Sandwich Saturday

Every third Sunday of the month, our church participates in Sandwich Saturday. We meet at the church at 9:30 am, pack brown lunch bags with sandwiches, bananas, cookies, and chips then we all drive downtown to a church where homeless/people in need know to come and we pass the lunches out along with bottled water. Our family has participated in 3 of these times. Last month it was the children's ministry as the group to participate. Roger was not able to go, but the kids and I did. It is really heartbreaking to see so many people lined up. There have been times when the turnout was larger than other times and we haven't had enough food and water. Then there have been times when the turnout was smaller and we were able to give people seconds on the food and water. Most of the people are friendly. Last time, the kids had traveled downtown in a friend's van, and we had to cross the street to retrieve Lauren's car seat and then walk back to our van. We were the last family to leave. I knew I should have asked my friend to drive over to our van so we could get the car seat, just to be safer, but I didn't ask. As the kids and I were walking back to our van, there were some men who were loudly making fun of Lauren sitting in a baby seat. Since then, I have asked the church to make sure that any single ladies have left before any men leave the premises, just for security reasons.

Workin' On the House

At the end of May Roger's parents came out to celebrate Evan's birthday, but to also help us put up new siding on the house. Things took a lot longer than expected, but the two tallest sides got done, and now Roger and I are trying to finish the shorter sides of the house. But, with Roger being tired after work, our weekends being incredibly busy, and the weather being in the high 90-100 degree temps, things are going slow. If all of the cards would just fall into place, we'd have it all done in one weekend, maybe one day. Hopefully our neighbors will have some patience with us and not start getting upset knocking on our door wondering when we'll be done. Keeping that in mind, we're trying to finish all of the parts of the house that are more easily seen by people who would drive by our house and will finish the back parts that are more hidden from the neighbors by our fence until the end.

Pulling off the old wooden vertical/horizontal siding:

Putting up the blue insulation and sheeting. We even finished one night using the headlights of the truck:

Putting up the siding. For the south side of the house, Roger had to back up the truck and put the ladder on the bumper to reach the very top of the house:

Birthdays

My kids are growing up way too fast. Evan turned 10 in May and Lauren turned 7 in April!

Homeschool Field Day

We have so enjoyed the YMCA's homeschool fitness class this school year. To end the year, they had a field day followed by a wonderful potluck lunch. Games included 3 legged races, egg/spoon race, wheelbarrow walk, tug of war, bubble gum blowing contest (finding the gum with your mouth in some whipped cream), and the fire department came out and squirted the kids with the truck. Evan and Lauren had a blast!