Assorted Christmas photos.

Don't have time to upload all our Christmas photos tonight. Here are some highlights, in reverse order, of course:

Chipper with his new hunting knife!

Rose, in the Santa hat that she found in her stocking, with her new alarm clock.

Ralph and his new lion. I just love the way he half-zips his jammies!

Sitting on his Santa gift. A vacuum cleaner. A real one! Santa found that it was cheaper than the toy vacuums!

The crew.

Getting the crew assembled.

My most intense child using her jedi mind powers on some cheese cracker crumbs.

Counting coins.

After gathering up everyone who wanted to make the trek to the bank in town, I found myself with all the little kids and no big helpers. No matter. I can handle those babies just fine. One problem, the jar weighed over 30 pounds I'm guessing. It was much heavier than Ralph!

We parked at the bank, prayed together, and then I got out the double stroller. Ralph in the front, Ruby in the back. Thomas pushed it. I carried the loaded jar. Rose and Leroy opened the doors. What a sight!

We could only dump about half of the coins into the machine at one time. I was nervous to press the start button. I guess I was afraid it would make lots of noise, but mostly it just jingled like change in your pocket. Halfway through, the coin counter stopped because a bag inside was full. A lady came to replace it and we started counting again.

A digital display indicated the running total in dollars. It was fun to watch the money add up! We poured the rest of the coins in and watched the total approach $100. We all cheered when we hit $100 and the counting continued.

Then...I bumped the jar. Yes, it fell to the floor...smashed! After all the care that I took to carry it carefully while it was heavy and full, I had to bump it and smash it now that it was empty. *sigh*

Of course, I was not allowed to clean up my own mess. Liability and all. The counting continued. A few coins were spit out and I threw them back in! The grand total? Way more than I expected:

• 2514 pennies
• 281 nickels
• 477 dimes
• 203 quarters
• 1 half dollar
• 1 dollar!

That adds up to $139.14 in coins. There were also some foreign pennies and assorted bills in the jar making the total somewhere around $180. (I'm rounding up!) I was really hoping for about half that much.

I've brought out a new jar. A friend sent this jar to me full of potato soup after Ralphie was born. We have already begun our 2010 coin collection, starting with the mother lode that I found in daddy's trunk!!

Today is the day...

I'm not completely happy with my efforts, but here it is:

This money is for Maxim's adoption grant fund. We sure had a great time putting money in this jar over the course of the year. We'll be praying over it this morning, that God would multiply our efforts, before we head out to the bank.

Then we will be starting over.

This kid really needs a home. Would someone just please adopt him?

Leroy emptied his entire pig bank, except for four pennies that he wanted to keep. 'Cause he is four year old, you know! I did have to pick out a bunch of paper.

This is what I did on Christmas eve. Yep. Someone dropped something down into the filter housing. It made a terrible noise when it got sucked into the fan. While I was in there I went ahead and vacuumed out and trimmed the dryer vent. It was too long and full of lint and sand. How much $$ do you think I saved by doing this myself? Not sure I want to know!

Christmas photos are on the way later today!!

Christmas day 2009

Wow! What a week! We had a fun day together, but I messed dinner up. Apparently the ham needed to cook for about 10 hours. I found this out while reading the cooking instructions on the label about 3 hours before dinner! I ran out to Walgreens on the off chance that they had something I could use. I wasn't willing to have hotdogs so I came back home and whipped up a meatloaf. I think that is just hilarious! Who never heard of meatloaf for Christmas dinner?

Can you believe that we were able to get our Christmas shopping done on time, on budget, and with cash? We made a committment to ourselves and to God to take better care of the money that He provides us. We made a committment to ourselves and to God to take better care of the people that He has placed in our lives. You know...giving our presence, not just presents.


Finally, I had the time this week to get some baking done. We made some oatmeal scotchies, chocolate covered pretzels and some brownies. I added some candy canes to an assortment of goodies and made plates for the neighbors. Rose accompanied me to deliver them on Wednesday. We stuck a Reece's Rainbow brochure with each plate and invited our neighbors to add some spare change to our adoption jar.

I was so pleasantly surprised at how willing our sweet neighbors were to share a little love in the way of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. We are really very blessed to live in such a friendly God fearing neighborhood.

Our adoption jar was a Christmas gift to me from my dear husband last year. We've been dropping in change for a year now. I rarely ever spend any coins. They go in the jar. Sometimes I throw my 1's in, too.

I once heard on the radio that a great way to save money was to save all your change and dollar bills. It was a problem for me most of the year because I used to always use a credit/debit card when shopping. The jar was just not filling up. But, a few months ago I started taking my grocery money out of the bank each payday and using only cash. It is amazing how I have spent less AND the jar has been filling up nicely!

The kids are also very focused on getting that jar filled. Nearly ever piggy bank has been emptied and every coin found goes straight in the jar. I keep trying to estimate the value of all the coins in my head, but I really have no clue. We will be taking the jar to the coin counter at the credit union next week and send the money in to Maxim's adoption grant fund. You know, the coin counter there is free for members? I'm so glad we don't have to wrap all those coins up.

We have a few more days and a few more inches left in the jar. I wonder if we could manage to get it all the way to the top for dear Maxim?

tale of two computers

Here I am, typing on my dinosaur ergonomic keyboard on my trusty old tank of a computer. I'm pretty thankful for this steady old friend. We've been through much together over the past 8 1/2 years. Sure, I have to scroll left and right to read most of the blogs that I follow. And, yes, it takes a few minutes to load the Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree page. (All those beautiful photos tend to slow things down) But, I can hard boot him anytime and he just takes it beautifully.

My flashy, slim laptop is turning out to be a rather delicate and fickle friend. He's the one you want everyone to see you hanging out with. He's also the one who stabs you in the back when you least expect it. This week Mr. Laptop is pretending that he can't find his operating system, but I know better. He just enjoys toying with me.

My problem is that I'd rather have any computer than no computer at all. So I go running back to my trusted friend whenever Mr. Laptop treats me badly. It's all very disfunctional, I know.

I saw what I saw.

I listened to this song by Sara Groves today. It takes me to a pretty dark place, but gives me courage to live my convictions. What am I made of? What am I afraid of?

I Saw What I Saw - Sara Groves

***************************************

I saw what I saw and I can't forget it
I heard what I heard and I can't go back
I know what I know and I can't deny it

Something on the road, cut me to the soul

Your pain has changed me
Your dream inspires
Your face a memory
Your hope a fire
Your courage asks me what I'm afraid of 
and what I know of love

We've done what we've done and we can't erase it
We are what we are and it's more than enough
We have what we have but it's no substitution

Something on the road, cut me to the soul

I say what I say with no hesitation
I have what I have but I'm giving it up
I do what I do with deep conviction

Something on the road, cut me to the soul

Your courage asks me what I’m afraid of
Your courage asks me what I am made of 
Your courage asks me what I’m afraid of
and what I know of love
and what I know of god

There is not a drop of water...

...in the air! That's some baby-fine hair for ya'.

Remember when I asked you to guess what I was making? Well, here it is...

Well, half of it anyway. Wesley is helping Ruby to model her new baby leg warmers! Next she is toasty warm, laying in the sunshine in her new leg warmer by the dining room windows. What a life! 

I'm working on the mate right now. I'm a little less motivated, but I need to keep working and get it done. I'm a great starter, but a reluctant finisher. Anyone know what I mean?