Have you ever seen Gone with the Wind? I think I learned everything I know about the Civil War from watching the movie and reading the book - multiple times! There is this one scene that I can really relate to these days. Scarlett, perennial Southern belle of every ball pre-Civil War, is now post-Civil War literally forced to work in the fields from dawn to dusk to put food on the table for her family. It is a harrowing existence - one that leaves her frayed and exhausted at the end of every day. As you might imagine, her physical appearance suffers, but it really doesn’t matter as it is now the last thing on her mind. But then she comes up with a plan to entrap the prosperous Rhett Butler u

When you start to get involved in the care of your challenging elderly loved one, accumulating key information might take a little extra effort. In this video, you'll get details and a quick and dirty approach to accessing particular cards - at least temporarily - that will be helpful to you as begin to manage some of his or her day-to-day affairs.

One of your first tasks in the process of caregiving is getting a handle on the paperwork: bills, bank statements, tax assessments, homeowners insurance, mail-order prescriptions, everything related to your elderly loved one that may or may not already be getting taken care of. Of course, if your elderly loved one is "challenging," you may have your work cut out for you and have to play detective. In addition, your elderly loved one may resist your efforts to "help out." But you can gain some measure of control over this important aspect of caregiving. Once you do, the key is organization. Watch this video for a simple approach to organizing the paperwork of a challenging elderly loved one t

How many times over the course of a year do you write out a check, pay off a charge card balance, or make a bank withdrawal for literally thousands of dollars? Probably not all that often. Maybe if you’ve bought a new car, paid off a mortgage, or charged a houseful of furniture. Me? I do it all the time. No, I’m not rich. I’m just the financial manager of my elderly mom’s living expenses, the biggest of which is her home care. Because my mom has dementia and is confined to a wheelchair, she must have someone with her in her home at all times. For roughly 22 hours a week, that someone is me, free of charge. (Happy to do it.) For the remainder of the week (146 hours), that someone is a paid ca

Welcome – this time for real! After much tweaking, agonizing, hesitation, and procrastination, the time is now to put myself and this website out there for those seeking another perspective to their caregiving dilemmas. Today is Labor Day 2018. The perfect day to launch caregivingwithoutthecrazy.com. It has been a true labor of love, dismay, excitement, despair, enthusiasm, burn-out. You get the idea. This is my “baby,” which I have labored over, from my estimation, since 2011, when I first started journaling. You should know that, as a journalism major and writer/editor by trade, the expectation was that, of course, I always kept a journal. I NEVER kept a journal, always being prone to edit