are we there yet?

Our family, including Ronnie's Mom, drove from Jackson to Atlanta today to enjoy a short vacation before Ronnie and I join several others from our church to work in the OCC processing center this weekend.  Let me just say that this was an interesting trip!

What I didn't enjoy about the day ...

...leaving later than we had planned
...realizing that I had left a very important item at home and having to turn around to go get it
...the above problem making us another 30 minutes behind in getting off
...torrential rain off and on from Birmingham to Atlanta
...a half-cooked (not to mention half-eaten) chicken sandwich at Arby's
...a daughter panicking because of the weather
...what is normally a 7 hour drive taking somewhere closer to 10 hours
...whiny kids who got tired and started aggravating each other (which, in turn, aggravated the adults!)
...a 6 year old downing a coke and then needing to go to the bathroom at the worst possible moment
...the traffic in Atlanta


the good parts about the day
...getting away for a few days
...the kids' excitement
...only being about 10 miles from home when I realized we would have to go home to get my forgotten item
...the quiet that comes from the kids watching a movie as we drive
...the lovely remnants of the beautiful fall we have enjoyed this year
...hearing the kids laugh together in the back
...getting to our hotel and discovering that it is very nice
...adjoining rooms
...an excellent dinner at Chili's tonight
...free wifi
...kids who have settled down for the night and aren't fighting!

I would be remiss if I didn't say that no matter what happened on the drive over here, I am incredibly thankful that we arrived safely despite the terrible weather and the insane traffic.  I do hope that the weather improves for the rest of the week, but even bad weather can't dampen LB's excitement about going to the American Girl store, JW's excitement about spending his 10th birthday on vacation, or mine about working in the processing center this weekend!

OCC 2011 ... in pictures

National Collection Week is finally here!  It has been a good week so far and we still have 3 days to go.  I always love the excitement and even the busyness of collection week ... I enjoy the time spent with the people who volunteer with us.  In the first few years our church was a relay center, most of the volunteers were from our church, with only a couple of exceptions.  Now, we have lots of people who come to help us and I love seeing new people get a feel for the ministry and leave excited about what they have done, knowing that this ministry has eternal significance!

As usual, I have taken tons of pictures this week (and at our church's packing party) but I'll just share a few of my favorites today ... don't miss the last picture, it is my favorite!

Packing party with our home school group

JW and LB teaching their new friend how to fold the boxes

Amy and Poptart packing a box

The busiest table in the room ...
getting the boxes tagged after they are packed

Glenn and Don adding hygeine products

Some of the finished boxes from our church



Trying to get the group together for a picture



one of the first groups of boxes that was
brought to our relay center





Morgan and Caitlin "man-handling" a carton full of shoe boxes



LB and the CLIF guys unloading boxes

JW ... if his arms were just a little longer, he could carry six!

Amy doing the hard task of numbering the filled cartons, while LB looks on.
I sure do appreciate Amy doing that unpleasant job!

 We do see some unusual things come through the relay center ...

for instance we got six boxes from one lady, all stuffed to the gills with notes taped to the top.

 In case you can't read the writing, it says

boy 4-9 ... contents listed ...

Please don't remove anything ... I know it's full - just tape the ends

list of the contents in the box

One of my favorite things about collection week is seeing all the cartons lined up,

waiting to be moved on to the next location ...

Okay ... now for my favorite picture ... 



Brad and Ronnie hamming it up at the church's packing party ...
it is a shame that they didn't have matching ties!



hymns

Two of my favorite hymns, perfect for a peaceful Sunday.

my kind of school day

I am all for school days that look like school, but every once in a while it is nice to do something different.  Yesterday was that kind of a day.

Our history lesson ... Mississippi Heritage Days at the Agricultural and Forestry Museum:



The group



D manning the gas pump

LB in front of the rose garden

JW refusing to actually look at me ...
with the blacksmith shop in the background

Ronnie and Ira watching the blacksmith make a
horse head bottle opener ...
later Ronnie tried it out to see if it really worked

Civics class ... taking the kids with us to vote:

I wonder if just one more sign would ifluence my vote one way or another??

Science ... gathering leaves for LB's book-it project and later finding out why those leaves change colors in the fall:

LB helping this one along a little bit ... it wasn't quite ready to fall

We finished off the day with a trip to the library to get a book about why leaves change colors ... and in that book we learned why the colors have been so wonderful this fall ... but that is a story for another day ... right now it is time to get ready for church!

critters ... a totally random post

Fall is my favorite time of the year and November is one of my favorite months ... with Halloween behind us, we can get on with really enjoying fall without my children being afraid every time they walk into a store ... okay, that may be a little extreme, but they really don't like all the ghosts and ghouls hanging around in October.  That being said, I am working on a post that is appropriate for this time of year, but this isn't it.

This has been the season for critters. 

A few weeks ago I mentioned a salamander in my muffin tin.  The truth is, we have caught and released at least four salamanders in the past several months.  In the summer they hang out around our front door and eat any bugs attracted to our porch light.  Quite frankly, I don't mind them being there ... as long as they were staying outside ... but I am not to fond of them being in my house~especially in my muffin tin!

There should be a picture of the critter in my muffin tin here, but I can't find it :(

The salamanders may not be my favorite critters, but the one I saw at Wal-mart last night is much worse.  I had been at the church for a Women on Mission meeting and decided to stop for coffee creamer (which I am not totally sure that I can live without) and to take advantage of being all by myself by looking around for a little while.  When I pulled the buggy out of the line, I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye.  Much to my surprise, I saw the biggest rat I have ever seen scurry behind the garbage can.  You will be happy to know that I resisted the urge to scream and calmly quickly entered the store.  I debated about telling the greeter about her, ahem, visitor, but I knew that if I was in her shoes, I would want to know what was lurking behind my garbage can!  The nice little lady just kept saying Oh my, over and over again.  Later, while I was perusing the yarn ... wishing that I could justify buying some that I am sure I could find something to do with ... I heard a man say something along the lines of I think all we can do is lock those doors and make sure he doesn't come inside the store! 

I don't know what they ended up deciding to do, but I can tell you this ... I left via the opposite end of the store!

because this one should come first ... even if I am a month late

A little over a month ago, on September 17th, we celebrated LB's 12th birthday, but I failed to blog about it, so I am doing it today, on D's 6th birthday, before I write about him sometime this week (I hope!!!).

So, we've entered new territory with this girl of ours.  In less than one year eleven months, there will be a teen-ager living in our house!  But, I am trying not to spend too much time dwelling on such a disturbing thought and I am also not sold on what seems to be the general concensus that if you have a teen, you have to put up with, ahem, shall we say, difficult behavior until those terrible years have passed.  I am just not sure that being rude, disrespectful and generally disrupting the rest of the family has to come with the territory.

Anyway, off my soapbox and back to my girl.

It has been a big year.  LB is growing into a young woman in every way.  She is learning to cook and help out around the house.  Most importantly, she is growing in her sensitivity to others.  This is important, but it does also make some things harder.

I am proud of the young woman she is becoming, but I probably don't tell her that often enough.  I do love the fact that she still loves to play dolls and I think she would still play dress-up if any of her old dress-up clothes still fit :o).   She hasn't started asking to wear make up yet and she had the guts (or just didn't know better than) to tell some friends last month that her Mama doesn't want her dressing hot to attract boys.  One of the girls then told her that she didn't understand because she is home schooled ... well, maybe that is true, but it certainly isn't a bad thing!  This little incident opened the door for a good discussion about her future and the things that her Daddy and I think are important for her to know.

Many times in the last year, my Mama and I have talked about how our little girl has disappeared and been replaced by this preteen girl who is still struggling to figure out who she is and where she is going.  It would be a lie for me to say that I don't miss the bubbly motor-mouth of days gone by, but I know that this transformation is necessary.  The older she gets, the more I realize the need for me to pray harder and more for her as she navigates waters that seem much muddier for her generation than they were for mine.  Still, there can be no doubt that God has a plan for her life and even though I sometimes feel a sadness for the little girl, I can't wait to see where He will lead her.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.  Philippians 1:6

Complimentary Caramel Pie ... after supper at O'Charley's

The set of Julie books Grandmother and Papa gave LB

Her gently used Nikki and Sprocket (American Girl) doll that her Daddy
and I bought from a family member for LB



JW chose a set of American Girl paper flowers for LB
(are you seeing the theme here?)



D actually went a little different and gave her a set of stamps ... which she
used today to make his birthday card!

some people show goats ...

Us?  We do crafts.

Two years ago, I had no idea that ordinary people could enter their craft items to be judged and displayed at the fair.  I have seen the displays before, but never paid a whole lot of attention to them until Marie and Donna started talking about their Keepers group and the items that they would work on as fair entries.  Last year we dabbled in the idea of fair entries ~ LB entered 4 items and I entered 2.  We decided that we really like doing it, so this year we did a few more ... 13 for LB and 11 for me.  JW even entered two items - a glass etching and a painted wooden sailboat - and was surprised with blue ribbons on both.  LB received 7 blue ribbons and 6 red ribbons ... and just for the record, she has already spent her prize money at least 10 different ways, but the top of her list is a trip to the American Girl store when we go to Atlanta next month for a short vacation and to work in the OCC processing center.  All in all, we were quite pleased with the results of this year's fair and we spent a lot of time looking at the projects displayed and talking about the things we can do for next year.

JW and D worked together to paint the sailboat



LB's small crocheted purse ... I may have helped with this one just a little

The little glass jar in the middle is JW's etching

 

LB's "hobo" bag ...

she made it with some help from her Grandmother



LB's mosaic picture frame

LB's quilling ... she also painted the picture frame

LB's string art

My very first doily

My tin punch ... I think this could be a pretty good stress reliever



The set of multi-colored coasters in the center is mine ...
the off-white ones to the left of mine were made by my friend Donna



 

This is my quilling ... and it is my favorite of all my fair entries this year.


 Next year I plan to enter more crocheted items ... especially the larger ones like an afghan and a baby blanket.  I would also like to do a dresser scarf or table runner in the fine thread category.  JW is all excited about entering things next year since he now realizes that there is money involved!  We'll just have to wait and see if he can maintain his excitement long enough to actually get things made all next next year.