Kids, Cakes, and Candy

Hello again my Summit peers.  November is almost coming to a close, and I know everyone is so excited about getting a little break next week for Thanksgiving.  After that, we are practically home free!!!  We have been making a lot of progress at Lighthouse over the month of November.  The Fall Festival we held at Drury on November 6^th was a huge success.  We probably had about 30 children and their families attend, which was a nice turnout.  The kids looked like they were having a blast playing all of the games and winning tons of prizes.  I ran the pumpkin sweep game, and while it definitely wore me out racing the kids back and forth sweeping a pumpkin with a broom, they seemed to enjoy every second of it.  We had to do an enormous amount of preparation for the festival, such as buying supplies for the booths, making oodles of baked goods for the cake walk, and setting up the gym.  The night before the festival we baked for six straight hours, and I believe our total baked goods count was over 120 cupcakes (iced and sprinkled), four batches of cookies, two batches of brownies, and additional cookies that Dee’s mom brought to help us out.  It would have been all fine and dandy, because I love to bake, but Tiff and I aren’t eating any sweets, so literally being surrounded by dessert in our living room and having the scent of chocolate wafting through our halls was akin to torture.  However, the stressful preparations were worth it to make the kids happy.  We have also been volunteering at the center in the actual classrooms lately, so that has been a welcome change.  I just got back from Lighthouse, and this morning I got to play with the toddlers then help with lunch time in the infant room.  J  The kids are so, so sweet.

I really do feel like we have been able to make an impact at Lighthouse in the brief time we’ve been there so far.  Our Fall Festival was something different than many of the kids had ever experienced before, so I’m glad we’ve been able to give them some experiences they might not have had without our involvement.  Also, I think it gave the parents a good opportunity to socialize and meet with other parents at the center, so they can gain a greater support network.  The teachers frequently express their gratitude at having us in their classrooms to volunteer, because it makes their jobs a whole lot easier to have an extra set of hands. 

The only difficulties we’ve run into with the agency have been relatively minor.  It took us awhile to get started volunteering because of a lack of communication involving volunteer application forms.  Additionally, the Fall Festival was a little more stressful than I anticipated, because we ended up being responsible for a lot more than we originally thought.  It seemed like we were mainly responsible for it instead of it being a collaborative effort, which was frustrating at times, but we survived.

Things in the apartment have been going fairly well.  We have the occasional dispute about dirty dishes and temperature, but, for the most part, we haven’t had too many disagreements.  My roommates are like my second family, and they help me get through a lot by always being there for me.  I’ve also started getting to know more people in the Summit community through the monthly socials and the wellness activities.

Honestly, I’ve been a little disappointed with Stress Free Now.  I often accidentally call it Stress Now when I refer to it.  Freudian Slip?  I think yes.  I see the importance of relaxation and forgiveness and everything the program tries to address, but finding time for a 20 minute daily activity seems to just add more stress to my life.  It’s stressful to try to remember to complete the activity each day.  The Wellness Experience is a little more fulfilling and enjoyable, especially the yoga.  I still haven’t figured out the benefit of Tai Chi, but I definitely feel like the yoga sessions helped relax me.  I also thought the speakers we had at our last Summit class were very interesting.

Well, that’s all for this month!  Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving break, and I can’t wait to hear about everyone’s progress at our mid-term meeting!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Molly Brown