If you have an older relative who has recently begun using a Miracle-Ear hearing aid, then you might be encountering some difficulties in helping them to adjust. Hearing aids are a great way to restore hearing capability and improve quality of life, but getting used to them can certainly be a bit of a learning curve. If you want to help an older relative transition smoothly into their new life with a hearing aid, here are four great tips to help you get started. Continue reading “4 Tips To Adapt To A Hearing Aid”
Not Yet Rated
Gripping at the final credits as the film winds through the reels, waiting patiently in the dark for the next teaser. Some trailer or scene, spoilers for a sequel. All that is the left is the on location references and music acknowledgments, bore fest. My life was turning into that same scene of musical contributions and location listings, only the equivalency was a historical ledger, best known as a resume, of career moves and an epic failure. Continue reading “Not Yet Rated”
Christians so unlike their Christ
Some of you may or may not know from a previous post that I went to work for ministry. As my husband would refer, I am “The Church Lady.” I was warned that this would be the most challenging position of my life. Continue reading “Christians so unlike their Christ”
Girly and Gutsy Young Female Entrepreneurs in Fashion
Girls fashion is all over the board. I swore to The Chad I didn’t want a daughter because I was terrified of the world she would be raised. Obviously I ate those words, but today I am terrified nonetheless because of the amount of undue and unnecessary sexualization in our society that is aimed at young girls and young women. Fashion seems to be the biggest driver. However, I have found that even the best gems in fashion can emerge under all the pressure. Some girly, gutsy female entrepreneurs that create fun fashion without oversexualizing and or seeming too dull or lacking relevancy for young women. Continue reading “Girly and Gutsy Young Female Entrepreneurs in Fashion”
What Divorce Taught Me About Marriage
Today would have marked my parent’s fortieth (40) wedding anniversary. I am in awe because they have been divorced longer than they were ever married. I was inspired to write this post because of an interaction by proxy of both of my parents. Feeling like a gossip as I held these secrets between each of my parents in separate conversations. During those conversations I learned what their divorce taught me about marriage, my marriage. Continue reading “What Divorce Taught Me About Marriage”
They Said It’s a Calling but They Called Me
I have done many eccentrically brave (or daft) actions in my life. All of these actions called to me at some point, I heard them, they spoke to me, so I answered without hesitation. My first tattoo as an adult, a declaration that I am me, symbolizing my adulthood, independence and personality. Moving out of my parents home, heeding the call of the wild world, jumping feet first into the business instead of college. Still a teen (an adult child of sorts), I became the boss to a gaggle of man-children in business….see mom, being bossy paid off, leadership skills. Continue reading “They Said It’s a Calling but They Called Me”
Fuel Your Sound for Music – AudioTechnica SonicFuel Earbuds Giveaway
Let me just say I am very particular and have undiagnosed OCD, I have to have things a certain way. When I listen to music I have despised the old school foam headphones, they made me want to itch. The over the ear headphones cause a feeling of claustrophobia. In the ear, well, those have to fit or I am constantly fidgeting which causes me even more frustration. I love to hear the sound of music, clearly, so ear buds have to be just right. From the deep bass, to the treble and understanding the words speaking life into my ears. Ear buds are like Cinderella’s glass slipper, not each ear is like the other, you have to find that right fit. Continue reading “Fuel Your Sound for Music – AudioTechnica SonicFuel Earbuds Giveaway”
Confessions of a Prodigal Son
Life is about creating a story. The story we write or create is based on the decisions we make banded together with His story. So often we think we have total and ultimate control over our decisions and to some degree we do. Often we are allowed the opportunity to live our life a certain way, where our Father allows us to learn the hard lessons in life, sometimes painful, challenging and can reveal the worst parts of ourselves. Continue reading “Confessions of a Prodigal Son”
When Is It Time for Adult Diapers?
As we grow older, we gain an amazing sense of wisdom and we also gain a sense of gratification with the life we have lived. Lately I have been able to spend a great deal of time with my aging parents and grandparents, reveling in the lives they have lived, soaking in all the experiences. My mother is one of the assisting caregivers for my grandparents in their aging process so I have had the opportunity to experience certain situations that come with age. Even the situations that are not pleasurable. For many older adults, incontinence is one of the things they worry about, and sometimes experience, the most.
Worrying about incontinence is very understandable. Sometimes there may be a bit of denial about adult diapers becoming a part of their daily life. Many adults do not like using the word “diaper”, and that is completely understandable. My grandfather is one of these adults, at the ripe age of 84, he does not want to accept getting older though his mind is as sharp as it was when he was 40; his body, unfortunately is not as sharp and neither is the muscle tone that aids us in our facilities as we age.
If you think your parent, patient, or someone else you love may have to take that step in wearing something to remain healthy and sanitary, here are some things that you may be able say to help him or her to feel better about and prepare them in the situation.
Provide Him Or Her With Samples
Many people hear “adult diapers” and they think about these big, bulky diapers. They immediately think about what a baby wears, and they imagine they will have to wear something like that. They think that if they wear those big diapers people will obviously know what they are wearing. That is not how things are anymore. The disposable briefs and underwear can be pulled up and down just like our normal briefs and underwear. You can provide samples that allow them to feel how comfortable they are. They will also be able to see how they will be the only one who knows they are wearing adult underwear.
You Don’t Have To Use The Word “Diapers”
No adult wants to feel like a baby or young child. If you want ease your parent or patient’s concern,
you can refer to the incontinence products as adult underwear or adult briefs. To some people, using
the word diaper can be a bit insulting. You don’t want to add insult to injury to someone who is
already having a difficult time accepting they may need assistance with incontinence.
If you feel as if you can have an appropriate and gentle conversation with him or her, you may have
to make them aware of the things you have noticed. Sometimes as adults get older, they cannot
smell as well as they used to. They may not be aware of a smell. Many adults and their family members fear incontinence, but if you are kind and considerate in your approach you can have a better chance of getting them to at least try them.
If you need help on choosing adult underwear or briefs for someone you love, or if you want to purchase samples to show them, click here to find out more to help work through this new transition in aging. What was helpful for my family is that Comfort Plus is a company based right here in Arizona. We didn’t have to worry about which representative and if a representative could assist us, we had peace of mind with dealing with a local organization.
While we would all love to age perfectly with grace, sometimes we have to accept that our bodies age faster than we would like. However, accepting the unpleasantness in aging does not mean that we have to be treated disgracefully. Incontinence products allows our aging loved ones to still be engaged in their activities without feeling embarrassed or insulted.
Has Social Media Become Anti Social Media
A friend of mine posted the other day about how Facebook has turned into a feed of others posting videos they have seen and no longer a forum for conversation. His comment was profound to say the least.
“Do people still actually post things here or is just a forum to share videos you found on the internet?”
Our social media venues have become more of the anti social media as we fail to engage one another. Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) seem to have transformed into venues of mental masturbation to help pass the minutes as we exercise, exercise bowel movements and or exercise our lack of effort into our careers and selves.
Many a late nights I used to delve into Twitter and Facebook. Twitter especially, as I engaged on many a conversations, albeit some superficial “mom talk,” as my twins were much younger and I found an online community of other women who had the same subscription of life. Bantering, high level disagreements and even some catty non-sense. However, the result was all the same. Conversation.
Today I see Twitter as a monologue, at best. Almost like a telemarketing convention where all of the sellers are dialing out to potential consumers with their tweets in hopes someone will buy their sales pitch. I was saddened to see my own church guilty of the same actions. Services were provided with a hashtag to “join the conversation.” Really? Who would we be conversing with? Other members I suppose, but I found that to be very anti social as well with other members tweeting, never actually engaging in a dialogue.
Facebook has transformed itself into much of the same fashion…coupled with the sisterhood of Instagram. Timelines are littered with selfies and no longer original and or beautiful content. I have watched these two venues turn into a cesspool of narcissism interlaced into being “social.” Social would be how many likes you received for your newest photo and nothing really ever of a conversation.
Have we let our new technology and new forms of communication dilute, if not totally eliminate, any true forms of communication or dialogue? Or is this the way we communicate now these days with pictures, videos, selfies and emoticons? How do we begin to converse with one another again?
With advancements of technology and forms of communication have we catapulted ourselves into the age of anti social media? Recalling an email I received from my dad about 10 years ago, he provided me his new phone number when he was living in Iowa and said, “text me if you want to talk.” I replied and guffawed at such a request, “I don’t text Dad.” Was I flippant, naive, optimistic that communication would remain status-quo? Maybe a combination of all three, never in my wildest dreams would I consider communicating with my parents, let alone my friends in such a fashion. Never would I have imagined creating a blog when just six months pregnant to detail the chronology of my twins in utero, their lives thereafter, our lives in their entirety as a collective over the past eight years.
I suppose since our lives are so busy, social media helps to keep us abreast of all of friends goings-on. Maybe we help show them our interests with the different shares and social likes through Facebook and Twitter. Social media has helped us connect with one another instantly and receive updates on breaking events in the blink of an eye as opposed to waiting for the following day or the late evening newscast. Yet, we seem to be more anti social because we have updates so frequently, so immediate that we can even sever friendships with the click of a button, block the information we receive, filter our lives to seem, feel and look perfect.
Have these “social” venues created an opportunity of anti social behavior?
Social media has allowed us to avoid having meaningful and legitimate dialogues with the click of a button, removing people from our lives when conversations become crucial. While we can connect immediately, we can disconnect just as easily. As opposed to having a healthy dialogue, we just shut the conversation down with block, delete, un-follow, unlike. We can avoid sharing how our lives are imperfect by sharing some of the best photos of the day when the picture behind the camera would suggest normal humanity, beautifully broken. Suddenly we have keyboard muscles that we exert as our form of exercise, because to exercise our mental capacity to accept diversity that something is less than perfect or a comment is less than favorable we remove the threat. Our behavior on social media is dramatically different that in person, acting as if we lack any inhibition to hurting another because we may not actually have real life interaction with people.
Have you found yourself in the vortex of anti social media? Have you found you are only sharing videos and other posts and never really engaging in real, healthy conversations or dialogues? Has your social media become a monologue and not a dialogue?