Friday, Friday, FRIDAY!

Thank you God for this break.

Speaking of which, mine starts at 3:30 today.  Two weeks off.

I have a student teacher coming in January. I hope she's ready. I'm never ready.

 Source:  pinterest

I caved and joined pinterest after writing a post stating I never would.  Color me wishy-washy.

This week one of my students gave "me" three World Vision Ducks for Christmas.  I cried.

source

Rough decisions made at work this week, my heart hurts.

Joy shared at work this week, I helped the kids make these for their parents.  They were so patient and the darn things turned out cute.  Pictures were taken of ours but I'm too tired to upload and download (or is it the other way around?)

source

My Dylan told me, "You come up with the best ideas!"  I gave credit to whom it was due.

My son, who is coming home on Sunday, asked if a friend could join us on Christmas.  I'm thinking I did a fine job raising my son with an open heart.

My niece is joining me at church this weekend and wants to be a part of my life.  My heart is singing with joy!  And we'll be doing some "pinterest" baking come next week. 

Singing? My friend Amy is for the first time this weekend at church.  Can't wait!

Tonight we're going to see The Story with Steven Curtis Chapman, Max Lucado, The Newsboys and more.  Our Christmas gift to each other I guess. (I have to write "I guess," because we agreed to not exchange presents...)  It is a splurge.

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I have started exercising again, and I'm doing this with some amending (variety of squats and leg lifts).  I'm liking it. On alternate days I walk/run:

source: pinterest

Linking up with Mrs. 4444 who has graciously afforded me a reason to post after a tiring week.

I'm liking that the positives for this week far outweighed the negatives.
I needed to see that.

Since...

     Since it's a slow week in the blogging world, I'm just going to post some photos of items Jenn and I have collected for her silent auction.  If you're local, please come to Community Christian Church in Lemont on the evening of December 2 to bid.  We have some sweet little items, now we need bidders!

     Thank you to Erin from Unrepeatables and Michelle from The Scrap Shop--my on-line and generous friends, for their gifts to Jenn through donated treasures!  Erin donated the jewelry above and Michelle the wreath.

     And another Net friend, Liz, offered three sewing patterns!  Her kids' clothing designs are adorable.
Bia/Maria donated these herself made terra cotta ornaments.  Love them, and they could be used to decorate beyond Christmas.  (There are six, this just shows three.)

     Many other friends have donated some great stuff...here's a look a just a portion of our collection:

     Wow, right? More has been given and more has been promised. I am amazed by the generosity of people, some I've not met, most Jenn hasn't met, who are so willing to help her become a mom.  I think of a baby or child in Haiti waiting to be loved.  My heart is so full of joy and hope!
     This event will answer so many prayers with a, "YES!"
     Now we need bidders.  If you know anyone in the Chicago area, send them to Lemont's  Community Christian Church on Friday, December 2.  The event runs from 6:30-8:30.  Or, check out our facebook page, Help a Child Find a Forever Family for more details and photos!

 That's Jenn in the middle of a group of kiddos on her last trip to Haiti.

Help Jenn Become a Mom

In the center of all these Haitian children is my friend Jenn.

Jenn very much wants to become a mom.

God has placed it on her heart to become a single adoptive parent of a Haitian child.

To do this she will have to spend about $20,000 for DCFS costs, travel costs and basic 

bureaucratic stuff.

On Friday, December 2, 2011 she is having a silent auction 

at Community Christian Church 

in Lemont.

(6:30 to 8:30)

Please, if you have any goods or services to donate, they would be greatly appreciated.

A gift card, a handmade item, something your company manufactures or reps, something you craft and sell, anything.

She, of course, will also need bidders!

Email me with ANY questions.  

My network is small but combined with hers, we can give a child the 

hope for a family.

If you would, pray for Jenn as she works the way through this arduous process. 

Jack, Operation Christmas Child and a Puzzle

     My blog friend Anna's son died suddenly a small number of weeks ago.  She lives in the D.C. suburbs. From this far away there is little I can do to comfort her.  My prayers have included her family often. 

     Jack was 12.  A firm believer in Jesus, it turns out his favorite charity was Operation Christmas Child.  Last year, my class collected three shoe boxes for OCC, so this year my new group is doing it again, but this time with Jack in mind--I'm hoping for more boxes filled in his honor, and so Brad and I are doing one in Jack's memory.
     I asked Anna what Jack would have put in a box.  She wrote, "Lego, a superball, and one of those number puzzles with the little tiles that slide."  I told my kids I'd buy the latter for the class boxes.
     Brad and I were out doing errands yesterday, and we went to six stores looking for the puzzles.  Everyone we spoke to knew what we meant, but no one had them.  I came home and went to three stores on-line, I scanned their favors and found nothing.
     Sigh.
     I wrote to Anna, wondering if she knew of a store that carried them.  (I thought everyone would.  BTW, never go to a party store this close to Halloween for anything but a Halloween errand.  I have to admit, I was relieved Party City didn't seem to have them as the line to check out was at least 50 people long.)
     This morning, I googled number puzzles and found this!

It's wall-sized and retails for $175. Seriously.  Sure wouldn't fit in a shoebox.

I googled a different way, can't even remember what words I entered in the image search, and I found these:

And I cried.  I ordered enough for the boxes, for Brad's grandkids, and even one for Brad who also used to love such brainteasers.

Thank you Discount Party Supplies of Jackson MI.  Thank you.  (I'm going to call their customer service number later this week to thank them, I am!)

Pray matters, and somehow I believe this "yes" to a little prayer will make a difference that will unfold through the kindness to children far from Aurora and D.C.

Tonight We're Walking In Memory of Vicki

It's not too late, it's never too late to donate:

 http://pages.lightthenight.org/il/WSuburbn11/EStewart-Seaman

So in the last post...

...I said I didn't "get" twitter (among other things).  Well Mac does, he's been tweeting (he will not share with me his twitter ID), and he's been following people for a while (because he's always been way cooler than me, even when he was little).

Last night, Brad and I headed to the basement as the weather sirens wailed, and we were surfing cable channels looking for information when Brad's phone rang. It was Mac, calling from Baton Rouge--you know the one in Louisiana--to tell us a tornado had been cited at a nearby airport (Aurora) and stuff was "going on" near a local high school (Naperville/Aurora city borders). 

How did he know?  Twitter.  Yep tweets from his Illinois people caused him to call to see if we were safe.

So there you go, I guess you can say I twittered by proxy.  I can also say I still don't get it, but it sure is helpful that my boy does.

(Oh and an add on to yesterday's list?  Jack Nicholson as a sex symbol, not ever.)

Read a Book. Give a Book.

I hadn't planned on posting today, but I came across this neat site through facebook a while back, and today I delved into it more.  Read a Book. Give a Book.

It's as simple as its name!

And it's free. Sign up and choose a campaign.  For every children's book you read on line, they donate a book to the campaign of your choice.  You can help kids near or far, it's up to you, and you can do it through reading.

Wow, right?

From Top to Bottom

     This week has gone by in a blur.  While I was blog surfing one evening, instead of the zillion other things I could should have been doing, I came across a Saturday hop I looked forward to joining, SOOC, Straight Out of the Camera Saturday.

    

     So here's my photo of the week from yesterday's field trip to Feed My Starving Children.  It's the end of our time there, we'd been packing food for over an hour, had cleaned up all the work stations and now the students were waiting to pray over the food in the hope it would arrive in, in this case Haiti, safely.

If you'd like to see more photos from this amazing experience, please click here to go to my classroom blog!

Thanks Amy, for this photo opportunity!  I hope to join again and again.  

Thinking of this hop will make me take more pics!

   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Hm, now onto my usually Saturday depths...my shoe post.  You know I love my Satruday shoe share with Dani over at Living Outside the Stacks, so I pondered this week just what shoes to feature.  I decided on these, my oh-so-fun polka dot rain boots.

     My friend Annemarie gave them to me last fall because I was worried my once-a-week crosswalk duty way out at the end of the school's driveway would find me ruining at least one pair of shoes.  I was certain I'd be caught out there in a deluge at least once this school year.  I was delighted to receive them and I kept them at the ready, right next to my desk all year.  Once made their owner, I really wanted to wear them.  I so wanted a raining duty day!  Except, guess what?  Not a single drop of rain on a single one of my duty days all year.  Three duty days left.  "So you're sayin' there's a chance?"
     I may just pull them on on the last day of school...just for fun, rain or shine.  How do you think they'd look with pink shorts and a white peasant top on June 13th?

This is a fun hop, come on, show your shoes!

Kiva

  

     Two or three years ago, I attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. The founder of Kiva was there, and I was fascinated by her.  Her company makes microloans to people in poor countries in order to offer them a hand up.  It took me a while to get around to it, you know it was always something I "meant to do," but the other night I finally made a loan.
     After perusing the profiles, I chose a teacher/mom/wife/textile maker,Sotheary, from Cambodia.  There was just a feel of a fit, you know? What's cooler still, is that when I loaned her $25 dollars, she still  had $1200 needed, but within that evening, her whole loan was financed.  She is able to buy silk for her weaving business and another cow for her family.

     I thank God for reminding to finally do something.  I wondered if I should post about it here, but I figure if some of you don't know Kiva, now you will.
     Happy, happy investigating, and happy Sunday
  

Get a Giggle Friday

Two clowning on a bench.  

One is the man of my dreams...the other is a fashion don't.

Both have "hearts" of servants' gold.

The one with less hair was having a birthday.

On Sunday, we served dinner at Ronald McDonald House in memory of Vicki Miller.

We are blessed to have this opportunity to take care of others, but we miss Vic so much.

Yesterday, two of my girls presented me with this gift.  I found that sweet considering I'd just posted here about gifts for teachers.  They know I like Charlie Brown and friends and baseball, so...

Charlie Brown up to bat.  I do like a smiling bald male...

Speaking of mine, Brad's still working on the downstairs.  Nail pops, casings, all replaced or repaired and patched. New can lights installed.  Somewhere, my knitting is to be found:

Can you see the drywall dust on the hardwood floor?  Like Easter basket grass or Christmas tree needles, it's EVERYWHERE!
But the room will be gorgeous in time. Painting has begun!
He's doing this while working on a few closings and communicating with new clients as well as dealing with his chronic back pain, so there's no rush from this side!

Thanks for stopping by!

Did you hop over from here?

Question of the Week...Your Church

  I love going to church.  I wake on Saturdays, or in this week's case Sunday, with so much to look forward to.  I was definitely more involved at Community, too involved at some points for me the non-joiner, and though I'm not involved in serving at our current church, I still love going.  We both fit there, and that fit is so important.     My favorite things about our church, The Compass, are the superb teaching and the worship.
     At Community, I appreciated the fellowship (we had so many friends) and the teaching most.
     So I have to ask, drum roll for this week's question...

What do you love about your church?

What allows you to feel a fit there?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Saturday, Brad worked with clients into the early evening, and I was feeling a little puny from giving blood.  So we decided to go to church on Sunday instead of our usual Saturday night date in the front row at The Compass.  On Sunday, as it turned out, he had to work again and I was left to go to church without him.  There was a small part of me that thought, "Don't go."  But that part was quickly overruled. Then I checked the week's Lenten challenge/experience, "Godless" where I was challenged to omit worship experiences of any kind for the week.  Then I for sure NEEDED to go.

     Take that mere thought of missing out on one service and wanting very much to go, and multiply it by a billion, and know--that's what it must feel like to live in a country where worshiping God is illegal.

    Thank you Lord, for allowing me to openly spend time with you--on Saturday, Sunday and every day!

     I do understand that I would be just "as Christian" if I couldn't go to church, perhaps my faith would run deeper, but I'm not going to skip out on a worship service on a dare, something this precious must be celebrated!

  

Food for a Servant's Heart

     On Saturday, I went along with Vicki's mom and her family to the Ronald McDonald House that is nearby the University of Chicago Hospital in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.  Helen had stayed there for over a month while Vicki was hospitalized in 2009, and she also had stayed for other, shorter times. 
     In effort to pay back or to pay it forward, however you like to look at it, Helen has gone back with her family crew twice now to serve brunch to the families in residence.  She does this to honor Vicki.
    Friday night, Helen and I made Valentine confetti and Helen dipped pretzels.  We put them in festive bags and her ten-year-old nephew Jake delivered them to the residents' mailboxes on Saturday morning. As people found them during the time we were there, I got the feeling some of these treats would be shared at the hospital.

     Helen has the gift of hospitality, and the residents were grateful for her menu choices:  platters of bacon, sausages, egg casseroles, waffles and muffins made on the premises, breakfast breads and fruit salad.  Her whole family worked so hard.  We were thanked by the folks, told it was the best they'd had, told it was so good to have a warm breakfast.  People seemed humbled as we took their plates to wash.  Some, especially siblings, were happy to give up this chore, others told us we'd done enough and they'd clear their own dishes.
     It was a mostly quiet room.  I didn't talk much to the people staying there expect to offer food or say good morning. One woman was seeing where her husband had been staying, "For a time." It was the first time he'd been able to get her to leave the hospital.  One man liked talking about the construction of the kitchen we were all standing in.  But one woman asked where we were from.  She seemed interested in what got us serving there. I told her about Vicki, about Helen and Jim's hope to start a foundation, "Living Victoriously," to help other college aged women and men with Leukemia.
     This woman, listened, and she told me her son's story.  He is 17 and missing his senior year of high school. He will live, as he is recovering from an accident that happened last summer. He was standing on the side of a highway, checking a trailer he had been pulling and he was hit by another teen driver who was texting and driving.  Her son was flipped up over a guard rail and fell 40-50 feet to a road below.  She told me, "Everything was shattered, not just broken, but shattered.  But he had no brain damage, and he feels blessed to be alive."  They hope to go home in March. 
     We both marveled at the facility in which were standing, and she told me, "You know, in our little town, I work at a McDonald's.  And all those years I watched people put their change in those little boxes, I never gave a thought to what these houses were like. I never imagined I'd be here.  But I'm thankful for their change, now."
     That was the mood of the morning, the prevailing feeling.  Though some parents looked exhausted, they were thankful. Though some had to be invited more than once to eat they were thankful.  We were thankful to be afforded the opportunity to serve.  I look forward to being so blessed again, and soon.  

The house chapel window

A chapel chair

And you know this guy, the clown who doesn't know enough to come in from the cold!

This is the house, obviously not a photo snapped by me since there was about two feet of snow surrounding the place. It is truly beautiful.