soo foo

I spent the last six days back in the homeland. it's always a beautiful thing to return home to 20 years of familiarity and friends. Here's just a few things I did..

Slept in my own bed for the first time in awhile since Kelli has moved out, ran outside wherever and whenever I wanted this is such a privelege, drank coffee with numerous dear friends, ate dessert with the summer twins and laughed remembering some great times, ate out with my parents, ate out with my sister, ate out with my grandma...are you catching the pattern here...i ate out a lot, made homemade salsa with my grandma who i hadn't seen in two years, enjoyed a peaceful campsite with old camping friends, worshipped with my home church family, reunited with my BFF as she journeyd home from australia, celebrated the marriage of a beautiful couple, drove from one end of town to the other because it's not too far (right kelli?), read books and magazines at barnes and noble for two hours, went to a heart-wrenching funeral of an incredible (too) young lady, saw Kelli's new house, played a mad round of kickball with a rainbow of beautiful children at my pastor's home, slept in, watched the Ellen show (i LOVE her), played the river card game...and lost :(, and rested relaxed and was rejuvenated for what lies ahead...which is....

CRAZINESS! This season at City Mission is just plain maddness. In about the best way possible of course. We start tutoring and mentoring next week which includes incredible amount of administrative work and then bring on the kids. I've spent tons of time writing curriculum and making prepartions for the volunteer tutors and mentors to get the kids picked up and stuff going. I also had an email reminding me of how the Thanksgiving outreach and Christmas outreaches are right around the corner and need some attention as well. Oh my! Plenty of people have asked if I miss teaching yet ...and my answer is...not for one second. Just as expected this position as program director will involve plenty of teaching moments and I still get plenty of time with the kiddos. Sometimes I'm the fill-in lunch lady or recess duty friend...but full time love giver. I sometimes feel like the Grandma!

Regarldess, life is full and I am blessed and amazed at the work that is going on here. Kids are learning growing and changing and life is unfolding right before our eyes. (And faster than lightening, I can't believe it is almost October- what happened to august???)

Love to all- it was SO GREAT to see everyone at home. I am so blessed!