Monday mornings are perfect for our Monday Movers exercise group; residents get muscles moving and hearts pumping as we work our way through simple yet effective seated exercises!  Such an invigorating way to start the day and it doesn’t stop there. Singalong is next and we enjoy classic tunes like “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” and “Little Brown Jug” as Stacey plays the piano! We sing our hearts out so much that we almost lose track of the time and run right into lunchtime. After a pleasant meal, mail and some visiting, it’s time to get crafty at our Crafty Corner! This week we put the finishing touches on our painted flowers spring art we started last Monday; once the paint has dried, we polish them off with a bow and hang them on our gallery wall in the dining room. Spring has certainly sprung at PCCC! A lively game of Tic Tac Toss is next on the agenda and we have a huge turnout as 11 residents compete for first place! Jeff Halverson and Frances White tie for fourth place, Alice Brantner comes in third place and Shirley Klinski is the second-place winner! This week, Linda Tollefson is our first-place winner! Once supper is over we get ready for Monday night Bingo; this week we are happy to have Joyce Berger as our volunteer. Thank you so much for helping set up, clean up and pass candy prizes to our lucky bingo winners!

Mass starts our Tuesday morning and residents gather together for some peaceful reflection and blessings during Lent. Today is extra special as it is the last Tuesday of the month which means there is the monthly Resident Council meeting after lunch. We talk about what happened during March and what’s coming up on the calendar for April. Residents have the floor to tell staff what is working and what could be improved upon; it’s really wonderful to have folks speak up and let us know how they would like their home to be. As Resident Council is winding down, the popcorn machine is warming up and soon the delectable smell of fresh popcorn lets us know that our weekly Popcorn Social is about to begin! After our bellies our full of popcorn, we welcome Pastor Pfaffe from Immanuel Lutheran Church for afternoon church. Supper soon follows and then it’s an evening of fun games with Aaliyah!

The sun shines brightly as we begin our Wednesday morning with some bowling! Our strong group of bowlers are ready to compete and pretty soon all you hear is crashing pins and rousing cheers. Goldie Helwig wins fourth place; Dorothy Pfaffe, Shirley Klinski and Linda Tollefson all come in third place; and Alice Brantner and Ivan Mason are the second-place winners. Kevin Bauer wins first place for a second week in a row! It was especially exciting when Ivan Mason ended the whole game with a thunderous strike (the only one!); what a way to end the game! All that bowling sure whips up an appetite; thankfully lunch is not too far away. Fruit Bingo in the afternoon is next up and although we have a smaller group than usual, we’re all still in suspense as to who will win blackout! Frances White is our blackout bingo winner this week! A big thank you goes out to our volunteers Wanda Ebensperger and Lana Ingli for helping set up, clean up and deliver prizes! The fun continues as we have our Coca Cola and chips social; crisp chips and a crisp Coke…yummy!                     

Thursday mornings are reserved for our “Local News and Coffee Social.” Kelsey, an Activities Assistant, reads us the top stories of the day from the paper and it’s always a pleasant way to start the morning with friends. After a little bit of lunch and mail delivery, the afternoon continued with residents lining up for manicures! Most of our ladies stick with their “tried and true” nail color of choice, but every once in a while, we help them switch it up with a bold new look! Nails dry in plenty of time to cuddle the sweet little puppies that come to snuggle with us and make us laugh with their antics. Supper soon follows but sadly there is no Pokeno tonight; we have a little bit of a stomach bug at the care center so we cancel our after-dinner game.

We make the sad decision to cancel our regular Friday activities due to the continued stomach illness at PCCC; we want to keep everyone as safe and healthy as possible for the spring. But when the going gets tough, our activities team gets tougher and we just bring our activities to the residents if they can’t come to us! We load up our cart with cards, crafts, dice games, crossword/word search puzzle books and many other in-room activities to keep our residents occupied during the day. We visit as many folks as we can one-on-one and while it may be more quiet than usual, we are still able to make our seniors smile! Activities staff dress up in funny costumes and crank up some upbeat tunes as we bring our cart around for Happy Hour with drinks and snacks served in residents’ rooms to cheer everyone up! As we continue to take this spring illness one day at a time, we kindly ask family and friends to postpone their visits until residents are symptom free. You are always welcome to call and check to see when it would be best to visit. Stay well everyone!