Abundance

It's giveaway time again! A Christmas Package

 I posted once before about all the "free" stuff I receive in the mail from many organizations and charities that I sometimes donate to. Well once again I have an abundance of items that I will not be using. This times it's Christmas cards and gift labels. I am not the type of person that throws ANYTHING away. I always try to find another use for it or another home for things.

So I thought with times being the way they are and just yesterday on the blog someone mentioned that they can not afford to buy or mail cards this year, I thought I would offer a package that may be helpful to someone.

I have a package that I have put together that includes the following items.

• 72 gift tags
• 35 or so Christmas cards with envelopes from different organizations or groups, all too cute.
• a 2009 wall calendar
• a smaller one page 2009 calendar with a conversion chart on the reverse side, great for the kids.
• a Christmas CD with 29 great Christmas songs on it from the Disabled Vets
• I will also include a book of 20 Christmas theme, (if I can get Christmas ones) stamps to help with the mailing of the cards.
• And maybe an extra added surprise or two for good measure, lol. 

Sorry I don't have a picture, my camera is still not working, I'm so lost without it too. So if anyone is interested in these items just leave a comment here on my blog. If I should get more than one comment I will draw a winner from the bunch. I will let this ride over the weekend and pull on Monday morning. Hope this is helpful to someone.

Desperately Seeking the Silver Lining

Abundance

Mom was pleased with how nice the church looks. The sanctuary is all done. I was so thankful when we were done. The fumes were overpowering, but we are happy with the results.

My dad arrived home safely. His trip was uneventful.  We heard from him and the other half of our group would be very interested in what he wrote since he shared in our worships about their struggles at EVI. He wrote:

“Things are great at EVI. I praise the Lord every time I think of it. All the onions are sold as well as the tomatoes. Whole Foods Inc, can't get enough of our produce. They made all of their staff taste our tomatoes as opposed to other tomatoes and it was unanimous. Our tomatoes won hands down. We are getting $2.50 per pound now, $3.00 in Dec and $3.50 in January till spring. We had seven guests in our LSC in Nov. We've paid off our $150,000 loan and have $91,000 over and above. I don't know what the Lord did, but I'm surprised, and overwhelmed with gratitude. We already have five guests for our Dec program and I hope that number grows.

No doubt, things could go south again, but for the moment I am reveling in some good news. I didn't come home to any disasters, which counts for a lot.”

Before the rest of our group left we decided to buy Barasa and Yona a bicycle each. Today mom went to Ikonda and picked up the bicycles that she had ordered. We presented the bikes to them and you should have seen their smiles!!! They were so pleased. Miriam knows she is getting a sewing machine when we can get it picked up. They are all happy. Yono rode away with his little ones running squealing behind him.

The boys and Vanessa and Brianna went with Memere to see the town, since they had not been yet. They had fun buying some fabric. The boys are getting some shirts made by Miriam. She can’t make them now, but mom can bring them later.

Our work today was a little different then what we have up to now. We worked in the orchard. Jon pruned, some of us weeded around the trees, some slashed the grass in the rows and Steve ran back and forth with a 5 gallon jug watering each tree after we had finished with it. We had not had rain here in over a week, but  we only got have the job done and it is now pouring… so, Steve might have wasted his energy.

Jon is getting his hair cut at the moment and Jonah is next… he might go kicking and screaming, but his mother is determined that as long as he lives in their family he must look civilized and not like some wild mountain man! His curls give him an extra 2 inches in height and I think he is proud of that.

The girls are playing banana grams and the boys are drying their wet clothes by the fire. Leila isn’t happy that she isn’t allowed to play the game or sit so close to the fire! Poor kiddo. Life is so hard when you are two.

I scrubbed up one of our footlockers and removed all the writing and then I wrote Lea Nzali on the lid and presented it to her. She is the gal who teaches the sewing school and has been working endlessly on all our orders of dresses and skirts. I was beginning to feel really bad she had to work so hard for us. I paid her for the dresses my girls had made and then gave her the tote. She was sooo thrilled!  It takes so little to please them.

We are looking forward to Sabbath. Tomorrow Yono has the sermon and we are having one great big potluck. With the inside of the church all painted it should be nice.

Changes in the plan- its okay.

Remember when I said my menu plan was more of a set of guidelines?
We didn’t have the monkey bread on Monday as some family members were having issues at the dinner table and we decided it would be best to all go to bed early.
Yesterday evening we had an impromptu trip to Menards for some replacement pipes and fittings for the kitchen sink.
I should probably add here that yesterday, on my list of Things I Hadn’t Planned On Doing (remember this?) was scrubbing ¾ of the kitchen floor.
On my hands and knees.
Why only ¾? Because Flylady says that housework- even when done incorrectly (or in my case not completely) still blesses your family.
Huh?
Well, we’ve got skiffs of snow, layers of mud and leaves and 3 kids who are constantly tramping in afore mentioned bits of nature. And with more snow on the way- I quickly decided that the high traffic door to door path in the kitchen could stay as is.  My wrists and knees muttering protests helped to ease my conscience greatly.
Anyhoo, I quickly decided to make the most of trip by trying to do next week’s shopping since Aldi’s is just down the road. This is still a pantry week but being ever frugal-minded . . . . not to mention I’ve now checked off something from next week’s To Do List . . . .
This of course would all be taking place during evening dining time. No quick Mickey-D’s stop for us though- I’m sticking to my pantry budget week.
I quickly put together mini-sandwiches with leftover chicken salad and other lunch meats we always keep on hand, tossed some Clementine oranges in the bag, napkins, plates (just in case) and a still-warm-just-sliced loaf of chocolate cherry friendship bread. Voila.
Light dinner on the road.
I also grabbed the current family read-aloud: The Fighting Ground by Avi- very intense and riveting.
We whipped through Aldi’s in record time- the kids have the loading and unloading and packaging routine down pat. It was fun to watch Mr. Steady marvel at them. As for Menards, Mr. Steady looked for the things on his list- when a man goes to a store like that- he’s always got more things on his list than the thing that necessitated the going to the store in the first place—anyway- the kiddos and I enjoyed the Christmas displays- the trees plus the little ceramic villages.
This then lead to the kidlets asking for a Christmas movie for watching after we got home. Mickey’s Christmas Carol.
And so while it wasn’t the dinner or the evening I had envisioned for us- it was still quality family time.
And that’s what matters most.
Well, that and sticking to the pantry budget.

TACKY or frugal smarts?

Tackiness vs. simplicity
poor etiquette vs. saving $$ and a tree or two
We send out quite a few Christmas cards each year. Last year I was able to save some pennies by making Christmas postcards to send out- saved by making them myself and saved on postage.
This year the budget is even tighter.
So------ I’m thinking of sending Christmas greetings via e-cards through Dayspring.
I must ask- Is this a big no-no on the etiquette scale?
Will I be vilified?
Of course, I can’t do all my cards this way as there are still some people on my list that don’t have email but I could cut my list way down.
By my calculations, I could save myself $20 easily.
I don’t know about you but $20 is a lot of cash here—in fact, that’s half the weekly grocery budget!

photo- last year's postcard Christmas cards.

My daughter finally finished college, after six years, lol

Well, she's done it, finally!!!!!  Kristy graduated high school in 2001 with honors and went straight to NSU. Thank God that the university is about 10 minutes away across our little town. She could remain living at home and didn't have far to travel. I made all my children wait until they were 18 before getting their drivers licenses, so she had just started driving.

She started college with an open mind and no real agenda. She was taking general studies courses at first until she decided that she wanted to become a nurse. It was always something that she thought about, so nursing it was. By the middle of the first year she had switched and started taking classes that would lead her to becoming a nurse. Three years into it she got a professor that was sooo mean. When I tell you the class started with 30+ students and within two weeks had lost almost half and that my daughter came home crying almost everyday, I'm not exaggerating a bit. She stuck with it though, until the women got into her face and literally screamed and spat  on her face for something Kristy was even taught.  The professor would skip over things in the books because she "expected" the students to know these things. Well how are they going to learn things that they aren't being taught? I told her to hang on that the year was almost up, but she informed me that once your assigned a professor,  your stuck with them for two years, until you've finished the program. That wasn't an option at that point for Kristy, she couldn't take it anymore.  She left school that day and did not return for a little over a year. I was so upset to say the least.  I even called the school and told someone the story. They told me that they heard several complaints per week about this women, but that they were so short handed, they had no option but to keep her on staff.

So for a year my daughter beat herself up for what she had done to herself.  I was disappointed but never let her see that. I'm not one to push my children into things that I myself probably could not do.  I prayed that she would come  to figure out what she wanted in life and work to get it.

While she was off, she did work at several odd jobs, but nothing made her  happy.  She knew that she had made a big mistake so back to school she went. She found out that she could get back into the nursing program but with a different teacher. She was so excited. Well two more years into the program all is going well. Her grades are fantastic, she even made the Dean's list once or twice. THEN, my husbands little nephew died in my daughter's arm. He was one year old and died of heart failure earlier this year. She was giving him CPR and couldn't revive him.

OK, once again she was tramatized. I'm sure you can figure out where this is heading. Yes, she dropped her nursing classes AGAIN, BUT she dicided that she would get that diploma.

She was short only one credit to graduate. She picked up a speech class and Monday night was her last class. She has to email in her last exam and she's done.  THANK YOU JESUS!!!! LOL

She now has  a great job that she loves. She is working for a home health care company as a data entry clerk. With her partial  medical background  she is good at this job. She works with nurses and some doctors, so she is in at least the area of her choice, lol. 

She called me yesterday from work and asked me if I would go and pick  up her diploma from the school on December 16th because she doesn't want to miss work. She isn't one for big ta-dos or events, so graduating with the large class was never an option for her. So for her long six years of hard ups and downs, I  get to go pick her diploma. I won't even get a picture of her receiving it, LOL.  But, as long as she is happy, isn't that all that matters to us moms!

Pattern of Insanity!

Affirmation is nice!!

Help needed I'm making a doll

I'm making a doll for my granddaughter she will be 5 on Sunday.We are taking her out to dinner tonight and I'm trying to make a doll..I'm having a hard time on figuring out how to put hair on her..Its made out of muslin..Do I stuff her first then put the hair? I've tried to find tutorial on this but I'm just not getting it..Its  1:45 AM I need sleep but I have to finish this doll. I have put eyes on and a mouth and eye brows I just did running stitch..I still need to sew together the doll make clothes and stuff... Help..Please..

Thanks.. Brenda

Light Show and Pirates!!!

We had the most incredible light show this morning at about 4:30 am. We were all outside just watching this amazing phenomena. It wasn't really sheet lightening, it wasn't really regular flashes of lightning... but a continual lighting up of the clouds. It reminded us of northern lights. There was no sound for quite awhile but as it travelled closer we could hear thunder in the distance. The sky was mostly clear and the stars were shining in all their glory, but to the South and towards Lake Malawi there was a patch of clouds that were constantly lit up. Eventually the clouds drew closer and more of the sky was filled with this lightening. I don't think any of us have ever seen that kind of display before.

  Supposedly the containers are due to arrive in port on Saturday and will be cleared by Monday; however, apparently the piracy off the Somali coast is a very real threat. Antionette tells me they're capturing many vessels every week and that's the route the ship carrying both the container for this orphan project and the container with Jason’s plane and farm equipment for Kibidula has to take. All is in God’s hands.  We pray they arrive safely and well.

Yesterday we made some strides in the painting operation. We had help!! Many hands make light work. Barasa came back and helped and the Kirbys helped, also. We have had to put to coats of primer and now we have to put a second coat of the main color. It sure brightens up the place.

I talked to mom on the phone. She was meeting up with Jason about the time I talked to her. I asked for food. We are down to bare nothings here - except for our granola and dried fruit and potatoes. She said she found some lentils and mung beans for a change in our diet. She said she would get us some peanut butter and margarine and fruit and vegetables. The fruit that Kirbys bought in Iringa a few days ago still hasn't really ripened so we were feeling a little deprived!!! But Abi dug in her secret stash and supper was very good!

It's my turn to make breakfast this morning, but there isn't much to make so, even though I am hungry I am not excited about eating. Miriams parents did bring us a gift of plums, so I will sort through them for ripe ones.

The kids have found a couple more cameleons  this week. They sure have fun with them!

We hope to finish painting the sanctuary today. We shall see what we accomplish.