I’ve been a bit silent of late because, quite honestly, I was a bit down. As in depressed. Not lay on a shrink’s couch and spill my childhood and blame it on someone depressed, or “mommy’s little helper” medication needed depressed. Just bummed.

I love my profession, caring for the elderly, and have a passion for memory care patients. When I took the position at my sister’s facility I felt I had found the place I’d stay for many years. But when your sister is the Executive Director, and policy says no family can be a direct or indirect report (never mind it was approved by the corporate HR), sooner or later someone is going to become disgruntled with management and pitch a hissy fit.  Some nurse who didn’t like the E.D. enforcing policies decided to stick it to the facility and complained. She has no idea the can of worms she has opened because many people there are direct and indirect reports to family, and now that will have to be addressed because my coworkers and resident families are very unhappy about my having to resign and go else where.  50+ fellow employees signed a petition, resident’s families lit up the integrity and friends & family phone lines, but it did no good. I gave a 30 day notice and started hunting for a new job.

The first job I found was very close to home, so much so I could walk if I wanted too. But one look at the very clinical feel of the memory care unit and I simply could not stomach it. I oriented and the entire time it felt like an institution and not a good way to care for our elderly with dementia. I was really in the dumps over it. I prayed and sometimes even yelled at my Father in Heaven, not liking this one bit!

Then…I found it. I knew of a local place that was just opened, and is all memory care assisted living. At this point, figuring I had nothing at all to lose, I walked in and applied. I was interviewed and hired on the spot. My 3 day class from Teepa Snow’s organization on caring for dementia residents was a huge plus.

I found my dream job folks! You know those places you see on Facebook with the cute little front porches inside the building? The ones that don’t look like a nursing home but more like a neighborhood from long ago? Well that is what this new place is like! In fact they call each ‘unit’ a neighborhood. And it is all person centered. If grandma wants to sleep until noon, she does. If she wants to sit in the living room and sip coffee in her jammies, she does that too. Court yards that wrap around the entire building, all secure and feeling like you are strolling along past outdoor porches with rocking chairs and smiling old folks keeping them moving. Inside the dining rooms and living rooms feel like home. As you walk around the square past each neighborhood porch there is furniture that feels like outdoors and mimics true days of old. The pace inside is gentle and loving. We serve their meals in chef’s jackets so they feel like they are dining out in a fancy place. It is amazing!

I now look forward to going to work every day. It is like being at home! I do dishes (in a dishwasher), set tables, make beds, assist with activities of daily living…and I’m expected to sit outside in the rockers with my residents and engage them! Yes, paid to spend time watching a movie or tv show, walking the court yard paths, or working a puzzle or playing a game! We are care partners, like family members, to our residents.

Sure, we have some who sun down and become difficult, but with the training I have I know how to redirect them, validate their feelings, empathize and help them through those bumps in the road.

Who knew that when forced to change, it was because God had something better in store for me! This job has blessed my life so much, in ways I could never have imagined.

January usually brings out the new year resolutions for most folks, but not for me. Just not my thing to make a decision to do anything in particular only to have that resolution die in flames 3 weeks later. My son goes to a local gym where I used to attend, and for the first few weeks of the year it is packed to the walls, but come the end of the month only about half of those people are still around. By the end of February 90% will have stopped going, forgetting their resolution to drop weight and get in shape.

For me, the need to get some weight off is tied to my blood pressure. Being a Medication Aide now, I take vital signs on residents so I purchased a higher end electronic BP cuff. I’ve been monitoring my own and yikes, it was starting to get into the lower end of the high blood pressure scale. Actually some times it is more like moderate. Being a blood donor (if it is too high they won’t take your blood), and a member of a family full of high BP folks, this is a cause for concern. Between my weight and my serious addiction to coffee, I knew I had to start making a few life choices to protect myself. I’m not getting any younger and I want to live a long, healthy life.

My first step was drinking more water. Like a LOT more water. I’ve read that you should divide your weight by 2, and that would give you the number of ounces of water you should drink in a day. This meant 97.5 ounces of water a day for me. Yes, I was sitting at 195 pounds, and that much water made me feel like I could swim with the whales. No one believed me when I told them my weight, seems I carry it well, and being large chested it helps to make the poundage more balanced and less obvious. My blood pressure, however, doesn’t lie.

The second step was to cut back on portions. I’ve not stopped eating my favorite things, I just eat less of them now. I don’t measure, per say, I just eat slower and eat a smaller portion than normal. Especially with dessert, IF I have it at all.

Step three was cutting down on the caffeine consumption. This was really difficult because I LOVE coffee, this girl runs on it. A few months back my daughter introduced me to the wonders of Dunkin Donuts iced coffees. Mama here was in love with the peppermint mocha, but after Christmas this amazing flavor vanished and won’t be back until we roll in to the holiday season again. Now please understand, this girl doesn’t mess around when it comes to her coffee, you go big or you go home. I don’t go home when it comes to java. A large, iced coffee, with the flavoring and NO cream or sugar is 260 calories or so. Um, that is just dandy if you aren’t eating anything but I am good for a breakfast sandwich too, and then  at work once the residents have breakfast we can chow down on the left overs. I rarely passed up some bacon or a small danish, maybe a pancake or french toast. I wasn’t gaining a pound, but I wasn’t shedding any either.

I was under the mistaken impression that I needed all that caffeine for energy for my day. The sugar that comes in flavor shots wasn’t hurting the cause either. So, to scale back on the intake of my liquid motivation, not to mention the money spent daily at the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru, I started making up the coffee at home, the night before, so while getting ready for work my coffee is brewing. I grab a carton of muscle milk, my go cup of coffee and head out of the door for work. My calorie intake dropped significantly with the home brewed cup, it is less coffee than I was drinking in the very large, iced variety, and with the minimal calories in the muscle milk I can nibble on a half piece of french toast or pancake at work and not come near what I was consuming.

And last, but not least…SLEEP! I’ve read countless places that not getting enough sleep will impede on weight loss. Now I am in bed and asleep in time to get 8 to 8.5 hours a night, sometimes even more. Once in a while there is an exception, but over all I make it a point to get enough sleep. Between that rest, and the fact that I’m now down 10 pounds for January, I have more energy without the caffeine over load.

Thankfully, the numbers on the scale keep creeping down, so I must be doing something (or things) right!

My brain is in hyper drive this morning, thoughts rolling through and then vaporizing like the steam clouds off of my coffee cup which is sitting next to me. I’m propped up on pillows on my bed with my lap desk and laptop, enjoying my ‘nest’. My room is my haven, it is a crazy collection of things that make me comfy and feel happy. I do some great thinking, resting, sleeping, laughing and relaxing here. No negatives permitted in the nest of the marvelous one.

I’m amazed at how much time can be wasted through the use of social media apps. I’m not knocking them or you for using them, I’m a serious addict myself. For example, we get a 30 minute “break” at work, it is our lunch time so to speak, each shift. Often I just hit the break room and crochet for the 30 minutes as that calms my soul and recharges my attitude battery. But if I make the mistake of picking up my phone when I first plant myself in the chair, that 30 minutes flies by while I’m scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. When I first woke up this morning, I reached for my phone and burned 45 minutes, seemingly in the blink of an eye, that cannot be used again. And that was before coffee! Time is our most valuable possession, each second is a one time deal with no refunds or do overs. And I wasted 45 minutes looking through a lot of crap for a few nuggets of humor.

It occurred to me during those wasted moments, that I have a social media relationship with my heavenly Father most days. My bible study is on an app, She Reads Truth, (Currently working through a 28 day study in John), which I typically read in the parking lot at work. I arrive 20 minutes or so early and spend that time on the app. It is a good way to get in the Word of God and start the day, but it really doesn’t replace the feel of my good old bible in my hands, or time on my knees in deep discussion with my Abba. It is my old friend, onion skin thin pages full of God’s Word and my notations in the margins, highlighted sections that meant something to me, quotes I loved from pastors over the years and so on. I fear taking it in my car, as I don’t want to have anything happen to it. But then I don’t spend time with it at home very often. My prayer time is often of the social media style too, 140 or so characters shot up to the Lord before I start my day, but it hasn’t been deep, meaningful prayers that I need alone and quiet time. My ‘Facebook relationship’ with my Savior of late needs to be addressed. Instead of scrolling through umpteen political posts I need to reach for the Word.

I need to start using my planner, NOW. So much needs to be scheduled or it simply doesn’t happen. Work of course does, but then I need to study for my exam this week, make time to be in the Word and prayer, work on projects for my shop, run errands, do some laundry, write blog posts and other social media posts for my shop, get to church this weekend, watch the services from last Sunday, well as you can see I have a lot to do. It is funny to me that at work I am a time management freak, a multi-tasking champion who can get my work done and kick start 2nd and 3rd shift by doing their laundry assignments. But outside of work I’m a hot mess of too much to do and zero organization. Maybe because at work there is a definite deadline and I do my best work under pressure. I’m hoping by actually scheduling it in my planner in time blocks, it will put enough emphasis on the importance of the tasks that I will get it all finished. I’ll let you know how that works out.