The springtime and Easter holiday decorations at Laurelhurst Village are in full effect!  My friend Mathew and I went to visit the retirement community, made Easter Baskets, and ate candy with some of our friends there on Friday.  Mathew schedules once a month craft-time and goes to volunteer between lunchtime and when a lot of the residents convene to play Bingo!  I started volunteering with Mathew at Laurelhurst Village last year.  Our goal is to be miraculously entertaining.  So far I have done a variety of interesting simple art projects and have gotten to know some really nice elderly folks around the building.  The activities on Friday were the first that I have had the chance to attend this year.  Here are some pictures from the occasion and more about Laurelhurst Village and making Easter Baskets with popsicle sticks.  Happy Easter!

Mathew thought to bring sugar-free candy for residents who have trouble with their diabetes.  A secret to building a nice popsicle stick Easter Basket, is eating as much candy as possible while you are doing so. The Easter Baskets we made on Friday, are a good example of the ingenuity Mathew has to think up such great dexterity exercising and seasonally appropriate activities each month.  While the baskets we made really don’t remind me at all of the sort I had on Easter when I was a kid, still they serve the purpose of being filled with candy and imitation grass. Our crowd on Friday was less than usual, though quaint as always.  Mostly, we try to go around and spark conversation, offer instruction, and fidget with bottles of glue that sometimes clog.

This time around I spoke with a retired school-teacher who told me one reason for retiring is when you see yourself not doing well enough at your job as you should, because of old age. A good question I like to ask is about favorite places to go visit. That seems an easy-in to different conversations about where someone is from, what they like to do or eat, and about their faimly. One of my favorite responses is: “I’ve been to all fifty states.”