The Weekly Menu for the Last Week of September

It is so hard to believe that this is the last week of September.  My Pops has been gone for 5 yrs now and Mom is still hanging on.  She has no memories any longer.  When they talk about living in the moment they should look at persons suffering from alzheimer/dementia disease.  That is all they have, just the moment, and when the moment is gone it is gone for eternity.  For the most part, Mom still shows some recognition when she sees me.  Sometimes I am her sister, sometimes I work there, sometimes I am just someone she knows.  But she knows she knows me so that is something.  The good thing about just living in the moment is that most of her moments are good.  And if they aren't she doesn't remember that either.  Mom has been in the memory care center now for well over a year, yet she does not realize she lives there nor does she have any idea where she does live.  We make sure that someone stops by at least 5 or 6 times a week.  At random times, sometimes several times during the same day and we always find Mom happy.  She is normally engaged in activities but if not the aides always are aware of where she is and why she is not involved.  I watch the aides who work with these patients every day and I have yet to catch one of them walk by a resident without touching them or speaking to them.  They treat all of the residents with love and care and I thank God each day that I found such a wonderful home for our Mom.

Frank is healing up nicely and we are able to have our Little Miss Melody come and visit us today. We asked Tingting to wait until today to bring her over because Frank was limited to picking up anything over 5 lbs until today.  We knew that Little Miss would not understand why her Grampy couldn't pick her up so it was best to wait.  We sure missed her though...I think this is the longest we have gone without getting our Mel fix.

Frank's Mom, sister and brother in law are joining us for dinner tomorrow.  Jackie and I are headed back to our Zumba classes this week.  Wish us luck!  Frank is returning to work on Monday and life is back to normal.

I am sharing my Weekly Menu here but any recipes/photos, other than this weekend's, will be following later than usual because I will be sharing recipes that I and other bloggers have created to celebrate Pumpkin Week.  This is a great event that you are not going to want to miss. Especially if you are like me and crazy about Fall flavors and all things pumpkin.

Saturday-Company for Dinner
Roasted Squash Soup
Tomato Salad
Savory Swiss Chard with Pork Chops
Mashed Potatoes
Fresh Corn Saute
Carmelized Pear Upside Down Cake

Sunday
Chicken Cutlets with White Beans and Kale
Roasted Root Vegetables

Meatless Monday
Spaghetti Squash Marinara

Tuesday
Braised Chicken Leg Quarters
Vegetable Rice Pilaf

Wednesday
Dinner out after Food Pantry

Thursday
Chicken and Eggplant Casserole
Pasta

Fish Friday
Grilled Salmon with Charred Corn Relish
Grilled Potato Planks