A Worthy Cause

Our church does a lot of services for Our Haven Shelter, a temporary winter shelter for the homeless in our county.  On the first Tuesday of every month, the Hardee's in our area donates 20% of the cost of all meals purchased to the shelter.  Tonight, our youth group helped out at Hardee's serving dinners to people that made purchases.  Kenzie is part of the youth group so she volunteered her time this evening to help out.  Connor is also part of the group but because he is still sick Kenzie had to carry the torch for both of them.  I'm very proud of the time that the kids donate to the needy through out the year.

The Longest Hour

When does 60 minutes feel like a lifetime? When you are in church with two 7 yr olds, a 2 yr old and a 6 month old. Usually Alex and Connor are around to help with the younger ones but they were scheduled to serve tonight and to be honest, if they hadn't been scheduled to serve, I probably wouldn't have taken any of them to church cause I know how they act up when it's just me. If there had been a way to take Bekah and Kearsyn out of the church I would have done so about halfway through but Bekah was in such a mood she wouldn't have gone out easily and I can't carry her and the baby at the same time. By the end of mass, I was just hanging my head praying that it would be over soon. I had one lady come up to me afterwards and say that I was a brave woman and how much she enjoys the kids. I'm not sure everyone shared her sentiment tonight. I'm just thankful that Andy will be back for next Saturday's mass.

Done

Chorale is done til after the holidays. Connor and Kenzie had two concerts this weekend...one Saturday evening and one this evening. They were actually scheduled to do another one at a nursing home today but it got cancelled. The concerts went well...at least from what I heard. I didn't actually get to really hear either one of them. For Saturday's concert, Andy dropped the kids off because they had to be there an hour and a half before the concert. It was near where my parents live and the kids and him had spent the majority of the day at their house working on cutting down trees. They left me at home to get some sleep cause I'd had a rotten night with Kearsyn. She didn't go to sleep until after 3am and to say I lost my cool that night is an understatement. I'm surprised my hubby is still talking to me as I was not a nice person at that point. Anyway, Kearsyn and I went to pick Connor and Kenzie up from the concert while Andy took the rest of the kids to 5pm mass...Alex was alter server that night, having to do it by himself since his brother was off singing. ;) We came home, ate dinner and then went to 7pm mass while Andy and the rest came home to eat and to watch Kearsyn. I have to say, it was really nice being able to go to church without the little ones. I could actually hear what was going on...usually I'm having to keep track of Bekah climbing up and down the pew or having one of the kids arguing with another.










Today we ate a late lunch because there was a party for the Chorale after their concert today. We had a deep fryed ham which was delicious! The outside of the ham always burns to a crisp but the inside is so moist. If you've never tried one, you really should. =)

But because we ate a late lunch, that meant Bekah didn't get her nap which meant by the time the concert came around, she was way too cranky to go in to listen to it. So Alex, Bekah, Kearsyn and I wandered the hallways of the church trying to keep her quiet while they were singing. Alex found some legos in one of the classrooms so that kept her entertained until the end of the concert. Alex actually ended up having two other little kids join them...he's such a kid magnet. LOL I ended up sitting outside the doors of where they were singing so I could somewhat hear them but it just wasn't the same as being inside. And the acoustics in this church are just amazing! They sounded beautiful. It always amazes me how good a bunch of kids sound when singing together. The party afterwards was nice, lots of pizza, cake, cookies, pretzels, fruit and alot more people than last year as the choir has actually grown this year. That's so nice to see as we'd lost of lot of membership last year.

Alex has a bunch of activities coming up with the church where he attends the youth group...going to see the movie Eragon, an ice skating party, a Christmas party at the pastor's house and a New Year's Eve party at the church which is open to the whole family. He's really looking forward to these events and I think the New Year's Eve party will be really fun although we'll see how long Kearsyn and Bekah make it. ;)

Same Stuff, Different Day

Kenzie has another early softball game today and the other kiddos have early CCD classes so that means another early morning for me. Ugh! Thankfully Andy was able to drop the kids off at their classes as he was leaving to take Kenzie to her game so at least I didn't have to have Kearsyn and Bekah ready and out of the house quite so early. That bought me about an hour so I was actually able to take a shower...something that has turned into a novelty these days. LOL Alex's class ends a half hour later than everyone elses so we ate some donuts and talked while waiting for him. Everyone had to come look at Kearsyn. They all commented on how much she looks like everyone else. There's definitely no denying that she is related to the other kids. LOL Not planning on doing much at all today other than some laundry as it seems to have multiplied here lately. Then I'm sure Connor will be watching football games this afternoon so I'll probably watch some with him. Not sure when Kenzie and Andy will be home...depends on whether her team wins or not...if they win, they keep playing...if they lose, they come home. I think they have the potential to play three games today if they win them all although the chances of that happening are pretty slim. But at least she's having fun.

Update on Kenzie's first game - they ended up losing...and by the slaughter rule, poor things...so no more games today. I'm sure Andy will give more details when he gets back. For now, he's off to take Kenzie around Salisbury and show her the places we used to hang out at while we went to college there...like the Salisbury Zoo and the city park (adjacent to the zoo).