Hanging in there!

Hi friends!  Thought I would update you on life at our skilled care facility during these crazy times.
Thanks to those of you who have e-mailed to check on me, and thanks also to those who are praying for more nurses for us.
The good news is that we have an 11-7 and a 3-11 nurse who have started and are doing well.  We have a few others who are interested, but it's hard to hire right now as no one but staff is allowed in the building.
I've been working a lot!  Like 50-60 hours a week, but I have this weekend off and it's such a blessing.  My position is Unit manager/Infection Prevention Nurse so as you can imagine, the Covid 19 is adding a lot of work.  Thankfully I have an awesome administrator and DON who are doing so much of the needed work.

 Excuse the glare.  This is the sign on our front door at work.  The door is locked and no one can come in.  If family members want to bring something to their loved one, they have to leave it at the door and call, then someone goes out to get it and bring it in.
Anyone coming in has to enter in the back door.  We all have to check our temperature and do a little health assessment, sign in and then sign out.  We had to send someone to the hospital last week and even the ambulance had to enter in the back and be checked before continuing into the building.
All of our residents are supposed to stay in their rooms or be kept 6 feet apart at all times.  This is not easy when some have dementia.  It also makes passing meal trays and feeding much more difficult.  Usually we can have one person feeding 2-3 people and now it's 1:1, so all management now comes to help pass trays and feed, even on weekends.
The state has just changed a rule on that, because previously only licensed staff could feed, but now any employee is allowed, although of course anyone with swallowing difficulties is still fed by a CNA or nurse.
Another thing we have to do is take vitals on every resident and do a mini health assessment every day.
Something I've been doing a lot of is testing every employee on their handwashing technique and then going out on the floor to audit and make sure they are doing it.  It's one of the most important things we can all do to protect ourselves and others.
We are also trying to do different fun things every day to keep our residents happy.  They can't see their families and friends and any group activities or special events are out right now too.
Last week we had mismatched clothes day, root beer floats, donuts and hot chocolate with reading, wacky hair day...   They have been enjoying these things.

Here I am in my office - I'm no good at selfies, but I took this to send to my granddaughters to tell them Grandma had crazy hair day.  When you have short hair there isn't a lot you can do, but I put in two little ponytails!
The funny thing is when I left that day, I saw a wife and son of a resident in the parking lot.  They had come to wave through the window to him.  I was talking to them, and suddenly realized that I had those crazy pony tails in my hair.  I quickly explained that I wasn't trying out a new hairdo.  They thought it was quite funny.
Our facility is actually going to be on the local news on Sunday night when a family is coming to surprise their parents with a window visit, so I'm looking forward to seeing that.
For those of you that are praying, please pray for the health of the staff.  If people can't come to work we will be in trouble and we certainly don't want to pass this to our residents.

On another note, look at the beautiful sky I saw on my way in to work the other morning!
And that night I was reading in the Psalms and came upon these verses - such a comfort.

"But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.

I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain.

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me."

Psalm 3:3-5

A weekend off!

As most of you know, I've been working a lot lately.  However, I have finally had a weekend off - almost.  I am ending up going in to work tonight, but it beats what my previous weekends have looked like.
On a good note - our first new nurse has made it through orientation and worked this weekend.  Everything seems to have gone well and we are so thankful for that.  Thanks to those of you who are praying for reliable nurses for us!  We have another interview tomorrow.
Since we haven't been able to have the girls over for a while, we had them Saturday afternoon and overnight.  They went to church with us today and we brought them home after lunch.  We had such a good time together.
Alaina told me - "I figured out why you are Grandpa and Grandma.  It's because you are grand and you are a Mom and Grandpa is grand and he is a Pa!"  Isn't that sweet?

Here's a few photos of the fan craft we did using socks.

 They each picked a short sock and put one cup of rice in it.

 Then we took small rubberbands and put one at the top, then one a third of the way down to make a head and a body and the one on the bottom to make a little tail.

 Then we cut off the top, and cut ear shapes.  We drew on eyes and a nose, then tied a ribbon around the neck.

 Here's Alaina's bunny.

And Ruby with her bunny!

 Next, they each picked a long sock and stuffed it with fiberfill stuffing.

 We tied the end with a rubberband, then put 4 more rubberbands to make 5 sections.
A pipecleaner was twisted around the first section and the ends curled to make antennae.  Eyes and a mouth were drawn on with a permanent marker.
We ended up with a spotted and a striped caterpillar!

 Ruby with her caterpiller.

And Alaina with hers!
We have such fun doing these activities.

Checking in

I'm just stopping in to touch base with all of you.  I've been keeping up with your blogs and wanted to give you an update.
Life is still very busy here.  We did hire a new nurse who will start orientation tomorrow.  She is just working part time, but every bit helps.  Thanks to each of you who e-mailed me or left messages of support.  Your prayers about this are very appreciated.

We've had a fairly calm winter here this year.  We've had much less snow than usual, as shown by only one snow day for the kids so far.  I for one, am not complaining about that!
Here's just a couple of photos of how things are looking.

This is the bayou on the Grand River, near to our home.  It's pretty frozen at the moment.

This is making the ice fishermen happy!

 The other morning, I was coming home from work after working the night shift.  It was a beautiful morning!

Here's the corner of our road on that same morning.  Seeing the sun just starting to rise on a frosty morning is a beautiful thing!


Thanks again for the prayer and concern.  Please continue to pray for more nurses and that any new hires work out.  I'll see you at your blogs!