We've Got Worms!

What a lovely snowball bush we saw at the Botanical Garden on Tuesday!  We are loving the beautiful Spring weather of late and hope it continues for a little longer!

We began this week with our master gardener friends at the Botanical Garden.  Today, we met a new one, Barb.  She gave us the scoop on worm composting, and it was fascinating!  Officially called vermiculture, adding worms is a way to speed up the composting process, and add even more nutrient value to the compost.  If you'd like to know more about it, here's a great reference link:

Worm Composting Basics

Here, Barb is explaining how to set up the worm bin, which we were going to bring back to AFCC!  The first step is to place a lot of "bedding" (in this case, strips of newspaper) in the bottom of a dark bin. 

We had to tear lots of newspaper into strips.  Worms like a very soft bed!

We had to learn what to feed our worms.  They prefer veggie scraps, a few egg shells (wiped clean), and...dryer lint!  Hmmm. They also eat some of their newspaper bedding!

Devin, Kacie, and Barb made sure there was enough bedding before adding the worms.

Barb said we were putting a 1/2 pound of worms in the bin, and that could be about 500!  

Next, we added the food.  Then, we covered the worms with more shredded paper and also put a layer of unshredded paper over that, since the worms like their environment to be very dark.  Last, we put on the lid.  There are a few holes in the bin for ventilation.  Barb says that's all we do until time to feed them again in a week or so.  And she promised us that they wouldn't even smell!  We took the bin back to AFCC and are storing it in the storage closet by the gym.  We'll check them later in the week.  Stay tuned!

The "herb of the day" was thyme.  Elizabeth explained that in ancient times, it was believed that inhaling the aroma of thyme would give one courage, so it became known as the "herb of courage."  It was also, and still is, used to help coughs and for pain relief.  Plus, it's yummy cooked in certain dishes, like fish or chicken. Or...

...added to sugar cookie dough!  Our snack sample this week was scrumptious cookies that Karen had "time" to make, adding "thyme" for added flavor.  Thanks, MGs!  We enjoyed thyme snack time! 

 

When we checked the progress of the garden, we found the radishes that we planted using seed tape were growing very well!  Carrots, lettuce, beets, garlic, and onions are also coming along nicely elsewhere in the garden.

There were more blossoms in the strawberry patch, and little strawberries could also be seen on some of the plants.  We really hope the birds don't get them before we do!

After our interesting and informative lesson with the master gardeners, we celebrated National Picnic Day!  It could not have been a prettier day for a picnic, with mild temps and warm sunshine.

We had time for after lunch socializing, too.  Sam, Devin, and Laura enjoyed a lively conversation.

We were excited to welcome Coach Teri back for a Spring session of Bocce!  She first taught us the game a couple of years ago, and we've enjoyed it ever since.  She reviewed the rules and reminded us of playing tips.  It would be Devin's and Abraham's first time playing with us!

Looks like no one has lost their touch!

The ground was just a little unlevel at this spot, so we had to make adjustments with our tosses.

Good looking form, guys!  Remember, underhand tosses!

Thanks for meeting us at the park, Coach Teri!  It was a great day to kick off our Spring session.  We appreciate you coming to work with us on our Bocce game!

Back at the AFCC, we had to put more dirt over our potatoes.  They are growing like crazy!  We cannot wait to harvest them!  We must be patient though, as it will still be about 2 months before they are ready.

Sadly, we found a dead bird outside our window when we got back from the park.  We think it may have flown into our (very clean) window and knocked itself out.  We very carefully moved it to the woods, and even gave it a simple "service" before tossing it into the leaves.  💚

 

On Wednesday morning, we worked on making thank you cards for Sam's dad, Tim, and the Army divers we visited a couple of weeks ago. Devin shows a "masterpiece" he colored to put on the front of a card, while Bo worked on another one and Sam encouraged Xavier to use different colors for his!

Kevin and Patrick also colored pictures.  We forgot to take a picture of the finished cards, but they looked very nice!  

These ladies worked on notes for the thank you cards.  They were thorough and included many details about our visit.  In the background, Annmarie and Laura were helping Carol make special cookie dough for treats we're making tomorrow for Heike's celebration.  It was a morning of "committee" work, with everyone involved with different tasks, so that we could get a lot done.

Before making cookie dough, Laura and Annmarie worked with our Rotary friend Jeff.  They were working on number concepts.

When Patti came for yoga, she taught us "boat pose."  She is always trying to help us strengthen our core!

We didn't get everyone in the shot because "everyone" couldn't quite get into boat pose, but if you see Devin in this pic, well...he kind of made it! 😁

Becky, Kevin, and Abraham made faces, but not when Patti showed us boat pose.  Must have been something else, or maybe they were just happy!

We did much better with "airplane pose" and it felt super good to stretch out like this, too!  Getting arms and legs off the ground is great for core strengthening.

Patti also explained to us that back bends are great to ENERGIZE us!  So easy and a great benefit, too!

After yoga we dabbled in American Sign Language by learning some of the alphabet signs.  Liz and Patrick were getting the hang of it.

We tied it into our Shakespeare Day activities.  Using ASL as a codebreaker, we figured out a message that is one of Shakespeare's most famous quotes from Hamlet: "To be or not to be, that is the question." Drew, Alexis, and Cameron aced it!

We designated Thursday as Heike Day to celebrate her recent promotion.  Aren't these congratulations cards happy and bright?

Heike loved them!

We also wrote a group poem for Heike.  With an online poet named Simon Mole helping us with prompts, we thought of ideas that made us think of the emotion "happy," since we are happy for Heike.  Here's our final product.

Happy Heike

Like the sky with a rainbow, smiling, yellow, bright

A golden harp playing beautiful music

Lemon bars to inhale deeply, slow and steady

Gentle, warm hug

Tasting a homemade chocolate chip cookie

Like being in Germany in your heart

Kacie read it to Heike before we enjoyed lunch, and it made Heike's day!  (Ours, too!)

Liz and Kacie took the lead on baking homemade dark chocolate chip cookies for our Heike celebration.  They had a twist:  browned butter and sea salt were two of the ingredients.  Of course, they were delicious!

After lunch, we studied Earth Day, which was on Monday.  We learned that it has been a "thing" since 1970.  We also learned that there are so many things we can do to help take care of our planet, including reducing, reusing, and recycling, planting trees, and making sure we are educated on issues related to our environment!  Here's a sample of what our work looked like after we broke into groups for mini-lessons.

We had a few minutes at the end of the day, so we wrote SAVING PLANET EARTH on the board and thought of lots of words we could make using those letters.

We had a slow and quiet Friday with several of our friends being out for the day.  We began, as usual, with a dance warm up.  This song by Train seemed to bring out a few singers among us.

After dancing, we went through all of our markers and discarded the ones that were mostly dried up and didn't work too well.  This required the "scribble test," as demonstrated by Kate.

We recently acquired new markers, so we had to divide them up among our art tubs.  Kacie, Alexis, and Sam sorted them for us.

Next, we used our new markers to make birthday cards for a gentleman in Lexington, VA who lives in a nursing home (just since last year) and is turning 100 years old on May 5th.  The staff at the nursing home posted on social media that he would like 100 cards for his birthday, but that was a couple of weeks ago and he already has over that.  So now, they said he would like to receive 1,000 cards!  He is also a veteran of WWII, so we thought we'd join in and make him some cards.  We're sure he'll love them!  Thanks to Laura's mom, Lisa, for sharing this story with us.  It was a great idea for our Random Acts of Kindness campaign!

We also included this picture of us with the cards we sent. 🧡

Friday was National Audubon Day, so we learned about John James Audubon and that he was a noted ornithologist, or bird expert.  He authored a great book about birds in the early 1800s that helped people learn to identify birds in North America.  We visited the Audubon Society's website and learned that "bird proofing" glass is one way we can help protect birds.  Since a bird flew into our window this week (and died), we decided to make homemade window clings using a glue, dish soap, and paint mixture.  After they dry, we will put them in our windows and hope they will prevent birds from flying into them in the future.

Bo and Sam concentrated on making theirs thick enough.

Annmarie and Xavier painted carefully, trying to stay within the lines of the shapes we were using for patterns.  We will post a picture next week after we put the clings on the window.

At the end of the day, we checked our worm bin!  If you look carefully, you can see some worms are crawling on the sides of the bin.  Thankfully though, most of them are nibbling away at the food.  We didn't need to add any more food today.  After making sure they had plenty to eat, we covered them with newspaper and put the lid back on the bin.  We want them to be nice and comfy...and in the dark, just as they like it! 

Next week will bring the end of April and the beginning of May.  Here's what we will be doing as Spring rolls on:

Tuesday: It's been a while, but we're headed back to bowling today!  As a bonus, we're also celebrating Devin's birthday with pizza, apples, and cake for lunch! Thanks to Dev's family for treating us today! Be sure to wear your Arc shirts.  After bowling we will return to the center where the Arc's Executive Director, Pam, will visit with a guest from the United Way's Community Resource Center.

Wednesday:  It's time to prepare our May calendar so we will work in the computer lab to create a colorful calendar filled with fun activities.  We'll have a Rotary volunteer to help us.  It's National School Principal's Day, so we will make mini-posters for our JRES principal friends, Mr. Stutt and Ms. Vallone.  Be sure to dress to stretch for yoga with Patti, too!  Lunch on your own.

Thursday:  There isn't much on the National Day Calendar for us to work with today (May 2nd), but yesterday was filled with "days" we can build activities around, so we will celebrate May Day, Loyalty Day, and Mother Goose Day!  We will also have a cook-off today with teams preparing Breakfast Casserole and Fresh Fruit Salad for lunch.

Friday:  Guess where we're going today?  It's time for a work day at Eaton!  But it's not going to be all work...we're also going to celebrate the upcoming Cinco de Mayo AND Coach Teri's birthday!  As is our tradition, we'll have chips, salsa, tacos, and guac for lunch, plus a special cake!  Please wear your Arc shirts!  

📅 This is the time of year when a lot of fun events start popping up on our calendars.  There are many opportunities to support The Arc of Greater Williamsburg coming up, and we hope to see you at some of them!  

May 4 - British Car Show Fundraiser 

10-2 at Revolution Grill, High Street

May 27 - Zumbathon Fundraiser 

10-11:30 at Ironbound Gym, New Town

May 31 - Jamestown Jams Concert Series begins

6:30-8:30 at Jamestown Beach Event Park

June 22 - Rotary Concert Series at the Kimball

August 3 - Women of the Moose Golf Tournament Fundraiser at Kingsmill

October 5 - 10th Annual Williamsburg Landing 5K for The Arc

Also, remember:  Week of July 2-5 - AoA will be closed for summer break!

Enjoy the weekend,

Lisa, Carol, and Nan