Busy week!

I had a rather busy week this week. There were two rather interesting events that I would like to share.

On Tuesday, we had our book club meeting. The interesting thing about this meeting was that we had the author of our book present at the meeting. That was something that has never happened before. The author, Dr. Paul Austin, is a doctor in a local ER. He wrote a book called Something for the Pain about life inside the ER and its affects on life outside the ER. It was an easy read and a pretty good one. It was equally interesting to hear from the author himself. He even read a section of the book for us. It must be so difficult to be an ER doctor. You are the first person a patient sees, but your function is to diagnose and more them through to the next doctor or to home. So many cases have unknown endings. There is also the long hours of shift work. It truly takes a toll on the family when Dad sometimes works overnight and must sleep when you are awake and active. We were very luck to have this experience for our club.

The second big event was Kids in the Kitchen with the Junior League on Thursday night. Once each year, we do a program to educate local kids about making good, healthy choices in the kitchen. This year, we were able to do an evening program at a local elementary school. I was there to volunteer, and I am so glad I did. The kids and their parents arrived at the school at 6:00pm for a two hour program. The kids and parents were given box dinners from Jason's Deli an ate while they heard a presentation from a nutritionist. They then had an interactive session with a PE teacher who talked about the importance of exercise. There was also a drawing for healthy prizes such as basketballs and soccer balls. After the program, the groups rotate through three different rooms. The first room had a local chef from a 4 star restaurant preparing a healthy treat for the kids (a bread and veggie salad - trust me, it was delicious!) The second room was the Herb Garden. Each kids got to plant seeds and take with them a plant that would be either basil or tomatoes. The final room were healthy treat stations where kids made edible jewelry (stringing carrot chips and snap peas on wire), a healthy trail mix, and fruit soda (fruit juice plus a bit of seltzer water). Each child even got a goody bag as they left filled with a T-shirt, a healthy snack, cookbooks, and other goodies. It was a wonderful event and so much fun to help. I was pretty darn proud of our League and my committee for such a great event.

This week will be busy, too - racing tomorrow, hockey, and a committee meeting. Guess I will have another good post soon!!