STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Maybe she would enjoy birdwatching.  Does she have a pair of binoculars?  She could get a bird book and start some sort of challenge/game for herself with recording which birds are around her house - - or she could enjoy just birdwatching.  She can do it from inside. And once she starts feeling well enough to do so, she can do it when she is outside.
http://birding.about.com/od/birdingbasics/Birding_Basics.htm 

Photography - you can do fun things with even the most basic digital camera.  It might be interesting for her to photograph her surroundings during her recovery.  She could print the photos and make a visual journal chronicling her recovery.  It sounds corny, but it might be helpful.  Kind of like a scrapbook.
Example of a fun project is Photo Fridays http://www.photofriday.com/about.php 

Writing - creative or non-fiction, expository, poetry, etc.  She can write just for her self to read or for others to read/hear

She could work on planning her next garden or flower bed by trying some new gardening and landscape design techniques (buy a book or rent a dvd or book from the library).

Learn a musical instrument or practice singing.  You can usually rent instruments.

She could take inventory of the causes and issues that mean a lot to her and craft some letters to her city, county, state, and national representatives.  This is something we all know we should do but never seem to have (or make) the time.

If she belongs to a club, organization, community group, church, or association, maybe she can help with mailings, write an article for the newsletter, compile and edit the newsletter, proofread the newsletter, start and manage the phone-tree, help plan an upcoming event/party--whatever they need help with and that she can do.

If she's interested in stocks, she can make  a mock version of her own portfolio of stocks and mutual funds and track their progress over the weeks while she's recovering.  She could buy a copy of the Wall Street Journal occasionally and look up stocks on the internet on other days.  good financial site:  www.fool.com

How about reading? My mom loves the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich.

i think puzzles would be fun to keep her mind off things. crosswords, variety puzzles, sudoku, even regular picture puzzles if she has a large enough space to work on them. i also think the netflix idea is great.

ttara123 wrote:

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Is she tired of TV? I can't watch hours of movies at a time, but if I have DVDs of a TV show I could seriously sit on the couch all day watching episode after episode.

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Not to threadjack, but I am the same way. I once watched an entire season of The Sopranos in one sitting...but I could NEVER sit through more than one movie at a time.

 

jrhampt wrote:

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In addition to online gaming and reading, she could netflix some seasons of tv shows she's always wanted to watch but has never had time to. I have all kinds of shows I'd get caught up on if I had 8 weeks...West Wing, Dexter, Pushing Daisies, Stargate Atlantis, etc. Maybe you could even get her on facebook?

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Oh my gosh. My mother. On Facebook. She'd be so confused, but she'd figure it out eventually.

I think I'm going to put an entertainment care package together for her with a lot of the suggestions from everyone. Along with some food and wine (yes, she's allowed to drink).

 

My grandmother had eye surgery earlier this year and could not do anything---even read.  She couldn't bend over without risking the corneal transplant going bad. 

Obviously, your mom isn't in this exact situation (forwhich we are grateful), but this idea was received very well. 

I bought 4 audiobooks off of iTunes/Audible and burned them onto CDs for her so she could listen to them while she was recovering.  They cost me some money, but I just considered it a get-well gift.  She loved them. 

You could download a series of podcasts that you think she would enjoy and burn them (I'm assuming she doesn't have an iPod). It's gifty and passes the time nicely.