Carol was away on her Mississippi River cruise this week, but we kept the Arc of Abilities rolling! She would have been proud of everything we learned with the master gardeners and Mike this week, and how productive we were at Eaton. We think she would have loved the fall decorations we began making, and the way we presented our program to visitors, too! We want to thank our friends who were able to pinch hit for her, including Tracy (last Friday), Katrina, Allison, and Sue. We never missed a beat thanks to their support, and we appreciate their help with everything we did! Here's a look at the week we had while Carol was gone!
Tuesday, September 10
We began our fall sessions with the master gardeners today. What a beautiful day to spend with them at the garden! We had a smaller group today, only 13, but there was plenty of enthusiasm for being back with our MG friends. We filled them in on everything going on with our herb garden, and told them about all the great things we have cooked this summer with the herbs. Oh, we mentioned the brown snakes, too!
Our lesson today was about drying herbs so we can have them to use over the winter when they won't be doing as well in our garden. Some herbs, like basil, may not dry well because they are fairly "moist" and mold can set in before the drying process finishes. But other herbs, like thyme, rosemary, and oregano should dry well. Karen explained a simple way to dry them, by hanging them in a cool, dark place. We are going to harvest some next week and dry them so our winter soups, stews, and casseroles will be extra delicious!
Barbara told us that flowers, fruits, and veggies can be dried, too. She volunteers in the gardens at Colonial Williamsburg and explained that a lot of what is grown there gets dried for use in the beautiful wreaths and garlands we see on display in CW during the holiday season. We told her we've often noticed dried fruits and greenery, but she told us to be on the lookout for unique things in the decorations like dried bay leaves, cayenne peppers, and okra. She gave us some of each which we hung to dry when we got back to our center. When we visit CW this holiday season, we'll go on a scavenger hunt to look for these and other unique dried items!
Karen gave a demonstration on drying leaves and flowers using a press her husband Steve made. She put several colorful leaves and flowers in between layers of paper and then tightened the wooden top and bottom with the screws attached at the corners. She said it will take a couple of weeks, but then the leaves and flowers will be beautiful decorations!
We don't call her "Krafty Karen," for nothing...she also gave us kits filled with dried leaves, flowers, and other materials we can use to make beautiful suncatchers! Our volunteer Allison would probably love to help us with this pretty project! Thank you, Krafty Karen, for getting all the materials organized. We will enjoy making the suncatchers and sharing them with our families!
Before we wrapped up today's session, the MGs told us they were going to plant spinach, kale, collards, and cabbage for us since we were running short on time. Thank you, master gardeners, for a great kickoff to our fall sessions with you! We appreciate you!
We'll look forward to watching these fall veggies grow, and of course, harvesting them to use in our cooking!
With MG Joanne looking on, Alexis, Liz, and Beka determined that the sweet potatoes are growing much better since Karen and Steve installed the fence! Karen said that even though critters (bunnies!) nibbled on the green part, she felt certain the sweet potatoes were still growing under the ground. We'll look to harvest them in early November.
Wow! Look at MG Carolyn's first journal page for the fall session! Doesn't she do a lovely job of summarizing our visit?!
On our way to get our lunches out of the vans, we ran into our therapy dog handler friend Kent...but he didn't have Leo today. We got to meet his 1 1/2 year old West Highland White Terrier named Tavish! Kent was at Freedom Park in his role as a therapy dog trainer/evaluator. He had a group of 3 others with their dogs for a training session. Kent said running into us was perfect because the dogs needed to practice "patience in a crowd." We were happy to help!
It was warm in the sun, but the humidity was low so we enjoyed lunch in the shade on the patio behind the Interpretive Center. We were celebrating National Ants on a Log Day so we had a healthy addition to our lunches. Thanks, Alexis and Liz, for preparing this tasty treat for us today!
We spent another hour after lunch at the park playing bocce and taking a walk before returning to the center for a short period of Choice Time before dismissal. It was a great start to our week!
That's Katrina from Parks & Rec playing bocce with Liz, Annmarie, and Bryan. She filled in for Carol today and did a fabulous job! Thanks so much for spending the day with us, Katrina! We're thrilled to have you on "the team!"
Wednesday, September 11
There was a lot going on today! We were on call for GCOC, and they ended up needing us, so one group went there this morning while the other group stayed at the center with Nan and volunteer Allison.
First, we put 15 plums in each bag. We had never seen so many plums before!
Michelle and Annmarie counted, and then counted some more!
After bagging plums, we bagged frozen peach cups - only 10 per bag for these!
It was time to make birthday cards for our sweet friend, Tessa, who will be 24 next Thursday. We miss her so much.
Devin and Kate colored their pictures exactly the same! Haha! We enjoy color by number pictures every now and then!
Before lunch, Pam visited along with Arc Board of Directors president Sue, and new board member, Terry. We forgot to get pictures with them, and we apologize! They got the grand tour, but somehow the camera remained on the back table. It was nice to meet Terry and welcome her to the Arc family!
Image by starline on Freepik
After lunch we discussed the events of September 11, 2001, and watched a "family friendly" video that recapped the tragic day in our country's history.
We ended the day with a celebration of National Peanut Day, which is Friday. We will be working at Eaton on Friday, but Peanut Day is too much fun to miss! First, we learned about the parts of a peanut plant, and were reminded that peanuts aren't even nuts. Nuts grow on trees and peanuts grow underground. They are legumes! It doesn't matter to us that they aren't really nuts, though. We had fun playing a game where teams raced to see how many peanuts they could shell in two minutes, followed by samples of the shelled peanuts! We culminated our celebration with home made Peanut Butter Blossom cookies baked for us by Allison. Yummy! 😋
Patrick, Emma, and Bryan raced against the clock to shell peanuts!
Annmarie, Kate, and Michelle were the neatest team, keeping all their peanut shells on the lid of the crayon box!
Alexis, Drew, and Devin said it was more fun to eat the peanuts than to shell them! It is a lot of work for a little return!
Thank you, Allison, for spending the entire day with us while Carol was away. Your help is much appreciated! Thanks also for baking the Peanut Butter Blossom cookies! They were not only delicious, but really cute with the colorful blue/teal sugar sprinkled on top. Like Lisa said, they matched you today! It was a sweet, sweet ending to a very sweet day!
Thursday, September 12
Today we welcomed Patrick's mom, and Arc's Bookkeeper and Program Assistant, Sue, to fill in for Carol. Sue is a long-time substitute with us, and we always enjoy hanging out with her! She asked how she could help before we left for our trip, so Lisa asked her to make a tree from poster board, and hang the colorful paper loop leaves we made yesterday. Sue doesn't consider herself very "creative," but we have to disagree! Look at this gorgeous tree! Thanks, Sue! This is perfect!! We will add more signs of fall in the weeks to come, and this entry wall will be a showstopper in our room.
Michelle was proud to say "Ta-da" when it was time to photograph Sue's tree!
During July and August we didn't visit with Mike at the Watermen's Museum because he was busy with summer camps, so we were stoked to be hanging out with him today! He gave us the scoop on apples, since the fall season is almost upon us. Mike informed us that apples as we know them are not native to America. The seeds were brought here by European settlers. Mike also told us that the first apples would have been reddish yellow in appearance because many apples we enjoy today like red and golden delicious or Granny Smith had not been cultivated yet.
Mike had an idea that we would make an apple pie mobile, but first, we had to create a recipe. He asked each of us what we would add to our pie crust and filling, and we had amazing ideas like hope, joy, sugar, cinnamon, love, happiness, salt, flour, butter, and even rainbow sprinkles!
It's always a team effort with Mike! Our mobile came together nicely and when we finished, Mike even gave each of us an apple!
Always a song with Mike! 🎝🍎💞🎝🍏
Thanks, Mike, for a great time! You're an "apple of our eye" and we always have the best time with you!
We hung the mobile from the ceiling in our room!
After our lesson with Mike, we drove to the picnic area. While we were waiting for our friend, Moose Patti, to join us, we walked down to the river to enjoy the sound of the waves lapping against the rocks. Here's a snippet of that peaceful view!
Returning to the picnic tables, we saw Moose Patti pulling in and gave her some welcome waves!
Moose Patti joined us for our lunch and walk today. She brought us sweet treats, too! She also brought us news that the WOTM will present the proceeds from the golf tournament to The Arc on Wednesday evening, September 18, at 6:30 p.m. Please join us if you are able!! We'll be at the Moose Lodge on Richmond Road. This is always a special presentation, and we appreciate having a group of us there to thank Patti and the WOTM in person for their hard work. This year's tournament was very successful. The Arc loves and appreciates you, Patti and WOTM!
We did laps around the Victory Monument while we waited for the trolley.
We only had 13 members in attendance today. (Kate is behind Nan!) We got off at the American Revolution Museum and walked to the second beach stop, where we caught the trolley back to the van.
Thank you, Sue, for substituting for Carol today, and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow, too! Thank you, Patti, for spending part of your day off with us. It was a beautiful day and we're so glad you were a part of our adventure! (p.s. Thanks for helping Lisa find the "lost" camera! 😜)
Our sweet friend Tessa is in the hospital. Her doctors are looking into the possibility that she may have developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which is a rare neurological disorder that causes the body's immune system to attack the peripheral nervous system. Fortunately, it is treatable and in most cases, patients fully recover. However, it can take a long time. We wish to thank our AoA families for their support of Tessa's family during this extremely difficult time. Through your generosity, we are able to provide gift cards that will help meet their needs for groceries and incidentals while Tessa works on recovery. Here is a picture of our dear friend, who seems to be feeling a bit better after a couple of infusion treatments. Mom Michelle reports she's smiling a little, and her face is not "as strained." 🙏💗🙏💗🙏
Friday, September 13
Laura returned today, and we were happy for that! She was out of town last week, and when she returned home she got a cold that kept her sidelined until today. She was happy to be back among her friends and hard at work taking the attendance! Welcome back, Laura, and thanks for selecting this pretty lighthouse picture to add to our post card collection! We're glad you enjoyed your trip to the Outer Banks!
It may have been Friday, the 13th, but it was our lucky day at Eaton because the PowerSlide Doors finally arrived and we got to assemble them! We also had thousands of other parts to sort and pack into smaller tubs, which is always a good challenge for us as we try to fit as many as we can to conserve the smaller tubs. We worked a "regular" shift, until 1:00 (with a lunch break) for the first time in a while!
Bryan kept the flow for the PowerSlide door assembly line going; Michelle added the amber lenses. Sue, Nan, and Alexis were today's "Label Ladies." Xavier and Kevin manned the nuts and bolts station, and missed their friend Tessa who is good at this, too! Erik handled the tightening of the screws using the electric screwdriver, while Liz added a missing screw to a random door.
Emma, Devin, and Drew made a huge dent in transferring plastic parts from the large bins to the smaller tubs. Laura, Annmarie, and Patrick twisted U clips off of other plastic parts. This team traded places throughout the workday so everyone could chip in on all the tasks!
It was nice to see David today! He was traveling the last couple of times we worked. We enjoy talking with him, and today, we needed him to put his cutting skills to use to carve out a side flap so we'd have easier access to this big bin. Thanks for the assist, David!
We're so proud of the work done by this team, including Sue (who took the picture). PowerSlide Doors had just arrived late yesterday, and we did not know we would be working on them. We only had 13 in attendance today, but we "got it done" and then some! Yay, us!! 👏👏👏💪💪💪🥇🥇🥇
Sue felt we deserved a shout-out for our excellent work ethic, so she treated us to Frosties at Wendy's on the way back to the center! We lingered, and enjoyed having "Frosties with Friends," so we didn't have time for a walk or yoga. That was OK because we got a good workout at Eaton, anyway! Thanks so much for the tasty treat, Sue, and for two days of filling in for Carol. We enjoyed working with you very much!
Whoa! How did the weekend get here so quickly?! We're looking forward to welcoming Carol back next week. Here's what we'll be doing when she returns:
Tuesday: We will spend the morning preparing baked spaghetti and salad for lunch, and we will make an extra pan to put in a care package for Heike. She returns from Germany today where she spent time with family following the sudden loss of her mother. 😞💔 We'll also add another fall decoration to our wall. After an early lunch, we'll head to The Art Museums of CW for a visit with Christina! Please wear Arc shirts.
Wednesday: It's Therapy Dog Day! 🐶 Fall will be our theme as we read books about the season and make a scarecrow dog craft with them! Other activities today will include a look at the US Air Force's "birthday" and Bingo and Corn Hole games! Lunch on your own. Microwave available. JRES Cafeteria is available for Popcorn Chicken Bowl or Hot Dog.
***Wednesday Evening: Please stop by the Williamsburg Moose Lodge at 5429 Richmond Rd, if you are able, to join us for the presentation of the proceeds from the WOTM Golf Tourney! We'll be there at 6:30 and it will take about 15-20 minutes. We are very grateful to Moose Patti and her amazing WOTM team for their support of The Arc, and especially The Arc of Abilities!***
Thursday: It's Tessa's birthday today, but we will have to postpone her celebration until she feels better. We will send her video greetings (her cards are in the mail) and lots of virtual love! It's also Talk Like a Pirate Day, so we will have activities centered around that theme! ARGHH! Lunch on your own. Microwave available. JRES Cafeteria is offering Domino's Pizza, Yogurt Combo, or Chef Salad.
Friday: We've got a busy morning! One group will work at PSP and another group will go to Tidal Wave Car Wash (Mooretown Rd) to represent The Arc of GW at a fundraising event! Lisa will send email on Tuesday or Wednesday to let you know whether to wear your PSP shirt or your Arc shirt! Depending on the weather, we will either have lunch at Freedom Park (and check the garden), or return to AFCC. We'll also have yoga with Jaime this afternoon! Please bring a bagged lunch.
Thanks for your continued support of The Arc of Greater Williamsburg. Have a great weekend!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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