Smile Moments
I thought I'd share a few moments with you that made me smile recently.
My Mom
Wow man at the nursing home seems to have taken a shining to my mother. My mother finds him annoying, and she avoids him as much as she can. The other day I was pushing her down the hall in her wheelchair and Wow man was coming towards us from the other direction. There was no way to avoid him, so we kept going, but he leaned way over towards her, talking to my mom and making funny faces at her trying to get her to laugh. My mom just scowled at him.
Many of the residents at the home have personal alarms attached either to their wheelchairs or to their clothing. These residents are at risk of falling if they try to stand on their own. The alarms go off if they move too far out of their chair which warns the aides to check on them.
Anyway, Wow man was trying to make mom laugh when he leaned too far out of his chair and set his alarm off. It was very loud and sudden, and Wow man was very visibly startled and nearly jumped out of his skin. THAT made my mom laugh. I had to laugh with her.
The residents at the nursing home are given menus to circle the items they prefer for their meals. When I visit my mom, I go over the menus with her and mark her choices for her because she has difficulty doing it for herself.
When visiting mom yesterday, I started going over her menus with her. Before I could even tell her the choices for the first meal, she said she wanted the turkey sandwich. I looked at the menu, but there was no turkey sandwich listed. I told her the choice was between a tuna sandwich and beef stew. I showed her the menu.
She looked at it, looked at me, and then said again that she wanted the turkey sandwich. At first, I thought that she was just having trouble communicating with me because she often struggles to find the words that she wants to say, but then I looked at her eyes. They were twinkling, and I could tell she was trying not to laugh.
I smiled at her and she went into a giggle fit. I told her again that there was no turkey sandwich on the menu, and she said, "I know." Then she went into a full on laugh. She was just messing with me---being ornery. It was a very little moment, but that little glimpse of her sense of humor did me good.
My Coworker
One of my coworkers is a floater. She works some of the time at the main library with me, but she also "floats" around and works at our five branch libraries when she is needed to fill in for someone elsewhere. She was upset the other day because of a comment that one of the supervisors had said to her. Although procedures are basically the same at the main library as they are at the branches, each branch has its own little rules and idiosyncrasies about how things are done.
She had done something at one of the branches the way we would do it at main, but the supervisor at the branch pointed out to her that it was done differently there. She was upset about the incident and said, "It just fries my taters!"
I broke out in a laugh at her figure of speech and told her I had never heard that before. She paused her story with kind of a blank look on her face and then smiled when she realized what I was laughing at. That moment kind of put her more at ease and she relaxed a little bit. She calmed down some then and finished telling me about what had happened. When she had finished relaying it, she said, "Thanks. You know, you're a good listener." That made me smile too. It made me feel good to know that I had helped her somehow, if only by being quiet and letting her speak her mind.
Colors in the Sky
Winter tends to make me feel depressed. I miss the sunshine. I get tired of looking at everything being gray, white, or black. I miss color. I always look forward to spring with its explosion of color and light.
However, it seems lately, although there is still plenty of white to see in the snow on the ground, we have been blessed with beautiful colors in the sky. I have been trying to take note of that whenever it happens and celebrate it because I do find much joy in looking at the colors I see in nature.
This morning there was a fantastic sunrise. Seeing that sunrise made having to get up early for other reasons seem worthwhile. This is what sunrise looked like this morning out my front door. It made me smile.
That's me, the maple tree monkey climbing in the maple tree in the back yard of the home I grew up in as a kid. I used to climb up there to read or just to sit and think. Yes, I know I used to be a little on the strange side. (Used to be?) I don't remember who took this picture. It must have been either my dad or my mom.
Those short shorts and my long legs hanging out there made me laugh. YIKES! Did we really wear shorts like that back then? I guess we did! Apparently I did, anyway. Seeing this picture reminded me of that old Nair commercial where the girls sang, "Who wears short shorts? We wear short shorts." Do you remember that? Here's one of them.
My Mom
Wow man at the nursing home seems to have taken a shining to my mother. My mother finds him annoying, and she avoids him as much as she can. The other day I was pushing her down the hall in her wheelchair and Wow man was coming towards us from the other direction. There was no way to avoid him, so we kept going, but he leaned way over towards her, talking to my mom and making funny faces at her trying to get her to laugh. My mom just scowled at him.
Many of the residents at the home have personal alarms attached either to their wheelchairs or to their clothing. These residents are at risk of falling if they try to stand on their own. The alarms go off if they move too far out of their chair which warns the aides to check on them.
Anyway, Wow man was trying to make mom laugh when he leaned too far out of his chair and set his alarm off. It was very loud and sudden, and Wow man was very visibly startled and nearly jumped out of his skin. THAT made my mom laugh. I had to laugh with her.
* * * * *
The residents at the nursing home are given menus to circle the items they prefer for their meals. When I visit my mom, I go over the menus with her and mark her choices for her because she has difficulty doing it for herself.
When visiting mom yesterday, I started going over her menus with her. Before I could even tell her the choices for the first meal, she said she wanted the turkey sandwich. I looked at the menu, but there was no turkey sandwich listed. I told her the choice was between a tuna sandwich and beef stew. I showed her the menu.
She looked at it, looked at me, and then said again that she wanted the turkey sandwich. At first, I thought that she was just having trouble communicating with me because she often struggles to find the words that she wants to say, but then I looked at her eyes. They were twinkling, and I could tell she was trying not to laugh.
I smiled at her and she went into a giggle fit. I told her again that there was no turkey sandwich on the menu, and she said, "I know." Then she went into a full on laugh. She was just messing with me---being ornery. It was a very little moment, but that little glimpse of her sense of humor did me good.
My Coworker
One of my coworkers is a floater. She works some of the time at the main library with me, but she also "floats" around and works at our five branch libraries when she is needed to fill in for someone elsewhere. She was upset the other day because of a comment that one of the supervisors had said to her. Although procedures are basically the same at the main library as they are at the branches, each branch has its own little rules and idiosyncrasies about how things are done.
She had done something at one of the branches the way we would do it at main, but the supervisor at the branch pointed out to her that it was done differently there. She was upset about the incident and said, "It just fries my taters!"
I broke out in a laugh at her figure of speech and told her I had never heard that before. She paused her story with kind of a blank look on her face and then smiled when she realized what I was laughing at. That moment kind of put her more at ease and she relaxed a little bit. She calmed down some then and finished telling me about what had happened. When she had finished relaying it, she said, "Thanks. You know, you're a good listener." That made me smile too. It made me feel good to know that I had helped her somehow, if only by being quiet and letting her speak her mind.
Colors in the Sky
Winter tends to make me feel depressed. I miss the sunshine. I get tired of looking at everything being gray, white, or black. I miss color. I always look forward to spring with its explosion of color and light.
However, it seems lately, although there is still plenty of white to see in the snow on the ground, we have been blessed with beautiful colors in the sky. I have been trying to take note of that whenever it happens and celebrate it because I do find much joy in looking at the colors I see in nature.
This morning there was a fantastic sunrise. Seeing that sunrise made having to get up early for other reasons seem worthwhile. This is what sunrise looked like this morning out my front door. It made me smile.
Old Photos
I still have a lot of things from my mom's house that I have to sort through. It has been a very slow and tedious process for me. This week I've been going through boxes of old photos. I found this one of my nieces and nephews. It made me smile because it was taken many years ago when they were much younger, but they are sitting all lined up on a couch in much the same way as they were in another photo I took recently and posted not too long ago on this blog.
Here's the photo I posted not too long ago of those same kids.
Here is another old photo that made me laugh.
Yes, that's me. I think that was taken in 1977 or 1978, but I'm not sure. My hair pulled up in those two high ponytails on the side of my head made me laugh. It must have been a hot day, and I was trying to get the hair off my neck to cool off. Actually, the photo above was cropped from the one below.
Those short shorts and my long legs hanging out there made me laugh. YIKES! Did we really wear shorts like that back then? I guess we did! Apparently I did, anyway. Seeing this picture reminded me of that old Nair commercial where the girls sang, "Who wears short shorts? We wear short shorts." Do you remember that? Here's one of them.
I hope you find some moments that make you smile in your day today. Thanks for letting me share some of mine with you.
