Help ... Trying to move family

at 03/08/13 1:11PM

As you'll see if you click through on the widget above, these two ladies are my sister (left) and my (birth) mother (right). I have not seen them since my sister was six years old; she is now twenty-eight. Over the last two or three years, my sister and I have been blessed with a sort of reunion - albeit limited to online communication.

Mother has Alzheimer's which is rapidly marching its way through her brain. She is relatively young to have this kind of permanent dementia - she will turn 67 in June. She struggles with language - losing words, can't find appropriate words, describing objects, volume when speaking, etc. Numbers have no meaning for her. Recently she has started to have trouble swallowing and following simple commands. While there are certain tasks she can still perform, she is completely unable to live unsupervised. My sister has been her caregiver for the last several years, even before the diagnosis of Alzheimer's.

Because of the rapid progress and severity of Mother's dementia, my sister needs help. She can no longer care for our Mother on her own. Our youngest brother lives with them, but because he has his own obligations and commitments, he cannot provide for them on a permanent basis. I am the oldest child - it falls to me to care for my family.

To that end, my husband and I are trying to move Mother and my sister from Spokane, WA to live with us in/near Tallahassee, FL. We all know moving is expensive; it is nearly prohibitively so when trying to move from one corner of the country to another. We have spent many hours working out the logistics of this move in an effort to find the most economical, least stressful, and least confusing (for Mother) way to move two adults and an apartment full of household goods across country. It's not cheap, but is definitely doable with help from friends and family.

That is where you come in. We need your help. Prayers - first and foremost, but also financial help. It doesn't matter how small that help might be - nickels and dimes add up to a mighty fortune. With friends, family, Christians, and God behind us - it will get done.

Please consider donating something to help us do the right thing. Help us take care of our family the way God intended us to do. Click through on the widget above to go to our GoFundMe page, read the rest of the story, and consider donating even just $1.

Thank you, muchly, from the bottom of our hearts.
  • Melfennell
    Mom is turning 66, and I'm 29. ;-)
    by Melfennell at 05/01/13 8:48PM

Crummy but oh so very Yummy ...

at 01/16/13 3:56PM
I'm turning crunchy.

Not just as a mom (partly because I'm not a mom ... yet), but mostly in general. Don and I moved to the "country" three months ago, and since then I've found myself wanting to do things in a more hands-on, natural way. I've started looking at seeding and garden information, I'm looking into using essential oils as a means of warding off disease (and of course to make my house smell more pleasant), I spend more time outside, etc.

Lately I've been on a homemade bread kick. Besides loving the smell, I think in the long run it saves money. I can get three or four loaves of bread out of one 5 lb bag of flour, which costs either less or about the same (depending on brands) as a single store-bought loaf of bread. Right now I'm in a search for the perfect bread. I want one that has flavor, softness, can stand up to spreading cold butter or peanut butter or some other thick substance, dense enough to hold a good sandwich but not so heavy that it feels like a hockey puck. Right now I have a preference for egg breads because they have a tendency to be slightly more dense than other homemade breads.

So far I've tried two recipes. I like things about both, and both have things I don't like. I think, before I try a new recipe, I'm going to retry each of these, making some slight changes from the way I did them the first time.

Best Challah - Smitten KitchenThis is the first recipe I tried. Being overconfident in my bread-making skills (I'm good, just not good enough to do what I tried), I doubled the recipe. I tried putting the dough in the refrigerator for one rise, like the instructions suggest, but in the end, the dough didn't really rise enough after shaping and placing in loaf pans. I don't know if that's a fault of the cold, or if it's because my loaves weren't very large to begin with. Or maybe even over-kneading. I don't know.

What I did like, however, was the density and general lack of crumbs. Oh - it's nothing like store-bought bread when it comes to crumminess (ha!), but of the two recipes, this is by far the best. Flavor was pretty good, too.

Golden Egg Bread - Taste of HomeThis was the recipe I tried toward the end of last week. We have one (overly thick) slice left - which means tomorrow is bread day. This recipe, as written, is for a bread machine - but in the comments are instructions for converting to standard/traditional mixing and baking methods. It is the latter which I used.

Flavor is good, but I think next time I'll add an extra egg for a bit more. Much less dense than the first recipe - but I also did much better on "rising" the bread than I did the first time. So much better that after shaping the loaf and placing in a pan - it overflowed one side and started drooping down the outside of the pan. Easy fix - just flip back up over the top of the bread. When fresh out of the oven, the crust on this bread was thicker than I expected, and quite crunchy. However, after cooling completely, the crust softened up a bit to something more like the texture of the body of the bread.

This would be a great sandwich bread - except for one thing. It made a lot of crumbs, and fell apart in pieces when trying to use in a sandwich. It might have something to do with me trying to slice the bread when it was still warm - but somehow I doubt that. It also dried out faster than the first bread, although not fast enough to become truly stale.

In both cases, the bread sliced easier when it was completely cooled after baking. However, the first bread held its shape enough to allow me to take a couple of slices off immediately after baking, slather with butter, and enjoy the yummy goodness that is fresh bread. I did the same with the second bread - but see comment about the crunchy crust.

I'm going to try the first bread again tomorrow, this time with*out* doubling the recipe, and allowing proper rising in a warm place. (Oh - btw - did you know if you don't have a good place to set your bread to rise, you can heat your oven to 150, turn it off, and let the dough rise in the oven?) Hopefully it won't be so heavy, yet still hold itself together when sliced.
  • cyber_space_cadet
    I just saw a Barefoot Contessa episode on bread making and the woman who was giving tips said that it's not likely that you'd be able to over-knead bread by hand but that it's definitely possible by machine.

    She made this bread and said that it's one of her favorites.
    by cyber_space_cadet at 01/16/13 5:35PM
  • firebolt
    Crunchy is good. ;)

    I miss bread. We've recently gone grain free again and i feel so much better without it, but I miss it!!

    Hoping when we get past the six week mark I can add in some sprouted, homemade breads again here and there! :)
    by firebolt at 01/25/13 11:34PM
  • robynbobm
    I want to get back to baking bread. :)
    by robynbobm at 02/16/13 2:05PM

Group?

at 01/28/12 6:31AM
Is there a co-sleeping group on Pleonast? I have some specific questions I'm not ready to toss out to the general public yet.
  • mmswife
    Not that I'm aware of. I know lots of other mamas that co-sleep though!
    by mmswife at 01/28/12 8:52AM
  • firebolt
    There is a natural parenting group. It is male and females. Lots of the mommas in the mothering group co-sleep. We do too, feel free to ask any questions.
    by firebolt at 01/28/12 11:00AM

No Takers?!?!

at 10/16/11 2:55AM
New Trivia questions will be posted in the next couple of days. Surely someone knows the answers, or at least some of the answers, to the ones below!

1. Who did Mary Magdalene think Jesus was when He first spoke to her after His resurrection?
2. Which book of the Bible immediately precedes Nehemiah?
3. What possession of Naboth did Ahab covet?
4. How old was Joseph when he was sold into Egypt?
5. Who or what killed 185,000 men of Sennacherib's army in one night?

Training is almost over for the Guardian ad Litem program. Fingerprinting is next (as soon as I can get an appointment); as soon as that's done the GAL administrators will run a criminal background check at the local, state and federal levels. (Let's hope they don't find out about the body I buried in Yellowstone .... )


Just kidding.



**head jerks**


Maybe. ;)


When the background check comes back clean, I'll be paired up with a Volunteer Mentor and be assigned a case. I will only have one case/family - but it could involve more than one child. For example - my instructor once had a case where the mother had six children in house, and one on the way. She recently ran into the mother in court (on an unrelated issue) and learned the mother had an older child, and was pregnant again - for a total of nine children. The emphasis is not to call attention to how many children this woman had, but to show that a Guardian ad Litem could have any number of children assigned to him/her at any given time, even if he/she is only assigned to one case.

I'm excited, and looking forward to working with these children. I attended my first courtroom observation on Thursday morning, and met another one of the Guardians and spoke with him for a few minutes. We talked about the child he was representing - I was interested in some of the aspects of the case and had some questions - and I was able to make some suggestions. I don't know whether or not those suggestions are viable - but I have the Guardian's contact information and hopefully he'll be kind enough to let me know later on how "his" child is doing.

I also volunteered for another aspect of the GAL program, although I'm not quite sure one has to be a GAL to do this. Officially it's called "Surrogate Parenting", but more commonly it's called being an "Educational Surrogate." For children who are in the GAL program and whose parents cannot be located or who refuse to take a role in the child's life, sometimes there is a need for an adult to just be a warm body in a meeting of other adults and represent that child. This is a little different than what the GAL does. While the GAL goes to bat for the child and really gets involved, the Educational Surrogate participates only in educational matters, and literally only as a warm adult body representing the child whenever a meeting is called to discuss and plan the child's educational progress. If the child is disabled in some manner and in need of an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and if the child's parents cannot be located or refuse to take part in the child's life, someone must attend the IEP meetings on behalf of the child and his/her parents. That's the role of the Educational Surrogate. Most of the time, the ES doesn't get involved in the discussion - that's usually taken care of by the Guardian, DCF/CPS (or whatever it's called in your community), teachers, attornies (that does not look like it's spelled right ... Wendi? Help?), etc.

I thought being an Educational Surrogate sounded really interesting, so I volunteered. The next training class should be shortly after the new year begins.

There's another related program I'm going to try to volunteer with as well. I don't know exactly what it's called - but it involves bringing therapy dogs into the courtroom. This helps kids who are especially high-strung or nervous and need some help to feel more comfortable with their surroundings. But me being me, I want to do it with a twist ... ;)

There is a service dog training organization in Milton, GA called Canine Assistants. I found them during a search for a group to train a service dog for my aunt (that story to follow later). Canine Assistants has a National Volunteer program where they pair a trained dog with a handler, and that team helps to educate the public about service dogs - what they are, what they do, where they can go, etc. The dogs are called C.A.S.E. (Canine Assistants Special Educators) dogs, and the teams are known as Noah's Teams, I believe after one of their favorite service dogs.

There is a need for one of their teams in Tallahassee. And their dogs are trained not only as service dogs, but can also be trained as therapy dogs. What I want to do is become a CASE dog handler, and also use that same dog as a courtroom therapy dog. Since he/she will already be trained for that kind of work, I think it's a great combination, and a great way to educate the public on a daily basis. I've briefly spoken to the GAL director, but need to send her more information about the CASE dogs and the Noah's Team program. I haven't talked to anyone at Canine Assistants though. AND ... Don is hesitant to take on another dog that he feels we can't afford to feed right now.

So - this is not something I'll be doing any time soon. But I think it is something worth working toward.

OK so now the update on Auntie Em.

She needs a dog. It's that simple. Opening and closing doors, stability, picking things up, retrieving cell phone, pulling emergency call cord when she (Auntie Em) gets her foot caught in the wheel of her scooter .... (Yes - she did that a few weeks ago. Only a mild sprain.) I started looking for a dog several months ago, and identified this organization then, but never submitted the application. I should have done - AM probably would have her dog by now. But better late than never, right? So I'm getting all the paperwork together and hopefully will have it put together by the end of the week and ready to submit. One of the things I really like about this organization is that they have a needs-based program to help pay for the aftercare (food and vet costs) of a dog once it is placed with an owner. The financial burden of caring for a dog has always been Auntie Em's biggest concern.

So hopefully, this time next year if not sooner, Auntie Em and I both with have service dogs, although for different reasons.

And last but not least ... Auntie Em will be having major back surgery on Tuesday to correct scoliosis in her lower back. (And I just remembered that I totally forgot to get her pain meds from the pharmacy. *facepalm*)

I can't say that I will never again question someone else's claim to pain, but I can say that working with her and seeing the physical evidence of her back is teaching me humility. I know life is not a race or a competition to see who has more pain or who can handle more, and everyone has the right to his/her own pain, but what I deal with is nothing compared to her. Her lower back looks like a line drawing of a chair - the scoliosis is that bad. Her right leg is 5/8" shorter than her left. Not only does she have scoliosis and lean to the right because of it - she has kyphosis, which is like scoliosis except instead of a sideways curve, it's a forward curve. The kyphosis isn't nearly as bad, though.

We found all this out Friday morning.

So the doc said the only way to fix it is a series of operations. The first one involves cutting open the abdomen, digging down through all the structures and abdominal organs to reach the spine, jacking up the crushed vertabrae so they are the right height, and fusing them from the front. The second surgery goes in from the side and provides additional stability by fusing the back of the same vertabrae. The last operation is done about a week later and involves putting in a couple of rods along almot the entire length of the spine, from the level of the shoulders to the tailbone. It's this part that permanently straightens everything up and keeps the spine stable.

She asked him "How soon can you do it?"

He was slightly taken aback. I don't think he expected her to go for it that quickly. Even after he brought it up as the only way to fix her back, and as he spent the next several hours doing some additional testing and making sure he had a vascular access surgeon who could open up her belly and get down to her spine, at the same time he kept trying to talk her out of it. I don't think he did that because he didn't want to do it - I think he did that because he's not used to patients who answer so quickly, who are so ready to do what needs to be done in spite of the risks.

Oh the risks .... She could die. (5%) She could be paralyzed. (<1%) She could be in chronic pain the rest of her life. (I almost snorted out loud at that one. He even said it could be worse pain than she's in now!!) In the research I've done on these procedures, they have an overwhelming success rate. AM doesn't expect to be completely pain free, but I think she would like to be able to walk with her head held high again.

Oh yeah - he said she could gain up to 3" of height back. There might also be an improvement with her balance. It might not be dramatic, but it should be enough so she *can* walk with her head held high again.

Peanut Butter & Weekly Bible Trivia

at 10/10/11 11:17PM
Hi. I'm Heather, and I'm addicted to peanut butter.

Not just any peanut butter - but Peter Pan Creamy Honey-Roasted Peanut Butter. I eat it straight out of the jar, only occasionally using bread or crackers for variety. Recently, I've suffered severe peanut butter withdrawals. Wal-Mart has been out of this deliciousness that is my food-borne passion, and it is considerably more expensive to purchase elsewhere. At one time, I was so desperate for the taste of honey blended with peanuts (and mind you - I can't stand honey-roasted peanuts), I even resorted to eating the crunchy variety of Peter Pan's Honey-Roasted Peanut Butter. That didn't last long ... I like crunch peanut butter - in cookies, sandwiches, and other recipes, where it belongs, but not eating it straight out of the jar. It's been nearly two months since my last infusion of creamy Honey-Roasted Peanut Butter.

Until yesterday. On his way home from worship services, Don stopped to get me some diet soda. As always, he checked the peanut butter aisle, and lo and behold - they had not one, but TWO large jars of CREAMY Honey-Roasted Peanut Butter on the shelf! I am now the proud owner of 1 1/2 jars of Peter Pan Creamy Honey-Roasted Peanut Butter! ;)

~~~~~~~~~~

Now for the Bible Trivia!

Don and I are on an email list from a Gospel preacher in Appleton, WI. For those of you who might know him - it's Whit Sasser. Two or three times a week, he sends out short messages with stories or poems or Bible verses, all meant to provide encouragement or exhortation. Whit also sends out the Sunday Bulletin for the church at Appleton to those on this email list (or at least to those who are interested in receiving the bulletin). At the beginning of each weekly bulletin are five Bible trivia questions, ranging in difficulty from super easy to quite difficult; answers are provided at the end of the email.

Don and I have a friendly family competition going to see who can answer more of them right. Now that my brother lives with us - he is included in this "competition" as well. I've been thinking about posting the trivia questions here just to see who's interested in answering them. Now is as good a time as any - right?

Here are the "rules" - and of course, everything is on the honor system.
(1) You have to answer from memory. Looking up the answer is cheating.
(2) If you have the ability to leave a private comment - please leave the answer privately. If you cannot (i.e., if you are not gold), email me and put "Pleonast Trivia" in the subject line. Make sure to also include your pleonast name in the body of the message so I know who to give credit. I want to do it this way so answers are not "given away" to those who haven't answered yet.
(3) Answers will be posted 24 - 36 hours after the questions are first posted. Scripture references will be included with each answer.
(4) Names of those who answered will be listed along with how many questions they each got right.
(5) If you have a disagreement with an answer, feel free to comment. I'm not making up these questions (I'm taking them straight from Whit's emails), but I will try to vet the answers and verify the Q&A agree with each other and the Scripture reference is appropriate before posting a question here.
(6) There are no prizes for "winning" a Weekly Bible Trivia question set posted here. You will, however, have your name posted and linked to your Pleonast page, and will be allowed bragging rights for the rest of the week until the next set of questions is posted and someone else takes you down. ;)

Ready? Go!
1. Who did Mary Magdalene think Jesus was when He first spoke to her after His resurrection?
2. Which book of the Bible immediately precedes Nehemiah?
3. What possession of Naboth did Ahab covet?
4. How old was Joseph when he was sold into Egypt?
5. Who or what killed 185,000 men of Sennacherib's army in one night?