A Week Inside

We spent all four days inside at the center this week, trying to keep cool and engaged.  Thank goodness we still have use of the big gym! We missed going on an outing, but kept ourselves busy with a variety of things to do.  

The Arc mailing for September needed to be prepared on Tuesday.  We worked on it off and on throughout the day, since Carol was out on Tuesday and she usually leads a group through the job.  But we got it done before time to go home!  

Lots of our guys are excited about the W&M Baseball Clinic that's being held in September!  Check it out and all the other fun events and be sure to return your signup sheet to Bette Faye by the deadline date!

We usually have to make hummingbird food on Tuesdays since the feeder runs out over the weekend.  Bo took on the task this week.  

It was an egg-cellent day to have fun with eggs!  We learned about why they are so good for us, and then we boiled a few to have for lunch.  We watched a video that promised to teach us three different ways to peel them in 10 seconds each.  Alexis, Kate, and Cameron tried the first method:  tap and roll, then peel off the shell.  They had great success!  We read that boiling the eggs in extra salty water might help them boil without cracking, and make peeling a bit easier.  That seemed to be the case.

Liz tried method number 2, though we questioned why go to all this trouble when method number 1 worked well?  She had to remove shell from each end of the egg and then insert a spoon under the shell and rotate the egg, releasing the shell.  This worked, too.  But it took a little longer than 10 seconds!

Method number 3 was just for fun, and whoever did this one had to eat the egg they demonstrated with!  Like method 2, part of the shell from each end of the egg had to be removed (which takes longer than 10 seconds).  Then, the smaller end of the egg is placed in your mouth and you blow the egg out of the shell!  Kacie looked on as Kate tried, but Kate couldn't get it, even though she huffed and puffed and we laughed and laughed.  Kacie tried next, and she was able to do it, but we missed getting a picture!  This was fun, but not very efficient!

We just had to repeat this demonstration that we tried last year.  We find it hard to believe that an egg, which we consider to be fragile, is actually very strong.  After a couple of video clips and a short lesson about applying even pressure, we found out that eggs cannot be broken by being squeezed in our hands!  It's only when uneven pressure is applied, which can cause a tiny crack, that the egg breaks.  (Note:  If you try this at home, remove any rings you may be wearing!)  Here, Sam used all of his muscles to squeeze the egg over Kacie's head, but THIS year, he applied even pressure and it didn't break! 

 Last year he pressed into the egg with his thumb, instead of applying even pressure with all fingers, which caused it to crack and get egg all over her hair.  Remember this?  Kacie was more than willing to try it again this year!  What a good sport!

We set up a couple of scientific observations.  Chris and Sam put a raw egg in a jar and covered it with vinegar.  In few days, we should have a "naked" egg!  We learned that the acidic vinegar will dissolve the shell of the egg.  But we wondered what would happen to the inside of the egg?  We would find out on Friday!

We blew the insides out of another egg so Drew and Xavier could set up another observation where we covered an empty egg shell with vinegar.  If there was no egg inside, what would happen when the vinegar dissolved the shell?  We found out on Wednesday that the part of the egg called the membrane would be left and it was pliable and could be folded in half.  (Forgot pictures, again!)  Now we know that the part of the egg we eat is inside of the membrane, which is inside of the shell.

We enjoyed our Arc of Abilities corn hole game on Tuesday!  We're still working on the turn-taking, but we'll get there!

Isn't it pretty?!

Later in the day, we had more egg-citement!  Since eggs are so strong, we had to try standing on them to see if they would break!  It's all about the evenness of the pressure, but we had a little success.  Kacie was able to stand on a couple dozen and only cracked 3 of them!

Bo and Lisa tried to help Sam lift himself onto the eggs so that he could put equal weight across all eggs...

Here's what happened!  He did better with his left foot!  We wiped him down well with anti-bacterial wipes, but after that, we couldn't get any others to volunteer!  Thanks, Sam and Kacie!  You're so brave!

We were almost out of time after all of our egg-cellent fun, but we took a few moments to "honor" Laura, Patrick, and Lisa for Left-Handers Day!  Some of our right-handed friends tried to write their names using their left hands, and found it wasn't as easy.  But for the lefties, it's not easy to use their right hands, either!  So we decided there are challenges no matter which hand we use most!

Most of them could legibly write their names on the white board with their non-dominant hand.

We spent most of Wednesday morning working on preparing lemon meringue pies, to celebrate their day!  We like to teach our guys skills they may not have had much experience with and today was a good day for that.  Here, Bo is zesting a lemon!

That would add a lot of flavor to our pies!

Here, Alexis was whipping egg whites until soft peaks formed to make meringue, and Laura and Liz had tempered egg yolks with some of the hot pie mixture before adding the eggs to the rest of the mixture in the pot. 

Our pies turned out beautifully!  They tasted real good, too!

We had spent a lot of time in the gym Wednesday morning, and then we got another good workout with Patti during yoga.  (Pie isn't "free!")   

She took us beyond stretches and still poses this week. 

We had to stretch to warm up, but then...

We were up and down, on hands and feet, forward and backward, a lot!   Our guys love animals and Kate had asked Patti to create a workout based on poses that dogs and puppies make! 

 It was fun, but tough!  She let us make dog sounds, though.  That helped!  Our visitor, Emory (Becky's granddaughter), can be seen working out with us to the left of Liz.  Our friends always seem more motivated when we have guests!  😉  Becky is on the sofa, still limited in her activities by her healing foot.

We had so much fun on Thursday, and we have the pictures (and videos) to prove it!  First of all, it was Tell A Joke Day, and our guys love to laugh!  We learned how good laughter is for us, and then we shared our favorite jokes.  Lots of laughter!  

We also played "Keep A Straight Face" where we tried not to smile or laugh when our friend told a joke.  Cameron did a pretty good job when Kate read a funny joke.  Chris decided not to look... but he ended up laughing!

Alexis is trying not to crack a smile at Liz's joke, but let's face it...this is pretty funny:  "Why did the math book look so sad?  It's got a lot of problems!"  🤣🤣🤣

We've settled into a good routine when it comes to preparing lunch.  We divide into teams and get busy.  As the saying goes, "Many hands make light work!"  For National Fajita Day (August 18), we needed a chicken group, which marinated and cooked the chicken.  They also prepared Mexican rice using the microwave.

The tortilla and cheese team prepared the tortillas to be warmed in the microwave, and tried a new skill...using a grater to shred cheese!

What are fajitas without peppers and onions, so we had a team working on that, too!  Plus Kacie, who diligently minced garlic.

After each team finished their part, we had to wait patiently while it all came together and the rice finished cooking.  Some of the guys decided to have more fun with Tell A Joke Day.  Liz and Alexis grabbed their phones and looked up knock-knock jokes to share.  We love this video!  They have so much fun together!

Our patience paid off.   Our fajitas were delicious!  And the best part?  We had leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

By popular demand, Nan made her special guacamole and brought it in for lunch.  About half of our guys like it and we're always trying to coax the others into trying it.  Today, Liz could not contain her excitement when Drew tried it and liked it!  Here, she was holding onto his hands and clapping them together as he eyed Lexi's hand offering him more guac!

Tell A Joke Day and Fajita Day were just part of our fun Thursday.  It was also Roller Coaster Day!  That gave us an opportunity to have a Mystery Science lesson on why they go so fast.

First, we watched video clips and that got us to wondering about the topic.  Next, we split into investigation groups and gathered our supplies.  We were going to learn about the physics involved in roller coaster movement!

Chloe and Bo teamed up to prepare a track.  We used pipe insulation and masking tape.

Liz watched as Becky guided Laura to measure the height of their track.  It needed to be about 11 inches high in the beginning.

The next step was to experiment using marbles as our coaster cars.  Devin, Kate, and Alexis were about to begin their test runs.  We wanted to figure out what height would give our cars enough speed to provide a fun ride, but stop short of taking the cars off the end of the track...where a cup was set up to represent an alligator swamp!  (The only spot left to build a new roller coaster at the theme park in our problem was near the swamp!)

Carol kept track of the data findings for Bo, Kevin, and Chloe.

  Sam and Drew kept their eyes on the test runs for their group.  

Kacie couldn't hide her excitement when she and Chris did a run that worked!  That inspired Chris to reach for more marbles and set up more cars!

For more fun, Kevin brought in his Virtual Reality headset and we downloaded a roller coaster ride on Lisa's phone, which attaches inside the headset to serve as a screen.  Laura gave it a try and rode a loop-de-loop coaster!

Here's a video clip of Kacie riding one with a huge drop.  This is fun to watch!  She said she isn't a fan of roller coasters, but after learning about them through our experiment, and trying the VR version, she may like to ride one now!

Thursday ended with a surprise visit from Patti and her friend Kim!  They were in the area and stopped in to say hi just as we were about to wrap up for the day.  Patti told us the golf tournament was a huge success and she hopes to see some of us in October when they present the proceeds to The Arc.  We're always happy to see Patti and her friends, and we're glad they made it in time!

We were almost as busy on Friday as we were on Thursday.  We checked our Naked Egg experiment and covered I LOVE My Feet Day and World Honeybee Day, but had to postpone Black Cat Appreciation Day because we ran out of time. 

On Tuesday we had put a raw egg in a jar and covered it with vinegar.  We learned that the acid in the vinegar would dissolve the shell.  We also learned that there is a membrane beneath the shell and that the yolk and egg white are inside.  When we checked our raw egg on Friday, the shell was completely dissolved and the egg felt rubbery.  It was hard to explain, but the membrane was still there, holding the insides of the egg.  We had a raw egg without a shell!  We could see the yolk floating around inside so when we passed it around, we cautioned everyone to touch it gently!  Kevin quickly handed it off to Chris. 

When it was Drew's turn, everyone was saying, "easy, easy" because we all know Drew has a strong hand shake, ball toss, high five, etc.  Well, he kind of missed the "easy, easy" part, and here's what happened!  Oh well, as Carol says, he's washable!  Thank goodness Drew was last, and the rest of us got to hold a raw egg without a shell before he "cracked" it!

So, how do you celebrate I LOVE My Feet Day?  With this group, you learn the basics of foot anatomy, practice self-reflexology, and then repeat a feat we tried last year:  peeling bananas with our feet!  

Kacie, Kate, and Alexis were willing to give it a try.  The bananas came out a little squished, but the peels came off!

Feet closeups!

Sam was the only fella we could get to try.  He showed us why we nicknamed him our resident monkey!

We also learned that rubbing your feet with the inside of the banana peel is a good way to moisturize.  Sam, Alexis, and Kate said it felt good, but Kacie didn't care for it!

One of our favorite ways to use our feet is for dancing!

We had a few more willing participants for this!  (Note:  It seems a small group because we only had 10 associates in attendance on Friday!)

James, from Eaton, stopped by right before lunch and brought us some work to do at AFCC next week.  It's been very hot and our friends at Eaton have been on vacations recently, so we haven't been to their site for a while.  We're scheduled to return August 30, and we can't wait!

Kevin, Sam, and Xavier (plus a few others) helped James unload about a dozen boxes and crates.

Drew and Laura worked together to carry a heavier load.  We will have a work day next week.

World Honeybee Day is on Saturday.  With the help of our master gardener friends, we have been studying the plight of bees over the past year, and also learning about how vital they are to our food sources.  We reviewed all of that today, and then made a crafty snack during a laid-back afternoon of group rotations.

Becky's group colored wooden clothespins and added googly eyes and pipe cleaner antennae to create cute bees.  

Xavier holds a finished product.  Honey Ohs cereal inside a snack bag made the wings.  We learned today that honeybees flap their wings about 190 times per second!

Nan's group practiced Corn Hole in the gym.  All of our experience with Bocce seems to have helped many of our friends with their aim and tossing skills!

Carol's group revisited an activity we tried last year:  writing invisible messages with lemon juice, then holding them over a small flame to reveal the message (Carol and Lisa did this part!)  First, Drew observed as Liz and Chloe used their hands to squeeze the lemons.  They extracted a little bit of juice...

Next, Drew took the lemon and, using only his thumb and three fingers, squeezed lots of juice!  We should have remembered from this morning how strong he is!

After our group rotations we ended the week with an episode of Mystery Doug called "What is the most dangerous animal in the world?"  Ask your associate if he or she can tell you which one it is!  (Hint:  It's an insect!)

 Next week will be here before we know it.  Here's what's coming up:

Tuesday:  Wear your Arc shirts...we have vans and we're going bowling!  We'll have pizza, apples, and ice water for lunch, sponsored by Laura's family!  Thank you, Palmers!  From bowling, we will head over to The Art Museums of CW to visit with Christina!  Wonder what she has planned for us?!  Sounds like a fun day with two of our favorite outings!

Wednesday:  We will spend the morning working on the Eaton tasks James delivered and finishing some volunteer work for the school.  We'll also observe Black Cat Appreciation Day, since we didn't have time last Friday.  There's no yoga with Patti this week or next week (she's on vacation), but dress to stretch because we will do Wizard of Oz Yoga with our video teacher, Jaime!  Lunch on your own.

Thursday:  A day Laura has been waiting for:  Her birthday!  The weather forecast is calling for milder temperatures so if that holds, we will spend the morning at a local park.  It's been a long time since we got fresh air and a good stretch of our legs.  When we return, we will celebrate Laura with subs for lunch courtesy of her family (thank you for our second lunch of the week, Palmers!).  We'll also have Laura's favorite treat, chocolate ice cream, home made using the ice cream maker her family gifted to us last year!  

Friday:  It's National Waffle Day so we are celebrating by trying a healthier version - banana oat waffles for lunch.  We will top them with fresh fruit and/or peanut butter and add a side of scrambled (or boiled) eggs, for a high protein lunch that will easily get us through a busy afternoon!  National Dog Day is on Sunday, so we will have fun with dog "activities" today, too! We will also explore how habitats have changed over time with a Mystery Science lesson.  We'll find out where whales used to live in deserts!

Don't forget about these upcoming events!  

Friday, August 31:  Jamestown Jams featuring The Deloreans!  It's 80s Night with America's favorite 80s showband!  
Join us at Jamestown Beach Event Park - gates open at 5:30 and the music kicks off at 6:30!  Free event!  Bring a picnic or buy from the onsite food truck!  The Arc of GW benefits from beer and water sales, so drink up (responsibly, of course)!

WE ARE VERY EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT SEVEN OF OUR AoA FAMILIES HAVE REGISTERED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE 5K, PLUS LISA, CAROL, MEEMAW, BECKY, AND OUR FRIEND (and former associate) MEGHAN!  NAN WILL ALSO BE THERE AS A VOLUNTEER!

If you're planning to be in town on Saturday, October 6, you'll want to join us for a fun morning!  Running is NOT required...most of us are walkers!  It's all about hanging out with friends and family and supporting a great cause!  If you would rather show support with a donation, that would be awesome, too!

Register here (associates can sign up for $20 if they use the paper sign up sheet that was in the Arc newsletter they brought home this week):

Click this link to register for the 5K!

Thanks to Williamsburg Landing for hosting us for the 9th year and to Chesapeake Bank for being the presenting sponsors!  There are mulitple levels of sponsorships available, so if you or someone you influence (😉) is interested, please call Pam at 229-3535!  THANK YOU! 

Enjoy the weekend,

Lisa, Carol, and Nan