Shopping Days

Only 391 shopping days left till Christmas 2007.

Satisfaction in Doing Mission Work

Tonight our crew of workers assemble to construct red Christmas stockings for a Mission group in our town to use to pass out to children at Christmas. When the 200 are completed, we will begin working on making about 50 preemie diapers out of flannel for the 6 premature babies living at the birthing mission in Haiti. I have make the pattern and sewn two already. They are so cute, but hard to imagine that a baby would be so small.

Finally! The Pastor Comes!

Our church has been without a senior minister for just over one year. Immediately the search for a new preacher began. Well, we were told in the beginning that it would probably take a year. Little did we know that it really would. Our pastor search team has waded through hundreds, (yes, hundreds) of applications, granted numerous interviews, invited propective candidates to come meet with them, narrowed the search down to 2 or 3 candidates, only to be disappointed that none worked out. We feel very good about the man who is coming to us. More on this when I am allowed to give more.

Twelve Days of Christmas Wish List

My family has asked me if I have a Christmas list. I don't. I haven't even begun to think of what I might want or need. I guess if I have to think about it for a while, I must not really want or need anything that badly. So, after much thought, here are some things I would like:

1. my kitchen counters cleaned off 95% of the time
2. bookshelves straightened
3. coupons organized (and off the counters)
4. leaves raked
5. laundry room decluttered
6. family pitchers hung
7. closet doors painted
8. diaper materials in ONE place
9. treadmill operational
10. refrigerator purged of moldy things
11. Nativity scene and lights put up outside
12. summer clothes traded out for winter clothes

So, you can see, to complete my list of Christmas wishes would not cost much money. But then it is always easier for a person to buy a gift than to complete one of my twelve days of Christmas.

Early morning shopping

Out of bed at 5:00 a.m., out the door by 5:30, in the store at 6:00. The Dad and I went to buy flannel at $.99 a yard to sew diapers for the Haiti Mission. With an additional 20 % off, we bought 161 yards of material for $135.00 and only spent 1 hour in the store. With this amount of material, we will be able to make over 650 diapers!

Eat some turkey and give thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving! Tell your family and friends something you are thankful for.

Does anyone really know what time it is?

The Dad and I stayed with our daughter last weekend so that we could attend the Missionary Convention. We did not have to leave her place until 9:00, so we had plenty of time to get ready in the a.m. Well, I got up at my usual time, as did the Dad. We both were very quiet, tiptoed as best these old bodies can do, and didn't turn on any lights, well, any overhead lights. Wasn't long before the daughter comes stumbling out of her bedroom with a puzzled look on her face. She had come out to check the time to see if her alarm clock had stopped. No, it hadn't. It really was 5:30 a.m. Sorry. Can't get these old bodies to adjust to the new time, the governor's or her time.

Hurry up and Wait

School ends at 2:40. Walk out of building at 3:40. Drive for 30 minutes. Appointment at 4:30. Dr. walks in at 5:30. Sign out at 5:45. Not bad.

Missionary Convention

Just returned from the National Missionary Convention. Wow! We experienced many great things and received several new ideas. I visited with the Haiti missionaries from whom I got the mission project of sewing diapers for their birthing hospitals. In four years our church has made from scratch just over 2,000 diapers. To put that in perspective, if I can buy the materials for the diapers (flannel, swimsuit elastic, velcro, wash cloths, and velcro) on sale, the cost is between 75 cents and $1. By myself, I can complete one diaper in 20 minutes, so you can see the magnitude of the task we have completed so far. And it has all been funded by nickels and dimes, always just enough money. The missionaries have a critical need for preemie diapers and have asked us to make enough for 6 babies as soon as possible. So, our sewing group will be busy the week after Thanksgiving tenderly making them and shipping them asap. More news about the ideas from the Missionary Convention in days to come.

Love/Hate Relationship

I'm sure many of you have this same kind of relationship that I am experiencing with technology. At school, I took my class to the computer lab so they can all get on a particular math site at the same time. Well, with the new updates on our computers and the need to protect certain sites, we spent at least a third of our 60 minutes logging on and logging on and logging on. Each student has a username and password to log on. Once on, no matter what they opened, they had to re-enter the username and password. It became more than a pain since several of my fourth graders are not good at typing in the correct letters, numbers, and such. After a bit, one of my students assured me that he had learned his username and password very well. To use the same carrier and the internet in the classroom only requires the student to enter name and password once or twice. Go figure.

Stats for the Record

I am a fan, doesn't matter the sport, I watch it. To survive in this household, you either learned to watch sports or work. Since I can't work all the time, (big laugh) I've learned to enjoy "most" sports. But I think I would really like to work on the stats for the record of "_____" in football. During the Colts' game today, we were bombarded with stat record after stat record. For example, the Colts set a record for going 9-0 in consecutive seasons. The Patriots had a chance to go 58 wins without consecutive losses. I turned to my daughter and said I wonder if they have a record for the player to use the least amount of paper after his restroom break. Bet they have records for

• largest hocker heaved by a player weighing less than 200,
• biggest area covered by sweat dropping from a player's face,
• shortest restroom break during a game,
• consecutive games without leaving the bench,
• most pounds dropped during practice,
• most games played without losing a helmet or shoe,
• longest interview without saying "you know,"
• interview with the most unintelligible words spoken,
• and a record for our house that continues to be broken, the most games watched during a 3-hour period.

Sneeze Etiquette

As a teacher, I am exposed to millions of germs every day. I am careful to wash my hands often, and I always use a rubber thumb to sort students' papers. (Several years back I received homework with large spots of brown on it, and I'm not talking about dirt.) The cold and flu season is coming upon us, and this web site is a good teaching tool for people/children who do not believe that they are spreading germs. I showed it to my class this week, and they responded with lots of yuks and other appropriate words. Perhaps after viewing the site you will want to share it with your co-workers and family members.

Tae Boo

Well, our exercising after school is going, but can't say if it goes well just yet. Guess it depends on your own perspective as well as age. One of the teachers leading us is 29 and wears a size 2 or 4. She does Taebo on her own and runs 3 miles several times a week. At her age, I had already had 4 children. (Did I say that she is not married and has no children?) I am at least 30 pounds heavier that I was pre child bearing which is about 1/3 her weight. Are you getting the picture? The exercisers range in age from 25 to the latter 50s. I'm not the oldest or biggest, but as badly as I hurt this morning, who cares about a few years and pounds? I'm anxious to see what condition the others are in this morning. We want to pursue and be like one of the elder ladies of the group who used Weight Watchers and Taebo to go from size 14 to 6! Gee, I think my thigh is larger than a size 6!

Christmas in November

Hey, I'm looking for the words of a song that I heard as a teen in the 1960s. It is a country-western song, and it is about a father singing about his son. The family is celebrating Christmas early, in November, because the son is dying. The other kids in the neighborhood do not understand "and they expect the same, they don't realize that this will be the last one, that our precious baby boy will ever know." I do not know the title nor artist. I've searched in numerous ways with no luck. Perhaps one of you are more adept and can find it for me. I would greatly appreciate it.

Bullying

I have a student, a boy, in my room this year who is victim to bullying by older students. This happens on recess, away from the watchful eyes of his teachers, and out of reach of the recess teachers. Anyway, just before recess ended today, the mass of students on the playground converged on an area where this student was being bullied. When I asked my class about it, I found out that the boys in my room had run to the defense of this student. I could have cried. I do not promote fighting, but I was touched that the boys stuck up for their fellow classmate. Somehow we need to get to the bottom of the problem and find a peaceful solution. The sad part is that the bullies are former students of mine. I would have expected better of them.

Truly Funny Without the Mud

When our preacher began his sermon yesterday, he said, "I'm John Doe, and I approve of this message."

Out on a Limb

I've heard the idiom "out on a limb" numerous times, and have been known to use the phrase a time or two, but didn't really think about the meaning of it. In a recent sermon at church, the preacher said that at times we need to get out of our comfort zones and go out on a limb. He went on to say that the fruit does not grow close to the trunk of the tree, where it would be easy to pick, but out on the limbs of the tree. That immediately brought a picture to my mind of growing up on an apple farm. I didn't have to pick from the trees very often, but vividly remember those times that I did. Manuvering the tall wooden ladder was an art and one that required more muscle power than I had. Somehow I would manage to move it to a new part of the tree/limbs, carefully selecting just the right placement so that I could reach the apples and not fall through the tree. Most times I was successful, but I recall riding the ladder through the tree and on to the ground a time or two. Perhaps my dad saw my feeble attempts and decided that I was more of a hinderance to harvesting unbruised apples when I was "out on a limb."