Halcyon house welcome Jenna Koni of Nora Springs

Chaplain, Fran Victor provided the weekly chapel service to residents on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019, in the Epworth Chapel at Halcyon House. The sermon title was 'Blessed Are You by God.” Scripture from Luke 6:17 was shared with those in attendance. Beth Janecek shared her musical talents on the piano.

Halcyon House welcomes intern Jenna Koni from a small town in northern Iowa called Nora Springs. Currently she is a sophomore at the University of Iowa studying Communications and Health and Human Physiology. She also works at Hy-Vee in the floral department which she really enjoys. Recently Jenna just started volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House in Iowa City which she hopes to continue. In her free time she does lots of baking, do-it-yourself crafts, and loves spending time with her friends and family. Some things Jenna's family enjoys doing together include; cheering on the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Kansas City Chiefs, watching movies, and traveling. Together, Jenna and her family have visited and explored all 50 states! This past summer, Jenna worked and lived in the mountains of beautiful Colorado as a zip-lining and rock-climbing guide. This was a great experience as she was able to hike all over Rocky Mountain National Park and spend lots of time in the great outdoors. Spending time outside gardening, kayaking, fishing, hiking or walking nature trails, and camping are all great passions of Jenna's. Jenna is very happy to be interning at Halcyon House with the wellness team and is enjoying getting to know everyone!

Chocolate was the theme for the trivia program this week in the households. Everyone got a Hershey's chocolate candy bar to eat while working on their word search puzzle. We played the M & M Game where everyone was to take as many M & M's that they thought they needed. For every M & M that the person grabbed they had to share a fact themselves. A lot of laughter went with this game since some took 20 M & M's. The rules of chocolate were also part of this program. One rule was chocolate-covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want. As for trivia- Hershey makes more than 80 million Hershey's kisses brand chocolates every day at its chocolate factories in Hershey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. And in 1942, production of Hershey kisses was halted to save foil for the war effort.

At Cranium Crunch we did a word search puzzle and some Joggin' your Noggin word challenge activities.

At the craft class we made long stemmed pom-pom bouquets. Everyone had to paint a small tree branch for the stem. While waiting for the paint to dry, we worked on making the pom-pom part using different kinds of yarn.

At baking class we made 'Paximadia: Toast Cookies” similar to Italian biscotti, these cookies are toasty, slightly sweet, and perfect for dunking in coffee and tea. After they came out of the oven everyone enjoyed a cup of coffee or hot chocolate to dunk their cookie into.

At Lifelong Learning: Hobbies and Collections, speaker Nancy Maere, Halcyon House resident shared her 'White House” ornament collection with everyone. Each ornament had a special meaning and history that Nancy talked about. The ornaments were very intricate and beautiful. After the program everyone enjoyed a refreshing root beer float. Thank you to Nancy for sharing her collection.

Guest chef, Tom Woltering, came in and made his famous peanut butter pie. Everyone got to try some of the filling that was made. This rich and delicious treat will be dessert for the evening meal.

Happy Birthday wishes go out this week to Dolores Wood, Eva Gallagher, and Pauline Murphy.