COMMON GROUND COFFEE HOUSE #79

He's in my prayers too.

I went to Destin Florida with my boyrfriend's family. It was sooo nice.

 

Believe it or not, still, after nearly five years of my father being gone, I still come to tears when I hear that word....the "C" word. I've lost many friends and family to this dreaded disease. As Dr. Bob would say, "I HATE CANCER!"

 

We've actually looking into that Jim and found some lovely awnings that would match the house but just cannot afford them. Even with my child care money, we BARELY get by. We got rid of Jim's car since he has a company car and they provide gas and insurance for him.

We had dual screens on those windows with the second set made of a material that is to block the sun's rays but it only helps. I take the silver windshield covers and put those in behind the curtains during the worst days of summer. They can't be seen from the street because of the double screens and they also help but my old computer would shut down for over heating! We took the cover off, installed a floor fan and added an extra internal fan .... Hope the new computer doesn't crash but then I don't use it anywhere near as much as I did when the internet was 'new' to me.

 

Well this was one of those difficult days.

MacKenzie and Brayden were not supposed to come but Mom got overtime. Dad was to pick them up by 2:15. At 2:30 I had to track down my husband to rush home and babysit so I could go pick up Max at school. (Not enough car seats). I'm in the line and leaving with Max when my cell rings. Seems Max's father decided not to work and instead of me bringing him here, they wanted me to take him to his house. MacKenzie and Brayden's dad got here just before 5:00! I have them and Ty tomorrow but can go back to sleep for a while.

MacKenzie was talking to our next door neighbor and stood in an ant bed. She had about 4 good bites but they were not fire ants. Whew! I had to bathe off both Ty and MacKenzie just so they could nap. They were red from head to toe from the Ga. clay.

I have a canker sore in the back of my mouth behind my molars. OUCH. It's hot. The lawn mower broke (the good one) while Jim was trying to cut the back yard.

Monday starts the two brothers and I've got to quickly find a way to protect the queen sized mattress in the rec room. The older boy still wets the bed and will during his nap at times. I don't have the funds for a good mattress pad! I'm thinking a cheap dollar store shower curtain! They just happen to be out right now.....

Jim and I both thought today was Friday and were so looking forward to one day off. Sunday is weird. Sunday School is at 9:00 with one of those 'give us your money' ceremonies followed by a cook out and then back into church for a 'guess how much you promised to give' announcement. We've already had $1. million pledged. I get to keep the kids two weeks in a row instead. Guess they know I have no money.

Okay, enough moaning and back to ironing. Wish that rain would hurry up and get here!

 

Sue, your rain for sure moved south!! I kept waking up from all the thunder and the lightning. It was really bad down here.

 

There's plenty of rain up here!

 

The storms are supposed to be moving from N.W. Georgia down to us within hours. It's cloudy, 75° and breezy right now. Ty and MacKenzie are out playing. Brayden is sleeping.

I sure hope Jim can get his outside inspecting done before the storms begin! He's not working tomorrow! NEAT... except the weather... may not be nice. I REALLY want to and need to have a yard sale. This weekend was to be horrible and now may not. Next weekend shows strong storms but who knows. Last weekend was to storm but it was pretty. With all the kids, it's really hard to dig through closets and the storage room AND I don't want to advertise or even set up in the garage if the weather isn't going to 'hold'. I think a nice long weekend, like Memorial Day, would be a great weekend for a sale.

Well, I had to eat something with another cup of tea because my vitamins make me feel ill... but time to get my chores done!

Diane

 

Good morning all!

Diane, if I were you I'd wait till the first weekend in June to have the yard sale. Ours last week wasn't worth having. Together, MIL and I didn't make over $50. After the first, when the checks come out, maybe people will have more to spend.

The rain passed us by, so sometime this pm, I have to water my plants. Hopefully, I'll get to transplant the few other things that need moving and clean up the front porch today. First I have some sewing to do and a little straightening.

My back is much better today! Hopefully it will stay this way and I can forget about it for a while again(while=weeks, months or years, whichever I can get away with).

Only three more days of school left!!!!! Precious only has two, today and Monday. I'm quite ready for summer.

 

It is summertime here. 95 degrees...a record high for this day.

I ran errands this afternoon and treated myself to some shopping (lots of looking). Went to the library, picked up my new glasses, then on to Bed, Bath and Beyond (bought new tablecloth, napkins, and placemats) then to Michaels (bought canvas, an ornamental wall hanging, and flowers) and then to Barnes and Noble. It was lots of fun. I did lots of browsing. I haven't done this in a long time.

 

The rains came through with a lot of noise but not a lot of moisture. The kids slept through the thunder and then made more noise than the thunder until the last one left at 4:45. I have the two new boys starting Monday at 6:15. It's only for 10 weeks out of the 11 weeks during the summer but the money is good for me and less for the mom than her regular daycare. I'm just going to have to start off 'tough' with the one 5 year old I have in Sunday School. I don't like change.... and this is going to be a change for me, again.

Well hubby's been asleep for a couple of hours. I took a late nap after supper so I'm just getting a little sleepy. Talk to you all tomorrow.

Diane

 

Morning Sue and all who come after us!

Jim's already outside doing yard work. He's 'on call' for work, tho. I've only been up about 45 minutes. The children wear me out!

It's foggy here this morning and low 60's° but that should burn off soon and be high 70's°. That's not bad for yard work. The rest of the coming week has quite a bit of showers possible. That bothers me because I'd hoped the two brothers who start on Monday could have a lot of yard time to expend energy but when I think about it, they'd might as well start off inside learning my rules and playing, cleaning up after themselves, etc. I keep reminding myself that I'll only have them for 10 out of the 11 weeks of summer and 6:15 until 4:00.

This is my last week having Max. He's the one I pick up at the elementary school. That's going to free up a good hour of my time! I won't do 'pick ups' anymore. That was a year long lesson but I committed to doing it and didn't back out even when it wasn't worth it financially.

Cindi, you mentioned holding off on the Yard Sale. I'm really hoping it's pretty next weekend and I'll do it then. That's a long weekend and school is out all over by then. I'm thinking Friday, Sat. and Monday. The second week of June is VBS and the weekend before is to decorate and the weekend after is for meltdown!

I'm working on my decorations. As soon as the sun breaks through today I can finish painting my 'tire' goodie holders. I'm making a road to go around parts of my room (highway) with little signs and cars that I cut out of the VBS catalog. I've got a large mountain to put up and want to make a tree out of the butcher paper like I did last year. The tables will be covered with picnic cloths so my room will be the rest area/ picnic area on our 'Ramblin' Road Trip'. I've been making tissue flowers but am out of tissue paper now. I need a bunch of green tissue paper and a can of black spray paint today. The church gave us all $50. for decorations.

The lessons happen to be some of the same lessons we've told all year long.... but that's okay. Kids off the street haven't heard them.

Okay, time to get busy. My tea is finished and my whole family is doing something constructive now. My turn!

Diane

 

Yep, VBS is coming! Daughter and I are on our way out to get African decor items for our Safari VBS theme. We will eventually need to find tall grasses by the side of the road we can cut down without trespassing. That should be a fun trip!

I'll be having the same issue with the stories. They even come at the same time as VBS. But the "street" kids won't know them.

Jambo!

 

You ladies are making me feel bad. I haven't even looked at VBS stuff yet. I only know that I'm decorating the room with old maps and maybee a few road signs. It's going to be very simple unless I get some help. The lady that was supposed to help me can't because she has to work and is overloaded. We teachers get to provide our own decorations with the exception of all the paper we can use and the die cut machine. We usually do a good job.

Today must be yardwork day cause that is what I'm doing to. Just stopped long enough to cool off and rehydrate. The bugs are a pain in the neck even with bug spray.

I came in to see if T would come fix the push mower for me so I can mow under the cedar tree. Poor thing is asleep on the couch! He carried the kids over to B'ham to see Star Wars today. They've worn him out! I'm such a good wife that I'll let him sleep for a little while, till I really need the mower. Right now I'm working on the hedges. If anyone is wondering why I'm doing hedges instead of T, it's because T's idea of trimming hedges involves a chainsaw and not clippers!

 

Cindi, I took 6 pieces of black poster board and cut it into long sections that look like highway, put white dashes down the center with a few turn lanes, Hospital Zones, etc. along the way. I cut out a LOT of things from the VBS catalog I had gotten months ago for road signs, etc.

I'm going to have my room look like a road side park. Going from Washington to Chicago, Lebanon, Ks, to Yellowstone and ending in California makes it tough. I got some plastic table cloths for my 3 tables and am covering the backs of the cubby holed bookshelves with green tissue paper and tissue paper flowers. I also got some street signs from Miss Bobbie's church website. She's a member who is inactive here but has GREAT ideas. I'm going to print them at church on different colored papers, such as 'Jesus Allows U Turns', 'Yield to Jesus', and of course, Stop, One Way, Rest Area, Exit 1 mile.... I've got 3 road carpets already in my room. The toy area, I'm going to cover with gray material and our Jon suggested a jagged white piece over the top to look like snow on the mountain.

http://www.wrightsborobaptistchurch.org/05vbs.html

http://papertoys.com/

http://makingfriends.com/biblecrafts/ramblinroad.htm

 

Was in A.C.Moore today and they are selling those plastic mugs that have paper inserts that kids color. Well, that's not unusual, but what is is that this version had a paper insert for each of 3 different VBS themes - Road Trip, Safari, and Castles. They were 97 cents.

They have suggestions for crafts posted already for all of the themes.

We now have a 6 foot cardboard giraffe in our coffee/welcome area by the VBS volunteer recruiting table. Think anyone will notice tomorrow?