Helping.Mom

Helping.Mom

By Terry, Army Vet & CaregiverEducationHow To
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Helping.Mom episodes

  • Widowhood in America. Widow Facts 2025

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    HOW do we know being a man married to a wife is MUCH harder than being a wife married to a man? Listen today, as Terry shares facts about widowhood in America. There are 14M widows in USA, and 3.5M widowers (man whose wife has died), with 50,000 new widows added each month. Avg age of widow is much younger than you think--59YOA (which means most are hot!), but economic impact of death of husband is huge upon widows. The Widowhood Effect is true. But 3 Myths continue to circulate about widows, which are not. And, No culture of world celebrates widowhood. In most places a stigma attaches to the widowed wife she never loses. Please join us on an interesting survey of facts of widowhood. 

    10 min
  • Sunday Musings. The Christ in Colossians Chapter 1:13-21

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    Paul says 10 things about Jesus Christ in this passage. He is image of God, God in flesh, God incarnate, thus fulfilling 10 Commandments. He is first in time and place over his Creation--which includes evil, dominions, powers & principalities. By Him all is created, and for Him it continues to exist, including all matter and spirit. He is the "gravity" holding all together, though all seem to be coming apart today at seams. He is pre-eminent, meaning before everything else that stands out. He is head of the only religious institution that spans from the temporal to the eternal. There is no other group than the church in heaven, and through this church he lives & moves & has His being today. We are fit together as members of His body--with Him as our titular head. And, most glorious to us, by Him we are reconciled to God. We are forgiven, received, transformed from dead to life, blind to sight, and able to live fully. 

     

    16 min
  • Estate Guardians Stay out of Jail (unlike mafia bookies)

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    The BLUF (bottom-line-up-front) to being an effective Estate Guardian for your mom is "DONT TOUCH THE MONEY!" Her assets are not your own. Dont blend them, steal them, share them, borrow from them or lend to them. Keep a meta-awareness of your actions at all time for/on her behalf, with one eye toward NY Times and the other eye toward God, the Court, and Team you create around her. Disciplined habits are critical, plus great, constant communications in all directions. BLUF from all those mafia movies we watched as kids, where bookies are in da slammer, "The guy who touches the money, goes to prison!" 


    15 min
  • Medical Guardians play Accordion, like John Candy

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    Being the medical guardian for your parent is a sticky-wicket, of big picture + fine detail. Here we DO sweat the "small stuff," while trying to stay on the larger path of footsteps we take each day for our parent. 

    Thankfully the pitch generated by our good intentions and best efforts remain the same, regardless the direction we move the bellows against the reeds inside our casing. WTH? Dont worry, this is accordion-speak. It'll make sense when you listen to this funny, informative podcast on How-to BE a Medical Guardian for your mom or dad. 

    Email me your own perspectives and challenges being medical guardian, to [email protected] 


    18 min
  • DUMPSTER Party WooHoo! How to order, schedule & fill a trash dumpster

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    "The only cure for hoarding is a trash dumpster." --Terry 

    Today is practical--how to order, schedule & fill a trash dumpster. Find a local company; order the 20-yd option at minimum, schedule it at least 2-wks out; get cheap labor from your local high school athletic director; get your neighbors to help share cost; locate dumpster intelligently (you tell driver where to put it--dont let him assume for you), and; fill it based on volume not weight, every empty space, and so so safely--with order, glasses & gloves. Enjoy!!! 

    "When you look back on this year of your life, you will remember the incredible joy you had THIS DAY of filling a trash dumpster with useless hoarded junk." -- Terry 

    Email me your ideas, stories, tips, & prayer [email protected]


    18 min
  • Hoarding! HOW to CONQUER it? Boesch Answer vs Book Answer

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    Every military veteran in our country, 17 million strong, knows the "Book Answer" is the answer to a question we are required to memorize and regurgitate back, to pass the test, but which we know doesnt work. The book answer to "how to deal with a hoarder" is like this; it doesnt work. Instead, the Boesch Answer is different. Here is what I did. And, I give you 2 positive stories that it works. How to deal with hoarding, and the hoarder, is our podcast today. Send me your own ideas to [email protected] 

    14 min
  • Hoarding! What is it? WHAT does YOUR mom/dad hoard???

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    Oh boy, a disease by degree, not kind. We all have the hoarding gene inside us, combining gluttony (lit "gulping down") with fear of want, not having. So, what does your parent hoard? My revelation in 2024: men hoard in barns, women hoard in homes. But where does hoarding come from? What innocent temptations lead to going from 1 cat good, to 22 cats cat-lady? Give us a listen. Also, email what your mom or dad hoards to [email protected] (I promise I wont tell them you told me....).  

    9 min
  • Unhealthy Health. Badd Facts about USA & us

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    Honest truth today about American health, and its enormous costs personal & collective. Then one solid piece of helpful advice. 

    Americans spend 2-X $ amount for health care than world, yet die 5-yrs before every other developed nation. Our 4% of world population consumes 70% of prescribed drugs. Near-70% of Americans are on prescribed drugs, Avg person over 60 is on 5 (and will never come off). 

    One health insur company in USA makes more $ in revenue than total GDP of Portugal, is 4th largest, richest, biggest company in USA, and #9 in World (bigger than Google, Microsoft, & all Elon's companies), controlling 50% of med treatment in USA, and employing 90,000 MDs. Aetna, the 3rd largest health insur co in USA owns CVS, largest RX company in USA.  


    1% of MDs work for you. The rest work for hospitals (77%), private equity firms and insurance companies (22%), and government (2%). by government.

    Many direct-care MDs who work for hospitals are bonused for in-system referrals to fellow RX, tests, specialist care, and "approved" hospitals, ERs & surgical centers. 

    Trillions are spent to make us sick, keep us sick, and treat us for being sick. RFK JR says, "Everyone profits off a sick child." We forget in our national healthcare debates that 80% of ALL money spent in healthcare today in USA is for chronic conditions, 80% of which are preventable, like obesity & diabetes  


     



    12 min
  • Movement IS Medicine, by Howard Luks, MD

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    I follow Howard Luks, MD on X. He is one voice I listen for each day. He is an Orthopedic Surgeon n NYC. All thoughts today are his, so let me give him credit. 


    Your fitness is your safety net, not $, insurance, govt program. (my words: "All the kings' horses & all the kings' men cannot put us together again at our age). Money will not matter if I am immobile.  

    Exercise is not taking time away from your family--its adding years of time to them. 

    It's wrong to view exercise as selfish time; instead see that your wellbeing is directly related to your family--in more energy, more patience, more life for you & them.


    Success is not how sore you are, but how often you show up. Everything you think you need you do not. Sweat is optional. Gyms are optional. Equip is optional. Pvt trainers are optional. MOVEMENT is NOT OPTIONAL

    Exercise is additive, not subtractive (my words). It adds to, it does not take away. It compounds interest. It is going from nothing to something. Each step adds, Each Stretch adds, Each walk adds.

    Kids learn watching you. You are teaching them life-long habits of mind, body, investment, patience, working toward goal, spirit, service. 

    Exercise reflects gratitude; you CAN move, work, go, get, carry, reach, bend, etc. 

    At this point in life our goal is not 6-pack abs. It is Strength you can use, Balance you can trust, Energy that lasts past 5pm! We are not chasing youth. We will not win awards. We do not need performance. We need movement. 

    Motion is medicine


    My tips: 
    10/10/10: Start today doing 10 stretches, holding each for 10 seconds, for total of 10 minutes. Hold onto back of couch, kitchen counter, or chair to help steady body. 

    Walk (I walk 2.5 Marathons/week with my adult dogs, some 10 miles/day, rain or shine, Winter & Summer). 


    Of course, eat better, sleep & drink water. And, above all, listen to helping.mom podcast, and buy a nostalgia beautiful White German Shepherd puppy from PatriotPups.org


    10 min

About Helping.Mom

From the publisher's feed

Army Vet returns home to care for aging mom. Creates podcast Helping.Mom to help caregivers care for aging parents.