New Web Site and Busy Days!

Busy, Busy Days!!  That's what this past week or so has been like!  There is so much to be done in opening a new business! My husband has been a great help with some things even though he already has a full-time occupation/ministry that he needs to keep up with.  My daughter has a full-time job that she needs to work to support herself and her son until we open our Adult Day Care.  So I've been working day and night, and I'm feeling pretty tired right now.

The picture is the road we take back and forth to Dunlap.  It's beautiful scenery when you get to a certain point and can see the view of the mountains!  We didn't go up there today but decided to go furniture shopping instead.  We needed a couple tables and we went with our daughter to a couple of  2nd hand furniture stores and found a very nice table and a bureau for our reception area, at a very good price! While we were there, we had the opportunity to talk with a lady who was acquainted with the ministry my husband works with. We also talked about the stress involved in caring for family members as they age and are diagnosed with dementia.  She said she doesn't think she would have made it when she was caring for her Mother, without the help of being able to use an adult day care occasionally. This was another confirmation of how rewarding this will be.

Our new website address is:  www.caringheartsdunlap.com     

I've also got a blog here at the address: www.caringheartsdunlap.blogger.com

I've posted some pictures on both of them so you can see the progress we're making on our building!

This blog is about the "little moments" that we can so easily miss if we aren't paying attention.  One of those moments came today while I was talking with the lady who had cared for her Mother before she died with Alzheimer's disease.  There are so many stories like that out there.  I am looking forward to being a help to these "caring hearts" by helping to relieve some of the burden and stress they are under, and to ministering to those who have given their entire lives to others and are now in need of some compassion and tenderness in their old age themselves.

Keep checking back and I'll try to keep this updated, although I'm not sure how much I'll be here.  The website and blogspot and Twitter and facebook are taking up most of my time. I think I'm overly "social networked" out!! :-) 

 The beautiful mountains across from The Cooky Jar Restaurant in Dunlap, TN

New Business and New Web Site!

We are opening a new business!

Caring Hearts of Dunlap, adult day care and services!

We are so excited!

Check out our new web pages at:

http://www.caringheartsdunlap.com/

Also, we have a blogspot for the daycare:

http://www.caringheartsdunlap.blogspot.com/

We start renovations on the building on Tuesday!

We're looking for 2 part-time CNAs and a part-time Food Manager.

If you know of anyone in Dunlap, TN that would be interested, please email me at:

linda@caringheartsdunlap.com

Friends are friends forever!

We have spent the last week up in Chicago.  My husband had meetings and since he had to go, we drove and I spent some time with my family and my Mom while he was in meetings.  While we were away, our dogs were boarded at the doggie spa.  Not really a spa, but they really are very nice there and the dogs seem to love going!  Before we even pull up into the parking lot, they get all excited and can't wait to get inside!  Since we got Noel, the Miniature Schnauzer, she and Sarge are fast friends!  They play together all the time and even share a bed at night in the living room while we watch TV.  Now, when we have to go away for a while, we have the boarding place put them together.  When we picked them up after our trip, of course, we were gone a week, so they were very happy to see us!  Noel's left leg was shaved for the IV she had while she was there, because we had her spayed while she was there.  This is the picture that I took of them in the back seat after we picked them up.  They were both so excited to be going home that it took them twenty minutes to settle down!  This is their "happy to be going home" faces!

Family Reunions

I remember growing up in rural Illinois.  Each summer would have an exciting event that we all looked forward to:  our Family Reunion!!  Someone would reserve the place in the Forest Preserve and tables would be set up and the whole family would gather, with so much food it made you dizzy looking at it all!  I can still see my Grandmother setting up the table with a table cloth and there would be coolers filled with soda pop and drinks and ice!  The barbecue grills would be going and food cooking on them.  Games were planned and we all competed especially in the family softball tournament!  One of the neatest things was that us "kids" got to see all of our cousins that we hadn't seen in so long!  Aunts and Uncles in lawn chairs, music playing from radios and laughter rising in the air! What fun we had!
Now most of those family members from back then have passed on and with them, somehow the tradition of the Family Reunion passed on also.  Many reasons were given: family moved on to other states, key persons that had always planned it were passed on;  no one could get off work or travel that far, etc.  It's a shame because that was really the only time that all of us got to really spend some fun time together and catch up on what had been transpiring with each of us.

Now my Nephew and his wife have decided that enough time has gone by without all of us seeing each other and they have planned our first Family Reunion in probably 20 or more years. Many of our family are traveling today and a few have arrived early to spend some time with their children doing some sight-seeing before tomorrow.  Most of the ones attending are the younger generation: cousins!  Some of us older family will be there also, but it's so nice to see the younger families desiring to pick up this old tradition again!

Tomorrow will be a blessed day!  Praying for everyone to have a good time and safe travels and that this tradition will grow even bigger with each passing year!

A salute to old traditions!

We Will Remember in November

Praying that God will have mercy on our nation, forgive our sins, and bless us once again!