ramblingsbyamy

Alzheimer’s or Dementia is an awful disease which involves a variety of changes within those afflicted with the disease. No cure exists and depending on the stage, the Alzheimer’s or Dementia patient’s thinking and reasoning skills are severely affected.

Learn all you can about Alzheimer’s or Dementia once a solid diagnosis is made. Try to secure a power of attorney. A trusted family member should have access to all bank accounts, and legal information. When we begin to see signs of Alzheimer’s or Dementia things can progress rapidly, so get a power of attorney as soon after a diagnosis.

Allow dementia patients to live on their own if they can care for their own needs. However, this is a rapid progressing disease and these patients should not be alone for extended periods as no one can predict that rate of cognitive impairment.

Check in on the dementia patient daily if he or she does not live with you or have a family member or a neighbor check this person. If there is, a spouse or close neighbor to help watch over the patient it should be okay, but if that person lives alone, make an excuse to visit everyday to check on the progress of the Alzheimer’s or Dementia.

Watch for those dangerous points, which are red flags that this person who has Alzheimer’s or Dementia has regressed to the point when they are no longer able to stay alone. These include not eating properly, over mediating themselves, not remembering simple stuff, like the day, as well as any odd behaviors, which are not usual to that person.

At the point when they are unable to make simple decisions, then a family member needs to step in. Move the Alzheimer’s or Dementia patient in your home or a nursing home when they can no longer live on his or her own. Prepare the Alzheimer’s or Dementia patient to have a say in where they live if possible. Allow them to help make their own choices, as they are able.

Perhaps they will resist but if you feel they are unable to care for themselves, you need to step in. Talk with their doctor. Most elderly people have had the same trusted doctor for years. That doctor can help you in determining their mental state. If the doctor recommends it, go to court to gain custody if needed.

Safety is very important and if their cognitive thinking and reason skills become damaged by the progress of the disease to the extent that they have become unable to care for them it is up to us as family members to step in and help. It truly is as simple of that.

A professional writer needs to have grammar issues resolved before they send articles or any type of writing to the public. This is something I struggle with on a daily basis to achieve. While I learn, I think I will go much slower than I began, because it greatly enhances my chances of success. Success is what I seek and success is what I shall have.

Recently I entered a short story in a writing contest. While my writing has drastically improved over my last entry, it was still not free of the errors that plague me. Once I fix those errors, I have two choices send out that story to a publisher or continue onward with the life of the main character.

I can see myself carrying onward with it, as the main character really touched a cord within my soul. I wonder if other writers experience such a pull from a character they create. Yes there is a part of my within this character, I am in many ways like her. I wish to help others with my special skill but like my character, I realize most people do not wish my kind of help.

Friends far and near can be your salvation on a hard day, when nothing seems to be going the right way. Friends seem to make the loneliness disappear in any job, but when you work from home as a freelance writer, those friends are as close as your computer. I belong to a group of friends on a forum, as we are just that, friends.

One of the women in the group has been having trouble lately when she emailed me her phone number I had to call her. I needed to make sure she was okay. I know her situation very closely as I have been in a marriage like she had but I got out of it. I did not feel funny when I began talking to her, it seemed as if we were best friends and I so enjoyed the conversation. I feel as if I helped a friend today.

The women and men on that forum are not only my friends and coworkers but at times, they seem like family for which I am grateful. It’s a very special place that forum and I am so glad to be part of it.

Sometimes I ask my children what topic I should write about because near the end of a heavy day of writing my brain goes numb. Tonight when I asked my sixteen year old this question, his answer was ‘Twilight’. He loves that book but I have not read it myself so I cannot offer a review, but I like the other type of twilight as that means my favorite hours are coming.

 I am a night owl, and have been since the aforementioned child was a baby. His health and round the clock breathing treatments for his first 18 months of life, and sometimes it was just better to stay up and make sure he was safe. Sometimes when I see him celebrate another birthday, I cry. No, it is not just, because my baby is growing up, I cry because he almost never even celebrated his second birthday. While some of us take life for granted, his was almost cut short four times in his first two years of life.  Asthma is a bear to live with and at times, it was very hard to get this little one stabilized.

I am looking for a special home for a short story I wrote, those who have read it said its a good tale. I love to write about that stuff, and I guess it that is why it got such a warm reception. Of course, it had grammar mistakes, but at least there are no typos. I was known as the typo queen locally, and those people cannot believe that I am actually making a living writing these days.

I just smile and say it is the magic of word. Actually, the spell checker is my Godsend. When I was learning the MS office suite back in 1998, I loved it and excelled at it, but I didn’t use it for paid writing. There are lots of the grammar and spelling setting you must use when you are being paid to write. However I so wish I had paid attention way back in 7th or 8th grade when grammar was being taught, because I would be two steps ahead of things now.

Last night we had flurries here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and I so wish it had stuck around for a little bit. It seems to be that when Mother Nature decides to share snow with us, my muse comes out to play a bit often.  Creative writing just seems to flow better when I am inside under my favorite blanket and lose hours writing.

Mother Nature and my muse work well together for the most part. Inside writing is better done in the winter when it is snowing, while summer writing is done outdoors in the shade surrounded by nature. Does Mother Nature inspire you?

It’s taken me years to realize the upsurge in writing with the falling snow or awesome sounds of a forest on a warm summer day, both of which Mother Nature plays a big role on the weather. Perhaps I need to make the inside of my house woodsier and I would be able to get that flow more easily.

With Christmas fast approaching, I am so in the mood for a good old-fashioned love story just in time for the season. Christmas is such a romantic time to me, even more so the Valentines Day.  Perhaps it is because when I was a child Santa and his Mrs. would visit our home, and they seemed so happy. We children would sit on his lap and get out photo taken with the small gifts they brought us just before Christmas.  

As I grew older and realized whom the helpers were, I knew they were one of the happiest couples I had ever seen in my life. I am surprised we girls did not catch on sooner, but that was all part of the magic.  Now as an adult, I miss Mrs. Claus as my dear aunt went to heaven 15 years ago, but Santa is still residing in a room at the local nursing home and not forgotten. I saw him a few weeks ago. On a wall in his room, hangs a photograph taken long ago of Santa and Mrs. Claus with five smiling children. I am the one in front with my lower lips hanging out.

Yesterday within my blog I talked about coming back inside on a fall day and eating chili from the crock-pot.  Some may say this is the lazy woman’s way to cook, I say it is the smart way to cook. Yesterday I just tossed all the ingredients in there and let it cook all day, until we were ready for it. I simply fried the meat up before I added it to the other ingredients. Once you add some bread it become a good meal to end the fall days we are now experiencing here in the northeast

Any kind of soup is perfect for the crock-pot, along with mac and cheese, don’t forget spaghetti sauce that has cooked all day. All are yummy and if done correctly they are healthy for your family. it is a great way for those writers among us to have a home cooked meal without the hassle.

What kind of karma are you getting these days? Karma, everyone has it, no one wants the bad type. If you are getting bad karma, it is within your power to change it. How do you change this? Start doing good stuff, volunteer around the community, and visit a retirement home, or even hold the door open today for all those people you meet.

Doing good for others is always a good thing to do. As long as it is legal, helpful and brings a smile to someone’s face you are doing great. Try doing something nice for someone today and you will see how much it brings back to you.

Setting goals for yourself as a content writer is always a good idea, to ensure the proper income flow you desire. I strive as a content writer to create at least six articles a day, sometimes I write more, some days I write less. Six articles a day are not really, cutting it for me as a content writer. It is because of the location I choose to put my articles.

If I choose to put them in a lower paying market, I may make 24 bucks from them if all are accepted for at least four bucks. That maybe livable wages in a third world country but it is not in the
United States. Therefore, I have to write more and write them well enough that they will all sell. It is a vicious cycle.

I could cut down to 4 articles a day, and write them for higher paying markets where I am making ten dollars a piece or more for each and be way better off. Of course, that is hard sometimes. We all can guess that higher paying markets require more words for the ten bucks. I am ready to write fewer words for more pay.

Up to yesterday, as a content writer, I have written 108 articles this month and that was 43,038 words so word high word count total is easy for me. I have been paid $92.35 for 64 of them and still have some, which are not paid for. So far, my profit per word is $.0021. That token amount is unreal.

Change is needed!