We were like Energizer Bunnies this week, so busy! We began with a double outing on Tuesday and everyone kept rolling along from one thing to another. Unfortunately, all of the pictures from the day were accidentally deleted! Our MG friends were kind enough to share a few of their pictures with us, so our readers can enjoy that part of our day! 🙌
We met with the MGs at Freedom Park in the botanical garden on a beautiful morning, warm, but not humid. It was Lemon Day! They shared many herbs that are lemon scented, such as lemon thyme, lemon verbena, and lemon basil!
We learned about a small lemon tree Miss Linda has, called a Meyer Lemon tree, which can be seen in the foreground of the picture here. A new MG friend, Elizabeth, shared a lemon/rose scented geranium plant. Karen, shown in this picture, told us about lemon grass, which is behind the lemon tree. We learned that we could rub the leaves of these plants between our fingers and then get a whiff of a most pleasant lemon scent. We also learned that these herbs and plants are deterrents to mosquitoes! The MGs even gave us some to take back and put in our planters at the center!
We worked in the beds and checked the potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers. There was a little weeding to do, too.
And of course, harvesting! We got more lettuce and onions, and also basil and garlic! Liz held the bag while MG Carolyn put onions in it. On the way back to the center, we made a decision to prepare spaghetti for lunch tomorrow. The sauce will be enhanced with these fresh ingredients!
It was fun to pot some plants we could take home to keep inside. We hope our families will enjoy the spider and philodendron pots! This is MG Joann helping Devin and Drew with theirs.
What a nice close up of Cameron and his spider plant!
We are spoiled by the hospitality shown to us by our MG friends. They usually have a treat for us and today's was lemon bars!! Miss Linda made them and included lemon verbena in the recipe. They were soooo good! We also had lemonade! We're touched that the MGs always remember to bring an alternative for a couple of our friends with food challenges, too. Thank you, Master Gardeners. Your thoughtfulness means a lot to us!
MG Karen is a crafty lady. She has prepared numerous craft activities for us over the period of our visits, and today she had note card kits for us. We didn't have time to make them at the garden, so we brought them back to work on at the center. (More on that later...)
We learned about a small lemon tree Miss Linda has, called a Meyer Lemon tree, which can be seen in the foreground of the picture here. A new MG friend, Elizabeth, shared a lemon/rose scented geranium plant. Karen, shown in this picture, told us about lemon grass, which is behind the lemon tree. We learned that we could rub the leaves of these plants between our fingers and then get a whiff of a most pleasant lemon scent. We also learned that these herbs and plants are deterrents to mosquitoes! The MGs even gave us some to take back and put in our planters at the center!
We worked in the beds and checked the potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers. There was a little weeding to do, too.
And of course, harvesting! We got more lettuce and onions, and also basil and garlic! Liz held the bag while MG Carolyn put onions in it. On the way back to the center, we made a decision to prepare spaghetti for lunch tomorrow. The sauce will be enhanced with these fresh ingredients!
It was fun to pot some plants we could take home to keep inside. We hope our families will enjoy the spider and philodendron pots! This is MG Joann helping Devin and Drew with theirs.
What a nice close up of Cameron and his spider plant!
We are spoiled by the hospitality shown to us by our MG friends. They usually have a treat for us and today's was lemon bars!! Miss Linda made them and included lemon verbena in the recipe. They were soooo good! We also had lemonade! We're touched that the MGs always remember to bring an alternative for a couple of our friends with food challenges, too. Thank you, Master Gardeners. Your thoughtfulness means a lot to us!
MG Karen is a crafty lady. She has prepared numerous craft activities for us over the period of our visits, and today she had note card kits for us. We didn't have time to make them at the garden, so we brought them back to work on at the center. (More on that later...)
After having lunch at the park on Tuesday, we headed to CW for our monthly visit with Christina at The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. Maybe it's a good thing we lost the pictures, because we worked with her and her intern, Anna, on a special surprise for Father's Day! As usual, we enjoyed our time with Christina, and it was great to meet a new friend, Anna. Christina also showed us around a new exhibit called "Upholstery CSI" which was full of furniture from the 18th century...including lots of chairs. Hence, the connection to Father's Day! 🤣🤣🤣 We will make something else to add to our Father's Day goodies next week and then send them home in time for the special day! We can't thank Christina enough for the effort she puts into making our monthly visits interesting and productive. We're sorry we lost the pictures from Tuesday's delightful experience.
We were careful with Wednesday's pictures, so here they come! One thing we did was talk about a song our MG friends mentioned to us called "Lemon Tree." Performed by Peter, Paul, and Mary in 1962, it compared love to a lemon tree: "Lemon tree, lemon tree, very pretty and the flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat." (The singer's girl runs off with another!) We used this metaphor for a simple lesson about how things aren't always as they seem.
After the not so serious "Lemon Tree" lesson, we spent a good amount of time talking about the significance of D-Day. We watched a video and had a good discussion. Then, our guys took a test and scored very well!
We learned that before soldiers came ashore on the beaches of Normandy (the Americans came ashore on Utah and Omaha beaches), paratroopers had landed behind the German enemy's lines, and set out to destroy bridges and other fortifications. When Becky came to volunteer after lunch, we told her about our D-Day history lesson and she told us that her father had been one of those paratroopers! We found that to be pretty cool and Sam even told her he would have been honored to meet him! 💜
It was like a true springtime day on Wednesday and we were excited to get outside. Between the rain and heat, and the school taking SOL tests, we had not been able to go outside in a few weeks. Our guys still love to shoot hoops!
We assembled the lemon-themed note cards our MG friend Karen
gave us on Thursday, too. These would make a great card for sending a special message to a special someone!
It wasn't just chips we had for lunch on Friday! This team of Laura, Xavier, and Kevin prepared indiviual bags of sweet, red grapes for everyone!
Here's the end result of our busy morning in the kitchen. Our lunch was delicious!
Saturday, August 4th - The Women of the Moose are sponsoring a golf tournament at the Kingsmill River Course that will benefit The Arc!! This has potential to be a HUGE fundraiser for us, so please consider signing up or being a sponsor. ALSO, we will need some of our AoA associates to volunteer on that day.
We were careful with Wednesday's pictures, so here they come! One thing we did was talk about a song our MG friends mentioned to us called "Lemon Tree." Performed by Peter, Paul, and Mary in 1962, it compared love to a lemon tree: "Lemon tree, lemon tree, very pretty and the flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat." (The singer's girl runs off with another!) We used this metaphor for a simple lesson about how things aren't always as they seem.
After the not so serious "Lemon Tree" lesson, we spent a good amount of time talking about the significance of D-Day. We watched a video and had a good discussion. Then, our guys took a test and scored very well!
We learned that before soldiers came ashore on the beaches of Normandy (the Americans came ashore on Utah and Omaha beaches), paratroopers had landed behind the German enemy's lines, and set out to destroy bridges and other fortifications. When Becky came to volunteer after lunch, we told her about our D-Day history lesson and she told us that her father had been one of those paratroopers! We found that to be pretty cool and Sam even told her he would have been honored to meet him! 💜
It was like a true springtime day on Wednesday and we were excited to get outside. Between the rain and heat, and the school taking SOL tests, we had not been able to go outside in a few weeks. Our guys still love to shoot hoops!
Laura launched the smiley disk. Wonder where it's headed?
Let's hear it for Kacie and Sam who gallantly sacrificed outside time to hit the kitchen and prepare our lunch! 👏👏 They did a great job making a red pasta sauce filled with the onions, garlic, and basil we picked in the garden yesterday. They also put together a simple salad with the lettuce we harvested, adding a few more onions and some Crasins that Carol brought.
The guys who went outside noticed someone working in the Grove Community Garden, and she offered to let them pick more lettuce and some sweet sugar snap peas! Our lunch was very tasty!
It was Yo-Yo Day on Wednesday, and we "celebrated" it for the first (and last) time! To say it's a tough skill is an understatement! Here's a picture of Sam and Kate trying to "yo," and we have to say, they worked hard at it.
Oh dear, they would have to wind them up by hand again! All their other friends weren't having much luck either and moved on from this activity very quickly...
We worked on finding "connectedness" with Patti during yoga today. We connected with our breathing, and then we connected with our bodies. Here, we were grounding ourselves from a position on our tummies. Before we changed from this position, we had lengthened our spines, and it felt good!
Patti told us to rub our hands together very quickly to heat them up. Friction, we learned!
Then she had us put our hot hands over our hearts. We could feel the energy of our heartbeats better after doing this. Our heart is our life source...and connects us to others through love!
Rubbing our hands together to make heat is a good strategy for times when we may need to settle ourselves. Patti gives us great tips!
We certainly loved our day on Wednesday. There's something about yoga that gets us all in a good zone! We are thankful for our yogi, Patti, and her gentle tone and upbeat nature!
Thursday was a gorgeous day, and we kept busy with a variety of tasks. Remember we mentioned that the MGs gave us some herbs to take back and plant the center? Here, Carol, Kate, and Liz put them in our planters.
gave us on Thursday, too. These would make a great card for sending a special message to a special someone!
Eaton did not need us to work onsite this week, but they sent us some PowerSlide Doors to work on at the center. Kate, Sam, Patrick, and Bo worked to set up tables, using risers to make them taller.
Meemaw was on hand to keep this group on task!
We added Kacie to the label table with Chloe, Alexis, and Nan!
We also needed a Chocolate Ice Cream Team and Devin, Kate, Laura, and Drew volunteered!
Doesn't it look creamy and rich as Devin added the cream? Later in the day we put this base into the ice cream maker and in no time at all we were celebrating Chocolate Ice Cream Day!
Hard to see, but everyone had a bit in their cups!
Friday saw us trying a new kitchen tool! We used a mandoline slicer to make homemade potato chips! Chloe was a little nervous about using it, so Alexis gave it a try. Carol helped hold the container in place and the potatoes slid easily across the cutting blade.
Kacie and Kate were amazed at how thin they were!
After the girls patted the slices dry, we sprayed them with a little cooking oil and popped several trays into both The Nina and our toaster oven.
The baked chips turned out well. Some were more crispy than others, but we had no leftovers!
We didn't realize we were sort of conducting an experiment when we used both The Nina and the toaster oven to cook the chips. But it turns out the toaster oven did a slightly better job at baking crispy chips, so we will remember that for next time. Kate was happy about this, since her family had donated the toaster oven to us last year!
And Devin, Patrick, and Drew were the Bacon Boys! They loaded up three trays with bacon slices so we could make our BLTs! The Nina did a great job cooking this! (The guys were loading the trays into a cold oven. We turned it on once the bacon was inside.)
Here's the end result of our busy morning in the kitchen. Our lunch was delicious!
The weather was still beautiful on Friday, although the humidity level was creeping up a bit, so we decided to head to the parkway and collect more rocks to paint next week instead of going to the park. It was a good choice, as the breeze off the James River was lovely.
After gathering plenty of rocks to paint, our guys had fun throwing others back into the river.
We spent several minutes sitting around talking and listening to small waves lap the shore. Our group was small on Friday, only 10, and it was Best Friends Day. We decided just to spend it hanging out (and cooking, which took all morning) with each other and next week, when the full gang is together again, we will do a special activity we first did last year to celebrate their friendships with each other. And with this, we ended our Energizer Bunny week!
Here's what you need to know for next week:
Caregiver Focus Group meeting - Monday, June 11 at 7 p.m.
Lucy Cantrell from The Arc of Virginia will be our guest. She will share a myriad of information for those who are on the waiting list for the Medicaid Waiver (or haven't applied yet) and various other aspects of navigating the daunting process of accessing services in our state.
Location: St. Martin's Episcopal Church, 1333 Jamestown Road, Williamsburg, 23185.
The meeting will be from 7 - 8 p.m. with Lucy's presentation and time for Q&A's!!!
News Flash: This is the last week of school, which means it's also the last week lunch can be ordered from the school cafeteria, but only through THURSDAY, which is the last day of school! 😲 Beginning next week, if we aren't cooking at the center, lunch will need to be brought from home until September 4th! 😲
Tuesday: It's been a few weeks, so we are looking forward to returning to bowling! Pizza for lunch, too, courtesy of Chris's family! Wear your Arc shirts!
Also on Tuesday, ALEWERKS Brewing Company, 197 Ewell Road in Williamsburg, is sponsoring an Arc Fundraiser from 5-7 p.m. Stop by and enjoy a favorite local brew! 🍻
Wednesday: Our themes will be Donald Duck Day and Ballpoint Pen Day, since both of those were over the weekend and we have activities that suit them! We're going to celebrate Best Friends Day, too. A Rotary volunteer will work with us in the computer lab, plus, we'll enjoy Yoga with Patti, so dress to stretch. Lunch on your own.
Thursday: June 14th is Flag Day, so we will enjoy activities centered around patriotism, including painting more rocks in red, white, and blue! We aren't going to Eaton this week, but we will have a work morning since they sent us some things to work on at AFCC. It's also Strawberry Shortcake Day and Chris shared a recipe we will try! Lunch on your own. THIS IS THE LAST DAY THE SCHOOL CAFETERIA WILL BE OPEN!
Friday: Father's Day is this weekend, so we will finish up some keepsakes for the dads and granddads in our lives. We'll also have some fun and game time celebrating Flip Flop Day. If the weather is cooperative, we'll go to CW after lunch and hide lots of patriotic rocks. We're still hoping some of our first round of hidden rocks will show up on Facebook...maybe we just haven't hidden enough! Lunch on your own. School is closed, so NO CAFETERIA LUNCHES!
Please save these dates and plan to support The Arc of Greater Williamsburg:
Saturday, August 4th - The Women of the Moose are sponsoring a golf tournament at the Kingsmill River Course that will benefit The Arc!! This has potential to be a HUGE fundraiser for us, so please consider signing up or being a sponsor. ALSO, we will need some of our AoA associates to volunteer on that day.
🏃🏃🏃 AND, not to be MISSED, our 9th Annual Williamsburg Landing 5K for The Arc is on October 6 this year. This is our biggest and most important fundraiser, so please save the date and plan to run/walk and/or sponsor. All the info you need can be found at this link, and we are live for registration, too! 🏃🏃🏃
Thanks for your continued and amazing support!
Have a great weekend,
Lisa, Carol, and Nan
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.