The Family Bid'Ness

The children have been working at a local food bank for about 2 years now and really enjoy it. We sing the "Workin' for Jesus" song as we fill orders and stock shelves. The families that are serviced are given an assortment of juices, PB&J, cereals (hot & cold), pasta/rice, canned goods, frozen meat, eggs and then coupons for fresh meat and milk. Sometimes people may donate some personal needs items that are set up on a table for families to get while they are waiting for their food. Jordan "mans" this table most times with the instruction that people can only have 1 item. This was very hard for her.

A few months ago, a family with many people came in and they had a large order. The mother of the large family picked up a roll of toilet paper and a bar of soap. The staff person told her, "Only 1 item" and you could see the mother literally weighing the items back and forth trying to decide which they needed most. It broke Jordan's heart and she began whispering to me, "Why should people have to choose between soap and toilet paper? I wanna start my own personal needs closet where people won't have to choose!"

And so an idea was born and we started planning, Entertaining Angels Personal Needs Closet. We approached the Pastor at our new church with a draft flier of our idea and he said he would get back to us. He scheduled a meeting with us for yesterday and Jordan typed up the agenda for the meeting. She had some really great ideas for the system of referral and service and he was impressed. He even made a donation right there towards the purchase of the prepaid cell phone that would be used as the closet's phone number. I was a proud mamma with how she ran the meeting. We plan to start off very small at first. We are excited!

Pinata

I think for art tomorrow we are going to try to make a Christmas pinata. I have so many candy canes that different ladies at church have given the kids that I think I will just put those in with a few stickers and homework passes. Pinatas are fun, but they seem like a lot of work for a quick destruction. LOL! I will be sure to take pictures.

BTW ~ my foster child cut a large majority of her bangs and side hair off while at school yesterday. The teacher aid felt so bad because she had left the group during art time. Scissors in the hands of kindergartners without an adult = really short, lopsided bangs. Of course it was before a parent visit, so I had to rush home and try to even it out before taking her for the visit. Oh well, it could have been a jar of paste. LOL!

New Week

Not much other than school, school and more school going on this last week. Clipping right along.

We have a new chore chart that seems to be working well. I've had to re-vamp it from time to time in the past, but this one seems to be easier for everyone to complete the basic everyday chores that get sloughed off first.

We are planning to do $ Store Christmas again this year. We have identified the family that we are going to adopt and have started gathering presents for them. So fun! In the past we have had live Christmas trees, but for the last 5 years we have had a little plastic one. I offered the kids a live Christmas tree this year; even the chance to go cut one down. I was so very surprised when they said that wanted the little fake one instead! It's kinda "Ch*rlie Br*wnish", but they like it.

We had dinner guest after church yesterday. It is the first time we have had guest at the house in over a year and it was an unplanned invite. We had so much fun, baked and frosted Christmas cookies and chatted for hours. It was very nice to talk to another adult. I don't get much of that. 7th grade wrote a post about it here.

Our Current Favorite Video

Back in the Mix

We have a lot of books!! A lot!! We had a playroom downstairs, but with so many kids coming and going and so many toys coming, but not going as fast as the kids leave we had too many toys to even have room to play in the playroom so it became closet for toys and tons of books. I would trade toys and books out every couple of weeks to be upstairs.

This past weekend, I bought 3 new floor to ceiling bookshelves. I am so pleased with how they turned out. The kids and I built them together and it was fun. I complained a little cause the instructions were all pictures and no words. I need words. I love words. But it was easy and by the time we built the last one, we were able to do in in about 15 minutes. Now all of our books, encyclopedias, magazines and puzzles are upstairs. Shelves are divided by age/grade level which makes it easy for the Little's to find books for them.

Ahh the Smell of Pencil Shavings In the Morning

We took school with us on vacation. We did school for about 4 days. So we (and by "we" I mean me) decided to ease back into school by doing a couple of hours today and then a couple tomorrow before jumping in, full force Monday morning. It was not too bad. 3rd and 7th grade had a lot of letter to write and return by snail mail and I had both Kindergartners today which is actually kinda fun. I wish I could keep my foster child home for school too as she seems so much more relaxed here.

I survived a week of jury duty reporting without having to go. I would not have minded going. It's just maintaining the holding pattern for the kids that is minimally annoying.

Today I am thankful for my washer and dryer as all of my sheets are clean.

Happy Thanksgiving!