Raising Funds for the people of Haiti......and awe.

I had a "to do" list this week that could choke a horse, well that is if a horse would eat it. I kept trying to find one that would, but no luck.

No, not really. I love my work, love my family, love my volunteer work on the LREDA board (why oh why oh why are ALL the GA deadlines on January 15th? OK, not all but it sure felt like it!) But still, it was a heck of a list.

But sometimes things just have to wait. And you have to be ready to take on the really important things. Sometimes it's a family issue, and you just have to drop some project or activity and focus on a child for a few hours, or a few days or weeks or even months or years. It's always worth it.

Sometimes a clean house is just out of the question--yes even for weeks or months. Other things need to get done and everyone has to learn to deal with the piles of crap everywhere.

Sometimes it's just some of the daily things that seem to be urgent--sometimes there's a wake up call and it puts everything in perspective.

Like this horrible tragedy in Haiti.

I have a very odd talent for being able to feed large groups of people. It's nothing I've worked on, I think I was born this way. And I knew that even if no one else had time to help, that I wanted to have a benefit lunch to raise funds for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee at church this week. We made a quick plan, I knew I could get everything at the local restaurant supply store for about $100--and the minister sent out a group email announcing the lunch and telling people to contact me if they wanted to help.

Here's the awe. Almost immediately I got a whole slew of emails offering to make food, bring food, set up, clean up, serve. Offers to help. We were all looking for a way to turn our grief into action. I let things settle for a day, made a list of what we needed, divided it up and sent out the assigned food. It took all of 20 minutes.

And we raised over $800. EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS! 149 members! A holiday weekend! Wow.

Top it off? My son led the service this morning. And he preached. And he was great. And his friend, also a teen, preached and was great, too.

That's enough day for me. I'm putting on yoga pants and watching me some Golden Globes. No, it's not on that monster "to do" list! Not on any list. I'm still doing it. The guys are going to a guy movie, the little dog and I will cuddle up and see what all this fuss is about Paul McCartney's neck wear and celebrate a wonderful day!

I am deeply blessed and deeply grateful.

Busy, busy.

Latest agenda:

Recovering from illness. Lungs still hurt. Someone said it's pleurisy. What is that anyway?

Our Whole Lives; sexuality education facilitator training on Friday night, Saturday all day and Sunday almost all day.

The Interplanetary Galactic Awesome Service Auction and a stint as bartender at my church on Saturday night. Well, after running a friend home to his house because his ceiling was caving in and full of water. Rush rush rush.

And a soccer game for the middlest in Portland that I had to miss for the training. (but the good news? Gooooooaaaaaal!)

Finally, the SAT subject tests for the oldest. 7am-12 noon. Three tests. Thinks he aced the math and well did pretty OK on the Chemistry. Crossing fingers please!

Very cool news? The male trainer at my OWL training is a fellow blogger: Steve Caldwell. I knew him from the blogosphere. And **blush** he knew me!

It's a funny small world. And I love it. Just love it!

Noodles Update

I had a great meeting with colleagues today, lovely lunch, good conversation. A group pinky swear that we will ALL WORK ONLY THE HOURS WE ARE PAID TO WORK!

And then I had to rush home and see little Noodles. She spent a little time in the kennel while my husband ran to the grocery store, but look what else he got! New chewies! So Noodles doesn't need to chew on checkers pieces.....or retainers.... any more! Oh well, we're much more dog proofed now. She likes to sit on her princess throne in the sun and chew on a chewie. Who wouldn't? Do they make them in vegetarian pig skin? I might just try it.
And someone has noodled her way right into my dear husband's heart. Look at all the work you can get done with a fur ball of love on your lap.

See? It's easy! Just snuggle until she goes to sleep with her chin on the table and there you go! The perfect work environment!
And really, this is what Noodles the dog thinks would be the best solution for that darn kennel.

I love having a little wiggly fur ball in the house! Just love it. Everyone should go get a little dog, just remember to lock up all the retainers in the house! Yep. Love it.

Good Work

When my family lived in Minnesota, we did a few builds with Habitat for Humanity with a group from our church. There were January builds with roofing and siding work that we did in the freezing cold.

"Oh good!" we said when our church got involved in Habitat here in Seattle, "no more freezing cold builds, no more snow at the work site."

Yeah. Shouldn't have said it out loud.
Seattle has these funky convergence zones that are caused by the mountains and the water and the funky micro climates, I guess. Sometimes there will just be wild weather in one part of town and nothing anywhere else. So as we drove up to the work site from our house, there were a few flurries, then a few more. Pretty soon the snow was blizzard-like and accumulating fast--right over our home site!But it didn't matter. We had fun anyway. I was so happy that I got to work with my good friend (and our Associate DRE) we didn't even plan it, just happened to sign up to work on the same day. It was nice to work with someone I enjoy lots.

My husband got picked for more skilled work which made him feel great, and they let him work alone which he also appreciates.

After a really nice lunch served by some folks from a local church I wound up with a group of women tearing down some of the wooden supports that go up as they build the real walls. We had hammers and crow bars and all was going really well until we hit this monster 2x12 plank that was nailed to another one. The wood was swollen from the rain and snow, and it was really stuck together. My friend said "wouldn't it suck if we had to get a guy to get these apart?" Well, bring on the determination of Queen Esther and all the force behind International Women's Day--there was no way we were calling in a guy.

We took turns, and used all our tricks, and yep, got the stupid boards apart--pulling one nail right through the board! Ha. And it was the one of us who is 4'11" (that's not me!) who did the final puuuullllll.

Good stuff. Good fun. Good work.

It's a good life.