This week we were super-excited to be reunited with our master gardener friends at the Williamsburg Botanical Garden! We have kept in touch with them throughout the pandemic, and we had safe, outside visits here and there with Linda and Karen, and we even had a whole group "just because we've missed you" visit with them earlier in the summer. But this week marks the return of our regular sessions. It was wonderful to be reunited with them, most of whom we had not seen in almost 2 years, as our last regular session was in October 2019. Here's a look at our master gardener reunion, and the rest of our activities from this week!
Tuesday
Our lesson with the master gardeners was mainly about apples, but, as always, they had lots more to share with us. Karen told us about two broccoli plants she had recently planted in one of the beds. We've never grown broccoli before, but Karen says it takes a while. Maybe by the end of October we will be able to harvest some!
Pat taught us a few things about basil that we didn't know. We remembered that basil and tomato are "best friends," but we didn't know that basil doesn't care for cold weather at all! We also didn't know that you can grow basil from cuttings! We're going to try that at the center with two kinds of basil. Here, Pat was telling us that some people prefer to grow plants from seeds, and that basil seeds are really tiny!
The MGs took turns telling us about different varieties of apples, and we took a taste test! The four apples we tried were Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Gala, and Fuji. All of our guys voted for ALL of the apples as being tasty, but we did note that the Granny Smith was quite sour compared to the others!
It was rather warm and muggy, so we didn't do any work in the garden today. We took a walk around and checked a few things out, like the broccoli Karen planted along with some carrots and radishes. We noticed birds nibbling at the sunflower heads trying to get the seeds. Liz picked a couple of peppers, and on the other side of the trellis, Alexis picked us another trombone squash!
Can you spot the caterpillars nibbling on this parsley plant? They are hungry little guys! Before we knew it, we were hungry too, and our time with the MGs had come to an end. "Krafty" Karen gave us kits to make adorable apple bookmarks, and we will do that back at AFCC next week. Thanks, MGs, for a fun, informative, and tasty morning! It was great to be reunited with you again, and we look forward to our next session in a couple of weeks!
We stayed at the park long enough to eat our lunch at the picnic tables behind the Interpretive Center, but we decided to cancel our 5k practice walk. We were all very warm and sweaty...
After we returned to AFCC we worked on last week's blog. With Lisa away, it didn't get written, so we all worked on it together this afternoon using the pictures we took last week. Lisa was planning to send it out by Wednesday! We had fun telling her about what we did while she was gone, and helping her write the narrative!
When Debbie arrived to pick up Kevin, we had Drew present her with a door prize she won for having registered for our virtual 5k! It was a gift certificate to Carrabba's! Thanks for registering, Debbie, and congratulations! We hope you and Kevin will be joining us at Veterans' Park on October 2nd to celebrate The Arc of Greater Williamsburg with a fun walk!
Speaking of this year's 5k, it's not too late to sign up and join us on October 2nd. We'll be at Veterans' Park for a fun walk (not 5k!), good times with friends, goodie bags/t-shirts, and treats! And just this week, we partnered with the trainers from GYMGUYZ who will join us and lead the walk, plus some other fun activities! Kristin and the GYMGUYZ team have been conducting Fitness Nights for The Arc and a few of our AoA guys have attended the sessions. They say the GYMGUYZ rock, and we can't wait to see them on October 2nd! Here's the link to register so you won't miss the fun:
Wednesday
We put our computer lab to use today as we celebrated National Online Learning Day. Working in pairs, we played games of skill and luck, and had a fun and engaging time doing it!
We were having such a good time, we decided to film a short video, too! Happy Online Learning Day, and thanks to the JCC Rotary Club, who gifted us with our computers back in 2017. They are still serving us well!
After our online learning time, we formed lunch prep groups and got to work. One thing we needed to get ready was a couscous salad that needed to chill for a while before lunch. When the fire drill alarm sounded around 10:30, we had to exit the building from both the kitchen and the main room, as we were working in both areas.
Everyone exited in a quick and orderly manner, and we also remembered to turn our burners off. 👍 We think this is the first time we've had a fire drill when we were not all in the same room!
Once lunch was chilling in the fridge, we had our lesson about the country of Morocco. We learned that it is about the size of California, over 34 million people live there, their favorite drink is mint tea sweetened with sugar, and couscous is a staple food. We also learned that a lot of large mammals, like elephants and lions, no longer roam Morocco, but in their desert region there lives a small rodent called a jerboa. Even animal expert Michelle had never heard of this kangaroo/rabbit/rat looking animal that hops!
Our couscous salad was delicious! We also had tangerines, which got their name because long ago they were shipped from the Port of Tangiers in Morocco. Our veggie side dish was the trombone squash we picked at the garden yesterday. Nan cooked it for us, adding onion to it, and it was also delicious!
For our friend Xavier, we modified the salad and used gluten-free pasta instead of couscous. Instead of a breadstick, he had a toasted piece of gluten-free pita bread. Yummy in, and to, his tummy! 😋
It's time to sign up for The Arc's October events! We got the mailing ready to drop at the post office today, but our guys brought their sign up sheets home in their hands. Check the calendar, and see what's happening in October!
Those who weren't working on the mailing were working on making "bracelets" out of strips of construction paper, as Annmarie is doing here. We then attached the "bracelets" to one another to make pumpkin shapes.
This was a challenging activity, as gluing the paper so as to make a ring is a difficult concept for many of our guys. We persevered, though. Our one and only final product turned out nicely!
Thursday
In what has become a consistent part of our routine, we headed to Eaton to work today. We had 14 in attendance, which is everyone PLUS Cameron who hung out with us again. It's always great to welcome him back for a visit! We needed everyone we had too, as we were busy! We grabbed the camera early on and took a few pictures. But after these, we were too busy for photo ops!
Kevin, Abraham, Drew, Xavier, and Patrick unloaded not one, but TWO big tubs of parts. Each of these pieces was transferred to smaller tubs, and then sent on their way to James!
Nan, Kate, and Cameron worked on yet another new task for us! They placed large labels on the interior sides of these doors, that we think will end up on a pedestal eventually.
At this table, Sam, Annmarie, Devin, and Laura were counting screws and small metal plates that we were bagging up in different numbers for various Eaton customers. One customer was Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which most of these guys have visited!
💙💙💙 Overheard at lunch today in the Eaton break room: "I've been doing a good job today." Followed by a chorus of "Me, too!" "Me, too!" "Me, too" 💙💙💙
Thanks, Eaton Corporation, for the opportunity you provide for the Arc of Abilities members to enjoy the satisfaction that comes from a good day's work! It means the world to our guys.
Speaking of being thankful, grateful, and blessed, we are all of those and more when we get to enjoy Frosties from Wendy's! It's been a while since we were able to make a stop, but thanks to Sam's grandmother and our dear friend, Nina, (and Covid shutdowns, too) we STILL have funds left on the gift cards she gave us for Christmas in 2019! She wanted us to enjoy Frosties, and we have! Our stop today was the first time in almost two years that we were able to have our Frosties onsite!
Before wrapping up the day, we wrote a letter to Nina, thanking her for the enduring gift of Frosties. Michelle made sure everyone signed it, especially Nina's favorite AoA dude, Sam !
Nina is celebrating her 86th birthday this weekend, and even though she's far away in Arizona, she's always near in our hearts. We miss you, Nina! Happy, Happy Birthday to YOU! 🥳🥳🥳
Friday
Today was all about pirates! We spent all day participating in a lot of pirate-themed activities, and even made eye patches to wear. (We learned that pirates wore eye patches as a way to train their eyes to see better at night!) We found out that limiting our vision to one eye made moving about and seeing things very challenging.
During our morning dance warm up, DJ Liz played a lot of pirate themed songs, including one from the Disney movie Descendents 2. Morning dance time is fun!
One of our pirate activities involved working with partners to hunt for treasure. Our "treasure" was pirate words which were hidden around the room in places like the pool table pocket! With their eye patches on, and Laura carrying the Jolly Roger she brought from home, she and Patrick found almost all 20 treasure words before time ran out!
We found a fun pirate-themed video workout for today's movement activity. It involved stretching, cardio, core, upper, and lower body exercises!
Sorry the photo is blurry, but our pirates were on the move! Did real pirates exercise?! We doubt it, be we suppose all the work they did on the ships was a pretty good workout!
Lisa, Alexis, and Nan found this book while in the Outer Banks last week, and they thought we'd like it for Pirate Day. It's a short "chapter" book and we were able to read the whole book in one day. It was a cute story about puppy pirates who "do the right thing" and travel into the "Grrr-muda Triangle" to rescue kitten pirates!
Michelle brought her soundtrack CD from the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." It provided great background music for us throughout the day! Behind Michelle on the screen is Jaime, from Cosmic Kids Yoga. When we took this picture, we were about to wrap up our week with Jaime's version of pirate yoga.
We deviated from Pirate Day activities to do one extra-special thing today, and that was make a card for Moose Patti. September 17 is National Professional House Cleaners Day, and Patti is our very favorite professional house cleaner (her day job)!!! Lisa and Alexis were going to stick it on her front door on the way home. We hope Patti was surprised to find it! 💜💜💜 And with this good deed, we ended another fun week!
Late Breaking News: Patti was thrilled to find the card stuck to her front door when she got home from work! She sent Lisa this picture along with a message saying she's still smiling, ear to ear!
Wednesday: We are staying on the continent of Africa this week as we study the country of Kenya. Today is Elephant Appreciation Day, and part of our lesson will include learning about Kenya's efforts to save these magnificent animals by stopping poaching. For lunch, we will prepare a traditional Kenyan dish called githeri. Composed of beans, corn, potatoes, and onion, it's similar to what we call succotash. Today is also National Ice Cream Cone Day, so there may be a mini-treat to go along with our vegetarian lunch!
Thursday: Today we will have fun with music and books, so bring your favorite song requests and/or books. We're celebrating One Hit Wonder Day (songs that still get stuck in our heads) and Open the Magic Day (read alouds and picture books). Lunch on your own (or order from JRES cafeteria - pizza or sub).
Friday: We'll celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day (Sept. 26th), as it's one theme we enjoy year after year. There will be lots of apple related activities, and we'll try a new recipe for lunch: a hearty chicken/apple/sweet potato combo. Plus, we'll bake mini-apple pie bites for dessert. It's also yoga day, so dress to stretch!
Saturday, October 2nd: Our scaled back "AoA for the 5k" event, in lieu of The Arc's 5k which had to go vitural again this year, is just two weeks away! If you haven't registered for the 5k or Fun Mile yet, please click over to this link and sign up: https://runsignup.com/Race/VA/Williamsburg/WilliamsburgLanding5kforTheArc?remMeAttempt=
We're planning a fun morning at Veterans' Park and hope to see you there!
NEWS FLASH: Our friends from GYMGUYZ will be joining us to help make our "alternate" 5k activity even more fun! You won't want to miss this! Sign up today!
Enjoy the weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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