The second month of 2021 is upon us, and lots of our chatter is about getting the Covid-19 vaccine. It seems to be rolling out slowly, and getting on appointment lists is challenging, but we hope everyone will keep trying. As per The Arc of Virginia: Primary caregivers for persons with severe chronic medical conditions or with intellectual or
developmental disabilities requiring a high level of daily care are now in Phase 1a for the
COVID19 vaccine. Contact your local Health Dept. to register.
Our hope at the Arc of Abilities is that it will allow us to get back to a full group setting sooner rather than later, contingent upon state gathering restrictions. We can't wait for everyone to be together again. But until that time, we have Zoom! Here's a look at our week:
Tuesday
We kicked off February on a very cold Groundhog Day morning. As light flurries fell outside, we geared up for our Zoom session.
Our friends at home were soon lighting up the screen, and we enjoyed our time together very much!
Today's topic was National Serpent Day, which takes place on February 1st. We learned some cool facts about snakes, including that they have backbones, use their forked tongues for smelling, and shed their skins as they grow.
After the Zoom, we cut spiraled snakes out of paper. While Liz was chatting with Lilly, Alexis snuck up on her and placed a snake over her shoulder! Giggles ensued!
Devin's parents own Pet Supplies Plus in Chesapeake. His mom sent us these pictures of a banana python!
If you're interested in adding one of these cute fellas to your family, we're sure Miss Roxanne could set you up! We read that they are beginner-friendly! Thanks for the share, Roxanne!
Today there were musicians practicing in the gym (we don't know why?), so we decided to play Super Bowl Pool Noodle Volleyball in the foyer. We do this every year as the Super Bowl approaches, using different colored balloons to represent each team. As we play, whichever balloon pops first is the team we predict will NOT win the big game.
In this year's game, the white balloon represented Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and it was the first balloon to pop. So, based on this strategy, we predict Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs will win Super Bowl LV! 🏈🏈🏈
Sam, Kevin, and Cameron sorted Eaton parts today. James sent us lots of tubs with parts that need to have sticky gaskets applied, but first everything had to be sorted. The guys did a great job while the others got started on preparing our February calendar.
Patrick searched for pictures to add to the calendar, and we taught Lilly how use the paper cutter. She's a young one, into all of the technology available today, but she mastered the old-fashioned paper cutter just fine!
Liz was searching for a picture to represent Chinese New Year, which we will celebrate next week. She found one with a lot of pretty dragons on it.
Nancy prefers to work on the letters for our wall, that will spell FEBRUARY. As she fills in colorful designs for each large letter, she relishes working quietly at her table.
We debated whether or not Punxsutawney Phil is the offiicial prognosticator of the upcoming weather, especially when we learned he saw his shadow and predicted six more weeks of winter! It was snowing up in Pennsylvania, so we were surprised that he could see his shadow with the cloud cover that should have been there.
So, we tuned in to hear what Chesapeake Chuck had to say. He's at the Virginia Living Museum and was the star of a live event they hosted to check the forecast for spring. He's a pretty lucky fellow at the VLM, staying warm and cozy in what they call a "groundhog mansion" and being fed the "best quality restaurant food" around!
Meteorologist Jeremy Wheeler, from WAVY 10, checked with Chuck, who communicated that he DID NOT see his shadow and therefore, spring will come early in 2021! That sounds official to us!
After getting Chuck's prediction for an early spring, the VLM turned our attention to this cute rescue possum named Maxine. She was in charge of predicting this year's Super Bowl winner. There were snacks placed on each team's logo, and we all watched as she decided which to eat first. Like us, she chose the Kansas City Chiefs as the winner...hmmm. Wonder if Brady heard about this?!
Later in the day, Alexis, Cameron, and Nancy enjoyed a warm cup of hot chocolate as we celebrated Hot Chocolate Day, which was on Sunday, January 31st. (We never miss this one!) They also compared their color-by-number groundhog pictures, and sure enough, all three looked exactly alike!
WEDNESDAY
Today we ticked off the 49th state, Alaska! As we learned, it's not part of the contiguous (word of the day) United States, was "late" to the party (joining the Union in 1959), is the largest state by land area, and is filled with natural beauty.
Wow, Alaska is huge! It's bigger than Texas, California, and Montana combined. Texas alone could fit in Alaska more than two times!
Liz has never been to Alaska, but her mother did "back in the day," so Liz brought a picture to show us of her mom when she visited Ketchikan, Alaska, which we found out is south of the capital, Juneau. Liz also brought some reference books for us to use! Thanks, Liz!
Kevin has been to Alaska. His family went on a cruise about 3 years ago, so we dug into his mom's Facebook photo section to pull up pictures she had shared of their trip. They saw some beautiful scenery on that adventure!
Something else we learned about today was that Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to attend medical school in America. Back in the 1840s, women were expected to be "wives and mothers, maybe teachers and seamstresses." On National Women Physicians Day (Feb. 3rd), we found out that isn't true at all!
If you click this link, you'll see an article from last Saturday's Virginia Gazette that highlights how Williamsburg area nonprofits, including The Arc of GW, are working together to help those in need in our community. It highlights us very nicely!
One of the ways The Arc of GW is helping, is by utilizing our vans and drivers to deliver food boxes to members of our community who are in need during this pandemic. As a service project, the AoA made Valentine cards for the drivers to include in the deliveries next week!
We had a few moments to think about meteorologists today, as Friday is National Weatherpersons Day. In this short, but interesting video clip, a meteorologist shared a behind the scenes look at how he does his job, including with the use of a green screen. Kind of magical, and very cool!
These are avocado seeds that have been potted by our master gardener friend, Liz, and they have started to germinate. We are going to try and take care of them for the next, oh, 5 years, as that's how long it will take for them to grow enough to flower, and then possibly produce fruit! 👀⚘ Thank you, Liz, for preparing these for us! It's a fun way to study how plants grow! Plus, we LOVE guacamole..and we are patient! 😋 We're going to get a special tray to put them in and store them on our window sill. We've almost been at AFCC for 5 years...our anniversary is next month. Watching the avocado seeds grow into plants/trees will give us something to look forward to celebrating on our 10th anniversary! Stay tuned...
To celebrate Homemade Soup Day (Feb. 3rd), we made a pot of vegetable beef soup for lunch. Very simple, but oh-so-good on a chilly and cloudy day!
In a nod to our state of the week, Alaska, we made individual Baked Alaskas for dessert! Yesterday we covered a small piece of cake with ice cream, and left it in the freezer overnight. Today, as Cameron demonstrates, we covered it with meringue, and tried to "bake" it.
In another nod to Alaska, or at least cold places, we chose Jaime's "Frozen" yoga for today. It was the very first yoga routine we ever did with her, and it's one of our favorites.
As Jaime told the story of Elsa and Anna, the guys changed positions often, in order to keep up with the story. We didn't have time to follow up with a Peace Out routine, but everyone went home both relaxed and energized after 30 minutes with Jaime!
Thursday
Hello to our Zoomies! We just love "seeing" them and having a chance to spend time together. Today, we had two topics: Super Bowl winner predictions and Bubble Gum Day! It was a fast-paced and fun time!
Even though most of us are fans of other teams, we all got into making a prediction for which team would win Super Bowl LV this Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Chiefs came out on top, 10 votes to 9! Lilly tallied our results and then completed the bar graph. We will all have to watch the game on Sunday to see who really wins!
National Bubble Gum Day is on Friday, but we celebrated it today! We learned that some schools allow kids to chew bubble gum in class on this day, if they make a donation for charity. We also learned that the largest bubble ever blown was almost 20 inches in diameter, and was blown by a dude in Alabama in 2004. He said he did it by chewing 3 pieces of Dubble Bubble at one time! We watched a video that showed how Dubble Bubble gum is made, and that was cool! If you'd like to check it out, click the picture below!
None of our Zoomies wanted to try blowing a bubble on camera, but Lilly did! Good job, Lilly, but you needed to chew 3 pieces at one time to make it bigger than that!
We named Michelle "Best Dressed" for Bubble Gum Day! She wore pink pants for the occasion! We love this, and you look fabulous, Michelle!
We ended our Zoom with a catchy tune called "Ooey, Gooey, Icky, Sticky Bubble Gum." It was a fun time spent with good friends!
This group played pool noodle volleyball with balloons, another one of our traditional ways to predict the Super Bowl winner. The red balloon was Chiefs and the white one was Bucs. As with Tuesday's group, the white one popped first, so this game predicts the Kansas City Chiefs will win! Today, our guys were winners, because keeping those balloons in the air until one popped was a real workout!
Michelle, Alexis, Devin, and Kate worked on finishing our February calendar, using the computer lab. Michelle and Alexis found a "hilarious" picture of a bear doing yoga, which they insisted Devin and Kate come over to check out!
Meanwhile, Xavier and Abraham took their Eaton work very seriously. These two diligent workers sorted several tubs of parts in short order!
Lilly spent part of the morning on a Zoom call with Bette Faye, working on one of her internship projects. It involved chatting with an Arc client named Robert. Before the call ended, Robert asked Lilly if he could say "hi" to his friend Devin! Both guys enjoyed chatting and catching up!
We went for a walk and stopped to remove the pinecone birdfeeders we had tied to the trees and fence behind the school. The birds had eaten all of the seeds and peanut butter from them. The guys had fun chucking the pinecones into the woods.
We're looking forward to trying homemade Baked Alaska again tomorrow with this group. Abraham did step one today, covering a bit of cake with ice cream and putting it in the freezer to get super frozen.
Lilly helped Kate with her Baked Alaska. We hope the "baking" part will be more exciting for this group than it was for Wednesday's group... 🤞🍨
While the guys hung out with Lisa watching Super Bowl sports clips, the girls went to the lunchroom with Carol to assemble a mailing for The Arc's membership drive. Everyone will receive this important packet of info in the mail soon. Please update your membership information and return all necessary forms to The Arc promptly! Thank you!
Friday
We ended up with a few very nice group shots today. During movement time, we went in the gym with a fun assortment of balls we've collected over the years. In fact, the green one Kate is holding was just gifted to us this week, from Devin's family. We enjoyed throwing, kicking, tossing, and shooting hoops with the balls. But we missed Devin, who was not here today!
The guys posed with some of the avocado plants after our lesson about how they grow, and how long it takes! We really can't wait to see what's in store over the next 5 years...both with these avocado plants, and the AoA! (We celebrate our first 5 years in just a few weeks!)
In this group shot, we were feeling proud of our friend, Steve Prince! As a reminder, Steve is the Distinguised Artist in Residence at William and Mary, and the Director of Engagement at the Muscarelle Museum in CW. He was recently honored as the winner of an international art contest! We are so happy for you, Steve!! (Xavier is holding the article because he's particularly fond of Steve, since Steve and his mom, Leah, are engaged! Congratulations to them! 💍💘)
Read all about Steve's awesome accomplishment by clicking here, in case you missed it in the local papers or online!
Abraham was already at work, and Michelle was selecting decorative paper for the service project we worked on this week: making Valentine cards for the Arc drivers to include when delivering food to those in need in our community.
We think our cards turned out very nicely, and we hope they bring joy to the recipients!
We didn't get any pictures of the homemade vegetable soup we enjoyed for lunch, or the work we completed for Alaska Day, but we got this shot of Abraham showing off his mini-Baked Alaska! We learned amazing facts like Alaska is 95% uninhabited and its state bird is the willow ptarmigan (with a silent "p"), but the highlight was definitely the Baked Alaska.
For some reason, we had better luck "baking" the meringue with the grill lighter today than we did with Wednesday's group. We made the meringue in a metal bowl instead of a ceramic one today, and we used the larger beaters versus the whisk-like ones on the mixer, so maybe today's meringue was somehow more "fire-friendly?" It was tasty, that's for sure!
Turns out that our choice for yoga this week, Jaime's Cosmic Kids version of "Frozen," was a great choice. It's one of her more active episodes, so we were up and down a lot...thus working off our ice cream!
Reaching, stretching, and then going back to the mat...Jaime has us moving AND singing along to "Frozen," and it was a great ending to another fun week!
Wednesday / Friday: Valentine's Day is Saturday, but we will celebrate today with activities, including exchanging cards with our friends. Wear Valentine colors if you'd like! We'll celebrate Chinese New Year with educational activities. Bring $5 if you'd like to order Chinese takeout for lunch. 🥡 After all that, we'll have a relaxing yoga session with Jaime, so dress to stretch (or bring clothes to change into if your Valentine outfit isn't stretchy!)
Enjoy the weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.