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10 Challenges of Being a Caregiver

40 Comments / Life /

Primary Caregiver for my Mom

It’s a challenge caring for the elderly, and when it’s your parent, it’s even harder. Everyone gets older(God willing) and many of us are faced with elderly parents who are no longer self-sufficient. We moved my Mom into our home about 9 months ago. I became her primary caregiver. My husband also helps when he can. The decision to move her into our home was not an easy one. We had to weigh the pros and cons for everyone involved.

Options to remain independent

  • Finding a Caregiver to visit Mom several times a week or daily
  • Finding a Caregiver to live with Mom in her apartment
  • Providing for her needs so she can stay in her apartment
  • Meals on Wheels, Visiting nurses, Medical Alert button
  • Senior Living Facility(independent living/no assistance)
  • Assisted Living(some living assistance)
  • Nursing Home(full living assistance)

We did try a few of these options before moving Mom out of her home. I found someone to grocery shop for her, I had Meals on Wheels deliver her lunches, and we found transportation for her to doctor appointments. I provide more specific information in my post on Making the Decision to become a Primary Caregiver

*This post may contain affiliate links to products/services that I use or trust, if you click a link and purchase a product/service, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you, the opinions in this post are my own*

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10 Positive Outcomes from Sheltering at Home

86 Comments / Life /

It has been a weird and interesting 7 weeks of “sheltering at home”. Several states have entered Phase 1 of the “Reopening America” plan. Our time at home may soon be coming to an end. As I reflect on the past 7 weeks, I have come up with some positive things that have happened from being stuck at home. I don’t know if you are having a hard time in isolation(I’m sure many are) or if you have been able to stay positive. The opinions in this post are my own and not intended to make light of the current situation.

List of 10 Positive Things

  1. More time with your significant other/spouse
  2. More time with your kids
  3. A renewed appreciation for nature
  4. Plenty of take-out containers
  5. Learning to cook or improving your cooking skills
  6. Taking an online class
  7. Learning a new skill
  8. Time for current hobbies; reading, writing, photography, etc..
  9. Learning a new hobby
  10. Working from home

More time with Loved Ones

How has it been to spend more time with the important people in your life? I have really enjoyed having my husband home, and working from home. It’s kind of a” trial run” to see how it will be when he retires. I really enjoyed it! He has been helping with housework and helping me care for my Mom, and we have spent more time talking. We don’t have children at home but we do have a dog and, WOW, does he love Dad being home! Are you enjoying spending more time with your family?

Poppie
Poppie our Eskimo Dog with his Dad
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My Journey to Becoming a Blogger

67 Comments / Life /

First Seven Months

Wow! What a journey this has been! How did it all begin? My husband received an email about a Free 5 -day course about how to start a money-making blog. The email was from It’s a Lovely Life, he said to me, “Why don’t you sign up for this”, so, I did. Being a blogger had never crossed my mind before that. I had been an insurance agent, mostly in customer service, for most of my adult life. When I met Terry in 2011, I was living about 55 miles away from him. When we married in 2012, I moved into his house. That meant that I was now “retired” from the insurance business. I was living 55 miles away from where I had called home for over 10 years. All my friends were there, but I was starting a new life, in a new city. I was pretty lost for a while. I began doing small jobs like; selling on eBay, helping Terry with his non-profit business, and being an Uber driver. It always seemed like I had too much time on my hands and I wasn’t happy about that. I wanted something to do that would make a difference and that I could be proud of.

Taking the 5-day online course

I figured that I didn’t have anything to lose by taking the 5-day online course, “Start a money-making blog”.

I started the online course in April 2019. I didn’t understand it all and I didn’t always complete the assignment each day. It took me a little longer than 5 days to absorb all the information. After I finished the 5-day course, I was given more free information with “WP fast Launch“. The wealth of information I received with “WP fast Launch” got me the rest of the way with topics like;

  • How to start your blog with WordPress
  • Initial set-up with Bluehost
  • Working with Themes
  • Working with Posts, Pages, and Categories
  • Working with Menus in WordPress
  • WordPress Editor
  • Media, Photos & Videos
  • Widgets
  • Users & comments
  • Plugins
  • How to Launch

*This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you*

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Mom doing a puzzle

What I’ve learned as a Primary Caregiver

4 Comments / Life /

First 2 months as Mom’s caregiver

My Mom has been living with us for 2 months now and, WOW, have I learned a lot! It’s been an adjustment for ALL of us.

To back up a little, we moved my Mom from Wisconsin, where she lived alone in an apartment, to North Carolina to live in our house. You can read about how we reached this decision on my other post, Making the decision to become a caregiver

Getting Mom ready for the move

The first thing we needed to do is get her ready for the move, she had about 6 weeks. Terry and I would be driving to Wisconsin to pick her up with a U-haul in tow. My brother lives in Wisconsin near her so he helped to get her packed up. He bought her Rubbermaid containers, which worked great for stacking in the U-Haul. Mom needed to go through all her things and decide what to do with them. There were 4 choices;

  • Put the item in her lobby on the “free table”
  • Trash it
  • Pack it up to take to North Carolina
  • Leave behind for the “Charity” that will be picking up what remains

When anyone moves, there are several things we all need to do. For my Mom, she had a few more things to get done.

  • Give notice to Apartment Manager
  • Get prescriptions filled
  • Cancel the utilities
  • Return the cable box
  • Tell her doctors about her move
  • Close bank account
  • Cancel Medicare supplemental insurance policy
  • Cancel Medicare drug coverage
  • Give a change of address to Post Office
  • Pack her overnight case
  • Call the local charity to pick up what’s left(my brother took care of this)
  • Clean the apartment to make sure she gets the security deposit back(my brother did this after we left)

Since three of my siblings were in the state of Wisconsin at the time, we decided to meet at Moms on moving day. That way, they could see her before she left, and we could also visit with each other. Remember, we were taking her about 1200 miles from her home, it wouldn’t be easy for any of them to visit her in North Carolina. We said our goodbyes, loaded up the U-Haul, and Mom, and headed down the road.

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