Helping.Mom

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) 5 “Highs” of caregiving:  High agency.  High confidence.  High learning..  High heart.  High hope. 

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Building the Mindset of a Caregiver (Jude 20-21) Begin with stories of Dave, Ron & Frank Building mindset of caregiver requires 4 things: building, praying, keeping & looking, i.e., Effort, Prayer, Resolve, Anticipation Jude:Half-brother of Jesus  Not disciple during lifetime of Jesus  Like brother James, not entrusted with mother’s care at cross  Like...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) What to do when mom dies.  10-point outline.  Each bullet point is a podcast.  1 Communicate out. Task helper  2 Plan short term where bury, type casket, funeral home, speaker, meal, flowers, media outlet / social media  3 Secure pets, mail, trash, fridge, utilities  4 Get death certificate x 25 cert copies. Digitize it. Email/save to yourself.  5 Get cash soon...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Abraham, Adam, Jesus & You as caregiver Abraham as caregiver. Romans 4:21. Persuaded, he performed. He stepped—& bred!  Jesus: Go & make disciples.  Adam: Go and tend garden. Go and name animals.  Moses: Go and tell Pharaoh.  David: Go and take food to your brothers. Persuaded by the promise (god with him), he performed. 3 Ps: persuaded, promise. Pe...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Intro: Tragic true story of noncommunicative octogenarian man thought for years to be incontinent--who wasnt To be right is to be alone, and sometimes to be very, very wrong.  4 Things we must be right about in CG: Safety & Security of CR Cash Flow (nonpaid bills are lurking snakes)--IU Health as example Medical State as of right now: appts, meds, condition...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Countercultural Caregiving. Romans 1:1 Catch: Caregiving in America today is as countercultural as Christianity was in Jerusalem in day of Jesus, and in Rome in days of Paul. Christianity began in Jerusalem: Temple, Law, Priests, Passover, Arrest, Trial, Crucifixion, Resurrection, All disciples Jews there, Missions began here, First Sermon: Pentecost (5000 save...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) What makes us crappy listeners? God gave us 2 ears & 1 mouth,, that we would listen 2X more than we talk. So what went wrong?  The thing we need the most of, we do the least.  Broadly speaking sociolinguists identify 3 broad barriers to effective listening:  Internal barriers—daydreaming, ignorance, hearing problems, tired, ADD, jumping to conclusions, pers...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Pouring your heart out as Caregiver Mt 26:6-13  An unknown woman enters a room of religious men. What she does inside is memorialized in the Bible. Not her name, but what she does--meaning we too can be memorialized by our actions.  Jesus’ teaching ministry is finished. His healings and miracles are done. He made clear he will die by crucifixion. The number of...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) "Though our bodies be taken from us through Parkinson's, or our minds removed by Alzheimer's, our soul is intact in Christ.” Please pray 3 things for Sabrina & her dad, Willam.  If you have prayer request, email me info@helping.mom  Pray! 

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Jim Henson, on caregiving  Catch: it ain’t easy being a caregiver, and it ai t easy being green  Henson created modern puppetry. Every person over 40 can name 10 of his characters, each it is said reflects some attribute about Henson. In high school he joined a puppetry club. He met his wife in a puppetry class in college. He applied for a TV job in College but...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Acts 18:1-4  On Easter Sunday evening of 1523 a man drove his wagon full of fish barrels into the courtyard of a nunnery in Germany, where 12 nuns secretly were waiting to flee. Many of them had been sold as young girls into the convent by their parents, some through destitution, others by neglect and others for profit. And so these 12 brave young nuns hid them...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) WHEN to Lie to Mom Liar liar pants on fire, when is it right to lie to your mother. Or other care receiver?  We Lie all time: Like fletcher Reed in hilarious Jim Carrey movie liar liar. What would happen if we had to tell truth in every situation for 24 hrs!!!  We lie so often we call them white lies. Pure lies. Harmless lies. Since 1500s—pure lies oxymoron.  D...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) The Apostle Paul as Grandfam. Paul’s care for Tim & Titus Catch: What is a Grandfam. No, not a baseball homerun when the bases are loaded! Today on Helping Mom we look at the Apostle’s Paul’s great care for 2 young men & pastors. In America today 10% of children live with a grandparent (10M). This is due to drugs, addiction, alcholism, prison, abuse, ne...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Dementia Dos & Donts Catch: I confess. I am guilty of believing ALL myths about D--that D is a disease, normal in old people. Everyone gets it. It means forgetfulness. There’s nothing you can do once you get it. It is a mild form of Alzheimers. There are meds you can take for it. You can take a test for it. It is clear, obvious, etc.  It’s name is horrible....

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) We can care give, because He care gave!   His past tense makes possible our present tense.  Because he said, “I have,” we can say, “I can.” Who was Daniel Webster Whittle?  Named after great Daniel Webster. Joined civil war, got married on eve of departing. Lost arm in major battle fighting with Sherman in Georgia. Became POW. There he found a NT put into his k...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) "Go to the ANT, thou sluggard!" Solomon declares in Proverbs, for it is diligent, works hard without being told what to do, and lays up for winter its over-production during warm days of Summer. The ant perfectly models the bee and beehive (also spoken of highly in Bible for industry). But, BEWARE walking onto a nest of ants. Ouch!  The field ant is half-inch l...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Program Note: Today I experimented with new microphone for podcast. I hate it, so will throw it in trash. Sorry for echo-sound in voice. It wont happen again. "New" is not always better.  Where were Jesus’ followers or Mary’s children? What is THE LAST act on Earth, by Jesus Christ? HOW did John's life change this day? What was its impact on Jesus' own family m...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Disclaimer: following thoughts my own; names have been changed to protect the guilty  7 Funny (tho Helpful) things about Caregiving, based on book "Self-Care for Caregivers" by Susanne White Do best you can – – till you know better        LC is huge fast steep  Lower expectations and do bare minimum       You're already great—you’re here!  Self-care comes befor...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Special Announcement. As of June 7, 2025 helping.mom podcast now has 1000+ downloads from 15 countries & 138 diff cities. Thanks to each of you! Also, I have made decision to NOT put advertisements inside my podcasts. I am sick of how many adverts are now cluttering podcasts that I (used to) listen to. I wont do this to you. IF you hear adverts, they are no...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) I would argue caregiving is ALL ABOUT managing emotions. Which is why I was awful at it, when I first began.  Author Susanne White in book "Self-care for Caregivers," makes 3 interesting insights into managing emotions as caregiver.  Caregiving is an intense experience--with big feelings. Boy, is it!?!?!  We cannot make negative feelings (shock, denial, anger,...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) The Secret of Christianity: We walk behind Christ, who walked before God. Everywhere He said, "Come, follow me."  Letter of Ephesians is master opus of Paul. Key of letter is to distinguish Christians from syncretism idolatry sinfulness and hedonism of Ephesians (fertility goddess Diana). What Christians Look Like? is a great sermon topic for this letter.   C-i...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Federal Jury in NYC finds CVS & subsidiary Omnicare guilty for filing 3M fraudulent Rx claims in 3000 nursing homes, against Medicare, Medicaid & Tricare, over several years. CVS slammed for $400M in damages to USA govt + whistleblower who first reported wrongdoing. Think about this: 3M false claims in 3K places.  Trump administration promises more Whis...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) Hospital admission rates, severity, cost and duration is 4x higher for 65yoa than 25yoa.   20% of 65yoa will go to hospital this year; rate is 10x higher than for 20yoa.  AVG stay in hospital for 65yoa is 6 days, at $4k per day avg cost, or $24K total  The median age for patients in hospital today is 66yoa  THE HIGHEST % of patients in hospital today for drug a...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) How do we go from "pleasant" to "bitter" to "blessed" as caregiver. Sometimes it takes 12 years... Of the fears within and fightings without which beset us as caregivers, none is more strong than bitterness. Bitterness binds as it blinds. It banishes us from those we are trying to help, as from those who are trying to help us. It renders us ineffective--even as...

Contact Helping. Mom (we don’t spam) National policy toward the aging must be to keep them in their homes as long as possible; and, where not, inside homes of family members who have direct interest in their health and wellbeing. To incentivize right behavior, keep families intact, offset enormous costs of caregiving, and provide for care of aged, our national government must pay full-time family...