Wordless Wednesday

Touring the Grange!

Last week I had such a fun evening!   We've started something at our church that puts women together in a group that meets monthly for 3 months.  We have groups of 6 women, and we try to have a variety of ages.  So often we know people just by name, especially if they are older or younger than us and this is a fun and easy way to get to know people better.
We had a fun time together and are looking forward to next month.  Our group had the privilege of meeting and touring a home that is being renovated.  It began it's life as a Grange Hall.  The Grange was a society of farmers, who organized to promote the economic and political well being of the community.

Here's an old photo of the building.

This is a letter that was written in 1964, telling of the reason for selling the building, as the farmers couldn't afford needed repairs to the roof, chimney, windows...  which came to at least $800.

At this time, it was bought by a man who used the main level as offices.

Here is a more recent photo.  I think it was taken by my friend Jesse who is now the owner.  She and her family have been doing a lot of work here and it is so fun to see all the history inside!

 A cool remnant of fun times remains on the floor downstairs.

And here's a nice old radiator.

There are two bedrooms downstairs.  This one is Jesse's.

This is a guest bedroom.

I love this area.  The old piano has such charm.  Not pictured, across from it is a seating area.

There is a beautiful old staircase.

At the top of the stairs are these wonderful windows with such nice woodwork.

 Don't you love this old bookcase?    It is at the top of the stairs.

This dress belonged to her grandma or great-grandma.  Such a treasure!

 This upper level was open as it was where the meetings were held.  Jesse chose to keep it that way, adding a huge kitchen and seating area.  Don't you love that huge wooden counter?  The bookcase on the right is where the stage was, and she plans to put a master bedroom suite behind the bookcases.

The storage cabinets are beautiful.

This farmhouse sink just adds to the charm.

Tucked along the side is this bathroom.  You can't see it but is has a chandelier hanging.

The surroundings were lovely, the history was wonderful and the fellowship was sweet!

Jesse has a blog about the Grange. You can visit it here.

A Day in my Life

It's March!  For a month that only has 28 days, February seemed long.
Here's how I spent the first day of March.

 I left for work about 7:10 and was greeted with this sunrise!

I started at 7:30.   One of the first things I do every day is go onto our pharmacy website and check for notifications of meds that the insurance company isn't going to cover.  It's really quite frustrating. They can cover something for months, and then suddenly it isn't covered.  Then I have to fill out paperwork explaining why the patient needs it, or talk to the Dr if there is something else that is covered and will work.  There is usually one or two of these a week.  On Friday there was one, so I got the paperwork printed off and filled out for the Dr to sign, and faxed it to him.

 This is a fun little pad of awesome citations that I picked up somewhere.  I try to put these out anonymously every once in a while.  I stuck one on someone's door so they would find it when they came to work. (They don't read this, so they won't know where it came from!)

I also print off all the orders and nurses notes from the last day so we can go over them, I check the nurses on both wings to make sure all is going well.

We have a managers meeting at 9:30 - Director of Nursing, Unit managers, Administrator, Social Worker,  Dietician, Activities Director, Maintenance, Admissions Coordinator.  We review any issues, potential admissions, Insurance cuts, infections, falls...  This lasts until about 10:30.

One of my jobs is Infection Control.  I track all infections - did they come in with it, or develop it after they came?  What type of bug, where was it, what antibiotic was used, is anyone on isolation precautions, are there any trends indicating it is being spread in the building?  It's all put together into monthly sections and kept in a book for the year.  On this day, I started wrapping up February, so it could be reviewed with the other managers next week.
It's been very busy - one nurse had a surprise surgery, another fell and broke her wrist so I've had to work extra on the floor.  That meant that my 40 hours were done by 2pm and I had to leave early, which didn't bother me at all!

 I went to Meijer to pick up a few groceries.

 And then had a manicure!

Here's the drive back home.  After that pretty sunrise, it got quite cloudy out.

I got home at 4 and Bob arrived shortly after.

 Bob and I went out to the Outback for supper and had a yummy meal!


Then we went and picked up Alaina and Ruby for an overnight stay.

Remember the playhouse?  We picked up some artificial flowers and put them in the window boxes.  After we got them in, I went to take a picture of Bob and the girls and they wanted a "crazy" picture.

 I had picked up some fun things for the playhouse so the girls were checking them out.  Here's Ruby in a chef hat and apron...

And Alaina with a cash register.

The girls had something for me too!  Alaina drew the bird picture and made me a necklace.  Ruby made a necklace too - the one with the yellow beads.  So sweet!

 Alaina had to show us something new she learned - the Macarena!  Do you remember that craze?  She did it pretty well.

Then they asked Alexa to play disco music and did a little dance.  I have no idea where they even heard of disco music, but they had fun.

They settled down to watch a movie, and I made this stew, because I knew the next day was going to be busy.  When I got it going in the oven I joined them.
We had a nice evening together.  The girls wen to bed about 9:30, I went around 11.
Such a nice day.  Welcome March!