Busy January Week!

Tuesday began with dreary skies and rain showers, but we didn't let that stop us from kicking off a busy travel week.  Our first trip was to New Kent County where we visited APEX Physical Therapy and Movement Center for a fun workout with Scott and Kelly.  They are Alexis's cousins, and this is the second time we've enjoyed a trip to their clinic.  Kelly handles the business side of things and Scott does the "hands-on" stuff.  He is passionate about his work, in particular helping patients living with Parkinson's Disease, which he does through an evidence-based program called Rock Steady Boxing. He put together a series of workout stations that got our hearts pumping and incorporated boxing, which our guys loved!

Before our workout, we had a mini-lesson where Scott reminded us about the benefits of exercise and movement on lifelong health.  We already knew a lot of the good reasons to exercise! 💡  He also taught us that "apex" means the pinnacle or highest point, and stressed that movement helps us reach the apex of good health!

All of these benefits of exercise are great, but we really love #1!

Every good workout begins with a warm up that includes deep breathing!

Patrick, Devin, and Kelly are smiling because these shoulder moves feel so good!

In this activity, Scott called out different moves for us to make (like reach for the ceiling), but if he said "Cone!" then you had to race your partner to see who could pick up the cone first.

Kevin beat Alexis to the cone in this round!

At this station, one of the stretches was called "hula hoop" and it involved rotating our hips in a circular motion.  This was a little tricky for some of us!

This group was working on lower body strengthening, and one of their exercises was squats.  

At the upper body station, the guys worked on bicep curls, speed bag punching, and tricep chair dips!

We laced up the boxing gloves at this station.  Scott had us working out with the double end bag, the heavy bag, and the "body opponent" bag.  There was a lot of boppin' going on over there!

A stop by the agility and balance station had us maneuvering through foot rings and across the floor ladder.  We also tried the "lights" that required us to step in a certain sequence.  Focus, and fun!

Here's a video clip showing us working at each station!  It was noisy and active, and we had worked out for almost an hour before we knew it!

Everyone gathered with Scott to celebrate our success!  1, 2, 3...

R, S, B! (Rock Steady Boxing!)  

Thank you Scott and Kelly for welcoming us back to APEX Physical Therapy and Movement Center.  We love visiting and working out with you.  Thanks for making it fun and active!  

Back at AFCC, we cleaned our "squirrel buster" bird feeders, filled, and put them back out.  We noticed the birds had stopped coming, so last Friday we hung a few of the TP feeders outside our window.  On Tuesday, the TP feeders were empty, and a few birds were back!

We also noticed a couple of squirrels lurking near the feeders.  We hope they will soon be on their way and birds like this chickadee will return to enjoy our feeders!

On Wednesday morning we sent Alexis and Kacie to shelve books at the JRES library.  They worked as efficiently as they could because the air-conditioning in the library was not working and they said it was very warm in there!

Kacie also made a couple of extra bird feeders out of paper towel rolls.  We wanted to set up an observation to see if squirrels or birds would get to them first.  After she finished, we hung them outside our window, and kept our eyes peeled to see what would happen.

We moved on to celebrating Hat Day by dancing to a fun kiddie song about hats!  It had a good beat!

Next, we got the required group shot of everyone wearing their hats, some crazy and some not, but all looking good!

Heike is back from her trip to Germany!  We were happy to see her and hear that her trip home to see her family was wonderful.

It didn't take long before we noticed squirrels eating the birdseed on the feeders Kacie made.  We watched them figure out how to get to them, since we hung them on flimsy branches that wouldn't hold the squirrels' weight very easily.

This little rodent persevered and figured out how to hang from a branch by its back legs and use its front legs to pull the tube toward him/her. 

This one didn't have to work as hard, but he/she had to balance on the pole and pull the tube toward his/her mouth in order to eat.  What did we learn?  That if we want to feed squirrels, keep making peanut butter feeders on cardboard tubes!  If we want to feed birds, keep filling the "squirrel-buster" feeders!

Lisa, Carol, and Nan made everyone work for their lunch on Wednesday.  They set up PB&J "kits" and the guys had to make their own sandwiches!  We helped each other, though, and no one went hungry!  Thank you, Heike, for the peanut butter and jelly donation!  

Patti worked with us on getting "grounded" (leads to more focus!) during yoga today.

We did a lot of inhaling and exhaling.  It's cool how our breaths become "deeper" when we concentrate.

We also worked on balance, which is always a good thing!  

After yoga we learned that today was the first-ever National Kombucha Day, or "Booch" for short.  Kombucha is a fermented and fizzy tea, that is loaded with helpful bacteria and yeast called probiotics, which are supposedly very good for gut health. It's a "trendy" thing in some parts these days.   Good digestion is key to feeling well, so we thought we'd give kombucha a try.

Several of the guys said they liked it, and a couple of them said it was so-so.  Even though it's tea, it's not necessarily sweet, and the rasperry/hibiscus and strawberry/coconut varieties we tried were tangy.  Kevin tasted it and said it was good.  Laura tried it and said, "Medicine.  It's terrible!" 😂😂😂  

Safe to say, Drew was not a fan, but we are big fans of his for trying it...in both flavors!  We don't plan to drink kombucha again, as water is our drink of choice.  But we are curious about its health benefits, so the associates may ask their families to try it at home.  Just keep in mind, that it should be consumed in small quantities, like no more than 8-12 ounces daily. ✅  Here's a link to a website with more information:  Kombucha's Health Benefits

On Thursday we celebrated Maine, the 23rd state to enter the Union.  We did our usual educational activities, like learning about the symbols and history, and working on map skills.  

Liz brought some souvenirs from a trip to Maine she took with her family.  Since Cameron has family in Maine, and visits there often, she asked that he be included in this picture of her showing a couple of snowglobes she got on her trip. 

For our food connection, we had blueberry pie, because Maine is known for growing wild blueberries, which we learned are smaller than the highbush variety we typically get from the grocery store or farms in Virginia, and just a little healthier, too! 

Looks good, doesn't it?  It's a store bought pie, but we are pretty sure it was made with wild blueberries because they were very small.  By the way, we did acknowledge that blueberries, wild or otherwise, are more of a superfood when eaten fresh and not in a pie... 😉

We got news that Bette Faye came through hip replacement surgery with flying colors.  Kevin's mom donated a stack of colorful craft paper and some little flower appliques to us this week, so we used them to make these lovely cards for Bette Faye!  She's going to love them!

After an early lunch, we headed to the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg to visit with Christina.  She met us at the temporary "new" entrance, which is also their new cafe entrance.  We no longer enter through the Public Hospital building.  The expansion is nearing completion and it looks amazing!

Here's a peek at how "grand" the inside will look when the work is finished in April.  When we visit next month, we're going to get a "behind the scenes" tour to see even more of the changes!  We can't wait!

On our way to the Education Room, Christina pointed out that the chandelier we saw the conservators re-gilding last month has been completed and is hanging up looking very beautiful!  The conservators did a remarkable job.

We usually learn about something in the museum before working on a project, but today, Christina flipped the schedule on us.  We worked on a fun watercolor project first, aiming to create pictures of pineapples.  Here, the guys were painting a background color on the paper.

Next, we added leaves.  

Then came the really cool part:  fingerpainting the bottom part of the pineapple.  Christina told us to use our fingerprints and how to space them, so that our picture would look like a pineapple!

Here are a few of the finished projects.  It's always cool when we all do the SAME project, yet they turn out so DIFFERENT.  Aren't they pretty?!

While our pineapple watercolors dried, we took a walk through the museums to find pineapples in art.  Laura and Annmarie are checking out a ceramic tea set that was designed to resemble a pineapple.

Here, Christina points out the pineapples etched onto the sides of the stove that was used in the Capitol building and warmed the hands of the likes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

This is a knife box from the 18th century.  The pineapple handle on the top was carved from wood.  Christina explained to us that in Colonial Williamsburg the pineapple is a sign of hospitality.  She also told us that pineapples were popular in Colonial times, but they had to be shipped to Williamsburg from Barbados, as they aren't native to our country and weren't being grown here yet.  Thanks for the lesson, Christina.  We learn such neat "stuff" when we visit with you!

When we returned to the center, we had time for a lesson on Martin Luther King, Jr.  His birthday was yesterday, and on Monday, our country celebrates him with a federal holiday.  Our guys are pretty "up" on their MLK, Jr. history, knowing lots of facts about him and the civil rights movement.  Our activity was sequencing a few key events from his life.  They worked together, helping each other, and everyone did a good job!

Friday was all about the smiles!  How many of us can say we are genuinely happy when we report to work?!?  On a Friday...  Our guys were excited to get to Eaton for our first work day of 2020!

Liz is great at applying gaskets, so she was at it again today.  

Drew and Abraham sorted hundreds of parts, and they didn't even finish all the ones James left for us.  It's not because they didn't try!

Kacie, Alexis, and Meemaw's smiles say it all!  They enjoyed working on lightbulbs and gasketing today.  

More smiles at this table where Patrick and Sam were on unpacking duty.  They emptied box after box of small parts that needed to be removed from plastic packaging.

Laura was missing her "Pink Lady" friends Kate and Annmarie, who were absent today.  Kevin and Xavier were happy to step in and help her remove the pink film from the aluminum plates.

After a solid day's work at Eaton, our guys were still smiling when we stopped at Wendy's for Frosties!  Frosties with friends on a Friday = FUN times at the AoA! 

Nina, we know you are reading.  Please know that this special treat from you means a lot to us!  Thank you for the gift of "Frosties for a Year!"

We won't be out and about as much next week, but we have some fun folks to celebrate, so it will be great!  Here's a look at our schedule:

Tuesday:  It's time for bowling and pizza for lunch! 🍕 This week we are thankful to Liz's family for the donation to our pizza fund.  So blessed are we.  🧡  Please wear Arc shirts!  The weather forecast calls for a sunny, but chilly day.  Bring your hat and gloves; if it's not too windy, we may stop for a brisk walk and a check on the garden at Freedom Park after bowling.

Wednesday:  We're celebrating the birthday of our custodian, Marvella, today!  We're going to make a healthy treat of fruit kabobs for her, keeping in mind that she is diabetic.  ✅  It's also Squirrel Appreciation Day, and even though we find the squirrels pesky as they eat our bird seed, we will honor them today by learning more about them!  Dress to stretch for Yoga with Patti.  Lunch on your own.

Thursday:  We're excited to celebrate Cameron's birthday today!  We're also going to study state #24 today, Missouri.  For lunch, we'll have toasted ravioli and salad.  Cameron loves cheesy, Italian type food, and toasted ravioli was popularized in St. Louis, Missouri, so it's a perfect fit for his birthday lunch!

Friday:  Today we're starting a new project with Elizabeth and Karen, two of our master gardener friends.  They are going to teach crocheting to those who are interested!  We'll also have fun with Opposite Day, which comes up this weekend, and Compliment Day,  which is today!  Lunch on your own.

Saturday, January 25:  Plan to stop by the Family Health Fair at the JCC Rec Center.  There will be lots of fun and great information, too!

Have a great weekend, 

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang