I had always heard Meadowlark Hills is for older adults, but when I moved in, I found out Meadowlark Hills keeps us young.
Outdoor Encounters: Pebble & Pond
April 22, 2025
Blog
Summer as we know it is over (the first day of Fall technically isn’t until Sept. 22), and school has started again. This change ignites an almost daily question at my house, “Is it Halloween today?”
Fall brings many wonderful things, including Halloween. Beautiful Autumn leaves, cooler temperatures and everything pumpkin. Murphy and Eilish have big plans this Halloween. Murphy plans to be a witch, “Not a nice witch, Mom. A SCARY witch!”
Friends of Meadowlark have a fun and tasty opportunity to support the Meadowlark Foundation’s Good Samaritan Fund when the doors to Cox Bros. BBQ open at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 26. Brothers Bud and Bobby Cox, sons of Meadowlark Hills resident Ellie Cox, pledge to donate 10% of that day’s proceeds to the Fund.
Food specials on Oct. 26 at Cox Bros. BBQ, 223 McCall Road, include a pulled pork slider combo, available from the restaurant’s opening to closing at 9 p.m., and a hog roast buffet beginning at 6 p.m.
To quote Eli Sprenkle, fisheries biologist at Tuttle Creek State Park, “algae and blue-green algae are everywhere.” Including our Bayer Pond. Some would say the same for ticks and mosquitoes. Blue-green algae are now considered to be a form of bacteria (cyano-bacteria) possessing chlorophyll and capable of photosynthesis. Thus, like green algae, they, as a by-product of their photosynthesis, release oxygen back into air or water.
Leaves are supposed to fall. People aren’t! Falling is NOT a normal part of aging.
In conjunction with the National Council on Aging’s 10th annual Falls Prevention Awareness Day, fittingly set for the first day of fall, Meadowlark is offering the first of several free seminars designed to reduce your risk of falling.
When I told Murphy she was signed up for a race she beamed with excitement, shot a fist in the air and said, “I’m going to get a race shirt! And a medal! And a chocolate milk!”
We dream big at the Duggan house.
Murphy ran the half-mile family fun run at the ninth annual Speedy PD Race for Parkinson’s Disease last weekend. When I say she ran, I mean she ran. The whole time.
When Murphy crossed the finish line, she was grinning ear to ear, “I winned Mommy! I winned!”
Who doesn’t love a fast-paced auction? It’s still the one place you can get something for nodding! Although, of course, you do have to stay until the bidder end.
Monday this week felt like a Monday, except this week I was particularly achy and foggy. At first I attributed this to our packed weekend full with activities and traveling to see family, coupled with the fact that Murphy slept in my bed half the night because there was a green ghost in her room.
Residents, staff and family members are invited to Kansas City’s Kauffman Baseball Stadium to watch to KC Royals take on the Minnesota Twins at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7. Transportation on a chartered 56-passenger bus departs from the visitor parking area by Prairie Star Patio at 1 p.m. Please arrive to board the bus at 12:30 p.m.
Horace Mann once famously remarked, “Go west, young man.” Several plant species do the same thing: their flower buds and flowers track the sun as it “moves across the sky.” And these flowers do it every day until the seeds developing within them begin to mature. Then they tend to remain facing some degree of east.
The power of personal music and songs can be overwhelming for any individual. But for those affected by memory challenges and dementia, music can hold the key for communication, pleasure and easing frustrations and anxiety. It can also increase arousal, which can encourage participation in daily activities, therapy and eating.