Singing at the Homestead

Almost every Sunday for the past 4 years we have gone to The Homestead to sing for the residents.  We joined another family that had been doing it for sometime while their mother/grandmother was there.  That family wonderfully still joins us even though their loved one passed on a long time ago.  The problem is, all our kids are growing up and leaving home so our numbers have dwindled dramatically.  At one point between friends and family we got maybe 15 or more of us singing.  Ahh, those were the days.   Now we are feeling lucky if we have four.  We have mostly sung hymns with an occasional folk song or something thrown in.  One resident early on always requested You Are My Sunshine so it has become our closing number every week even though that resident passed on quite a while ago too.  We find that almost all the residents perk up for that song.  They sing along and clap their hands in rhythm.  Sometimes most of the residents appear to be sleeping through our little performance but more often than not, they wake for Sunshine.  Sometimes they mouth the words in their sleep. Today John and I got there a little earlier so we were filling the time with whatever we could think of to sing. John was being quite silly and making up words to songs.  He also sang some British songs from his childhood.  Those usually baffle the residents but today's made them smile.   It is apparent that they really do like the folk songs.

One of the current residents has requested old songs we'd never heard of before so John got them off the Internet to learn them.  They like those too.  I smiled today as one man who hadn't been paying a lick of attention the whole time suddenly lit up and sang along with one of those old songs.

Today someone suggested She'll Be Comin' 'round the Mountain so we started in on that one.  That may have been our biggest hit yet.  One woman who is often unhappy and worried about many things stood up and started swishing her skirts and stepping back and forth like she was doing a square dance.  Another man started bouncing in his chair and moving his arms like he was leading the wagon.  Everyone sang along and enjoyed themselves.

It is nice to make lovely harmonies with the hymns and there are some residents who really do love those.  I noticed today that my mom was sleeping (or appeared to be) but was tapping her hand in rhythm to the hymn we were singing.  But as nice as that is, it was also great to sing songs where we couldn't really remember the verses quite right but everyone had a smile on their faces.  It is wonderful to see life in the resident's eyes. For just a little while they might forget their discomforts and frailties and just have joy.

Thanksgiving post 6

Today I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and the guidance I get from His gospel.  I'm thankful to my parents for teaching me the gospel and thankful that my children have testimonies of Christ as well.

Thanksgiving post 5

Today I am thankful for my little family.  I'm thankful for them every day but today I'm posting about being thankful for them. My husband and kids are wonderful.  Thanks guys, you are the best!

Thanksgiving post 4

Today I am thankful for abundance.  Sometimes (well more often than I'd like to admit) I complain about having to think something up for dinner every night.  But isn't it wonderful that I have so much food in my pantry/freezer/cupboards etc that I have many choices.  Many people in the world don't have much choice and some don't even have food.  I have been blessed with plenty for my family and even to share with others.  I'm thankful for all that we have...

Thanksgiving post 3

I am thankful today, and everyday, for the Internet.  I love how small the world becomes because of the Internet.   Before we had Internet my mother was communication central.  As a poor college student, I couldn't really afford to make long distance phone calls but my mother called me fairly regularly.  Through her I learned what my siblings were doing and could leave a message to any of them for her to deliver when she talked to them next.  Then my parents served a mission for our church together in Sweden and during the time they were gone, communication central was gone too. My siblings and I didn't communicate very much during that time.  I remember thinking that this is what it would be like when my parents died.  


Then we got the Internet.  Suddenly we could easily email each other and not just my siblings but all my extended family as well.  I got to know cousins that I would never have recognized on the street and reconnected with aunts and uncles as well.  It was a wonder.  


And now it is even better.  I can instantaneously chat with my kids that are away at college.  I have reconnected with friends from high school and fellow missionaries I served with on Facebook. And I can keep up with my nieces and nephews lives through Facebook and their blogs.   It is so much fun to see what they are all doing in life.  


And the other thing I love about the Internet is Google.  I can find out anything I need in a matter of moments; How to make substitutions in cooking, or a new recipe, crafting projects, do it yourself projects or whatever else I might need to know. What a luxury.

I am thankful to have the Internet.

Thankgiving post 2

I was up quite late last night and slept late this morning.  When I woke up it was soooo cold in my room that my feet were cold under the bedding as was the skin on my arms, my nose, ears etc.... I felt the cold despite having a cat snuggled up to me which generally puts off a lot of heat.   We have electric ceiling cable heat (not a great heating choice in my opinion) so each room has a separate heat thermostat (the one good part about this heating system).  We don't use much heat in our bedroom because we like it cool.  Today was a little too cool since it was 16* outside then. I don't know what the low temp was during the night. (We are up to 20* while I write this). So this brings me to what I am thankful for today.

Flannel Sheets!  It amazes me how much warmer they are than regular sheets.  I love my flannels in the winter weather.  So today the flannels move from the linen closet to the bed and  I am thankful to own flannel sheets. I'm also thankful that I haven't needed them until November.  Typically we would need them much earlier but our fall has been kinda mild.

Thanksgiving

I've seen on Facebook today a number of people who have decided to spend the pre-thanksgiving holiday season posting things they are grateful for each day.  I thought maybe I'd do some gratitude posts here on my blog but I only have 13 minutes to post before it is tomorrow.  Actually, I'm not sure that I want to commit to a daily post anyway but we'll see how it goes.

My brother posted that he was grateful that I tend to my mom which caused me to reflect that I am thankful that my dad is here with me.  I do spend time with my mom usually 4 times a week but my dad goes everyday usually for about 9 hours and sometimes more.  If he weren't here with me, I'd have to be there a lot more to help feed Mom if nothing else.  She is so slow eating that it sometimes takes a couple of hours or more to get through a meal and while the staff is happy to help, they do not have the time to sit with her for two hours and ignore all the other residents so having my dad there to see to her meals is a big help.  I am grateful for his willingness to care for her even as he pays other people to do it for him. He can't do it all himself so he needs the staff too but he does so much.  So many residents we have seen over the last four years have few to no visitors.  I can't imagine moving my loved one to a place like this and then not being there to oversee the care.  I suppose everyone has their personal situations that play into their choices but I have been saddened to see people in there go for months without seeing a family member.  There are some who have family on a daily basis or near daily but they seem to be the exception.  I'm grateful to my father for being the exception.