Sunday, May 30, 2010

Sunday at the Nursing Home

Hey, Y'all,
It is a funny thing (not ha ha funny) how so many people visit friends and family on Sunday afternoons. You don't always see the same people on Sunday that you do during the week. Some people have regular visitors and some have no visitors except on Sundays; but then some have no visitors at all. They seem to be forgotten people. I don't believe that Gramps has had any visitors except for me and perhaps a couple of church members. He had some family members visit in the hospital.

Today there were quite a few visitors to some of the residents, and many came and sat outside with the residents that they were visiting. One nice thing about the nursing home is that there is a beautiful shaded porch with lots of rocking chairs and decorative wrought iron tables and chairs. In order to enter the nursing home, there is a coded entry pad with the code printed on a piece of paper near the entry pad. When you are bringing out a resident, or taking one back in, it is often difficult unless you have someone to help hold the door. Many of the residents are in wheel chairs, and one cannot hold the door and push the wheel chair at the same time. Most often there will be someone outside that will offer help or someone inside will be coming out.

I have met quite a few people there who are acquaintances and friends. Some of them are residents and some are friends or family of residents. Naturally, having lived in this area for more than 60 years (off and on), I have the privilege of knowing many of the people in there. It is good to renew old acquaintances and make new ones. (I am not bashful, as you can probably guess by now, so I never see a stranger - at least not for long).

I have noticed that when Gramps is up for awhile, he can hardly wait to be back in bed. He sleeps a lot, and always sleeps after lunch. He goes back to bed after lunch and then is gotten up for supper, after which he goes back to bed for the night. He knows that we plan to go to Texas, and when I asked him today where he thinks he is, he said, "Texas". I said, "No, not yet. Right now we are in Dandridge at the Jefferson County Nursing Home so that you can get better and then be able to come home."

Tonight I am working on supper for tomorrow. I am preparing chicken pot pie, and tonight peeled and diced and cooked potatoes for it. I added carrots and onions to the potatoes and now I have drained them and they are cooling. In the morning, I will line the baking dish with crust, and mix with the carrots, potatoes, and onions a mixture of cream style corn, tiny green peas, cooked chicken breast, and some chicken broth thickened with cornstarch. I seasoned the chicken with herbs and spices when I cooked it a couple of months ago and froze it to use later. So now is later. After I add all those ingredients together, I will fill the crust with it and then top it with velveeta and a top crust. It will be covered with saran wrap and put in my fridge where Laurie (our neighbor) will come down and get it so she can bake it before our supper - since I will be too late coming from the nursing home to bake it in time for our supper.

Dessert will be buttered pecan ice cream along with fresh frozen fruit. Yum! It really makes my day to have them come down and share supper with me on Monday evenings. Speaking of making my day, on Tuesday two of my retired school teacher friends are taking me to lunch. I am looking forward to that.

Can you believe that May is almost gone? Tomorrow will be my 500th posting since i began my blog nearly two years ago. Ain't that grand?

Well, this is about it for today. I actually got to talk to both my girls this morning. I talked to Carol by phone and Teresa by IM'ing. Speaking of making my day, that will always do it for me. This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off for today. Much love to each of you, my friends and family until tomorrow. Bye for now. More later.

4 comments:

Jan said...

Hi Ruby,
I am reading you blog everyday and admire your tenacity!
Jan

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Yes, you are one strong and determined woman, Ruby. May your 500th post be a happy one.

Calfkeeper said...

Ruby, you and Gramps are in my prayers. I admire you for your faithfulness to your husband.

Last summer my husband's grandpa was in a nursing home. There were lots of visitors on Sunday, but the rest of the week it was empty. Really sad.

People are interesting to watch, aren't they? Even in the nursing home.

Julie said...

Ruby, I worked in a nursing home for 12 years, what you talk about is so real. I need you to do something, when you're with gramps you need to challenge his mind. It's like the use it or lose it. It's so easy to lose it in a nursing home. Keep him thinking about home, keep him thinking about world affairs, keep him thinking about your daughters. Anything to keep his mind busy. My grandpa fell last fall and broke his hip and grandma, my dad and I were always with him, taking turns or sometimes all together. He's back at home and moving slowly but moving. He's 95 years old and grandma is 92.
Just a thought of mine to share with you. Good luck Ruby, you are such a sweet lady and gramps is so lucky to have you and you him.
Take care and God Bless!!!