Thursday, November 9, 2017

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2004. Mattie was two years old and clearly dressed as Winnie the Pooh for Halloween. The University I taught at was having a community wide Halloween party and several of my students invited us to attend. Mattie felt very special to be going to a University party and one of the wonderful activities at the event, was the children got to pick a free book to take home with them. Mattie picked a book featuring, Franklin the turtle. Franklin was one of his favorite TV shows, so it did not surprise me that Mattie gravitated to the book and wanted to hear the story inside. 


Quote of the day: Man cannot live on candy alone, but woman sure can. ~ Author Unknown

I spent 7 hours again sorting and organizing candy! I am so tired, I can practically fall asleep standing up. 

Pictured here are our volunteers who helped me today. This may have been our best group yet. Small, but wow what we accomplished together. 

From left to right are: Maria, Catherine, Helen, and Katherine. I know Maria and Catherine from Mattie's preschool! 

Pictured from left to right: Vicki, Catherine, Helen, and Katherine.

Sorting candy may sound like fun, but it is actually very laborious. Candy is heavy to lift and the smell in bulk is intense!

A close up of the sorting process. People ask me.... why must the candy be sorted?! It is sorted for three reasons: 1) storing candy by type preserves the candy longer, otherwise if it were mixed, it would all taste the same, 2) sorting it allows us to inspect each piece as some candy is not appropriate for a hospital setting, given that it is Halloween themed and could have skulls and tombstones on it, and 3) sorting allows staff members at the hospitals to easily restock our snack and item carts. 

This may not look impressive, but so far we have 49 27-gallon bins filled with sorted candy. This is a huge feat. Carrying the candy to these bins, filling the bins and lifting them on top of each other for storage is a pip! There is no other way to describe this. 

My friend, who was with me for most of the day sorting candy, told me she is exhausted tonight and wanted to know how I have been doing this all week? Good question. Mind you I am sparing volunteers the pleasure of carrying the candy and manipulating bins. I do think all this intensive activity explains why I can't keep my head up!