Operation Christmas Child: Our shoe box made it to Georgia!

Our Samaritan's Purse shoe box went to Georgia.  Now, I did a bit of checking to make certain that I could share with K- exactly where it went.  It did not go to the State of Georgia, but rather it went to the Country of Georgia.  Last year, our box went to Iraq.

I always pass my box over to the one lady at work who takes it to church to put in their donation pile.  She laughs because she knows that we pack every nook and cranny full.  If there is any type of void in the box, I try to fill it.  "You put so much in the box!"  "I do that so that they can share with their family!"  Who knows if every child in the family scores a shoe box?  At least this way, the child who receives it can share, because there is more than enough.

I love that we can find out where the boxes went off to.  What about you?  If you sent a box, did you find out where your box got off to?

The Force was with her.

Yoda.  Who would think?  I found a Yoda peep-esque pop at the store the other day.  As a treat for K-, I bought it and included it in her lunch with a note that said that she was to, "Eat it at Grandma's house."  Lunchtime got the better of her, as well as her being a glutton for punishment, and she ate the whole thing.  "Mom, it was just so delicious, I just couldn't stop." 

Okay then.

After lunch, they had their class party.  Why yes, with my child's history, you know where this is going.  Apparently, she had pepperoni pizza where she actually ate the pepperonis.  She never does that.  She had a few bites of pizza, then a brownie followed up by a trip to the nurse. 

She made it, but the nurse said that she nearly took her out.

I got the call at work.  "Is this Amy?  Amy L-?"  "Yes."  "This is the Health Aide at -- Elementary." "Oh, no."  "K- is in my office and got sick."  "She just had pizza."  "Yes."  :understanding tone as we had dealt with this in the past:  "I think it is her reflux, but let me talk to her please."  K- agreed that she thought it was reflux, but it freaked her out enough to say, "Mom, can you please come get me?" 

How could I say no?

I left my co-workers stranded and hauled off to get my kid.  I stood at the secretary's check out desk with tears in my eyes.  "You know it's her birthday."  The clerical assistant was so sad.  We moved her birthday celebration to tomorrow night.  We wanted to err on the side of caution.  It's just not worth a slice of cake by potentially taking out the whole family with the stomach bug. 

We hung out.  I taught K- how to weave on her loom.  Hubs built a Star Wars Lego ship (some Naboo thing) with K-.  She played with Squinkies and we watched Christmas Vacation together.  (Yes, some questionable bits, but K- knows what is right and wrong and knows that it isn't a wholesome movie.  She wanted to watch it.)  Hubs brought Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes home and we sang happy birthday to her with an "8" candle in one.  (Not that we didn't have cake that we could have used.  Dad brought those home special.) 

It was a laid back night and it wasn't so bad.  It was the first quiet birthday she's ever had.  Frankly, it was kind of nice being able to just focus on her and not everyone else.   A blessing in disguise, really.

She's back to her regularly scheduled programming.  It's a good day.

Eight is great!

To my girl who loves to do lickety letters with the mixing bowls (minus raw egg, of course!) Baby girl, today you are 8. You wanna know what? Eight IS great! You've been so excited about your birthday that you've reminded your teacher an exhaustive number of times. You went down with your classmate (both with the same birthday) on Thursday to try to cash in on your "Today is my birthday" ribbon and pencil. (Mr. B- giggled, hugged you and told you to come back!) We had your girl party on Saturday-- your first one! You had snow on both Saturday and today and secretly, you think that is a special gift that God sent to just you. Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. ;)

You've become more independent, more of a problem solver and quite a worker if you want to be. I laugh because you kind of freaked a couple of cashiers out the other day when you told them, "I like your store!" I think that holiday fatigue had the best of them at that point. They didn't know what to say!

We hope that you have a wonderful day and a wonderful year of 8. We can't wait to see what 8 brings! 

Happy birthday, K-!

Love,

Mom (and Dad, too!)

Can we have a Christmas without a check list?

Is it possible?  Can we have a Christmas season without checking things off of the ever-growing list of things?  Probably not.

Baking.

Shopping.

Shopping again for the ones that crop up.

Christmas cards.

Holiday parties.

Donations.

School functions.

Birthday parties.  (For those of us with holiday babies.)

Cleaning.

Miscellaneous medical appointments.  (For those of us who have a bee sting that won't go away.)

Wrapping.

Trimming the tree and decorating the house.

Church. 

Church.  Should it be on a checklist?  Uh, no.  Just like we should give the first fruits monetarily, we shouldn't give church/God our leftovers, either.  I think about last week.  We're still extremely new to the church that we are attending, though falling in quite nicely.  They had a church Christmas dinner.  A few in our Sunday School class brought it up to us, but in the end, we just didn't go.  I still don't know quite enough people (I know, I know-- that is a way to get to know people) and I was eyeball deep in cookie dough.  I felt guilty, as I felt that I chose checking things off my list over spending time of fellowship with the members of the new church.  Actually, "feeling" that I was choosing was more so "choosing" cookie dough and baking over them.  Had I known earlier than just that morning, we'd be in a different boat. 

Still, I sit here on a quiet Sunday thinking about what I'm going to cook in the pressure cooker.  (Chicken.)  There is a hum of the computer.  K- is in her bedroom taking a "Mommy Math Practice Test" and Hubs is downstairs working on putting things together for our bird feeding area outside. 

My baking is done.

My shopping list is complete.

The surprise pop-up's of gift needs are handled.

Christmas cards were mailed the day after Thanksgiving.

Holiday parties have been attended or are planned.  In fact, I had to step away from writing this to assemble the craft kits for K-'s party.  Eeek!

Donations have been given, but there's room for more should the need arise.

School functions have been attended or attended to.

Birthday parties. (For those of us with holiday babies.)  One was yesterday and one will be Tuesday.  There will be one on Wednesday for school.  That girl can't say that we didn't properly recognize her holiday season birthday!

Cleaning.  Well, that runs on the rinse and repeat, but it's done-- for now.

Miscellaneous medical appointments. (For those of us who have a bee sting that won't go away.)  I'm thankful for doctors who you can get in to see right away, most of the time.

Wrapping.  Just a few minor incidentals left.

Trimming the tree and decorating the house.  Day after Thanksgiving thankyouverymuch.

Church.  Each week and Christmas falling on a Sunday isn't even enough to scare us away.

I want this week to be check list free.  I don't see that it can completely happen, but I've done everything that I can to ensure a fairly low-stress check list of a week.  It's not how it always goes. 

We can always hope.

Have a great day!