In preparation for Halloween we held a pumpkin painting workshop and competition for the spookiest creation. We began our Halloween celebrations with a morning of dressing up from our selection of costumes.  We followed this with the traditional reading of the raven accompanied by Daniel as the raven for this years rendition In the afternoon we played a Halloween themed game of Pictionary, which involved   picking out a subject matter from three different ghoulish categories. Pictured right, Alan successfully translating his selection onto paper Ending our celebrations with Julie awarding our winning pumpkins, our first place pumpkin winner below with his tiger themes traditional pumpkin.

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This month we began our community outreach project at Harpurhey church. Our aims of the project is to brighten up the interior and exterior of the church and repair elements that have  become run down. We began by prepping the space for our mural, pictured below our residents laying down the first coat. We also began working on the exterior of the church. On the second week we began repairing the benches, below doing the finishing touches. Inside the church we began on the linework for the mural, using a projector to transfer the design in segments. Pictured below our residents during the process and with their handiwork after the session We can’t wait to see what it looks like in the next few weeks!

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Mary & Joseph House recognise the value of  day trips and activities.  It’s good to get out of the house. Trips can make us feel good, give us a chance to relax, do new things, encourage friendship and create lasting memories.  We try to encourage everyone to get involved in  suggesting, choosing and planning trips, and understand the importance of this to those who choose to become involved.  Our activities week took place between June 10th – 14th 2024. Even though we do activities throughout the year, residents really enjoy activities week. There is something to do every day either in the house or out. We always make sure to ask residents for feedback from activities week. We like to know if there is anything we can improve on or any other places they would like to visit. We are proud to say there were no complaints!

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This month we began planting in our raised beds with a selection of vegetables and herbs with the help of Sow the City to kickstart this seasons planting! We began by planting our parsnip’s into the raised beds, Ladislav from ‘Sow the City’ gave us a quick rundown of the do’s and don’ts of planting and we quickly got the hang of it! A huge thank you for Sow the city for joining us to help kickstart growing season at M&J! In the next couple of months we will see our garden flourish.

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Easter Workshop Our residents created some lovely wooden resurrection themed decorations to place around the house for the season. Our residents  in the woodworking room helped create all the elements in preparation for the workshop. We began by painting our wooden shapes below. These were displayed around the home over the Easter weekend. Easter Chocolate Nests In celebration of Easter we made some simple but effective chocolate Easter nests to enjoy in this weeks coffee morning. John began by breaking up our mixture of dark and milk chocolate ready for mixing with our syrup and butter mix. Whilst Martin was busy breaking up the shredded wheat, pictured above. After melting down our chocolate and butter mixture martin mixed in our shredded wheat and we began placing  it in our cupcake cases to set in the fridge, pictured below. These were enjoyed by residents and staff! Easter Egg Hunt Finishing off our Easter celebrations we had our very own Easter scavenger hunt equipped with riddles placed around the house that our resident’s had to follow to complete the hunt and win a mystery prize! Pictured below, Daniel, Mike and Dennis in our winning positions!

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In March we celebrated Oral Health Day 2024 we invited Sue to give a talk to our residents and staff regarding good oral health! Our oral health Champion Jen put together a selection of goody bag for our residents with items donated from the local community! Pictured below the lovely display put together by residents and staff to visualise the sugar content in many of our favourite drinks and snacks! Our catering team put together a selection of low sugar snacks for the occasion including homemade flapjacks and watermelon pizzas which was a lovely way to end our afternoon!

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January & February has been non stop for our residents in the woodwork room and gardens! In January our residents woodchipped our woodland walk, giving it a new lease of life!  Gary and Daz sanded down the tables in the art room, which has made an incredible difference for the residents in our art room! In February our residents put the finishing touches to our composting bins, levelling out the base and creating an accessible path. And finally, in the woodwork room our residents began working on some Easter decorations ready for decorating!

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In February we celebrated Chinese new year, with a selection of games, workshops and activities! We began our celebrations with a paper lantern decorating workshop, our resident had a choice of marbling their lanterns, painting a design or collage.      We have an annual chopstick challenge which our residents take very serious. There was great effort from everyone involved but that didn’t stop our reigning champion, Alan, from winning again!

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In the Month of December we held our very Christmas Markets to raise money for Coffee 4 Craig, a local homeless Charity. Friends and families of the residents and staff were invited into the home to celebrate and try to raise as much as possible. In preparation our residents began creating a selection of festive items to sell alongside a tombola of donated items by staff. Our stalls included handmade festive decorations, from our residents, handmade wax melts, Christmas cards and our yearly calendar. M&J annual Christmas Panto This year for our Christmas Panto we chose, the classic, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens! All residents, staff and family and friends were invited into the home to watch our show.

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To commemorate this years remembrance day our residents have been working on two different displays for the home. Firstly we worked on an outside poppy display made our of painted pebbles, which our residents all got stuck in to paint a few! For our second display we worked collaboratively on a group painting of a poppy scene out of recycled egg cups from the kitchen! We worked together to place all our stones in a poppy formation before we began our reading to commemorate remembrance day. Alan and Elizabeth both spoke some kind words before we had our minute silence in the garden. A huge thank you to all staff and residents who got involved!

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