Each season we roll out a new menu filled with seasonal items. After the menu is unveiled, we look for what is popular among residents, and build off those ideas.

A favorite is always those dishes that harken back to our grandmother’s cooking. No matter where grandma was from, I bet she had few recipes you loved. Was your grandmother from Italy? Did she make a mean spaghetti and marinara or gravy? So does Greenview Place! Enjoy yours with garlic bread and broccoli.

Maybe your family was more into desserts? 

A resident favorite is our homemade banana cake. Chef Lori has a fantastic recipe for banana cake that is so moist and it’s  filled with real bananas, and topped with an unbelievable from-scratch cream cheese frosting. Here Chef Lori is getting ready to make the frosting to top the freshly baked cake!

You want to know the secret to a flavorful banana cake? Freeze overripe bananas and thaw them to use in the batter. You heard it here first.

Here residents John and Ray work with the students to create unique hand-made cards.  

After we had fun expressing our creative side with arts and crafts, we dolled ourselves up in preparation for the dance that night. Our Director of Wellness provided the supplies so that we could do makeovers. Each lady was given makeup to use, and Bonnie surprised them with a special gift tube of lipstick to use for the party. It was lip-smackin good!

To cap off the day, residents were invited to party the evening away at a dance featuring the After Dark Trio.  The band played a mix of classic love songs, as well as the favorites that everyone could boogie to. Residents and staff showed off their moves while the kitchen pumped out snacks and punch to keep guests refreshed. The room was decked out with hearts, streamers, lights and tulle.

It was a great party and we are so glad that so many residents, guests and friends could join us.  Thank you to everyone who made our special day possible.

So what are you waiting for? You want fun, frivolity, love and friendship? Come to Greenview Place!

• Wash your hands. Sounds kind of basic, doesn’t it? But it’s essential. Thorough and frequent hand-washing is the best way to prevent many common infections. Scrub your hands vigorously for at least 15 seconds, or use alcohol-based hand sanitizers if soap and water aren’t readily available.

• Contain your coughs and sneezes. This also is basic, but too many people don’t know or remember to do this. Cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough. To avoid contaminating your hands, cough or sneeze into a tissue or into the inner crook of your elbow. Sleeves are a great accessory!

Keep these tips in mind you can make it through this season without getting sick! 

We follow many precautions here at Greenview Place to maintain a healthy environment. We provide hand sanitizers in the lobby and in much of the common areas. In addition, the high-traffic spaces are wiped down regularly with anti-bacterial cleaning solutions to prevent spreading germs. Our clean-freak CFPs work hand-in-glove (no pun intended!) with our Maintenance team to keep the place sparkling.

Come see for yourself.

To celebrate this momentous date, we threw a fun and fabulous mariachi dance party here in the Pursuit of Happiness Activity Center. Our dear friend and partner, Pastor Dave Abrahamson, from Saint Luke Church, gave us blessings galore to start off the night. He’s so much fun! Olé!

We had a big group of happy people swinging and swaying. Plenty of our residents, with their guests and family members, and a good amount of our team members joined in celebrating THREE years of opening the door to a new way of living. Check out the fun right here! 

We’ve been blessed by so many wonderful people who’ve come to live and work at Greenview Place, making it special, different – wonderful. Just ask anyone when you walk through our halls.

For last year’s anniversary, we rolled out the red carpet, literally, with a big Hollywood-style premiere of our movie. But this year, oh yeah, this year we brought Mexico in the house. ay yay yay!

Brightly-colored decorations, lanterns and a huge piñata decorated the Activity Center. Oh, and don’t forget the margaritas… oh, no, can’t forget those.

Our marvelous mariachi band played, and we all celebrated by dancing the night away.

We just couldn’t sit still!

Last year, I accomplished a HUGE goal that I had set for 2011 – but didn’t follow through with until 2012. I participated in a triathlon! I was disappointed in myself when I didn’t reach that goal in 2011, but then I decided to strive to complete that goal the following year. It was amazing; so worth all the hard work. 

I now know the importance of having a goal to work toward. When the everyday challenges and demands were too overwhelming, I would switch my focus to training for the triathlon.  This experience has taught me how valuable goals are and can be in my life. They give me focus, and keep life’s possibilities open to me – and, perhaps more importantly, show me my desires are attainable.

Hopefully, with the new year and the cold settling around us, each of you will find some time to focus your minds on your goals. Sit down with a cup of hot chocolate, dream a little dream, and then create an action plan for this year. YOUR year.

Cheers!

For those of you who are not familar with Samson, he is the Greenview Black Labrador mascot who spent his growing up year with us. He now lives across the street with Pastor Dave at Saint Luke Church, because he was lonely for his papa and Pastor was missing his canine buddy, too!

Samson originally came to Greenview Place as a rescue dog from the Anti-Cruelty Society; he was kind of a Christmas present to all of us from Pastor Dave!

He entered a new world with many people and so many approaches to training. As Samson grew, it became increasingly apparent that to make his world complete and wonderful he needed one person to guide him and a home to go to at night after a long day of taking care of his human friends. And being a young dog, Samson required much more intense physical activity than he was receiving. Lots of running! Pastor Dave stepped in and gave him all the things he needed to make his life complete.

Now Samson has the best of both worlds; he has his home with all its comforts and his special person, Pastor Dave, and he comes to visit his friends at Greenview Place and spread his own brand of comfort and cheer. And that is certainly a huge benny for all of us over here.

We will keep you updated on Samson and, if you are lucky, you might be at Greenview Place when he visits.

This year, we were visited by about one hundred little dreamers from Saint Luke Academy.  Residents and team members passed out candy to princesses, fairies, robots, dinosaurs, and doctors. Residents loved handing out treats, and seeing the kids enjoying the day.  “They look adorable,” noted Katie E. “And I love passing out candy to them, they are so cute!”  

Later in the day, we kept the festivities going with Bobby Dunne at the annual Greenview Place Halloween Party. Seniors and kids had a blast dancing with each other.  They snacked on mini cupcakes, and dirt-n-worm cups (EWW!) and washed it down with hocus pocus punch. (Now that doesn’t sound bad at all!) 

The kids and residents couldn’t get enough of the fun and, at the end of the day, everyone was saying what a great time they had.

We hope you had just as good a holiday, and maybe we will see you next year for the celebration!

BOO!

This afternoon, we hosted a chef’s tasting featuring Culinary Director, Ruth, and her family’s famous recipe!  Residents were treated to a moist and tender little slice of heaven. Yum!

Many families treasure passing recipes from one generation to the next and sharing the delicious goodness with others.  Ruth was thrilled to create her family’s special treat. “I love to share my family recipes in our menus where ever I can.  It’s my way of passing a little bit of my heritage to the residents.” Thanks, Ruth!

Interested in trying your hand at Ruth’s family gem? Here is the recipe, you won’t be disappointed. Believe me, our group couldn’t get enough of this wonder!

Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 F.  Mix the butter with the mashed bananas in a bowl.  Stir in the sugar, egg and vanilla.  Next, add the baking soda, salt, and then flour.  Pour batter into a buttered 4×8 pan and bake for an hour.  Cool and enjoy!

Pastor Matt, Chaplain at our nearby neighbor, St. Pauls House, is a good friend to Greenview Place. He hosts a weekly bible study, and he’s always able to spark a discussion, get people talking and engage the residents.  He traditionally opens the group with a discussion of current events, and closes with song. Folks get involved, talking about what they read in the paper and what they’ve seen on TV.  Last week, with the murders in Libya, many people were feeling anxious. Residents spoke up, wondering how people go on feeling safe in a world where such terrible things can happen.  That is when Pastor Matt talked about avoiding fear-based decisions, and choosing to live a life grounded in optimism.

What a wonderful message. All of us can appreciate that reminder.

We are lucky enough to welcome Pastor Matt every Tuesday for his inspirational group meeting.  If residents need some one-on-one time with him, he is happy to visit with our folks individually.  In addition, he leads the quarterly resident memorial service, where we have the chance to remember those who have passed.

Thanks to Pastor Matt, for being such an asset to our community! 

In addition to Pastor Matt, other worship events include weekly Catholic Communion, with mass held each month. Besides those options, Tai Chi Ch’aun is hosted every Saturday.

The opportunities for worship and meditation abound at Greenview. On Wednesdays, all residents are welcome to attend the rosary group.  Also, every other Friday, the rosary makers’ guild meets.  Some of our folks use the rosaries they make at group,  or they are free to donate them to the mission.

Whatever you choose, you’ll know that living Greenview Place enriches the soul in so many ways.

Our residents have had only good things to say about Wendy and how she has helped them and enthusiastically made friends with all who come and go at Greenview Place. But now she’ll be tucked away inside the Bat Cave, where all the big thinking goes on. Wendy’s been promoted  to Management Assistant, and I’m darned lucky to have her!

Thank you, Wendy for all your hard work –  and good luck in your new position! 

We are also welcoming Brandi Picou, who follows in Wendy’s footsteps as our new Receptionist. In the little time Brandi has been with us we have already grown to love her warm smile and excellent customer service skills. Brandi comes to us with excellent skills and a compassionate approach to her work.  Our residents remain in good hands!

We invite you to add your congratulations and welcome to Wendy and Brandi as they help to make living, working and visiting Greenview Place a positive memorable experience for everyone.

We couldn’t let Linda go without a proper goodbye, so we threw her  a Greenview-style “Aloha Party.” You probably already know that in English aloha can mean both hello and goodbye, but did you know that in Hawaiian, aloha means affection, and peace?  Well, that is the perfect sendoff for Linda.  We say goodbye to her as she says hello to her new adventure, and residents and staff alike wish her much peace as she embraces her new beginnings.

No party would be complete without a cake, so our kitchen team made a beautiful cake with tropical frosting flowers. Residents, staff all enjoyed a slice of paradise with Linda, as we reminisced about the old times, and dreamed about what the future will hold.

We will be keeping the Hawaiian theme alive, as next week Greenview will host its annual Luau! We may not be able to join Linda on her travels but we will surely bring the tropics here! We’ll have music, dance, food and fun in the sun as we party on the terrace, Thursday, August 30 at 2:00.

Come out for a great time – it’s the next best thing to a trip to paradise.

Jamie Basso, our  compliance guru, is moving into the position of Compliance Director.  Jamie will have added supervisory responsibilities as well as direct responsibility for all of our  compliance work.  BIG job, let me tell you! Jamie has wrangled the regs from day one, and she deserves this recognition.

Rebecca Drennan has moved to the position of Marketing and Leasing Director.  Becky will continue her very successful efforts to maintain Greenview at full capacity. Nobody works harder than Becky, and she is the leasing champ. Go girl!

Carla Estes has moved to the position of Compliance Officer, where she’ll keep us on track with paperwork, regulations and more. Carla’s done a huge amount since she’s joined us, so this is well deserved.

Oh, and we have NEW peeps on the team. Yippee!

Adam Davila is coming on board to join us as a Maintenance Specialist.  Bringing Adam on allows us to breathe a sigh of relief and to have seven day per week coverage in the maintenance area.  It is good to have Adam on our team. We know Bill and Gabriel are REALLY happy.

Jeanette Mohlman has joined us as the weekend Receptionist, replacing Linda Wyatt. Linda has headed for a well-deserved semi-retirement in Hawaii. Aloha! Linda will be greatly missed, and everyone is looking forward to working with Jennifer.

Our team is growing in numbers and experience.  We remain committed to creating and maintaining a friendly, helpful and  accommodating atmosphere, where lives can be lived to the fullest.

So stop on by and wish everyone well – we look forward to introducing you.

Last year at Christmas, TRC came together to host a Toys for Tots toy drive. TRC was also involved in the tornado relief effort for Joplin, Missouri. Each month, we have the opportunity to give to a worthy cause through the Blue Jeans Day program.  Most recently, Bill P., our very own Building Engineer, worked at the annual Chicago End of Summer school fair.  The event is hosted by the Illinois Currency Exchange Charitable Foundation which distributes 500,000 schools supplies to 19,000 kids.

At the crazy/fun event, Mayor Rahm Emanuel helped distribute the goodies to Chicago children.  Everyone had a great time eating snacks and doing keep-fit exercises, with seriously cool entertainment featuring Bill and his albino Burmese Python!

Check out the clip from WGN News!

Bill put it best. “It was an awesome day and experience working with the kids. Serena (my Albino Burmese Python) and I allowed the inner city kids to experience and learn about this awesome animal. The kids had many questions and kept Serena and me busy.”

Enough said.

Who you gonna call? 

Well, it’s not exactly Ghostbusters. It’s the 35th annual National Nursing Assistants Week and we’ve got your CNAs for you. We call them CFPs – which means Certified Family Partner, because that’s exactly what they are. They’re part of your family – and ours.

CFPs are at the heart of caring and interactions with our residents, their families and friends; they ARE caring. The words they use may be powerful and can encourage, reassure, support and convey respect, or they can communicate concern.

We’ve all seen the changes that are occurring in senior housing today. People are living at home longer or finding residence in assisted or supportive living, just like what we have here at Greenview Place. Seniors want to stay independent – imagine that!

Our residents are encouraged to make decisions and choices, enjoy activities, go on trips, and eat three well-balanced meals each day. If they require assistance, our CFPs  are available to assist with showers, housekeeping, laundry, escorts to the dining room and activities. When a resident requires hospice, he or she can stay at Greenview Place with extra care. Our CFP teams take that additional responsibility very seriously, making each resident comfortable and helping to avoid loneliness. Our team’s goal is to allow the resident to stay in his/her home and continue to live with pride and dignity – for as long as possible. 

And, yes, the Dining Services and Wellness teams band together to deliver the hot-ticket items: comfort foods like grilled cheese sandwiches, soda, even Jello!

Now as never before, attention is being directed to care of our most senior citizens and the spotlight is also shining on the workers who provide hands-on care and caring. So say thanks to our fabulous CFP teams: Alma, Chantina, Doreen, Elnora, Enid, Erin, Jennifer, Latasha, Linda, Ofelia, Rocio, Sheanell, Tenietha.

Hard to argue with success.

Three a.m. rolls around far too early for anyone’s comfort.  However, the excitement of a bus trip to Springfield with the chance to show Illinois legislators how just how valuable are the services provided to the residents of Greenview Place was all the incentive we needed. The opportunity to also celebrate Supportive Living Week was enough to entice a group of residents and staff members to roll out of bed and be ready to board the bus at five a.m. for the four- hour ride to the capitol.  Oh, and  we were not alone, since SLF teams from around the state were making the same trip.

After making up for lost sleep on the way down, we headed directly for the North Hall of the Capitol building. The Affordable Assisted Living Coalition (AALC) had arranged exhibits there for our legislators, explaining what Supportive Living communities are and how they serve seniors ages 65+ who benefit from the assisted lifestyle living model at SLFs.  

Our day of advocacy began at ten a.m. Our goal: talk to state reps and senators about the proposed cuts in Medicaid. This is the funding that pays for resident services at every SLF. We were so fortunate to be able to spend time with State Rep. Ann Williams. She was very interested in our residents and the current state of budgetary concerns. Our team was great at the task of explaining how much Greenview Place and the Supportive Living Program has meant to each and everyone.

Then we had a private audience with Governor Quinn. He’s so personable and was quite gracious to our large group. The Gov spoke highly of the supportive living concept and the integral part it plays in the continuum of care available to Illinois seniors.  Governor Quinn took the time to address the group, answer our questions, shake hands and listen to individual comments.  

Then onto the eats. AALC’s Wayne Smallwood hosted a luncheon for everyone at the Golden Corral Buffet Restaurant. Thus our well fed group boarded the bus for the trip back to Chicago with good memories and hopes that the SLF program will stay strong.

Heartfelt thanks go out to  Pastor David Abrahamson of Saint Luke Housing Ministries,  our CEO Nancy Kapp, Katherine Mazzocco of BMO Harris Bank, and our wonderful residents and staff who made the day so special.

Chicago welcomed back a tired group to Greenview Place who felt satisfied and proud to represent their wonderful community.

Our residents are already busy getting to know Wendy by sharing their stories with her and, as a result, many new names are being added to Wendy’s list of friends.  Wendy’s calm, friendly and engaging personality is a perfect fit for the front line person handling our extremely busy reception area. In fact, she’s informed us that she likes to help people and she spends much of her day doing just that. Hurray!

We are so pleased to welcome Wendy as a member of our team and hope you’ll do the same when the opportunity presents itself. Wendy, we’re so glad you’re here!

We offer many international favorites such as Greek Salad, an array of Italian pasta dishes with homemade sauce, and everybody’s favorite, quiche!  We will be serving Corned Beef and Cabbage on St, Paddy’s Day, when everybody’s Irish eyes are smiling.  

Our Spring/Summer menu will place more emphasis on light and healthy foods, but we won’t forget to include comfort food favorites and our tried and true Greenview classics.  One thing you can be sure of: we shop local and buy our produce from a Chicago area merchant. It’s important to us to offer the best, freshest foods that we can.

Stay tuned as we roll out the revamped menu…our new Meal of the Week feature will be a feast for your eyes – and the palate. Bon appetit!

Greenview Place is into shock and awe! Well, at least the germ-eradication kind. We’re routing out flu bugs and we’ve got a protocol to make any clean freak green with envy. Check this out!

We’re determined to minimize and prevent the spread of influenza and other easily-transmitted illnesses during this flu season.  Gabriel, our crack Maintenance Specialist – working with our amazing CFPs – is committed to providing a sparkling clean and non-germy environment for our residents, staff and friends. 

To begin, I consult with my staff.  The servers hear and see what our residents like best, so their input is invaluable.  The chefs are in touch with the logistical and creative aspects of the menu, so I ask them which menu items work best together from a preparation standpoint.  My favorite question is always “What do you LOVE to make?” Sometimes their answers surprise me, but in truth, if they love what they’re doing, it’s going to have that something extra which will give our guests an exceptional dining experience.

I regularly poll the residents about what they’d like to see added (or subtracted) from the menu and of course, their input is the most valued of all.  The president of the Resident’s Council is compiling the results from a survey he has created, so I’ll have some solid numeric information on the diners’ opinions to help me quantify my parameters.

Next, I sit down with all this information and work on rearranging, replacing and revamping.  Some items are removed to make room for something new.  Some items are changed to provide better nutrition or cost control or aesthetics.   And, since we offer a variety of ethnic cuisines and it’s important to keep those arranged mindfully so we don’t give anybody’s tummy jet lag!

The next step in this process is a meeting with the Registered Dietician where we assess the nutritional value for each and every meal.  Her input is also helpful for any minor tweaks such as making sure we don’t serve rice twice in a day or offer too many fried dishes in one week.  She’ll also check to see how we’re doing when it comes to fat and calories, sodium, cholesterol and sugar. We do provide diabetic options but our menu does not include therapeutic diets, so we carefully cover the bases of healthy eating to address the most common health concerns.

Finally, we roll out the menu!  We all listen carefully to the residents’ daily feedback.  This comes to us in the dining room, in the Dining Services Meeting and in random conversations throughout the building.  Luckily, our residents are as generous with the compliments as they are with the constructive criticism.  Sometimes, we make changes early on in the first cycle to accommodate some overwhelming response.

This is a fun and challenging process and so worth it!  The result is an outstanding dining experience here at Greenview Place, on a par with the finest hotels.

Make sure you schedule your tour around mealtime…and Bon Appetit!

Building Engineer Bill Pickert makes sure that the courtyard is always cleared and clean.  “We share the courtyard with Saint Luke Academy so it’s very important that the walkway stays clean, not only for our residents but also for the kids.” Bill and Gabriel are religious about it. *grins*

Our team is top notch – and they’ve been gearing up for the last two months.

Mother Nature, Father Winter, whoever’s out there, we’re ready.

Since the holidays are all about food, we have made sure that the Residents had plenty of opportunities to enjoy and share some of the food-based traditions we all treasure.  One of the most enjoyable events was cookie decorating, where we used icing, sprinkles and frosting to decorate cookies.  I personally got to take off my apron and lead a craft activity with my daughters’ assistance. We made Christmas trees from pine cones – fun!!

On New Year’s Eve, we enjoyed a karaoke event hosted by yours truly! After we ran out of songs on the discs for the karaoke machine, we sang a capella renditions of favorites from Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, and of course, Take Me out To the Ball Game.

It’s so much fun to take some time and have fun with the residents, and it’s a pleasure and honor to be considered part of their family as we build holiday traditions here at Greenview Place.

Here we have a special “Death by Chocolate” cupcake.  Yum! It’s a delicious chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache glaze, topped off with dollop of orange cream and chocolate sprinkles.  Our Dining Services Manager, Ruth Gudjonis, offered this tip. “This cupcake goes great with a tall glass of milk.”

Ruth proudly commends her staff. “Our chefs take pride not only in how food tastes, but how it looks as well.”

Way to go, Ruth and team! Send some cupcakes our way. (hint, hint)