In a crockpot put brown rice.
Then add:
Cut carrots, celery, garlic, onions, cabbage, beets
For the spice add: cayenne, pieces of ginger, Hot Sauce, Mexican Seasoning, garlic pieces.
Add salt as needed.
Cover with adequate water and choose either High or Low on the crockpot, depending upon personal preference and your schedule.
There are few resources for paid caregivers for avoiding burnout. So it means that the paid caregivers must pool their strategies and create these resources that we so badly need.
Some strategies I have found to work for me:
Taking the first step to admit as much as I want to be seen as the best caregiver: I feel overwhelmed. Then, instead of causing office staff stress from dealing with me when I am stressed - we can begin to address what the causes are and get resources.
Make my own life simpler and more automated so that I don’t come home after a long day of taking care of other people to a sink full of dirty dishes.
* This means putting bills on autopay.
* This means using paper cups and plates when I have many hours, it means using the crockpot much more often, and also setting up bread in the bread machine.
*This also means setting up food and water in the car for all times so that I don’t skip a meal just because I don’t have time to sit down and eat … even if I just have nuts for a snack.
*This means communicating with schedulers that clients must be scheduled within the time frame where the gas and time spent driving will be paid or I cannot work the shifts because it deletes from my time, energy, and financial resources and my ability to do adequate self-care. Sometimes they are able to get a client to move the time so that something that would not have been close enough together is now close enough together. This is a great help.
* This means protecting my sleep hours with shutting the ringer off, and tending to voice mail so that I may have a chance to make a relaxed, informed decision on whether or not I will take a particular last minute assignment rather than being awakened 2 hours before I would normally get up by a last minute need.
*Be vigilant to make sure adequate break time is included in the day, particularly when only doing short shifts. This means looking up client assignments on MapQuest to get the transportation time from my house to theirs and their house to the next house. Allowing time for wrong turns and freeway jams, will I still get a break? This also means declining an offer of a 2 hour shift tacked onto my day if I won’t get a break between my last one and it.
*Be aware of what I physically and emotionally can and cannot do without injury to myself.
Physically, it is better that I not accept shifts which have me being awake for more than a few minutes X several times in the middle of the night, or with an awake time that is between 2-7 am.
Physically, I am too little to work a hoyer lift without injury to myself. Physically, taking sleepover shifts alters my sleep patterns and makes my sleep disorder harder to control, and also sews together 2 full days of work so that I can’t come home and rest or tend to my own life. I end up napping at odd times throughout the rest of the week to catch up, and my working ability suffers from the lack of sleep.
Emotionally, I have difficulty dealing with people who are too particular, who need things a certain way as if their lives depend on it. Emotionally, because I am empathic, I have difficulty with people who are agitated and leak their emotional energy out into the room.
* Scheduling two days off in a row, one of them a weekend day, the other not. It functions as adequate renewal time AND knocks off the required weekend.
* Protecting my off time with my life. Not making exceptions and doing substitute assignments on my days off just because I don’t want to disappoint someone. They won’t spend time thinking about it, they will keep trying to find someone else.
* VIBRATE TO WHAT I WANT: Be aware of the conditions I want to attract to my working environment: people who are easy to please and who let me decide how I can best do the task, reasonably emotionally controlled and who appreciate the care, in a well-lighted environment, with adequate break time and paid mileage in between clients where humanly possible.
* Be thankful to office staff who are helpful in times of need and ask for their help. Because it is hard to find qualified caregivers, it is in their best interest to help me to succeed.
“You miss a 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” Wayne Gretzky
“Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood.” Kahil Gibran
DISCLOSURE POLICY: I write sponsored posts for pay, but I remain ethical and I do not write about anything I could not conscientiously recommend to you. It has to help you with health, wealth, or better living in general for me to want to tell you about it.