Community Care Magazine for Elderly and Disabled: GAZETTE No.68TO ALL OUR READERS NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2009 Have a Home Made Christmas Much of the news this year has been about the financial problems surrounding us all. Many references have been made about saving money by returning to the old ways of make do and mend! Not quite make do and mend, but many hours can be happily spent at Christmas creating some of your own festive products rather than simply opening a purse and buying them. An interesting website to encourage us and our children/grandchildren to participate is: http://www.santaspostbag.co.uk/homemade-christmas-trimmings.html Perfect activities for a cold winter’s day! Green, Green, Green We are all trying to go a little bit "greener" as we seek to save precious energy. The following ideas may help a little so why not give them a try:
DLF The Disabled Living Foundation (DLF) has an excellent website and has just added an additional section titled "Living made easy for Children". This provides impartial advice and information on wheelchairs and mobility products for children who have disabilities. Web site is: http://www.dlf.org.uk Where did this saying come from? To get the sack. Tradesmen used to carry the tools of their trade in a bag or sack. So when they were dismissed from their job they were "given the sack" and sent to find a job somewhere else and carry their tools with them. The weakest go to the wall. Pews were not familiar in churches until the late sixteenth century and then only the influential and the rich sat in them. However, Christian concern was that seating should be provided for the weak, disabled and the very old so wooden benches were provided around the walls of the church. Having Problems Sleeping? Horlicks has long been seen as the "night time" drink and the company gives out some advice for those people who find it difficult to drop off to sleep at night. Some of their suggestions are included here:
Living in a Victorian, Working Class Home Many of the homes would be two up and two down and may have any number of children living there with their parents. The most important item in the home would have been the range. This would provide heat and the means to cook. Many Victorian families were poor and the main meals cooked on the range would be stews, mainly vegetables and soups. (For some poor families, only one cooking pot was available and at times this may have been needed to bath the latest baby.) The pot could be left for many hours providing hot food at any time, especially important in the winter months. The range would heat the water to wash, provide the place for the iron to heat before ironing the clothes, and would be the only means families had to dry wet clothes. Food would be scarce at times and common meals were potato pie, odds and ends of meat put in with the vegetable stew, sheep’s heads, homemade rough bread and cheese and butter if you could afford it. On the floor may be a homemade rag rug and in early Victorian times it was not uncommon to spread fresh sand on the floor, especially in prolonged wet weather. Before the advent of gas lighting, candles, rush lights and oil lamps were the main means of lighting. In the bedroom metal bedsteads could be bought and these were deemed to be bug proof. Feather mattresses were not however, and regular checks had to be made to ensure that such unwanted creatures had not moved in. Most homes did not have indoor sanitation or running water. Many rows of terrace cottages had their shed opposite which would have a dry closet (toilet) emptied at night by a dry soil man. Slow Cookers (Crockpot) Some of the benefits of using a slow cooker:
If you are going out to work or for the day, put the ingredients in before you go out and when you return the meal is ready. Able Community Care has five copies of "Slow Cooking" easy slow cooker recipes by Katie Bishop to give away. If you would like to win one of these please give us a ring on 01603 764567 giving your name and address or email to: Ablemg@aol.com. Myra's Recipe - Fairy Tale Fir Cone Cake Cake ingredients: 4oz (100gm) butter/margarine
1oz (25gm) cornflour
Industrial Nurses In the 1870s the Colmans mustard company in Norwich employed the first Industrial Nurse in the U.K. Philippa Flowerday visited sick workers at home and her role paved the way for companies around the country to provide medical care for their staff. She carried out 45 visits a week for a weekly wage of 26 shillings (about £1.30). Tips
http://www.VoucherCodes.co.uk/Restaurants There are several websites where you can download restaurant vouchers to reduce the cost of eating out. This one is used by us in the Able office. Register on the site and they will send you emails with vouchers attached which you can download. The vouchers cover many of the restaurant chains and change from month to month. Worth a look. Buying Children's Toys For safety's sake make sure any toy that you buy for a child this Christmas has one or other of the following safety marks on it:
A.F.A. Hedgehog Rescue is a registered charity that saves and cares for hedgehogs. It relies totally on funds that are raised by themselves and their supporters. They are happy to receive used postage stamps. Carefully cut round the edge, leaving the stamp intact, put them in an envelope and send them to the address below. Another item the charity is always grateful to receive is unwanted wool. Many volunteers will then knit items which are sold to raise funds. If you have either stamps or wool please send them to: A.F.A. Hedgehog Rescue, 55, Queens Road, Fakenham, Norfolk. NR21 8BT. Thanks Special thanks to Zaheera Piper for her exceptional help in a difficult situation. Jokes to Share! What's brown and creeps around the house? How do we know Santa is such a good race car driver? Finally... Thank you to all our clients, carers and hundreds of other readers of this Gazette. If you know someone who is thinking about having a live-in care scheme as an alternative to moving into a residential home, please give them our number 01603 764567 and we will be happy to send them our information pack. Otherwise they can email us at Ablemg@aol.com or request a brochure via this website.
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