Operation Christmas Child

I noticed its been a while since I've posted, so first let me apologize. I'm sure my thousands of readers have been languishing. It seems like school started just a few weeks ago, but time is a persistent element. Here we are in the middle of November! This is such a special time for me because there are so many fun things to do and opportunities to serve others! (And there's Egg Nog) Being the new girl in town, the winter season is giving me lots of opportunities to get to know other people through volunteering and parties.

One thing I've enjoyed about mid November since I was a teen is Operation Christmas Child! Basically you pack a shoebox with toys, school supplies, and hygiene items for a girl or boy in a 3rd world country. Samaritan's Purse facilitates and delivers these.

The girls and I busted out the Christmas music and wrapped up our shoe box.

(this thing is ready to be filled with hope and love!)

Then we went on a trip to the Dollar Tree and Fred Meyer. It's the funnest thing to go on a shopping spree for someone who's never even seen a Dollar Tree store. When we got home and dumped the loot on the table it became clear that the challenge would be getting everything to fit in a shoe box!

We are packing for a 5-9 year old girl so school supplies will be invaluable to her.

(filling up fast!)

One thing the girls insisted be in the box was a barbie doll. The dollar tree had some but I couldn't bare to stick this little girl with a barbie who was bleach blond with blue eyes, ivory skin and a head that was sure to pop off within a month. So we went through Fred Meyer, but still wasn't sure which barbie this girl would identify with. We kept looking, and found this Dora Princess doll (on sale too). Even the girls agreed, it was perfect! We wanted to tell her she was a princess, it's head shouldn't pop off easily, and Dora is about the most diverse looking ethic doll ever.

Hannah was quite attached to the Dora doll, but happily gave it up for our little girl some where, possibly without any doll at all.

(They actually fought over who was gong to put in the prize doll)

We dropped it off yesterday at the church that is delivering boxes to the center in Portland. So now all we do is pray. Who knows, perhaps we'll get to hear back from this precious girl. 

There are days when I think my kids are out to get me, but then there are moments like when we were driving back from school and Karis tells me "I was telling James at school about the people in Haiti and about our shoe box and he said he didn't care! but Mommy, I care!" And I realize, by the grace of God, they're some pretty special kids.

My Rubber Rainbow

The last few weeks, I've been fighting some melancholy feelings. Its been up and down, but in between episodes on the couch, I've been pushing myself to get outside and garden while it's still nice.
At least while I was glued to the couch trapped in a state of "bleh", I did a little web surfing and discovered a few things that led to this project, code named: The Recycled Rubber Rainbow.
1. I found free tires with delivery on craigslist.

2. I found loads of cute gardens made from tires through Google: from blogs to youtube, to articles, here's what inspired me:

this pic was from the peace corp website. The country was Guatemala. A volunteer worked with a group of girls on this garden for their community.

This one is from a garden in Cali.

These ideas were right up my ally, so I got to work and recruited some novice painters to help.

Another shout out to our local ReStore: the colors (including the white base coat) are all brought to you by a shopping cart full of paint that I paid $5 for!

 While the tires new look dried, I dug up a section of our backyard that had a ton of rocks and weeds and started accumulating bucket apon bucket of rocks and soil (separated).

 Understand that this was a process that took 3-4 weeks, While my moods went up and down so did my progress. (also the temperature one week on average was 98 degrees)

Once I had all my materials, I began to haul the tires, rocks and soil up the slope from our backyard to the sidewalk.

I laid down newspaper under each tire to keep the nasty weeds at bay and filled them with a mix of our sandy top soil, a bag of soil amendment and a handful of compost.

Since mums are hardy, in season, colorful and cheep: we chose them to move into our landscaping project.

We painted a few rocks, then pored them all out to cover the bare ground around the planters.

Here's the result:

 My rubber rainbow garden is finished for the season, but in the spring, I'm hoping to add more. It was a good way to add some brightness to the neighborhood as well as to my outlook. When I force myself to get outside, breath the fresh air, get dirty and be creative, my worries are at least temporarily lost.

School

My oldest daughter started her first day of kindergarten today. 

Do you remember the day YOU started? I find myself reliving happy moments from my childhood through my children. Today however I am realizing that my 5 yr old daughter most certainly is her own person. I was elated on my first day from school and was fast friends with fellow classmate Rachel Hamburg by the end of the day. Karis however was quiet, followed instructions but really didn't seem to be thrilled. The neighbor boy she's played with a bit was also in her class and I found them walking together to the pickup point, chatting like two mature adults. When I asked her if she'd had fun her quick and serious reply was "no." Her neighbor buddy retorted "well she had fun when she was with me!" Few!

Maybe I've played up kindergarten too much. I remember now that last winter she had asked "Does kindergarten have a roller coaster?!" "No dear, but they have super cool slides on the playground!" She must have thought that getting into kindergarten was like achieving nirvana. And now that life goes on as usual, well, yes, I'd be disappointed too. One way this mother-daughter pair are alike: always forecasting dreams of the fantastic only to be reminded that our feet still touch planet earth. No matter, this earth is filled with glimpses of the fantastical and I will forever encourage the enjoyment of such fleeting moments for such are the hopes of a world beyond and of a power greater then ourselves.

Woh, all that from a child's first day of school? I think I got off track, but it's so whimsical I don't want to erase it. I think my point was: we project our expectations on others, and when they don't respond in "right way" we wonder what's wrong with them. .....maybe that's what I mean. I've been up since 6 and I'm a night owl, so I'm really not sure anymore. Morning kindergarten will be a change in our daily routine at least. I am very proud though to say that we made it ON TIME! I believe the daily routine will be good for us.

 Hannah, my 3 year old is longing for school as well. She remembers being involved in Karis's preschool while I volunteered there often last year. We no longer qualify for head start however (yay) but want to save money at every turn still. Therefore, we have decided to keep Hannah at home. Luckily for her, I enjoy playing school still (nope never grew out of that.) so we set up our own little school area at the house and I'm stealing tactics I learned from my volunteering. Hannah is thrilled. She keeps asking me "so yo my cheacher? and the how i our s-chool?" YUP! However we all pretended to be jealous when Karis told us about getting to learn a song from a puppet today. That seemed to help her feel like she was in on something special too. So it's all working. So far. It'll be interesting to see where this part of the parenting journey takes us.

Lonely

Not sure why, maybe it's the heat, or that I've been working hard on projects, but now that the projects are finished up, I have a strong desire to crawl into bed and never come out. I want to be creative and do more projects, but here in between them, I feel depressed. My butt wants to just become one with the couch. I am board and moody. It must just be the loneliness. Dale can't help that he has adults to hang out with at work and now with Justin who lives out in the garage. I don't want to hold him prisoner here with me. I am so happy for him... I just can't help but feel jealous of him. When sitting down to think and type on this, I realize maybe this is one of those times when I am to grow closer to God. When others are stripped away, I am left with Him. The question is: is God enough? He must be for me. No other way, because He is the only constant, sure thing. In the end, He must be my comfort, the lent ear, the calming wisdom needed for my day.  He is not a pill to cure my lethargy, but a companion who can pull the burden with me. Just thinking on this lifts my attitude about today.

Lord, you are with me. You are my constant companion. Help me own this relationship. That I would not take you for granted, or ever complain about being "all by myself!" For you said: "behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matt 28:20 and "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Heb. 13: 5

 

This picture leaves me with the old hymn ringing in my head: 

"Turn you eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glorious grace."

Wednesday evening

Wednesday evenings from 4-7 they have a farmer's market at City Park here in The Dalles. That's located between us and the river. I like the idea of going of a jog/walk there and then to the river front park and back every week It makes a nice 4 mile jaunt. Here's a look:

This barge was a ghost barge that was salvaged  

 Hannah had a blast running around on the windy beach.

 they found a hiding spot in the brush

 toes and only toes in the water

 find of the day: blackberries in a corner of the park.

I was to busy gabbing with several of the farmers market venders that I forgot to take pictures there. Maybe I'll do another post focusing on that. This is just a simple one to give you a glimpse into our Wednesday evenings.

Weekend Visitors

When we moved out to The Dalles, Or, we left everyone we knew back in Clark County, Washington State: about 90 miles away. That's a long trek for someone to just come over for a visit. Praise God that we bought a house that, one: has an extra bedroom, and two: a garage we converted into a comfortable bonus room. This last weekend we gained  several visitors for those reasons!
Dale's best buddy, Justin, got hired to work at Google and was already looking for a new place to stay, so we were able to move him into our garage for a bit till he finds a place in town! Ya, that's right, we scored ourselves a permanent visitor (at least in town!).

The trouble is now I'll never get my hubby out of the garage.

This is where I found him tonight. PS: He's on drums. Justin is on the guitar. They locked me out b/c they're recording another song. But their music's pretty darn cool and they have so much fun together...

Our second set of visitors this weekend were the Youm family: I have known Amy from our church in Vancouver for years now. She and her husband: Hyn Su (sorry Amy, I'm thinking I'm miss-spelling but I feel I'm close.) have two sons that are only months, or less, apart in age from my two daughters. They also have a sweet little girl who turned two! When Amy mentioned visiting, I jumped at the chance to see a familiar face as well as giving a very hospitable family a well earned mini vacation.
Here are the highlights:

We went to the river and let the kiddos "swim" around.

We went to the Dam's visitor's center where I got to learn more about this new city I'm now part of.

 My friend Amy and I hanging in the shade taking in the view at the Dam's picnic area

We walked to the school play ground after dinner and caught the sunset.

(we visited three different parks this weekend! The Dalles has a good selection.)

Couldn't resist capturing the happy couple and the sunset.

The next day after an easy breakfast casserole, we headed to Hood River and the Fruit Loop. We had a picnic lunch at Lavender Valley where both the eyes and nose were tantalized with deliciousness.

 

It was tough for these two to say good bye after teaming up to pick a bucket of blueberries at our last stop.They really are (as my mom would say) two peas in a pod!

I'll leave you with one more photo to just entice anyone else I know that might have a hankering to come out and visit: I have a guest room, my hubby has a garage to hide in, so come on over and I'll be happy share our new found treasure with you!

 

Why I Garage Sale: Shabby to shic couch

Why do I love garage sales? Grandma!

Mary Lyne Till, my hip and happening Grandma, is just now retiring from her career as an owner of Shady Lady Antiques in Whidbey Island. She is a garage sale picker and taught me everything I know. She has been dubbed the garage sale goddess of the island.

Have you ever seen that show: American Pickers? Ya. I love it, and have been watching episodes the last few evenings while in the garage taking my garage sale find and turning it into something fashionable.

Funny thing: my Grandpapa is an upholsterer. So I'm dedicating this post to the both of them.

 

Now down to business. We had been looking for a couch since we left our stinky, ugly old ones behind in the move. This is when we realized how expensive furniture is. The Dalles has alot less selection as well, everyone wanted over $100 for their ugly outdated couches at the consignment stores and Craigslist. So I went garage saleing and picked up this shabby, but comfy and smell free sofa for $15 (including delivery). 

I told myself: it just needs a cover! So I went to the thrift stores for ideas: nothing big enough to cover this beast. So I went garage sailing where if found 11 1/2 yards of soft black fabric with a hidden paisley design: $5.

I watched some youtube how to videos and got to work.

Snug covers for the seat cushions were made.

 I draped the fabric on the couch and did what sewing I could with a regular needle. (my fingers took a beating. If you do this: pick up an upholstery needle and thimble.)

Then I added these tacks that I picked up for $1.40 to give it a finished look.

I ran out of fabric for the top cushins and had a tiny panic attack, then I remembered our shower curtain! The fabric gave it a nice layer of texture and blended nicely!
To finish it off,  added some color with this button I picked up: $1.25.

 2 episodes of Pawn Stars. 3 American Pickers and 4 Food Network Star shows later:

We have a couch I can put in our house.
Total cost: $29.04

The Church Thing

The last few Sunday's I've been visiting different churches.


I have to admit, my attitude has not been as positive about this "church shopping" adventure because I am still morning the loss of an amazing church family back in Vancouver. Compass is an amazing work of God and we miss all of our friends there! It is sad to say that it is a rare thing to find a group of believers who avoid contention, love and accept unconditionally, and have a passion for the lost that does not end with words and tears on Sunday, but is lived. Over the years I've been in Compass, I have grown as a disciple of Christ, I have been compelled by love to live differently. To live missionally. Compass is not your typical church.

Now visiting a strange church is a very different experience. I get so nervous going in. I know no one. I wonder...will this be a waste of time? I have to find someone to ask where the kids go and when. I have to find a seat somewhere which can be difficult because I'm usually late. When I get through the worship which is different then what I'm used to and the sermon which is also different, I get one, maybe two smiles, handshakes and exchanges of names. One Sunday I went to pick up the kids, and the classroom was empty. I had no idea where my little girls were. Trying to hold back tears, I had to find a mom and ask her. They took all the kids up to a different building for kids worship and pick up. That Sunday experience left me feeling anxious and alone.  Because of what God has been stiring in my heart, it's saddening, even frustrating  for me to see churches filled with people who seem excited about God's love and even shout amen while the preacher talks of sharing that love, but then put on their blinder's and head straight to their friends or cars and right past lost lil me.

The same church wants to raise money for a very nice remodel of their facility so they can "grow". I thought their building was very nice and they were not crowed at all. Maybe it's me, but I don't think having a cafe and bookstore will be what attracts lost souls.
These are the things that annoy me and make me want to give up searching for a church...just a little bit.

However, this morning was a pleasant surprise. I had to do some talking with God and leave my cynicism at home. The church we went to was smaller and the building was simple, but I could tell they valued people and most of all: Christ and the Word He left us. It was nice to hear simple teaching from the Word.  I got to meet and have conversations with many people who hung around in a little coffee area including a Google couple and the pastor, who sat down at our table and picked my brain. He was very encouraging.  I was invited to two women's groups, and even got my pew mate's number (she's a mom of little girls like me!). There seems to be a lot of opportunity for ministry in both the music and children's department.
So they will at least get on the "call back" list for my church search.
Ultimately, I have peace because I know God has a place for us here, and He has a purpose. Once again, it's just my impatience that's getting me down. I have to remember too, that every Sunday morning is an adventure that I end up leaning from, weather it's a fun experience or not. It's growing me, so I guess I'm good.

Being Mom

Why am I posting at 2 something in the morning? Because after being awake for a good 1/2 hr calming two screaming little girls (one still curled up next to me half asleep) it seemed like the thing to do.

I like to keep busy with projects; finding ways to feel like I've accomplished something. I take my kids places and do things. However, with the changes of moving and with my mood being a tad off this week, I had to stop and realize my kids needed me more right now. At 3 and 5 they are still waking up once a night crying and needing comfort since we moved even though they always say they love our new home. So I will be trying to devote a little more one-on-one time with them. Yesterday I had hot coco with Hannah since she got up b/f Karis. Then in the evening I had Karis help me clean up the garage and took her out on a "date". We got dressed up. She was allowed body spray and some lipstick to make it special. Her destination request was the Clocktower (a local family friendly pub) because she had seen some cool arcade games in the back. However when we got there we found ourselves in the middle of a scene straight from American Graffiti. The local car show was in town and Clocktower was PACKED.

 

We played a few arcade games and then chose to head across the busy street to Burgerville for Sundays and fries.

There we danced to Karis's favorite Disney songs played on the jukebox and watched the fancy cars roll by.

 

Karis took a pic of Hannah and I once we got home. We watched an episode of The original X men cartoon. (isn't Netflix great?) Then headed to bed.

After all the hugs, kisses, and time spent, I woke to inconsolable crying from first Karis, then Hannah. Being a mom is hard. No matter how much I try to love them, it may never satisfy. The best part about being a mommy today was seeing my children calm down while I prayed over them. Felling God's peace as we cried out to Him together. God has been teaching me how much I have yet to love Him. Tonight was one of the crisp clear glimpses of what it means to follow after Christ; to live in His love. I am sad that it took a wake up call at 2am to get me to pray with my girls. But the wake up call has now been documented online, so I cant forget it. It's my reminder to what really matters in my life. THIS: pointing my children to the only one who can give them peace, holding and loving them in their moment of fear and giving it to God together. THIS is what I'm here for. Being Mom is a challenge, being a lover and disciple of Christ gives it worth.