Recently I started attending an Alzheimer’s/Dementia Caregiver Support group. Many of you already know that I help to care for an elder who has severe dementia. We spent several years struggling along by ourselves trying our best to provide the support she needs as her dementia continues to escalate.
Then last year a friend turned me on to these meetings at the Morgan County Mental Health Association. They are for caregivers and family members of people who suffer with Alzheimer’s and other dementias and I can’t say enough about how helpful this program and the people who run it have been. Whether you need advice on services available in the community to help you and your loved one cope with the frightening changes they’re experiencing or you just need a break and to sit and talk with someone who understands they seem to know and be available for you.
I didn’t get to attend the last meeting which is a shame because they hosted a local specialist on Elder Law. That would have been helpful. Maybe next month I can get a synopsis of what we should be doing and looking at.
Anyway, if you’re local to Morgan County, Alabama and struggling with Alzheimer’s and/or dementias in your family, this meeting is free and open to the community.
Friday, as I was desperately trying to pack a suitcase and figure out if I had everything I needed for the weekend Rossiter training in Atlanta, a large truck rumbled up the driveway. It was Habitat for Humanity. They had come to pick up the vestiges of my 20’s.
For a while we’d been discussing getting rid of some of the old furniture that I had been hoarding in the rec room upstairs. And after tentative agreement last week a pick up was scheduled. Their arrival was somewhat of a surprise and I don’t think I was supposed to be there when they came because I received the stink eye and was told to go get everything ready to move. A few minutes later and the big truck was loaded with my old couch and the dining room table that had become so loaded with scrapbook accessories I had forgotten what it actually looked like.
The guys were nice and said thank you for the donation. I said a quiet goodbye as the truck lumbered down the driveway and wished it all a nice home somewhere it’s used and appreciated. Now all that remains of that period of my life are mementos scattered around in random boxes, pictures and memories.
And though sentimental about the stuff that represented that period of my life, I can see the open places the stuff used to occupy. And there’s a lot of happiness in that. More room, more space, more possibilities.
I have finally learned that more things do not mean more happiness. In fact there is liberty in open space and not having so many things. Being happy with less is very freeing. Being okay with not having the latest, greatest whatever generates less stress. And having the space to consciously make decisions on what I really want, that’s the reward, I think.
Also, the extra money in my pocket doesn’t hurt either. The goal of paying that mortgage off early is actually seeing some action now that I’ve quit “needing” so much.
So for a while I’m going to enjoy less clutter in my home and the corresponding openness in my mind. Who knows what will come to fill it, but whatever it may be this time I’ll be consciously choosing to fill that space, physical or otherwise. I can’t wait to see what happens.
♥
Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Newest Provider of Rossiter Pain Relief Techniques
Shortly after Mardi Gras and the big parade I was talking with a friend of mine who came to last year’s parade and hung around for the after-party. Last year there was no formal Krewe Party so we made it up as we went along and ended up in the bar side of a local Italian restaurant.
In the conversation he mentioned that he had a lot of fun, “Raiding a bar with a band of pirates,” and that night had fulfilled something that he didn’t even know was on his bucket list.
I started laughing because I had never actually considered one, that we were a “band of pirates” and two, that we “raided” places. But that’s exactly what happened that night. A gnarly-looking band of foul-mouthed pirates took over a bar and spent the evening drinking and carousing. Just what you would expect them to do.
Which is so far from what I do in my real life that it is shocking that I was even a part of it. But they say that clothes really do make the man and apparently putting on the coat and hat and sword really do make the pirate.
Since the conversation I have thought back to him saying that it fulfilled something he didn’t even know was on his bucket list. And after processing the superficial meaning of the conversation and continuing to come back to it, it has occurred to me that this is what life is about.
Being open to the things that you don’t even know are on your bucket list. Living life wide open and experiencing it as it happens and loving it. Good, bad, and ugly, just take it, live it, and love it.
I’ve been talking about fun stuff, but as I’m aging I’m also learning an appreciation for the tougher things, the painful things and learning to be thankful for all the times I’ve come through, good and bad. Because it gives me experience to draw from and confidence that next time perhaps it won’t be so hard or painful. And thankful for the practice of living life now so next time it gets bad I won’t despair.
I guess what I’m ultimately trying to say is that along with enjoying the journey, just be open to what life brings you. Or as those gnarly pirates might say, “Storm and plunder, baby!”
♥
Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Exclusive Provider of Ashi-Thai Massage
I’ve been reading Isabel Allende’s Zorro the last couple of weeks which is perhaps why it suddenly occurred to me that I could be utilizing my marketing tools a bit better. What a bizarre statement, you’re thinking, but bear with me.
My “marketing plan” consists of word of mouth marketing, local event massage, a Facebook page, Twitter, this WordPress blog, my Pinterest page, and now a monthly Mailchimp newsletter. For quite a while I’ve been using the Facebook page and the blog to advertise upcoming events and keep my clients informed. Twitter is hooked directly to Facebook so I don’t really mess with it unless it breaks and I add something new to Pinterest occasionally. Recently I added the newsletter, but it feels like it’s just out there floating. Perhaps because the goal right now is a once-a-month update that’s why it feels uncoordinated.
That floatey feeling is what made me think that perhaps I need to coordinate a marketing plan of attack with all my tools. Perhaps I’ve been underutilizing them or maybe I’ve just been letting it happen organically, I don’t know, but it’s something I want to think about more.
I feel as if I’ve overloaded my arsenal a bit at this point. I need Twitter lessons as I just don’t get what’s happening with it most of the time. I love Pinterest, but I’m struggling to find the right combination of how to use it to sell my services. For now though I’m going to set a new goal of figuring out how to coordinate the social media updates, blog posts and email blasts without getting too far away from my organic, let’s see what happens style.
So what does all this have to do with Zorro? Guerilla warfare, the Spanish attacking the French occupation in a disorganized yet highly effective manner. Perhaps I need to bust out that dog-eared marketing book, Guerilla Marketing for Free.
So how do you manage it all? What’s your philosophy in the digital marketing age? I’m interested to see how other folks are doing this and not spending so much time at the computer that they don’t have time to actually do business.
♥
Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Exclusive Provider of Bamboo-Fusion Massage
I was at Target earlier today trying to buy myself a salad for lunch when a conversation broke out in front of me. Seems the gentleman checking everyone out hadn’t had his lunch yet and it being lunchtime he was scanning and bagging lots of peoples’ lunches. It was making him hungry. That’s when the lady in front of me, who was slurping on some slushy Starbucks chocolatey-looking thing, busted out with, “This shake is my lunch.”
I looked at her and tried not to judge her at that point. Who drinks a coffee drink for lunch and how do you survive the rest of the day if you do? Which then led me to wonder how many calories are in something like that? Hmm… less than I expected, but the sugar, yikes!
Which then led me to wonder how many people care? And do you know how to read a nutrition label? Do you read nutrition labels?
Maybe I’m just special that way, but I read the label on everything. Even those bottles of drops you’re supposed to put in your water to make it flavorful. I don’t use that stuff cause I don’t know what all those chemicals are in the ingredient list.
So because I’m feeling all tutorish right now and also like I need to atone for judging the Starbucks lady, here’s the quick and dirty on how to read the nutrition labels on foods.
Serving size – This is always good to check because many foods and beverages are packaged for more than one serving. Disappointing, I know.
Servings Per Container – That tells you how many servings are in the box, bag or bottle.
Now here’s the tricky part, every other number on this label is calculated for the serving size (not the whole container). That means if there are two servings in the package and you eat the whole thing you get double the number of calories, fats, cholesterol, carbohydrates and proteins. Four servings, and you need to multiply it by four. Get it?
I’m not going to go into each one of those categories because frankly everybody is different and their nutritional needs are different. It’s impossible to say eat this, don’t eat that because I don’t know what you require.
Add to that even the people who are supposed to be experts on nutrition disagree on what we should and should not be eating. In the 80’s eggs were the mortal enemy to cholesterol. Now they’re ok. High fructose corn syrup, if the manufacturer is to be believed it’s A-OK in moderation, but there are studies saying it increases your chance to develop diabetes. Artificial sweeteners used to be the bees knees, but now some are considered neurotoxins.
My rule of thumb, if I can’t pronounce it, I’m probably not going to eat it. If the ingredients are unrecognizable, I’m probably not going to eat it. Now before you think I’m just all la-ti-da about the food, I should probably disclose that I spent a lot of years not caring what went in to my body. Fortunately my massage career (and my cholesterol level) changed all that. I have to manage my food and my health more closely now so that I can feel good, be available to help my clients feel better and, ultimately, stay in business.
So what about you? What’s your food policy?
♥
Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Exclusive Provider of Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy Massage
Massage Therapists, I’m talking to you. When is your next massage? I see you rubbing your toe in the dirt. When was your last massage? Now your ears are turning red. I know how that feels, my mentor recently crawled me for not taking care of myself.
Why is it that we, as massage therapists, seem to be the last ones crawling on the table for a massage? I don’t have time is a common answer. I’m too busy taking care of my clients/children/pets/house/office. I know. I’m there.
But how can we expect to be taken seriously when our clients watch us breaking ourselves down as we are telling them they need to x, y and z to take better care of themselves? If we believe they need to come see us once a week, every other week, once a month then how is it we don’t need massage?
In addition to my mentor calling me out, one of my very regular clients recently began asking me, “Who gives you a massage?” The first time she asked and heard my answer she made it clear she was not happy with it. She expressed to me that it made her feel guilty to know I was massaging her when I never go take care of myself by getting a massage. It had been months, she was right, and oh, the guilt I suffered over that conversation.
She comes once a month, she asks once a month and she expects an answer. One that goes sorta like, “My last massage was with Megan. She did a great job and my feet and legs feel a lot better!” (True story, that.)
I have set a new intention. At least one massage per month in the year of 2013. It’s going to be hard. I’m stirring a lot of pots right now, just like you, but I challenge you anyway. I challenge you to pick up the phone and make a massage appointment for yourself, right now. Leave a voice mail if you have to, but do it. Your clients deserve it.
♥
Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Newest Provider of Fijian Barefoot Massage
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? It’s taken long enough to get this Thai mat done anyway. I took my first Thai mat class back in late November. Then December happened which is always a very busy month between all the stressed out clients wanting last minute appointments before the holidays and then the holidays. Then there was January with everyone trying to recover from the holidays and all those resolutions. I don’t remember exactly when I made the first phone call to kick this project off, but I thought it might be something interesting to do a little tutorial on because it was easy and kind of cheap if you have the skills and hardware.
So for you interested folks, here is how I made my very first homemade Thai mat. Before you begin thinking I’m a genius for dreaming this up, I was inspired by a certain someone who I met during my Fijian Barefoot massage class in Nashville.
How to Make a (Stripped Down on the Cheap) Thai Mat
Step 1: Call a carpet store. You are looking for the padding that goes underneath carpet. My local store didn’t have any scraps that would work, so I ended up purchasing two pieces each 76″ wide by 45″ long. Cost: $15.87
Step 2: Stack the two pieces of padding on top of each other and make sure they are squared up. Mine weren’t so I trimmed it to be approximately equal.
Pardon the messiness in the background. Our rec room is a “wreck”!
Step 3: Go to a thrift store and buy a king size sheet. Cost: $4
Step 4: Sew the sheet into a giant pillowcase. You may need a ruler, tape measure, calculator and knee pads for this step. You’ll definitely want a sewing machine unless you’re just an animal and have a lot of time on your hands. The sheet I bought fit perfectly when I folded it in half lengthwise and sewed the bottom and sides up. At this point you’ll want to start thinking about how to close the top of the giant pillowcase. I chose to use Velcro, but snaps or ties would work. Or you could just sew it closed. I chose not to because I wanted to be able to remove the giant pillowcase and wash it occasionally.
Step 5: Go to the sewing store and buy something to close the top of your giant pillowcase (buy 2 times the amount you need if you’re making an outer cover).
While you’re at the store you may also want to buy some cotton duck fabric to make a more durable outer covering for your do-it-yourself Thai mat. I think I bought about 6.5 yards, but I don’t remember exactly and you’ll need to do math for the size of your mat. Oh and if you’re a math major (like me) and can no longer add without an Excel spreadsheet then the nice folks at the sewing store can help you figure out how much fabric you need to do the job. Very nice people in sewing stores usually. Cost: Velcro (free-I already had it from another project), Cotton duck – ~$40 on sale at Hancock Fabrics
This is looking great mommy! When do I get my Thai massage?
Step 6: Hem the top of the giant pillowcase and install your closures.
Step 7: Put the giant pillowcase on the carpet padding mats. Good luck and get ready to crawl around on the floor and sweat.
Step 8: So now it’s time to figure out how to form all that cotton duck fabric into another giant pillowcase. Hopefully you kept notes from when you talked to the nice lady at the fabric store so you know how to put this thing together. I had to take two pieces of fabric and run it cross ways to the mat to make a pillowcase large enough. Since I didn’t take pictures during this step if you need better descriptors, just ask and I’ll be glad to help you.
Step 9: Hem and install the closures for the cotton duck pillowcase.
Step 10: Wrestle the cotton duck pillowcase onto the mat and Viola! You are done! And sweaty! But you have a nice soft place to lay down and take a nap 🙂
I will probably make some “pillows” using this method, but for now I’m just going to try to get through the rest of February before taking on any more projects.
So here for your convenience is a supply list: 2 sections of carpet padding cut to the size of your mat, one thrift store sheet sized appropriately, cotton duck fabric to cover your mat sized appropriately, closure notions (Velcro, snaps, or extra fabric to make ties), scissors, measuring tape and/or a hardware tape measure, coordinating thread, sewing machine, carpet cutting blade and maybe some other stuff I’ve forgotten about. And you’ll definitely want to think about a beer after you’re done, but only if you don’t have clients lining up already.
And if you’re keeping track of the budget this whole project cost around $60 which is about half the cost of the cheapest Thai mats I was looking at online.
I’ll have to let you know how it compares to the mats I learned on. Already it performed quite well on the hardwood floor in the house. I’ll be taking it to a Rossiter training and another Thai-Yoga training in the next few weeks so I’ll do a review on my own “product” as soon as I have some results to report.
If you decide to make your own, let me know how it turns out!
A finished Thai Mat!
♥
Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Newest Provider of Thai-Yoga Massage
Eek! How did this happen? I looked at the calendar and realized that I only have a few days left before I’ve got to pack a bag, throw my thai mat and yoga mats in the car, and head off to Atlanta for a Rossiter training.
Starting in February I somehow managed to book every weekend except this one. Between massage trainings and Mardi Gras I’ve either spent the nights away from home or stayed out super late with friends. I’m pooped and the laundry is piling up.
Regardless, I’m very excited about this Rossiter training. It’s yet another barefoot modality, (I know you’re surprised). From what I’ve read it’s also a movement modality. Pressure and movement together sussing out what ails a muscle. Sounds good to me. I can’t wait to try it. I can’t wait to experience it.
And as a bonus it’s being hosted by AMTA-GA so I’m getting to sit in on their member meeting. Maybe I need to take a pin or something to trade. Hmm…
It’s also inexpensive. $80 for 12 CE hours and if everything goes as planned I’ll be sleeping on a friend’s couch so the cost for the whole trip should be about gas, food and time. I hope it all goes as planned.
I guess I better go call my friend and start doing some laundry.
♥
Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Newest Provider of Fijian Barefoot Massage
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue
Guess Who I Haven’t Seen Lately?
…
Is it you?
Is it time for you to schedule a massage now that all the Valentine’s Day craziness is over? I’d love to see you on my table this month. Call today to schedule your next massage.
♥
Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Exclusive Provider of Ashi-Thai Massage
All I have to say about this year’s Mardi Gras parade is, Wow!
Okay, you knew I couldn’t just say, wow, and leave it at that. Wow! OMG! I still can’t believe how much fun that was! {Doing the funky chicken dance…} Okay, whew, calming down a little bit now.
We had a good time. Check that, we had a great time!
There’s nothing like spending time with your friends working toward a common goal. Even if the goal is something really weird like building a pirate ship on a trailer then dressing up in thrift store finds and running around clashing plastic swords with each other.
Until Sunday I didn’t realize how crappy the start of this year has been for me. Issues with my other job, a couple of unexpected deaths and some niggling family issues that just won’t go away have combined to bring me down in these dreary, rainy days that are typical for southeastern U.S. winter weather. And as usual I smile and soldier on employing the ‘fake it til you make it’ mentality until I’m so far into a trench I can’t see the sun anymore.
Mardi Gras was a good excuse to kick my hermitey self in the butt and get around friends. And no matter how sad or crappy I was feeling when I got to a work session, by the time I left, I was glad I went. My friends (new and old) always have a way of lifting my spirits just enough. Whether they’re feeding me tasks to do and leaving me alone or we’re all hauling on a rope to pull a mast upright, it helps.
And then seeing the finished product and getting to take our awesome, hard, and creative work and put it out on the street to entertain the masses. Seeing those little kids’ face’s light up at real, live pirates, it did something for me. Watching the delight wash over the adults when they realized we were for real and that ship wasn’t just cardboard and spit, but actual wood and nails and canvas. It cracked something open in my heart just a little bit.
And I think that’s what I’m trying to write about today. How getting out of my head and doing something with others and for others and just being open to letting life in instead of shutting everything out helps to start healing something I didn’t consciously realize was broken. Perhaps my instinct to shut down, hunker down and feed my turtle should be an indicator in the future that I need some time with friends. Perhaps…
Thank goodness for my crazy, artistic friends who envision these nutty things for us to do. I’m not sure what I would do without them. For sure this life would be a lot less fun.
P.S. – We won the trophy for 1st place for our float. Pictures over here, if you’re interested.
P.S.S. – Only two of my clients made a spectacle of themselves. Lucky them! I hope they’re not giving up massage for Lent…
♥
Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Exclusive Provider of Fijian Barefoot Massage Massage
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