Celebrating all the moms we know

This weekend, we had a splendid time celebrating all of the mothers and caregivers at Greenview Place. 

When thinking about how to best show our appreciation for mothers, two things came to mind. First, we knew we needed to include some sweet indulgences. We also realized that moms work so hard, they could all use a little pampering. Even if their kids are grown! 

With those necessities confirmed, we decided on an afternoon tea, and a spa day. Wowza!

We started the afternoon off with a special tea party, open to all residents. Guests were treated to a specially brewed raspberry hibiscus tea served with pirouette cookies and raspberry French twist pastry puffs. Yum! Each lady received a beautiful hand-made silk flower corsage to wear, and the rooms was filled with smiling mums and families. 

After tea, residents and friends were treated to manicures. Some moms even chose to match their nails to their corsages!  Finally, as a special gift, everyone was given a mini terracotta flowerpot magnet to keep as a Mother’s Day gift. 

It was a beautiful day, and we were so glad to spend it with so many of our residents, celebrating mother’s love. 

The great outdoors

While according to the calendar spring may have sprung weeks ago, it seems that Mother Nature didn’t get the message until this week! Now that the temperatures are rising, people want to get out more, and we want to help them make the most of every gorgeous day. 

Our rooftop deck and terrace has been open to residents for a few weeks; but it wasn’t until just recently that it’s been nice enough to enjoy it.  

Our crack maintenance team here at Greenview Place has done a great job getting the terrace ready. They are now finished setting the deck up for summer use, checking the pergola and fencing and bringing out tables, chairs and planters.

It looks lovely and is ready to host the flurry of activity planned this summer.  Check out this lively shot from last summer. You can bet we’ll be throwing more parties like this! 

In addition to the daily availability of the terrace  to sit and soak up the sun, the terrace is also the home to our annual luau, as well as our Dancing Under the Stars event. That’s a hugely popular get together for our residents; they dress up and dance the night away. And, this year we’re inaugurating another special event. Each month we’re going to be hosting a lemonade social out on the terrace! Ah, the tastes of summer. 

We are looking forward to many wonderful sunny afternoons enjoying the beautiful weather and spending time with friends, sipping some freshly made lemonade, and swapping stories. 

Join us!

There’s no end to pampering at Greenview

Some of you may have the misguided notion that as we get older, we stop following the trends. Oh contraire!

This Sunday we proved Greenview Place is right in vogue. Check it out…

As part of our Majorly Fun-Ness programming, manicures are often offered to residents who wish to give their nails a fresh look. We have nail lacquers in every shade under the sun: from coral to rose, and from green to purple. Maybe it was the long-awaited change in the weather, or perhaps all our gals red this Elle article, but everyone wanted to dawn our brightest shade! 

Bonnie and Marianne both chose the shimmery silver purple for their tips, while Betty wanted a deep plum color.  Several women picked bright pinks and fuchsias, and Charlotte really shook things up with a blue base coat topped with multicolored glitter. Ooh-la-la.   

“Having your nails done always makes you feel good,” she said, “That and getting a haircut.” *wink*

Charlotte said she developed her love of fun nail design from her son, who does nails professionally. “It’s always so relaxing to be pampered like that.” 

Take a look at the bold color choices these women made. Maybe they will inspire you to try something new!

From field to table, with a stop in between

Recently, we took at trip to the Lincoln Park Conservatory to view the Spring Flower Show. In addition to the orchids, azaleas, and hyacinth we planned to see, we were also greeted with plants of a different sort.   These plants were the kind you might want at your breakfast table. Sounds interesting, right? With spring planting going on at the family farms surrounding Chicago, and some people observing Earth Day, we thought it was an appropriate time to see the plants that bring us our food every day.

Do you enjoy fruit for breakfast? (Who doesn’t, right?) Well, as we wandered through the different rooms, we saw trees growing bananas, coconuts and mangos. The banana plant was very tall, with clusters of ripe yellow fruit growing near the top. Although it sure looked like a tree, it turns out that bananas actually grow from a flowering herb plant.

And what breakfast would be complete without coffee? Not mine! Although the coffea plant is native to Africa and Asia, the Conservatory had a plant growing nicely. The “coffea” plant produces purple fruits called cherries; inside the cherries are two seeds. The seeds of that plant are what we know as coffee beans, and make the drink that we are all familiar with. 

Maybe you are more the hot chocolate type? The Conservatory had that covered too, with beautiful cacao plants. Do you like tea with ginger? We spotted a specimen of red tower ginger – just gorgeous. And how about this? There were food-name plants, too. What do you think of: yellow lollipop plants, and red shrimp plants. But they were definitely not made of lollipop or shrimp!

We urban folks don’t always think about how our food gets from the fields to our tables. So, like us, take a moment to think about all the things the earth, and the things growing from it, do for us every day.

When spring does decide to get here, let’s be ready

When spring gets around to us, it makes us want to go OUTSIDE! And that means we may experience an increase in slips, trips and falls. One of the primary causes of broken bones and accidents in the senior population is AVOIDABLE ACCIDENTS – primarily falls.
Some safety tips to prevent avoidable accidents include: 

• Maintain good posture
• Watch what you are doing
• Wear proper eye glasses and proper-fitting foot wear
• Minimize the use of throw/area rugs
• Use the appropriate assistive device ( i.e. walker, rollator, cane) prescribed by your physician, and obtain proper training by a physical therapist or designated healthcare provider
• DON’T use motorized wheelchairs on or in the middle of the street

Look at the stats from these well-known researchers at the Connecticut Collaboration for Fall Prevention, based at Yale University School of Medicine. According to these smart folks, falls and fall injuries:

• Are more common than strokes and can be just as serious in their consequences
• Are the most preventable cause of needing nursing home placement
• Lead to problems with daily activities like dressing, bathing, and walking around

Falls cause over 90% of broken hips; only half of those who break a hip will get around like they did before the hip was broken.
In the United States, 16 % of all emergency department visits and almost 7% of all hospitalizations are for fall-related injuries.

So how can we prevent falls? Good question!

Many of the health problems that increase the chance of falling are known and are treatable.

• Problems with walking or moving around
• medications (four or more)
• foot problems or unsafe footwear
• blood pressure dropping too much on getting up
• problems seeing
• tripping hazards at home  

The good news is that you CAN decrease the chance of falling by working on these issues. Make a self-check and see which of these issues you can address. Talk to your doctor. Make some changes.

Get out there and enjoy spring!

Really, you can trust me… whaaat?

Last month, the Collaborative Healthcare Urgency Group (CHUG) conducted an evacuation training with our management team. It was NOT at all what I’d expected. And then some. 

CHUG was created to bring together senior housing providers who can help each other in emergency situations. CHUG connects us to each other, so that we can reach out to other senior facilities if for example we have an extended power outage, or a natural disaster occurs – anything that might trigger an evacuation of some or all of our residents. Like boy scouts, we want to be prepared.

The CHUG representatives covered a lot of vital and important information on training day. In addition to the classroom session, the coordinator brought some equipment so we could practice the skills he was teaching us. Here’s where the fun began! 

Our own Carla and Sherry trusted our team enough to allow us to move them down the stairwell while being strapped to the equipment.

Talk about having trust in people!

They both survived, and we have pictures to prove it!

Power foods make super meals

Can you guess how many of the Cleveland Clinic’s 35 power foods are on our lunch plate? Give up? There are five!

Not only are there brown rice, bell peppers, garlic and spinach, but black beans as well. According to this Cleveland Clinic article, these foods contain the richest amount of nutrients with the most health benefits and least calories.  And, including power foods in your diet can decrease your risk of heart disease. So what’s not to like about that?

Thanks to Chef Ruth and her rock-solid team, this meal exemplifies the work we are doing to make our meals the healthiest and most tasty possible for residents. Ruth has taken on the task of getting meals with the most nutritional “bang for your buck.” She notes that, “I have added brown rice, whole grain hot dog and burger buns and whole wheat pasta to our menu.  Whole grains help keep blood sugar more stable and add fiber to our meals.” Plus they taste darned good! 

Resident feedback has also led to our use of sugar-free gelatin, pudding and lemonade in the dining room. Plus, residents always have healthy choices available such as a fruit plate or salad, with skinless chicken breast for an entrée alternative. Ruth also makes it a point to include colorful food in every meal. “Color is so important.  Including things like sweet potatoes and red cabbage are excellent ways to enhance the nutritional content of a meal.” It’s my own opinion that visual appeal adds that something extra to our food. Ruth continues, “The more colorful the vegetable, the more nutritious it is.  Replacing or mixing iceberg with romaine adds more nutrition to your salad.”

We take a lot of things into consideration when planning the menu, and the proof is in the pudding. So to speak.