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Over the River and Through the Woods

By Sr. Christina M. Neumann

What is the most famous Thanksgiving song?  Most of us think of “Over the River and Through the Woods.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkQS681AotU]

This song actually has a special significance for St. Anne’s.

When I was working in Rugby, North Dakota, we used to spend our Thanksgiving weekend with our Sisters at St. Anne’s in Grand Forks.  The above-mentioned song was very apropos for us, for we were going to “Grandmother’s house.”  You see, St. Anne, the patroness of this facility is, in fact, the grandmother of Jesus.

This beloved and appropriate song actually originated as a poem.  According to one folk music source, it was first published in 1844 by slavery abolitionist, poet and novelist Lydia Marie Child.  It was originally entitled “The New England Boy’s Thanksgiving Poem.”

As you may remember, the song chronicles a trip to visit loved ones amidst “white and drifted snow.”  The original poem was actually twelve verses long!

According to Making Music Fun, the original “grandmother’s house” is still standing, near the Mystic River in Medford, MA.

Resources:

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Just Two Weeks Away, #GivingTuesday is coming up!

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Did you ever think about using your Black Friday and Cyber Monday savings to help us in our mission to the poor, elderly, and vulnerable who call St. Anne’s “home”?

St. Anne’s Guest Home has joined #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving.

This annual observance is meant to inspire people to collaborate in improving their local communities and to give back in impactful ways to the charities and causes they support.  It’s a reminder that the holiday season—while a heavy shopping season—is meant to be a season of giving, too.

#GivingTuesday is held every year now on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (in the U.S.); this yar, it falls on November 29th.

At St. Anne’s, our primary objective is to promote the self-worth, personal dignity, security, happiness, and healthful longevity of each elderly or disabled person we serve.  We seek to extend Christ’s merciful love to all those in our care.

If you’d like to be a part of this mission by joining in St. Anne’s Guest Home’s #GivingTuesday initiative, you can get to our online giving portal here.

We’d also encourage you to share the message with your friends and family members and help us in our mission of serving elderly and vulnerable adults in our community.

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

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Thank You to our Veterans!

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Flag outside St. Anne’s

November is known for a few things, particularly voting, All Saints Day, Thanksgiving, and not to be forgotten: Veterans’ Day.

 

There are no veterans left from World War I; there are few still alive from World War II and some more from the Korean War.  Our Vietnam vets are also getting older.

A lot of our veterans are now in their 80s and 90s.  There are still many people serving in foreign countries.  Countless veterans, from past decades and from our own time will be will never return.

A good number of our former and present residents are veterans.  Our activity staff are taking any interested current residents who are veterans to enjoy a free lunch for Veterans at the Texas Roadhouse.  Several other restaurants offer a free meal in appreciation to our veterans on this day in their honor.

To me, Veteran’s Day is a very important holiday.  We owe our freedom to these men and women.

If you see a vet or know a vet, thank them for our freedom.  If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here.  God bless the veterans.

God bless America!

Carla Kennedy
Receptionist

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Zoe & Gracie (our dogs) Like Pumpkin, Too!

img_0896After last weeks article, “Remember National Pumpkin Day,” one of our readers sent an email with some very interesting information.

She informed us that pumpkin is good for dogs for both weight control and improved digestion.

This information really peeked our interest.  We have several pumpkins (the combined weight of which exceeds 100 pounds) which we will be processing very soon.  That is quite a bit of pumpkin, but our residents will enjoy it.

Given that bit of information, we did a little experiment.  Sr. Christina cooked the pieces that had been cut out to make jack-o-lanterns and mashed them up.  We found that both Zoe (our Havanese Bichon) and Gracie (our yellow lab) really enjoyed it.

In recent weeks, Sr. Rebecca has discovered that Zoe also enjoys other cooked vegetables, such as carrots and beans.

Now, when we freeze the processed pumpkin, we can add a little extra to each bag.  Once we’ve measured what is needed for cookies or muffins, any extra can be used as a healthy treat for our four-legged friends.

In doing a little more research on feeding pumpkin to dogs, we found that it is good for digestive health, urinary health and weight loss (throughadogsear.com).  According to the Morris Animal Inn Blog, it is also good for adding bulk to a dog’s food and making them feel full. This probably ties in with its usefulness in weight control.  This same article shares its value as a source of important vitamins.

According to Pet360, pumpkin is also good for a dog’s skin and coat:  as well as fighting fur balls and parasites.  Even the pumpkin seeds are claimed to have benefits.

So, all the work of cleaning, cutting , baking and peeling our pumpkins is worthwhile, not only for humans but for our pets as well.

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Remembering National Pumpkin Day

IMG_0896.JPGWe missed it here at St. Anne’s, but did you know that yesterday (Oct. 26) was National Pumpkin Day?

This observance hits close to home around St. Anne’s.  It seems that every year someone(s) thinks of us when they have extra pumpkins.  We use them to decorate in early fall, carve them for Halloween jack lanterns, and finally, cut them up and bake them for use in pumpkin treats throughout the coming months.

It seems that Native Americans had a somewhat related idea long before European settlers ever cam to this continent.  According to All About Pumpkin, they “roasted pumpkin strips over campfires and used them as a food source.”  This source further explained that “[p]umpkins helped The Native Americans make it through long cold winters.  Another interesting fact they provided is that native peoples actually made flour out of dried pumpkin and dried the shells to make containers for grain.  The blossoms, according to this same source, were added to stews.  We have not gone that far here at St. Anne’s.

This year, someone ‘donated’ two large pumpkins so that our residents (and staff) could have the fun of guessing the weight.  It was a bit of a challenge to get them onto the nurses’ scale, but we discovered that they weighed 34.1 lbs. and 56.6 lbs.

So what will we do with all of that pumpkin weight, you might ask.  In the past, we’ve cut the pumpkins into strips or pieces and steamed them in our convection oven.  We then let them cool, peel them and mash them before putting them in freezer bags.

Our residents really enjoy the homemade pumpkin treats that we are thus able to provide throughout the year.  Especially popular have been our pumpkin oatmeal cookies.  When making these from frozen pumpkin, we’ve learned that it’s best to strain the excess water off the pumpkin first.

We just used up the last of the 2015 pumpkin supply about a month ago.  It’s a good thing we have an abundance of apples to fill in until we bake up our giant pumpkins out front after Halloween!

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Spread the News…and you could win a free lunch!

The St. Anne’s Annual
Craft / Bake / Variety Sale
(with Christmas Rummage items)
is coming up
Saturday, October 22
10:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
with our
Soup & Sandwich Luncheon
from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
offering three soups to choose from,
a ham or turkey sandwich, dessert and a beverage
for $8.00.

We hope to see you there!

clean_spread_the_wordIf you help us get the word out (via Facebook or email), we’ll enter you in a drawing for a free ticket to our luncheon.  Just let us know that you’ve done it (e.g.,  a bcc. on email;’Share’ our Facebook event) and you’ll be entered.

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Copy…Copy!

mc770This past week, the company we contract with supplied us with an updated machine, for which we are grateful.  The new machine reminded us of a humorous occurrence from a few years past.

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A certain Monday morning, maybe four years ago or so, if you happened to be walking past the main office here at St. Anne’s Guest Home, you might have heard the above exclamation from a insistent nurse.

This morning ‘happened’ to be April Fools Day.  The night before, Sr. Elaine had been working at the reception desk until 10 p.m.  At the request of Sr. Christina, who wished to be able to claim innocence, had asked her to tape a little notice to the copy machine in the back of our main office.

The notice read: “Liberty Business Solutions has recently provided us with a new update: This machine is now voice-activated.  To have the machine perform a function, simply speak the command for the task you wish it to carry out.  Chuck [an office employee here] has been trained in the proper use of this update.  If you have any questions, please ask him.”

Let it be known that there was no such technologically advanced update given us.  Sr. Christina had just found this idea when doing some research on harmless April Fools jokes.

Nonetheless, neither the nurse mentioned above nor any other staff were informed of the happenings.

Sr. Rebecca, on passing through the office early Monday morning, saw the note ant thought it strange, since Chuck had not been here all weekend and she (the administrator) knew nothing of it.  She let it go, however, and proceeded on to chapel.

A little while later, when she had returned to the office, our nurse on duty came in.  She stopped, read the notice, and said “Copy…”  When the machine proved unresponsive, she re-read the notice and tried again: “Copy…copy.”

When the nurse’s repeated efforts proved fruitless, the other staff witnessing the events started laughing.  So much for a voice-activated machine!

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Are You Achin’ to do Some Bakin’?

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In a previous post, we offered information about the benefits of baking.  We’ve realized this firsthand with a few of our residents, who enjoy the chance to “get domestic.”  We’ve given them a chance to help mixing up cookies or other treats to serve. They remember doing such work in years past and enjoy being a part of a project like this; they don’t mind a compliment on their tasty results, either.

We’d like to offer you a similar opportunity!

Do you enjoy baking, but not have much of an outlet?  (Maybe you’re not too eager for the extra pounds that come from indulging in a lot of baked goods.)

Our annual bake sale is coming up on October 21st.  If you’d like to bake something(s) to contribute to our sale, we would appreciate it.

You can even fill out the form below to let us know what you’re planning.

PS: We won’t tell on you if you sample it first 🙂

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A Visit to the Heritage Center

By Shelly Mack, Activity Director

A group of residents made a trip to the East Grand Forks Heritage Center.  We were met by Teri Gust Hammerbak, Mr. Vanderpan and Marilyn Egeland and a people-mover so we could ride and see the center grounds.

Teri had keys for all the buildings, so we got to tour the general store, Granvillle Church, Sherlock Home and school house and a room cabin where nine children were raised.

We all had a great time and enjoyed coffee and pie from McDonald’s as our last stop.

Our next outing will be a visit to Marie Paulson’s daughter’s farm in October.