Halcyon House: Residents enjoy warm weather

Courtesy of Nan Stark

In the Wedgewood, Sagewood and Rosewood households of Halcyon House in Washington, the residents have enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather that we were blessed with for the past several days. Staff took residents outside for wheelchair rides during the week We even had some residents opening the windows in their rooms to let in the warm breezes! Some residents took their newspapers out to the courtyard to read and enjoy the sunshine. On Friday, we painted in the courtyard. Residents got to choose a festive fall canvas and enjoyed painting in the warm sunshine. We ended up with some very creative results!

Between Oct. 14 and Nov. 9, highlights of the Arborwood residents' activities included 'Owl Art” and the making of Halloween masks. We celebrated Halloween by playing 'Spooky Bingo,” eating snacks, drinking orange punch, and watching spooks (staff in costume) march through our household. The warm-weather days sent us outdoors to chat with our families. And we remembered Walter Cronkite, who was born that day in 1916, and presidents throughout history as we awaited results of the election.

At Lending Hands, we dropped splatter paint on pumpkins to decorate the tables, and made our own Halloween masks. We chose our favorite toppings for nachos on International Day of the Nacho. We celebrated Halloween by sharing spooky stories, and we wore our homemade spooky masks during our Halloween party.

Independent Living resident Clyde Pearce presented two programs within the past two weeks. One was a presentation on waterfalls, including some in Eastern Iowa. The other was a study on eyes and eyesight, in humans and animals. We were reminded of an animal that has 32 blue eyes - a scallop - and a creature that has eight eyes - a spider. A housefly has multiple eyes. An owl's eyes do not move from side to side, and an owl is equipped with a number of vertebrae so that it can swivel its head around on its neck to see in different directions. The audience was masked, scattered, and enthusiastic. The Wellness Center has supplied residents with crossword puzzles and word searches to work on. The Wellness Center also provided everyone with an ample array of tasty Halloween treats on Oct. 30.