Hi All!!! It has been a lot longer than I thought since I've posted on here. So much has been going on in our lives. Shortly after my last post, we said good bye to our beloved Big Mark. He was loved by so many people! I have never seen so many people in line at the visitation. I think at one point we timed it and it was a 38 minute wait time. And the the line of cars after the funeral! Well lets just say that I feel for anyone who was pulled over waiting for that line to end. :-) I think this says something about the kind of person he was. Truly a great man who was loved and appreciated by so many! We could all be so fortunate!
I left town right after the funeral to head to St Louis for Time Out for Women!!! It was such a great time!!! It's a women only conference that is put on by Deseret Books. It is primarily geared towards LDS women but is open to all women. There were great speakers and amazing music! We heard from Mercy River. There are 3 sisters in the act and they have a beautiful harmony!!! Plus they were so much fun! They shared fun and uplifting stories from their lives as well as their music. The best part was when they did a little spin on "Bye Bye Bye" from NSYNC. Hilarious!!!
There was a lot of spiritual messages shared though and a lot of them felt like they were geared towards me and all that we have going on right now. It's so easy to get down on yourself when we all know how imperfect we are. We learned that other people have holes in their boats too and worry about our own boats. :-) We also heard that it only takes a split second to tell someone we love them or something nice. I think we all get so bogged down in our daily lives that we forget to just say something nice to others. Just one little look, a little smile can do so much for someone else. We were challenged to take 5 split seconds from everyday to say something nice or do something nice for someone else. I'm extending this challenge to all of you. Just 5 little moments of kindness each day. It only takes a split second after all!
Completed bags for Operation Food Search
Also at every Time Out For Women conference, they try to do a service project for a local charity. Last year we made hygiene kits for a local women's shelter. This year we made lunch packs for a local program called Operation Food Search. It is a backpack program from Wentzville, MO. They provide meals for children to take home in their backpacks. Without these meals, some of these children wouldn't have another meal until the next Monday when they come back to school.
I had a chance to speak with the coordinator of the program when I was out walking the hallways with Miss Kennedy (Yes I brought her along too! She still loves me a lot. Something about being the food source. LOL!). Everyone that came to TOFW brought a food item from the list based on their last name. There was Chili, green beans, biscuit mix, and Teddy Grahams. Between everyone at TOFW there was enough food to make over 175 food bags!!! As amazing as this sounds though, this woman feeds 400 children each week. Her program is non-denominational and anyone can get help regardless of their income.
She also told me about a woman who came to her to ask for advice on starting a backpack program. The woman felt impressed that it was her calling to do this program for the local children. The advice that was shared was to just talk about it and ask for donations. Once word got around, it would take care of itself. This has proven to be true as this woman now feeds 27 children each week without having spent a dime of her own money! She publishes on her blog each week a list of items she needs and sets a tote out on her porch and it just seems to keep getting filled! What was equally inspiring about this woman was that the local PTA came to her to offer her 100% funding for her program... BUT she'd have to stop talking about her faith and her story that she believed that Jesus wanted her to do this program. She turned them down!!!!! She knew that this was her calling in life and she wasn't going to stop giving credit where credit was due.
This led me to wonder about my own community and the kids in my daughters' school. Are there kids that are going hungry each weekend and holiday? I've thought about checking into whether my school or any of the Quincy schools need a backpack program or whether there is already one in place that could use another helping hand. Does anyone have any thoughts, info or suggestions on this? I'd love to hear them!
I had a chance to speak with the coordinator of the program when I was out walking the hallways with Miss Kennedy (Yes I brought her along too! She still loves me a lot. Something about being the food source. LOL!). Everyone that came to TOFW brought a food item from the list based on their last name. There was Chili, green beans, biscuit mix, and Teddy Grahams. Between everyone at TOFW there was enough food to make over 175 food bags!!! As amazing as this sounds though, this woman feeds 400 children each week. Her program is non-denominational and anyone can get help regardless of their income.
She also told me about a woman who came to her to ask for advice on starting a backpack program. The woman felt impressed that it was her calling to do this program for the local children. The advice that was shared was to just talk about it and ask for donations. Once word got around, it would take care of itself. This has proven to be true as this woman now feeds 27 children each week without having spent a dime of her own money! She publishes on her blog each week a list of items she needs and sets a tote out on her porch and it just seems to keep getting filled! What was equally inspiring about this woman was that the local PTA came to her to offer her 100% funding for her program... BUT she'd have to stop talking about her faith and her story that she believed that Jesus wanted her to do this program. She turned them down!!!!! She knew that this was her calling in life and she wasn't going to stop giving credit where credit was due.
This led me to wonder about my own community and the kids in my daughters' school. Are there kids that are going hungry each weekend and holiday? I've thought about checking into whether my school or any of the Quincy schools need a backpack program or whether there is already one in place that could use another helping hand. Does anyone have any thoughts, info or suggestions on this? I'd love to hear them!
Kennedy looked particularly adorable at Time Out For Women!
So while this conference was amazing and I LOVED having Kennedy with me and getting to spend time with my mom. I also set myself back with my healing from lugging Kennedy (AKA her carrier) around all that weekend. So I need to learn to ask for help and accept it when it's given. My new measurements are still stagnate (I think that's the right spelling) at 1.5 cm... I keep joking each week at the wound clinic that I could just mix some mortar and fill it in or maybe some super glue. One day they'll appreciate my humor. But the upside is that since I no longer need my wound vac, I got to pack up all my leftover supplies and donate them to the wound clinic. They keep them on hand for people who forget their supplies, can't afford them or just need them. I know that I was fortunate to be the recipient of an extra canister that someone donated. The canister I brought with me had a broken valve so they gave me an extra one that had been donated. The vac wouldn't work without it and you can only go 2 hours with the vac off before you have to take it off and repack it. I guess you could say that getting rid of the supplies was one more reaffirmation that I am that much close to being healed!!! Now if my body would just cooperate!
Check out the size of the bag of supplies! and I had to lug that thing all the way through the BHC to the Wound Clinic!
My 3 baby girls!
There was also one day that I was having a particularly rough day. Nothing was going right and just everywhere I turned something was going wrong. I (of course) posted on FB and let myself have a pity party. Then Aunt Bobbi brought up this blog and encouraged me to find my woo hoo moment for that day. I can readily admit that it really made me think. What was my woo hoo moment that day? I let myself have a soda?.?.?. The house didn't blow up... yet?.?.?. But I knew that I always have one woo hoo moment to fall back on. My family. My girls are always a source of entertainment and always show their love and affection. I hope they always know how much I love them and will always treasure all that they share with me.
Our family is all very close. All the sides of our families. Life can never be too bad when you have your family around you. So on those days when you have to dig really deep to find your woo hoo moment for that day... Just take a look around and see the people who are near and dear to you. They'll never leave you, they'll always love you and are a never ending supply of Woo Hoo Moments.
Our family is all very close. All the sides of our families. Life can never be too bad when you have your family around you. So on those days when you have to dig really deep to find your woo hoo moment for that day... Just take a look around and see the people who are near and dear to you. They'll never leave you, they'll always love you and are a never ending supply of Woo Hoo Moments.
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