rEcess Night (Ten Things of Thankful)

It's been a long week that ended October and started November, and rEcess was last night. 

For any who may not know, rEcess is a program in which we let parents of special needs kids have a free night of babysitting so they can go out and just be a couple (or, in the case of a few single parents we've had in the program, just give the parent a break).

It's fun for the special needs kids, fun for their siblings, and i think we volunteers have the most fun of all.

So i am thankful for rEcess.  The couple who started the nationwide 99Balloons/rEcess program did so to honor their special needs son, Eric, who lived 99 days.  They turned their heartache into a way to help other parents, which is why we are able to be a part of it.

The couple who brought rEcess to our church had to move a few years ago, and they founded a group where they are living now, too.  They and the couple who are now in charge at our church have my deepest gratitude, it does not work without good leadership.

As the food coordinator, i am thankful for all the members of our church, Sunday school classes, and women's circles who provide food for the volunteers.  They make it easy to be the coordinator, and the food is always good!

Where Erin, the special child i get to pair up with each rEcess night, is concerned, i am grateful for root beer.  Erin adores her father, and at some point almost every rEcess night, she cries for her daddy.  Root beer is the cure for her tears and the tummy ache that often accompanies the tears, and it works every single time.

Erin is a sweet young lady who loves to Old Maid and Go Fish and games on the PBS Kids app on my tablet, and i'm thankful for the enjoyment we have playing together each month.

Our crafts lady, Marissa, always comes up with fun things for the children to make, and i'm grateful for her creativity.

A very unique turkey craft.

Our church turns over a good portion of the campus to us on rEcess nights, and i am grateful that they let us bring the kids to run in the gym and play with the pool tables and use the Sunday school class toys and generally run rampant over the whole place.  

Yes, we clean up after ourselves and put everything back, and i'm grateful that all of our volunteers take cleaning up as seriously as they take the more fun parts of the evening.

The church provides a security guard for us, and i am thankful for her being there, also that she comes in and has dinner with us.

Pajamas and movie time is how we wind down the evening, and i am grateful for the calm that comes after all the activity.

Mostly i'm thankful to be part of a community of people who want to be involved in a program like rEcess, who don't mind lifting kids out of wheelchairs and helping them crawl or walk, who don't mind tube feeding and diaper changing, who enjoy and look forward to running and playing with the non-handicapped siblings as well as tailoring activities to the special needs kids.

November is winding the year down, it's a great time to count blessings and be thankful.  Everyone is welcome to make a list and link up with the wonderful Ms. Josie's  Ten Things of Thankful.  By the way, we don't count to make sure you get to ten, we are just glad when you join in.

Here is my Peace Globe for Blog4Peace:

Today is:

Chicken Lady Day -- Miami, FL, US (in honor of The Chicken Lady, whose nonprofit organization helps people get over being "chicken" about public speaking)

Children's Day -- Malaysia

Citizenship Day -- Northern Mariana Islands

Community Service Day -- Dominica

Constitution Day/National Day -- Tonga

Digital Scrapbooking Day -- it certainly takes up less room than the other kinds!

Fall Back Night -- all areas that end Daylight Saving Time tomorrow; set your clock back one hour before you go to bed and change the batteries in your smoke alarms/carbon monoxide detectors (Bermuda; Canada [most areas]; Cuba; Greenland [some areas]; Haiti; Mexico [Baja area]; Saint Pierre and Miquelon; The Bahamas; US [most areas])

Fall Country Jamboree -- Barberville, FL, US (celebration of pioneer life, with music, crafts, historic displays, Native and Cracker camps, and more; through tomorrow)

Feast of Qudrat (Power) -- Baha'i

Flag Day -- Panama

Giorno dell'Unita Nazionale e Festa delle Forze Armate and Victory Day -- Italy (National Unity and Armed Forces Day; celebration of the 1918 Treaty with Austria)

Guru Nanak Jayanti -- India; Nepal (celebration of the birth anniversary of Sikh Guru Nanak)

Guy Fawkes Eve -- sometimes called Mischief Night in some parts of Australia, UK, and New Zealand, although that is more appropriate to April 30/October 30

Honeymoon Day -- reminisce about your own special trip, on the birth anniversary of Art Carney

Kalamazoo Russian Festival -- Kalamazoo, MI, US

King Tut Day -- his tomb was opened this day in 1922

Ludi Plebeii -- Ancient Roman Calendar (public games, through the 17th)

Peddler's Village Apple Festival -- Lahaska, PA, US (fun for all, through tomorrow)

National Candy Day -- guess they're thinking you still have some left over from Hallowe'en

St. Charles Borromeo's Day (Patron of apple orchards, bishops, catechists, seminarians, spiritual directors/leaders, starch makers; Joliette, Quebec; Lombardy, Italy; Monterey, CA; Rocca di Papa, Italy; against abdominal pain, colic, intestinal disorders, stomach diseases, ulcers)

    a Bank Holiday in Andorra

Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens -- Pine Mountain, GA, US (a six-race steeplechase)

Texas Book Festival -- Austin, TX, US (one of the nation's most prestigious literary festivals, especially celebrating renowned Texas authors; through tomorrow)

Unique 150 Hands-On Mystery Object Event -- Logic Puzzle Museum, Burlington, WI, US (come join the fun and use your brain puzzling out what these 298 mystery objects, many of them antique, are or used to do; through Nov. 19)

Unity Day -- Russia

Verboort Sausage and Kraut Dinner -- Forest Grove, OR, US (beer and their famous sausage, as well as home-baked goods and fun)

Will Roger's Day -- especially in OK, US; related observance

    Use Your Common Sense Day -- because "Common sense ain't all that common."

Waiting for the Barbarians Day -- internet generated, and i thought they came and took over a long time ago!

Anniversaries Today:

Taking of the US Embassy in Teheran, Iran -- 1979

Discovery of King Tut's Tomb -- 1922

Abraham Lincoln marries Mary Todd, 1842

Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange, 1677 (ruled jointly as William and Mary)

Birthdays Today:

Sean "Diddy" Combs, 1970

Matthew McConaughey, 1969

Andrea McArdle, 1963

Ralph Macchio, 1962

Jeff Probst, 1962

Kathy Griffin, 1960

Markie Post, 1950

Laura W. Bush, 1946

Robert Mapplethorpe, 1946

Loretta Swit, 1937

Doris Roberts, 1930

Martin Balsam, 1919

Art Carney, 1918

Walter Cronkite, 1916

Will Rogers, 1879

Augustus Montague Toplady, 1740 (wrote the hymn "Rock of Ages")

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Crimes of the Heart"(Henley play), 1981

"One Man's Family"(TV), 1949

"Prince Igor"(Borodin opera), 1890

Symphony No. 1 in C minor(Brahms Op. 68), 1876

Today in History:

The Flood of the Arno River causes massive damage in Florence, Italy, 1333

Joan of Arc liberates Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier, 1429

Thomas Wolsey, English cardinal, arrested, 1529

Mozart's Symphony No. 36 is performed for the first time in Linz, Austria, 1783

The Erie Canal is completed with Governor DeWitt Clinton performing the Wedding of The Waters ceremony in New York Harbour, 1825

Benjamin Palmer patents an artificial leg, 1846

Dentist John Beers of San Francisco patents the gold crown, 1873

Tonga adopts a constitution, 1875

James Ritty patents the cash register, to combat the pilfering of the till by the bartenders in his Ohio saloon, 1879

London's first deep-level tube railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell, 1890

The Italian unknown soldier is buried in the Altare della Patria (Fatherland Altar) in Rome, 1921

Nellie Tayloe Ross is elected the first female US State governor, in Wyoming, 1924

The rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio, 1955

Two-thirds of Florence, Italy is submerged as the River Arno floods; together with the contemporaneous flood of the Po River in northern Italy, this leads to 113 deaths, 30,000 made homeless, and the destruction of numerous Renaissance artworks and books, 1966

Genie, a 13-year-old feral child is found in Los Angeles, California having been locked in her bedroom for most of her life, 1970

The Netherlands experiences the first Car Free Sunday caused by the oil crisis, as the highways are deserted and are used only by cyclists and roller skaters, 1973

First conference that focuses exclusively on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web, in San Francisco, 1994

Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by an extremist Orthodox Israeli, 1995

Chinese authorities arrest cyber-dissident He Depu for signing a pro-democracy letter to the 16th Communist Party Congress, 2002

Barak Obama is elected President of the United States, 2008

In Australia's Northern Territory in the lands of the Jawoyn people, archaeologists discover what is believed to be the world's oldest example of a stone ax, estimated at 35,500 years old, 2010

The Paris Agreement on climate change becomes effective, 2016