St. Luke Living Center correspondent
It was Friday the 13th and we blamed our cookie dough boo-boos on the day and not on us. Our bakers were at work that morning with a recipe in plain sight from Lynn Burgess of Lyons. But we somehow dumped four cups of cereal into the bowl instead of only two. Our seasonal cooks know there are few mistakes you cannot fix if you catch it before the oven does. With the addition of a little additional butter-flavored shortening and one-half cup of applesauce, we blended, molded, baked, ate, and shared the resulting Flying Saucer Cookies.
We ate an early lunch so we would be ready to greet the 12:45 p.m. busload of kindergarten students who were dressed in Valentine Day finery. Under the tutelage of Mrs. Hancock, the children sang, “You Are My Sunshine,” “Skidmarink,” “Oh, Valentine,” and a couple other happy songs. Each of them personally gave a valentine they had colored and signed to every resident.
Bingo, with caller Lois Winter and help from Bill Schimpf, began at 2:30 p.m. We seldom need to give a second call for this crowd favorite.
Kimbra Kroupa from a Holy Family Parish religion class brought signed valentine cards, candy sweethearts, and a sack of various little games and devices for the next day.
Tiger Siebert visited while Luke delivered a special valentine containing a picture of the canine cutie for an admirer.
The morning of Valentine’s Day, we filled 32 red, fluted containers with sweetheart candy and delivered them with cards to the dietary department to place on the evening meal trays. We took turns working on a visual from Lou Fredrickson’s grandson, Marty. We also tallied the guesses given for the number of red-hot hearts in a jar — there were 567. Ruby had the winning guess of 575, missing by only eight and took home the grand prize — a soft, fluffy, little, pink stuffed dog.
The Reverend Carl Helm of Marion Christian Church was our guest pastor Sunday afternoon. He brought several other guests including his wife, Joann, son-in-law, Chris Ensley, 22-month-old Archer Page, and his mother, who joined our group for a time of worship.
Several women and a man took advantage of nail care Monday morning during pretty-up time.
After lunch, a quartet of pitch players, including volunteer Marie Navrat, gathered on each side of our card table for this week’s games. Others of us did our part to observe Presidents’ Day with a round table discussion, some trivia, and a true and false questionnaire.
Looking at the weather forecast, we determined Tuesday afternoon might provide the nicest weather for this week’s outing. We scuttled the scheduled activity and had no problem finding a busload of residents who also thought it was a good idea. On our way to Cottonwood Cove at Marion Reservoir, we spotted white ducks and white caps on the water, several cats in Florence’s yard, some geese on a campground, and cattle grazing on a greening wheat pasture. But the real wildlife turned out to be on the bus! While stopped at the gates below the dam, it was suggested we go skinny-dipping.
Even though we missed Shirley Bowers who could not be here for hymn singing Thursday morning, “the show went on,” thanks to the graciousness of Lydia Batt. Those whose singing voices are quiet are able to listen to the familiar hymns and perhaps sing along in spirit.
A large group convened in our sunny, windowed dining room, spending a portion of the afternoon playing the game, “Outburst.”