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Its been some time since I sat down and wrote a real entry for this blog. To get started I went back and reread what I had before. I guess this entry should catch everyone up from where I left off…
We finally heard who raised the most money from our 2006 Alzheimer’s Memory Walk (previous readers will remember the team from our four facilities who raised the most money would have a BBQ lunch cooked by our CEO). We did it, and finally had our lunch on July 20th.
I walked again and while there was no competition between the facilities, we still had a good number of staff and residents representing the Lutheran Home.
No word as to when construction will begin on our new facility. First reports was that groundbreaking would be the fall of this year, with moving in in 2008. Nope. I’m not sure if we even have a real plan yet. We have seen some conceptual drawings of what the building may look like, but everything is still in the preliminary stages. We’ll keep making due with the building we have. It has served us for 40 years, it still has a few more years left.
Flipping the calendar I notice that it will soon be time for Christmas decorating. In one of my last entries I mentioned how the fire marshal came in and told us we had 30 days to take down anything we couldn’t prove was flame retardant. Our decorators are scratching their heads as to what they are going to do this year. We have to replace about six Christmas trees, and boxes of ornaments. We’re planning and “Fire Sale” (ha ha) to hopefully raise money by selling the old trees to buy new.
As you can see… business as usual at the Lutheran Home Frankenmuth.

More work on the mural. I was finding it hard to transfer my tiny simple sketch on a napkin to the large painting on the wall. Have I finished it? Did I give up? Check back next week and see if there is a new photo!!

barn, covered bridge, and grass painted on the therapy mural.

This was the second day of painting.... wasn't really looking like much but it had everyone in the therapy room talking.

water and sky are painted on the therapy mural.

For anyone who has read my earlier blogs, you have read about the mural I was painting in out therapy room. If you're new to the blogs, check out the beginnings. When I looked at the earlier entries, I noticed the photos I had uploaded were missing, so I thought I would repost them.

blank wall with primer. the beginning of the mural

Hold on to your seats boys and girls, its going to be a bumpy ride. I haven’t written anything in… forever, and I have a lot to share. Where to begin?
I made it over to Eric’s facility for the Star Forum meeting on Nov. 10th. I had been meaning to get over there ever since he mentioned he was turning an entire wing of his facility into an activity center. Very nice. Each room is set up as a separate “station”. Some of the rooms he has: a room for crafts, with a work table and supplies, a library with a leather reading chair and books, a plant room with potting supplies, and my favorite, a movie theater with a projection set up with surround sound. Way cool.
On Nov 17th we had our annual Resident Council Christmas Bazaar. Of course, for the two weeks prior I had been busting my butt in getting last minute crafts finished. Volunteered 30 hours to have everything ready. It was worth it. Our residents made $1,400 on the 17th, and then an additional $200 on the 18th at the local high school where the school hosts a large craft bazaar. This month, yesterday in fact, we set up our last minute shopper’s sale to try to get ride of what we had left, and made another $170.
The money is nice (our residents donate $500 to a charity each year) but seeing the residents involved and excited is better. Some work at the bazaar and some talk about what they personally made, and some just enjoy seeing the items they had a hand in making being sold. It makes all the work and headaches worth it.
Oh, we had our state survey finally. We in the activities department didn’t really have to worry about the new interpretive guidelines. Apparently they were more interested in our dietary department this year. We got some citations for stupid errors (not knocking on doors before entering residents’ rooms) and some for things not so stupid, but we’re still open. Ha ha.
Of course right after that the fire marshal came in. She informed us that since all but one of our Christmas trees didn’t have proof of fire retardation, we would have to take them down (9 trees). Merry Christmas everyone! Its beginning to look a lot like a fire trap! HA. She did soften a bit and told us if we sprayed fire retardant on them, and kept a note with each tree when we sprayed them and with what, we would be able to keep them up. Guess what we’ll be doing this week??!
Whew… I think that’s about all the news I have from Frankenmuth. What’s going on where you are?