Faith, Home, & Family
Last week, I had a big bag of cucumbers, and some corn given to me. And we harvested a pile of zucchini from our garden. So I’ve been working on preserving those. We have some corn, then I froze 11 ears. (That sounds funny! lol) I made a batch of relish, with a lot of cucumbers left over to become pickles this week. And I’ve been working dehydrating the zucchini, with lots more to go!
We started back to homeschool this week! Monday morning to be exact. The kids didn’t even complain! Love it!
Ever since we began homeschooling and took our first summer off, I haven’t liked long summer breaks. It’s too hard to get the kids back onto a school schedule. I’ve always said it’s easier to homeschool year round than to hear the arguing, whining, and complaining after summer vacation. That’s why the most we take off from school at a time is one month.
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Ever heard of the “Sandwich Generation” ?
That is the term used to describe the generation of people who are now caring for children and their parents at the same time. According to one statistic I read, 1 of every 8 Americans aged 40 to 60 is both raising a child and caring for a parent.
A little history….
When I was a teenager, I helped my family care for my grandmother. It wasn’t always easy. Especially when I had to get up in the middle of the night to care for her. She would manage to take her clothes off, then get out of bed, and fall. My mother worked nights in a nursing home, so I was the only female in the house. It was my responsibility to get her dressed again, (No easy feat!) So my brother and father could pick her up and get her back in bed. Then I would go back to sleep, and hope she didn’t wake up again, then get up for school the next day. Then school, activities such as cheerleading and majorettes, then work. I’d come home in time to eat, do homework, then go to bed again.
Back to the present….
So I have experience in caring for an elderly grandparent in the home. Now, my husband and I are in the position of having to care for one of our parents. In order the respect the privacy of this parent, I will not say which parent it is. One of our parents lives next door to us, and another one lives across the street. So when I say “next door” it could mean either parent.
While life as parent caregivers gets real for us, I will be sharing from time to time about what we are going through. I will not be mentioning any specifics about the parent, just what I am going through. And hopefully help others along this journey as well.
I’m not going to lie and say it will be easy. It’s going to be hard to provide 24 hour care by ourselves. And we still have 2 kids under 18 in our home, that I homeschool. While it will be hard, we are set up for it. Living so close makes it much easier. No one will have to move.
Our basic schedule that we have come up with is I will be with our parent from about 7:30 in the morning until about 5:30 at night. My husband will take over when he gets home from work, and spend the night, leaving for work the next morning. This schedule will be tweaked as necessary. Considering that our parent isn’t home from the hospital yet, we will have to wait and see exactly what their needs will be. Right now we are going off the information the social worker at the hospital told us. It’s good to have a plan to start with, though.
Is being part of the sandwich generation easy? No!
Is it worth caring for our parents while raising our children? Yes!
To read more about my journey through the Sandwich Generation, read these posts.
If your parent, or other loved one is in the hospital, here are my 5 Tips for Staying in the Hospital with a Loved One.
Here are a few books that you might find helpful.
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I recently received Old Western Culture: The Greeks from Roman Roads Media to Review. This full year course is available in two different formats. The online streaming version, a full year of access, is available for $199. There are four DVD sets, each set has 4 DVDs, available for $224. Each unit’s DVD set is also available for purchase separately for $56. Whatever version you choose, you are able to print the needed student workbook. The four Student Workbooks is also available for purchase for $48. Whether you choose to print your own, or purchase them, the student workbooks are a requirement. You can not do the course without them. I received online access for Old Western Culture: The Greeks. I also received one of the DVD sets, The Epics, so I could compare them to the online version for this review.
I was very busy in the kitchen this week! 🙂 All four teenagers were sick this week, so I kept them supplied with whatever they felt like eating. I made French Toast for them one day. I used my homemade wheat bread. I ran out of the egg mixture, but still had a couple of pieces of bread left. I didn’t want to make more eggs and then have eggs left. lol So I made croutons!
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This week, my baby turned 14! As of right now, my kids are 28, 26, 19, 16, 15, and 14. Yes, I’m old. lol anyway, back to the birthday boy. Poor Zach. He ended up at the doctor’s office on his birthday due to a tick bite he got at church camp the week before. I have a picture, but I will spare you the horrors of that picture. lol He is on antibiotics for 2 weeks. He had to go to the doctors for a recheck on Friday, and it has improved greatly. He’s not nearly as sick in the picture as he is pretending to be. lol
