Shaping Families

Aging: Care Options

One of the more difficult aspects of our aging population is the growing number of years we will spend caring for a dependent parent. How are you preparing for those years? How will you know if a nursing home is the right option?

Listen - Transcript - Study Guide

Centerpiece

Harvey Yoder

I’ll never forget the last night I spent with my father—one of the longest in my life. My siblings and I were taking turns being with him in the hospital, where at age 80 he was dying of emphysema. He was extremely weak, at half his usual weight and a fraction of his normal strength. He was also confused, not always aware of where he was or what day or what time in his life it was, and why I had to restrain him to keep him from getting out of bed and from removing his oxygen tube. It was a distressing reversal of roles, with me, the youngest son, becoming like the parent, and he the child, now frail, fragile and needy.

We Need a Public Option

Burton Buller

There was a time when you worked, and then you died. Now you work, you retire, and then you die. Some will spend half as long in retirement as they did in their work lives. It’s a different world than it was for our great grandparents.

“Families Under Construction” is the theme on next week’s Shaping Families program with guest Gareth Brandt, a professor in practical theology at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Gareth is the recent author of a book, Under Construction: Reframing Men’s Spirituality He will also share from his practical experience in raising his own children.

Cheese Straws

Co-author of Mennonite Girls Can Cook, Julie Klassen says: I got this recipe from a coworker many years ago, and adapted it to make it gluten free. For the original recipe, just substitute all the flours with 1 cup / 250 ml wheat flour and leave out the xanthan gum. With wheat flour the dough is much easier to twist into straws, but do the best you can with the gluten-free dough. It handles quite well.

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