Transferring from a Rehab Hospital to a Nursing Home in Stouffville, Ontario

    Today was an exciting day for our family! 

    My mom suffered from a stroke a few months ago and      has sustained some serious injury.

Mom was at Providence Rehab Centre in Toronto

Though she has been treated at the Providence  Rehab hospital for the past few months,

 ( since July 2021)  trying to regain some of what she has lost, Mom is far from able to return to her senior apartment living an independent life.

Mom prayed at the Chapel at Providence Centre

     Like so many Canadian families dealing with       aging parents, we struggled with the decision of   where our mom should be. We had two options   presented to us:

  1.To a nursing home so that she would receive 24  hours professional nursing care.

  2. Back to her own senior apartment with personal support worker's assistance while waiting for the nursing home of her choice. 

        Mom was discharged from Providence Rehab. 

It took us quite a while to discuss the pros and cons of both options before deciding on what would be best for mom. At last, we got news that Mom has been accepted into the nursing home of her choice! This news made us so happy! We made all the preparations days before and today was moving day for Mom!

I could not sleep for fear that I might oversleep and miss the time to accompany her on the wheel chair transport taxi. Waking up at 7:00a.m., we arrived at Providence Rehab Centre right on time to get Mom discharge and boarded the transport vehicle to Stouffville, Mom's new home!!!

View from Mom's 7th floor new room - Mom Jeong Centre

  Located in a small town outside of   Toronto, the Stouffville Mon Jeong     Long Term Care Home is a 50 minute     ride from our house. 

 Mom was checking in to a brand new   350 bed state of the art facility. We   signed in at the reception area following   the COVID tracing protocol: - our   temperatures were taken - we had our   rapid COV|ID test done; waited for 15   minutes for the result before being   allowed in the building of the nursing   home - a staff member accompanied us   to Mom's assigned bedroom.

Mom's new bedroom in Mon Jeong Long Term Care

 

We were introduced to the medical staff on Mom's floor. - an RPN demonstrated to us how to wear the PPE properly before visiting Mom After following all the COVID protocol steps, staff from various departments came to see Mom and collect information about her so that they would better look after her. Administrators, nursing supervisor, nurses, dietitians, food service manager, physiotherapists and support workers all showed up to welcome Mom. The first resident admitted to this new home, Mom was treated like a VIP!

Her bedroom is spacious with a single hospital bed       with adjustable height.

It is furnished with a good size closet and drawers for storage.

The bedroom has a lovely view of the field and ponds outside.

The nursing staff were gentle with her, explaining things in detail and patiently. 

They weighed her and gave her some initial tests and assessed her mobility ability. After the initial assessment, it was past 12pm and they served lunch to Mom and us.

   

 I had tears in my eyes. Mom's favourite food - dim  sum dishes were served to her for lunch. 

We stayed to answer questions from the medical staff and before long it was afternoon tea made right outside Mom's room.

Seeing that our mother will be well taken care of in her new home, our family is immensely grateful to God who has answered our prayers! 

 R.T. 

 Mon Jeong Long Term Care Home

 Stouffville, Ontario, Canada

My Easy Entertaining Menu While on Vacation

I love inviting friends and entertaining them at home. WIth the past two years being kept apart from seeing frineds and familiy loved ones, we took advantage of the recent lifted COVID restrictions and entertained a few friends at our vacation home.

We invited Pastor Sue, Florence and our dear friends, D and D. We asked them to come to our vacation home for a dinner party on Thursday, the last night of our week long holiday.

God seemed to know exactly What we needed the day before the party - a cooking day! Wednesday was a rainy day which started drizzling in the morning and lasted into the end of the evening. We took advantage of the indoor time and prepared the following dishes for our dinner party for our friends. Appetizers - egg salad with cumcumber and cheese slices on rice crackers - multigrain taco chips with medium salsa sauce

Main Coursse - beef / pork meat loaf and roasted pork tenderlion served with a homemade mushroom sauce

Side dishes - A steamed vegetable plate - carrots, broccoili, bean sprouts, orange peppers prepared in the Korean style - home made pickled carrot and turnip sticks - baked cauliflower with cresty cheese topping - Korean glass noddles with sliced red pepper, bean sprouts and sllces of meat Desserts - Plate of mixed sweets made up of almond cookies, peanut cookies, moon cakes and Chinese rice crisps - Malaysian mixed fruit, palm seeds, shredded coconut salad with coconut milk. Pastor Sue helped me to peel the vegetables and we even bought some extra dishes from the Collingwood Reuse Store to pretty up our dining table.

The dinner party was a hit! Our guests loved our dishes and enjoyed themseleves very much. With all the food and desserts served to them, we talked and talked and our guests stayed well past 11:00 p.m.

Florence, and D. called us the next day and thanked us profusely for a great dinner. They loved everything and Florece remarked that she had never had such good food at any of the parties she had attended previously.

I was delighted as I made some of these dishes for the first time! Happy that I could try my hands at these new dishes which I learned to cook watching youtube during the pandemic lockdown!

R.T. Vacationing in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada

P.S. Here are some of my favourie dishes served to our guests and ingredients needed for them: Ground beef meat loaf - Put 2 LBS OF ground meat in a big bowl and mix 1/ 2 cups each of chopped celery, onions, and ketchup, bread cubes, 1 package onion powder, and an egg. Coat meat well with all the ingredients. Top with with a ketchup glaze. Bake at 375 degree for 45 to 50 minutes.

Baked cauliflower - 1 full head of cauliflower. Steamed cut cauliflower until veggie is a little soft. Mix 2 eggs, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/2 cup of milk, 1 tablepsoon of papprika, salt and pepper, and 2 tablespoons of flour. Mix all the ingredients well.

Put steamed cauliflowers in a baking dish; pour the flour milk mixture over cauliflower. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 -25 minutes. Sprinkle 1/2 cup grated cheese on top. Bake until cheese melt and golden brown.

Appreciating the Artwork of Local Artists & Brewery in Creemore, Ontario

Quaint, artistic and unhurried, Creemore is one our favourite small towns in southern Ontario.

It is a small town of around 1200 people ( census 2016), about a twenty minute drive from Collingwood.

>Creemore used to be a small village but urbanites started coming in, buying houses and starting business and shops in the village's main street.

Now, the Creemore business area is vibrant with nice cafes, pastry shops, funky furniture and clothing stores lining both sides of the downtown street area.

For a small town, there are quite a few galleries displaying art work pieces created by their own local artisits. In one of the galleries, we met the artist in residence and was able to ask questions about his artowrk.

I loved the colourful little shops doting the main business street.

Everywhere we turned, we saw nice cute displays of various things. For instance, a book shelf with displays cleverly hung from a book store window. Teddy bears sliding down on a corner shelf in another shop.

We saw paintings in a convenient store, a book store and the displays in clothing stores were displayed with artisitic flavour

Besides the many interesting shops, Creemore has another famous interesting attraction - the Creemore Springs Brewery which produces it very own brews.

Creemore Springs Brewery used to offer tours of its plant and samples of their brewery.

Due to COVID, there was no tour but visitors to the brewery could order samples of drinks and refreshments and enjoy them on the patio.

That was what we did. Enjoying the nice fall weather, with friends and loved one. We raised our glasses to thank God, grateful for good health and peaceful days.

R.T. Creemore Ontario

Enjoying Hiking and Some Downtime in Collingwood, Ontario

After F. and her kids spent a weekend with us, they left the resort and drove home late Sunday afternoon. We spend a quiet evening just the two of us, enjoying some peace and quiet after a busy time spent with two energetic kids.

The following day we drove back to Toronto for S.'s medical appointment and also picked up our next guest - Rev. S.at round 6pm. It was a pleasant drive back to our resort; we were back and finished our dinner by 9 p.m.

The next day, after breakfast we spent some time walking the trails leading us all the way from our resort to downtown Collingwood. It was an enjoyable walk on a beautiful fall day!

However, we had a hard time finding a restaurant in downtown Collingwood where we could enjoy an indoor lunch. Eventually, we odered some burgers and sweet potates fries and enjoyed them on the patio of A and W under the watchful eyes of a few seagulls eagerly waiting for our crumbs.

On our way back, we dropped by a couple of reuse stores and discovered some good buys! We were happy that we got a few items at some bargain prices!

Rev. S. served in our church for many years and has recently retired. A giving and dedicated minister, she has been busy helping and looking after other people. We hope she would enjoy some down time and can relax a bit in the next few days!

After dinner, we visited the Sunset Point Park trying to catch the famous sunset scene in this lovely park. Capturing the exceptional background of this park, Rev. S. snapped a beautiful picture of me and my hubby!

R.T. Collingwood Ontario

Fun on Wasaga Beach - the World's Longest Freshwater Beach in late Summer of 2021

When F. and her kids were with us for the weekend during our week long vacation we tried to do as many things as possible with them. The kids were very active so they made use of the trails, complimentary bikes provided by the reosrt as well as free mini golf and swimming in the indoor and outdoor pool.

On the last day of their visit, we took them to visit Wasaga Beach, about 20 minutes drive from Blue Mountains, Ontario.

Wasaga Beach is a favourite summer destination for tourists in southern Ontario.

A very popular destination especially for young people.

Located on Georgian Bay, Wasaga Beach is the world's longest freshwater sandy beach at 14 km in length. It is ( Area ! and 2) is a Blue Flag Beach for the 2021 season.

The warm, shallow water makes it the ideal place for swimmers of all ages. Sand castle building is a favourite family activity and for our little ones.

Other watersports are also available for those who are more adventurous!

We found a spot in the shade.

We spread out our table cloth, enjoyed some snack and watched the kids catching fish on the shallow part of the beach.

We have been coming here for many years. Always have a great time here at Wasaga Beach, Ontario! R.T., Wasaga Beach, Ontario