GRAND Magazine - February 2009 - 35

s p ec i a l a dv e rto r i a l “Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing.” – Kim Rohn In the depth of winter while the snow still clings to the trees, and the air is crisp and clean, Valentine’s Day arrives with cupid and his reminder of love eternal. Not just love for our fellow grand, but for everyone in our lives. Every day as we go through the hustle and bustle of our lives it’s easy to forget those special things that we love about our families – those precious moments shared throughout a lifetime: firsts, special events, holidays, and anniversaries. Now is the perfect time to renew and refresh those warm feelings of love and closeness for our fellow Grand, Great Grand and of course Baby Grand’s. Take time out this February to think about and catalog all the attributes and qualities that make your loved ones unique and special. What music, colors, flowers or books do they like? Did they or do they have any unusual or favorite hobbies? Do you have a future or former athlete(s)? Or a prize gardener? A musical prodigy or a budding ballerina? A wonderful way to chronicle these cherished memories is to establish and use a CareGiverHelper family community. This easy to use online tool allows you to store all of your family information – including medical conditions, doctors, important documents and more – so updating your care recipient profiles and listing all of their favorite things (and maybe a few of their not so favorite too!) is just a mouse click away. Sit down with your fellow Grand or Great Grand reviewing family photographs and listening to some favorite music. Take this time with your loved ones to remember the experience. Mark the importance of the event for the family, the excitement, sadness or fun. Be sure to jot down a caption or write a short story for them. If necessary have them scanned onto disk at your local photo store, Office Depot, Kinko’s. Upload and share them with members of your family community; Does your trip down memory lane bring to mind favorite dinners? Picnics or backyard barbecues? Desserts? Use the email function at your family community to contact family and friends for favorite family recipes. Food creates special memories that link us together through shared experience. Archive these jewels at your family community. Invite Teen Grands to help upload them, and add pictures of events and stories that can be passed from generation to generation. Let your whole family know they can access this section by clicking the video/images tab at the family community whenever they are looking to remember shared times.Be sure to add new events as well and keep the family informed and connected. Do your reflections pinpoint family or friends that you‘ve lost contact with? Use the invite function at your CareGiverHelper family community to invite people to join your family so you can renew old ties and nurture new bonds. Do you want to buy your loved ones a special valentine’s gift? Shopping online at the CareGiverHelper Mall gives you access to hundreds of well known retail outlets including FTD, Vermont Teddy Bears, Zales and many more. The Shopping Mall is also organized by gift category so if you are looking for flowers, candy or jewelry, you are only one click away from a huge selection of stores in each category. Many of the outlets also offer special online discounts, free shipping, gift wrapping and more. So simply LOG into your family community and click on “Shop” on the left vertical tool bar. You can even use the calendar function to organize a quiet dinner with your fellow Grand. Or organize a family outing or reunion. Families together, wherever they are: across town, across country, or around the world are only one click away from each other. Use the communications functions at your CareGiverHelper family community to keep in touch and to stay connected with the ones that you love. A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold. -Ogden Nash

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GRAND Magazine - February 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - February 2009