Hello February!

Have you ever noticed that when you start a project, it often leads to another and another? That is very much where I am this week. Last weekend on a lark, we decided to change the furniture around in our room. Our bed was on an outside wall and we were always cold at night. Our room is smallish by modern standards, and we have lots of windows and closets and almost no wall space. It has always been a tight squeeze. We switched the bed to the only interior wall that didn't have a closet and it now is warm and snug. Now I am spackling holes in the walls, painting over them and refinishing the woodwork of the bed. 

I helped Tim finish up his brain box from his brain injury day program this week. The brain box is a pilot program that Tim is reviewing for them. Each month they send out a box filled with activities, crafts, recipes and worksheets. The program has had to open and close repeatedly throughout this pandemic, and this box of activities is their latest creative way to enhance the lives of their brain injured clients while being at home. It looks like the program may continue the activity boxes after the pandemic for those who live too far away to attend the program. Tim enjoyed doing most of the crafts and some of the worksheets. He wrote a review and we mailed our opinions back in. 

Making Shrinky Dinks

Elijah has taken over dinner preparation on a more regular basis. He has been a fine cook for awhile, but his skills are really improving with each new dish. He likes to play with flavors and he is a natural with spices. He has made chili, lasagna, and grilled cheese and ham sandwiches recently. He also helped me make a loaf of bread. 

We also got Elijah a debit card and student checking account. Everything is connected to his savings account. When he gets a job, the money will be direct deposited into his savings account, and I will transfer what he needs while he learns more about budgeting. The man at the bank was a natural-born teacher and gave Elijah tons of information on budgeting. He also set him up with financial goals and apps to help him learn more. It was a great experience. 

Lastly, a board game store that we frequent said they would be happy to have Elijah's resume on file. They are hoping that business will pick up soon and they can start hiring more employees. We worked on his resume and he turned it into the owner this week. The owner said he thought he may be able to call him in a few weeks and that his resume looked cool. The owner also saw that he was good friends with one of Elijah's former employers. Sometimes it is great living in a very small city. We are considering a few other places where he could apply that feel safer to work in during a pandemic.

We have decided to go it alone on the job front for Elijah. Vocational Rehabilitation in our area is ridiculous. I have heard wonderful things about this program in other areas, but it has completely failed us here. Unfortunately, I haven't talked to anyone local who has found them helpful.

Anne is very busy. This pandemic hasn't slowed her down at all. She is currently enrolled in the Winter Festival Dance Intensive through UNCSA. It is on Zoom. She is loving it and was delighted this week to be offered a spot in the summer intensive this year with UNCSA (the director was watching the classes over Zoom and selected a few students to which he granted the chance to bypass the audition). Anne is thrilled. She was offered the opportunity to be in the ballet, contemporary or professional choreography intensive. She selected the ballet intensive and has already paid her first installment. This intensive will also be completely over Zoom since our state's roll out of vaccines is going very slowly. She has been struggling with the size of her dance room. She has very long legs and keeps kicking the walls. We are considering what to do for the summer intensive (she may take over the living room for those three weeks).

I have been concentrating lots of time on food lately. I am working on bringing us back to a healthier eating style. There has been way too many snacks, soda and other unhealthy processed foods around here. It is time to get back to proper eating. One of our relatives gave us gift money to buy some organic meat from a local farm. I love the idea of eating local, but it is sometimes cost prohibitive. However, we have been so pleased with the meat we received that I may just need to make it happen. I figure I can stretch this meat into 19 meals (minimum), since we only eat meat a few times a week.

I am looking forward to the coming week. My husband has a long weekend off because of President's Day. We hope to go to the zoo or a state park as a family, celebrate Valentine's Day (I have some fun family plans), Chinese New Year and perhaps some fun for Presidents' Day.

Blessings, Dawn