Week 10

happy thanksgiving, everyone! its incredibly hard to believe that the holiday season is upon us already, but here it is nonetheless.

we spent most of the week this week thinking about and planning and preparing for our thanksgiving feast which took place on friday night and was a great celebration of all we've accomplished so far this year!

on monday, before and after our dance lesson (of course) we planned our menu. we decided what kinds of things we wanted to eat and which foods we would need to buy to make those yummy dishes. it was fun to see everyone's family traditions come out, as they often do when cooking a thanksgiving meal with new people ("..but sweet potato casserole is supposed to have marshmallows." "no its not, its supposed to have brown sugar on top."). of course natalie couldn't understand why anyone could NOT like sweet potatoes (i must say, i agree), so steph got an earful all week.

tuesday we put our grocery lists into action at the green hills kroger! thankfully many of our friends have actually worked at kroger before, so this was familiar territory. this did not stop some from being extremely nervous about what we were going to do- make them shop ALONE. steph and i set up camp at a starbucks table and handed out slips of paper with the item they needed to bring back to us. for all their nervousness, they did extremely well. we asked jon to get us some milk, and he came back with the right size, the right kind, and as s'latina noticed, he even checked the expiration date! i was also so impressed by s'latina, to whom we gave the daunting task of not only finding pasta and stuffing, but doing the math to figure out how many boxes we would need to feed 25 people. she did so well- we're proud of you, s :)

each time we go back to feed the children, i feel as if everyone has a better time. the last few times we've been able to work with the feed the children staff and really crank out some boxes. this wednesday everyone worked harder than i've ever seen them. brittany (the volunteer coordinator) estimated that we packed about 280 boxes that day, but mark and i have a sneaking suspicion that the real number was much higher. we are enjoying the small wednesday-afternoon community we are forming. the ftc staff has been so patient and willing to teach us all. it really has been amazing.

at blood:water, which we went to on thursday, they continue to have to give us more and more mailings to send out, because we are getting so fast! b:w m is another place we have had a great time getting to know the staff, and was so glad to find out that its kristy's favorite place to go!

friday evening was our big thanksgiving celebration. before we drove over to the herndons, we set up room in the inn in record time, thanks to a couple of volunteers- brooke and christi. afterwards we were able to put all the things we have been learning into place by setting tables, warming casseroles in the oven, and making the stuffing. thanks again to cindy, jack, natalie, and neil for opening your home to us!

friends life has the week off for thanksgiving, so we will see everyone back in december. to carrie, jon, katie, kristy, michael, natalie, s'latina, stephanie, tricia, steph, suz, and mark (and everyone else involved in friends life)- i am thankful for each one of you!

meaghan

Week 9

happy 2 month anniversary to the afternoon program! my how the weeks have flown by...

in response to the constant question "can i turn on my cell phone to see what time it is?" we decided to start a life skills lesson on telling time, which we started on monday. we used our little cut-out clocks to practice showing time on a real, analog clock and practiced counting by fives so we could figure out the minutes. its a tricky lesson to learn and one we will definitely need to continue working on, but i was impressed at the progress everyone made.

we also had our weekly dance lesson and have discovered everyone's favorite type of dance- tap! not to mention plenty of freedance to the high school musical soundtrack and michael's new favorite (thanks neely), the sound of music.


on tuesday we took a field trip that i have been looking forward to for a long time... to the adventure science center! if you haven't been, i highly recommend it. kristy's favorite part was the intestinal slide which ended with great bodily function noises when you landed on the pad below the slide. see the above picture! everyone also loved the new space wing where you could shoot off rockets!

wednesday was exciting at feed the children for two different reasons- one, we were able to pack FOOD BOXES! and two, we had the privilege of working alongside some of the FTC staff who we had never met before. it made for a fun day of hard work- we packed 280 boxes in an hour and a half! i was especially proud of katie bell that day. after starting off in a cranky mood, she was able to turn her attitude around in a huge way and definitely earned "hardest worker" award!

since we will be away at camp starting this afternoon, we agreed to set up room in the inn for hillsboro on thursday instead of friday this week. this is our second week running and our first time doing it without the fabulous lisanne. this is a challenging endeavor, filled with tasks that require a lot of manual dexterity but everyone was great about being persistent in their efforts. we make 13 beds with fitted sheets, flat sheets, and pillow cases which is tricky in general, but these beds are simply mattresses laying on the floor which makes it more of a challenge. we also set up 3 tables with place settings for 12. jon was in charge of spoons, s'latina was our expert table decorator as always, michael did pillow cases, and natalie did a great job with putting the fitted sheets on all the beds. she was frustrated at first, but kept at it and improved so much in just one day.


now we are all off to fall weekend camp in georgia, see you next week!

meaghan

Week 8

so, what happens when post-halloween sugar comas, the end of daylight savings time, and the hospitalization (don't worry, she's fine) of my trusty side-kick and reliable staff member steph all happen at the same time? well, this week happens.

something natalie told me on monday stuck with me through the entire week. she told me "we're all best friends now. we're like a family, like brothers and sisters." aside from the shock i felt from having my very sweet but very very literal friend throw out a metaphor (ok fine, simile), i felt as if we were about to experience the negative aspects of this statement in addition to the positives. and we did. the transition from becoming acquaintances to becoming a family comes with the freedom to answer honestly when someone asks you how you are doing, instead of the typical "i'm fine." this is both very hard and very beautiful, all at the same time.

that being said, we still experienced some great moments this week. on monday we decided that we would clean out the 12-passenger van we are borrowing from the daycare next door as a favor for their generosity. everyone pitched in and we cleaned it inside and out, leaving a thank you note signed by us all.

wednesday at feed the children we were again able to pack our favorite hygiene boxes (pictured below) to give out to families in need. this day we packed 200 boxes!

thursday we went back to blood:water mission to help them with their thank you card mailings. everyone sat right down and remembered their jobs from last time. we finished so quickly they didn't know what to do with us! i was so proud of everyone's focus and efficiency.

today we are being trained by lisann, the member of hillsboro presbyterian who runs Room in the Inn. for those unfamiliar, room in the inn is a program in which many churches participate during the winter. they send buses around to pick up some of our fellow nashvillians without homes, bring them back to the church, give them a hot meal and a place to stay. we have partnered with room in the inn at hillsboro and will be helping to set up the beds and tables every friday, and will hopefully be able to serve a meal at some point!

thank you to all friends, supporters, parents, and especially my wonderful program participants/new family members, i love you all dearly.

meaghan