Okay, Alaska, you can get warm again now

According to the National Weather Service in Anchorage Alaska, the temperature yesterday in the Anchorage area hit a record temperature of -8, beating out the 1963 record value of -7. The normal for this time of year is a minimum temperature of 15 degrees F, making it -23 degrees colder than the average cold, and -11 degrees colder than November 19, 2010.

And where I am it runs ten degrees colder, so it was -18 here, which was COLD - ran me out of heating fuel and I can't get more until at least Monday.

Scrubs for Caregivers

If you would like to get scrubs that you can use in providing care to your loved one, then Blue Sky Scrubs would like for you to take a look at the selection of scrubs they have to offer.

Blue Sky Scrubs has nursing scrubs for sale online as well as Scrub Hats that can be used for keeping hair out of the way while preparing meals or during other daily tasks. Anyone with long hair should check out the "pony hats" that allow ponytails to be tucked into a little pouch at the back of the scrub hat.

You can see all of the products that Blue Sky Scrubs has to offer at http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Men, and browsing through their products listings. Whether you are looking for comfortable scrub pants that you can wear wound the house, or a professional looking jacket while you and your loved one are out and about, Blue Sky Scrubs have a lot of styles, patterns and colors from which to choose.

Blue Sky Scrubs even has children sizes, so Grandma's little nurse could have a special set of nurse scrubs that they can wear as they help out. Perfect for any child that likes to help take care of Grandma or Grandpa.

November is National Family Caregiver Month

Did you know that November is National Family Caregiver month?

In November of 1997 President Clinton signed the first Presidential proclamation that would mark November as National Family Caregiver Month.

This year President Barack Obama released the following proclomation:

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Presidential Proclamation -- National Family Caregivers Month, 2011

NATIONAL FAMILY CAREGIVERS MONTH, 2011

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION


Across our country, millions of family members, neighbors, and friends provide care and support for their loved ones during times of need. With profound compassion and selflessness, these caregivers sustain American men, women, and children at their most vulnerable moments, and through their devoted acts, they exemplify the best of the American spirit. During National Family Caregivers Month, we pay tribute to the individuals throughout America who ensure the health and well-being of their relatives and loved ones.


Many of our Nation's family caregivers assist seniors and people with disabilities to help improve their quality of life. Their efforts help deliver short term comfort and security, facilitate social engagement, and help individuals stay in their homes and communities as long as possible. This heroic work is often done while caregivers balance other commitments to their families, jobs, and communities. As these remarkable individuals put their own lives on hold to tend to their family members, it is our responsibility to ensure they do not have to do it alone.


To ease the emotional and financial burdens that can accompany caregiving, my Administration has striven to support family caregivers for the crucial role they perform. Vice President Joe Biden's Middle Class Task Force has focused on the importance or investing in respite care, counseling, and training for individuals who serve aging Americans. These initiatives would give family caregivers a leg up as they continue to support their aging loved ones.


One of our Nation's greatest responsibilities is to ensure our veterans, their families, and their caregivers receive lasting and comprehensive support. Last year, I signed the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act, which helps fulfill this obligation by extending additional assistance to family members who care for severely wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Our military caregivers exemplify the heroism found not only on the fields of battle, but also in the hearts of those who tend to our wounded warriors when they come home.


As we observe National Family Caregivers Month, we honor the tireless compassion of Americans who heal, comfort, and support our injured, our elders, and people with disabilities. This month and throughout the year, let the quiet perseverance of our family caregivers remind us of the decency and kindness to which we can all aspire.


NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2011 as National Family Caregivers Month. I encourage all Americans to pay tribute to those who provide for the health and well-being of their family members, friends, and neighbors.


IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.


BARACK OBAMA

Home Remedies That Work

I find it amusing that one of the headline articles at AARP today is Grandma Was Right: These Home Remedies Work - 10 Home Remedies That Work, as if it is a surprise that our grandparents might have known a thing or two about how to ease a cold or cure a headache without reaching for the drug cabinet.

What does surprise me is what they then go on to suggest.

Liquid Dish Soap for poison ivy?
Baby Shampoo for cleaning eyelids?
Menthol Rub.... Witch Hazel...

Well, okay, witch hazel could be considered a old natural remedy I suppose, but still, when I think natural home remedies that work, I think in terms of chicken soup for a cold and warm salt water for a sore throat.


If we are going to talk about home remedies that grandma was right about, I do not think we should be talking in terms of shampoo and dish soap. When I think of home remedies that my mom told me about, I don't think of those sorts of products. I'm not sure how many she learned from her mom, but they could have easily been passed down by my grandmother's generation and her grandmother's generation.

So, here are a few home remedies that work (at least for me) that are good old fashioned "Grandma's Home Remedies."

1. Warm Salt Water for Sore Throats
To one cup of warm water add one teaspoon of salt, gargle until water is gone - try not to swallow, it tastes nasty. Repeat three times a day.
I got this recipe from a military doctor at Fairchild Air Force Base just outside of Spokane, Washington. My parents took me there in the 1980's when I had tonsillitis and the doctor told me that he could do one of two things. He could remove my tonsils, or he could do the three second cure with a skewer stick. I knew we couldn't afford me being in a hospital for removing them, so I opted for the quick cure. He jabbed my tonsils and sent me home to eat ice cream with instructions to gargle with warm salt water, explaining it would help better than any pills he might prescribe and worked for any sore throat. He was right. And in an article on cold remedies the Mayo Clinic agrees, use salt water for sore throats.

2. Chicken Soup for Colds
While it might seem more like a comfort food for someone that feels miserable with a cold, there has actually been research into the ability of chicken soup to cure the common cold. It is even suggested by the Mayo Clinic as a cold remedy. There is an amino acid called Cysteine that is found in it that helps to reduce mucus and thereby relieves some of the misery of the common cold. Sure there are other ways to do this, but when miserable is it not just as comforting to huddle in a chair in a fluffy quilt and slowly sip chicken noodle soup from a spoon?
Vegetables can be added to the soup, and do tend to have some healing qualities of their own, but are not actually necessary for the healing qualities to be gained from chicken soup. See this student paper on the common cold for more about how chicken soup really does help ease symptoms. And the good news - it does not have to be home made if you are not feeling up to that. Campbell's soup seems to work just as well as home made for making you feel better when you have a cold.

3. Cloves Ease Toothache Pain
Whenever someone had a toothache my mom would recommend they place a whole clove in their mouth along the gums between the lip and the painful tooth. Clove oil is known to reduce the pain of toothaches when applied to the area with a Q-Tip, although it is advised not to be used in large quantities (who would??) because it can cause liver damage in large quantities. The whole clove trick works to numb the gums where the pain is until the person can get to a dentist for proper treatment.

4. Mud For Nettle Sting
It might seem weird, even yucky, but when I was a little girl my mom told me to put fresh creek mud onto my arm whenever I ended up straying into the stinging nettles. It worked. I'm not sure what it was, the psychological effect, or the coolness of the mud, or whatever, but it would ease the sting feel of the stinging nettles. Note that I never tried it on poison ivy or oak, only on stinging nettle, so I don't know what all it would work for, but for me, clean mud from a flowing stream worked for stinging nettle.

Taking some wardrobe cute from my roommates

Guest post written by Laura Laws

I guess that you mimic the people that you're around most of the time. It's always been that way. But right now I have some really stylish roommates that are really causing me to challenge myself in the way that I dress every day. It's so much more interesting to find all sorts of different outfit combinations, especially when your roommates have invested interests in what you're wearing and see you enough to know your style.

I'm not the most fashionable person, especially in our apartment, so I not only ask my roommates for fashion advice, but I also use our wireless internet Arlington to find out all kinds of different ideas about how to make my existing style even better with my existing stuff. I'm all about dressing better without having to actually spend any money.

Sometimes I wish that my roommates were up as early as me during the week. There are so many mornings that I wish I had their input. But I've learned to just get their input the night before when I plan my outfits.

Home care facility in Marina, CA kills 5

This past Sunday a fire in a home care facility in Marina, California killed 4 and injures 3 police officers.

At around twenty minutes before midnight a fire was reported at the Mount Carmel Adult Residential Facility in Marina. Firefighters arrived on scene to discover persons still trapped within the facility and three Marina police officers, a firefighter and two care providers suffered smoke inhalation, reportedly while attempting to rescue persons trapped inside the facility.

The persons killed in the fire were residents of the home, whose names have not been released. Investigators from the ATF are assisting local officials in investigating what caused the fire.

AARP wants people over 50 to live the American Dream

I have a new article up at the Family Caregiver Info website - AARP wants people over 50 to live the American Dream too, stop in and see what AARP is up to and then stop in at the forums at Family Caregiver Info and share your thoughts about this and other issues facing family caregivers.