These cookbooks represent different eras in my life and those of my family.  They bring back memories of neighbors, Sunday school teachers, family members and several at the nursing home.  I recall occasions when many of the recipes were served.

If you have any of these community cookbooks in which your Alzheimer’s family member participated, perhaps browsing through them with her would help spark memories and conversation.  Names of other contributors could bring forth stories.

I also need (Ah! to find the time!) to go through these cookbooks and jot down memories of the recipes and the various people who played a role in my life during those eras.

Do you have community cookbooks in your life?  Or your Alzheimer’s family member?

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Post from: Blisstree

Mother’s Participation in Community Cookbooks

We are a family of readers in our multi-generational home (grandfather, granny, mom, dad and the two children).  Books abound around the house, the library is a fun place to visit, bookstores (new and used) hold a fascination, and online bookstores are enjoyable to access.

Reading in an Alzheimer’s World

My mother was a reader, too, and could sit midst clutter in her kitchen and read before the woodstove.  When any of us remarked that there were dishes to be washed, etc., Mother replied, “The chores will always be there.  But I might not always be able to read.”

How true!  When Mother reached her Alzheimer’s years, she would follow words with her finger in a magazine and repeat them out loud.  When she could no longer do that, a staff member or I would read to her.  Then she looked at magazine pictures, when she couldn’t understand words, and recalled memories they brought to mind.

So treasure your ability to read and encourage your children to do so.  Reading brought Mother pleasure and learning for many years.  I even have a read book she used in school in the early 1900s.

What types of books are we reading in our family?  Mysteries, fantasy, sci-fi, quilting and fabric art, inspirational and Biblical.  I’m reviewing picture books and those on Alzheimer’s for my blogs.

What are you reading this winter?

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Reading on a Snowy Day in an Alzheimer’s Family

 
May this be a special day for you. 

We have been enjoying Valentine’s Day flowers, cards and candy.  This was a fun day at school yesterday with the Valentine parties.  Today the children in our household are enjoying it, too.

How have you been celebrating?  Is the Alzheimer’s patient in your family enjoying this day, too?  My mom always made a special occasion of Valentine’s Day when my siblings and I were young.  Even in her Alzheimer’s years, as long as she was aware of the day, she wanted me to help her send valentines to family members.

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Happy Valentine’s Day from Alzheimer’s Notes

Alphabet Cake Pan
Personalize your birthday cake with an alphabet cake pan. Make their initials, or their age in cake! 

Busy Family Meals
Vindaloo sauce can be used to flavor meats, but we like it best as a vegetarian delight!

Chocolate Covered Buttercrunch Bars                                                                                                       Chocolate and buttercrunch treats made with a surprise ingredient.

Cooking Gadgets
Space saving genius: collapsible colanders!

Horehound Drops
A herbal home remedy for a sore throat or cough.

Old Woodenware Stirs Memories
Mary Emma, at Country Kitchen, finds that old kitchen woodenware brings back memories of cooking in the farmhouse kitchen of childhood.

Super Bowl Snack: Edamame “Hummus”
A delicious thick dip made with edamame, tofu and avocado

The Experts’ Suggestions to Curb Nighttime Noshing
Most of the registered dieticians and diet websites Jean found as she tries to curb her nightly noshing habit have pretty specific suggestions to help.

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Creating Interesting Meals in the Alzheimer’s Household with the Help of the Food Bloggers

You also may want to play around with your photos…making faded ones more visible, correcting mistakes in current ones, cropping them, printing just one or two people from a group, etc.

My daughter has been having fun playing with her Christmas gift, Photoshop Elements 7, as she experiments with photos and gets ideas for her quilting and fabric art. It’s amazing what all can be done with photos to improve them, to combine them, and to give them new looks. However, we both see possibilities for our family photos…current ones and older ones.

I’m fascinated as I watch Beth with this program…and she’s just begun to learn the fundamentals. She also purchased some books that give her more techniques and ideas.

Have you done anything with these photo programs?  What fun for enhancing memory photos and saving family history.

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Enhancing Memory Photos

My mom probably would have looked at the cover of this board book and began reminiscing with me about raising ducks and ducklings on our farm.  We had a brook that ran between the house and barn where the ducks liked to swim.  We did have to be careful that Mother Duck didn’t take her babies swimming when they were too young.  The current could have been swift for tiny ducklings.

Do you have any favorite bird books? Are any on my list of Bird Books at One Book Two Book.

Are there any that bring back memories for your Alzheimer’s patient?

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Bird Books for National Bird Day…To Enjoy with Children & Alzheimer’s Patients

 In later years, when I had a family, we made gifts for my mom and for my mother-in-law as well as others.  One Christmas, my daughter Beth stitched my mother a lap quilt.  Mother always had enjoyed quilts although she hadn’t made any since she was a child. 

 She seemed to enjoy this gift, even though she had Alzheimer’s and resided in a nursing home.  She would finger the pattern and pieces and comment, “Pretty.”

 My mother-in-law asked Beth to make her a small quilt to hang on her wall.  Beth used the Ohio Star pattern because Mum grew up in that state, even though she’d spent the last 60 years of her life in New Hampshire.

 Children and grandchildren making gifts for Alzheimer’s patients, whether a family member or someone in a nursing home, creates memories for them and enables them to learn about caring and giving and making someone happy.

At some point the Alzheimer’s illness may affect the person so they don’t understand nor express appreciation.  Youngsters then learn that they make the gift with love and care; they can’t control the recipient’s reaction.  Yet they can enjoy the experience of giving.

(Incidentally, my daughter just read an article reporting that more people are purchasing craft supplies and making gifts or buying them from craftspeople.)

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Handmade Gifts for Alzheimer’s Patients

My grandchildren and I enjoyed tea parties with my mom when she resided in the nursing home.  They became a ritual, even after Mother no longer really knew what it was all about.  She smiled and chattered and seemed to enjoy the children.  From this evolved memories the youngsters and I shall treasure.

Why not plan tea parties for your family members in the nursing home?  Victorian tea parties can be such fun.

Read about one my friend planned for her mother at Seasoned Citizen Activities.  You may enjoy organizing one for a family member.  Perhaps you can find someone who does this on a regular basis…hosting tea parties.

(Image from Art of Appreciation Gourmet Gift Baskets)

Related Posts:

Tea Parties for Alzheimer’s Patients

Tea Time at Alzheimer’s Notes – Caregivers Sharing

Tea Time at Alzheimer’s Notes – Tea Time With Mother

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Plan a Victorian Tea Party for Your Alzheimer’s Patient

We woke up to 5 inches of snow this morning and wondered if school would be delayed.  However, when the grandchildren checked (we live in a three generation household), it was school as usual for them and substitute teaching for me. 

Snow can interest Alzheimer’s patients, too, as long as they don’t have to go out into it.  I can remember ,when Mother lived with Jim and me, having to get her up on a snowy morning and take her to daycare so I could go to my teaching work.  In these cases, snow may look lovely, but can be a challenge when you need to transport an Alzheimer’s patient.  (These were the days before the rest of our family lived with Jim and me.)

The youngsters in the classes I taught were excited by this actual snowfall since we’d only had flurries before here in New Hampshire.  Mother always encouraged our snowy activities when I was a child and often joined us.  These are memories I now treasure.

What types of snow activities does your family participate in throughout the winter?  (That’s assuming you live in snow country or a hemisphere that’s experiencing winter.)

• Sledding
• Ice skating
• Skiing
• Snow boarding
• Cross-country skiing
• Making snow ice cream
• Snowshoeing
• Looking for animal tracks in the snow
• Making snowmen
• Drawing snowy pictures
• Making paper snowflakes
• Studying about snowflakes 
• Reading beside a fireplace and watching it snow outside
• Baking gingerbread cookies that look like snowmen

Share with us your snowy day activities.  Does your Alzheimer’s family member tell stories of their days in the snow?

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Snowy Day Activities & Memories with Alzheimer’s Patients

Quilting often is a family project and one that has memories for the Alzheimer’s patient as well.  If they can’t participate, they may reminisce or simply express interest in the colors and activity.

I made quilts with my grandmother when I was eight-years old.  My daughter and granddaughter became involved in this art at a young age.

My mom told us about sewing and making quilts when she was as young as six-years old.  So, even in her Alzheimer’s years, she showed an interest in quilts even though she could no longer do quilting.

I’ve compiled a list of Fascinating Quilting/Fabric Art Books, at my Quilting and Patchwork blog Pages.  These will remain as a resource for my readers’ future use and referral.

Do you have favorite quilting and fabric art books you’d like to share? 

Or mention projects you’re involved in? 

Does your Alzheimer’s family member participate?

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Sharing Quilting With Your Alzheimer’s Patient & Family