Oh....hey guys....hey....is it time to eat??

The Board for Missions at church (of which Amanda is president) has been involved in a big church wide MEN's clothing drive for the central Maine homeless shelter. We work very closely with the shelter, and one thing that came to our attention is that many people donate clothing to the shelter...but 99% of the time it is women's clothing. So, we had a big 'drive' to collect clothing of the men's variety. And collect we did. All told, we had 127 banana boxes full of clothing that we brought over to the shelter. People donated clothing for about a month, and then, this past Saturday, we organized it be style, size, etc, and boxed it all up, so as to make it easier and more 'ready' for the folks of the shelter (one box was 'size 38-40 pants' and one box was 'medium sweaters,' etc etc)

Michelle and Amanda were organizing pants while Callymn and Mara made signs to put on each table....(the room they are in, by the way, is the nursery where kids and babies can play during parts of the service)

Callum actually had a very important job, and he was an integral part of the process....his job was to take empty banana boxes from the shed (outside that glass door) and stack them in an orderly fashion in the fellowship hall. Then, when the 'pants' or 'shirt' or 'jacket' rooms needed a fresh box, he was your guy! Below, he takes a quick break from his hard work, while Glenn gets bags ready....

A very busy Saturday morning for sure; many folks in the congregation turned out on Valentine's morning to show their 'loooooovvvve' for helping others...myeah.... Callum,the 'box boy,' does his thing, and carries a fresh box to a room

We had a few breakfast pizzas, tons of coffee, and outburst upon outburst of laughter....

Maira loves folding clothes and she had a blast helping out.

After we packed the boxes with clothes, I (along with my pals Seth, Glenn, and Brian) loaded the boxes into two vans and three pick-up trucks so we could 'caravan' over to the MidMaine Homeless Shelter in Waterville. I took Maira home at that point, but Callum and Amanda went over to the shelter to help unload. It was a fantastic morning, and I am glad we could help out

Finally, my 'zen-like' moment of the day: Amanda was out this morning doing errands and going to the chiropractor, and I found myself, for a full 12 minutes, sitting in my rocking chair in front of the wood stove, Cupcake perched on my shoulder, purring away,  the only other sounds being the steaming pot of water on the stove-top intermingled with the mutterings of Callum and Maira, down the hall, in their playroom, engaged in lego-land. It was probably the best 12 minutes of my week. Haha