My Cute Rock Garden

I want to introduce my little plant friends. Curly, Larry and Moe. They don't care if I water them or not, how good the light is or if the temperature drops below freezing!  We have had very inconsistent weather around here, and last night, we had a couple little, late-planted sprouts freeze to death. It can get kind of discouraging. I thought it would be fun to share this little project today.  That real Aloe plant was safely in my bedroom window last night and just went outside to photobomb the little guys.

The pots I used were just cheap plastic mini pots that we had kicking around in my garage, but it would have been really nice with those tiny terracotta pots that are available at the dollar store. 

•  3 pots
• 3 rocks that can fit in each pot snugly
• 3 shades of green acrylic paint 
• white acrylic paint
• average size paintbrush
• fine tip paintbrush 
• filler for the bottom. I used white play clay from a dollar store.
• sand or small stones or aquarium gravel 
• Googly eyes
• craft glue
•  mod podge (optional)
  

I washed and dried the rocks carefully. Next, I set them up on some newspapers and gave them a coat pf green paint with the bigger brush. It was good with just one coat. I went over the rocks once they base coat dried with the white acrylic paint to create different styles of marks with the small brush. My intention was to suggest they were assorted types of cactus.  When they were fully dry. I attached their eyes and promptly started laughing at them because I thought they were so cute. In a while, I decided that they really did need a glossy finish. I was a bit sloppy and wished later that I had been more careful beside the eyes because I required some very gentle clean up on the plastic eyes.  

I tried to just balance them in the pots initially and decided they needed a little more secure of a resting spot. I added a bit of play clay in the bottom to stabilize them and raise them up a little higher in their pots. The plastic pots have a drainage hole on the bottom so I didn't try sand.  Since I have put stones around my aloe plants I thought these little guys needed a finishing topping of stones as well. I had a small bag of leftover aquarium gravel for that little finishing touch. 

This project would be appropriate for all ages and skills. You can get a lot more detailed painting each cactus if you are up for a challenge or just leave them a  solid colour for an extra easy craft.  Bigger rocks in bigger pots would be a fun accent to an outdoor garden, but you would want to seal them with something more weather resistant than craft strength mod podge.

 

I might use these as a craft program at the personal care home some time. Wouldn't they make cute centrepieces for a Western event or a Cinco De Mayo party?

Cute as can be Curly

Meet Moe

Lovely Larry

The Whole Gang.

Growing a Garden with Catherine and Phil

Please welcome my friends and Guest Bloggers, Catherine and Phil. They love their little urban garden and I was so happy when they agreed to share about how they grow a Winnipeg garden.


Joyful Planting

During a pandemic, it can be scary; in order to live through these scary times, one should focus on keeping healthy and protect yourself by sanitizing and social distancing. It's not easy as I'm a frontline worker at a Personal Care Home. I have to be extra careful, but in my house, it's hard to do. We try our best to make sure everything is sanitary.

Our home consists of my husband Philippe, my fur babies, Buddy the cat and Bella, the dog and me Catherine. Phil has the green thumb of the family. Phil grew up in the country and worked on a farm as a young teenager. Myself, city girl, I have a little green thumb. I've watched my parents' garden, and they taught me how to care for plants inside and out.

 I would help put seeds in the soil, pick out the weeds, and water the garden every chance I got. However, if there was a bee or wasp around, I'd be running for my life, leaving the water hose running waiting until that bee goes away. I did enjoy watching our plants grow through the years, especially my parent's apple tree.

Phil and I planted a garden since the day we met 13 years ago and through almost ten years of marriage. Anyways, due to the crisis, the world is going through now why not take the time to plant a beautiful life in the garden, it's the best place to spend time with each other.

Phil searched on the internet and found a way to plant seeds in a Ziplock bag. All you need is a tray, spray bottle, scissors, soil, paper towel, tweezers, planting containers and planting seeds.
All you have to do is you take a paper towel that's been cut to the size of the ziplock bag, spray the paper towel lightly with water. Then fold your paper towel in half with the seeds inside and insert it into the Ziplock with delicacy. The next step is to have an area in front of your window that gets the most sunlight and leaving on a flat surface, or you can get a thick string with clothespins hanging it across your window. Let it sit there for 4 to 6 days, checking if the roots are starting to grow.

Then when you notice that the root is growing, use tweezers or your lovely fingers to lightly grab the seed with the root. With caution, plant the seed into 3/4 cup of soil in any plastic or recycle containers of your choice that have holes on the bottom. Dig a little hole in the soil to add your seed with root facing the bottom, cover lightly with soil and spray with water gently over the top. Add the seeds by separating them a couple of millimetres apart.

Then each day in the morning you should continue to spray it with water as it grows. Make sure you put your lovely creation by the window to get sunlight for your garden to grow. It has been a wonderful experience growing our lovely garden every spring.

As time passes, your plants will grow. Once the risk of frost is gone, it is time to transplant your plant into your outside garden. Take your container with your baby plant and move it to the garden.

Dig a hole approximately the same size of the containers and gently remove the plant. Insert the plant with all its wonderful roots into the new hole that you have just dug. It's ok if you take a lot of soil with you as sometimes it's gets stuck to the roots. Once inserted into the new hole in the garden, bring more soil to the new plant to make sure that it's nice and full in the hole. Add water, and enjoy watching your wonderful creation grow.

After a few weeks of watering daily, your plant will grow. With plenty of sunshine, water, love and even some great companionship, your plant will grow big and tall and eventually will create beautiful flowers.

If you are planting flowers, enjoy your beautiful creation with a wide arrangement of colours and, of course, the smell. Flowers can give out lovely aromas, and every flower has a different scent, so make sure to try many different varieties.

If you are planting fruits or vegetables, your flower after a few weeks will slowly start to create a little spot. The petals from the flower will fall, but don't be sad because that little spot that appears will continue to grow and, after some time, will grow into a fruit or vegetable. You can slowly watch all your hard work grow into some wonderful food that you can soon enjoy.

After a few weeks of watering daily, your plant will grow. With plenty of sunshine, water, love and even some great companionship, your plant will grow big and tall and eventually will create beautiful flowers.

Once the fruit or vegetables are fully grown, you can finally harvest. Remove with care and enjoy the fruit of your labour.

Sometimes your plant will die, and sometimes it won't grow, but don't be disappointed because that happens to all of us.

All plants have different aspects to them that help them grow better. We learn a little more every year on how to plant better, and with patience, love and care, we will slowly become wonderful gardeners, and that will help us go through life.




Story and Photography by
Catherine Molina-Ross and Philippe Ross

Back to Work Plan

I returned to my part time job this past Thursday. It was a strange feeling walking back in after having been away for almost 6 months, The people sitting on the main floor were the same as usual and the rooms looked the same. I went up the elevator and into the office and all my coworkers were in the office just finishing off their work day and they gave me a warm welcome back.

I met with my supervisor for a little while and we got me set up on the computer again and talked about a few work related things. We discussed my plan for work return.

I will be working my normal days and shifts but my 8 hour days are reduced to 6 hours. 

We talked about the variety of jobs that I could do while on restrictions. It seems there aren't established guidelines for people returning to my kind of job after a total hip replacement! (not a surprise) Really, I have been through worse so I never saw this as a career ending event in my life.

The work place has an outside agency that arbitrates things like absences, and work modifications. I have had to get 5 different doctors notes through this time and this company tells my workplace if I am or am not approved for continued absence. They also take part in administering sick benefits but unfortunately for me I do not normally work enough hours to qualify for that insurance.  

My doctor approved me for return to work for this date and I am to work shifts of 4 to 6 hours for the next month. There are some movement restrictions too. I am not to lift anything heavy, sit for over half and hour, walk for over half and hour or stand for over half an hour. This is not as big a challenge in my work as it would be in many other places just by the nature of being a recreation therapist. We go through a lot of different location, movements and tasks in the course of a program and throughout the day's work.

Next I went to visit several of the residents one to one. They were so happy to see me! I was worried that I would be forgotten but they greeted me with was real warmth and happiness to see me back and I received several hugs. Most of the residents did not know I was off for health reasons and they wanted to know where I had been so I told them that I had a new hip and I was feeling better than I had in a long time and that I was glad to be back.

I am glad to be back at my job. 

In some ways it was nice to have time home with family or just stay home and relax. Work days did not determining things like when Bob and I could go places. I actually felt very frustrated at staying home as much as I had too. Pain and healing restricted what I could do but I was still pretty bored and lonely and frustrated and watched too much reality TV.
I spent more time worrying, being aware of pain and limitations and feeling unproductive and … well just wishing someone would entertain me.  It reinforces to me how important my job really is to peoples health care and overall well being.

I missed my workplace and the people there. I am still a little worried about my movement and my safely. I am still having some pain in the hip and my back but I guess that is why a modified program is a good idea. I can continue to improve and get my strength back is a safe manner while doing my job. Its a win-win situation.

I do have to admit that after only 4 hours at work I barely made it in my front door and I went straight to my bedroom and collapsed for the rest of the evening.  My stamina has really been severely affected by this whole surgery/ recovery experience.

We will see how my 6 hour shift goes on Monday!

Massage Therapy Works!

Holly is a lovely young woman who works where I do. I work every second weekend and every other Monday at the personal care home and Holly works the weeks opposite me. Holly has appreciated working part-time and getting experience while going back to school and learning how to be a massage therapist.

It has been a long haul for her working, going to school and studying so much. The training has been very extensive and expectations have been high.  A few months ago Holly graduated. She was enthusiastically welcomed to begin her practice at the same place she had done her student placement. Holly is happy with the balance she now finds working part-time as a Recreation Facilitator while at the same time building her practice as a massage therapist.

Massage therapy is an integral part of my health maintenance and wellness, and I go every few months. 
I first started going to my massage therapist, Lisa over 8 years ago. My head hurt, my ears were ringing, moving was really hard and every inch of me felt beat up. I was improving but my left side still wasn't working like it should, and my balance was truly horrible.

My physiotherapist from the outpatient hospital program suggested that massage therapy might help. I found a massage therapist at the physiotherapy clinic at the end of my street. The first time I went there my daughter came with me because I needed the physical and emotional support. I really was unclear about what the therapist would do with me and even less clear about the chances of this doing me any good.  I found that she was a lovely woman with a great smile and a reassuring style. The room was private with nice lighting and a few decor touches and a wall that was mostly mirror. She talked to me about my history and what it was I wanted to achieve through massage therapy. She left me to get undressed (with the help of my daughter) and to lie down on the massage table and I covered myself with a sheet. She came back after a few minutes, lowered the light a bit and set her computer to quietly play light music. She began a gentle conversation and she started gradually massaging one body part at a time. I really did start to relax which is not easy when your body is having muscle spasms all the time.  I felt a little better. I also felt exhausted partly because of the stress of walking into the unknown and partly because I just got super tired very easily.

I was encouraged enough to go back. I found that my neck and shoulder really began to respond to the treatment.  Within a month I found a reduction in the headaches and going with that was some relief from the dizziness.

Arm and leg problems after a brain injury or stroke are kind of the obvious signs of disability. I was given lots of exercises to help my arm and leg and to improve everyday living tasks like sitting and standing and walking. Fine movements in the fingers of my hand got a tiny bit of work. I remember picking up fake fruit and vegetables.  I was upset with the lack of interest by the professionals in getting my non-dominant left hand working again. I wanted to do so many things that required both hands!
My left side issues included the muscles in my neck and head. The speech therapist gave me exercises to improve my tongue and lips but nothing much was done with the left side of my neck, face or scalp until I started with the massage therapy. I am not saying that the spasms in my neck and face were the sole reasons for my head pain and balance issues but the massage helped bring down some of the pain issues and allowed me to relax and focus more on recovery.

Currently, I am having issues related to arthritis and Lisa has been able to give me some relief. Lisa is not taking new clients but if you are in Winnipeg I would be happy to put you in touch with Holly!

Please look at this link for more information about locations of other Manitoba clinics, FAQ, and details about the profession of Massage Therapy.

Photo credit to Unsplash

Christmas Sheep

My workplace has a part time person responsible for spiritual care. Chaplains can be a part of the Recreation team or perhaps of a Spiritual Care Department, They leads ecumenical services, arrange for churches of different faiths to regularly send priests or ministers to lead services. They will counsel and visit with our residents and their families and be part of the team that provides palliative care and will do memorial services within our facility. The role of a Spiritual Care person in a Personal Care Home is very important and not enough facilities have someone trained for this task. It takes advanced learning and it also requires someone who is able to be respectful, support our residents in their emotional needs and be knowledgeable of a wide range of spiritual belief systems.

Our Chaplain did a more unique Christmas service this year. She did a service where she told the Christmas Story and mixed in related hymns as the story unfolded. She made a lot of props so that the residents could be directly included in the story. There was a group of the residents that wore garland halos and acted as our angels, there were little gold wrapped blocks for our group of Wise Men to hold and there were adorable little "knit with love" sheep for our Shepherd residents to cuddle. It was indeed a special and memorable way to tell the story of Christ's birth.

Driving in a Winter Wonderland

We have a really nice light near our city each December. It is called the Canad Inn  Winter Wonderland.

I have gone many times with family and friends and as well we usually take a small bus from the Personal Care Home I work at. It is a winter traditions for many Winnipeggers. The exhibitions consist of over a million lights and is arranged into 26 different theme areas along a winding 2.5 km road with plenty of places to stop and get out of your vehicle for a photo opportunity. The exhibit has several sponsors but most important is that the money raised by this huge undertaking supports  two important programs in Manitoba – Last year it was KidSport Manitoba and the Riverview Health Centre.

You can see the lights glowing from a distance as you approach the park.  It is only a couple miles outside of the city and located where we have an exhibition area, sports complex and the race track. As you reach the entrance to the park you pass through the gate where you can purchase your ticket, price based on type of vehicle or give your ticket that you purchase at a slight discount ahead of time.  Kids receive a coloring sheet that they can enter for a big prize packet to be drawn in January.. 

I small bit further you find a concession area where you can buy some food - a big favorite is bucket of hot cinnamon sugar mini donuts. You can tune your radio to their channel and listen to Christmas music or  put on your own favorite Christmas tunes. There are fantastic skating areas and a warm up shed, or perhaps you would like to go on a horse drawn carriage ride!

We like it as an outing for our seniors because they get on the bus right by the door of our building and then they can see all the lights of the city during our drive out and then the fantastic displays of the park and they don't have to worry about getting off the bus at any time until we are home again. It is easy on aching bodies and more relaxing for people with dementia who might become anxious if they were walking around unfamiliar territory.

When we go with our Grandkids we are sure to get enough of the coloring sheets and after our trip we go home to turn on the lights of our Christmas tree, put on a Christmas movie, make some hot cocoa and color our contest entries. It feels like Christmas is almost here!

 

Nativity Sets and Angels

I hope you enjoy these pictures of the Nativity Set collection and other items that we have in our living room display case. They are quite a variety of styles and ages, each with their own treasured stories. I have taken them, plus others in my collection to the Personal Care home where I work. I used them for a discussion group and they sure do bring back memories of their own to our residents too.

My Grandma Lisowski's miniature plastic Nativity scene. Only 4 and a half inches by 3 inches

My Grandma Lisowski's Statues of the Holy Family

Sweet little Angels

Some of our Willow Tree Angels

This lovely little carved egg was a gift from my daughter. It has such  fantastic details of the Nativity within.

Bob's Grandmother Cooper and Aunt Irene were in Egypt when Bob was only 7.  His grandmother bought him the fur toy camel. Sadly Bob's Grandmother died in a car accident in Egypt on this trip and we are glad to have this mementoes of her.

The metal camel was a prized possession of Aunty Irene, that she gifted to him when she moved into a retirement home.

Our 3 pewter Wise Men were purchased on a Christmas to the Max convention trip to California a few years ago.

Jim Shore collectable called "Landscape Sleeps".

Planting Amaryllis

I love seasonal plants! They just make me happy!

Last week I got flower bulbs to plant both at home and at work.

I wanted to grow Amaryllis at work because it is such a large dramatic and fast growing plant. The kits are fairly reasonably priced for what you get and include a plastic pot, saucer, soil and a bulb. I gathered a group of about 7 or 8 residents and together we talked about Christmas Plants in general and we examined the bulbs which are pretty darn impressive and big. We planted it in the soil and watered it and I am crossing my fingers it grows fast. The window I put them in is not very warm. My plan is that once they get going I will take them visiting to many residents so they can watch them grow up. My aim is to have gorgeous flowers by Christmas or New Years.

I also had lots of fun planting Amaryllis and Paper Whites with my 7 and 11 year old grandsons.  They loved planting them and when they are over they are eager to water them and see what has changed. I regularly spend time with the older boy helping him with his academic skills. The December plan includes tracking the growth of the 4 Amaryllis plants and the two pots of paper whites including measuring them all weekly. We have worked on how to make a table on the computer where he can record the information and then in the end I will get him to average the different plants growth and graph his results by heights vs time . That is actually pretty challenging but it is gradual and hidden in so much fun that he will "enjoy the learning". 

I will post more pictures as they grow.

Oreo Day

March 6th is Oreo Cookie Day

Yes really, and Oreos are now 105 years old.

I was going to do a program all about Oreos at work yesterday but it turned out to not be a good day to do a cooking program so I will postpone the activity for another day.  I read out loud inspiring stories about pets instead.

I feel a little disloyal talking about Oreos. I have now spent 3 decades promoting and selling Girl Guide Cookies. Twice a year we have cookies. In the fall we sell nice chocolate mint wafer cookies and in March we get sandwich cookies where half the package is chocolate wafers with a fudgy filling and the other half is vanilla wafers with a white filling. I cannot begin to tell you have many cookie based games, teaching lessons, crafts and promotions I have done with kids from 5 to 18. I could easily write a book on just that topic.

Maybe now that I am moving this project to May I should add in a taste test of Girl Guide Sandwich cookies vs Oreos!  I am pretty sure the Girl Guide ones are much more delicious ~ especially when purchased from adorable little girls who are trying to help pay for camp.

My Oreo Day cooking plan is a pretty simple one.

I am going to make up a chocolate instant pudding with the seniors  and also a vanilla pudding. Then I am going to use clear plastic tumblers and layer chocolate, vanilla in the middle and then more chocolate pudding. Top it with a bit of Cool whip, sprinkle with purchased Oreo cookie crumbs and if appropriate top with a mini Oreo cookie.

I like to do pudding based projects occasionally because some people have special needs for soft foods due to swallowing difficulties and so it lets a few more people enjoy the food based session. Besides, pudding is yummy!

Here are some fun links I will be using for a discussion. Be sure to check out the personality one. (It does have a bit of an edge in some of the lines so I would not read it all out loud at work.)

In case you are wondering.. I am a sandwich cookie dunker so the quiz says...
Every one likes you because you are always up beat. You like to sugar coat unpleasant experiences and rationalize bad situations into good ones.

The History of the Oreo

Oreo Fun Facts

How to Eat an Oreo Cookie

Oreo Cookie Personality Test

Pinterest has loads of Oreo cooking ideas from cheesecakes to dips and so much more.

Chocolate covered Oreos with seasonal sprinkles! is one I would like to do myself or perhaps with my older, teenaged, Girl Guides in the near future but using the Girl Guide cookies. grin

How do you eat your sandwich cookies?

Fish Fry for the Seniors

Yesterday we did an interesting program at work. We had a fish fry lunch!

My co-worker, on this Fathers Day weekend shift, is a man who has a lot of past experience in leading  youth camping and other outdoor programming and he suggested that we go out on our patio and use an old fashioned Colman camp stove to cook up a fish fry! I thought that was pretty brilliant. With my camping experience we were on the same page about what a good experience this could be and how to do it!

My co-worker, D, took care of all the food aspects and I was supposed to do a few fishing games, fishing reminiscence and jokes but we didn't get all those extras fit in. I wound up spending my time inviting residents to join us for lunch and then transporting them to the patio.  I think they couldn't believe I was serious that we were having a cookout.

We have a small but  nicely treed fenced patio that is surprisingly pleasant oasis to have in our downtown facility surrounded by large buildings.  We set up a cooking station and had a picnic table set up with an old green Colman Stove. Our  menu consisted of  batter dipped cod fish fillets, bannock or fry bread and baked beans.  One fun aspect was that D. found some nice divided take out containers that we used as disposable dishes. They were perfect for our outdoor lunch. People loved sitting out on this beautiful day, listening to a favorite CD of country music, watching the camp cooking and eating such a rare style of cooking for a Personal Care Home. 

I was exhausted by 1 pm. so I was really glad we had planned an easy afternoon. My co-worker set up the dining room for watching a movie and put on a Three Stooges marathon DVD. Whoever wanted to watch it could.  This was a good choice because it is a series of very short films and on a day like Fathers Day there is a lot of coming and going of visitors, so it made it easy for people to join in at any point in the program or even for people to come and share a laugh with their loved ones.

The Power of Baking

I have such strong memories of baking with my mom when I was little. Christmas was a massive push to produce huge quantities of cookies, tarts, Christmas cakes and wonderful bars and treats.  I really don't know why we needed so much when the only ones sharing goodies over the holidays were my mom, dad and me plus an uncle and aunt. I loved the excitement of baking and holiday cooking and I loved that special time with my busy working mom.

My Mother-in-law was famous for her baking. Her style was to produce tons of stuff all year round and always had the freezer stuffed. Company over? She just pulled some margarine container of cookies from the freezer. Come Christmas time she dipped into all the containers and produced lovely trays to put on her dining room table or to take to the various charity groups she supported.

When our kids were growing up we tried to bring all of the above into our traditions and added in treats and baking that were particular to our family. I took courses in making fancy cakes and I considered baking to be my hobby. I collected cookbooks, and I have more shapes of baking pans and fun tools than one would believe possible. They make me smile.

This week I feel a desperate urge to bake everything. I want to bake with my family and pass down the recipes. I want to share treats and give gifts of goodies to friends. Sometimes it is fun and sometimes it feels more like work and the cost of ingredients can get away on you.  Sometimes all the dirty baking dishes can get away on you!
 I am really busy and over committed right now and I don't have the energy for it.  I sure don't need all the calories that those lovely chocolaty treats come with. Common sense tells me the grocery store\s bakery has it covered. My daughters say lets make this favorite food or that favorite cookie. My Grandkids usually make gingerbread house with me however I haven't visited with them in weeks. Despite all this I still want to be baking!


For a while there I was physically unable to do much baking and cooking and it shot right up to the top of my rehab priorities. I worked with my occupational therapist on regaining my cooking skills and in fact I still have the goal sheets where we worked out what I wanted to accomplish and brought it down to my SMART goals.

 It was absolutely the right goal for me at the time and it worked on all those damaged skills.. hand control, planning, order of operation for activities and it even worked on my stamina! It was a useful skill. It was familiar. It was part of having a normal life. What I have recently come to understand is how complicated the idea of a "relevant" goal is.

The ladies and gentlemen in the personal care homes always enjoy the baking programs we do. For most people it is not about trying to get back skills like I was doing in rehab, but it is indeed about regaining a little bit of their former life.
Baking programs are a fun social event shared with others. The smell of the  ingredients, the act of stirring and pouring all have this sense of connecting us with a different time. The smell of the food baking and the taste of the food is evocative of the past. It is a sensory joy.
It brings us memories of shared times with family and a pride in producing and sharing something of value.  It is connecting our now with our past and giving us a sense of continuity.

When we bake we share our stories and tell about who we are.

I'm Back!

Hello!

It has been months since I blogged.  My last post  included the cliff hanger that I had received a termination notice for my job.

Yippee! I get to stay in my same job!  I had a term job while a staff person was away on maternity leave. When she decided not to return to her former position the situation changed and eventually my little part-time job turned into a permanent job. I am at work about 26 hours every two weeks plus an extra shift every once in a while.

When I thought my job was over I applied for another job as a casual employee at a different Personal Care Home and I got that job too. It is like being a substitute teacher. I get called to see if I can come in to work when regular recreation staff are on vacation or off sick. It is not ultimately a lot of hours but I am really enjoying working there too.

The other things I do each week include facilitating a weekly Art Group at the Stroke Recovery Association of Manitoba, participating in a local community choir and I am still involved with Girl Guides.  I enjoy time with family and friends and I keep trying to learn new things. 

Guitar lessons are on the back burner for now. It just felt like too much for this year but I am not giving up permanently.  I dug out a book of beginner Christmas carols and I am playing and singing away when no one is at home with me except the dog!

I still spend a lot of time really exhausted and I have a lot of joint trouble now but I keep going anyway. I am trying to be very careful how I move and trying to pace myself. It is hard though because my heart and mind wants to try everything and do everything but my body keeps saying "Enough is enough!".

I have worried a lot about what to do with this blog.

The fact is that I am not all that up front at work or in professional situations about my health, my recovery experiences or my level of disability. I am not ashamed of who I am or what I have experienced but most of the time I feel like it is just too much work to explain my life to people. I also don't want to be judged and I don't want people second guessing my professionalism or my ability to do a good job based on the fact that I have had a brain injury.

I strongly believe in advocacy for the rights of people with disabilities or special health needs and I have felt very ashamed about my unwillingness to  be open and speak up for myself.  I was worried that other Recreation Professionals would only see my weaknesses and that no one would hire me and give me a chance to show my strengths.

I have learned a lot about health, recreation and therapy in the past couple of years and I do want to share what I have learned. I have thought a lot about opening a separate blog with ideas about Therapeutic Recreation but I think being true to myself  means that I should just keep going forward with this beloved blog of mine.  I want to continue to share my personal story but I also plan to write about a broader variety of recreational and leisure activity topics, health conditions and community resources. I want to share some of the fun activities I am involved in. 

The title of my blog still works for me.
I still want to write about Leading a Healthy Life.

Back to Work

Guess what?

 I got a JOB a couple weeks ago. It is a very little one but it is a real job --- they are paying for my knowledge and ability! 

I am working in a personal care home as a part-time Recreation Facilitator.  The job is as a replacement for a lady who is on maternity leave and is listed to continue until around August 2015, but it can end with two weeks notice if the new Mommy chooses to come back sooner.

This personal care home/ nursing home is part of a larger chain of personal care homes and assisted living facilities so when the time comes I can be applying for internally posted positions. There has been a lot of time spent in job orientation. I spent 2 days being trained at their regional orientation for all new employees and then a day getting trained at my new workplace. After that I have spent several days basically job shadowing the other recreation staff and learning how they do various activities in this facility. Now I am officially able to work independently but as part of the team. I do still need a lot of help and advice from my co-workers  in order to learn the best way to do the various tasks I need to carry out.

The facility is pretty large with around 170 residents. The recreation department is organized with a department coordinator, 4 full time recreation facilitators, 2 part time facilitators and a part time spiritual care facilitator (chaplain). This group also has a couple casual staff that can be called in and they have many helpful volunteers that share their time. There is also a resident cat that lives in and around the recreation office and does his best to keep us all entertained in exchange for some petting.

I am only scheduled to work 4 days in a two week period and I think that is a great way to start. It lets me build up my stamina slowly and get to know the residents and staff gradually. I know there will be a few extra shifts that I get to pick up, for example, this Friday I get to come in and help with the big Halloween party.

There are a lot of challenges for me in this job but so far I have been up to it.  I will admit I have been getting home and collapsing on the couch for the entire evening.  There is a lot of time spent going up and down in an elevator and I find that triggers a fair bit of nausea but the alternative of walking up and down countless stairs makes the elevator seem worthwhile. I am having an extra hard time remembering people’s names and room location but I will just keep working on it. I am using all the memory tricks I have learned in the past 6 years and they really do help.

I ran a really good program yesterday. It was a discussion group with 6 people.  I talked about pets a bit and then I read a short story from Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul. We talked about the pets we had when we were younger and about the differences between growing up with animals when you live in the country or in the city. We also talked about unusually pets people sometime have. We started off a little hesitatingly since the ladies and gentlemen really don’t know me but pretty soon we were all smiling and laughing. When I ended the group I asked if they enjoyed our chat and a couple of them wanted to know if we could do this again next Sunday.

I knew then that I had done a good job.