Remembering When Food Was Slow . . .

and More

I had just finished writing my last post when I opened my e-mail and found the following from my sister-in-law Diane. It seemed totally appropriate to follow the serious with the hilarious --- especially when the ages matched! Many thanks to the original author.

 A young person recently asked me  "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up," I informed him and continued

"All the food was slow."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"

"It was a place called 'at home,'" I explained.

"Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."

Note from Gail: When our kids were growing up we had a chalkboard prominently and permanently on display. It read

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

Here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it : 

• Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country or had a credit card.
• In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died. 
• My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. 
• I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow) 
• We didn't have a television in our house until I was 19. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people. 
• I was 21 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had!
• Pizzas were not delivered to our home But milk was. 
• I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room, attached to the wall,  and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line. 
• All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers-- my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6 AM every morning. On Saturdays, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day. 
• Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive. 

Have things changed? "Tune in" next week, same time, same station, to learn more about the author's Memories from a Friend and . . . a short quiz on same.

Phases and Symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease --- part two of previous post

My previous post, October 18, provided comforting information regarding the difference between normal forgetfulness and dementia, provided by the Alzheimer's Association many years ago. This post continues with  the phases and symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease, once again presented in the font as it was originally published.

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE -- PHASES AND SYMPTOMS

First Phase:  
  
Often this phase is deceitful, and no one is sure anything is wrong.

• Less spontaneous, less sparkle
• Slower, less energy, less drive, less initiative
• Less discriminating
• Loss of words
• Slower to learn, slower to react
• Readily made angry
• Seeks and prefers the family, shuns the unfamiliar

Second Phase:

The patient will still be functioning in many ways, but may require help in some activities such as balancing a check book.

• Much slower in speech and understanding
• Great difficulty in making decisions and plans
• Inability to calculate
• Increasingly self-absorbed
• Insensitive to feelings of others
• Avoids situations that may lead to failure
• Loses the thread of a story

Third Phase:

The patient is now obviously disabled.

• Markedly changed behavior
• Uncertain as to how he or she is expected to act
• Directions need to be repeated
• Memory of recent past poor or failing
• Memory of distant past astonishingly clear
• Loses orientation to time and place
• Invents words
• Misidentifies people
• Lethargic
• Little warmth

Fourth Phase:

Help is needed with simple activities of living in this phase.

• Apathetic
• Poor remote or recent memory
• Cannot find the way around at all
• Incontinent
• Perseveration of phrases and syllables
• No recognition of individuals

Progression of mental and physical deterioration may be rapid or may proceed slowly over a number of years. 

Hopefully this information will help you distinguish between normal aging and possible illness. Uncovering this material, given to us long ago, will be of help to Dave and I.  We have just learned that recent medical discovery is recognizing  past traumatic brain injuries can, or seem to, lead to early on-set Alzheimer's. 

Some time ago I posted our experience, 15 years ago, of our youngest son's traumatic brain injury. In it I begged you to wear, and make sure your kids wear, helmets when engaging in activities calling for them. Please read, or reread, it.

http://thecreativecheapskate.blogspot.com/search?q=Traumatic+Brain+Injury

While Brin's recovery was miraculous this new information indicates it may not be lasting.

Helpful (and Comforting) Comparisons Between Dementia and Simple Forgetfulness

As WE get older we find ourselves more and more concerned when we forget where we put our keys or where we parked our car. Or, when names or words escape us!

If YOU are not to the age where you are worrying about yourself there is a good chance you are worrying about your parents or other older loved ones.

Years ago, a  good friend and nurse who deals with the aged, gave me this bit of advice ---- simple, yet comforting.

The problem is not when you realize you are forgetting but rather when you are forgetting and not realizing it.

Fact: We are living much longer
Fact: Often the acceptable cause of death in my grandparent's day was simply "Old Age"
Fact: Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease are more prevalent  with this increased longevity
Fact: There is much greater media focus on the consequences of living longer

and this scares us!!! 

At the same time Carolyn offered the above she also gave me a handout from the Alzheimer's Association. Even though this handout is from the era of typewriters and mimeograph machines, the information is still pertinent --- and comforting --- and I share it with you in the font and format it was originally delivered:

         Dementia vs. Forgetfulness

We forget our keys or where we left a parked car at all ages, but with advancing age, the media focus on Alzheimer's Disease, and watching Alzheimer's destroy someone; forgetting begins to worry us more.

Normal forgetting is most often caused by inattentiveness, distractions or trying to keep too many details in mind at once. We most often forget recent things of little importance (dates, names, numbers, or complicated facts) and we rarely forget remote cherished memories kindled by frequent re-telling.

With normal forgetting, memory aids help. (Written notes, classifying lists, repeating messages or names our loud, or associating names with concrete visual images.)

With advancing age, it takes longer to react to events and to store them in memory. (We accumulate more stored memories with age as well.) But, we continue to learn and remember throughout life. In fact, comprehension and judgment may actually improve with age in the absence of disease.

Since changes in memory occur as part of the normal aging process, it is important that these changes are not mistaken for serious disorders, such as Alzheimer's Disease. Any memory changes that affect a person's ability to function deserve medical attention because of the possibility to reverse or stop the loss of brain function. 

Depression, Grief, Fatigue, Nervousness, Any Illness, Alcohol, Medications, and Overwhelming Responsibilities may all cause temporary memory loss and confusion. Depression and fatigue affect attention and concentration. If you can't concentrate, memories can't be learned or stored for later use. But, depression in persons of any age responds to various treatments.

Vision or hearing loss affects recent memory. If events, faces or conversations are perceived inaccurately, they can't be store in memory.

EXAMPLES OF MEMORY CHANGES THAT OCCUR AS PART OF THE AGING PROCESS

Forgetting appointments unless they are written down.
Forgetting names & faces of old acquaintances, but not close friends.
Difficulty remembering phone numbers
Learning new information more slowly, but still learning and remembering new things.


If you are noticing behaviors outside of the above, more investigation may be needed. 

Next Friday's post will continue with
                              ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE -- PHASES AND SYMPTOMS 
the handout I received at the same time as the above.

A Very Important Message from a Day-Old Child

My day-old child lay in my arms.
With my lips against her ear
I whispered strongly, "How I wish --
I wish that you could hear;

"I've a hundred wonderful things to say
(A tiny cough and a nod),
Hurry, hurry, hurry and grow
So I can tell you about God."

My day-old baby's mouth was still
And my words only tickled her ear.
But a kind of light passed through her eyes,
And I saw this thought appear:

"How I wish I had a voice and words;
I've a hundred things to say.
Before I forget I'd tell you of God --
I left Him yesterday."
                                         Carol Lynn Pearson

Quiet Book Page 7 . . .Noah and his Ark

Do you know the story of Noah in the Bible? He and his family were very good people, while the rest of the people in the world had become so wicked they could no longer live on the earth. The Lord commanded Noah to build a large boat which was called an ark.  

The skies were blue and cloudless, the sun was shining brightly, and they didn't live near a sea or lake, or even a river but Noah did what the Lord told him to do, even though he didn't understand the reason.  The wicked people laughed at him and mocked him.

When the ark was complete, and the sun was still shining brightly,  the Lord told Noah to fill the ark with his family and  two of every kind of animal.

Then the rains came and it rained until it flooded the entire earth.  Noah, his family and all the animals on the ark were the only ones to survive. 

When the rain finally stopped and the earth dried, Noah's family and the animals could live on the land again.

The Lord promised he would never flood the entire earth again. The beautiful rainbow we sometimes see in the sky following rain is His sign of that promise.

Building my ark

I included different times of the story on this page by using gray  felt for the background to show a rainy sky. The ark is floating on the water. I made the rainbow from a short piece of striped ribbon.  The "rest of the story" indicates that periodically Noah would release a dove and when, one day, the dove returned with a small piece of green in his beak, Noah knew the water was finally receding and they would soon be able to return to a dry and cleaned earth.

The lines on my ark are made with permanent marking pen. The middle line is also machine stitched across.

When you open the ark . . .

The animals will actually stand upright---I just couldn't scan it that way.

you see the animals lined up on the ramp, waiting to go on board. 

• I used  dark felt pieces to represent the inside of the ark. 
• I made the ramp from a double thickness of felt, drawing the lines and sewing them for stability. 
• The animals are beads which I threaded on elastic a little wider than the bead holes so when you move the animals they stay where you put them. They even stand up.
• The two brown strips of felt are there to try to hold the extra elastic in place. They don't do the job as well as I had hoped, so I am still trying to find a better way.

I drew Noah and his wife on heavy, stiff  Pellon using marking pens. I sewed each to another

piece of the Pellon to make them even sturdier.  They can be removed.The reason I machine-stitched the middle "board" in the ark is so they couldn't be pushed clear down to  the bottom of the boat. 

• The fish are plastic stick-ons.  Again, since I don't trust the sticky on them, I also sewed across their stripes. The ducks on small buttons I had leftover from a previous project. 

I did spend quite a bit of time trying to figure a way to have the animals on the elastic move completely into the ark but then decided that was going overboard (pardon the pun).

I love the message of the story of Noah.  It is important to be obedient and follow the words of our Savior because only He knows the whole picture. 

Plus, it makes sense to use our common sense be prepared for any potential needs. If that makes           sense to you, or if you are just curious, check out my preparedness posts in   What If . . .?

"It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark"

On Halloween you can "Play it Safe with a Corn Syrup Face"

As forerunners to the topic I need want to make two comments:

Earlier this week I was at a fabric craft store and observed a family with three young children purchasing a gaudy and gauzy short dress witch costume, and what I think was witch hair,  for the girl who looked to be about five.  They also had what I'd guess  to be about two yards of a print fabric.  I know it is none of my business but I, admittedly the cheapskate,  was appalled to hear the total price ---- $42. and some change!!!  (I don't know if they used the common percentage off coupons that this store is famous for or not).

Also earlier this week, I was going through some of my files when I happened on the following page torn, literally, from a 1987 women's magazine.  If you are trying to imagine what my files, and stacks- that-haven't- made it-to-files-yet , look like and, if you are a good imagine-r you may be right.

A juxtaposition I couldn't resist!

A creative face paint I must admit I haven't tried!

And directions I am putting  in readable type so you won't have to search for the correct back issue in your stash!

Directions:
Combine 3 Tablespoons corn starch and 1 Tablespoon flour. Gradually stir in 3/4 cup light corn syrup and 1/4 cups water. Set aside 1/4 cup of mixture. Divide the remaining mixture into small cups adding 1/2 teaspoon food color for each desired color.

1. Apply the untinted mixture to face. Avoid eyelids and the area around eyes.
2. Cover with one-ply white tissue. Apply more untinted mixture. Let dry 15 minutes.
3. Mix red and yellow food color to make orange mixture; paint on cheeks, forehead.
4. Mix red and green to make black. Add tiger markings. Wash off with soap and water

Note: I am copying this exactly as it is printed. It is probably safe to assume that it means
to use soap and water when you are ready to wash it off!!!.

For a devil: Repeat steps 1&2 above. Then use black mixture for a moustache and eyebrows, red for devilish cheeks.

For a clown: Repeat steps 1&2 above. Then pain colorful mouth, cheeks and eyebrows.

In closing:
While this is intriguing, I am not sure even I would feel it's worth the effort. My sister (and probably others behind my back) occasionally often say there is such a thing as me being too cheap.

Still, without being too cheap, I am sure you can find many quite suitable costumes for much less money.

Quiet Book Page 6 --- Open the Barn to Find . . .

Five Farm Animal Finger Puppets and more 


There are many variations of barn pages on the Internet.  I checked several out and adapted what fit my likes and abilities. 

Here is my barn page and a few things I did to make the process easier. 

I'm making 12 of these and am pretty sure  I got some of the windows even!
Hopefully the little users won't notice or won't care ---- and their parents may find it
either charming or . . .  indicative of my declining years and eyesight. 

I found a picture for my laying hen, colored it, and machine stitched a plastic window (cut from a zip lock bag) around it. 

As I have indicated with other pages, I like to add texture and things to feel whenever I can.   

When you "open" the hay you find three eggs.  

I sew my objects on using one of three things: dental floss, fishing line or heavy button thread so there is no chance of anything coming loose that could create a swallowing hazard. 

The eggs are threaded on fishing line. 
The barn door latches are coat hook and eyes, sewn on with button thread.

Catching Rays is not just a suntanning term!

I cut four pieces of fleece and crisscrossed them for the sun's rays.
I overcast the sun, catching the rays at the same time. The unintended pluses were depth to the sun and loose rays that move.

When you open the barn door five farm animals are there 
to greet you.

The chicken is usually in the pen also, but I wanted to show it's details---cut out with
pinking shears, with the stitching following the lines of the body leaving the wings open.

The finger puppet patterns are also found on line---from very simple to very elaborate. Mine are variations of some of them.  For me, the hardest part was deciding on the right size. I didn't know how to make copies of the available free patterns so they came out the correct size so I had to judge the best I could. 

Except for the chicken (who has added wings) all of my puppets are the same shape. All are the same size --- about 1-1/2 inches wide and 2-1/4 inches long.

The cow is cut from a cow print piece of felt (that was on sale for
10 cents and happily was enough for all 12 of my cows!)  If you don't have cow felt you can just sew a couple of spots on white felt. 

The sheep is from a scrap of fleece I had on hand.

I used tiny  beads for most of the eyes and noses. 

The pig's snout is embroidered French knots. 

This vial probably holds close to a zillion beads and cost less than $2.00 at Wal-Mart. 

The biggest sanity and time saver, for me, was creating
one-piece ears for the animals.  Cutting out tiny individual ears and managing to sew them on was way too much for me.  Although my drawings  are rough I hope they will give you the idea of what I did. 

I admit some of my pages are a little lot more elaborate than most of my offerings but sometimes I get carried away.  I know I am going overboard on these future great grand-kid gifts but I am having fun.

Please don't panic and feel that Simply, Gail has abandoned her simplicity and simply gone even more crazy.  I promise I haven't. 

Simple quiet book pages will provide every bit as much fun. Trust me when I say the ones I made for our kids when they were small were very basic. Our future great-grand-kids won't need all this ---- but for some reason, at this time in my life, I do.