First Radio Broadcast

Flashbacks is an activity I use often to jog memories and bring up stories about what life used to be like for the residents. I take notes and hope someday to make a book version for them to gift to family members.

On Sunday we talked about the radio since it was the anniversary of the First Radio broadcast. I asked the residents to tell me what they remembered about the role radio played in their lives. They remembered three shows in particular and some characters and details of each. That came in handy when we did a crossword about it and the shows they mentioned came up a few times.

I took the opportunity to use my new ipad for the first time during this activity. On youtube I looked up the shows they mentioned and played excerpts from them much to the residents' amazement.

European Day

Yesterday we had a simple theme that went well. I wore my Italian scarf, striped shirt, and hair to the side.

We began the day with a chat about the places everyone had visited in Europe, favorite memories, and how it is different from America. This could have gone on for a while but a fitness instructor came in and I encouraged the residents to stay and participate in that.

Later on we had our monthly party and I printed European puzzles as well as pictures of European symbols. Not everyone wanted to paint, and for them I encouraged working together on the puzzles and word games. For those who were willing to make something to take away from the day, I asked them to pick their favorite symbols (a famous building, the shape of a country, a skyline, etc) and a flat piece of wood. If necessary I made an enlarged copy and then they cut it out and traced it onto the wood. Then they painted around it in black for a reverse silhouette.

Something everyone participated in at the party was smelling perfumes. Scents like that make me think of French women for some reason. I asked the residents to bring a perfume of choice and we sprayed it on a strip of paper I had left over from the caterpillar craft we did with the children.  I wrote names on the back and we passed the strips around discussing which were our favorites and reasons we wore perfume in the first place.

To stay hydrated we drank Swiss hot chocolate and talked about German food. It was a lovely day.

Birthday Pins

Over a year ago I began making birthday pins with the residents and occasionally we replenish our stash. Our greeting card club not only makes these, cards for illnesses or injuries, but also now makes birthday cards for employees. They have such giving spirits.

Eric Carl

Our last visit to the daycare was the most fun one I've yet experienced. I divided the kids into two groups and one group drew on white paper a "home" while the other made a caterpillar out of strips of paper the residents cut yesterday. Then they switched. In the end they each had a caterpillar (with face and name) and a home for the caterpillar. They chatted about caterpillar food and butterflies and pretended their caterpillars were crawling over the residents (to the residents' delight).

Anniversary of Elvis

The King of Rock and Roll was born on this day many moons ago. Yesterday we took the snowman off the fridge and exchanged him for some hip swaying new decorations.

 Today we celebrated further with Elvis smoothies (peanut butter, banana, and bacon bits) which went really well with the cupcakes made by the kitchen.

Coffee Taste Test

There are so many things to love about coffee and we got to discuss them in earnest on Wednesday. It's warm on a cold day, gives you a caffeine boost, and is just a nice routine to have to start the day. You have to wait for it to brew and then wait for it to cool which may allow relaxation and there are so many ways to "take it" that it can be a new experience every time.

The residents and I talked about memories they have of drinking coffee and what ways they like to consume it. We also talked about how it was part of their routine with their families and finally I asked if they know of anyone who is a coffee snob.

Before and while we were talking I was brewing and getting ready the coffee taste test. I had their normal coffee, normal decaf, name brand coffee, name brand decaf, and name brand coffee brewed at half strength as per the instructions. One person at a time I brought them two thimble sized cups, told them what they both were but not which was which, and let them try them to see if they could tell the difference.

The results we mixed since most of the residents are not black coffee drinkers in general and would have preferred sweetened or dairy-fied versions of what I was offering. However, most often they could not tell the difference between the type they are normally served and name brand. Also, few had luck telling the difference between decaf and regular. Most often they could tell which was full strength and half, but they often knew before drinking it because they could see it was lighter in color.

My opinion that coffee is more about the experience than the intricacies of taste was left unshaken and of course as a "spy" for the kitchen I told them I would be passing along the message that they could not tell the difference between their regular coffee and name brand.

Zany

 To celebrate the first day of the first month, we paid a lot of attention to the last letter of the alphabet. We tried to come up with a long list of Z words then did some word puzzles that revolved around "Zed".

The very first thing we did on New Year's Day was to walk around and give everyone a door hanger and wish them a great year. The door hanger reminded them of the motto we chose: "Squeaky Clean in 2013".

As for me, I had a goal for 2013 to include making monthly table decorations. It was something the residents did in the past and mention occasionally and so we began with January ice blooms out of styrofoam, garden stakes, q-tips, ribbon, food coloring, and flat marbles in a glass jar. The residents seemed really pleased to have something new on the table, and by the time they get tired of them we will whip up new ones for February.