A heartfelt Valentine's Day

Some of you may have received my email invitation to come volunteer for a BBQ on Valentine's Day. This wasn't your average, run of the mill BBQ, it was a BBQ for the homeless that have set up a tent city in Ontario off of San Antonio and D Street just south of I-10. 

I felt really strongly that I wanted my children to see this and be a part of this effort. I wanted them to see how the other side lives. My pampered children have no comprehension of poverty. Their idea of poverty is when we can't afford to fix the Wii and they have to go without. They don't know what squalor and despair look like. They've never seen hunger, mental illness, and deprivation.

We got there a little late. Before heading over there, I looked around at a store for some beanie hats to donate but was unable to find any. By the time we got there, there wasn't all that much for my kids to do. Bekkah quickly got into the spirit of things. She talked to this one homeless woman. We had some drinks in the back of our car and she gave them away. She even gave her own coat away. Steven on the other hand was at a loss; he was dumbfounded, uncomfortable, and out of his element. Out of desperation and a desire for him to be of service, I told him to take some waters and offer them to the BBQ attendees. So, Steven walked around passing out bottled water. I kept my eye on him, never once did he leave my sight.

We may have stayed for 45 minutes. We had another appointment to go to. But, I am happy that we were able to go for a little bit and participate. In the future, we will attend and participate more actively. But, this was a good start.

Michelle, thank you for letting me know about this opportunity for service. I feel truly enriched because my children were able to experience that Christ-like love that comes from serving our fellow man. 

*Please note: We didn't take any pictures. We felt it would be too intrusive and would violate the spirit of the event. I had my camera out and was tempted, but thought better of it!

I'm such a sucker!

Happy Belated Valentines Day!  I have been busy trying to get caught up on laundry, dishes, managing my children, and the repairs on the roof/interior of the house! 

I've been depressed about the state of our roof - it's been leaking like a sieve 

and has caused a lot of damage to the interior drywall. The restoration/water abatement company had to come back with the fans and dehumidifier to dry us out again yesterday. After our friend, Shelby Clontz who owns his own company called Bruce Roofing, came and repaired the roof last Wednesday, it leaked again this weekend; this is not a bad review of his very capable services, it is a bad review of our rotten roof! What we have learned is that this summer we need to replace all the paper on our roof. The builder used crappy roof paper on our roof and after a while it will wear out. So, we get to spend $6-8,000 to replace the paper and tiles and fix our roof to make it water tight so we can avoid further leaks. 

Last week's creative venture:

I have so little time lately to be creative that I use every opportunity to do so. So, for Valentine's Day I made the kids homemade suckers to take to school and share with their friends. I have had all the supplies for almost 10 years now and that creative bug just took over and I did it! I'm so glad I did. The last time, almost 6 years ago, I got those supplies out, my results were not as tasty and cute! Of course, I didn't own a marvelous Silpat! Silpat is a silicone mat that is virtually non-stickable. You can bake on it, make candy on it, etc. I enjoyed myself. I made watermelon, green apple and bubble gum flavored suckers. The hardest thing about it is that you are working with liquid that is 300 degrees. My kids were in bed, thankfully. But, this is not one of those projects that you can let your kids help with unless they help put the wrappers on or remove the candy from the molds. It was fun to just be able to focus on that one activity for a while. And, it is so inexpensive to make the suckers in comparison with all the store bought candies you purchase. The ingredients are sugar, corn syrup and water. Then you add flavoring and coloring if you want it. That's it. I have these cute large and small heart shaped molds along with cars and flowers and child shaped molds. They were a hit with the kids. I'm thinking of making them again for Easter!