Welcome, back to all of us (including world traveler, Carol) and WELCOME to our newest Arc of Abilities member, Tessa! She's the beautiful smile in the pink shirt behind Laura. And welcome to Cameron, too, for a visit! He's behind Tessa! Everyone shared that they enjoyed our Summer Break by spending time with their families and friends, catching fireworks, eating out, traveling, swimming, and just "chilling" at home. We're ready for the second half of 2023, so let's see how we kicked it off this week!
Tuesday
After our dance warm up and blog check, we turned the floor over to Carol who gave us a delightful summary of her trip to Scandinavia. She showed us on the map where she visited: Copenhagen, Denmark and then, via her cruise, lots of beautiful places in Norway. It was her first time on a cruise ship, and she loved every second of it, especially having a butler and housekeeper...what?!?!
Carol described how she and Gene enjoyed seeing the beautiful sights of Norway, from both on and off the ship. This is a gorgeous fjord!
One of Carol's favorite parts of the cruise was visiting a port and seeing the quaint villages and meeting the friendly people. She loved this picture of her view from breakfast one morning!
She and Gene had the times of their lives, and we're so happy they enjoyed such a beautiful trip. She wasn't kidding when she told us how pretty the scenery was!
She even brought each of us a bookmark with a picture of one of the fjords on it. Thanks, Carol, for thinking of us while you were traveling! We missed you, and are glad you are back, safe and sound with all of your wonderful memories!
We had to update our calendar for July, so we had Tessa fill in for Kevin, who was still traveling. Michelle helped her reset the numbers for the month of July. She did a great job! (In this picture, Tessa and Michelle were removing the dates for June.)
Later in the morning, we had fun being scientists. We had a kit, so we split into teams and demonstrated some cool scientific principles. After we talked about volcanic eruptions happening when pressure builds up in the earth's core, Kate, Michelle, and Dev B performed the always fun to watch baking soda eruption, only we had citric acid to use with it instead of vinegar! It was great!
Next, Erik, Alexis, and Adia demonstrated that baking soda and citric acid would react together to release enough carbon dioxide gas to inflate balloons! We loved it!
We had time before lunch for two more quick experiments. Our other groups will have a turn next week. Sam, Laura, and Patrick (with an assist from Lisa) demonstrated the principle of thrust. They created a balloon rocket. When Laura/Lisa released the air, the rocket moved in the opposite direction from the flow of air...meaning our rocket went up. A little bit...but still up!
Everyone loved today's last experiment where we demonstrated changes in air pressure. Laura, Patrick, Sam, and Lisa (with the lighter) lit a candle that was sitting in a dish of water. They then covered the flame with a cup, which caused the trapped air to expand (increase the air pressure). When the candle flame burned out, the air inside the cup cooled down. The cooling air contracted (decreased the air pressure), and that caused high pressure outside of the glass to push water into the glass as a way to get air back inside. Well, it's something like that! We thought it was so cool, we did it 3 times! 😲
We were happy to have Carol back in the saddle as a van driver! We had the ADA van from Parks & Rec today, so Carol drove us one group at a time to the nearby 7-Eleven so we could celebrate Slurpee Day!
The girls went first while the boys stayed at AFCC for a lesson on the history of the Slurpee. If you're interested, you can click here for a link to the video we watched, and here for a link to the song we danced to after learning it was a popular Slurpee jingle in the 1970s!
Wednesday
This morning Alexis picked a handful of cherry tomatoes from the plant we started with the master gardeners. It grew in our "pizza pot" along with basil and oregano. Unfortunately, during our recent 3 week absence from the center, our pizza pot struggled to remain vibrant. It still has a lot of baby tomatoes growing, and we hope with our TLC this week, it will survive. Meanwhile, we look forward to adding these beauties to our side salads on Friday!
We have a birthday coming up next week for one our our beloved Arc of Abilities friends, Moose Patti! We made cards for her today. (Don't tell her; it's a surprise!) Here, Adia, Tessa, Xavier, and Nan were working on the insides of the cards.
Later, Nan assisted Patrick and Sweet T with the outsides of the cards. It was National Paper Bag Day, and we incorporated them into the cards! We also used Modge Podge...and Patrick and Sweet T were good sports with using their fingers to spread the gooey stuff!
We volunteer at Grove Christian Outreach Center (GCOC) on the second Wednesday of the month. Due to relocating and having Summer Break, Joel and Peggy had not seen us for a while, and they missed us! We missed them, too. One of this group's tasks was to pack two rolls each of toilet paper into plastic bags, tie them up, and pack neatly into big boxes.
We divide the steps so our packing will go more efficiently. Sweet T stacked the rolls by twos, and slid them over to Alexis so she could quickly get them into the bags.
This group worked on removing cans of tuna and chicken from shrink-wrapped packages, and then packing them into smaller boxes that would store more easily on GCOC's shelves. Our guys said they had never seen so much tuna and chicken at one time! We are happy that GCOC's shelves are well-stocked with tuna and chicken. Peggy told us GCOC assists about 400 families a week with food support.
Tessa did a great job at GCOC! Joel was impressed with her work ethic and Adia said, "Tessa's a keeper!" We agree, Adia! 💖
Later in the day, we made lavender sachets with the materials Krafty Karen and the MGs gave us at our last session. We reviewed the many benefits of lavender, including that inhaling the fragrance may aid in relaxing you. It can be sprinkled in bath water, or you can buy soap or lotion that is infused with it. Or, you can set your sachet near your bed at night. Dev B and Adia said they were going to try that!
Thank you, Master Gardeners, for teaching us about lavender and how it has been used for centuries, and for providing materials so we can have hands-on experiences to try it ourselves!
Near the end of the day, we kicked off our Summer Corn Hole Challenge! Lisa and Carol were talking with the Arc's Executive Director, Pam, and members of the Development Committee about future plans for the Arc Education Center. They were joined by an architect who took lots of notes about our dreams and wishes!
Thursday
What a warm day it was to hook up with master gardeners Karen and Barb, and Karen's husband, Steve, at the garden. We went to harvest potatoes, but had a couple of other surprises, too! This is the bed where Karen planted pumpkins, and they are already growing nicely. We know pumpkins take about 100 days to grow and ripen, so we will keep our eyes on these until early fall!
We harvested a few cherry tomatoes for tomorrow's salad! We also noticed that the zucchini, squash, and watermelon plants look great. Karen and Barb suggested we try to check on things every couple of weeks this summer, and we are going to strive to do that!
Today's highlight was definitely harvesting the Russet potatoes. Karen's husband, Steve, did the digging for us. We were surprised at how big the potatoes had grown AND how many there were!
Steve kept turning over soil and we kept picking up potatoes! It was great!
Laura and Kate were already wondering what we might cook with these beautiful potatoes?!?!
The abundance of potatoes is evident in this picture where Steve had just turned up some soil. We're glad the garden critters don't seem to like potatoes! Thank you, Steve, for digging the potatoes for us. You did a wonderful job!
Once the Russet potatoes were removed from the soil, we smoothed it over and then Michelle helped Karen place Beauregard sweet potato plants! We can look forward to harvesting them around the same time as the pumpkins in early fall. 🍂🍂🍂
Adia was excited to spot a fire sunflower that was growing in the trellis bed. She climbed up to get a closer look. It was unusual to see, since it wasn't yellow, but it was very pretty!
This was the inside of one of our 3 bags of harvested Russet potatoes! We think our harvest was about 20 pounds altogether. Thanks for meeting us Karen and Barb, and Steve, too. And thanks for growing potatoes with us, and showing us what joy can come from growing your own food! It was wonderful to see all of you today!
Before heading back to the center for lunch, we stopped by Eaton where Sam jumped off the van to assist Carol with loading a couple of tubs. Ethan had some work that we could do ahead of our work day next week. Thanks, Ethan!
We spent the afternoon in the AC enjoying lunch and Choice Time. It was around 90 degrees outside! After that, we made birthday cards for our artist friend, Jeff. (Shhh...it's a surprise!) We are excited in this shot because Xavier was contributing thoughts about what he wanted to say in his card, and we're learning that Tessa is a good writer!
Friday
There was a lot going on this morning. It was time to send a team to Pet Supplies Plus, so Carol hit the road with them. Lisa, Nan, and the Cooking Crew got busy preparing lunch, and they also welcomed visitors from VersAbility. Their visit was short and sweet, so after they left, we made lunch!
Adia taught Sweet T how to make Jell-O and add fruit. He was hesitant to empty the entire can of mandarin oranges into the collander to drain, but she encouraged him and he did it!
Making Jell-O doesn't take too long, so Sweet T had another job of sorting Eaton parts. His buddy Drew was going to join him in a few minutes, but first...
Drew was helping Adia make our salads!
In the big room, we had several things going on. Michelle and Annmarie are a great napkin ring team. They have a lot of fun working together!
Alexis worked on some Eaton tasks. She applied gaskets to some parts and screws and metal pieces to others.
Nan said she wasn't really needed by Sam and Patrick who were slicing and frying hot dogs to add to our beans that were already simmering in the slow cooker so we could celebrate Beans 'n Franks Day. They have done this job many times before, but they said they liked having Nan's help, too!
Meanwhile, our other crew was working at Pet Supplies Plus. Kevin and Xavier are tall enough to stock some of the higher shelves!
Dev B and Liz were packing cans of cat food that were going to be donated to Heritage Humane Society.
One of PSP's managers, Molly, enlisted Laura's help to stock the doggy bakery! Yum!
With Tracy and Kate's help, Tessa was a quick study!
We loved seeing Roxanne today! She's usually at the Chesapeake store. For a "boss lady," she sets a good example working at the shelves! 👍
Here's the whole crew showcasing summer pet toys. Head over to Pet Supplies Plus and get your favorite pet something new!!
The PSP Crew made an unexpected stop at the market on the way back to AFCC. Lisa called to say she wasn't sure the cornbread was baking well, and maybe we needed a bag of chips to add to lunch. In the end, the cornbread baked OK, we saved the chips for another day, and this group had a fun Aldi's experience!
We'll enjoy the weekend with our families, and be back at the Arc of Abilities bright and early Tuesday morning for another fun week with our friends. Here's a peek at what we'll be doing:
Tuesday: This morning we will have fun with science experiments so the groups that didn't have a turn last week will get a chance to be scientists! We will visit with Christina at The Art Museums of CW this afternoon, and her topic will be snakes! 🐍🐍🐍 That should be interesting! Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is available but menu is unknown...so potluck! Arc shirts optional.
Wednesday: We welcome our therapy dog friends for their regularly scheduled monthly visit this morning. We'll celebrate Words with Friends Day by reading and making words with them! Later, we're going to use a recently donated box of chalk (thanks, Bobowicz Family!) to create fun pictures on big pieces of cardboard. Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is available for potluck!
Thursday: Happy National Hot Dog Day! We're going to cook our recently harvested potatoes as a side for our hot dog luncheon! In other activities today, we'll have an educational and fun lesson to celebrate Moon Day and finish the work for Eaton that we picked up last week. Hot dogs, watermelon, and home fries for lunch.
Friday: We're looking forward to returning to Eaton for a productive work day. We should finish up in time to return to AFCC for yoga, so dress to stretch and wear your Eaton shirt. Bring a bagged lunch, too!
Have a wonderful weekend! Stay cool and hydrate!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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