Laundry Love Realized

Ahhh..a cure for my problems?  Find someone else's.

We made our beef stew yesterday, loaded it up along with boxes of crackers, plates, spoons, cups, napkins, salt and pepper, and ..laundry detergent.  I'm so glad I took it.  We ran out of three huge liquid detergent bottles (those huge ones with the spout at the bottom!), so we did need more.

I am humbled.  My kids are humbled, more thankful, and glad they went.  I can't say we didn't sanitize when we got back in the car to go home, but we worked hard.  We got a brief tutorial about our jobs, and quickly got to work.  Each family got three blue wash load tickets, and three white drying tickets.  They would give us a blue ticket, we would help them load the washer, add detergent, select the cycle, and add at least ten quarters for them.  Some people washing would get really frustrated with us, go and get the detergent, and pour it from the top of the container until they saw millions of suds (they needed to SEE suds to believe they were being cleaned!) in the washer window.  (Maybe they thought we were shorting them?)  We finally moved the detergent to the back room to preserve the last box.  We had one load of clothes that was streaked with detergent (not surprisingly!), and then we had to pay to rewash it.

Next, we moved them all slowly to dryers as they finished washing.  They'd give us a white ticket, and we'd add at least six quarters to get them started.  We had dry erase markers (what a great idea!) to write their names on the glass fronts so we'd know whose clothes were inside.

At the same time, we started feeding everyone.  It was like a tiny community, and we eventually got to know everyone by name (the dry erase markers and name tags helped too!).  We served four kinds of soup, ham sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly, crackers, cookies, and we had tons of bagels donated by Einstein's Bagels that smelled just heavenly!  My mom also handed out all the strawberry jam we'd made this week.  We felt like Santa passing out so much food to lovely people.

They were all kind, incredibly thankful, and asked if we'd come back (not the workers, the families!), so we felt touched.  That's the best way to describe it.  Even the people I'd invited were so sweet and loving.  The way they helped, touched, hugged, and loved on the people was precious to watch.  My mom is working on finding one woman a washer and dryer since the lady is helping so many other families.  We found her a dryer today on craigslist.com, but she still needs a washer.  Oh, how many people just give away their washers.  I've done it.  One will come, I just know it.  It's just a matter of time.


I can not tell you in words the work we did-the dirtiest laundry, making sure they got home clean by bagging them in trash bags to avoid touching the things they came in, folding other people's laundry, keeping an eye on stopped dryers to add more coins, refilling lemonade, waitressing/serving food, praying for the people who wore the clothes.

I can only say again that if you ever feel your burdens are too heavy, too much for you to bear, open your eyes to look at others'.  You'll gladly take up your cross and walk another mile.  God gives us what we can bear, and He gives them what they can bear.  Be thankful for your blessings and the burdens He's chosen for you.  They were hand-picked for YOU alone.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Matthew 16:24-25

Fossils and Monkeys

I really do love boys, mine of course : )  I used to think I had a preference for girls, but I gotta say, Boys Rock.  They are so sweet, and creative, and love almost everything ugly, and give good hugs, and only want time.  I love it!

Today I went Fossil Hunting with Clay.  He was so upset that Ches hadn't taken him down to the creek yet (at the back of our neighborhood, there's a park/creek/covered bridge-and he loves to hunt for stuff!).  After dinner, I took him down there.  So fun!

 This is on the east side of the bridge-but then I realized we'd have to walk through HIGH grass to get to the dry creek bed, so we crossed the street, and went down the west side.  Much better.

 Doesn't it look steep?  It is!  And I had worn flip-flops.  Not really planning ahead.

 He started looking right away.  He was also carrying his bug jar, Just In Case!  He's still looking for bugs every chance he gets as research for boy scouts.

Checking things out..

The sun began to set, and I took notice of everything around me-just beautiful.  The trees "upstream" were framing the sunset.  The sun is at the very bottom-can you see it?

 This is our covered bridge-so pretty.  We'd originally planned to build right across from it, but they took so long finishing the road, we settled for a house up closer to the front of the neighborhood!  And now, they are building on the old lot we loved. (but they cut down the trees, and it's lots less amazing now!)

Fossils.

Looking west up the dry creek (silently thankful it's dry-I was worried about falling in on the steep banks, getting my shoes wet, snakes, and the fossils were WAY better on the bottom!)

This was a pretty tree (overgrown bush-thing?), I'm sure it's poisonous, but so beautiful with all it's bright red berries.

Then we came home, and it was still kinda light outside.  Clay's been wanting to show me how he can climb our trees (that our builder cut all the low branches off of!), and I just had to see it.  He throws up his soccer ball until it gets stuck, then he has to climb up to get it.  It's about 20 feet up in the air (or more!) so it really worried me!

Here he gets started shimming up the trees.  (I used to do this in my doorways at home!  I had to leave my socks/shoes off to get traction, but he is doing fine!)

 Almost there..

My other monkey!  He is up there, getting the ball down.

Then he slide/climbs back down the other tree! (only some bark was lost, Ches!)

He's so happy-Victory!

I love my sweet boys-they are just precious!  And they love time alone with us.  Today Ethan and I did a puzzle, and he just wanted me to watch him play on the driveway.  It is seriously the little things that matter to them.

Tonight I took soup to church for the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults-people who are converting to Catholicism)-I love to cook (when I can!), and to have people to eat it-*Bonus*!  I'd made brownies (with mini-chocolate chips and pecans) yesterday, and I made some chocolate chip cookies to take with the soup.  Not hard, but when someone lets you help out, it really does bless you.

We talked at Bible study yesterday about people who are nice, but won't let you help-that robs us of a blessing!  When you let us help-think of the joy we get too! : )  Don't be selfish, let us help.  That's my slogan, hahaha! : )

My baby is asleep under my bed, again.  At least he's asleep, unlike last night.  He kept waking up at all hours yelling that he wanted to read a book-so funny (and frustrating!).

Love on your boys, and hug on your girls-they all need love just like we do!