I LOVE the people that live at Meadowlark Hills. We are all different but similar, and that makes for a great place to live.
Supporting Communication: Tips for Communicating with Adults Facing Speech Challenges
May 16, 2025
Blog
On the way home from the Meadowlark fireworks display and Fourth of July celebration, Murphy Rose repeatedly asked the same question over and over. I answered it over and over. Finally, at what seemed like the tenth time, I asked her the questions back. She rattled off the answers quickly and correctly.
“See, you know the answers,” I stated with a smile. Whew, that’s over, I thought relaxing into the seat.
“Mom….” and the same question was asked again. I was at the end of my rope.
Ask Murphy not to do something or why she is doing something and lately her answer will likely have an interesting caveat. Because I want to.
“Murphy, why are you standing on mommy’s couch?”
“Because I want to,” Murphy says with her head nodding while maintaining eye contact over the back of the couch willing me to agree with her.
Everything is because she wants to—or doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to brush her teeth, she wants to eat pasta for every meal, she doesn’t want to potty on the toilet—and then five seconds later she does want to.
Salon facelift scheduled
Pizazz Salon will be closed for renovations starting Monday, July 10, until Monday, July 31.
Life is always changing, but what is it about going back to your hometown that makes you feel like you are 17-years-old again? Even when I roll across the Franklin County line in my grown-up car with my husband and two children, car packed with diapers, extra clothes and goldfish snacks, I still feel like an awkward teenage girl.
The time has come to start preparing for the ninth-annual Speedy PD Race for Parkinson’s Disease, which will take place Saturday, August 26, at Tuttle Creek State Park. A walking group led by Hannah Willems, our Meadowlark Fitness Intern, will meet every Thursday leading up to the race.
All walking speeds are welcome and distances will vary. The group will meet at the Village Entrance every Thursday at 9 a.m. starting July 6 and will walk various routes around the Meadowlark campus. Note that the last walking session will be Wednesday, Aug. 23.
School’s out for summer, but that doesn’t mean the art display at Verna Belle’s Café will be absent. Several donated paintings are now on exhibit on the café’s south wall, where pieces created by Manhattan and Ogden art students usually rest.
Three of the pieces were painted by former resident Lucy Mulroney, one was done by F. Gene Ernst, a former Passport member, and a fifth is a print by the late Charles H. Sanderson, a Kansas native. The Meadowlark Hills Art Committee plans to find homes for these pieces in our common areas.
Making friends can be hard to do—especially when you are on the hunt for “couples friends.” Since Edward and I have been married, we have acquired a few married friends in the area and the process is much like dating. In fact, it is dating.
There are butterflies in the beginning. Will the wives get along? Will the husbands have common interests? Is dinner too forward—should we just start with drinks? Add a whole other layer if kids are involved. That’s more than five personalities to combine for a pleasant afternoon or evening.
When I was seven-years-old, my parents took my younger sister, Holly, and I on our first summer family vacation. The destination was San Antonio, Texas and there are two things I remember well from that trip. I can recall our day at Sea World where I sat in the splash zone to watch the Shamu show and I was disgusted when the salt water from the tank was splashed into my mouth. My smile that had been wide, and apparently agape, faded and I looked up at my dad in horror as he laughed saying, “Then keep your mouth shut!”
Arriving home to Meadowlark Hills one night after flying into Manhattan’s airport, Anna Walsh, apt. 408, noticed something amiss as she looked toward the visitors’ entrance. Our American flag, which flies daily from a pole near the circle drive, was hanging in darkness.
Seeing this, she remembered a poorly lit flag that had spurred her husband to action several years ago. A member of the Kiwanis club in Council Grove, he led an effort to bring a poorly lit flag into the light.
For many years, beginning in the late 1700s, a young woman or man in the Northern Hemisphere, hoping to increase the magic of that special date, might have applied a drop of “smell-good” that most likely contained some amount of an extract from the white verbena plant. This verbena, with lemon-scented flowers, a native of western South America, early on became one of the scents frequently used in the formulation of perfumes, colognes, and toilet waters.