Family Caregiver Info

Simple Comforts: Orange Marmalade

Admin — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 21:52:26 +0000

It is amazing what a simple thing like home made marmalade spread over fresh from the oven scratch made baking soda biscuits can do to lift one’s spirits.

A few days ago I made my dad some orange marmalade. Canned six 4 oz jars of it. It was made using a basic sugar recipe, taking equal parts of fruit mixture and sugar to make the marmalade.

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ORANGE MARMALADE

Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 45 min

Servings: 4 pints

Ingredients:

2 larges Oranges Thick skinned variety

1 teaspoon Lemon Juice

2 cups Water

3 cups Sugar Approx amount

Directions

NIGHT BEFORE

Wash oranges to remove any dust or possible pesticides. Peel oranges and carefully trim the inner white layer off the rind. Julienne the rind, making each sliver approximately one half inch in length. Discard the pith and seeds from oranges, then finely chop the fruit over a container to catch the juice.

Combine water, juice, minced fruit, and rind in an enameled or heavy stainless steel sauce pan. Bring mixture to a simmer and slowly simmer, uncovered, for ten minutes.

Cover, cool and set in refrigerator overnight.

NEXT MORNING

Wash and sterilize canning jars. Expect to need at least 4 8oz jars or 6 4 oz jars. Set jars on cookie sheet in 250 F oven until ready for use.

Measure fruit mixture. Add 1 cup sugar for each cup of mixture. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring until sugar melts.

Position a candy thermometer in the mixture and continue to heat uncovered. stirring occasionally, until candy thermometer reaches 215. Monitor closely as temperature raises to 220 degrees F.

Marmalade can be tested for when it is done using a large metal spoon. Scoop a little juice into the spoon and cool slightly. Tip spoon and watch the droplets. Marmalade is done when the juice slides together on a tilted spoon, sheeting down off of the spoon rather than pouring as a liquid.

When marmalade sheets during spoon test, remove from heat and stir for one minute.

Skim froth off surface and gently scoop marmalade into prepared jelly jars. Fill to 1/8″ of top. Wipe rims with clean damp cloth, set tops and gently tighten rings.

Cool jars, then test seals. Lid should be vacuumed down and not pop up and down. With ring removed, you should not be able to lift lid away from jar with very gentle effort. Put ring on jars, do not tighten, leave the rings loosely screwed onto the jars. Store in a cool dark place.

Approx. 50 calories per tablespoon.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:57:38 +0000

Wishing you a very happy Valentine’s Day, whether you are in a relationship and looking forward to an evening of romance, or are one of many singles this year that will be taking advantage of a day made for self indulgence and pampering yourself like you never take the time for throughout the rest of the year.

Today is the day when all of us singles should take a few hours to indulge our desire to be pampered. To give ourselves an excuse to relax and not stress. To soak in a hot tub with candles and aromatherapy. Prepare our favorite meal and put on a movie that we adore.

This is the day when we might treat ourselves to a new soft bathrobe or comfortable pajamas. Indulge in a home perm. Maybe have a girls night out with friends that will end in a slumber party and a night of games and pampering reminiscent of our teen years.

Doctor Office Waiting Room

Admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:13:53 +0000

Why do doctors have to take the name “waiting room” so literally?

I took my dad to the doctor’s office yesterday. Had an appointment for 4 pm to see his doctor for general stuff and cause he wanted to find out if she could help him with getting to see a more specialized eye doctor that might be able to help with the trouble he is having seeing the television. And he wanted to talk about pains he is having on occasion in his right arm and his leg. (I think I have that pinned down to being caused by fast temperature drops outside causing draft through the front door, but we wanted to be sure that was all it was), and he wanted to have her get him a referral to a driving school in Anchorage saying that he can drive a car.

So, anyway. The appointment had been for 4 in the afternoon, but I had some trouble getting a ride for me and him so called and asked if she was running late. She was. So nurse rescheduled dad to 4:30 instead. Turned out the ride we had got was not going to be able to get us there by then, so I called back to see if I could move time out a bit more. Rescheduled to 4:45 with note I might be 15 to 20 minutes past that.

I had known from past experience that we would be sitting in the lobby for a while still so I had asked about being late just to be sure we would not miss our appointment time and the nurse had said that was okay, but she said not much past that.

Ended up getting there at 5, which nurse said was great. Place closes at 5 and nurses go home at 5:30.

My dad and I settled in to the chairs to wait. And we waited, and waited. After one hour of waiting I realized that we would not make it to the AmVets meeting that he had wanted to attend at 7. After two full hours of waiting we were shown into the back for the nurse to take vitals. After that was finished we were shown back to the room to wait.

That was at 7:15 based on the text message I sent someone when we were shown back there. And we waited. And waited. Finally right at an hour after we were shown in there the doctor arrived.

My dad had slept through the hour wait, just as he had mostly slept through the wait out in the waiting room. By the time the doctor was there we had forgot most of what we had gone in there for. Which is why taking a list is always a good idea. I had forgot the list though.

I at least remembered that dad wanted to ask her about if she could recommend anyone that might be able to look at his eyes and see if there was a way to correct his vision or not. She is going to try to get him an appointment with the people in on the base in Anchorage that told me they were not seeing retirees at the moment. She’d also mentioned someone that might be able to help with coming out to the house. I’m not sure on that one though, since that is just a person that sells glasses and would be coming from 80 miles away.

I also remembered that he wanted her to say he can still drive and get him a referral to a place in Anchorage that would get him back his driver’s license. Now, I could understand my siblings all encouraging him since they all want to be good little children that he adores, but I had thought his doctor at least might side with me on his inability to drive. Nope. She told him it was a great idea and she would set up the appointment for him.

What. The. Hell????? He can not see, has no vision to the left and minimal to the right. He can not stay awake for more than an hour at a time. He slumps to the side when he sits. Has no use of left side. And is prone to loss of control of his good hand so he can’t hold onto things. And his doctor says it is a “Great idea!” when I say he wants a note from her that he is fit enough to be driving? My brother noted that she just did not want to be the baddie, was passing the buck, but come on! Give the caregiver a bit of a break here and help her out a little. Now when I take him to be told no by the other guys he is going to scream at me to find someone else because his doctor said that he can drive. How is a caregiver supposed to cope when not even the doctors will help? She won’t even help me coax him to stop smoking. It all just makes me want to cry.

We finally got out of there and headed for gas station at 8:55 pm. Missed his American Veteran’s organization meeting and I could not go to the store as I had planned, so we just came home.

Then he spent all night grouching at me, I suppose because the naps in the doctor’s office chairs had been non restful and he was cranky. Or because he realized half the things he had wanted to ask her about were forgotten or lost under her wanting to share stuff about how bad President Obama was.

I hate having to waste four hours, not including the hour driving time or the 3 hours to get me and dad ready to go, that a doctor’s appointment takes.

Protected: Oh what a day

Admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:35:37 +0000

Calcium Supplements

Admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:51:58 +0000

I just called my dad’s doctor to see if I can swap out the Tumms that he has been taking as a calcium supplement for just a standard over the counter calcium pill. There is no problem with that, and I discovered yet another small detail that I had not known about medications.

The assistant gal I talked to said that when taking a calcium supplement, the body will only absorb 500 mg at a time, so when taking over 500 mg of calcium you need to spread it out throughout the day so that the body can absorb the proper amount of prescribed calcium.

Happy New Year!

Admin — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:02:46 +0000

It is 2010 – Happy New Year!!

I’ll share my resolutions tomorrow and would love to hear what your resolutions as a family caregiver are.

Protected: To My Friends – Life Update

Admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:40:07 +0000

Protected: Wait… say that again?

Admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:05:35 +0000

Protected: What is it about family?

Admin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:55:37 +0000

Seniors Work Off Taxes

Admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:37:09 +0000

I saw something on the news a little while ago about a small town that was letting senior citizens work off the taxes they owe. It caught my interest and I wanted to know more about it, so I went to Google.

I was surprised by just how many of those programs there apparently are. For example…

Boulder County Colorado has a work off program that allows seniors to work for $10 an hour, minimum payment of $240, maximum of $1,000 with the determining factor on where the wages are cut off being what the County portion of the senior’s taxes is.

Saco, Maine is the one I saw on the news, which allows residents age 60 and older to work at volunteer jobs for owed taxes. Working for 103 hours can earn a senior citizen up to $750 toward their tax bill.

According to the Boston Globe, Massachusetts residents from Merrimac to Somerville are also taking advantage of programs that allow them to work off taxes.

This is a rather good idea in my humble opinion, so I am going to start a collection on this site of links to states and cities that offer programs that allow seniors to work off part or all of their taxes.