Pill Sorting Activity

I am an Occupational Therapist Assistant. I know most everyone is now like “Is that like Physical Therapist?” or “You help people work?”. I am part of a rehabilitation team and I work to get elderly patients home. I work on getting them back to doing things like dressing, toileting, and standing balance. One of the things people have to do upon returning home is to take their meds and learn to keep them straight. I made a pill sorting activity tonight that I can take with me to teach people how to properly sort their pills.

I found a pill label template  and I edited the contents of the labels to make it easy for my patients.

finished bottles.

I only included the name of a fake pharmacy, a joke doctor name (See one says Donna Noble…a la Doctor Who lol), real drug name and when to take it. I filled them with different colored beads and included an empty pill box for them to  sort the “pills” into. I then used scotch tape to fasten them to the bottle then layer other strips to “laminate” it to the bottle. Done!

Now you don’t have to use this for a therapy job! I have found many uses like party favors (filled with candy)….joke gifts…and many other! It’s a fun, simple activity that had multiple uses! Make labels for chill pills, happy pills, fun pills and fill them with candy and hand out to friends/family! Go crazy and have fun with it!

10 Tips to Spend Less on Food

I know it has been awhile since I have posted on my blog but life has just been so busy! My boyfriend is moving in with me so we’ve bene working on that then he dislocated his shoulder which has left us in a bind. So we’ve been focusing on the move and almost nothing else! After looking on pinterest I found a post about top 10 tips on how to save on food. Being a frugal person I love this pin and I do several important things on it to keep my own costs down.

The Pin:

Food saving tips

Tip #2: I always use brown bananas to make banana bread! I don’t know anyone who doesn’t but I never thought about freezing them! A local store always has cheap, brown bananas for super cheap so I may try this once.

Tip #3: I rarely have leftovers because I usually cook just enough for my family because a lot of us don’t like to eat them. If there are leftovers I will take some for lunch the next day but things that won’t taste good reheated I will put out for the strays.

Tip #5: Every Wednesday I get the food ads in the mail so I will look at whats on sale and plan my meals around that. If chicken is on sale for a cheap price, $1.99/lb or less I will buy enough for 2 weeks worth of meals. I also combine this tip with #4 and use items on sale this week with items I got for cheap last week. It works well and saves me a lot of money every week/month/year. I also combine these sales with tip #10 and get things on sale then use coupons on them to pay a lot less. This week target has Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup for $0.69 and I have a coupon for $0.40/4 and 5% off so for 4 cans I will pay $2.22 (about $0.50 each).

Tip #6: This tip also gets combined with #5 in those weekly ads you will see cheap produce on sale and the cheaper items are the ones in season. Also in the fall I will go to local markets like an Amish store or the local farmer’s market for cheaper, local fresh produce.

Tip #7: I don’t think I have ever done a meatless meal….I love my chicken, pork and fish lol!!

Tip #8: This is a good tip but I don’t make a list I have a rotation system in my freezer. I have my packages of chicken on one shelf and when I get more I pull the older ones to the front and put the newer ones behind them. So when I grab a package in the front I know it’s the older ones. I also will date the packages, sometimes with a date, but at times I get to lazy for this lol!

Tip #9 and #10: I will buy generic foods but often times I find I can get name brands for cheaper with coupons and sales. I haven’t had a good trash bag deal so I got the Target brand and used a 5% off to get some cheap bags. As for coupons….I could write a whole post on this!! Now I am not extreme…most legit coupon users find this to be an insult…I am a logical coupon user. I make sure to use them on the right things and never try to cheat the system! Target is the best place to shop since they have their own coupons on their site, you can use Sunday paper coupons, get their debit card to get 5% off, use their mobile q’s, and their new Cartwheel which gives you % off items. So I can clean up there lol!! I often save thousands of dollars by using coupons matched with sales and gift card deals!!

I love this list of tips since it can save you lots of cash! I am a big fan of saving money, using coupons, and by reusing items you have at home! I never realized how much I do this until I cleaned out my boyfriend’s deep freeze, freezer, fridge and pantry durin the moving process! He had so much expired foods in vast quantities…it looked like he forgot he had certain things in back so he bought more. The deep freezer was the worst he would just pile fresher foods on top of the old foods (he has a chest freezer mine is an upright) and by the time I got to the bottom of it he had food from 2007!!! Thankfully we agreed that I would do all the shopping for us lol!! Hope you  like the tips!!

Happy Pinning!

Banana Nut Bread

Last night my boyfriend came home with 4 rotting bananas he had found at his house and he asked me to make him some banana nut bread. Then he told me his roommate wanted me to make him some of my homemade beer bread (https://aradiasilvermoon.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/homemade-beer-bread/)  and at first I was flabbergasted thinking “What am I a short order cook?” But then I was flattered because apparently I was getting so good at baking homemade breads that everybody wants some! So off I went to my Pinterest page and I brought up the cooking board where, sure enough, I had a recipe pinned for banana but bread! Now the recipe I found was for a double, 2 loaf, batch so I cut the ingredients in half to make just one loaf. I put the half ingredients on this post but if you want the double batch ingredients go to the pin below.

The pin:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/bananabread/r/bl30426m.htm

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups flour

3 very ripe bananas mashed

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup chopped nuts

Ingredients

Melt the butter then cream with the sugar in a large bowl then add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly before adding another. Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a separate bowl then slowly add the dry mixture to the liquid ingredients. Then you mash the bananas on a plate.

Bananas ready to mix in the dough.

Then fold the bananas into the dough and mix well then add your chopped nuts (I used walnuts). After the dough is ready pour into a greased loaf pan and cook at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Ready to bake!

Now I don’t have an after photo since it’s not done cooking yet! I have made banana bread before so I know this will turn out just fine! 🙂 I love any fresh bread straight out of the oven! So warm, fluffy, and at times so gooey….I am getting hungry just thinking about it!!

Tips from me

I don’t have any today! This is a fairly easy, simple, and straight forward bread that anyone can make!

Happy pinning!!!

Crock Pot Round Steak and Gravy

I am sure I have said this before but I LOVE my crock pot. I just love putting ingredients in, turning it on, and leaving for work so when I get home dinner is ready to be served! So I am always looking for new recipes to use so I can expand my crock pot horizons! I bought some eye of round steaks at a local store sale ($1.90 for 2 steaks! Amazing!!) and wanted to do more then just pan frying them up. So off to Pinterest search I went and I came up with this:

The Pin:

http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/main-course/beef/crock-pot-round-steak-gravy.html#.UE3G0Kia0FA.pinterest

Ingredients:

Round steak (or eye of round like I used)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 packet Lipton onion soup mix

1/4 cup water

All you do it place the steak in the crock pot and add the soup, water, and onion soup mix on top of it and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Ready to cook!

After this is done cooking you can put these steaks on top of pasta, rice, or mashed potatoes….or you can eat them as is! I cooked tri-color rotini pasta and placed a steak on top of the noodles and poured some of the gravy on top. Yummy!

Ready to eat!

Tips from me:

#1 Before I added the onion soup mix I blended it with the water before pouring it over the steaks and mushroom soup.

#2 Right when they were done cooking, while I was baking the biscuits for dinner, I sliced up some mushrooms and onions (I left them in rings). I heated up a frying pan and added a small bit of butter and when ready I added the onions and let them slowly caramelize. When the onions were half cooked I added a little more butter and added the mushrooms and cooked until done! When I plated dinner I put the rotini on bottom, added the steak, poured a bit of gravy on top, and then top it all with a healthy dollop of the onions and mushrooms.

Onions and mushrooms added.

It turned out beautifully and tasted so yummy! Even my picky daughter said she loved them! She never liked mushrooms before so while cooking I had her help me caramelize the onions and mushrooms so when plating the food she said she wanted some. She has never cleaned her plate up so fast! She said she wants it more often so after I post this I am off to the store to get some more! I loved how quick and easy this dinner was (sometimes crock pot meals require more work once the entree is done) and the flavors….just amazing! Enjoy!!

Happy Pinning!!!

Hopes and Dreams

I have been sidelined by a badly sprained ankle so I have been unable to attempt any crafts, new recipes, or other things I have had lined up for awhile. So I haven’t had any new things to post but I missed posting so I was looking at my boards for anything new, funny, or inspiring. But what I found was a small almost forgotten board titled “My Dreams”. I started it when a group I was apart of wanted to know what everyones hopes and dreams for the future were. So I made the board to pin a few things and here are some of them

My Board:

http://www.pinterest.com/aradias/my-dreams/

First I would like to travel to Finland!

Finnish Flag

I know everyone reading this is going “Finland?!?” it’s the response I get a lot from my family and friends. I love so many bands that come from Finland and I have always been slightly obsessed with the region since my ancestry on my dads side comes from there.

Second I would love to be able to pay it forward in a big way!

Helping others

When I was down and needed help many people were there to support me and help me with so many things….among them paying my bills and rent. Right now I try my best to do what I can when I can. At times I have paid for someone else’s order and a restaurant or give food out to a homeless man. One day I will help others in a way I was helped!

and

Third every day I will tell myself this:

Motto

I have lots more dreams but these are some of my favorites! Remember everyday to do something random and nice for someone..it could be a smile, a hug, a soda, or buying them lunch. Anything can change a person’s life! Always follow my motto above!

Happy Pinning!

Step Out: To Stop Diabetes

Yesterday I had the honor to be apart of the annual Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes here in Kansas City. The walk started out in the park across from the Nelson Atkins art museum and we walked along brush creek to the country club plaza then back to the park. All in all it was about 2.5 miles in some of the nicest weather, along some gorgeous scenery. I walked with the team from my mom’s work North Kansas City Hospital and my brother in law and his kids walked for Team Subway (he owns several Subway restaurants)

Team North Kansas City

Team Leaders

My family me, my mom Georgieanna, my sister Angela, my nephew Drake, and my niece Hailey.

my brother in law Jeremy and niece Cloe

 

As a health care professional I know all to well the horrible side effects that diabetes can have on the human body. Amputations of toes and feet is common a long with diabetic neuropathy (loss of sensation in feet and hands). Often times I have to teach people how to compensate for loss of sensation so they can still live as independently as possible. We use our hands so much and never stop to think things like “How would I know my bathwater was too hot if I couldn’t feel it with my fingers?” and I have to teach people to use a thermometer since their hands can’t feel. Or teach them how to do skin checks on feet and hands since any cut or sore can lead to disastrous consequences up to and including amputation. Then I have to help rehab them to get them (hopefully) back to where they can live independently as possible. Often times they can’t and wind up either living with family or in long term care.

This is why I walked yesterday…for all my past and future patients affected by this disease.

Everyone who came out

Long line of walkers

Waterfall along the walk

One day I hope we can cure diseases like diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s….this is my dream!

Tomorrow back to my regularly scheduled pinning post! Have a good day!

Random Funnies

Often times I will pin things I find hilarious so that way when i get feeling sad I can look at them and laugh! Often times I will direct them at people in my life, via Facebook, to make them laugh too. Most often they are directed at my best friend, really like a sister, Larysa because we have the same humor and she would just “get” the joke!

The board: http://www.pinterest.com/aradias/funnies/

My best friend knows what to do!

I prefer either Arbor Mist blackberry, last time we drank I woke up with a headache and vague memories of a lot of laughing!, or Moscato D’Asti 😉

Amen!

The last one she found especially funny since she is a mom to 5 kids and they often don’t listen to her! Often times I will go with her (and take my 1 child) and help her corral her kids so she can do her shopping. I love those kids dearly but after 20 minutes of “Moooooooooooom Lily touched me!” “No I didn’t! But Aiden hit mmmmeeeeeeeee!!!” I am amazed she still has custody of them all (kidding)!

This is SO us!

Sounds fun huh??

And one final funny:

I HATE Twilight..cannot stand the movies…books…fandom…ANYTHING! So when I found this I started laughing so hard and couldn’t stop because it, IMO, is so true! I watched Buffy as a teen and I loved how she was a strong, positive role model for girls. She didn’t need to be save 24/7! Nope she kicked ass and had fun doing it! Now girl’s look at Bella and want to be her….WHY???…it boggles my mind because she doesn’t do anything as cool as Buffy did. Not to mention the fact that real vampires do not SPARKLE!!! Ugh….

Anyways hope you enjoyed these pins…because they make me laugh all the time!

 

Happy pinning!

Inspirational

As I posted yesterday I have a board solely devoted to inspirations where I can go for a quick lift when I need one. The last few days I have been very sick with a respiratory infection which has left me weak and tired. After returning to work today I was struck by just how low my endurance was…I mean I wasn’t able to keep up with my geriatric patients lol!! So I went to my boards to lift my spirits and I found two things that made me smile.

My favorite bible verse

This one reminds me that no matter what I go through that there is a purpose for everything. This illness had made me realize that if I can be made to feel this weak as a healthy 32 year old it’s no wonder it takes my patients months to recover. It sort of cements my drive to help them even more because this just SUCKS!

Read this daily until you believe it.

I love the first part because it rings very true for me I have survived a lot in my life but is had made me a better person and I wouldn’t change anything!

My motto

Tomorrow I will be making Skinny Chicken Enchiladas from my boards…can’t wait to try it!!

Happy Pinning…time for me to rest up before tomorrow!