Egg Drop

The 6th graders are studying "Our Place in the Universe" in science at co-op. Now, all year I've thought, man...an egg drop contest would be really cool. Now I think, man, we could do an egg drop and tie it in with a lesson on unmanned space exploration to talk about the unique design challenges the Mars Pathfinder, and other surface probes, face.

Of course, tomorrow is the last day of classes, and next week is the building cleanup and picnic, but I bet I can sweet talk the co-op leadership into letting us drop some eggs out of the second and third story windows before we head out for our picnic next week. Especially if the eggs are in ziplock bags to keep them from truly going splat. (I hope).

So, rather than doing laundry or feeding my son breakfast, I've been googling egg drop projects.

Here is the rough list of rules I'm considering going by:

Grades
Contest is open to all co-op, grades first and up. Students should work as independently as possible on their own projects, though its understood that the first and second graders will need some help.

Materials and Structure
1. Each construction must be less than 12 inches on each side.
2. Each construction must have some easy means of removing and replacing an egg. (No giant balls of wound and rewound bubble wrap.)
3. No construction may use a pre-manufactured container of any kind. (So, no rubbermaid containers, small shipping boxes, etc. However, packing materials, such as styrofoam or bubble wrap or other recycled materials such as plastic straws, paper tubes, crumpled paper, may be used as cushioning. Also, you may construct your own container out of pieces cut from another container.)
4. Each construction should be an original student design. We are working on the honor system here. You may look on the internet for some ideas, but please do not simply copy someone else's design.
5. No other food items may be included in the construction.
6. Each project must be clearly labeled with the students first and last name.
7. Clear packaging tape or scotch tape is permitted to tape the project closed once the egg has been placed inside. Students should bring their own rolls of tape for this purpose.

The Egg
1. Each construction must be able to hold one chicken egg. Students should bring at least three eggs. (Two for the drop contest, and one for the rolling contest.)
2. The egg must be placed inside a ziplock bag, either sandwich or snack sized, to aid in clean up. The students should bring their own ziplock bags. Each ziplock bag should be labeled with the student's first and last name in permanent ink.
3. The eggs must be raw and unaltered. No hard boiled eggs or vinegar soaked eggs will be allowed to compete.

The Drop
1. Projects will be dropped from three heights....6 feet, the second story window, and the third story window.
2. Students may drop their own projects from the 6 foot height. Projects from the second and third story windows will be dropped by a teacher.
3. If a project hits an obstacle on the way down from a second or third story window, such as the building or the chain link fence along the school's basement windows, the drop is still valid and the results still count.
4. An egg which survives a drop completely intact, with no cracking, will be awarded the highest prize category for that drop height.
5. An egg which cracks upon impact, but does not break, will be awarded the highest prize category for the next lowest drop height. (Thus, an egg which cracks, but does not break, when dropped from the third story window will be awarded the same prize as a completely intact egg dropped from the second story.)
6. The student is responsible for removing the baggie with the egg to show to the judges. The judges have the final say in determining whether an egg is intact, cracked, or broken upon impact.
7. Once an egg breaks, that project may not compete on the next drop level. A cracked egg may be replaced, and the project may advance to the next drop level.

The Roll
1. To simulate the tumbling the Mars Pathfinder must have endured upon impact, we will also roll our projects down the outdoor basement steps at the rear of the building.
2. Students must roll their own projects down the steps.
3. Students may only give their projects one push, or one toss, at the top of the stairs.
4. Projects must make it all the way to the bottom of the stairs to qualify.
5. A project which stops before it reaches the bottom may be rerolled or re-tossed from the top of the stairs, up to three times. However, the egg inside cannot be replaced between the attempts.
6. Students may choose to do a practice roll, without an egg, if they desire. The practice roll is completely optional and does not count towards their three attempts.
7. A project which reaches the bottom on the first try does not have to be rerolled.
8. Once again, the student is responsible for removing the baggie with the egg to show to the judges, who have the final say on its condition.

Prizes for the Drop
Prizes for the drop will be awarded as followed, and are not cumulative:
1. For the 6 foot drop....a miniature candy bar.
2. For the second story drop...a full sized candy bar.
3. For the third story drop....a king-sized candy bar.

Prizes for the Roll
1. An egg that makes the roll to the bottom of the stairs completely intact, will win a full-sized candy bar.
2. An egg that makes the roll to the bottom of the stairs and cracks, but does not break, will win a miniature candy bar.

Adult Volunteers
A panel of three adult judges are needed. Also, a couple of adult assistants to help manage the contestants and the projects would be appreciated :)

Easy Cheesy

Those of you who know me know that potatoes and I don't have a very good track record. I don't know what potato spirit I offended or how I offended it, but long have I been cursed when it comes to potatoes. Monday was no exception. I'll offer you my tale of woe, for your amusement and entertainment, after I tell you of my fleeting success.

First, what I found that Works for Me:

On Monday, I made these delicious barbeque ham slices.  I really wanted some cheesy hash browns to go with them, but since I have a potato curse, haven't found a recipe that I can cook. So, feeling confident and adventurous, I decided to invent my own recipe.

What resulted was incontestably the worst kitchen failure I have ever had.

With the barbeque ham slices now ready to come out of the oven, I had no side dish. But, I did have a small sauce pan of delicious cheese sauce, so.....

I scrubbed and pricked five potatoes and started them in the microwave. I put some green beans on the stove. I turned off the oven so the ham didn't burn. I set the table, and tried to hide the evidence of my earlier failure.

About 20 minutes later, we were sitting down to a delicious dinner of bbq ham slices, baked potatoes with cheese sauce, green beans, and homemade biscuits (which just happened to be leftover from Sunday's cooking project.) Sweet, sweet success.

The Cheese Sauce that Worked:

3 or 4 thick slices of Velveeta cheese
2 or 3 tablespoons milk
couple dashes of paprika
seasoning salt to taste (or Mrs Dash for a low-sodium alternative)

Place the cheese and the milk in a small sauce pan. Cook on low heat while stirring to melt the cheese. Add seasonings and continue to stir. When sauce is smooth and warm, pour into pitcher for serving over baked potatoes.

Voila!

That's really the end of the useful information. For those of you who are wondering, no, the Jedi didn't eat the green beans. Neither did Sweetling. In fact, I asked Sweetling if I could give her some "delicious green beans." She gave me a look. The Jedi said, "Well, you could....if such a thing existed."

The potatoes that didn't work:



Notice this section doesn't get the large font size.

Potatoes have this terrible habit of refusing to cook for me. I mean it. I'm not making this up. Thus, I can't make shredded hash browns, because no matter what I do, I have shredded raw potatoes in a sauce that browning and scorching. I've tried oodles of recipes.

Over the weekend, Telephone took me to a wonderful bed and breakfast in Amish country. She bought a cookbook full of the recipes they serve and was reading it to me on our drive home. (Obviously, I was driving.) We had delicious cheesy hash brown potatoes for breakfast on Saturday, and lo, there was the recipe.

Of course, come Monday night, I didn't have the recipe, but I thought it called for so many cups of *cooked* shredded potatoes. I decided, I would beat my potato curse by shredding the raw potatoes and THEN boil them. Then, surely, it would just be a matter of dumping them into a colander before putting them back into a pot with some cheese sauce.

The resultant gray sludge of starch which I dumped into my colander was by far one of the grossest items ever to come off my stove.

But, I did have nice little saucepan of cheese sauce from the experiment.

I would say that I'm never ever trying to make hash browns again, but we all know that would be a lie.

Why my house is cluttered

I linked my Hearty Hamburgers over on Work's for Me Wednesday on We are THAT Family. While I was there, I thought I'd check out other WFMW links. There were several good ones on decluttering and organizing and spring cleaning. But what link am I going to keep? Something useful?

Silly Rabbit.

I found this. I totally want one. Maybe in a different color scheme though.

Oh, and these cool cards, even though I stink at paper folding.

House Fire---Needs

I talked to my brother again tonight. (His house burned to the ground just a few days before Easter. Fortunately, no one was at home at the time, so everyone is safe.)

He found a house to rent in the same school district that the kids had been attending and was able to manage a deposit on it. My nieces are in high school, and my nephew is in junior high.

He says that lots of neighbors and the local churches have really come together to bring his family stuff. He says the kids are doing pretty good on clothing right now, and the red cross gave them a cash card which he used to buy things like underwear and shoes for all of them.

Here are the things he still needs:

towels
bowls (like for cereal)
cups
sheets and blankets (for twin, full, or queen mattresses)
drapes and curtains (unknown sizes)
small kitchen appliances (mixer, blender…he has a microwave and toaster)
bakeware (cookie sheets, mixing bowls, mixing spoons…pots and pans and cooking spatulas are covered)

If you have an extra of anything on the list, I’ll be meeting with him this Friday (April 16th). I might also be making a second trip up on the following weekend, but that’s not definite.

I think donations of non-perishable foods, household goods, and cleaning supplies would also be appreciated.

He said they don’t need any silverware and someone already donated plates to them.
He has beds for everyone, but could use some more sheets and blankets so that they have more than one set of sheets for each bed. The mattress sizes they have are 1 twin, 2 fulls, and 1 queen.)

He has a couch, an arm chair, a kitchen table and chair, and dressers for the kids. I didn’t think to ask if he needed any lamps. I asked him for his clothing size, and his girlfriend's clothing size, but he told me they were fine, and not to worry about it.

I know its short notice, but if you have anything you'd like to donate, please bring them with you to church tomorrow night.

Please continue to keep my brother and his family in your prayers!

Thank you so much!

Summer Reading List, and other ideas

You know how I am. If I don't make a note of this right now....I'll never find it again.

Cruising through others' weekly wrap-ups and I came across a list of books I'd like to track down to read over the summer.

ooo! And Paddle-to-the-Sea!

And French Toast Matzah. We went to our first family seder this past Saturday. It was really, really interesting and neat. I don't know if we'll be keeping full Passover next year, but I definitely want to repeat the Seder.  

Weekly Wrap-Up: Gardening!

The good news is, my children do NOT hate gardening.

I decided that we were going to take an extra week of spring break to get some gardening done. I envisioned this time as a happy, wholesome, family bonding time. In the middle of Monday morning, after an hour or so cleaning up the dead material left through the winter, I realized the only thing I was accomplishing was to instill a lifelong dread of gardening in my children.

So, I broke the tasks up into smaller chunks, and made sure the kids got lots of breaks to play on the swingset. Everyone's mood was much improved. We got the garden cleaned up, weeded, and some of the soil turned over before lunch. After an afternoon of some housework and some free time, I made hearty hamburgers, fries, and zucchini chips for dinner. (If anyone has a great recipe for zucchini, I'd love to have it. Toa of Boy and I love zucchini, but I'm still looking for the perfect way to prepare it.)

Tuesday, we took a break from gardening and went to my women's small group. We also spent a couple hours working in our church's food pantry. We followed that up with a treat of lunch from Wendy's before hitting the library. That afternoon, a box of plants, which had been ordered back in February arrived. This spurred on my garden fever. (That evening, I smashed out the taillights in the van backing into a pole in the walmart parking lot. I also denting the bumper. The Jedi fixed the big smash in the bumper as soon as I got home. The next day he bought a new housing for the tail lights and replace that in less than ten minutes before our Wednesday night church activities. Today he's going to buy touch up paint to coverup the scratches I made all over the corner of the rear bumper.)

Wednesday it was back to the garden. But, as I told the kids, today was going to be much more fun. We did the hard work on Monday, so now we were ready to put the plants in. The kids had each picked out the plants they wanted when we placed our orders, so that helped them care more about the process. Toa of Boy is especially excited about his blueberry bush. (He was less thrilled to learn that it would be a couple  before the 8 inch twig actually produced any blueberries.) Again, lots of swingset breaks happened.

The access path through the strawberry patch had been covered with weeds. So, after having the kids help me pull off the stepping stones to be piled on the side, I covered the path with cardboard, since I had a stack of boxes ready to be broken down in the garage. I put a layer of pine bark nuggets over the cardboard, and then placed my stepping stones back along the path. It looks really great and it should be a weed free solution for this year. The area on the right is where the strawberries are going, the wall along the garage has some tomato cages, and the corner on the left has some perennials (sedum autumn joy, purple coneflower, and hibiscus). In that corner I also planted five asparagus plants, and filled the front of that area in with a few more spinach plants.

I did the same thing for the corner that cuts from the patio to the mulched swingset area. (My daffodils are past their bloom already, boo hoo.)

After a lunch of noodles and stirfry veggies, Sweetling and I went back out to plant our square-foot vegetable garden. We don't have a lot of sun in our yard, so our veggie garden is a two foot deep strip underneath my bedroom window. In that tiny space, we have three zucchini bush plants, two cucumber vines, 16 carrots, 9 spinach plants, and 12 or 16 lettuce plants. We've used logs to edge the raised bed, and straight sticks to mark off our grid, cause both those materials were free from windfall from all the tress we have on our wooded slope. I did move the tomato cages to the side of the garage wall, cause they were too tall to fit nicely under my bedroom window, and last year I got tired of the view out my bedroom window being the top of ugly tomato cages. Before we put the seeds in, I dug in some leaf mulch, some peat moss, some compost, and a couple handfuls of bonemeal. Sweetling did a great job of measuring out how many seeds should go in each square and planting them to the correct depth. We left a little space near the edge of the vegetable garden for some marigolds in every square. I'm hoping the marigolds deter the snacking critters who were the primary beneficiaries of our vegetable garden last year.


Thursday, Tia smurf was over. We made a delicious lunch of rice, son-in-law eggs, and stirfry chicken and asparagus in a brown shallot sauce. And when I say "we", I mostly mean the smurf. I did the complicated tasks of chopping asparagus, defrosting chicken, and peeling the hardboiled eggs (with help from Toa of Boy.)

After our wonderful meal, we had an art day. We all painted paver stones, which will be used in our sundial we'll be making in the front yard in June. I'll post about that when we do it, so that I can include pictures of the process. We need 12 pavers all together, to mark the 12 hours of the day. We decided to paint each paver with something that would correspond with the 12 months of the year as well....even though our sundial will only roughly mark the time through the day, and has nothing to do with the calendar year. But it looks cool, and that's what's important.

We took Tia Smurf home, doing some measurements in her front yard for a planting design I promised her at Christmas. We had dinner, and then while Sweetling was at Tae Kwon Do, Toa and I engaged in another art project. We each got our sketchbooks, and I got my oil pastels and Toa got his crayons. Then we set a timer (we buy our timers at the dollar store). For 6 minutes, we each drew in our own sketchbook. At the end of 6 minutes, when the timer went off, we traded sketchbooks and each of us worked on the drawing the other person had started. Toa decided ahead of time that we would each be drawing gardens. So, after many many trades, we each had a bright colorful, fantastical garden in our sketchbooks. Each garden drawing was a combination of mediums and artists, so they each turned out really cool and unique.

On Friday, we had our friends the Incredibles over, so that Mrs. Incredible could go to the Cincinnati Home School Convention. Sweetling was an AWESOME babysitter for the boys. I sat at my computer downstairs and got us caught up on logging OHVA attendance, which hadn't been done since February. (Sweetling said, "that has nothing to do with you being you or anything.") Sweetling was the Queen of the Wii, and kept the boys entertained and monitored and under control. At one point, while the Equestrian was trying to get Sweetling past some big boss in a Mario game, I heard Sweetling tell the audience of little boys, "Ok, we're going to play the quiet game now....and whoever wins gets a Hershey kiss!"

The one instruction Mrs Incredible (aka Mango) gave me before leaving was to make sure Jack-Jack, who was not in a pull-up, stayed dry. I failed at that three times. But, I have access to a washer and dryer, so Mango never need know. No one tell her. It will be our little secret. (Really, I only failed once...the second time he just had trouble wiping himself and the underwear needed changed as a result. I also, cleaning him up, realized that friendship often means wiping the poopy bottom of your friend's child while he tells you all about the two lazers he has in his garage, one on each side of his garage, in fact. The third accident was just an aiming accident while he was at or on the toilett. See, I'm not completely irresponsible.)

That afternoon, we loaded the car seats into the van and went to Blockbuster. Before we left I gave a nice talk about how the democratic process and majority rule was going to come into play when it came time to select a movie. This talk proved usless, because there, bold as life, in the Blockbuster window, was a poster for the second Chipmunks movie. Consequently, we burst into Blockbuster with a whirlwind of five excited children who were all squealing "The Squeakquel!!!" Mercifully, the Squeakquel was close to the front door, so we were in and out of there before the employees could truly hate me.

Friday night, the Jedi decided we needed a family activity. It turns out that the family activity was taking the last of the gift cards the Jedi had received for Christmas and making the half hour drive to the nearest Cold Stone for ice cream. If we ever were in a position to buy a franchise, I'd want a Cold Stone Creamery. We tried to get Vaya to get a job at ColdStone, back when they were in a nearby mall, but Vaya knew we were just trying to take advantage of her for free ice cream, and she wasn't having any of it. I'm still scarred by her refusal.

After we got home, I finished up my awesome, awesome week by getting a school schedule together that I hope will be a decent hybrid of the k-12 curriculum we need to finish up this year and the new approach to schooling I want to initiate next year.  I am as happy as I can be with the hybrid. (Thursdays are our co-op days, so they didn't need to go on the schedule. Tuesday morning we're at church for my women's group. Toa watches a movie and plays, and Sweetling can use the time as a study hall to do co-op work, or she can take her netbook and be online, or she can watch a movie with the other kids.)

Check out what others have done this week on Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Kindness Countdown: 13

I love these stories.

A friend of my husband's has fallen into hard times. He and his family are about to get evicted from their home, and many other things have decided to happen all at once. The situation is so bad that his church is not able to help them out. Since he's a landscaper/painter, we've hired him to so several things around our house. Instead of waiting for the job to be finished, we've decided to do a "pay as you go" system. Since he's a proud sort, I didn't want to embarrass him with obvious donations. Instead, I've been padding my payments with extra to help him out for the next month or so. I'm blessed to have a job that allows me to support my family, even though that means I'm away from home a lot, and I have enough to share without hesitation.

I hope you get all 40 wishes!

To read the rest of the stories, click here. 

WFMW: Hearty Hamburgers

Yes, this is a Works for Me Wednesday idea. Yes, I know it technically isn't Wednesday. See, if I wait till Wednesday to post this....I'll forget. So, I'm posting this now, when I'm thinking of it and have the chance, and then I'll McLinky it over on We Are THAT Family on, gasp, Wednesday. I'm sneaky that way.

Simple, delicious, very filling, recipe for hamburgers. This recipe makes about 6 substantial hamburgers. If you need more, the recipe is very easy to double.

Ingredients:

One to one and a half pounds ground meat (beef or turkey, your choice)
Half a box of stuffing (unprepared, any flavor, save the other half for another time)
One egg

Preparations:

Preheat your grill, or preheat the broiler in your oven. Meanwhile, in a bowl, with your hands, mix together the ground meat, the half box of stuffing, and an egg.  Shape into patties about the size of your palm, and flatten slightly. This should make about 6 patties.

Cooking:

Grill, or, cook under the broiler in your oven. Broil a few inches from the heat. After 4-5 minutes, flip the burgers with a spatula. Broil another 4-5 minutes on the other side.

Use a spatula to move the burgers to a clean plate. Top with cheese, if desired. Serve on buns with your favorite toppings.

Kindness Countdown: 12

You can see from the first sentence that the friend who send me this response to my birthday wishes is a woman after my own heart ;)

I didn't forget to do the random act of kindness I just forgot to email you when it was done. :) Well actually it was already planned before you gave me the card but I'll take what I can get.

For mine I "tried" to take the kids [of a pregnant friend who has been put on full bedrest] for the day. I figured the mom would need a break. I did successfully get to take the little girl but the little boy woke up that day with a fever so he stayed home with Mom and Dad. Anyway my kids and I took their little girl swimming at the Y, to play at our house and out to eat at McDonalds to play at their playland.

We also gave the family a giftcard to Outback. The idea was that they would get a quiet lunch away from the kids but since the little boy was sick I told them to just use it when they got the chance.

I'm also carrying around two bags of girl clothes that I have to give away to people at church. There are two families that usually go through the bags and divy them up. Oh and some company has decided that I had a baby, gee I don't remember that so I've also got formula that I plan to drop off at the church nursery for someone to take.

Hope you get the rest of your responses soon.

In other news, my sister is starting a blog to keep track of donations we've received, and items we still need for my brother. We haven't been able to get in touch with my brother since Easter. The last I had heard, he was still looking for a more permanent place for he and his family to stay. The cell phone reception in East Nowhere is pretty spotty, so its not unusual to not be able to get through to him. Having a call that actually connects to his cell is like winning the cell phone tower lottery.

Here are the kids' clothing and shoe sizes. We especially need clothes for the girl who is a size 5/6 (May) and the boy (Shay).

Shoe sizes-
Kay- 6 1/2 womens
May- 9 1/2 womens
Shay- 7 mens

Shirt sizes--
Kay-- XS/S womens
May-- M womens
Shay-- M/L mens

Pant sizes--
Kay-- 0,1 womens/juniors?
May-- 5,6 womens
Shay-- 28-30 mens

The blog should be up today, and I'll post a link to it as soon as I have it.

Kindness Countdown: 10 and 11

No, I haven't lost count. I am repeating number 10 on purpose. The doer of a previously confidential reply gave me permission to post hers as long as I wasn't putting any names with it, which I haven't been :) I'm loving all my Birthday Wishes!

So, without further ado, number 10,

I have a friend going through a rough patch in her marriage. It was suggested to her that she do some random acts of kindness of her own for her husband - even when she's not feeling particularly kind towards him at the moment. Some days this is a struggle for her. In honor of your birthday I'm going to give her a copy of The Love Dare to help her with some creative ways to show love to him during this difficult time.

And number 11...

One of my girls from the seventh grade life group came up to me after youth group last night. She said she performed an act of kindness for me and she gave some clothes to Goodwill. Way to go my girl!

Someone else at church asked me if it was "too late" to do an act of kindness for my birthday. Of course not! I'd still like to receive 29 more responses :)

Entrepeneur

After Bible study on Tuesday monring, I try to check our church's small food pantry. If new food donations have come in, I shelve them. If any bags of food have been given away, I bag up some more food. (I try to keep a few bags on hand. Our pantry doesn't have specific hours, but occasionally persons will stop by the church asking for some help with groceries or someone on staff will become aware of a family in need. Either way, its nice for the staff to have bags of food that are already pre-packed. I try to ensure that each group of bags have a few meals that can be put together from the contents of the bag as well as a few pantry staples like peanut butter, jelly, and cereal.)

Usually, it only takes me ten to fifteen minutes to shelve donations and restock bags of food. I have a list of food items that go into each group of bags, so I can be efficient and consistant. This week, however, I walked into the little room that holds our food pantry and immediately noticed that there were several bags of new donations as well as one group of bags which had been given away. I stepped into the room and opened one of the cabinets, and thats when the smell hit me. Now, I don't have a very good sense of smell, so an odor has to be really strong for me to notice it as all. I also am not very good at precisely identifying the source or the type of smell. So, I couldn't tell what exactly might be making the odor, I just knew something smelled really bad. We don't have any means of refridgeration, so all our food items are canned or boxed non-perishables, still, something smelled really, really bad.

I began pulling boxed food out first, thinking something must have gotten wet and turned nasty. Terrible images started filling my head. I won't share any of them here. You're welcome. Not finding anything, I started checking experiation dates...which I didn't expect would lead anywhere, since I though another volunteer had told me she did that at Thanksgiving. Sadly, I began finding post dated food. I pulled it out, but still couldn't find the source of the odor.

Frustrated, I went to the office and got help. The women who came to help identified the smell from the hallway. It was the drain in the floor of the room, and had nothing to do with the food pantry at all. Some bleach was poured down the drain, which seemed to resolve that problem.

But by now, I had emptied a good portion of the cabinet, and had found a few past-dated food items. I decided to just continue to clean out the cabinet and to check all the sell-by dates. I brought Sweetling in to help, and had Toa of Boy take past-date items out to set them on a table in the little atrium area near the secondary entrance to the church.

As we were working, pastor walked by. I heard him asking Toa if Toa was setting up a store. Without missing a beat, Toa answered, "$4.99! Anything on the table, $4.99!" Pastor came up the back hall to find me and ask me about new shelving solutions. He also told me of the interchange between himself and Toa. As he was walking back out, he passed by Toa's table again. This time Toa offered to sell him anyting from the table for just a dollar an item.

It took us two hours, but we checked every item, reorganized the cabinet, shelved the new donations, and repackaged some bags of food. We placed a sign on Toa's table, which was beautifully organized and arranged to display his wares. We put a sign on the table, "past-date; please take." I can't put the past-date food in bags to give out as part of our food pantry ministry, but I didn't want to throw the food away either. But, as long as people know that the food was past its sell by date, and elected to take them anyway, then I can still use the food to be a blessing to someone.

It was well past our normal lunchtime by the time we were done. We still had some errands to run, and they had both been such a big help, so we splurged and went to Wendy's for lunch. We took our food to go, and ate on the lawn outside the library.

And thus, Toa's first entrepreneur enterprise came to a glorious end.

Kindness Countdown: 7, 8, 9, and 10

I've been letting some of these pile up in my inbox!

First I like to say Happy Birthay big 40. I just wanted you to know how God had just placed on my heart to do something for someone Sunday; and just as I was walking out the door you give me you card about how you wanted to celebrate your 40th birthday. I was thinking that was right on time. God set me up ! God had me frame a poem he had me come across years ago, to let someone know how special they are in his sight and how much he loves them.

I pray you day is filled with lots of love and happiness.

And...

Here is the candle I am lighting for your cake. The act of encouragement I completed last week was for a co-workers daughter. Over the past year and a half this young lady has become homeless after being caught shop lifting in Western Hills with her 5 year old son and being fired from her job for erratic behavior. She was diagnosed with bipolar illness and her mom (my co-worker) has assumed custody of her 5 year old son.

She on a rare occasion will come to see her mom in the office and looks lost and forlorn. (As a teenager she experimented with lesbianism and sex outside marriage, been beat by her boyfriend, drugs, multiple school changes, etc) I have tried to reach out to her on the rare occasion I get to see her but was not successful before. (Her mom had told me she was depressed and disappointed with herself and felt unlovable.)

I received your card about a week ago. Last week it happened! I went into her mom's office to say hello and she started adoring the bracelet I had on. She told me the history of cats eye stones and why she likes them so much. I then said something like,,, You know what, please understand what I am saying, I love you and I want you to have this. You are special. She said, oh no, you must be kidding this cost too much. I had an opportunity to tell her that it didn't matter the cost, I wanted her to have it and when I feel like I should give someone something I do that. I told her she had a purpose for living and that she is loveable and I wanted to give her something that would bring a smile to her face. She starting smiling and couldn't believe that I was giving her this for no reason. I told her that I also had a matching necklace I would give to her mom to pass along. She hugged me and I told her to smile more often.

Later that week I have her mom the matching necklace. Her mom told me that she ( her daughter) is having a hard time believing she is loveable and this my giving allowed them to have a discussion about love.

I hope you enjoy this act of encouragement and kindness and on for your birthday.

I sure did!

And I had two more reports of acts of kindness, but I was asked to keep both of those completely confidential, so I will.

Update on my brother's house....the kids stayed with their grandma for a few days. They were supposed to go back to school today, but that can't quite happen till they have a new home. (Their grandma lives a little over an hour away from their school.) My brother met with the Red Cross, who gave him a 'cash card' good for purchasing food and some new clothing. He spent Easter weekend trying to find a new place to live, but said it was nearly impossible, because offices and whatnot are all closed for the Easter weekend. He was planning on doing a lot of legwork today to try to line up something.

Mama called and talked to the kids on Easter. We got a list of all their clothing sizes, which I'll be posting soon. I have one friend with teenage boys who is checking to see if they have anything that will fit my nephew. If, anyone else has something they can donate, that would be awesome. Once my brother gets a new place, they will be in need of household items as well (dishes, towels, blankets, etc). My sister might be working on a web-based list, so we can keep track of what they have been given, and what they still need.

Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Weekly Wrap Up: House Fire

We got word Thursday night that my brother's house, in East Nowhere, Ohio, burnt to the ground. At the time in happened, my nieces and nephew were staying with their grandma's house during spring break, and my brother was out....so no one was at home and everyone is safe.

I had been looking forward to writing on my blog during the day on Friday. I had a lot of fun things from the week that I wanted to share. But when I first woke up on Friday and thought about writing, I wondered how I could write about things that seemed so trivial now.

We don't know yet if his home was insured at all. Even if it was insured, we aren't sure that the property was in his name, so the insurance money, if there is any, might not go to him. He works in construction, and work has been sparse to non-exixtant for him for many months now. I know this has been a devastating blow for him. Everything he and his family owned is gone and he doesn't have anything left in savings, and he might not get any insurance money to use to get back on his feet. I talked to him briefly on the phone Thursday night. It was so soon after the news had hit him, that he hadn't had time to process any of it yet.

My sister and I have both offered our houses if they need a place to stay. We're both ready to organize shopping expeditions to reoutfit the kids with clothes and such. I want to drive up there and *do* something...  But it's not time for that yet. The Jedi, who is very wise, says my brother needs sometime to try to figure things out himself first. My sister was told the same thing from her husband. That didn't stop me from being awake at 1a.m. thinking about options. My sister was up looking at local house listings. Still, right now we need to sit tight and pray.

In light of all that, is a description of my week appropriate? Yes. Yes, I think it is. Last week, I was flippantly remarking that arson might be easier than spring-cleaning and decluttering. Reality has thrown that jest back in my face.

I am ever so grateful that my brother and his family are safe. And I need to remember to appreciate all that I have and to never take life, my home, my family, the time we have together, for granted.

This is what we did this week, because I need to remember to celebrate each day. This is indeed the day that the Lord has made, and I will always rejoice and be glad in it.

On Monday morning, we visited the new co-op we will be attending next year. We went so that the kids could get a feel for it, not becuase I had any doubts that this is what we would be doing. I just thought the kids needed the help to smooth the transition. The kids were totally fine with the transition; it was the Mommy who was shell-shocked.

On Monday afternoon, I was supposed to meet a friend down at the children's museum. BUT, I was overwhelmed with co-op, and I had a new refridgerator being delivered, and I completely FORGOT and stood my friend up. Instead, we went home and pulled everything out of the freezer to put in coolers. Everything that came out of the fridge went into double bagged paper grocery bags with a third paper bag snugged upside down on top of the bag to help insulate the fridge items. We had a two hour delivery window, and even after the fridge got there, we couldn't put anything back in the fridge or freezer till the Jedi got home and installed and then hooked up a new water line. So, I did what I could to try to keep my perishables cool for several hours. The delivery truck pulled up at the very start of the two hour window, and I still had stuff in the fridge. The kids came in and helped me get the last items out of the fridge while I went down and opened the door.

In short order, the old fridge was pulled out....and I discovered that at least one of the great dust storms of the 1930s had crawled underneath my old fridge to die. Seriously, it was that bad. I honestly needed a mask to clean up with, because the dust kicked up was so fine. I didn't have a mask, but oh I needed one. The delivery guy told me I had two minutes to clean before the new fridge came in. (I might have screamed when I first walked into the kitchen and saw the terrible dust carnage.)

After the new fridge was in, he showed me how to remove the bottom grill so that I could periodically vacuum under the fridge. He said the biggest cause of refridgerator death is dust build-up! I lived in appartments and rental homes all my life, and I had no idea. I'm sharing this, so that others might learn from my near-dust experience.

On Monday evening, after the Jedi had quickly installed a new water-line and got the new fridge situated and then reloaded the freezer for me....and after I had arranged and organized my new fridge....I went back to freaking out over co-op. After a long discussion with the Jedi, I called a friend and had another long discussion. I just didn't feel any peace over attending this new co-op. I went in with one set of expectations, and was completely thrown off kilter when certain aspects weren't at all what I expected. That night, the Jedi and I decided this new co-op wouldn't work for our family.

In the midst of this angst, all the bunnies in the house had to sit together on the couch for a bunny family portrait. Toby Bunny is a new addition to the family, you see, and it was imperitative that he meet all his new bunny brothers and sisters.

On Tuesday, we spent four hours at the park.  Toby Bunny had to sit on the dashboard of the van so he could have a commanding view out the front wind shield. The weather is warm and sunny. Its beautiful enough out to make me almost want to go out and sunbathe in a string bikini. I won't, partly because I don't have a string bikini and partly because no one but the Jedi wants to see my forty-year old body in a string bikini. My neighborhood doesn't have many zoning ordinances, but I gaurantee you that the day I venture outside in a string bikini would be the day a petition drive would be launched.

On our way home from the park, we stopped at the library to drop off and check out books. We headed home for dinner, and then the Jedi and Sweetling had Tae Kwon Do.  Toa and I were going back to the library for Tales for Tails, a program where kids can read stories to certified therapy dogs from Touch of Healing. Toa was pumped about this program.

At dinner, Toa was telling the Jedi about our plans. Said Toa, "Daddy, I'm going to read a book to a real dog."

"A real dog, Toa?" asks Daddy.

"Yeah, a real dog. I'm not talking about some fake dog, here. I'm talking about a real dog."

"So," teases Daddy, "not a unicorn then?"

"Daddy!" protests Toa, "Unicorns are not dogs!"

It turns out that reading books to dogs was every bit as wonderful as Toa of Boy imagined it would be. Toa read a total of six books to the dogs, and would have read more, had time permitted.

Also on Tuesday night, after more emails back and forth to a friend and another discussion with the Jedi, co-op was back on.
By Wednesday, I really needed to go grocery shopping. Yet, once again, I let myself get terribly behind in my couponing. It turns out I had seven weeks worth of coupon inserts from the Sunday papers. Luckily, I did have the foresight to mark the date I pulled from which I had pulled each circular. (I use a site called The Grocery Game to help me match up specific coupons with the sale items for my local stores.) Still, seven weeks worth of coupons lined up across my kitchen counter. Seven weeks worth of coupons, and a three page printout of my grocery list. This was going to take me hours. Hours....unless I recruited some child assistants. We made a scavenger hunt game out of looking for the specific coupons we needed. Using my grocery game list, I told each child what coupon they were looking for and which date of circular they could find it in. For every coupon they found, they got to mark an extra point on their chore list. Coupons got done in about half an hour, and we had a good time finding them.

Thursday was April Fools Day of course. Sweetling woke up wary of me. Around ten am, she said, "I can't believe you haven't tried anything for April Fools Day." I don't know where she would get the notion that her loving mother would try to pull something on April Fools Day. By lunch time, she seemed to have relaxed and let down her guard....which of course meant that the timing was perfect for me to pull a prank. While the children we're playing a game together, I went downstairs to "fold laundry". With me I smuggled a bowl, my kitchen scissors, and a bag of Starburst candy purchased just for this occasion. Behind closed doors I unwrapped orange Starbursts and snipped each piece into four cubes. I made a single layer of these small orange cubes in a bowl, and brought it back upstairs and took it into the kitchen with me, where I began preparing lunch.

Lunch that day was grilled cheese and ham sandwiches, strawberries, and cubed "carrots". After handwashing, the kids came into the kitchen asking what was for lunch. I told them. Toa of Boy poked at his "carrots".

"These are hard," he said.

"Of course," I said. "You don't like your carrots cooked."

Nothing else was said about the vegetables on the plates. Sweetling took her plate and dissappeared to her computer. Toa said his grace and began to eat his sandwich. I was fixing myself a salad to go with my sandwich and hadn't sat down at the table yet. Eventually, Toa tried a carrot. After chewing it doubiously, he observed, "Mommy, this is sweet." A moment later, "Mommy, is this candy?"

"April Fools!" I whispered, putting my finger to my lips. "Don't let Sweetling hear us. We don't want to spoil the surprise."

Toa ate the rest of his lunch while giggling almost silently. Score one for Mommy.

Some time later, Sweetling came out of her room. "Mommy, did you give us candy instead of vegetables?"

"April Fools!"

Sweetling cracked up. Score two for Mommy.

That night was when we received word about my brother's house. The latest news I've recieved was that my brother was meeting with a Red Cross worker yesterday (Friday.)

Photos from the last time we were up to see my brother at Christmas:

Me and My Bro

All the cousins together

And Toa of Boy outside with his cousin, about to unwittingly terrify a young cow in an attempt to pet it.

Please keep my brother's family in your prayers.