We probably say the same thing every January, but wow...where did the first month of 2022 go?! When we return to the AoA next week, it will be February already! We are happy with how the new year has started for our program, as we got a nice surprise at the end of the week. (Hint: It's a boy!) We look forward to the rest of 2022 being just as great as January was! Here's a look at how we sent January on its way, and be sure to check Thursday and Friday closely for our surprise!!
Tuesday
Before we headed to Jamestown, Liz shared with us that her family wanted to donate some things from her late grandmother's home to our program. We are honored and thankful to accept kitchen items like pot holders, towels, measuring cups, a whisk, and a spatula (which we could really use), along with a lot of spices, some paper products, Jell-O, chocolate chips, and even some office supplies! Thank you, Liz and family, for thinking of us during a sad time for your family. We promise to take good care of these things that belonged to your mother and grandmother, and we'll think of her with love each time we use them!
Our community outing this week was to Jamestown Settlement, where we had set up a guided tour (which is the only way to visit the outside area during winter). We were prepared to bundle up, and spend more time inside than out if we needed to, but the weather couldn't have been better. It was sunny, cool (around 45-50 degrees) and barely a breeze! It was wonderful!
First up, a group picture in our masks, with John Smith wearing his, too!
Boy, were we happily surprised to find out that our guide was one of our master gardener friends, Jay! We had forgotten that he works here. He told us that when he saw our name on the group reservation sheet, he knew we were the group he wanted to work with today. Yay for Jay!! Right away he told us about the yucca plant, a succulent which is native to Virginia. The Powhatans used yucca for many purposes. The inside substance works like a soap, and the fibers that can be peeled away can be twisted together to make strong thread to use in making a fishing net!
When we visited the fort area, these men told us about how they were dressed for winter weather. Much like we do today, they wore layers in the 1600s. We also learned that most shoes weren't made as pairs (for left and right feet) at all. They were made all from the same "last" which was a wooden block in the shape of a shoe. Leather was shaped over the "last" to make the shoes, each one in the same shape. When the person wore them, he or she would have to "break" them in until they felt comfortable and conformed to the shape of each foot!
Jay introduced us to some Red Dorking chickens, who hang out in Jamestown now, and also did back in the 1600s. They were named for a county in England where they were bred, and were (and are) known for their good meat! 😳
We made our way onto the re-created Susan Constant and Jay tried to help us imagine 71 men on here for the voyage from England in 1607. About 17 of them would be crew and they worked and slept on the upper deck, taking turns sleeping in the bunks when they weren't on duty! Down below is where about 54 passengers would be, along with the dogs, goats, pigs, and chickens they were bringing to the New World!
We also learned that the steering wheel had not been invented in 1607, and the ship would have been steered with a tiller, which is a horizontal bar that helped to move the rudder and control the direction of the ship.
Can you spot the bald eagle on the lower part of this branch? Jay told us there is an eagle couple who have lived in Jamestown for years. We were excited to see it on the branch, looking over the river. Our camera did the best it could to capture a shot of our beautiful national bird!
Our picture of the eagles' nest in a nearby pine tree turned out better. It was much larger than the eagle. We were able to see the top of the other eagle's head in the nest!
One reason you can only visit the outside area of Jamestown Settlement with a guide during winter is because that is the time when a lot of maintenance and repair is taking place. Jay showed us a Powhatan yehakin that was having new woven reed mats attached over the wooden frame. He also told us that yehakins hold up very well in hurricanes! The wooden frame is inserted well into the ground for stability.
After that excellent tour and a lot of learning, our gang had worked up an appetite. Lunch in the cafe was good, as always. Everyone enjoyed chatting with friends and having a meal out!
We spent a few minutes in the upstairs exhibit which
focuses on a century of Virginia Indian resiliency. There were a lot of interesting photographs to look at, but Sam, Devin, Alexis, and Drew thought dancing with these Virginia Indians would be fun, too!
Our fun day wasn't quite over after we left Jamestown. Back at the center, we celebrated our custodian Dianne's birthday! We made cupcakes before leaving for our field trip, and Heike and Sevarina brought Dianne down to our room for a surprise song and treat!
Dianne loved it! We think a lot of all of our custodians, but Dianne was the girl of the day! She turned 60, but told us "age is just a number." She's got a great attitude and we can learn a lot from her! Happy Birthday, Dianne! We appreciate you and everything you do to help us and keep our room clean!
Wednesday
Thanks to James, Jorie, and Kesha, we had a busy and productive day working at Eaton! We appreciate what they do to get work set up in "our" rooms, and how they are always coming up with different tasks for us to do!! Thank you James, Jorie, and Kesha for your dedication to The Arc of Greater Williamsburg and our AoA program, as well as your friendship to all of us, too!
It didn't take the "Drew Crew" long to get organized and begin unpacking electrical amp plugs. Annmarie, Laura, Patrick, and Michelle rounded out this hardworking team. Later, they unpacked many boxes of plastic parts, too, and made numerous trips to the recycle bin to empty trash!
Jorie asked us to begin emptying the contents of these file cabinet drawers when we had a chance, so Kate and Kevin stepped up and got a lot done. They were in a small office area that is in "our" building. Lisa said they looked like undercover agents sneaking through secret files, who got busted when she came in with the camera! 😂
Alexis and Nan spent part of the morning unpacking small parts before switching over to applying gaskets. Behind them, Sam and Devin were removing large parts from the cardboard bin and snapping a smaller part off of each one.
Xavier and Liz were also helping remove the smaller pieces. Once they finish this job, they pack the parts into tubs so James can store them at the warehouse.
Jorie and Kesha popped in to see if we needed anything and to let us know that James' mother is very sick up in New Jersey. James will soon be traveling to be with family, and Jorie wondered if we could make some cards for him. Of course! 💙 Please keep James and his family in your thoughts. It's been a difficult few months for them. UPDATE: James' beloved mother passed away on Thursday evening. Carol rode over to give him the cards, along with air hugs from all of us on Friday. James said our timing in delivering love was perfect. 🙏💛
We didn't get too many pictures today because we are busy as beavers on our work days. In fact, the proof is in the bins and boxes. We filled all of these with completed work today! We should have also taken a picture of the amount of papers from the file cabinets and other recyclable materials we put into the bin outside. We'll get one next time. We're proud, as we should be! 👏👏
Thursday
We had a visitor today! Erik is a new Arc client and he and his parents, Art and Diane, visited us to see if the Arc of Abilities would be a good fit for him. Many of our guys recognized him from Arc events he has been attending, and were super excited when we invited him to have a "trial' visit tomorrow! Can you spot Erik in the group?! (Brown jacket!)
Erik and his parents visited and chatted with us for a while, and we gave them lots of information about what we like to do each day. After they left, we had a movement activity. During one of the segments, the song was called, "You Are the Best." After snapping this shot, Lisa turned around to see who was singing.
It was Laura singing at the top of her lungs, "I'm the best! I'm the best!" Nan was keeping up with Laura's dancing, but we couldn't hear Nan singing! And yes, Laura, you're the best...and so are your friends!!
We had to postpone our celebration of Green Juice Day to tomorrow because Lisa left the green juice at home! So we moved on to our celebration of Peanut Brittle Day. First, we talked about what it is, and learned that "brittle" means "hard, but easily breakable." Then, we learned that peanut brittle may have been invented by accident when a southern cook mistook baking soda for cream of tartar in a taffy recipe, and that resulted in brittle, instead of chewy, candy!
Our recipe called for baking soda, and also sugar, corn syrup, and water, which Xavier was adding here while Annmarie stirred it well. Oh...it also called for peanuts, of course! We added them after the sugar melted.
The candy needed to reach 300 degrees before we could pour it in the pans to harden. We reached out to a couple of family members to inquire about borrowing a candy thermometer, and Sam's mom, Coach Teri, sent us one (on the right). Then, Lexi's Gdad sent us another one (on the left). So we were "doubly" certain when our candy was ready to be removed from the heat! Thank you, Coach Teri and Gdad. We really appreciate your help and hope you like the samples of peanut brittle we sent you! (Note: Gdad told us to keep the one he sent...and just make sure we send him samples of any candy we make! 😋)
With our small burner and large pot, it took much longer for the mixture to reach the necessary 300 degrees, so Carol kept an eye on it and the gang worked on "Thinking of You" cards for our friend at Eaton, James.
Finally, after a little over an hour, our candy reached 300 degrees. We added butter and baking soda and it became a beautiful golden brown. Time to pour it on the pans!
The final ingredient was a sprinkle of sea salt. It was a sweet touch that Liz could sprinkle sea salt that was in the collection of things from her late grandmother's kitchen, which her family donated to us earlier this week. 💙
It's ready to break into pieces, which is what "brittle" is supposed to do!
These three caballeros agreed it was worth the wait! Happy Peanut Brittle Day, 2022...it will be a few years before we make this again (probably)!!
Since it was a student holiday, we were able to use the gym. Kids from the Parks & Rec program were using it earlier in the day, so we ended our day with basketball and lap-walking. We'll get to use it again tomorrow, and have plans to play a couple of group games as we celebrate Have Fun at Work Day!
Friday
Happy Have Fun at Work Day! We had no trouble celebrating this one, and here's the proof...
First of all, what's more fun than making a new friend?! We welcomed a new member to our group today! Erik began his "trial" visit, but it went so well, we're happy to announce he will begin full time next week! Here, he is sitting with Michelle while we played a Disney movie trivia game (also fun!) and used our new set of game buzzers! Really fun!
Next, we wanted to play kickball in the gym since the students were not in school today. We loaded everyone's names into an online spinner to form our teams. We didn't want to play boys vs. girls, so we thought the randomness of the spinner would mix things up for us. We ended up with one team of 4 girls and 2 boys and another team of 5 boys and 1 girl!
We headed to the gym only to find the PE teacher setting out equipment for the Parks & Rec group to use! (We thought we were getting in there early enough today to have a turn.) So, we decided to use the spinner-formed teams in a game of indoor cornhole. Still having fun at work!
Annmarie was the only girl on this team, and they were glad to have her after she sank a two point shot to bring their score closer to the other team's!
Sam and Erik were the only boys on this team. Erik said it had been a long time since he played cornhole, and his first couple of turns led him to make some adjustments. On this shot, he sank that flying orange beanbag into the hole with a very satisfying thump!
Moving on for more fun, we watched Booba's Food Show on Netflix! Lexi's cousin Haley (age almost 4) highly recommended that Lexi and her friends check out this show, which is less than 5 minutes long, but packed with fun ideas about what to do with your food! This episode is called "Pancake Faces" and it inspired us to get creative with our lunch! Thanks, Haley, for the suggestion! We liked Booba's Food Show!
Before making pancake faces, we had to divide the work and get our pancake lunch prepared. Today is National Blueberry Pancake Day, too, and while we didn't add blueberries to our batter, we had them to decorate with, and enjoy as a side dish. Liz, Devin, and Erik easily handled making about 4 dozen pancakes, made all the easier with the use of the griddle we were gifted by Devin's family!
Kevin and Drew were on sausage link duty. Tongs can be tricky but these guys are trickier!
Alexis sliced strawberries and kiwi to use in making pancake faces, and Laura arranged them beautifully on the plate.
We only had a certain amount of food to prepare, and lots of helping hands, so Sam, Patrick, Xavier, and Michelle decorated the portable white board. They did a great job from start to finish, coloring everything and sticking them on the board. To quote Michelle, "It looks beautiful, actually!" 😍
Once our lunch was ready, we told the gang to see what kind of pancake faces they could make. We thought they might try to copy what Booba made, but not our guys...they came up with their own creative and amazing designs! Here are pictures of all who wanted to be in the blog:
Drew (left) and Alexis (right)
Xavier (with GF pancakes, too!)
Devin
Kevin (left) and Liz (right)
Annmarie
Sam (Sorry we cut your head off!)
Michelle
Laura
What a fun lunch today!
We introduced Erik to our online yoga coach, Jaime, at the end of the day. One of the many things we like about Jaime is her accent, as she's from the United Kingdom. Turns out, Erik lived in the UK for 5 years and graduated from high school there! He said listening to Jaime reminded him of being there. He also kept up with all of the moves and seemed to enjoy yoga with Jaime!
Here's boat pose! Looks like it was another fun yoga session!
It was another fun week, too! We're looking forward to bringing in February next week with Erik, bowling, and a return to Pet Supplies Plus. Check out our schedule!
Wednesday: It's going to be busy today as we prepare our February calendar and celebrate Groundhog Day. It's also Girls and Women in Sports Day so we will take a look at famous female athletes. Lunch on your own. JRES cafeteria is available (menu not posted as of blog posting).
Thursday: We'll explore the topic of optimism today as it's National Optimist Day. It's also Carrot Cake Day so we'll be baking. To celebrate Send a Card to a Friend Day we will dig into our memories and think of friends the AoA has made over the years, and send them cards! Lunch on your own. JRES cafeteria is available (menu not posted yet but Thursday is usually Domino's pizza or Sub of the Day).
Friday: February is American Heart Month and today is National Wear Red Day to bring attention to the issue of heart disease in women. We will discuss heart health for all of us so wear red today if you'd like! It's also Homemade Soup Day and we're cooking vegetable beef soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. It's yoga day, too. Dress to stretch!
Here's a reminder to save the date for the Community Pickleball Challenge which benefits The Arc of Greater Williamsburg! If you'd like to be a sponsor, or know someone who would, please contact Pam at pam.mcgregor@thearcgw.org! Thanks in advance!
Wishing everyone a great weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
