On Bread Alone

Do you remember the Food Pyramid and the massive block of carbs that filled the entire base? It allowed us to feed our children spongy white bread, mac ‘n’ cheese, SpaghettiOs, and chicken nuggets and feel pretty righteous about it.

Growing up, my little brother would eat a piece of white bread between two pieces of white bread and call it a bread sandwich. My mom would smile and say, “Well, we don’t have to worry about Stevie getting enough bread in his diet, do we?” In her eyes, and in the eyes of caring mothers everywhere, little Stevie was eating three of the required six to eleven servings of breads and grains.  The other three to eight servings would be consumed in large bowlfuls of Count Chocula cereal.

The Food Pyramid has gone through several evolutions throughout the last couple of decades. Each new version soon morphed into another hopefully clearer representation of a healthy American diet. 

But each version failed. 

Heart disease, strokes and obesity were on the rise, and Americans were more confused than ever about their diets.  One reason? Servings were mentioned, but serving sizes were obscure.

Then, in June of 2011, the USDA released a visual that all people can understand – a dinner plate. The plate was divided into serving sections representing healthy food groups – fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy and protein. They called this helpful diet planning tool MyPlate. 

MyPlate was designed so the average user could see at a glance that half of their plate should be filled with vegetables and fruit with the rest of the plate taken up by smaller amounts of grain, protein and dairy products. The interactive version on the website was programmed to allow the user to click each section to see pictures of what serving sizes for specific foods looked like.

It’s clear and it’s smart – just how we like to teach at Shepherds College.

Recently, I had the chance to visit Mrs. Pechous and her Daily Living Skills class. A student’s parents had donated 25 MyPlates to the school which gave Mrs. Pechous the perfect teaching opportunity to lead her first-year class in portion size and healthy eating. 

Mrs. Pechous started her class by having students work in pairs to identify foods from different food groups.

The students had pictures of various foods, and Mrs. Pechous instructed them to create a balanced meal using items from each of the food groups.

Mrs. Pechous also demonstrated portion sizes using the Helping Hands method:

Palm = serving of meat, fish, poultry (3-4 oz)

Fist = cereal, soup, casserole, fresh fruit, raw veggies, salad (1 cup)

Thumb = salad dressing, sour cream, cream cheese, peanut butter, hard cheese (1-2 Tbsp)

Thumbnail = butter, margarine, mayo, oil (1 tsp)

1 cupped hand = pasta, rice, beans, potatoes, cooked veggies, pudding, ice cream (1/2 cup)

2 cupped hands = chips, crackers, pretzels (1 ounce)

The students then had the opportunity to practice the skill in a real-life application. Each person was given a MyPlate plate and asked to make a salad, putting each ingredient in the proper amount in the correct food section.

 

In this R.E.A.L. lesson, the students learned that they can take a measure of control over their own health and well-being.  What a great way to empower the students in their lifetime of Appropriate Independence!

Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.

Fashion Frenzy

I miss blogging.

I come to work every morning and BLOG is written on my schedule in big, bold letters. Sometimes the word is underlined, sometimes it’s circled, and sometimes it has six exclamation points after it. Lately, it’s the only task on my list that is left undone and unchecked.

I have a good excuse, really I do. The blog doesn’t have a deadline.  

The second half of my year is filled with writing appeals to meet drop dates, writing magazine articles to meet editorial deadlines, writing press releases while news is still HOT, creating the calendar in time to have it ready for a large volunteer mailing group, writing the Shepherds Sunday material to get it to churches prior to Shepherds Sunday, managing the newsletter to meet publishing deadlines, helping in the creation of a commercial that needs to air… in three weeks, promoting events before they actually happen, and on and on and on. 

I’m not complaining – I LOVE almost everything about my job – but lately my schedule doesn’t leave a lot of time or brain space for the undemanding and very patient blog.

But…

Today I’m blogging! And do you know why?

Because I’m sooooo excited about a really unique and fun opportunity for our students to help in the promotion of Shepherds College.

You’ve heard me talk about Apostrophe Magazine before. It’s a magazine written for people with intellectual disabilities, as well as for the people who love and care for them. It’s filled with important information like how-to articles, self-advocacy advice, news, and current issues.  When I first started working for Shepherds, the magazine became a valuable resource to me as I learned about People First Language, disability rights, and books that could help me in my search for more information. There isn’t another magazine out there like it and, over time, I started to think of Apostrophe as a partner and friend in my efforts to promote the college.

Well, (and I’m screaming a little in my head here) not only has Apostrophe Magazine offered us our own editorial space in each issue, but they want our students to do a college fashion layout for their Summer 2014 issue!!! 

How can I concentrate on anything else?!  I can’t focus on the Food For a Day Follow-up appeal, I can’t focus on Friday’s article deadline, I can’t focus on content for the Winter Folder, I can’t think of a topic for the Year End appeal, and the 2014 calendar? WHAT 2014 CALENDAR?! It’s still 2013, and I have a fashion photo shoot to plan!!!

My mind is going in a hundred different directions at once –

 

We need a great photographer… Leibforth Photography! Let’s call Jim and Cathi and see if they’d like to do it. 

Cathi needs special lighting. Should we rent the equipment she would like to have for the shoot? 

We need a backdrop. Do we own a good one? Is a solid color okay or should we jazz it up a bit?

Can we get hair and makeup done? Gateway Cosmetology students did a phenomenal job with our 2013 graduates. Would they be willing to do it again?

Oh goodness, I have another deadline! I have to get all the photos turned in by March 10^th. We’ll have to do the photo shoot early in February. February 1^st? February 5^th? February 12^th? Can we get everyone coordinated for the 1^st?

And who’s everyone? How on earth are we going to choose the students for the shoot? They’re all so blasted cute! Do we select students based on grades? On behavior? How about a lottery… or maybe we should announce, ‘everyone with a birthday in February, come get your picture taken!’ 

Or could we just photograph all 59 of them and let the magazine decide which ones to print?I like that.

And, good grief, the clothes… how do we get clothes to photograph? Does Apostrophe have advertising contracts with certain stores? I’ll email Jim, the editor, and ask how to do this. While I’m waiting I’ll just peruse the fashion sections in all the old issues. Take notes. Well, hmmmm... it looks like they photograph the models at the stores. That makes sense, but now we have to figure out how to get the students on location. But what location?! Jiiiimmmmmm!!! Email me back! 

Let’s focus on what I can control right now. I’ll write down styles of college clothing we’d like to feature – comfy classroom clothing, lounging in the dorm clothing, heading to basketball practice clothing, Sunday best and social event clothing, interview for an important job internship clothing, did I forget anything? Shoes! I forgot shoes. And accessories. I wonder if the store will let us model those as well…

 

I need to start thinking like a marketer. How can I make the most of this opportunity to benefit the college and Leibforth Photography and Gateway and Apostrophe Magazine and the store…? What store? Jiiiiiimmmmm!!!

I should create a large sign featuring all the logos and place it on an easel in front of the shoot so shoppers can see all the businesses involved. Maybe I should write a press release so the local papers can share the fun with our community.

Whew!!! Jim just emailed. The store is up to me. I just need to find a chain or franchise that’s nationwide. Should I call Boston Store, or JcPenney, or Target, or Sears, or… hmmm… I don’t know what else is in the area. Research time…

For the last couple of minutes, you just lived inside my head. Unfortunately for my co-workers though, my adrenaline is pumping too hard for all this stuff to stay inside my head. I’ve been rambling, bustling, laughing, shaking, planning, and thinking loudly since late last week. It’s been very hard to focus on anything else, and I’m unintentionally making it very difficult for other Shepherds staff to focus on anything else as well.

Mrs. Harvey, with all her great wisdom, said to me, “Susan, since you can’t concentrate on your other work, and you’re so excited about the fashion shoot, why don’t you put all that energy into writing a blog about the fashion shoot?”

So there you have it. I did it. I check-marked BLOG off of my to-do list for today.

Just don’t expect to see your 2014 calendar any time soon.

If you don’t want to miss any of the Shepherds College editorials or the photos of our students, please visit the Apostrophe Magazine website to subscribe. It’s only $19.99 a year. If you enter SHEPHERDS (all in CAPS) in the promo box, Apostrophe will donate $5 per subscription back to Shepherds.

 

Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.

The Walk

 Autumn has come to Shepherds College. How do we know?

Chef McCarthy moved his new Culinary Arts students from their desks to the kitchen.

Mrs. Leith is giving away the last of the tomatoes grown by the Horticulture students to Love Inc., a local non-profit.

Pumpkins are popping up as part of the lessons in classrooms.

The students are starting to talk about Christmas break.

And the DSAW held their annual Down Syndrome Buddy Walk at the Milwaukee County Zoo.

The Buddy Walk is an exciting event for the students. They have the opportunity to participate in a fun activity on a slow Sunday. 

They interact with family, friends and staff. 

They get a chance to see their favorite animals.

But most important, the students have an active role in raising awareness for a cause with which they are intimately familiar. Someone they care about, whether a friend, a family member, a classmate, or maybe even themselves, has Down syndrome.

For Shepherds College, this is an important event, not just to promote our program, but to empower our students to serve others in an impactful and meaningful way.

 

Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.

The Office: The Empty Nest Syndrome

Thank you to Cathy, Administrative Assistant to Shepherds College, and Lora, parent of a third-year student, for writing today's blog.

There are two camps of parents when it comes to the topic of what the American culture calls the empty nest. Like Dr. and Mrs. Huxtable on The Cosby Show of the 80’s, some parents can hardly wait!  They are packing their children’s bags and pointing them to the door.  Good Luck, Godspeed, get a job, and off you go!  Others can hardly bear the thought of transitioning out of a life filled with the care and memories of having all their children at home.

I will admit my husband and I were in the Huxtable camp, digging suitcases out from under the beds and from the dark corners of closets, helping them pack and sending them off with all the paraphernalia we thought they would need to leave and not cleave.  We did not, however, expect the empty nest years to show up quite so suddenly when all three of our children joined the military or got married all in the same summer!  It was a bit of a culture shock, yet still, with barely a pause, we waved good-bye with a “hallelujah” and a high five as we looked forward to just the two of us once again.  Ahhh, the blissful sounds of silence!

For parents of students with disabilities, home life often harbors a different family and parent-child dynamic.  There has probably been an overwhelming attention to detail for many years which makes letting go so much harder.  Hours of one-on-one training, years of doctor appointments, med changes and adjustments, and advocating in schools and with a parade of teachers over the years does not make it easy at all for parents of Shepherds College students to drop their cherished treasures off and walk away without at least a little load of worries.  For some parents the process feels more like the shredding of their hearts and lives. It is not easy. One of our third year parents recently shared the path of her struggle in letting go of a child who had daily been an intricate part of her life.

"I miss my daughter with all my heart and soul. Every minute of every day I think of her and miss her. I can honestly say that I really do miss her all the time. I couldn’t believe how much I missed having her smiling face around and her companionship; her positive outlook on life. We were very much together all the time.  She has always brought laughter to our house. We all love that about her, and I missed that from the very moment we dropped her off. She is always happy and brings me joy, so it was a huge absence of all of what she brought to my world and that was more difficult than I ever imagined. I am very proud of her and truly miss being with her and seeing her every day! The ‘letting go' experience was far harder than we had ever expected. Speaking for just myself and not my husband, the weeks leading up to her moving into school the first year was beyond scary. I was so worried and afraid. Our student is one of three children. She is our middle daughter. Her older sister graduated from college in 2008 and is married with children. Our youngest daughter left for her first year of college at the same time as our daughter attending Shepherds College. For me, it was letting go of two of my children and becoming an empty nester for the first time all at once. 

My other two girls became independent and it was a natural transition for them to head off to college. It was difficult for me to see them off to school, and I was very sad and missed them, but I wasn’t worried about the decision of college life. It was a different situation when our daughter left for Shepherds. She had not yet become an independent adult and still required a lot of guidance. Not only was she not independent, but she was always with me. Aside from when she was at work or I was at work, she was a full part of my life and we were always together. I continued to worry about whether we had made the right decision in letting go of her and sending her to Shepherds. The first six weeks of her first year we did not visit or see her. We live in Wisconsin so we are close. I heard she was not sleeping, and she was crying and very homesick. Ugh! 

On my end, the first months were beyond difficult. I was so worried. I couldn’t sleep. I felt sick to my stomach all the time. I cried all the time (and I rarely cry). I couldn’t stop worrying and wondering if we had made the right decision.  I worried constantly. Did we make the right decision? Will she be okay? Is she happy? Is she getting the attention she needs? Will she lose her spirit and her fun personality with all the accountability and structure? Will she grow? Will she make friends? What will happen at the end of three years? 

As time moved on, it became a bit easier and, although it never seems ‘normal’ for her to be out of the house and living at school, it has become routine. She has had struggles and triumphs. She has grown and learned so much during the first two years. We have noticed maturity in so many areas and confidence in her daily living and social skills. 

Moving forward, she is now in her third year. This year has been much easier than the first two years. Although there are still pockets of sadness and worries, I have come to a place of peace with our decision. I know that we would not have been able to provide the setting that she has at Shepherds College anywhere else, and that it is a wonderful school with caring and very hard-working staff. Everyone has an interest in our daughter and wants to see her be successful. I have high hopes that her final year will be a great one and that she will graduate with a clear future of success. We will be working hard this year to put a plan in place and, although the journey has been more difficult than anything I have ever done thus far in my life, I pray for the grace to support all that Shepherds is providing for her and the faith to journey through this last year with her to a successful graduation."

If you share some of the same feelings and worries, we want to encourage the parents of Shepherds College that your student is going to be okay.  They began their journey with a visit, as well as one or more overnight stays to test the waters.  They have written and expressed a desire to be here in their assessments before enrolling.  We are doing everything we can every day to give them the best college experience from beginning to end.  They are in a safe haven here in Union Grove.  Life will not be perfect, but God is watching over them.  He sees them with His omnipresent eyes.  He knows where they are.  He knows what they are doing.  He longs for them, He loves them, and He also wants only the best for them.  If you are anxious, pause.  Know that you simply cannot protect them all the time, not even when they are at home.  Offer them the gift of space, room to grow, and time to spread their wings.  Even an eaglet has to be pushed out the nest at first.  Stumbles and bruises along the way are merely part of the journey of growing stronger.  They will figure it out.  We will help them.  They will make friends and will surprisingly look forward to coming back to school after holiday breaks.  Love them in letting them go.  Let your mind be at peace.

Your nest is only empty for the school year.  Take heart, they will be back and you will be amazed at all the new things the Shepherds College adventure will bring into their lives. Hopefully, your student’s growth will so delight you that it will make bringing them back for the second or final year easier each time. Each year leads them closer to a more independent future.

This is an amazing place, and God is in it. We are so glad your student is here!  

Peace. 

Be still, and know that I am God. . .  ~Ps. 46:10
 
Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.