Happy Birthday to Beatrix Potter!  

Private Home Health Care wants to celebrate today!

The beloved English author was born in South Kensington, England in 1866. She was an only child but grew up wealthy as her family were cotton heirs.

Lucky for you and I, Beatrix spent a lot of time in Scotland and the English Lake District.  Both locations gave birth to her watercolor painting and her love of animals.

At the young age of 27, she was inspired to send an illustrated story to a sick child of a former governess.  It was so popular that she decided to self-publish.  

It was so successful that in 1902 it was picked up by Frederick Warne and Company to be published commercially.

You know the animals as the loveable and devilish bunnies Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter!

Beatrix created another 22 books over the next twenty years. that you and I still enjoy.

Mr. McGregor, Benjamin Bunny, Jeremy Fish and Jemina Puddle came to life.

She was married two times, once to Norman Warne, the son of her publisher.  He died suddenly and shortly after so she spent many years alone on her farm.

Love struck again however and next she married her solicitor. They spent 30 years breeding sheep and cultivating their farm.   Money was not a problem.

Sadly, as Beatrix aged she lost the sight in her eyes as did any new literary works.

Upon her death on December 22, 1943 the ever generous Beatrix bequeathed her land to the National Trust of England.  The Hill Top farmhouse she lived in is maintained just as when she were alive. 

Beatrix Potter’s works are still beloved today.  If you’d like to learn more you can go online and visit the Beatrix Potter Society, https://beatrixpottersociety.org.uk/

National Bagelfest Day

You might say why is it a national day for bagels?  The truth is that it was begun by the Lender family and is a big festival day in Mattoon, Illinois where the first US bagels began.

Funny too because Lender’s bagels have been owned by the Kraft brand for a long time now but there is still pride in Mattoon so they celebrate.

Private Home Health Care is sharing today because we love a good bagel.  

Yes, it’s high in carbs and calories so they should be eaten in moderation but they are just too delicious to pass up.

Bagels are boiled and baked so that’s an advantage.  If you choose a whole-grain bagel you get fiber and vitamin B, iron, selenium and magnesium.  

There are so many bagels now, fresh and frozen. It’s good to choose wisely.  

Interestingly enough, bagels were not a staple in the United States until the 1970s.  It didn’t reach a multimillion dollar business until the 1990’s.

When you check on the history of the mighty bagel it goes quite far back even though it took a while to gain popularity here.

Going back a bit further, historians believe that the bagel started in Krakow, Poland in the 17th century.  

You could also find other versions in Italy called taralli and ciambelle.  China too had a type of bagel called the girde.

You can thank Eastern European immigrants for bringing the bagel to the US.  That happened in the late 19th century to mostly Jewish neighborhoods before they became popular all over.

Now that you’ve had a bit of history of the bagel and learned that some are healthier than others, we hope you enjoy a guilt-free bagel soon.

Refreshments

It’s National Refreshment Day!  What is your refreshment of choice this summer?  

You and I know how important it is to hydrate.  We are wondering if you have any other options to get refreshed?

You may be a coffee or tea drinker.  A nice iced coffee or tea does the trick for many people.

Lemonade is a popular choice every year, homemade or store-bought.  

Water.  An easy and great choice to stay refreshed and hydrated.

At times you might need to get a little more from your water. Electrolytes can give you that bit extra. 

You get additional hydration and flavor.  Water is good but flavor can make it go down smoother and quicker.

Sugar-less electrolyte options include Ozenke, Ener-C or Super-C.  There are many more with and without sugar as you can imagine.

You find so many choices today that it can be overwhelming.  Fruit juices, teas, hibiscus drinks, green teas.  The list goes on and on.

Private Home Health Care hopes that you find a drink that refreshes and is a healthy choice for your body and mind.

Summer Fun

Here we are in the middle of July and we are wondering how your summer is going?  

Are you having fun?

A New England summer offers so many options.

There are beaches and swimming in the ocean.  Too cold?  The lakes are beautiful and tend to be warmer.

Every community has different events they offer.  In Marblehead it’s the Festival of Arts over the Fourth of July weekend.

What does your community offer?

State parks offer fun hikes and places for having a picnic.  You can travel to a state park and back in a day for a day trip.

Cape Cod is a local great place to visit. 

There are lots of communities and weekly rentals, affordable ones too.  You can enjoy the beach, miniature golf, boating and of course shopping and dining out.

Are you watching your budget?  Camping is a great way to spend quality time with your family and it’s not hard on the pocketbook. 

Tents are awesome but you can also rent a camper too.

You may be adventurous and decide to travel this summer.  Canada is a drive away with ferries.  They have them from Portland, ME to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

The traveling gets broader if you’re able to catch a plane.  The options are never ending!

Private Home Health Care loves seeing people enjoying the outdoors and the warmth of summer.  We hope everyone makes the most of the season.

National Eat Your Jello Day

Tomorrow is the day to make or buy some jello.  Jello can bring back childhood memories.  Do you have any memories of eating jello??

Jello has been around for quite a long time.  It was actually trademarked back in 1897.  Can you guess the flavor that has been around the longest?  It’s Lime, since 1930.

Who knew that gelatin and water could be so tasty and fun to eat.

You may wonder about the health benefits of this wobbly treat.  There are differing opinions but Private Home Health Care is calling out some of the benefits in this blog.

First, jello is good for your gut, otherwise known as your digestive system.  It can help with gas, bloating and overall digestion.

It is full of collagen and collagen is great for the cartilage in your joints. It can strengthen your nails and hair too.

Your skin can add elasticity and hydration.

Jello is low in calories so it is a good food to help with weight loss.

Your body can get energy from jello as it enters the body fast and it’s very hydrating.

Finally, jello is very easy to digest.

Private Home Health Care recommends the low sugar version of Jello because they can be full of sugar but we hope you try some tomorrow.  J – E – L – L – O!

National Sugar Cookie Day

Private Home Health Care is feeling a bit indulgent today straying from the usual healthy foods topics.

We celebrate the versatile sugar cookie today on the national calendar.  Delicious, and easy to make these cookies delight just about everyone.

You make them with ingredients you have on hand at home.  Grab some flour, butter, baking powder, baking soda, a little vanilla and of course sugar and you are all set.

Sugar cookies come as a chewy delight or a snappy hard cookie to dunk in milk.  Which one do you prefer?

The word on the street is that these cookies began their life in the 1700’s in Nazareth, Pennsylvania but we wonder if it took that long to come up with a recipe.

You might not be following a healthy diet but you need to indulge once in a while if you are even a little bit of a cookie monster.

If you are watching your sugar intake, you might want to indulge sparingly.  We all need a cheat once in a while don’t we?

We came across an easy and according to the website insanely good so we are sharing it here: https://insanelygoodrecipes.com/easy-sugar-cookies/#wpzoom-premium-recipe-card

You can try it and let us know if they are truly a super good sugar cookie.

Too tired to bake?    You can try Ralphs Bakery Fresh Goodness Sugar Cookies or Pepperidge Farm Ojai Lemon Sugar Cookies. Both got high ratings.

On this day, Private Home Health Care hopes you treat yourself to a delicious sugar cookie and a glass of milk.  Enjoy.

Ringo Starr and a Day on the “Calendar”?

Do any of you know what day Richard Starkey, otherwise known as Sir Ringo Starr, began?

We can give you a hint.  It is an International Day of the calendar and it started on July 7, 2008,   Ringo Starr’s birthday.

It is something that is good for everyone in the world and would be especially helpful in the middle east and in Ukraine right now.

Today thanks to Ringo Starr it is an International Day of Peace and Love.

Since 2008, Sir Ringo has been gathering with friends to celebrate peace and love.  You’ll find peace and love comes from many religions too but the day is Ringo’s. 

The word peace is in every language from Afrikans (Vrede) to Danish (Fred) to Zulu (Ukuthula).

Peace and love resonate all over the world among the people of every country.  It is the governments that ignore the definitions.

Private Home Health Care wants everyone to think about peace and love on this day and try to pass it on to the people you encounter.  

Sir Ringo Starr had the right idea with setting this day aside for humanity.

I Forgot Day

Yes, today is the day to think about those moments when something slipped your mind, otherwise known as you forgot.

The day really gives absolution for all of the little things you may have forgotten over the past few months.

Raising a family with activities can stretch anyone’s brain.  You may use a planner on the kitchen counter, a calendar hung up on the wall or a digital calendar.  

It all depends on what works best for you.  Marking everything down is a big help but it’s also possible that one or two things were missed.  Busy schedules can do that to a person.

If it’s a two parent household and both work it’s not always easy to keep track of it all.  Add traveling for work to the mix and it can get even more complicated.

As you age, memory becomes more of an issue.  Day-to-day activities are lost but memories from year’s back remain.  The brain is a very interesting part of our body.

There are checklists to help senior citizens weigh normal memory loss with dementia so reach out to a doctor, friend or family member with help for that.

For the rest of us, today is a day to forgive yourself and forget about any recent memory gaffs.  Tomorrow is a new day to work on remembering.

Private Home Health Care has many ways of keeping track of our to-do lists.  Tomorrow you can search for a way to help your memory.

A Helping Hand

Do you know anyone with an aging parent who has kept many keepsakes?

The question today is how do you lend a helping hand to an aging family member who has trouble letting go?

When you reach a ripe age of 99 everything can start to be a challenge. Just getting yourself fed and dressed can be a couple of hour event.

When you are trying to downsize it can be difficult to take the next step when memories surround you. What do you do with old yearbooks? How about family albums, remember those old fashioned books?

It can be a multi-week project but you have to begin somewhere.

Find a friend or family member and pick a pile. Its important to work with someone to help let go.

Go back through the memories then see if it is anything you will ever look at again. See if you can pass on the photos to a family member. They may be able to digitize them.

For the yearbooks or memorabilia, is there any place you can donate? Historical societies might take yearbooks or old bibles or books.

Move on to the next group of items. Is there any china that is worth any money? If so you can reach out to an antique store to see if they have any interest. You can get help to post things to eBay or Craigslist.

Facebook has marketplaces where you can sell things inexpensively. Connect with someone on Facebook and become a member. You’ll find things will go quickly if you price things right.

Letting go can be the most difficult part of the process. A helping hand is needed for acknowledgement and encouragement to help the person let go.

Private Home Health Care knows that it can be so difficult to let go of “things” that are part of your former life but the right helping hand can be just what is needed.

Playing in the Mud

When you were a child did you ever spend time playing in the mud?

Thinking about getting into the mud might make your skin crawl.  Some of you just may not have enjoyed getting yourself so “dirty.”

For those of you who did jump in, it turns out that you learned quite a bit from playing in all that wet dirt.

You may have boosted your immune system.  The good germs in mud may have saved you from a cold or flu back in the day.

You used creativity and imagination by building, moving or rolling in mud.  It was awesome sensory play too.  Mud feels different.

Think about the outdoor time you experienced.  No screens, just outdoor air and the earth.

Throwing mud can be fun but it’s probably not something you were allowed to do.  Hopefully you had trucks or things to use to build that kept you busy instead.

Mud play has been around for as long as dirt and water have been in the world.  In days gone past it was just a given that you played in the mud.  

Baths and washing machines did the cleaning after.  Isn’t that what they are for after all?

Private Home Health Care hopes that back in the day our seniors got to experience the fun of playing in the mud.  You might try it again someday!