florida snow birds and I invited them to Plant City's Strawberry Festival--I will go pick them up as they do not drive. They liked my Southern Wonderland snowbird song (see HERE) and I wrote it out for them so they can share it with the Amish and Mennonite community in Sarasota, Florida. (I didn't rap for them--might have been TOO much of a cultural shock.)
• The food was outstanding and hard to resist. At one multi-course dinner I counted four different knives including a special one for salmon and between each course the silverware was changed. So much pampering!  Not sure how much weight I gained back, however. Some of it may disappear by my next Weight Watcher meeting November 15th,  and my jeans still fit.
• The walking helped me get back into exercise as well as burn calories. I have an Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk-a-Thon next Saturday after that Weight Watcher meeting. Will be on the treadmill at home so I can maintain new fitness levels. 
• My spirits seemed to sore after a few days on the trip. I did talk about my grief with my travel companions at first. All three of them have experienced significant losses of parents. Two grief bursts came and went for me. One was seeing a dog ashore, but I pick up Ziggy from the kennel tomorrow. Another strange grief burst was hearing and seeing "Tonight" from West Side Story performed. Suddenly I missed my husband terribly. You just never know about grief. 
• Speaking of spirits, I had a rare strong drink because I did not have to drive. It was just an experiment so I could empathize with students in the DUI class I teach. It was called Beverly Hills Iced Tea and I had the bartender write out how much liquor was actually in that drink: vodka, gin, rum, tequila, etc. I drank it slowly over two hours and then took a nap.  

• I rapped in a Karaoke event and gained some fans who will follow me on YouTube. 

  

  Karaoke Rapping

• I thoroughly enjoyed live entertainment and even a movie, Jersey Boys. 

Entertainer Steve Moris at left almost looks like a relative. 

Wish I could have taken you in my suitcase. 

Back to unpacking.

Senior Health: Take Time for Checkups

While you are a caregiver, you hardly have time for yourself. It is important to get those checkups, however. Now that my husband has passed away, I had some time for three appointments recently .

Dental appointment.  After my husband died, I had time for the tooth I lost. I received a new crown on one of my teeth on Monday. Hadn't been to the dentist since 2012. That crown is expensive, but I needed one and charged it. I like it. Feels good. Now I need to schedule a cleaning and maybe gum treatment --not sure what they will advise.

Doctor appointment. My doctor was pleased on Monday, but I didn't get my way about discontinuing the antidepressant. I am to keep taking Paxil for one month, and then alternate days for October, and then take Paxil every third day in November. I had read that you should not get off of Paxil suddenly. She noted that I have had two counseling appointments (one with Hospice and one with the Alzheimer's Association) and was pleased that I am going to a grief group at a local church. My HDL, or good cholesterol, was lower than she wanted whereas last time it was normal. I can help my HDL cholesterol through exercise. She was pleased that I had gone back to Weight Watchers and started losing again. Fortunately I had not gained back all of the weight I lost in 2012, but really I had other priorities including eating ice cream with my husband--one of the last things he would eat in bed. Now I do not want ice cream--would be a grief issue for me to have some.

Eyes.  I hadn't been to the eye doctor in quite a while. I went today and found out nothing shattering. My cataract is a little worse and my vision a little worse. I can get new reading glasses and use the other frames and it is covered under my insurance.

In the spring I did have a mammogram and had someone stay with my husband. At some point I need to see my audiologist (hearing) doctor again to have my hearing aids adjusted. However, because of my husband's condition I missed an appointment with the endocrinologist who had been checking my thyroid a year ago and I need to reschedule that. Oh! I need to get a shot so I don't get Shingles!

The family caregiver can pass away 

before their care receiver.  

I have heard as many as 60% do. 

Don't put off those checkups.

"With a Little Help From My Friends"

I don't have a great singing voice, but what the heck! Two times I have sung these lyrics at Weight Watchers--once maybe five years ago and once in 2012. The karaoke version of it accompanies me and others who sing it with me. Now I am a life time Weight Watcher member, having made my goal maybe 40 years ago when you had to have liver once a week, didn't have to exercise, and couldn't eat fat at all. Weight Watchers has improved so much over the years. I love the newest point system (2012) and the 360 degrees current 2013 emphasis on Tracking, Spaces and Routines. This wise emphasis fits with so much of my life now--the house and the discipline of being a caregiver.

I  reflect that we need support groups and people in our life--a little help from our friends. So without further ado, here are my Weight Watcher lyrics to "With a Little Help From My Friends":

Once upon a time with big belly and hips
I lost some 50 unwanted pounds
Once a week liver for fake diamond chips
To Weight Watchers the first of many rounds
I get by with a little help from my friends.

Jamoca Almond Fudge from a place called Baskins
Can you strand up and look in mirrors?
With 3-D, First Place and thinking of Atkins
Try several diets over the years.
I get by with a little help from my friends
I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends
I’ll get slim with a little help from my friends.

Do I need any diet?
Not really I don’t think so
What I need is a “live it”
To Weight Watchers I go.

Where would you go for some common sense advice
At Weight Watcher’s meeting you’ll be gooving
With point calculator eat beans and rice
Remember to keep those hips movin’

I get by with a little help from my friends
I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends
I’ll get slim with a little help from my friends.

Do I need any diet?
Not really I don’t think so
What I need is a “live it”
To Weight Watchers I go.
I get by with a little help from my friends
I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends
I’ll get slim with a little help from my friends.

So great to be back at Weight Watchers for my 7 am Saturday morning meeting today. I hadn't been there in three weeks. I was down 6/10 of a pound, even though I had stopped tracking well after the holidays and being out of town. I expected to be up 5 pounds, but I guess Weight Watcher habits are rubbing off on me. The meeting was so inspirational and I just rejoiced at the victories of others. My weight loss has been slow, but my health benefits are tremendous--my exercise can improve, but not with my carpal tunnel now. I do want that health to be my husband's caregiver all his days and will continue to plan healthy meals for us.

Now if you follow this blog, you know that I wrote lyrics at the beginning of December to another song. "Southern Wonderland". I sang this song to friends and even strangers in December. For example, the next table at the Tampa Airport (before we departed for Christmas with my husband's son and family) all sang with me when I gave them printed copies of "Southern Wonderland". I talked about this last week and DH said he and Jake just hid when I sang in public at the airport. Now Jake wasn't at the airport restaurant, but Jake is so important to my husband. He is getting by with a little help from Jake, even if Jake isn't there!

I get by with help from Sally as well. Both Sally and I also get by with help from our monthly Alzheimer's Association meetings. DH knows what we go to, but Jake just thinks Sally and I have a Bible study that day.

Certainly New Years is a time to reflect on how we are getting by. Oprah is quoted as saying in new Weight Watcher literature,

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

I get by with my Daily Audio Bible study and podcast. For maybe five years I have been going through the whole Bible by listening and often reading the selection. Today on the way to Weight Watchers (a 25 min. drive), I heard on the Daily Audio Bible podcast in my car about Abraham (the start of our current world problems) and the Beatitudes (Christ's example and Way).  Scripture and prayer help me bravely face being a caregiver. The LORD is my help.

This year I hope to add budgeting (especially knocking down credit card balances) to my life, even making gifts and quilts from some of the materials I already have as I cut down on the volume of stuff at the house. See The House That Cleans Itself posts. Not sure who will be my budgeting buddy. Any volunteers?

Diet, Cholestrol, Axona and Coconut Oil

from coconutoil.com

Those low-fat, no-fat diets are not good. Now Weight Watchers insists that we have fat. Another site on coconut oil just confirmed here. This site led me to "The Clue to Why Low Fat Diet and Statins may Cause Alzheimer’s" here.

Dr. Mary Newport has reported that CBN are featuring coconut oil here. When you start that coconut oil, you need to build up tolerance and we did with my husband who has been on it for three years. Dr. Newport says that CBN will:  feature Butch Machlan, a man with familial ALS (Lou Gehrig's) who has been stable for three years taking 9 tablespoons per day of coconut oil and magnesium chloride, and will also feature a man from Connecticut with Parkinson's who has had considerable improvement since shortly after the first story aired [Dr. Newport's], taking a mixture of coconut oil and MCT oil.  

Meanwhile there is the suggestion that Axona can be prescribed and monitored better than coconut oil; Dr. Richard Isaacson reports on Axona on The Alzheimer’s Reading Room here. He reports two clinical US trials.

Not all doctors know about Axona and I will ask my husband's doctor about it on his next visit. My husband's doctor approves of his coconut oil (his glucose and cholestrol are great) and coconut oil does not elevate my husband's triclyceride levels as Dr. Isaacson suggests.  Finally there are research studies on coconut oil beginning. Perhaps my hubby doesn't get enough coconut oil, but he does get it everyday with dark chocolate and when I can use it in cooking. I even arranged for him to have it on our trip.

He takes turmeric pills. They say that in India that turmeric and coconut oil may account for less dementia in the older population.

When your loved one has been diagnosed with any kind of dementia as my husband has, you cannot wait for the research studies to come out and I am glad I haven't.

Senior Health, Part Six

My wrists hurt and fingers can tingle and are worse with bending. Think of all the times you bend your wrists! My wrist braces help me not bend my wrists. I have carpal tunnel syndrome for the second time in my life.

The first time I got it was in the 1990s. I had the wrong angle on the computer and would type on the computer many evenings. I was a widow then and this is how I would pass my time--on the computer--not organizing clutter! My old Apple computer was up high on an old oak desk--wrong angle. At that time I researched alternatives and used MSM from a health food store to help with the carpal tunnel. I wore braces all the time for about a year. I declined the surgery which I heard was not always effective. I am taking MSM again and it has a lot of other benefits maybe even for Alzheimer's, but I do not know about research on MSM. See here. There are a lot of sites about this syndrome that you can Google. I got the graphic on this post here.

When my carpal tunnel returned last summer, I was taking class notes on my notebook computer in a seminary counseling class. My wrists were too high up. Very suddenly, as in the 1990s when I got this condition for the first time, my wrists hurt--both of them. The right one is worst and I jokingly say that getting into Pinterest did it.

What is the correct placement of the wrists when you are on the computer so you don't get carpal tunnel syndrome? 45 degrees. I also have a pad for the wrist by the mouse on my home computer and now place my notebook computer more carefully when I take notes on it. My home keyboard is slightly slanted, but one can get ergonomically correct keyboards that are slanted more. 

I resisted getting a smart phone, until I crashed my five year old cell phone and was due for an upgrade with Sprint. An iPhone or any smart phone helps with the carpal tunnel. With my iPhone I can use the speaker phone and not have to hold the cell up to my ears, stressing my wrists. I can use a stylus with my left hand to delete e-mail on the iPhone. I can easily play Words With Friends on the iPhone with a stylus rather than on the computer. I probably can blog on that iPhone, but haven't tried yet.

One difference with this round of carpal tunnel is that I went to chiropractors.  They are great and I pay for the visits as my health insurance doesn't cover that office because it is so worth it--much less pain than when I had carpal years ago and the wrists are getting better faster. I mainly wear my braces when I sleep now.  (This chiropractic office also restored my hands and back after the crash we had two years ago that I wrote about on this blog.)

I have lost weight this year through Weight Watchers--very slowly--tremendous health benefits come with this exellent program. But my wrists and my hearing are now my Achilles' Heel, healthwise, so to speak. Both situations do hurt my caregiving and working part-time outside the home and in the home. Both handicaps may qualify me for Vocational Rehabilitation help from our goverment in getting expensive hearing aids--an application has been submitted last week and it may take several months to find out. Often I cannot hear students when I teach part-time or hear what my husband is saying at the house. Organizing, de-cluttering and having to do everything around the house mean stress on my wrists. I cannot lift heavy items any more. Working out with weights is also out of the picture. Brisk walking is my best exercise and I enjoy working that in with our wonderful Florida weather.

Nonetheless I do thank the LORD for the health I do have at this point and for all the help I do receive from others. For example, our friend Jake on Friday did a tremendous job of weeding our yard while Sally and I substituted in public schools.

There are five bags of clippings now! I spent three hours putting the clippings in a bag in a tash can on Saturday with my wrist brakes on (great exercise) and then wheeled that trash can to the curb and dumped out each bag. I do not understand why those five bags are still out at the curb now after Saturday's trash and garbage pick up, but that is another issue. Maybe they have to be hauled to the dumb. Oh my aching wrists! Monday I am calling the trash collectors!

Another thing I have to be thankful for is Sunday mornings. Our church is meeting in the afternoons now, and Sunday is truly a day of rest as it should be. This morning I enjoyed my devotions and my two mile walk listening to hymns. Now I best get off the computer to rest my wrists!

The Joy of Having a Working Den

Above is a picture of ridiculous stuff I found that will be no more in our den: 3 junk bunkers, one dead chameleon, and one box of envelopes all sealed closed.

I never really moved into our den with my current situation, but now I have. It would be embarrassing to find things. Now there is a place to file, a hidden place to sew, a hidden iron and iron board, and more.

Computer desk, copier and teaching materials

I teach a class for DUI offenders and one for first-time drivers. My crates and the moving cart now have a home when I am not teaching as you see above. I used to put these in a bedroom when there was company. I have a real desk that used to be my husband's desk. I use a second screen from his old computer. It is our desk, just like our one car is our car. I haven't changed that desk much so he feels at home.

FlipFold on Pub Table

I now FOUND the  missing FlipFold and now have a place to use it to fold the laundry where I can see my husband in the family room watching TV. It is so important that I be with him at this stage in his Alzheimer's. This FlipFold saves my carpel tunnel wrists and is a great organizational tool and folding on that taller pub table is perfect for me. See demonstration on YouTube. I pinned this in my Useful board on Pinterest and it has already been repinned. I use FlipFlop on the pub table which used to have the sewing machine with items to be ironed or mended. Now I have a "mend/alter" shelf in the guest bedroom. The sewing machine is in a cabinet.

It is truly amazing when you find things and then place them in a new home. I FOUND the chord and instructions for our GPS. The voice was in another language recently but and I can update this tracking device and have "Miss Garmin" speak in English again. (I wrote on this blog about my husband using this when he drove before his Alzheimer's got worse.) 


Study Center

Above I have a box for cleaning in the den including screen cleaners. On the front of that box is The House That Cleans Itself card that Mrs. Clark, author of The House That Cleans Itself mailed me when she mailed us all books that I have distributed. I created a box for Weight Watcher meeting material. Now it is not clutter in the dining room and I can plan my meals there. The copy machine is in the corner to use in my planning. I have a devotional area with Bibles, etc., including Dana's book on Galatians. I also study here for my counseling course work. I do use it as a station to plug in electronics. Perhaps I can find a better place for my plug-in station.


Game Center

By the French doors I have a little cabinet which stores a Discovery Toy marble run for children who visit. Coasters for drinks are on top for people who use our pool table. The antique desk in back of it is now a game center.  

Where did it all go? The bins under the pool table will be used for clothes storage. I have too many clothes of various sizes. Hopefully I will be able to move those bins elsewhere or better yet get rid of clothes. A book case in the living room contains extra books that I will decide upon.

My hubby and I played pool recently in the den. He won. Just to think of all the opportunities to play pool that I kept him from with my clutter!

Thank you, LORD,

for this very special den.

It works for us now. 

May we use it for hospitality,

fun and study.