Day in my life....



Nobody asked for it, but I've been thinking about it for a while. To post "some what" what I do in a day. Now I have to be VERY careful because of the HIPAA law, so you won't actually SEE anyone, but what you will see are things that I have to do. I won't over fill you with the actual AMOUNT of things (like the making of 8 beds, you don't need to see all 8) but, here is a rough "graphic novel" of my day. LOL!!!!

After checking my books, and doing rounds with the previous shift, I get a few people up for breakfast. I have about an hour (half hour after rounds) after I get there to get roughly 4 people up. That is NOT a lot of time. Think about how long it takes yourself to get up in the morning. Now, think about trying to do that to someone else.

This is what I call the basket of manliness.  I have an other resident who has what I call a drawer of manliness.  At least this basket of manly stink pretty has generally the same smells.  The drawer of manliness however....well, lets just say there are smells that don't EVER need to go together.  Seperately they are ok, but together-not so much. LOL

I have to make a few beds.  Depending on how many aides there are, I make anywhere between 8 and 15 beds.

I don't know why my pictures are flipped the wrong way.  When I figure out how to change it, I will.

 

When Breakfast comes out, we all have to stop what we're doing and pass trays and feed.  I know this bowl of grits looks a little sloppy, but when you start mixing things in a bowl that's too small, you kinda get some overflow.  Most residents like eggs mixed into their grits-and lots of butter.

 

 

After breakfast we continue to get the rest of the people up.  We also have to get
a set of vitals on certain people.  Blood pressure, temp, respirations, pulse. Some people
are daily, some are weekly, some are just because they are on special meds for a short
time and the Doctor wants to monitor them.  On this day, the once I decided to "document"
my blood pressure cuff broke.  Not good.  This means I had to hunt down the facilities cuff
to finish my vitals.

At the end of the day, I finally get to leave.  By finally, I usually mean 15 minutes after my shift ends.  I don't know why sometimes I can finish on time and others I can't.  I think it all has to do with when our lunch breaks are.  Seriously, who wants to take a lunch break at 2pm?  I mean, I got home at 3:15 (or 3:30 most days).  What happened to like, 10:30, or even 10.  I would take my lunch break that early.  I would MUCH rather take my lunch before the residents eat lunch.  This way we can start lying people down and not have to worry about stopping to take our own lunch.  Seriously-taking lunch at 2 sucks. 

So, I get into the car on this particular day and realize that I have ripped my pocket.  Probably on a wheelchair handle.  This isn't the first time I've ripped my pocket on a wheelchair, and also, this isn't the first time I've ripped THIS pocket.  You can't see it very well, but that thread sticking out of yellow.  It's not white like the original thread is.  I'm not sure this pocket is salvageable.

So, on my way home I talk to my husband and find out we don't have everything we need for dinner.  I've not been doing very well on my shopping trips.  I've gotten to the point where I simply LOATHE going grocery shopping.  I use to love it!  It was my solace!  I would completely be alone and not have to deal with anything!!!!  However, now I think it's because I'm in school, I don't want to go.  So, when I do go, it's all rush rush, and sucky.  I forget things.  My darling husband has offered to go grocery shopping for me, because he knows how much time I don't have, and he says he has all the time in the world.  (which, just so you know, I've been a stay at home mom, and I hated it.  He is a stay at home dad, and I don't know how he has done it all these years and stayed sane.  O..M...Gosh. But, he has his time managed pretty good, so I believe he would make the time to go, where when I was a SAHM, I didn't have time to pee, let alone grocery shop)  So, I was thinking of taking him up on his offer next month, or maybe even for just one trip a month.  I don't know (He's probably cringing right now reading this thinking "What have I done?!!?") 

All in all, though it's a great day when I get to come home to this.

My girls are awesome.  They drive me and hubby nuts sometimes, (ok most of the time) but we know at the end of the day that we love them, and they love us.  (I didn't say like here people....there are days when I know they don't like me very much, and sometimes I don't like them very much, but We ALWAYS love each other.) 

Teenage driver!

Where have all the years gone. Holy crap!
She is fully capable. I just have to give her some crap once in a while.  It helps to not look when she drives too. LOL just kidding. I HAVE to look. I can't stand not looking. But I do trust her enough to look away for a few seconds.
She is driving to pick up her sister from middle  school. Not too shabby!  She may be ready for her own car by the end of the year!!!  (Maybe. If I can find an 80's mustang) she has to get to school from seminary somehow.

She hates it when I take pictures of her while she is driving. 

I hate that when I post pictures from my phone it turns out sideways.....have to remedy that!  But how....

Going semi-unprocessed

As our house moves away from canned food I take on more and more cooking (for lack of a better word) experiments. Some fail. Some need tweeking. Some are awesome. We all just grin and bear it voicing our opinions when asked and swallowing through grimacing faces when appropriate. My next adventure in cooking is beans. I already make a pretty mean bean soup, but I'm moving up to chili beans. I've looked it up. Read SEVERAL different ways to do it and several different ways NOT to do it. (I know your cringing honey)  I think I'm ready. So tonight while I make dinner I'll be getting beans ready for dinner tomorrow. I'm going to make extra because I can set some aside and make refried beans. I hear it freezes very well.

When my mom visits in two months (I CANT WAIT!!!) I'm going to ask her to help me make tomato sauce. I can go to the new veggie stand hubby and I found and buy some tomatoes and make sauce. I just need my mom to help me "perfect" it. The sauce I made last night didn't cook long enough. I needed a little bit more sauce too. But there is a learning curve and hopefully I'm doing OK with it. My family is the judge.  Or I guess the proper way to say that is my family are the judges. 
My family is awesome. I love them all so much and tell my daughters EVERY DAY how much I love them.  My husband is my hero. He has saved me from a lot; he drives me nuts sometimes and I know I drive him crazy, but I don't know where I would be without him. (Probably a crazed lunatic walking the streets of Adrian talking to myself.)  This is why I cook our meals closer and closer to scratch every day. It shows them I care about them and their health.  After the terrible news we hear almost every day and the experiences my girls go through I can't control (public high school) they need to know how much I care and love them.  (Sorry about the side rant people but it is after all my blog LOL)