The Puddles

I think he is well occupied.

Our church had a great summer program this year for kids and families. Some of the families of the church sponsored fun activities for the kids/families to do together this summer. I volunteered to mail  postcards to everyone and to all of the visitors to VBS. I totally underestimated the amount of time it would take me. In the end, the kids thought it was a great adventure and helped me to cut them all out, label and stamp them.  The best part of the job was sticking them in the mail slot at the post office!!!

My last baby is no longer in Kindergarten.  Of course, this all happened last May, but I’m just now unloading the pictures from the camera. Ainsley is so precious and excited.  Her teacher gave her the best storyteller award.  Her brother earned the same reward last year.  But that is ok.  Ainsley is always trying to out do one of her siblings.  The end of this year was bitter sweet.  None of my babies were little anymore.  No one would be starting school for the first time or learning to read for the first time.  That had all been accomplished. Now we are onto bigger and better things!

I found some photos on my camera that I haven’t unloaded onto the computer.  Some go back six months!  I’m adding them all into the blog tonight!

Ainsley is feeling nostaglic today.  She decided to write a letter to her friend Anna in NE. I’m telling you  . . . she should go to work for the travel industry.  She certainly knows how to sell living in Texas.

Dear Anna,

It’s Ainsley.  I am still in Conroe, Texas. I miss you.  Are you in Preschool or Kindergarten?  How old are you? You better  come here. There is no tornados. It’s so hot here.  It never snows too.

p.s. Maybe I will come see you in Geneva.

Love,

Ainsley

“Mommy, mommy, MOMMY!!!!  Mommy, Josh is outside acting like a ghost.  It’s freakin’ me OUT!  But don’t worry . . . I like it,” says Ainsley.

“Mom, I read in a book that you can read books to cats.  Don’t worry,  you can go.  I’ll be there in a little bit.”  Madie tells me this as she settles into the rocking chair in the neighbor’s garage ready to read the book to the cat.  Of course, bizarrely, the cat is sitting at her feet looking up at her like it was waiting for her to start.  It was so weird that I just backed out slowly and went into my car to wait.  Fifteen minutes later Madie calmly walks out and says, “We can go now.” Just like she tucked in her baby for the night.

Our neighbor is paying Madie to take care of the cat.  I wonder if the instructions from the cat’s owner included story time and lullabies?

It’s 2am. I think that I’m finally ready.  Through a series of errors committing by many, I am up late doing laundry so that we have the proper clothes for our outing tomorrow (or today really). After church our fabulous small group is heading to St. Vincent de Paul’s clothing closet to switch the summer clothes to the winter clothes.  I am so excited my adrenaline is keeping me awake.  I hope that it carries me through today’s church service and onto our adventure.

Our contact person at the mission assures me it is ok if we don’t finish.  She said it so often, I have taken it on as a challenge.  We shall succeed.  We shall finish. We shall get it ALL done.   There will be no failure. She was being kind to us, but I REALLY want to accomplish the task that is set before us.  If only we didn’t have that pesky worship in the morning, we could get an earlier jump on it.  But alas, the pastor is in our small group and it would be a shame to start without him.

The puddles are just excited to go to church in tshirts and jeans. But we are sharing a meal after church and there won’t be time to change clothes. Our small group has lots of children in it so this is a great project for entire families to participate in.

So in the morning we will get up really really early, head over to feed our neighbor’s cat,  off to the grocery store, followed up with a quick teacher meeting before S.S., then Sunday school class, church, potluck luncheon, and then we get to go the service project. It sounds really busy.  I should get some sleep.

Wow. This was the best experience that I have ever had in Girl Scouts.  I am so glad that I got to take my daughters with me to this event.  They are still talking about it.  It has been 30 years since the convention was in Houston (and I did go to that one too).  I don’t know that we will ever have this opportunity again.  My girls got to meet women and girls from all over the nation and the world. Their favorite person was the girl from Japan.  They thought that was just too cool.

It was held at the George R. Brown Convention Center and there were thousands of girls there.  Every booth gave out free stuff to the girls and/or had activities for the girls to do.  Cool activities too.  We didn’t even get to do half of the stuff.  At lunch time with the troop we decided to stay longer.  The girls were having a blast.  So after calling all of the parents we stayed until 4pm when the convention closed.  I only hope that my girls can do it again and participate as part of the older girl part.  What an empowering event for these girls.  In a world that so often degrades women, this was a place that was all about the empowering of women.  Every mom that came with us emailed, called or texted me and thanked me for taking the girls.  It was worth all of the effort to get us there.  I will never forget this experience ever.

Papa Grace was able to join the kids for Veteran’s Day at Wilkinson. The principal does an excellent job putting a program together that is respectful of the day.  Papa got to sit on the stage and had his name announced.  Papa and Grandma Lake, Chris and I sat in the audience and watched the program.  Madie did a wonderful job singing in the choir.  It was a great morning.  And after pictures with Papa Grace we (the adults) enjoyed breakfast at Panera bread. A good way to end the morning.