A "Light" Week

When we planned to slow things down after last week's multiple exciting activities, we didn't think it would be due to attendance.  This week travel, appointments, Covid, and other sniffly illnesses caused us to have "light" membership numbers all week!  Luckily, no one was seriously ill, and we're pretty sure everyone will be back next week, but we were down to as few as 6 and 7 by Wednesday!  On the bright side, Cameron visited a few days this week and it's always nice to hang out with him! 😀  We tweaked a few plans, and carried on, almost as busy as usual.  Here's a look at our "light" week!

Tuesday

This week began with beautiful weather again!  It almost feels like fall in the mornings, but we hear summer may be coming back in a day or two.  Since we were in the area on our way to bowling, we stopped at Freedom Park to check the garden, and were we ever glad we did!

Look at the gorgeous foliage on the pumpkin plants!  There are several flowers so we expect a good harvest.

Upon closer inspection, we spotted one pumpkin that looks like it's growing very well!

The sunflowers are still pretty!

We were excited to harvest a bunch of okra!  Some of us were surprised to see that the stalks get very tall, but we were able to reach all the ripe pieces.

We also harvested more basil.  Tomorrow we will have fried okra and basil pesto pasta salad (again) as sides with lunch!

Bowling was fun, but we missed our friends who were absent!  We only needed 3 lanes today.  There were a lot of strikes and spares, and Thomas and Emma in particular had their best games ever, with Thomas hitting 102 and Emma scoring 147!  We tried to get some action shots...

We are very thankful for Cameron's parents, Brian and Stacey, who not only sponsored our pizza today, but also our bowling.  Most months Cameron is able to join us for a couple of days during bowling week, and it's so good for him to hang with the friends he misses since moving to Staunton.  Brian and Stacey's generous donation this month is appreciated very much.  Cameron and friends always enjoy bowling and, of course, pizza! 

Wednesday

It was another "light" day as 12 were absent today and we only had 6 in attendance, which included Cameron.  The good news was our friends who are sick reported relatively mild symptoms and not too much discomfort.  We miss them!  We decided to cancel our service work at GCOC today so as not to expose any of them to potential germs, but we had plenty to do at the center to keep the Mighty 6 busy!

Carol and Lexi handled JRES Library duty.  They seemed to have enjoyed snapping this selfie!  Cute!

Alexis was the only girl here today, so we put her on another task and the guys helped us make pesto with the basil we picked at the garden.  We added it to pasta and put it in the fridge to chill until lunch time.

We are very proud of our little team pulling together to get the flower arrangements ready for Commonwealth Senior Living!  From set up to clean up, they were on it! 🌹🌻🌸

Our friends at Grove Christian Outreach Center were sad to hear that many of our friends are under the weather and we would have to cancel this week's visit.  Volunteers Peggy, Joel, Ursula, and Tom handled packing the food distribution bags without us, and then Joel dropped by with a special delivery.  This week, Peggy made us a treat of homemade banana pudding, and they wanted to make sure we got to enjoy it.  Joel said it was "medicine" and it was!  We would like to add that it was very, very good medicine, too!  Thank you Peggy for the delicious banana pudding, and Joel for bringing it to us!  Thanks also to Ursula who sent us several recipes, including one for the awesome blueberry muffins she made last week! 💖💖💖

Since we had a van and only 6 friends in attendance, we decided to take a drive up to CW for a walk.  We parked at the Quarterpath Rec Center and then walked up York Street to Francis Street.  We can't get enough of this gorgeous weather!

The horses were happy to see us!

Before lunch we learned that okra is a fruit because it has seeds inside its pods.  Of course, we treat it like a veggie, and in the video we saw a demonstration of how to fry it.  The guy in the video did it just like Nan does and we appreciate her for cooking our batch.  It was so tasty as a side with our basil pasta salad!  Peggy's banana pudding "medicine" put the finishing touch on lunch!

After lunch and Choice Time we worked on the September calendar.  Here's a photo of ALL of us at work!  Can you spot the 6 of us, plus Nan?!  

All done!  We have a busy September coming up, and we think everyone will be back to enjoy it by next week!!

Thursday

We went into "light" day number 3 today, with a grand total of 7!  Emma and Kate, who weren't sick, returned, so along with Alexis we had 3 girls today.  Cameron visited for one more day bringing the boys' total to 4.

As usual, we began the morning with our dance warm up.  Liz is usually our DJ, so in her absence we had some very capable substitutes in Kate, Bryan, Alexis, and Emma! 🎶🎶

Even though we had been told to expect a fire drill this morning, it caught us off guard.  After most of us jumped out of our skin (haha), we quickly got ourselves together and out the door!

National Newspaper Carrier Day was on the calendar today, so we went with it.  We learned about the history of "paper boys" and discussed how newspapers are almost a thing of the past these days.  We watched the movie Newsies, and then had fun recreating a scene with Bryan being the newsie and Erik, Alexis, Emma, and Kate being customers.  Well, Lisa thought it was fun.  Isn't the photo cute?!

Lunch was tasty!  We had a baked potato bar with green beans and fruit salad for sides. 😋 We also had just enough pizza left over from Tuesday to cut the slices in half and give everyone a side of cheesy garlic bread...sort of.

We finished the day with a lesson about sloths since it was also National Wildlife Day.  We learned that they host algae in their fur, which helps both the algae and the sloth.  Sloth fur gives the algae a home and plenty of water since their fur is so absorbent, and the algae help provide camouflage for the sloth.  We also learned that due to their facial structure, sloths seem to always be smiling.  They cannot form other expressions, so even if they are in discomfort, they will appear to be smiling.

Is he happy, in pain, scared...we may never know.

Alexis brought her stuffed animal sloth to spend the day with us.  It's about life-sized as most sloths only grow about as big a a medium-sized dog.  We took it outside and let it hang out in the tree.  The girls decided it was "so cute and adorable" but the guys said maybe if we left it there it would scare the feral cats away from our bird feeders!

Friday

We canceled our Eaton work day out of an abundance of caution for our Eaton friends, and because we only had 6 workers today.  Laura, Alexis was a good attendance clerk while you were traveling. Look at the recording sheet!  You would have been shaking your head to have to write all the ABs for our friends who were absent this week! 😧

Instead of going to Eaton, we had a "work from home" morning and then made a delivery to them after lunch.  In addition to Eaton work, we also had books to prepare for discard that the JRES Library asked us to work on.

Moose Patti asked if we could compose thank you letters for golf tournament sponsors and players, and of course we should compose them!  We worked on that, too.

After lunch we rode over to Eaton and delivered the work we finished this morning.  Look at our great teamwork in unloading the only van we needed today!

We definitely noticed a change in the temperature and humidity today.  It was warm and muggy, a reminder that it is still summer!

Thank you Ethan, Bernie, and all of our friends at Eaton for our continuing opportunity to do work for you!  We have learned a lot of skills, and we enjoy it, too!

We ended our "light" week with what may have been the quietest corn hole game ever!

How fabulous that it ended in a tie! 😜  (Technically, the boys won...long story!)

Despite it being a "light" week as far as attendance, we kept a steady pace and accomplished a lot.  We're looking forward to the return of our friends next week.  As of today, we hear they are all feeling much better!  

Here's our schedule for the week of September 9:

Tuesday:  It's time to kick off our 9th fall session with the master gardeners!  Wow!  We're going to plant fall veggies, learn about salvia/sage, and since it's National Ants on a Log Day, we're going to make that special treat and take it to share with our gardener friends! After our lesson,  we'll drive over to WISC for lunch, a walk, and to check out the new playground area.  Please bring a bagged lunch.  Arc shirts optional.

Wednesday:  We're on track to be back at GCOC to volunteer today, and also work on flower arrangements for CSL, so please wear Arc shirts.  We're welcoming the Arc's Kasey to work with us today, and Allison will be here, so we'll have extra hands to help with a fall painting craft!  Our therapy dog friend Marisol is also coming for an encore visit with Louie, Tucker, and Nellie, her sweet Corgis.  We'll have fun playing games and doing brain work with them!  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is offering Chicken Nuggets, Chef Salad, or Yogurt Combo.

Thursday:  Patriot Day and National Day of Service fall on today, 9/11, so we'll have a history lesson this morning.  We're also going to celebrate National Peanut Day, which is Saturday, with fun activities related to peanuts (and samples).  One activity will be preparing Peanut Chicken w/ Rice and Steamed Veggies for lunch.

Friday:  We'll be on the move today!  A group will go to PSP for morning work while the other group stays at the center to clean and organize, and also prepare cards we need for an upcoming occasion.  We'll have early lunch when the PSP group returns and then zip over to The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for a lesson with Christina.  Please wear PSP shirts.  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is available for ???.  (The menu says the same thing it said for Wednesday!)

We have a few "save the dates" to pass along:

1) 🏌🏌🏌A big one is Wednesday, September 17 at 6:30.  We'll meet Moose Patti at the Moose Lodge to receive the proceeds from the WOTM 10th Annual Charity Golf Tournament.  This is always a fun and quick event but it's so very important that we show our appreciation!  Please join us at the Moose Lodge for this special presentation.  The address is 5429 Richmond Road near the intersection of Richmond and Airport Roads.  The lodge is behind Carolina Furniture.  Hope to see you there! 🏌🏌🏌

Thank you, Moose Patti, and WOTM, for another super successful FUNdraiser for The Arc of GW and The Arc of Abilities!

2)  The 5k is now just 4 weeks away!  Click the pic to register and join us for a morning of fun and fellowship at The Arc's largest FUNdraiser!  It's always a good time!

3) Tracy's award winning event, Disability Awareness Trick or Treat is coming this year on October 18 at AFCC!  Many of our AoA friends enjoy this each year, and Carol and I will be there with a table set up to promote The Arc, so stop by and get your treats...we've never seen any tricks, but you never know!

Stay safe, wash hands, and enjoy your weekend!

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang